YouTube

Dear Give A Gripe,

Why is YouTube free? They could make a bunch of money off it.

Sincerely,
Tubeless in Chicago




Well Tuber (can I call you that?), aside from being really nice people, it actually has to do with some very serious inter-galactic law.

The planet of YouTubia, while still a relatively unheard-of planet, consists of a population roughly equivalent to that of Earth. Its system of government is a democratic republic, relying mostly on the vote of the people, filtered through "moderators" 'till it gets through to what's called an "admin." While this is not entirely dissimilar from what we have in America, the culture of Planet YouTubia relies solely on recording one's self, and loading that recording onto a floating hologram projector, which then travels out into one of the many "greeting places" center around the main cities of YouTubia, and attempt (note: attempt) at actual conversation via these videos. Each party then has their projector record other people's projections for later viewing, reviewing, and overall enjoyment.

When YouTube was created, completely without knowledge of YouTubia or its inhabitants, it was originally meant to be a pay-as-you-go website, but in the recent 1994 meteorite crash, containing the "YouTube Stone," revealing much about the planet and culture of YouTubia, YouTube was forced, via the government's will to live in peace with all alien life-forms (especially the ones with guns bigger than ours) to remain free.

Since then, the citizens of Earth and YouTubia have lived in blissful ignorance, and a general state of not blown up.

-Space