xtube site doesn't help members of good standing

I used to like xtube - I've been a member since 2007, and I have several vids on there, all of which have attracted some favourable comment and some votes.
Now, though, I've become sick of the site and the obstacles they put in the way of people who want to participate. I've never posted anything that's attracted criticism or needed to be deleted, yet since 2010 the site's been demanding I complete a "captcha" test when uploading anything.

I've got a solid track record over several years of uploading stuff that they like, yet they treat me like crap. After several minutes of waiting, the site tells me the captcha was wrong, try again.

Sorry, but I'm sick of trying again. My last video on that site was in 2010 and that one will probably be my last ever.  I'm not going to jump through their stupid hoops any longer. They seemingly don't trust me, and I sure as hell don't like them.

So we'll go our separate ways.

Youtube and unacceptable videos

I was reading this week that there have been calls for extremist stuff like "hate preachers" and videos of beheadings to be removed from Youtube.

It made me smile a bit grimly, as I've had several videos kicked off Youtube and I've not yet beheaded anyone — I think I just showed a bit too much ass.

That was before Google took over the site, but I imagine the YT rules haven't changed very much in the last couple of years.

I agree with those who say kids shouldn't be able to view so much porn, and I imagine those vids of mine strayed across the line in some way. Usually I try to make sure they're OK for a general audience, and there's no bare ass or any cock showing, or stuff like that, but thongs are a difficult area, as the events at Myrtle Beach this week have shown.

I wonder what the NC cops would do if I wore one!

NBN and NDN - changes in girlie cyberspace

The last few weeks have seen a bit of a change on my favourite site, NBN (newbudnudes). The site covered all gay activity from hairy "bears" flexing their biceps through to effeminate stuff like crossdressing.

On 12 January, NDN (newdudenudes) was created for the gays who, in the words of one site user, "want men to be like men."  In other words, men who don't wear feminine clothes.

If we're honest about it, some of them just dislike women and don't even want to be reminded that they exist! Well, takes all sorts, huh.

I'm a moderator on the new site, and I was in the weird position of kicking photos off the site that I liked, and which are similar to many of my own photos!

Meanwhile, newbudnudes (the old site) has become the preserve of the TG and CD folks, and I'm a moderator there as well. But I haven't had official permission yet to kick the hunks and butch guys in y-fronts off that site!

So the current position is:

name	purpose	themes that are banned
NBN	TG/CD/TV 'gurlie'	none
NDN	gay	no CD gurlie pix

It's kind of a bit lop-sided, because the general gay community has been posting to NBN for many years, and if their pix were suddenly all slung off the site, that would just be thoughtless.

But if they're to be encouraged to migrate over from NBN to NDN, then I imagine it will help some make the move if they see an orderly and well-maintained site all ready and waiting for them.

Being a moderator isn't always as easy as it seems.

Bluescreen or greenscreen lighting problems

Earlier this year I tried my first greenscreen superimposing on video - except it was a blue screen!

...and it went fairly OK, as you can see. It was a good try, for a first try!  But look on the left, and you can see the shadow I was casting on the blue screen. The idea of chroma key is that we select everything that's blue, reverse the selection so that we've got everything that isn't blue, and then paste it onto the main video. That's what the software will do, anyway.

Trouble with shadow is that that isn't blue either... it's a sort of murky blue-gray. So you have to increase your tolerance (threshhold) as to how you define blue, so that it grabs the blue-gray as well. And then the selection starts eating into areas you don't want - such as my gloved arm.

Compare my upraised arm in the original bluescreen view with how it is on the video. It's been nibbled at, basically because there isn't a lot of difference between dark blue-gray, and shiny black.

The professional way of avoiding that problem is to have a bigger blue screen, and stand around 10 feet away from it, and have angled lighting that illuminates all of the screen equally. You want to avoid hotspots and avoid shadow.

Huh. Easier said than done, when you aren't living in a Hollywood studio.

I don't trust the Google Machine anymore.

Funny thing is, this blogger site is owned by Google, so they're probably reading every word that I type.

That bunch want to make all the connections that they can, and figure out who is who, so that they can target their advertising and suss who's doing what. Where will it end, though? Do they care about an individual's privacy anymore?

Once, the Google motto was "Don't be Evil." Nowadays, they seem to have crossed out the first word.

Their attitude, now, seems to be what Microsoft's was about ten years ago - do what the hell you like and sod the users.

Right now, I would trust Microsoft much more than Google.