I am a Redditor who just started a free website inspired by my subreddit that helps people find and vote on underrated/undiscovered YouTubers & other content creators. AMA!

Can you speak a little about the technology used? Backed VS FrontEnd? Thanks for this!!

PHP / MySQL with a lot of JavaScript / JQuery / JSON! Did I just help you with hacking it?

And you're welcome, thanks for checking it out!

Hope you did the prepared statement stuff.

Indeed I did!

Since we're getting technical here, our 404 error page was directly inspired after a late night of browsing /r/ProgrammerHumor. (Course now you're going to throw off our error-detecting analytics by going to that page).

I've been a struggling creator for about 3 years and barely have 180 subscribers. Any chance this could get my videos seen? I've not made any new videos since Christmas because I've been so discouraged that I just stopped making them. The depression from creating something and having it not be seen is real.

edit: /u/ScotsGrey15 suggested I toss some links in for the curious. So here's some of my videos

This one was made while I was away from home for 3 months during fathers day

This one was the immediate followup and celebrated the steam summer sale

This one is my most viewed and most popular video where I added lightsabers to a James Bond movie scene

I'm right there with you! I occasionally do YouTube videos as a hobby, so I know this struggle too well... Trinding is small right now, and we really need users like you to get on board and help a community grow around it so that it can help channels like yours grow! It's already at a size that you will gain some more views and subscribers, but I can't wait for it to be at a size where that count is substantial.

To give you some idea of even what a small community can be capable of... I've only posted 4 of my own videos to /r/unknownvideos... I haven't made a new video in over a year. And despite that, it grew my subs from 80-ish to 300-ish and my channel views went from 8,000-ish to 51,000-ish. And we've even had several videos that came in our sub that started with only a couple hundred views... Other Redditors found those videos through our sub and they ended up in the millions of views.

Thank you so much for this! I moved away from a traditional family-approved career about a year ago. It's been such a huge struggle and I am definitely the person who's been googling self-help marketing tips. Thank you jontheboss

You're so welcome! I hope you'll get a lot out of using the site! :)

How do your algo's decide what's funny or sad?

if(mademecry){
    echo 'sad';
} else {
    echo 'funny';
}

Just kidding of course... Those are actually picked by the users submitting the post! Every post can come with up to 3 different moods/genres associated with it.

Ooo, my scantily clad woman click bait video is now child friendly!

I've preemptively set my channel-ban phasers to "stun".

After you turn 21, wanna grab a beer?

And I've commemorated our upcoming beer.

Haha, 'arsh /u/Rambo_Brit3... And I could use a beer right now!

How have the /r/unknownvideos subscribers responded to trinding.com?

Here's where we made an announcement on /r/unknownvideos. I knew they would love it, but I was surprised that it wasn't at least slightly more controversial :)

How did you choose /u/phd_dude as your favorite redditor?

I know he's big on /r/wholesomememes now, but much earlier on, he sent me very nice PMs after he came across one of my posts... And we've had occasional contact since then. Everything I've seen of him, he's just non-stop nice to everybody!

Do you like pineapple on pizza?

^Sometimes...

Have you considered creating an Android TV App? I browse a lot of youtube on my Android TV and being able to have it available right there would make this very attractive to me. As an example, I currently use HopWatch for r/videos and others.

Now that I think of it, I could probably just add your subreddit to my list on hopwatch and watch it that way.

That would be a cool thing to have up at some point! We'd have to see if the API services for these sites allow us to do something like that :)

With the exception of the posting guidelines, what makes this platform one that people will adopt? What other services does Trinding offer or look to offer in the future?

Thanks man,

TLH

Great question. What makes Trinding unique is that it's designed to favor outstanding content made by people who don't have massive followings yet. The reason I think Trinding will become a huge thing is that it will always give viewers an exciting sense of discovery. It's a place where you can find your new favorite band, vlogger, comedian, etc. before they've made it big.

Right now, Trinding supports videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and VidMe, but I'd like to offer the same opportunities for exposure to all content creators, not just those who make videos. We're waiting for approval to begin working on integrating SoundCloud, which will be a big plus for music artists in the Trinding community. There'll be much more to come too, so stay tuned!

