It is the 1990s, and you are a vidder who would love feedback on your vids. There is no streaming or downloading and vids are still being made using two VCRs and videotape. The only way for someone to see your vids is if they send you $5-10 and you mail them a copy of the tape or you shell out even more money to attend a convention in person. Or you find a friend who is willing to do do this for you.
As a vidder, your main feedback is in person if you attend conventions and are in the audience listening to their reaction. But what do people really think about your vid? And what if you are not at the convention? Or are hiding out in the hotel bar because “OMG people are watching my vids live!!!”
Enter the Vid Comment Form, developed by Sandy Hereld and Rache in the 1990s.
From Fanlore, the fan run wiki about media fandom:
“A vid feedback (or comment) form was a sheet of paper handed out to vidshow attendees at the Escapade and Zebracon conventions in the late 1990s asking them to offer comments on each vid as they watched. As one fan described it: “the Escapade vid show pauses for thirty seconds after every vid to allow people to write down comments if they wish.”[1] After the vid show, the forms could then be cut into sections allowing vidders to take their comments home. However, before this happened, vidders would gather around a table containing the forms immediately after the end of the vid to read their feedback (sometimes aloud) and marvel at both the perspicacity and obtuseness of their vid audience. The idea, which originated with Sandy Herrold and Rache was eventually abandoned in the early 2000s as the feedback was often superficial and some audience members found it too distracting to watch the vids and write feedback in a 4-5 minute span in the dark.“
There was a strategy to the questions on the forms. By the 1990s, vidders realized that the audience’s like and dislikes of vids were mainly influenced by their love of the show and their familiarity with the music used in the fanvid. By 2003, the comment form added a “technical” section to see if a vid’s reception could be due to the viewer’s perception of vidding technique. In 2002, vidders held their first vid-themed convention Vividcon to help fill the gap in both viewer feedback and technical discussions.