I think that there are a couple of issues at play here, and there are a few possible solutions.
First off the issue... Facebook.
People are used to in facebook being able to go to one place, post everything and have only somewhat what they want shown to them. This is determined by EdgeRank, and every person sees something different.
More and more I can see people wanting one easy place to get everything. This is progressively more what Ski Gabber is becoming... where to see what matters.
To solve this issue, primarily what we have to do is get information into your regular flow through newschoolers in a way that we don't have to force you to do something different. Generally with forums and websites, its very hard to forcibly re-direct traffic.
One change that we made recently was the top level "videos" and "pictures" tabs again display the latest added videos.
I think we need to add either latest or top rated videos of the day to the homepage.
We're working on a really cool module for the right sidebar (currently you can see that there is some content there) which will help show you new stuff.
We also should use facebook as a community to spread the word of what is happening here. When you post a video on newschoolers or see a really cool video come up in the latest added stream, post that video to facebook and share it with your followers. We have a drastically larger potential viral army here than anywhere else in skiing, or even on Vimeo or YouTube. We're all so focused on what we're doing if we start sharing videos that we like as a community, nobody will be able to stop us. However currently, most people just share either the Vimeo or YouTube videos.
I'm sure that this is partly due to habit but also partly due to the fact that those videos play in-line on facebook. We can switch on this capability here too, but currently we're re-vamping the view counter system so it can be accurate given that fact. Right now it directs you back to NS - which is really good for us as a community. The more people that realize there is fantastic video to watch here (which is all skiing) the more that we'll be able to be a view factory for videos.
The totally other route we could take is to make it that MORE videos are posted in the forums. Make it that you can click on a "discuss in the forums" button below a video and blammo a thread is created and kept in sync with the comments.
I'm not sure if the last option is the right idea, but it could be something we do.
The single most important thing that we need to do as a community though, is try to keep video within skiing. Newschooles supports you as a film maker, and we want to build an ecosystem where you can form a business around what we're doing. We want the best guys to get paid, the next best guys to win lots of cool prizing based on their content, and everyone else to be able to build a solid reputation in the industry for your video.
However, if you keep sharing vimeo, sharing youtube, and posting those things in the forums here... we won't grow as a Skiing-focused video place.
We'll do our part, but do yours too. Keep technology in skiing - support the brands that support you.
Think of it like Riding Armada, surface, on3p, or any other smaller brand when you upload your video to newschoolers. Support the website that supports skiing.