Would Bandcamp be possible as well?

That's on our list of sites we're considering! :)

How many people have you had join so far? I mean this site could be huge, but you have to be careful of spammers and people with actual larger channels taking advantage. Maybe you could review each person before they join? see if the contents worth it perhaps.

Thanks! And we're still small as of yet, but this AMA is definitely helping out! So 500+ signups so far, and we're hoping for that number to keep growing.

Being anti-spam is definitely something we'll work hard at and always look into adjusting any time we reach a new average level of activity on our site. But what we have in place already isn't too shabby! We have an algorithm that takes into consideration how well users participate in other people's threads and how well their own posts do... So for example: a user comes to our site, posts his own video, leaves, and his post gets a few downvotes. He will have to wait a much longer time until he can try to post again as opposed to somebody who views others' posts and/or has high-scoring posts... And this is all based on the channel level, so making another spam account won't get you around this and will actually make you worse off.

Why is this a thing?

I understand the desire to build things, especially when you're young and have the time and drive to learn to program, but the issue with this concept is the very issue it's aiming to solve. There are too many quality content creators and not enough of them get their views. So now we have a website with thousands of posts... and the top few get 99% of all the views. So we're right back to where we started.

I think a manually curated selection that's sorted by very specific niche or category would be far more effective, personally. Not shooting down the idea and it looks like a fun little project, just pointing out the most obvious thing that stood out to me, and that's that it doesn't solve the original problem: it creates the same problem on yet another site.

That's some well-stated criticism! That's something we'll definitely be continually seeking ways to tweak the system to get it to be the best that it can be.

this concept is the very issue it's aiming to solve

I'd say "yes and no" to that (but mostly "no" - heh)... Yes, posts that get to the top will have have a stacked advantage against posts that aren't timed well or don't catch the attention of somebody browsing new content... But the posts that got to the top in the first place will have gotten there for good reasons and will have broken a barrier that they couldn't break on other sites. Channels that grow to a certain size will begin to have limitations imposed on it so that other channels have the chance to have more of an advantage... I don't know if there's a single other site out there that is built to operate like that!

I think a manually curated selection that's sorted by very specific niche or category would be far more effective

If we did it that way we wouldn't be the first... That's more of wimp.com's territory. Our goal is to make it easy for creators to share their content and let voters decide what comes of it. We will be working in editor's picks and featured content/channels though... And you can already see the top-voted posts and filter by any category or combinations of categories! Check out our "hall of fame" tab and play around with the filter menu to the left :)

It's way too tough for content creators to get their work out there! It's also equally difficult to find cool content specifically that's new or from somebody undiscovered. Trinding is supposed to bridge that gap :)

How would you stop people from making bots and just up voting there own videos?

Voting activity is something we're analyzing carefully... If a channel is ever caught in relation to vote-cheating, the channel itself will be permanently banned (and any accounts that went along with it). We're coming up with algorithms to be a bit smarter and more automated on this as well!

i was just lurking, but this comment is interesting. you just said in a different comment that anyone can share others' content, what if someone does this on purpose to ban someone?
just a case to consider.

Good question! Without exposing too much of our spam-prevention inner-workings... we should be able to differentiate that sort of cheating. We'll also be sure to give channels a way to respond to warnings or outright bans.

Are you looking for any specific content? I open up trading card packs from Pokemon and Yugioh. I'd open up older packs, but unfortunately my channel is still small and is like to do those for large specials.

We're open to any type of content that doesn't violate our community guidelines... You should definitely post yours and see what happens! Since the homepage on Trinding is aggregated by upvotes and downvotes, it's ultimately the user community that decides which content does well, not us. We're just the humble moderators :)

how do you feel about r/DeepIntoYoutube? that's one of my favourite subs

I love /r/DeepIntoYoutube! There's a bit of cross-over between them and /r/unknownvideos, and we've always had a great connection and interactions with the mods over there.

Do you plan on adding support for Facebook video later?

