Benedict Townsend

Yeah, because you're up against sort of a cartel of people with millions of followers. Exactly. Who are pushing those videos to everyone.

Yeah, because you're up against sort of a cartel of people with millions of followers. Exactly. Who are pushing those videos to everyone.

These days, of course, on TikTok and stuff like that, the very clever modern algorithms solve this problem. Because instead of just getting a raw feed of videos, they're slightly curating what you see so people can't dominate. But back then, Vine is basically uncurated. So you're just getting a nonstop shop.

These days, of course, on TikTok and stuff like that, the very clever modern algorithms solve this problem. Because instead of just getting a raw feed of videos, they're slightly curating what you see so people can't dominate. But back then, Vine is basically uncurated. So you're just getting a nonstop shop.

of Logan Paul, etc. Then, of course, you have the additional twist, which is you have this popular page. That is the one thing that's sort of curated on Vine, which just tracks the most viewed videos. But again, if you and your mates, who all have millions of followers, are trading revines, you're going to just juice yourself to the top of that popular page and be there all the time.

of Logan Paul, etc. Then, of course, you have the additional twist, which is you have this popular page. That is the one thing that's sort of curated on Vine, which just tracks the most viewed videos. But again, if you and your mates, who all have millions of followers, are trading revines, you're going to just juice yourself to the top of that popular page and be there all the time.

How can anyone compete with that?

How can anyone compete with that?

Here's Ryan again. The top Vine stars moved into one apartment building together on Vine Street in LA and basically created like a video views cartel where they would all just appear in each other's videos and remain in the top 10 videos on the app.

Here's Ryan again. The top Vine stars moved into one apartment building together on Vine Street in LA and basically created like a video views cartel where they would all just appear in each other's videos and remain in the top 10 videos on the app.

It felt like the feature had a detrimental effect on how creators were working and what they were posting. Manon Matthews, you remember her? She was the stand-up who tried Vine for a laugh. Well, at this point, she had millions of followers, but she still found herself dwarfed in sheer numbers by the very biggest creators, whose follower counts could be almost 10 times that.

It felt like the feature had a detrimental effect on how creators were working and what they were posting. Manon Matthews, you remember her? She was the stand-up who tried Vine for a laugh. Well, at this point, she had millions of followers, but she still found herself dwarfed in sheer numbers by the very biggest creators, whose follower counts could be almost 10 times that.

For Manon, it felt like the feature had a detrimental effect on how creators were working and what they were posting.

For Manon, it felt like the feature had a detrimental effect on how creators were working and what they were posting.

Kenny Knox takes a slightly more forgiving view.

Kenny Knox takes a slightly more forgiving view.

It was fair game. You're paying homage. IB, by the way, stands for Idea By or Inspired By, and it's a little polite hat tip to acknowledge an original creator. Honestly, that's often all creators are looking for, just a little bit of acknowledgement. It's a pretty low bar, but failing to reach that bar would not end well for you, especially on Vine.

It was fair game. You're paying homage. IB, by the way, stands for Idea By or Inspired By, and it's a little polite hat tip to acknowledge an original creator. Honestly, that's often all creators are looking for, just a little bit of acknowledgement. It's a pretty low bar, but failing to reach that bar would not end well for you, especially on Vine.

For Brandon, the attitude turned from resentment to a sense of, well, if you can't beat them, join them.

For Brandon, the attitude turned from resentment to a sense of, well, if you can't beat them, join them.