FBWalshyFTW... FBW... AirGuitar... A channel with mass coverage.

The way I was introduced to this forum was through those channels. I first watched Dutchy's M2 on FB Walshy FTW and it inspired me to create videos of my own, and here I am today. At the moment those channels are inactive and don't even post anymore, with a large majority of the social halo community subscribed to those channels and not being able to see our separate work. It really is a shame. Surely trying to reclaim one of these channels or at least re-direct subscribers is an idea we should try to get more attention and maybe spur this community back into what is once was, at least try.

I know I'm one to talk after being inactive for a good couple of years but it was something I needed to revitalise.

https://www.youtube.com/user/FBWalshyFTW/ - Last Upload 1 year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/user/airguitar901/ - Last Upload 3 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/user/FBWalshyFTWReturns - Last Upload 1 year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/user/IAmGear61 - AND, supposedly, our active channel. Last Upload 3 months ago, no mention of the THF Contest.

It's kind of disappointing that we don't have a mass channel for all us to showcase and where videos are easily accessible. At least this is what I think... Discuss?

I know what you mean, airguitar901 was the shit. THF has a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/TheHaloForumChannel, however the last upload was a year ago.

I know what you mean, airguitar901 was the shit. THF has a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/TheHaloForumChannel, however the last upload was a year ago.

Oh shit I forgot we even had a channel. But yeah, last upload a year ago isn't exactly good enough?

Unfortunately a majority of airguitar's 40k and FBW's 100K+ subscribers aren't active on youtube anymore. An upload from any of those channels would probably generate only 1000-3000 views, a far cry from what they once were. I am in favor of expanding the THF channel though. This community produces some of the best content around these days, so maybe by just uploading the very best videos, getting uploaded to THF YT would be something to strive for.
Well, Halo is dead and it's pretty much a snowball effect from there. Nobody cares about montages anymore, there's barely any originality to them. You've seen one halo montage, you've seen them all.
I don't know who has access or privilege to the THF YT channel, but yeah it's a damn shame that no one operates it anymore.  

We tried this pretty recently with the FBW channel which you made reference to with the IAmGear61 link, but that turned out to be a complete flop. Very poor and inconsistent management of that channel generated to an even greater loss in subscribers. it's really not even worth uploading to anymore. 

About every 6 months for the longest time someone new would come in and say "we're gonna start uploading consistently now," and that would happen for about a week. Then they just bailed on everyone. We went through this cycle about 6 times. At one point, 12 people had control of the channel at a time when it still had a chance, and the whole thing still fell apart. 

Quite honestly, this contest might be the last hoorah to an extent. There will be plenty of great videos released after this contest. But montaging has gotten so bad and painful at this point for inevitable reasons having to do with mcc and halo 5 that truly i think the last breadth of optimism has been all but washed up by such huge disappointments. And not to say that halo itself is struggling that much, but purely the montage scene has seen its best days. I mean nowadays, we pretty much just get the same h2 players making montages playing against each other in custom games, some social montagers that cater to whatever the new halo is, and then everything else from h3 and reach thats been submitted to this contest is basically just people clip-dumping their remaining clips from quite awhile ago as well as early mcc.

So yeah, i don't think it's gonna happen man, especially since things will slow down quite a bit after the contest, and it really is too bad.

Poor attitude man.  As real and honest as you may be, I don't think we're done yet.

Well maybe your right. I know of some great videos that will be coming out long after this contest that I'm excited about like I said. But I don't really see any light at the end of the tunnel that tells me the scene is gonna grow or improve is what I'm trying to say. The new people that are coming into halo aren't really getting into montages. The same people are making great videos, and I hardly notice anyone new. The few new people who do come in don't really get any support because the "vets" have been playing the game so long that they've formed absurd standards newbies can't compete with. that's not a bad thing at all really, but it tends to move those people to the newer halo games that people don't have much love for on here.

So what I'm saying is more of a projection than anything else. Obviously don't want it to happen that way, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to make a central hub youtube channel for montages when nothing is growing. Hopefully things turn around.

I can speak with a little bit of authority on the FBWFTWReturns channel as I was one of the people there working on the "revival" from the start, last summer. Believe it or not, there was a period of about 9-10 months where we actually were uploading pretty consistently with decent descriptions, etc. I think into the tranq was one of the first videos we uploaded, and we ended up uploading around 80 videos over the course of those 10 months. Although we definitely had our fuckups and missed our upload times occasionally or wrote shoddy descriptions, I think we actually did a fairly decent job and did get the channel going again. The raw upload numbers over time attest to that if nothing else. I'm not saying there weren't legitimate issues with our management of the channel, but overall I think we did an okay job.

