Bummer City...No Episode This Week

Hey Guys,

There's not going to be a new episode of MPGiS this week. I am going to try to explain why as best as I can, so please read this whole thing before you get upset. It's a situation where I'm as upset as you probably are right now, and hopefully I can shed some light on the situation to the best of my abilities.

First things first, there will be an Extra Credit uploaded on Tuesday. We know it's not an episode, but it's what we have right now.

So here's the deal:

A lot of you probably know that when an ad runs on a Youtube video that you watch, that ad generates a small amount of money. That money is then split between Youtube and the owner of the video. What some of you may not know is that in order for an ad to run on your video, the video must first be approved by Youtube to make sure the video, imagery, and audio do not violate any copyrights and do not belong to anyone else. Once that review is complete, and only then, is the video "monetized", which means it can run ads. Youtube only pays you when an ad runs on your video.

Now, throughout our first season and the first couple episodes of Season 2, we had no problems with this process. We'd upload our videos, then by mid-day they'd be approved. For some reason, around Episode 17 or 18, these review periods started to get longer. Instead of a few hours, they're now taking a few days. In fact, the Brittnay sorority video still hasn't been approved after a week online. The videos always get approved because we are meticulous about the material we use and how we use it in terms of copyrights, but while we're waiting for approval our views are piling up with no payout. In the month of April alone, we've lost out on somewhere between 600,000-700,000 views that had every right to be, and were eventually monetized. We've spoken to Youtube on numerous occasions, and their response was that they didn't know why it was taking longer-sometime it just takes longer. I'm frustrated, to say the least.

Now maybe some of you are saying, "That's great, cool story, what the fuck does this have to do with me not getting an episode on Tuesday?" Well, here's the deal: it costs money to make this show, and it costs more money than that to make the show at the pace that we make it. I can't calculate how much money 700,000 views are worth, but as you can probably guess it's a lot. And unfortunately, all of that money is going right down the toilet. In order to adapt this show from the episode-every-three-weeks model we had in 2012, we've incurred a significant amount of additional overhead. I could go into the nuts and bolts of how much more money we're spending this season, but it'd probably bore you to tears. Long story short, in order to continue putting out these  videos at the level of quality you've come to expect, the videos have to generate revenue to cover costs. To start the season, those costs were covered by Kickstarter. As we continue making episodes, we have to have revenue coming from ads as well. Right now, those ads aren't running. That is a problem. Fortunately, there's a solution:

We take a week off.

Yup, that's it.

How the fuck does taking a week off solve this problem?

Here's how:

Lily, Mark, and I have been studying the trends of these review processes and have seen that they usually take between 3 days and a week to complete themselves. After that, ads are running, and we're making money and paying for the show. If we are able to create a backlog of completed episodes and upload them privately to our channel, Youtube will review them as regular videos in the same timeframe we're working with now.

So if we're able to take this week off from releasing an episode, we can start loading videos into our backlog a week ahead of time, and hopefully have ads running as soon as they're uploaded to you guys.

I know that this post was really long and rambly, but I hope it made sense. It really frustrates me that because of some glitch in the Youtube review system, we can't release a video, but it really is the difference between making the series as you guys deserve it or having to sacrifice quality. I hope you all understand and can commiserate with us in the situation. Enjoy the Extra Credit this week, and I know you'll love episode 21 next week. Deandra's back.

As always, if you have any questions, you can always talk to me here or on my twitter: @carlomoss

Thanks for listening guys. You all make this worth it.

Carlo

My Day Today (King James Version)

"And yea, he was informed by The Wikipedia that a full 10 years had passed since the release of the first album by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And lo, upon the reception of this news, he made his way to the handicapped stall of the office bathroom, where there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth." -My day today, King James Version

The service at Marie Callender's leaves something to be desired, but dammit if they aren't on top of their social media management.

This is What's Coming Up #MPGiS

Hey All,

Wanted to give you guys an update as to what to expect from MPGiS in the coming weeks.

