Busy Street/TGWTG debate thread.

Would this do well for you?

@Myrmidion: They don't like Doug's brand of humor. But I don't think they personally consider him to suffer from Small Name, Big Ego syndrome.

The ones they directly accuse are primarily Spoony, Joe, and the Distressed Watcher. Spoony, due to not only his banhammer, but also due to his "Appeal for Manners" from two years ago, plus some of the stuff he's written on his twitter account. Such as "I swear to God, I will punch the next person who says that "Timey-Wimey Ball" line as if its still cute". We don't know whether that's him in real life, or just his persona, but it can be difficult to interpret and separate the two.

For Joe, I feel a lot of it stemmed from the recent gaffe he had when he interviewed Geoff Keighley at the VGA's. Now to be fair, Keighley didn't exactly help matters either on his part. But part of me felt Joe should have known Geoff would have trouble trying to get a 15 minute interview done given that he was busy with the show preparations. And felt that, because he got a press pass to the show, was taking his privilege for granted. I think, had Mr. Vargas conducted his interview a little more professionally, and not post about how he was "disrespected" at the VGA's. Not only would he have gained the high ground over Keighley, but he would have given Blistered Thumbs some legitimate exposure. Instead, he came off as just another dime-a-dozen internet reviewer who because of his actions, may have doomed BT before it even starts picking up.

And the Distressed Watcher...I'll just say Base Breaker and leave it at that.

Edit: Yes, I've seen the Thanksgiving message video, and he seems sincere towards his fanbase. But then I compare that to his Appeal for Manners following his win on the Mashables, and I find it odd given the sudden whiplash involved.

And uh, thank you. You guys have been polite and reasonable as well.

edited 25th Feb '11 6:02:53 PM by KoB

DW is a base breaker among fans too. I do think he has improved, by watching some of his more recent videos. He's dropped the annoying 'I KNOW people will mail me criticizing me for my opinion' thing.

Angry Joe I am unfamiliar with. I'd like to see this. Link?

edited 25th Feb '11 2:53:27 PM by MrAHR

Here, it was in the Blistered Thumbs thread not even half a page down from this thread.

@KOB I can't defend his twitter account (seriously Noah, you're not helping yourself) but with the appeal for manners, his fans were major dumbasses. Aside from all the bitching that he didn't get enough time in Kickassia, Scarlett appeared in his Mashable Award thanks video and they called her all kinds of shit. I think he just rages when his friends get insulted.

edited 25th Feb '11 2:56:05 PM by emeriin

Oh, yeah, we had a gigantic flame war with a fan/sockpuppet of DW a while ago. Did not turn out well.

I've read the laws of Busy Street before Ko B. Yet they haven't adequately managed to back up their claims at all. "You can't rely on internet wealth for the rest of your life." Why not?

Internet Popularity means nothing in real life: Fair point, but what does that have to do with anything. If they can make a living off their fake internet popularity and love what they do who cares if some guy on the street doesn't know who they are, honestly who wants to be stopped on the street anyway? Busy street never backs up their criticisms.

I also find Busy Street terrible because any decent criticism I've managed to find on Busy Street is overshadowed by a million "lol Scarlett is teh Phat" jokes.

edited 25th Feb '11 2:59:50 PM by Wild-Card

I understand he wasn't happy that his girlfriend got attacked by a bunch of GIF Ters during his acceptance video, but part of me felt, was it really necessary for him to go off on such a tangent?

He could have just ignored the trolls that went on his acceptance video, or simply said "Please don't insult my girlfriend", but by writing that article and pulling down the acceptance video as well, it's hard to interpret whether or not he's appealing for good behavior, or ungratefully bashing the very fans that helped him win that award in the first place.

He may not have been intentionally trolling his fans, but it does make him come off as rather childish. Especially since he's just given those same GIF Ters the attention they sought by coming on that video and saying "Scarlett is fat".

edited 25th Feb '11 3:01:22 PM by KoB

Question got answered while I was writing it. Ignore this post.

edited 25th Feb '11 3:00:48 PM by Kerrah

Fair point about Spoony's behavior. But I don't know the man personally and will not make an attack on him without knowing the details. But the laws of Busy Street have still not been addressed.

edited 25th Feb '11 3:01:36 PM by Wild-Card

Ko B: He did not act admirably, but I don't think he acted in a way that makes him 'egotistical'

For those curious, here's the blogpost:

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/12/17/an-appeal-for-manners/

I honestly don't see anything about it that smells of arrogance or him bashing on those innocent in the event.