Anyways, after several months of consistently uploading. we noticed something unfortunate. The average view count on the videos we were uploading was actually decreasing as time went on. A lot of the videos we were uploading weren't even hitting 1k views. Combined with the lack of content coming out at the time, Ishii, the person actively running the channel at the time, decided it just wasn't worth it anymore and finally let the channel die for good. 

So maybe if someone really dedicated took over the channel and did social media outreach, maybe even made a site or collaborated with the people here, reached out to pro players or something, etc, it would be possible to grow the old channels again. But I doubt it. Like I said although we had our problems we did an okay job with the FBW channel and the view rates literally dropped over time rather than growing. The audience just isn't there anymore and the subs are inactive. 

We definitely have a big fundamental problem right now in that there is an audience for Halo and even for montages (see the pro tages Snipetality has released recently; Spartan montage has 70k views, Ace has nearly 100k, etc), but people are just not watching the stuff we're producing. The scene is becoming extremely "celebrity" based, in that only people who already have a following are able to pull in views. Hastings and myself really prove this point in my opinion; both of us have had uploads to the Beyond channel where Snipetality uploads his stuff and I don't think either of us have ever even cracked 3k views at any point, even though Hastings has edited for a couple pros I think. It seems like people just aren't interested in watching stuff from names they don't recognize. 

It doesn't help either that the people who are really talented in our little groups on both the editing and gameplay end of things won't touch the current games with a ten foot pole. You certainly won't be seeing a Hyena H5 video from what I understand and I myself wouldn't edit that game if I was paid to. None of this is our fault, I'm certainly not advocating for players/editors to work with games they don't enjoy, but it is just the reality that 343 has dealt us yet another game that is garbage for montaging and most of us dislike. This further splinters our audience because it means the only people likely to watch our videos are the people who were around for the original games. And let's face it, most of the core audience that loved the original games has left at this point. I've heard from one of the moderators of r/halo that the average age of a poster there is around 14. That means the first Halo game they can really remember playing is probably Reach, at the absolute earliest. Sad as it is, that is the audience now. They're just not going to be watching original trilogy videos and they also seem to only be interested in watching videos from names they recognize. 

It's not all doom and gloom though, one of the really amazing things we've seen come out of this era is that people with real talent and dedication can build a following on their own personal channel. Mastery has over a hundred thousand views now, and many of Hyena's videos top 10k views. Another great example is Kampy, who from what I understand is actually able to make a living off of streaming, which is awesome. 

However, I think it is getting harder and harder for people who are new but have a lot of talent to get recognized. In 2008 you could come out of nowhere, make an insane video and get uploaded to FBW and get tens of thousands of views. The lack of a central, popular channel/site means it is increasingly difficult to get people to watch your content which can be extremely disheartening for people who put so much time and effort into a video. Dlongo's recent Halo 3 montage is a good example of this; its one of the most incredible montages produced in years and its sitting under 7k views right now. I think this is a big reason why there don't seem to be many new editors getting involved. 

So at this point I think we need 1. A new game that a lot of us actually enjoy and are willing to work with and 2. Some way for people who don't already have a following to get recognized for quality work. One of those is completely outside of our control, and honestly I think its 100% the biggest thing we need. I'm not really sure how the montage scene can grow an audience either. Neither 343 or the pros seem particularly interested in the scene and the only place there is an audience in general for Halo these days is the competitive scene (and even that one isn't that large by any means). 

All of this really sucks, but maybe when Halo comes to PC there will be more tools to make videos which will draw in more content creators, and based on the success of the CS:GO montage scene there also might be a much larger audience for montages in general. If this site stays active then it could be possible that we'd see some real growth once we can tap into the PC audience. But who knows, really, at this point. 

I found your post really informative, and interesting to say the least. A lot of what you said mirrors my own thoughts and observations here at THF. There's no denying that the move to the new site hurt us in overall activity, but it's beyond a doubt that the Halo montage community has not only changed, it's substantially smaller (or at least the interest has severely waned).

I commend you and others for your efforts with the FBWalshy channel, would have loved to see anything at this point have some positive effect on the Halo montage community.

