Is Vimeo in a downward spiral?

[Andrew Smith]

Here's the side comment from a previous discussion thread that started it:

Personally, I like Seth’s “white-label” idea because I’m becoming disenchanted with Vimeo as they’re really getting into porn so when one does searches they turn up a lot of hits that don’t provide a professional image.

to which I replied ....

At risk of taking the thread further off topic, I feel compelled to convey that I am very much 'over' Vimeo and had already decided to abandon their platform. This is coming from someone who was a Vimeo Plus member for as much as six years.

I've been disappointed at the non-SEO visibility of any video you have loaded on their platform. I don't expect miracles but I do expect it to be discoverable. There are many other issues (including what is detailed in the previous post) that just add up to being plain unimpressed with them. It's just not in my heart to support them any more. I've had it with Vimeo and have already planned to migrate my content over to YouTube, and leave a note behind for viewers to follow through from.

The flood of seriously porno (and porn site promo) clips on Vimeo really speaks of them having lost control over their platform. They either don't have the required staff to manage things, or have quietly given up. You can flag videos (with definitely nil 'artistic' quality and/or obvious malintent) as 'adult' or 'money maker' etc and it means absolutely nothing. You might as well be wasting your time, and some of them don't even have a 'flag' button. Something very fishy is going on at Vimeo.

I've heard that their VOD product is very good, but I'm compelled to think that this really is the beginning of the end for Vimeo. In life you only get the 'adult' sex shops in the run down shopping malls that reek of desperation, and the video equivalent has been happening at Vimeo. I'd encourage us all to have backup plans.

Thought I'd pop this in to its own dedicated thread in case there are others who want to weigh in with their own experiences.

Andrew

[Mark Williams]

I still prefer Vimeo to Youtube although I use both. If they wanted to they could reject certain content. I don't think that challenges free speech because it is their business and they can set any guidelines that they want. I would like to see them continue to improve their encoding and re-enable default HD embeds.