That's definitely one we're considering so long as it's a publicly-accessible video! Some API access is harder to get or work with, so some of these sites will have to be integrated over time.

Let me preface by saying that this is an awesome idea! What do you think has been the biggest success story so far for a YouTuber promoted on your website?

Our site quietly launched only a week ago, so many of the success stories we'd like to see are ahead of us! I know posters have been gaining new subscribers, but I haven't yet been able to run detailed statistics on that.

That said, we've seen a lot of channel growth coming out of /r/uknownvideos, and I'm sure the site could easily best that if it continues to grow! Favorite example right now is this video that was posted to our sub starting with only a couple hundred views.

Hi. I started with webdev recently I would like to know the tech stack you used ?

Good luck getting started! It's definitely a fun field to be into if that's your cup of tea :) I did everything from scratch in PHP / MySQL with a lot of JavaScript / JQuery / JSON.

What did you weigh as pros and cons for making the website vs keeping it as a subreddit and how do you plan on maintaining traffic to your website when I imagine your subreddit is a lot more convenient for people who are currently aware of your website, considering that's how it started?

Initially our site will have the disadvantage of not being rolled into a feed that you're already used to checking. But I think being it's own separate entity also comes with strengths that should help it to outgrow that problem. So far from the feedback I've gotten, users are far more excited about supporting and sharing Trinding than I ever heard in regards to /r/unknownvideos... It's hard to gather people from multiple platforms and get them excited about a lone subreddit.

And it's open availability to content creators will also be a huge advantage! I've seen too many talented YouTubers who only got on Reddit in order to share their own content... and consequently had their Reddit accounts banned site-wide for violating self-promotion rules. I do think our niche is broad enough that it will have a lot of interested users coming to it.

Any thoughts on promoting written content? Like short stories/flash fiction?

We definitely want to support anybody on any public site where they can gain new followers or views for their work! Each site will have to be carefully considered though and make sure that we aren't blurring our focus too much.

One story-teller on trinding has done an interesting job so far with audio-only YouTube videos!

I'm a creator who tries (with moderate success) to get noticed in the licensing world.

One video I made has about 13,000,000 views, the others... maybe 500-600.

Is this site appropriate for lower production viral-wannabe types of clips?

We're open to any video under 50,000 views and any channel under 150,000 subs! You should post some of your work and see how it does! Sounds like you put out great content, congrats on the success so far :)

Can you help promote my favorite YouTube Hellfreezer? He tells a mix of stories has a great voice and and endearing accent, he needs more subs and more patrons!

One of the things that makes Trinding awesome is that you can share others' work! You're welcome to share HellFreezer's content, if you sign up and select the "Just sharing" option in the post form.

I just want to say that you're doing God's work, man. It is so damn hard to gain a following when you're just starting out.

How well is trinding doing so far?

Thank you, that makes me happy to hear :) And you're absolutely right, it is far too hard.

And Trinding is doing well, but it does have a long way to go! The AMA was a big, needed boost yesterday, but we definitely need more users to signup and get engaged in the community!

How is this any different than your subreddit?

There are several key factors that makes Trinding different from Reddit, so of course those would also apply to /r/unknownvideos... But besides those differences, the way we've built and will continue to tweak/improve Trinding will be a much better system for not having too much spam or too little interaction... We've done what we could to make /r/unknownvideos a successful sub with some creative bot trickery and strict rules. Even so, it's still not perfect and I see more people unsubbing than I'd like with the #1 complaint either being spam or too many gaming videos... And then plenty of people get fed-up with the restrictions on when they can post.

So Trinding is built to strike a better balance on all these issues using methods that are unachievable with a subreddit... It rewards posters with good content and who engage well in other's posts. Every post can have up to 3 category tags, and users can "unsub" from any tag they want... So if you're not interested in gaming videos at all, you can permanently filter those out of your feed (under the left menu -> "Edit Categories"). We also have a broader scope in mind with Trinding (50,000 max views rather than 10,000 - and we're thinking about supporting some non-video sites like SoundCloud soon). So again, these are some ways we're different from our own sub, but it goes beyond that when you factor in Reddit's site-wide rules, especially in regards to self-promotion.

