Vimeo / Development Blog

Turning off uploads for a few hours...

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:26:33 CDT

UPDATE 2:50pm: We're back on! So we've been getting slammed with uploads the last few days (breaking all sorts of records) and a bunch of you are experiencing various issues. Sometimes the clip fails, sometimes our air traffic controllers place your clip in a 'Holding Pattern', sometimes the clip just doesn't convert. First off, sorry for all the trouble. We know how important your videos are and we're working hard to fix these issues. For the next few hours we are going to turn off uploads while we sacrifice a few more goats and add a few more hamsters to the wheel. We don't anticipate this shutdown to be too long, so check back in a few hours. If you are having trouble with a clip currently in the system, please post a thread here and we'll take a look. Again, thanks for all your patience, we'll get things back to normal soon! Note: In about two weeks we will be adding a bunch of new transcoding machines, so these current wait times will be a thing of the past!

Let's have some Conversations!

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:20:09 CDT

Community and communication is a huge part of Vimeo, so we decided to put some more attention into Conversations. My Conversations can be found under the Me menu item in the top navigation or by visiting the link below: http://vimeo.com/conversations This section is comprised of all your private messages with other Vimeo members and all other "conversations" you have on Vimeo, which includes comments on videos you have uploaded or appeared in or replies to comments you have left on a video, forum, blog, or channel. Some changes in this release include: An addition of a dashboard which allows you to easily start a new conversation or see previews of your unread messages/conversations. You now have the ability to mark ALL of your unread messages/conversations as read by clicking the links on the dashboard at the bottom of each section. Private Messages are now broken out into its own tab which allows for better organization and clarity on your number of unread messages vs. unread conversations. You can now link to a particular conversation with a Vimeo user by going to http://vimeo.com/conversations/{username}. This will load up the entire conversation in its own tab with all previous messages or as an empty conversation if you are starting a new one. Messages and conversations are now "auto read" so it feels more like an email inbox. So be sure to mark a message or conversation as "unread" if you wish to save it. Message archive is all of your read private messages. Conversations are now aggregated for a month back and if you have no messages or no conversations, those tabs do not show up. We hope these updates makes communication easier and more enjoyable on Vimeo!

Weekend Homework

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:13:47 CDT

So here's a little weekend homework assignment for anyone who is interested. Make a 30 second documentary with a complete stranger. Be kind. Be courteous. Be original. Post a link to your video here. Have a great weekend everybody!

Want to be a Vimeo apprentice this summer?

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:34:52 CDT

Hey there guys! We have 2-3 apprentice positions (we hate the word "intern") available this summer, and we're looking for people from the community who are familiar with Vimeo and want to have a fun summer working with the Vimeo team here in NYC. Design Apprentice: We're looking for a smart, font-loving, color-fying, detailed obessive, design apprentice who can help create the world that is Vimeo. Here's the qualifications: 1. Design portfolio 2. Examples of CSS design/layouts 3. Strong attention to detail Email your portfolio to jack@vimeo.com Community Apprentice: We're looking for someone with motion graphic and a strong video editing background to help create videos and promos for Vimeo. You will also watch TONS of videos and help with general community management. Email your resume and portfolio to blake@vimeo.com They don't *have* to be from Vimeo, so if you have friends who might be interested, let us know. Thanks guys!

New Vimeo player

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:24:06 CDT

Over the past couple months Patrick and I have been rewriting the Vimeo player from the ground up. Today we have released the new player to everyone! We have built a framework that will allow us to add many new features and customization options in the near future. It's going to be pretty awesome. Here's a small highlight of our changes and enhancements:

There are a lot of design tweaks and all the outro screens have been completely redesigned. Thanks Jack and Sox!

We wrote the player in AS3. Simply put, everything should work inherently better and faster. Videos will play a little better and switching to fullscreen is less jarring.

HD embeds have a HD link back to the video on Vimeo.

We've made a lot of improvements to fading the timeline in and out. For example if you move your mouse outside the video, the timeline will hide itself automatically.

We've created a smarter video buffering system. This is still being tested and would love any feedback

Total runtime is now displayed when a video initially loads.

This is only the first installment to many new additions to the player. Once we launch Pro accounts, you'll have more than a handful of customization options. Enjoy and please let us know if you have any problems.

