Advanced YTMND Theory

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This article exists to explain the mechanics behind what decides a site's average rating, if you actually care about the number of red stars on a website that not every person will see. First off, don't ever expect your site to get and maintain a ***** rating. It's statistically impossible. You cannot please all people at once, and even if you do, users will vote lower than ***** just because they can.

Onto the subject of downvoters, yes, downvoters are annoying. However, they're trying to get you pissed off over red-colored stars to get their kicks. The only thing worse than an blind downvoter is a person who gets their panties in a bunch over someone voting a * on their site.

So, loosen up. It's YTMND. Have fun.

Humor

What YTMND is all about... or rather, what it should be. The majority of YTMND sites will try to score points based on how hard they can get users to laugh; an "lol factor." A few things factor into how much funny a site can generate:

Originality

Sites that are original are always good. Spinoffs of Picard doing Barrel Rolls to evade pursuit of sexual predator Brian Peppers can only be funny for so long... if at all.

Familiarity/In-Jokes

If you are going to reference an internet meme, a movie, a game, or a cartoon, make sure that the meme/movie/show is well-known, and not overused (especially with Family Guy, taking every single line and scene from the latest episode and making a ytmnd out of it will very like usher in *s from various people). Making a reference to a fan-subbed anime that only you have heard of will result in users scratching their heads as they drop countless *s on your site. On the same note, family/friend in-jokes tend not to fare very well either.

Fad Base

In direct contrast to the originality factor, most users vote based soley on what fad you're parodizing/recreating/paying tribute to. Not all fad spinoffs are bad, but when all you can do is make up humor based on existing humor, that's a bad thing.

Cleverness/Innovation

In your quest for making funnies, you may need think outside of the box. Sites like holy crap, a meteor!!! and Wipe Out are funny because the creators went and did something out of the ordinary to produce results. If the author of holy crap, a meteor!!! simply put a meteorite into the picture instead of using the exploding text in a new way, the site wouldn't have been funny/amazing. Likewise, if the author of Wipe Out simply used the audio from the video instead of putting the cat's movements to the fast drums of Wipe Out, it wouldn't have the same effect.

Content

The choice of content can determine a rating.

  • Anime - According to max, he has made it clear that any sites that include anime and lack humor will be deleted (though you will find many high-rated sites). However, if you do make one, expect to see your sites bombarded with downvoters who hate anime and in rare instances, an angry message from max. However, there have been plenty of decent attempts involving anime, including one PST site that is currently a moderator's favorite and one HOF fad conglomerate.
  • Family Guy - It is very common for people to make ytmnds based on the night's episode. However, it is not necessary to make a ytmnd for each and every scene from the tv show. Becuase of past overuse of Family Guy scenes, there have been downvoters. However, if you put in some effort, like alteration of image and sound, you may have a chance at scoring a big one.
  • World of Warcraft - Most WoW sites will instantly get downvoted. This was due to WoW ytmnds frequently dominating the top 15 viewed sites due to linkage to the WoW forums. Most of these are inside jokes and will anger the ytmnd community. Not even the usage of an original and different Dragonforce song can save it.
  • Star Trek - Star Trek has been popularized thanks to the successes of the Picard Song and Khan fads. If you make a site involving Star Trek with some effort, it will get high ratings and possibly start a fad (examples include Riker has No Class and Chunk is Indestructible).
  • News Articles - If you make a snapshot of a news article, your rating will depend on a few things. First, if it a current event, chances are that a ton of YTMNDs with the same article will be made at once. If there are many sites based off one news article being made, it will be downvoted. However, if it is something different (i.e. the article details an odd event in a nearby city), the site may get a decent rating. Be wary that the creation of news article ytmnds may be linked to the behavior of NARVs.
  • 8/16-bit - for the most part, a huge amount of sites involve the placement of sprites from old school NES/SNES games. Most of these sites take in a good amount of ratings and rarely bring in trolls. The usage of 32-bit sprites from the N64 or PS1 may bring in even higher ratings since working with these graphics are very difficult.
  • Fad Conglomerates/Faggy Short Films - for the most part, a well done fad compilation or faggy short film can give you a pretty good rating, but on the other hand, you will get downvoted by people who hate conglomerates or FSFs. As long as you do a decent job with the compilation/FSF, you should be in good hands.
  • NARVish Fads - Fads that require virtually little to no effort to spin-off (this includes epic maneuver, Can't Stop the Rock, Best Day Ever, Face Melter, Works It, Ualuealuealeuale, Ridin' Spinnaz, etc...) tend to get nuked. However, if you show that you put effort into making it, the downvotes won't be too bad.
    • Epic Maneuver - according to MasterSitsu, the main problem with the fad is that the song Ghost Love Score can be used for any image and ruins any chances of a new fad. When finding an image of a "maneuver", you might want to think carefully whether to really make the site an Epic Maneuver when you could set it to other music with a different title (this may give your site more views and may initiate a new fad. It may also bring in new fad music).
    • Myspace Suicide/any Emo site - Simple, don't even attempt it unless you are going to be original. If you are going to post a random image of a sad person set to Simple Plan, or a Myspace Suicide of a recent event that has already been created that day, you will not score a decent score. The song "Untitled" by Simple Plan has been the most overused song on ytmnd (over 3,000 sites use it...much more than the orginal YTMND clip).

