Grab your popcorn...Hambini vs AbsoluteBlack...again

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by vespasianus

In no way, shape or form, would I compare yesterday's journalist and magazine writers to todays "influencers".

For those that remember, Mountain Bike Action was the worst of the worst. But compared to todays video stars, they were Nobel prize winners...

man, i don't know, but this reply yells "the good old days" loud and clear.. for the most part, most bike magazines were just pages full of ads for a product.. regardless if that ad was a legit full-page ad for tires or a "review" for a set of tires.. I will admit some of the smaller, less ad-supported magazines (like the adventure riding magazine put out by the group for touring type rides??) were mostly legit reviews, but the majority of what you saw on the shelf in the bookstore were never going to go too hard on any product for fear of pissing them off..

the YouTubers of today are very similar.. most of the big ones are ad-supported or need to be somewhat nice to still get product to test.. and someone a few replies ago mentioned someone about the "YouTubers in the US mostly".. not sure they realize the reach of YouTube.. this is pretty much a global thing.. for example most of the YouTubers I watch, for some reason, seem to be from the UK.. I do follow a handful from the US as well..

yeah, I don't see a big difference between the glossy magazines of 15-20 yrs ago and the YouTubers of today..

[unterhausen]

Journalism is one area where it seems like it would be difficult to argue against the idea that the old days were better. Granted, there were a lot of problems, but those problems persist, and there a lack of journalism in much of the country. Hard to believe that craigslist killed it.
Our local paper has become a sad shadow of a clickbait site.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

Journalism is one area where it seems like it would be difficult to argue against the idea that the old days were better. Granted, there were a lot of problems, but those problems persist, and there a lack of journalism in much of the country. Hard to believe that craigslist killed it.
Our local paper has become a sad shadow of a clickbait site.

to be fair, I'm not talking about true journalism.. what I'm talking about is your random car, motorcycle, bike, RC Car, etc magazine that is mostly pictures and very little written content and most of that is basically an ad for whatever is being reviewed..

But to your point in true journalism today vs yesterday.. if you watch some of the GCN videos where they are doing a trip or long ride, I think that's some pretty good stuff.. they had a recent one where Hank and Mark Beaumont (an ultraendurance rider) "rode" to a pub that you can't drive a vehicle too.. only accessible by trail, boat, or airplane (seaplane I imagine).. that was some pretty good video journalism I'd say..

I wonder if the difference is in a video like I describe above, there isn't much room for forming the perfect, eloquent phrase to describe something.. you just kind of have to say what's on your mind, a mind that might have been a bit oxygen-starved from the uphill hike-a-bike that the presenter just did.. I guess I like that as well as a well-written story (like in the BQ magazines)..

the reality is we live in a world that is becoming more intolerant of the idea of sitting down and reading the newspaper or New Yorker article vice a 10 minute video on the same subject.. not saying that is good or bad, just that that's where we are IMHO..

BTW- there is a TON of trash on YouTube as well for sure, not trying to say even most of it is good, but there are some good channels that make content at least as good as the glossy bike magazines of my youth and young adulthood..

[Spoker]

Originally Posted by .RJ

. he's completely insufferable and a super negative person. I dont know who's right or wrong and I dont care but he sure seems to be a magnet for this sort of thing and thats not a coincidence.

Disagree. He says things without the sugarcoating so popular in the US publications , where no one has the guts to be negative in fear to get sued.

[callmeishmael]

Hambini started off (iirc) as very much a UK voice, and positioned himself as an 'independent expert'. His language and manner have become more exaggerated over the years; what started off as slight coarse British humour has become increasingly juvenile and forced.

Initially, I welcomed the type of content that he purported to produce, as independent, qualified assessment of bike kit was (and still, largely is) very thin on the ground. And it's very personal but his language has never bothered me. I don't like it, but I think Brits tend to be a bit less offended by the time of things he says (as a very general rule).

But over time there have been some very odd, and increasingly unsavoury, happenings in Hambini-land.

I mentioned the curious case of the wind-tunnel wheel data much earlier, and there are questions there he's never really answered. Then there was the 'lawyer's letter' from FLO. Next, his - appalling and bizarre - vendetta against Michelle AB, and finally this very curious and apparently personal crusade against Absolute Black.

Any one of these things might be put in context (not the Michelle AB business, to be clear) and possibly be explained, but when controversy and strange occurrences continually seem to congregate around the same person, you have to start looking at what (in this case, who) is the common factor.

[JedB]

Is this the equivalent of an internet handbag fight?

[kiwisimon]

Originally Posted by Spoker

Disagree. He says things without the sugarcoating so popular in the US publications , where no one has the guts to be negative in fear to get sued.

Yeah. Bang your hairdresser is the nonsugarcoated opinion we were missing.

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by goonster

No, because they lacked the near-instant feedback loop between the hypebeast and the trolls.

The way people trot out "but economics" makes me think there are some moral compasses overdue for alignment.

I was probably a bit loose with the term "influencer" and should have said something like "content creator" as it's more triggering.

I'm late to the party here but after discovering my TV had YouTube on it... and then discovering a few different interesting personalities in various niches that interest me, I consume far higher quality and more relevant content on YouTube than I ever have via TV or streaming service.

Nothing hype-y, troll-ey or anything about it. It's just the sort of stuff I'd read about but in video form.

And morals certainly don't enter that discussion, heck, if you want to start talking morals have a look at the partisan nature of the 'traditional' media.

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by MrCharlie

Do you know what "captive audience" means?

Uhhhhhhhh yeah. In plain english it's when you are captivated by a piece of content, typically video although podcasts also fit this situation, and an ad is thrown in the middle and you are forced to watch/listen it to keep watching/listening to the actual piece of content.

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by jimoots

Uhhhhhhhh yeah. In plain english it's when you are captivated by a piece of content, typically video although podcasts also fit this situation, and an ad is thrown in the middle and you are forced to watch/listen it to keep watching/listening to the actual piece of content.

That's not really a captive audience.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by Spoker

Disagree. He says things without the sugarcoating so popular in the US publications , where no one has the guts to be negative in fear to get sued.

He can remove the sugarcoating without calling everyone c*nts

[bicycletricycle]

Originally Posted by .RJ

He can remove the sugarcoating without calling everyone c*nts

Well, it seems like he prefers keeping the c word.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by jimoots

I'm late to the party here but after discovering my TV had YouTube on it... and then discovering a few different interesting personalities in various niches that interest me, I consume far higher quality and more relevant content on YouTube than I ever have via TV or streaming service.

Nothing hype-y, troll-ey or anything about it. It's just the sort of stuff I'd read about but in video form.

agree, I find a lot of good content on YouTube.. their recommendations algorithm is pretty spot on for me most of the time..

[MrCharlie]

Don't know Hambini. But, I'm starting to think that one's opinion on him might be a really great indication of one's worldview and, maybe, some other things too.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by MrCharlie

Don't know Hambini. But, I'm starting to think that one's opinion on him might be a really great indication of one's worldview and, maybe, some other things too.

You may or may not be right or wrong.