http://lsmurf.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/the-youtube-hierachy/#comment-128
it would be good to go read that now for relevance reasons.
anyway, it turned into a bit of an essay and although i didnt re-read it and it's not perfect, i'm quite pleased with it and i've been told that it sums up the feelings of this group perfectly. it's still to go through moderation so i'm going to paste it below:
January 21, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Hi, i know you don’t know me (though you were at the brum gathering, weren’t you? i was too), but i just wanted to give you my perspective on the situation, from somebody who’s been both out of the group and in the group. sometimes it’s hard to be objective on a situation like this so i though i’d give you my point of view.
Everyone sees this big group of friends and decides that they are the community, just because those who could be considered ‘more famous’ are in the group. In actual fact, they’re just a group of friends who met through youtube and would be friends if they knew each other in real life, just like you have a group of friends and plenty of other people do. If you met up with your friends and everyone called you an elitist for not inviting all of UK youtube, that would obviously not be fair and annoy you.
Dave wanted to have his friends round for new year, so he invited them, and they went. It just so happens that he met these friends on youtube. I think he’s quite within his rights to do this, and yet him and the group and all those who attended seem to be getting a lot of grief just for spending time with their friends. It’s almost like school, with people getting upset over not being in the biggest clique.
I don’t make videos, i don’t have lots of subscribers, and so people assume i’m some groupie and fawn over the likes of Alex/Charlie/Todd/Dave. I don’t see them as any different from me, don’t treat them any differently, and don’t expect anything of them other than any other normal person.
I think partly a reason i’ve been accepted into the group is maybe even this view i have. It would be a bit weird if your friends worshipped the ground you walk on, and it certainly wouldnt do anything for your ego.
Anyway, i do understand where you’re coming from, but for me, i’m generalised as being a nobody in the group that’s there for the fame or to worship people, and it frustrates me when we’re branded and slagged off without a chance to explain that we are a group of friends, nothing more, nothing less, and should just be treated as such, and not have to carry the duty of the entire ‘community’ on our shoulders, because that isn’t fair.
Sorry for the essay, hope i’ve given you some insight and maybe changed your mind a little. Look forward to hearing from you,
Jemma.
January 21, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Also, just one more thing, you look like you’ve had an AMAZING year. you’ve been to loads of gatherings, made lots of great friends and been to the likes of youstage, which is something i’d have loved to do. Just because i got to go to dave’s new years party doesn’t change that. I’d be more than happy to have experienced all of that, whether it was with good friends with lots of subscribers, or good friends with hardly any.