I was just gonna ask for that link.

I am afraid to watch the angry joe link. It feels like it's gonna be one giant awkward moment, and those scare me.

But yeah, his thanksgiving video is kinda sweet.

edited 25th Feb '11 3:07:22 PM by MrAHR

To that, you'd have probably have to directly ask the guy who set up the site in the first place.

That said, they did send someone to Mag Fest recently, to actually interview or record some of the reviewers. They even got to talk to Linkara, who seemed familiar with the content of the site, and they shared a couple of laughs.

Hell, Jew Wario also met the same interviewer, and expressed how pleased he was that they were being polite with the whole thing. They could have easily just gone their and trolled for the sake of trolling, but thankfully, they avoided that.

Here's the video is if your curious, keep in mind the poor vid quality.

@Kerrah: I just felt it was unnecessary for him to post that, and thought he was making an unnecessary big deal over a couple of trolls.

I understand people who insult his friends or family is a major pet peeve for him, but perhaps something like that should best be kept a private matter.

Admittedly though, some of BS's other posters may have taken that post into more illogical extremes.

edited 25th Feb '11 3:13:54 PM by KoB

What's so bad about his appeal for manners? I am confuzzled. If the site itself was getting a bad reputation for it, it's perfectly understandable. I mean, it's pretty well known that Spoony has some bat shit fans, right?

edited 25th Feb '11 3:12:13 PM by MrAHR

So wait, these guys can spit poison and write the most hateful things ever when they're online, but they don't have the balls to actually speak out their opinions when they're face-to-face with the people they write about, and instead act... polite?

That's... kinda hypocritical. If you're willing to throw shit at someone online, you should be willing to throw shit at them when they're in reach of punching you.

Kerrah: Not really. Usually when people criticize, they are doing it at the audience, not the creator. It's not the internet thing, it's the fact that it's the only time they would be able to encounter said people.

Also, a convention has a very different atmosphere. It's a lot ruder to go up to someone and start criticizing them at a con than in a more casual environment. It'd be like criticizing someone at their birthday party. You just don't do it.

edited 25th Feb '11 3:16:58 PM by MrAHR

That's never stopped Armond White, and he is a professional troll.

You can sing the song, but you also have to be willing to dance the tune, what BS street does goes beyond merely critizing other people's work, they openly insult them on a personal level, but when it comes to be face to face they don't have the balls to go ahead? Consistency, what's that?

:|

Different social situations call for different ways of acting. Plenty of people gossip and talk about people in real life, but say nothing of this to the actual people.

edited 25th Feb '11 3:22:55 PM by MrAHR

If Ebert called Kill Bill shit in a review, he could still talk face-to-face with Tarantino and discuss things.

If Ebert called Tarantino a baby-killing asshole in a column, he'd have no right to act polite (and thus not hold onto his stated opinion) if they met in person. Except maybe if he, I dunno, apologised.

You can't act like: "You have your opinion about yourself, and I think you're a horrible human being, but just because we think differently on this matter doesn't mean we can't act like civilised human beings!"

edited 25th Feb '11 3:27:00 PM by Kerrah

Again, that's never stopped Armond White.

Who the heck is Armond White and why should I care about him?

@Kerrah: Fair enough, although I suppose it depends on the context of those insults (joke or nonjoke)

God this thread moves fast.

A well-paid troll. Ignore him.

edited 25th Feb '11 3:26:40 PM by Myrmidon

Will do.

Ah well, I better don't start ranting about Irate Joe and DW or I'd be here till march.

The problem with Spoony is a bit complex though I think. He has a certain vibe of Reclusive Artist in that he doesn't really seem to know how to handle fans and that he would like to have as little with them to do as possible. And I can't shake the somewhat justified impression that he'd give a an arm and a leg for a career in "legitimate" media and doing reviews is merely a jumping off point for him; that's why he seems so obsessed with eFame and a presence untarnished by criticism. Plus he doesn't handle trolls that well. Troll Lordkat and you get mild amusement, troll Spoony and there is a decent chance he'll throw a hissy fit and a big chance you'll catch the banhammer.

Does this matter in the end? I don't really know. I like some of his stuff, I can't stand his personality. Which is fine for me because I don't want to be his friend, I simply want to be entertained. But New Media always seem to have this connotation that you have to be on cuddly terms with your fanbase or you are betraying them somehow which seems to me the main reason why Spoony is such a polarizing character.