Not a question, but it would be nice to see the channel name before you click a video on mobile. I definitely understand why you left it out though, I'm sure it was getting crowded in that space.

Also, other than the voting system, how will new channels be recognized as Trinding becomes saturated with content? If you have 5000 new channels with ok content on your site and a new channel with great content, what brings it to the front instead of it getting buried because nobody knows about it? As a site that gets new channels with great content a boost in popularity, this is very important. Will you remove channels once they get to X subscribers? What is to stop Trinding from becoming a simple marketing tool to already-popular channels?

Yeah it was a bit crowded with the current layout, but that is something I'd like to improve!

And great questions!

Will you remove channels once they get to X subscribers?

So the current limit on Trinding is a video has to be under 50,000 views and the channel has to be under 150,000 subs. Channels that surpass that mark will no longer show under the "trending" feed, but show in some area under "hall of fame"... Except for one other thing. We're working on adding the ability for users to follow or subscribe to other Trinding users... The idea is that if you followed a channel that grew past 150,000 subs, you'll still see them on your "trending" feed as well. We may look into imposing some other limitations on much more successful channels if that becomes necessary in order to give the newer/lesser-known users a chance.

how will new channels be recognized as Trinding becomes saturated with content

From channels that post, we've seen a high number of return posters and people who want to share even more of their content frequently. But in order to do that they'll need to engage in other people's posts, so I think that will help drive the system well... Besides that, I hope it begins to operate much the same as Reddit where users are actively seeking good posts to upvote and comment on... We'll definitely be trying to market this to consumers as much or even more than the creators.

This site could potentially be awesome for streamers on YouTube (such as myself) to submit videos to get branch out. Can anyone submit videos?

Glad you think so! I hope it can help you :)

And yes, anybody can post to Trinding... It also takes away a big barrier for content creators that come to Reddit. Reddit will only allow you to post your own content if it makes up 10% of your posting activity (and for good reason for what Reddit is supposed to be). Trinding is built in such a way that anybody can freely self-promote, but how often you are allowed to post is controlled based on how much you give back to the community or how well-received your posts are.

I was going to follow up with how often can we post but looks like you covered that! Thanks a lot! :D

Sure no problem! If you post a video and immediately try to post again, it may warn you with a high wait time... But give it some time and interact with other people's posts and you should see that wait time drop if you check back again later!

what percentage of creators do you think are not interested in gaining followers, and how would you filter for just those creators (who in my opinion would make more interesting content)?

Actually, we're trying to get creators involved in this as much as we can so that they can interact with the commenters and help it to be more of a community... So far, roughly 86% of posts to our site have been from the creators themselves.

If somebody was going to share somebody else's work and for some reason they didn't want more attention, we'd certainly respond quickly to any valid requests for a post to be taken down. If you set your video to "private", it will automatically be removed from our site as well.

Will you be coming out with a app?

We have one in development! It may be a while until we can get it out depending on how quickly the site grows and how much we can keep up with the costs! Anybody can donate to us if you want to help us grow more quickly! :)

My wife and I make travel videos. Any chance on getting a 'travel' category for travel vloggers like us?

That seems like a good one! "Outdoors" is sort of meant for videos like that, but from feedback we've had, it does seem like that's a bit too broad. Either way, we're definitely paying attention to the categories being suggested and will plan to add more!

Do you need investors?

That's something that I can't answer directly without reviewing more in detail with my team! We'd definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts, questions, or offers on that, so feel free to PM me or email us at support@trinding.com.

I always thought this was something the internet was lacking, thank you so much for creating it!

Did you create it all by yourself?

Exactly what I've always said on this topic! And thank you :) Yes, I was the sole developer of this, but there's a team of 3 of us so far trying to keep this up and bring it to more people!

Hey Jon, how would you say your passion for art of all kinds affected your decision to create this site?

