300 Subs, Partnership

If you've been paying any attention whatsoever to my twitter page, you'd have noticed that not only did I recently break 10,000 views on my youtube channel, but I also broke past the magical 300 mark in subscribers.

Why is 300 magical?  No reason, really, but it's a hundred more than 200, so that's saying something.  Also, it's important to keep in mind that after about two years on youtube as "jordancg" I closed out that account and started fresh as "krumbine".  This was back in October of last year.

About a month ago (March 2nd, to be exact) I hit the 200 mark.  Since youtube partnership has forever been one of my goals (I applied once under my old account but didn't have an inkling of a shot at it) I told myself last month that I would try again, for the first time as krumbine, when I hit the 300 mark.

That happened yesterday.

I applied for partnership yesterday.

If you're not familiar with the youtube partner application (and I think this was actually a new feature) the first thing you see is an "automated response" indicating whether or not your application is "likely" to be accepted.  No doubt this automated suggestion is based solely subscriber count and total video views (and other inconsequential numbers that bare no representation to your creative SOUL).  After you click "yes" to continue your application, there's a number of check boxes to select and other silly options.  Finally, there's a box where you're supposed to type an explanation as to why you want to join the partner program.

This, I believe, is a practical joke by YouTube.

I wrote three short paragraphs, outlining my work for both Victor and Christopher Mast.  I talked about the collaborative nature of my channel and the way I engage the creative community.  Finally, I put a bow on this brief narrative by explaining how it was my hope that the partner program would help develop future opportunities to create original content with and for youtube's creative community.

After clicking to submit the application, I was rewarded with an error message stating that my narrative could only be 512 characters long.

Do you see the funny, now?

At any rate, I took a few minutes to rewrite my narrative and officially submitted my application for partnership on the evening of April 6, 2009.

I don't think it will go anywhere.  And after your application is denied, you have to wait two months before reapplying.

My hope, however, is that a person will actually take the time to review the facts and take stock of what I've been developing on my channel.  I hope that an individual will look at this application and appreciate the fact that I was solicited by two YouTube partners to produce episodic content for their respective content (YouTube Rejects, on Victor's channel, is close to breaking 50k views).

I know it won't happen, but I still have a small glimmer of hope.  And with the way things have been exploding lately, can you imagine what the playing field will look like two months from now?