The on-line patron meeting went well, plus a bit... (Patreon)

Thanks to all my patrons who attended one (or both!) of the two on-line meetings last Saturday.  Everyone was predictably nice.  I think Jitsi, the video-platform thingy we used, worked decently well, so I expect I'll use it again for the next one.  I'm not sure when that will be, but  - fingers crossed - it will be from my new home!  I still don't have a move date, but mid-November is the estimate.

This month, I researched three videos, none of which got made.  Sometimes, one gets quite far with a subject before it either turns out that there isn't really a video in it (or at least not one in my style), or I fail to find out a crucial fact (or enough evidence for it) that ties the whole thing together.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to salvage something from the wrecks.

For a topic to satisfy me, I usually feel that either there has to be a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and some human interest, or else there has to be a theme or central argument.   I think I see more clearly now why people make list-videos.  It is easy to find out twenty things that don't link up about something and just spew them out without any argument or story.  Last month, I could have done "20 facts about sieges" instead of a video arguing that escalades are not as dangerous as they show in the movies.  Similarly, "20 facts about Jack Renton" would have been a lot easier than swatting up on his story ('The White Headhunter') enough to be able to talk continuously about him for a hour.  This partially explains why sometimes a subject for a video can show promise and then fail to satisfy me.

That written, I notice that list-videos do very well, and when I have done something of the kind (such as "Twenty-one proto-tanks and tank concepts that never made it to battle"), it has got me lots of views.  That tank video was far and away the most successful recent video.  I think that part of the appeal is that the viewer feels before he clicks on the video that he won't have to commit to watching the whole thing.

[As usual, you have not been charged for this text- post - I charge only for videos, and not even all of them.]