Please don't be disappointed, but there won't be a new episode tomorrow, the 2nd. However, there will be an extra credit featuring our best outtakes from the first episode of Season 2. Why no episode, you ask? Well,

1) Mark is still in Costa Rica. As you can probably imagine, transporting a shit-ton of Barbies, sets, and camera equipment to another country is pretty difficult, so there's no way to shoot a new episode. (Unless you guys want to watch me try to animate an episode, which would quickly devolve into Lily and I just acting out a script with sock puppets and popsicle sticks.) Fortunately, though, Mark brought his computer with him to Costa Rica and is busting his ass to get an Extra Credit edited so you guys will have something to watch tomorrow. Send him some nice tweets because he's awesome.

2) Episode 18 is going to be big. We want to make sure we do it right, so we're holding it for release until April 9th. It's one of, if not our longest scripts ever. We're introducing four new characters and building two new locations. We're also really happy to welcome four new voice actors including LEE NEWTON and HALEY MANCINI!!!!! You know Lee from Sourcefed on Youtube and Haley from The Morning After on Hulu (and as the voice of Young Shay Van Buren). I don't want to spoil what they're going to be doing but you can check out Lee's Instagram (http://instagram.com/leenewton) for a clue.

I really hope you guys understand and don't hate us too much for not releasing Episode 18 until next week. We know how passionate you are about the show, and frankly, that passion is what makes us want to work so hard for you. You guys deserve the absolute best episode possible. To quote a really old deodorant commercial that none of you probably remember, anything less would be uncivilized. God, I'm a dork. And fucking old.

After next week, we'll be back on our regular schedule of releasing a new episode every week. Thanks!

As always feel free to send me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. @carlomoss

Lesson I learned last night: Former Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan is a shitty friend who only cares about himself and will NOT return items he borrows.

We Fucked Up. And We're Sorry.

I'm sorry you guys. I'm really really fucking sorry you guys. I've been staring at this same "processing" image on Youtube for the last 23 hours and frankly, I feel like putting my foot through the computer screen right now.

A lot of you have come to expect a new MPGiS episode every Tuesday, and today one didn't show up. Please know that it wasn't for lack of trying. Please know that me, Lily, and Mark are as upset as you are. We're doing everything we can to figure out what's wrong and get this episode to you. We busted our asses to make sure this video was done on time, and then to have this happen just really fucking sucks. There's no excuse for this. We fucked up. We're pissed. You guys deserve better.

I know that I'm a writer, and I should be more eloquent than that, but right now, I'm just really frustrated. And I don't know what to do except be honest with you all. Because you all are why this thing even exists.

So here's where we are:

-Episode 17 is still processing. I don't know what the fuck that means. It's been processing since midnight last night. 23 hours ago. So I'm skeptical that I will ever live in a world where that video will not be processing.

-We tried uploading a smaller file and that one stalled too.

-We've contacted Youtube and they've been more than helpful. Our Youtube rep is fucking amazing and one of the nicest people I've ever talked to. They're doing everything they can to get the video up, but we've still got no luck. So please don't get mad at them.

-I don't have a copy of the file, so no, I cannot upload the video to any alternate Youtube channels or any other video players.

-Some of you have suggested that to make up for the episode, we do an AMA or live chat with the characters tomorrow. Unfortunately, on top of MPGiS, I also work a 40 hour a week job, and I'm pretty sure my boss wouldn't be too happy with me doing an AMA during the day on the company's dime. However, I think that's something that would be really fun at some point in the future. (The livechat part not the doing it on my company's dime part.)

-If the file that's processing right now doesn't go through, I don't know when this video will go up. If I'm being completely honest (and I am) it might not be until the middle of next week. Like I said, I don't have the original file, and Mark is out of the country for a week.

We pretty much hit the perfect storm of shit here guys, and for that we're really sorry. I can't say that enough. I feel terrible and so do Lily and Mark. We're frustrated, angry, tired and every other emotion in the book. I don't know what else to say except that when this episode does come out, I really think you'll like it. I mean that. It's a dinner party w/ Deandra and the Van Burens. I don't want to spoil it at all because I'm really proud of it and I'm really sad that you guys didn't get to see it today.

I don't really think there's anything else that I have. If you have a question for me, feel free to ask me on here or on Twitter (@carlomoss) I'll answer as many as I can. Even if you just want to yell at me because you're mad, that'll do too. I'm gonna try to get some sleep and hopefully when I wake up, we'll all be enjoying the new episode.

-CARLO