Music

The type of music used in a site can also determine a rating. Using overused music will hurt. The following is a list of songs that have been overused and should really be avoided in later sites:

  • Boots Randolph - Yakety Sax (Theme from Benny Hill)
  • Joe Harnell - The Lonely Man Theme (Theme from "The Hulk")
  • Simple Plan - Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me)
  • Nightwish - Ghost Love Score
  • Clint Mansell - Requiem for a Tower (The Two Towers Trailer Music)
  • Dragonforce - Fury of the Storm
  • Max Coveri - Running in the Ninties
  • Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F
  • Koji Kondo - Super Mario World Ending Theme (sped up)

If you are having trouble finding a song, you should take a look at the YTMND loop project, a project set up by MasterSitsu. Each week, MasterSitsu will change the song on his current site. Other users will create loops and host it as a ytmnd (these loops are free to use). If you want to make your own loops, feel free to do so. There are plenty of software available for sound editing.

Shock

Shock sites can either increase or decrease an average rating on a site, depending on timing, content, and method of shock. However, people tend to not like being tricked, and a rating of over *** might mean that your shock isn't all that bad, or that the voters are taking some wierd designer drug.

A shock site containing something like gay porn (Ridin' Spinnaz), a sudden, loud sound ("screamer" sites), or otherwise disurbing images (gore, for example), will get nuked with *. If the shock is more clever/humorous than gross/overdone, you may get higher votes.

Abstract

Abstract sites tend not to get voted very highly. In order to appreciate an abstract site, one must think about what it is they're seeing and interpret it. Most users come to YTMND for quick laughs, and not to think.

Nostalgia

Trips down memory lane will often result in a higher site rating, as thanks for bringing back the good old days. (Some voters consider simply posting an old version of the YTMND front page a form of vote-whoring, since anyone can use the Archive to find old YTMND versions.)

High Effort

A high effort site is one that may not be entirely funny, abstract or clever, yet shows an obviously high amount of work and time put into it and is able to stand on that merit alone. These sites attempt to gain a rating by wowing viewers. Some examples are The YTMND Nexus 2.0 or ARTMND.

Faggy Short films

When making a faggy short film, make sure that it doesn't get impractically long. Usually the shorter ones are higher rated.

There is no exact time table for humor. A good rule of thumb can be described as a "Setup/Payoff" ratio of around 2/1, but the higher payoff ratio would of course be recommended if possible. In other words if you sit through twenty seconds of dialog, there should be something that makes you laugh for ten seconds. Otherwise there is a feeling of being let down after sitting through all that setup.

As for other styles and layouts, there are too many ways to make a FSF to describe them all. Just remember that shorter is usually (not always) better, and that it should present the source material in a way that nobody else might have noticed.

Content Sources

An image/sound's source (and in most cases, citing that source) is also key in making a ytmnd. Sure, it may seem like a good idea to take a funny image/sound from a popular site and turn it into a YTMND, but in reality, it isn't. For one, on popular sites, content is viewed regularly by people all over the planet. Secondly, some users may not want their content to be used outside of the site they came from.

This is a small list of other popular humor sites that are stolen from regularly by douche bag ytmnders:

Taking an image from the above sites will result in many *s by people who visit the sites often. Also, avoid posting images if they have a watermark, as most users will interpret that as you stealing the image and taking it as your own, especially if you don't cite your sources.

The Voter

It's impossible to please everyone. While some people may love a certain kind of humor, others may detest it. Maybe the voter has a personal vendetta against you? Perhaps the voter is an anonymous up/downvoter? Or maybe, just maybe, your site is total crap. Whatever the reason, if the general consensus of a site is good or bad, that's what it is.

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