I definitely wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't a part of the artistic community and understand what they face! And having a passion for a project like this makes the risk much more worth taking... I hope this pays off for the site, but I most of all, I hope that it pays off big time for the artistic community at large!

This is fascinating. I have a little but well loved football show on YT. What's the best way for it to show up in your search?

"Little but well loved" is a pretty spot on description of the type of content we're excited about seeing on the site. Do us a favor. Sign up for a Trinding account and put your stuff out there! Besides sharing great content, the best way to do well on Trinding is to get involved in the comments sections on other people videos. Upvotes on your comments go into a running tally of "Reputation Points" on your profile, similar to Reddit's Karma Points. People will be likely to check your videos out when they see you interacting with the community, especially if you have a high number of Reputation Points, which shows that you're providing people with value.

Looks super interesting! Can you tell us a little about where you see the business model headed?

Thanks! Right now our business model is: grow and try to stay afloat :) It will always be free and we'll try to see what sort of revenue we can get from ads or possibly even with some "Gold"-like features... What I can promise is we won't make any big changes that the community doesn't agree with or have a say in!

Have any YouTubers who've had their videos posted on the site responded directly to you? Like thanking you, a random hi, asking if you could take the video down, etc. Also, has anyone ever wanted their video taken down on your site? Lastly, do you like penguins?

A large majority of the posters are the creators themselves! I've personally shared the videos from several other channels though, and a couple of them have gotten back to me thanking me for sharing. Nobody's asked to be taken off yet!

And penguins are the bomb... Unless you're talking about the penguin in Wallace & Gromit.

How would I get myself onto your website ?

You can sign up now and post your first video any time! :)

Will you be hosting events or competitions on Trinding like you have in the past on r/unknownvideos? I thought it was a fun way to meet and see other creators' work.

That's a goal of mine to do on Trinding! It's been a fun thing to have on /r/unknownvideos, so I'd love to do that sort of thing for Trinding as well (and with much better integration too, of course!).

Is there anyway my 8 year old son can get a few subs? He does Minecraft gameplay vids. He would absolutely love a few new subs! He currently has 31 subscribers.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAfkWGMe24xiSH1Ycg6O8qg

We're open to everyone! You should create a Trinding account and start posting!

What would you say is the weirdest video that has ever been submitted on /r/unknownvideos in your honest opinion?

I wish I could find the post, but there was a bizarre video that involved a bit of mutilation to a Kermit the Frog puppet...

Does your website just direct users to H3H3's channel?

Haha, well he's not exactly unknown... And on a whim, I PM'd him to see if he'd give our site a shoutout since I figured it could add something to the YouTube community. So far he hasn't responded :'(

Why you so thirsty?

http://i.imgur.com/tzWjX0a.gifv

whats your favourite band?

I know this makes me sound like I haven't listened to anything besides my dad's music... But I don't think I'll ever have a favorite band besides the Beatles. Boston is a good bae of mine as well.

So it's obvious why content creators will like this, but what about the users? Is there any reason someone would go here over Reddit or YouTube? Is there an app coming soon for people who are primarily mobile users? This is a cool idea if a lot of people actually use it, and I love the name of it.

Glad you asked! Trinding is actually designed to be equally used by content creators and commenters/consumers, hence our slogan, "Discover. Be Discovered." The idea is for Trinding to become a place where regular users can discover new and exciting content that hasn't quite gotten big yet (an ideal place for hipsters... tell all your hipster friends). There's no other site like this that's goal/purpose is to highlight underrated content creators... So it could never replace Reddit or YouTube, but it adds a different perspective that you and other browsers may find interesting - especially the more users we get :)

And yes, an app is already in development!

Does your site feature dead or inactive Youtube channels? I can think of some great content, that is on older inactive accounts.

Trinding is about giving praise where praise is due. If you think the content is great, you're welcome to share it on Trinding! Doesn't matter how inactive the channel is, it might just give them inspiration to pick it back up again :)

So my girlfriend is a very talented makeup artist and once we have her studio situated and get a better camera we will start shooting makeup tutorial and other jazz. Any advice as far as what you feel is important to make a good YouTube video?