Go on, make some new friends

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:30:14 CDT

Vimeo is special because you only see the videos you want to see. You make contacts, subscribe to people's videos and likes, and then your inbox magically fills up with videos you'll probably want to watch. Yeah! So if you don't have many contacts, and you're interested in seeing more videos, go out and make some new friends. Talk to that user who's videos you admire. Ask them questions about how they made it. Get to know them. Then add them as a contact. When you do, you'll see their stuff, and the stuff they like. And, chances are, they'll check out your stuff. That's basically how it works around here. Now go make some new friends and watch come cool videos! That is all. Love, Vimeo

A little maintenance today

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:38:16 CDT

We're recalibrating Vimeo's principal gyroscope at some point this afternoon. It usually takes about 20 minutes, during which time everyone will be logged out of the site. You'll still be able to watch videos and embeds will still work, but commenting, uploading, etc. will be temporarily turned off. We'll try to keep it quick and sign everyone back in automatically. Thanks!

Love At First Bite Winners

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:44:32 CDT

After careful consideration, Citysearch has named the Texas Gentleman the winner of Love at First Bite. For his winning video, the Gentleman receives a $1000 gift card from American Express and some serious street cred. Check out the Love at First Bite contest page to see the winning entry, and browse some of the runners up!

Congratulations to everyone!

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:49:35 CDT

Why? Because we've managed to snag ourselves a Webware 100 award. The staff and users of Vimeo have worked together to design and breathe life into this website, and thanks to your votes, we have been given the recognition we think this community deserves. The staff will keep working to refine and improve Vimeo, and I know you guys will continue to fill Vimeo with amazing videos and friendly people. Next year, we're going for a Nobel Prize!

Take the Vimeo survey!

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:03:37 CDT

As dalas mentioned earlier this month, Vimeo is getting bigger everyday! That means more than just our friends and family use it now. To help us decide what to work on next we'd like to learn more about who you guys are and how you use Vimeo. So, we made a survey:

If you have two minutes, please let us know what you think. It's hosted on a separate site so all answers are anonymous.

Vimeo is growing fast!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:03:43 CDT

We have been witnessing extraordinary growth in the recent months. For example, in March we had over 70,000 uploads (9,200 of those were HD) and over two million unique visitors to the website. We'd like to extend a welcome to all of our new users. Vimeo thrives on community feedback, so remember to let your voice be heard, either in our Forums or in a direct email to your Community Directors, dalas and Blake. Vimeo is a special community among video sharing websites. To help us keep unoriginal material off the site, use the Flag link on the page where you watch a video. To help us keep the atmosphere pleasant, be respectful and polite with your comments, even when you might disagree with another member. If we work together, we can keep Vimeo awesome!

Can we fool you?

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:20:12 CDT

Yes, it is April Fools day. No, the site isn't redirecting you to BoobTube or anything. But... we do have a little surprise for those of you with keen eyes and Sherlock-like wits. We, the Staff, collectively challenge you all to a treasure hunt of sorts. Somewhere in the dungeons of Vimeo, perhaps where you least expect it, perhaps closer than you could ever imagine, lies a quirky little April Fools tweak to the site. We challenge you.... no, we double-dog dare you to find it. The first to do so, will win 500mb extra storage a week. Those who do not, will be banned from Vimeo FOREVER!

Finally, A Reason To Use Facebook

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:00:09 CDT

Hey guys, We made a Facebook app! It's been a good time coming, but it's finally done. And we're pretty proud of how it turned out. The main benefit to you is adding a Vimeo box on your Facebook profile to showcase up to date streams of videos you upload, like, and appear in. This allows your Facebook friends to see the videos you put on Vimeo. The other piece of the app, the Vimeo canvas page, serves as an entry level version of Vimeo for new fans of Vimeo. They can start commenting, liking videos, and uploading all from Facebook. The app was developed by Kevin and myself, with support from Sox, Blake, and Andrew! Hopefully we'll get your videos out to as many people as you want seeing them, and adopt some new friends to the Vimeo community. You can add the app here. Thanks! UPDATE: If you run into a problem where Facebook prompts you to login repeatedly, try going here. We're aware of this problem, and will fix it soon.