What did you think of youtube when it first came out in 2005?

[CyberCubed]

Since most of us are old people who grew up before youtube was a thing, and it's now one of the biggest and most important sites on the internet what did you think of it when it first came out in 2005?

I remember back when it first came out not really knowing what it was. Back then most official companies never put movie trailers or videogame trailers on youtube like they do now, so it just seemed like some weird experiment for people to make "home videos" on. I remember thinking it was like an internet version of, "funniest home videos" from the 90's.

Back when it first started there was also no such thing as a "youtuber," I mean sure some people made videos, but it wasn't a big thing you could make your career on or start a huge following like it became. I remember also seeing a lot of illegal anime being uploaded there from DVDs or TV that would wasn't taken down for copyright infringement back then. It just seemed to be this weird thing...

Nowadays every major company in the world uses youtube, puts up trailers for movies, TV shows, videogames and music videos, and of course uploads full episodes of shows now (sometimes for free, sometimes not), and its basically become a mainstream part of our lives. I remember before youtube we had to use quicktime or realplayer to watch videos, anyone remember that?

[IMJ]

Gotta be honest - I didn't think it was going to be the big deal they were making out of it at the time. I didn't really see how people were going to make money using it or that anyone who uploaded to it would ever be taken seriously as a "viewing source".

And YouTube has literally surpassed their projections. And ironically I watch more YouTube now than probably any other format of video. Crazy.

I've given consideration to starting an investment or collectibles channel of some kind too, but..... ehhh I've got so much else going on that I wouldn't be appropriately vested in it.

[ABrown]

The only thing that I remember is that during the first few years or so, on forums you'd pretty much get banned just for mentioning the "you" site.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by ABrown

The only thing that I remember is that during the first few years or so, on forums you'd pretty much get banned just for mentioning the "you" site.

Really? I never heard that before, why was that?

[sdp]

2005 youtube was the greatest, I had already messed around with google video in 2004 but content there was slow and it never took off, it wasn't until youtube that you had a place where you could view any cartoon or show and that's how it was in 2005, it didn't take long for it to become popular and they got noticed by copyright holders, but stuff was still cool. I was still a teenager so to me youtube has been in most of my life even if I didn't have it as a little kid. I had a home theater PC I built so I would watch youtube videos on my CRT TV back in 2005.

[IndigoErth]

16 years ago... I have no idea, surely a positive opinion.

Far better than now with being ambushed by the same god damned ads over and over that make me want to stab, er, shoot someone to Mars. Seems the site is coming to an end. Using it less because of that BS.

[CyberCubed]

I think people have really forgotten what a "revolution" it was to have streaming media. Prior to this, I remember it took like 1 hour to download a 10 minute video. The constant buffering and slow download speeds. Using awful media players like Quicktime or RealPlayer.

I used to try to watch trailers to videogames, like Mario Sunshine or Zelda Wind Waker in 2002-2003...I remember how damn long it took just to download the damn E3 trailers. Some people have honestly forgotten how videos used to be uploaded to the internet back then, even on big gaming sites like IGN.

[Andrew NDB]

Or even when Phantom Menace was going to come out. I remember waiting an hour to watch a thumbnail size video load in Netscape Navigator.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Really? I never heard that before, why was that?

Probably not for mentioning, but for linking to copyrighted Youtube video films.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I think people have really forgotten what a "revolution" it was to have streaming media

Definitely agree with this. Basically, immediately accessible video took the internet from a document transmission system and turned it into the full on multimedia resource it was always intended to be.

[STRIKE]Saxon[/STRIKE] Cyber posts a thread that made me scratch my chin and go "hm!" Crazy times we are living in!

[Andrew NDB]

I feel about it kind of how I feel about looking back on like when everyone had their personal Geocities or Fortunecity website. So much care, and it all felt so raw. Now on Youtube (and I'm just talking about people's personal Youtubes, not like corporate accounts or anything), the "raw"ness is largely gone and everything (that tracks) is super slick.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I feel about it kind of how I feel about looking back on like when everyone had their personal Geocities or Fortunecity website. So much care, and it all felt so raw. Now on Youtube (and I'm just talking about people's personal Youtubes, not like corporate accounts or anything), the "raw"ness is largely gone and everything (that tracks) is super slick.

That's true. Even the tubers that are closest to being "normies" have finagled their way into editing software with intros, outros, cuts and so on. In it's rawest form YouTube was basically just a person with a camera in poor lighting who uploaded a video.

[ABrown]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Really? I never heard that before, why was that?

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Probably not for mentioning, but for linking to copyrighted Youtube video films.

Oh no. I mean for MENTIONING it. I one time got a slap on the wrist on another board just for implying someone could go there to watch something. No links or anything.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by ABrown

Oh no. I mean for MENTIONING it. I one time got a slap on the wrist on another board just for implying someone could go there to watch something. No links or anything.

That's really weird then, because I don't remember that on any of the message boards I was on back then. Maybe the mods there thought there were illegal uploads of shows there? I mean there were, but even still.

[sdp]

Plenty of message boards had a no youtube rule added including ToonZone, some would just ban it even if it was a legitimate upload, but that didn't last very long.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by sdp

Plenty of message boards had a no youtube rule added including ToonZone, some would just ban it even if it was a legitimate upload, but that didn't last very long.

Weird, you'd think I'd remember that as I was on toonzone since 2004 and posted there heavily up through 2010. And right before youtube started too. I guess I just don't remember.

[sdp]

I remember how it was around 2006 or so when "youtube was ruined forever" because they started taking down copyrighted videos, but mostly only big name movies and prime time tv, cartoons and the like would be uploaded all the time even if they got taken down so you could continue to watch them.

But it was around 2006 when they implemented the "10 minute limit" on videos, where you couldn't upload videos longer than that, and a new age of piracy began since that was their solution they weren't taking down stuff as much anymore, but people would just upload movies divided in 12 parts and tv shows in 3 parts You can still find plenty of videos divided up in parts from that era.

Only youtube partners could upload videos longer than that who at the time there weren't many, and only like 5 gaming youtube partners since they were hand picked, and even the Angry video game nerd wasn't c hosen to be a partner by youtube.

[ABrown]

Originally Posted by sdp

Plenty of message boards had a no youtube rule added including ToonZone, some would just ban it even if it was a legitimate upload, but that didn't last very long.

[Prowler]

I loved it and was immediately addicted to it. A website where I could watch all kinds of videos, including a lot of older wrestling matches and complete anime series? My 15 year old self couldn't have been happier at the time. Before that, I had only seen videos in websites like IGN where they'd show a trailer for a game, or flash videos at a place like newsgrounds. YouTube definitely changed the landscape of video sharing.

I also discovered the much less famous Dailymotion around the same time.

[NeonTurtledude]

Originally Posted by Prowler

I loved it and was immediately addicted to it. A website where I could watch all kinds of videos, including a lot of older wrestling matches and complete anime series? My 15 year old self couldn't have been happier at the time. Before that, I had only seen videos in websites like IGN where they'd show a trailer for a game, or flash videos at a place like newsgrounds. YouTube definitely changed the landscape of video sharing.

I also discovered the much less famous Dailymotion around the same time.

I had a similar experience with youtube except I found it at a younger age,
mostly using it to watch old toy commercials but over time I did watch anime and cartoons on it, I remember watching rugrats and Jem episodes, I still watch anime on there sometimes, if I can't find what I'm looking for on Netflix.

I found out about Newgrounds animations through youtube, mostly Mario and sonic videos, I also played a lot of adobe flash games.

I remember the site Blip.tv