Great question! Sounds like you already have an eye for quality, which is puts you ahead. Being a great content creator is about providing value to your viewers/potential viewers. Something to always think about when making your videos: will my content be helpful, inspiring, enlightening, or offer good entertainment to other people? If you always keep that in mind, you'll do very well, especially on Trinding where you don't need to compete against already successful channels.

Besides that, I would encourage you to show personality in your videos. People like to feel that they have a connection with you as a person, even if they haven't technically "met" you. Sounds like you have a good thing going. Best of luck and I hope to see your videos on Trinding soon!

Hey buddy! :) Glad to see that your launch went well... and I hope it keeps growing.

When did you first learn to code? How long did it take to make Trinding?

Hey /u/WinterCharm! Thanks! And I actually started out as an intern in a programming company and was taught the basics and learned the rest on the job... I would've never thought that I'd get into this, but as soon as I got a feel for it, I really enjoyed the work! Anybody else who may be looking to get into programming can definitely get a headstart by practicing with some free online tutorials.

And Trinding has been in the works for a year now! Not that I worked on it that entire time, so it's hard to calculate exactly how many hours... But a lot.

Hey John! Do you work full time with r/unknownvids and trinding.com, or you do something other for a living ? What has been your biggest obstacle with trinding.com so far? Where do you see trinding.com in 5 years?

Hey /u/TheexperimentLV! Trinding is brand new, so the biggest challenge thus far has been getting the word out there to all the people I know who will love to use it! I've been very pleased with all the positive feedback so far, but we could certainly use more people sharing the site! In 5 years, I'd love to see Trinding to have grow enough where deserving channels grow rapidly and getting a video on our front page means you're about to see a huge spike in views/subscribers. It would be cool to see channels grow-up and graduate from Trinding - so I definitely hope it gets there someday soon!

/r/unknownvideos has always been a labor of love in my free-time... I've had a lot of help running it too (huge shoutout to /u/iNeverQuiteWas for helping me with the bots and /u/NeedAGoodUsername for his spam-catching expertise!). For a long time, what I've done for a living is building and maintaining websites, but this would be the first thing that is something I made as my own idea. I've put most of life and work on hold so I can focus on Trinding as my main thing right now... If it grows rapidly enough it could stay that way, but we'll have to see what happens with it! Either way, we'll definitely keep it alive as long as there are people using it.

Have you started thinking about other websites to create based on other subs?

Trinding is something that suits my interests well... I don't think I could ever muster up the courage to tackle something like this this again if I'm not fully interested in it! Also, Reddit is so good at what it does, I would never try or want to replace it just for the sake of replacing... /r/unknownvideos is the one exception where its ideal form is in a bit of a different system than what Reddit has to offer for subreddits.

How come I get an error every time I try to sign up on the site? :(

Just says something went wrong... wtf

Hmm, that might happen if you don't fill out all the fields on the signup form... If you are, could you email us at support@trinding.com and give us more info on what browser you're using and at least some of your signup information? If you still don't have luck, we'll create your account with a temporary password that you'll be able to change.

This is an idea that I would have had 20 years ago and had my wife (at the time) code, because she's much better at it. If Reddit existed at that time, in it's infancy.

What exactly should I be existed about here?

Edit: excited.

I hope it's exciting to see the birth of a new social media site! Course, I just witnessed the birth of my daughter three weeks ago... maybe that's not the best mental image...

Anyways, if you're a content creator, this is automatically exciting for you. Otherwise, I think it's going to be a fun community for people who like discovering something new and being the first to find somebody before they were cool.

You need to get a life?

I had enough time to answer this question, so I suppose the answer is yes!

Do you have adverts on it? If so fuck off

Yeah we have some ads on there, and the main one on there right now is a spot we gave away free to a deserving channel on YouTube!

We've done absolutely no fundraising for this site so far... We preferred to just get it out there instead of ask for money for something not built yet. People could donate here if they want, but we're hoping that with some ad revenue we can keep afloat and give people something awesome for free! It'll probably take us a long time to break even on this, but we will definitely not make ads unbearable in any way.