Now that you mention it, I do remember a time when you, Chris, Mike, and Beau had control of the channel and were uploading consistently. So definitely props for that, I didn't really give that credit since it was toward the very end of the channel's life cycle. But by that time, I feel like the channel was spurned by complications early on back when Spudmonkey first renewed it. In other words, the few fringe subscribers that were still left on FBW gave up on the channel due to bad management long before you guys gained control. I may be off on some details since I wasn't the one actually taking care of the channel, but that's just how I remember it. 

But yeah, that was a great explanation you gave on the community's state. I hadn't thought about it that in-depth until this thread, but it truly is how you put it. The reddit kids and relatively new members aren't looking to watch content from people they don't recognize, and it pretty much ends up being the actual content makers who watch all of the content. I think what you said we need would certainly help, but hopefully the halo pc stuff you were talking about pushes it forward because I don't really know what else will.

Funny that I should read this and then literally check youtube to find that Prodigy (a H2 montage I submitted like 5 months ago, back when they were on an active streak) was just uploaded this morning onto FBW Returns. Is someone running the channel again?

https://www.youtube.com/user/IAmGear61/videos

yeah i literally checked too once i read the thread.  I honestly think starting fresh rather than starting with the same channel over and over again would be better.  The majority of views are still from active people who are in the montage scene.  Making a new channel would just require making sure we give a lot of attention to it, however I dont think it's the right time, maybe when Halo 6 news starts coming up, idk

halo is fairly dead in fairness no witch hunts are required 

Like someone said its a snowball effect , we can fight it sure but we didn't and it wouldn't have made a huge difference. we would probably only be doing a little better than we are now. Beyond forums made way more effort than us and they are struggling for activity apart from a few select threads. 

Halo speedrunning has died down considerably aswell big names like goatrope and monopli now are inconsistent with streaming or not at all. Which is unfair to put all the blame on them but they inspired alot of people to stream halo and they had the numbers. We still get spikes of activity and interest but like here its surrounded by events such as agdq and for you guys (me too i suppose ) the montage comp. 

Trickjumping community is dead af but it was already a super niche community, the numbers making videos are small and very inconsistent. Also their forums were extremely hostile and toxic from management to regulars so that didnt help lol

I guess I could make suggestions but unless halo games suddenly go mainstream it will be like throwing pebbles at a tidal wave. 

You could incorporate twitch streams more..pretty sure I already said this last year.

Get bigger names have more of a connection to our site guess that would involve networking or offering some sort of partnership or service.

Syncing up with other halo communities and mixing more (also suggested this before)

Montagers streaming, be it editing or getting clips they obviously play a huge amount. This combined with twitch streams linked on the homepage like the video tabs would make them relevant and increase views to the streamer.

Our marketing in general is pretty poor r/halo isnt abused as much as it could be. You can advertise the thf movie comp then make new posts with updates of a submission or even winners.

twitter/facebook/youtube etc . all this requires effort so its really site owners or dedicated members who would have to use their valuable time but if there is no motivation to wont happen anyway.

All these suggestions pretty much disregard OG members who no longer care about montages and such but w/e not like any of it will happen which isnt a diss on management because I am rarely here anyway so I cant talk. 

Halo is dead, it's never coming back. Just give up.
i gave away the airguitar channel almost right after H3 came out bc I didnt feel like up'ing anymore and I was in the middle of highschool so I was barely ever home anyway. I tried finding the dude that had it last but he's MIA. Me & NOCAPS [the dude that originally made the channel] talked a while after MCC came out and he said that he couldnt get it back either so that channel's lost. And on top of that youtube deleted my backup channel.
bro we aint done yet. I'm cooking up mad heat in the lab. Ppl been saying montaging is dead for years now but we're still here. It's a hobby i love (but yea sadly it's coming to an end for me) but we have kids that are edgy and retro like dillpickles. Ya i know, his videos are ave but he's only 14 and there's other dills out there trust me yo. but ye now thinking about it the whole fbw situation is tough, idk. Wish more ppl were like sillygoose, that man carries this community on his back goddamn 
brother why so negative 
this was a good post much respect yo. 

