10 iconic Vines to watch before Twitter pulls the plug

In an abrupt and unexpected announcement today, Vine parent company Twitter said it will discontinue the app “in the coming months.” No explanation was given for the decision made hours after a Twitter quarterly earnings call.

Vine account holders will be allowed to download their work, and the Vine website will be maintained for some time, the company said in a statement.

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But there’s no telling how long Twitter will host the videos or when creators will remove their content from the platform. So before any of the changes announced today take place, VentureBeat went looking through the strange variety of six-second videos.

If social media networks can have a personality, Vine may be the class clown. It’s a gathering of misfits, a hodge podge of oddballs — people who are flattered if you call them weird and who can make you laugh, think, or feel something very quickly.

This is by no means a complete list. Ping @kharijohnson on Twitter if you know some weird Vine videos worth watching.

Duck Army

With more than 190 million loops, this is one of the most-watched Vines ever.

Brisk God

Most Brisk God Vines feature profane, hardcore rap music set to things like horses doing dressage, cartoon snippets, or old TV commercials. The contrast does not get old.

Marnie the Dog

Marnie the Dog is legit Vine famous, with more than 220 million loops. Here’s her most popular video, a jaunt through the drug store that got 78 million loops.

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Adorable Overload

How the hell do you make a list of online videos without having adorable kids? You don’t, that’s how. This is one of the most-watched Vines of 2015. A reporter asked this kid if he misses his mom on the first day of school (he does).

A cute little kids subset on Vine: Dancing little kids who are way too cool for their age. These kids seem to share a spot in the hearts of Vine viewers. “Do it for the Vine” is without question one of the most popular videos in the dancing little kids subgenre.

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This little kid wants to hang out. He likes you a lot, and he is, of course, cool AF.

Techno waffle frisbee

The best. Peak Vine. The title says it all. Like Duck Army, the initial Techno Waffle Frisbee video led to several imitation videos.

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#6SecFilms

It was a real shoot-and-miss style, but when it’s good, it’s really good, as exhibited by this one about addiction.

#VineMagic

Another popular hashtag unique to Vine: #VineMagic.

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#VineMagic is a genre of video designed to quickly and sufficiently blow your mind. Videos under this hashtag make the seemingly impossible possible with video effects or optical illusions. Zach King may have been the most popular practitioner of #VineMagic.

Stop-motion

Stop-motion and time-lapse videos are a mainstay on Vine, especially in cooking and DIY videos.

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Vine usage peaked years ago, back when Twitter had no video option, and it has been on the descent since, according to internet analyst Byrne Hobart at 7ParkData. Twitter has gradually moved away from Vine and closer to live Periscope video and NFL games, he said.

“Vine peaked in August 2014 with 3.64 percent of Android users in the United States using the app at least once a month,” Hobart said in an email to VentureBeat. “Today, just 0.66 percent of this mobile user panel uses Vine at least once a month. Stripping videos down to six seconds leads to a very rapid viral loop — but also makes it easy for video consumers to churn through all the popular content fast.”

The best description of Vine I’ve ever heard is that Vine is like a kid you went to high school with who was absolutely hilarious… but accomplished close to nothing.

But that description is only partially accurate. Vine seemed to find a distinct video style and successfully attracted a community of creatives. Check #RIPVine today and you’ll find an eccentric community in mourning, expressing their dissatisfaction with six-second bursts of sadness, yelling, or more weirdness, filling the soon-to-die platform with the same self-expression and distinct style that attracted them to Vine in the first place.