Fuck beyond forums. They made a huge effort because they were thirsty for money, not because they cared about the community. Once the MCC dropped they started out criticising 343, even the mods did AFAIK, but then 343 lifted up the duvet and they jumped right in so fucking fast it wasn't even funny. IIRC some of the mods there literally took paying jobs at 343. People started getting bans and warnings for daring to bitch about the $60 they got scammed for. You can never have a successful community of enthusiasts for a product when the forum is run by the fucking product creators; it was basically a 343 forums but for OG players. I'm so relieved beyond is dying off, it needs to be the inevitable outcome when you sell out that fucking hard.  I remember posting about how they were going to die a slow death, and one of the mods was like 'nah bro we got more people coming in, we're attracting people from other games' - yeah fucking right. I wonder if working for the world's most dumbfuck game studio in some bullshit PR job helping them slowly suffocate your childhood hobby will be on their list of highlights on their deathbed.

Seriously though, isn't it nuts how 343 have repeatedly done that - muscled in on any complaints in the community and just bought them out? Paying for a 'pro team' just so they could feed us whatever shite gameplay they cooked up in their playdough labs and tell us its 'pro approved', hiring prominent members of the community to do BS jobs and we get to watch the same shitheads who bitched about how Halo 3 was cancer welcome a 343 paycheque with an open butthole and praise the atrocity that is Halo 5. Isn't their approach to criticism and feedback crazy as fuck? It's the Kim Jong-un approach to negative feedback; it's literally fucking insane. How does Microsoft keep paying them to trash their previously most profitable franchise and its entire community? It's like

Microsoft: people are trashing your game online!

343: don't worry, we're paying them off

Microsoft: how is that making us any fucking money?

343 are like a crazy ex that just won't fuck off, trying to get your friends to turn on you and posting statuses about how they've changed. Their business model is fucking nuuuuuuts.

Am I missing something about sillygoose? Guy is a ledge but IIRC he mostly does minecraft shit and hasn't uploaded in ages.
Derp SHC is still going... props to you for that SG.

Halo montaging isn't dead and will probably never be for the foreseeable future. My main point was that I have a hard time ever seeing it regain it's former glory like I used to think it could even when it was in 2012 or 2014. Of course there will always be people like us around who keep it alive, and I think that's great. But some stuff on the part of the developers is just out of our control plain and simple. 

And Chops is my shit dontchyu worry. puttin 2 chicken mcnuggets up my gamby-ass is how i like it

Fuck beyond forums. They made a huge effort because they were thirsty for money, not because they cared about the community. Once the MCC dropped they started out criticising 343, even the mods did AFAIK, but then 343 lifted up the duvet and they jumped right in so fucking fast it wasn't even funny. IIRC some of the mods there literally took paying jobs at 343. People started getting bans and warnings for daring to bitch about the $60 they got scammed for. You can never have a successful community of enthusiasts for a product when the forum is run by the fucking product creators; it was basically a 343 forums but for OG players. I'm so relieved beyond is dying off, it needs to be the inevitable outcome when you sell out that fucking hard.  I remember posting about how they were going to die a slow death, and one of the mods was like 'nah bro we got more people coming in, we're attracting people from other games' - yeah fucking right. I wonder if working for the world's most dumbfuck game studio in some bullshit PR job helping them slowly suffocate your childhood hobby will be on their list of highlights on their deathbed.

Seriously though, isn't it nuts how 343 have repeatedly done that - muscled in on any complaints in the community and just bought them out? Paying for a 'pro team' just so they could feed us whatever shite gameplay they cooked up in their playdough labs and tell us its 'pro approved', hiring prominent members of the community to do BS jobs and we get to watch the same shitheads who bitched about how Halo 3 was cancer welcome a 343 paycheque with an open butthole and praise the atrocity that is Halo 5. Isn't their approach to criticism and feedback crazy as fuck? It's the Kim Jong-un approach to negative feedback; it's literally fucking insane. How does Microsoft keep paying them to trash their previously most profitable franchise and its entire community? It's like

Microsoft: people are trashing your game online!

343: don't worry, we're paying them off

Microsoft: how is that making us any fucking money?

343 are like a crazy ex that just won't fuck off, trying to get your friends to turn on you and posting statuses about how they've changed. Their business model is fucking nuuuuuuts.

I could kiss you on the lips right now.

nothing is stopping u bby

Halo montaging is dead, it will never reach the days of h3/reach , doesnt help halo 5 thearte is shit

s/o sillygoose

fuck 343
The montage scene is largely dead. No need to pretend otherwise, games come and go.

You kids think you know what a "dead" community is.  TROLOLOLOLOL


Come talk to me when no one's posted on your forums since '06.  

which forum are we talking about? we're here for u m8
I used to be a big member is spriting communities back in the day.  Mostly Megaman Battle Network stuff.