Honestly I think he was just frustrated with the fame, success and money that the gear-review-youtubers are getting, while he was working hard to provide news on a website that struggled to survive. That would be my guess at least.
I'm not sure if generational, though it does seem that way - but I'm personally astounded by the number of people who prefer video reviews to a well written article. Aside from the obvious things like having to listen and watch, not being able to easily scan - there's just so.many.ads, not YT ads, but uh, 'sponsors.' The whole industry feels incredibly gross and insincere to me.
Again, to be clear - that doesn't justify any of the above, just kinda makes me think I'd feel the same way in his shoes.
And of course there are ads. There are also ads on written reviews too, but I’m sure you block those just like everybody else. Please don’t complain about YouTube creators trying to monetize their content. If that’s what they need to do to stay afloat, then I’m happy to hear about whatever random VPN company is running a sale.
The YouTuber he’s attacking (for unknown reasons) also does microphone reviews and other things related to video production. Video really is a good format for these.
It isn't at all clear what started all this, but the claim of threats/actual threats was the end of it.
HN has its share of jerks, I've had someone threaten to come by my house and beat me up (I'm pretty easy to locate) but I figured it's all bluff and easier said than done, and in the camarades.com/ww.com days I got far worse thrown at me so I've learned to live with it. But it shouldn't come to that.
The internet used to be a nice place. There were flamewars and the occasional crappy argument but nobody threatened people with bodily harm. Then the village became a town, and then the town became a big city. And then all the bad stuff that happens in big cities came right along with it, including the jerks, the swatters and the drive by shooters.
There is a Dire Straits song in there somewhere.
Sites like canonrumors.com should be neutral territory, like churches used to be, places where people can read and exchange information without harassing the owners and the moderators. If you have showdead on you can see what a 'nice' place HN is every now and then. As it gets more mainstream here too the interaction will get more coarse.
I've already made up my mind to walk when dang does.
Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
He made a home in the wilderness
He built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
And the other travellers came walking down the track
And they never went further, no they never went back
Then came the churches, then came the schools
Then came the lawyers, then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their loads
And the dirty old track was the Telegraph Road
Then came the mines, then came the ore,
Then there was the hard times, then there was a war
Telegraph sang a song about the world outside
Telegraph Road got so deep and so wide
Like a rolling river
Never thought I'd get to quote a Dire Straits song on Hacker News :)
One day I'm in my home office and he says "watch this" on IRC and my wife's phone started to ring in the living room. She picked it up and someone started screaming down the phone at her. She was bemused and wondered what it was. I never told her.
I immediately put a €15,000 bounty on the guy's info. Three weeks later some guys on my site found him. He was German, 15 years old, working at a video store. They tapped me in and phoned first his boss and then his mother to tell them what a naughty boy he was. He never bothered me again after that.
I used to hate dang with a passion because of a previous account that got banned for ... reasons.
But, with time, I've come to appreciate the job that he's been doing in order to keep the community sane. Thanks dang and I hope HN stays the way it is for a longer while :).
Wonder if it'd be helpful to publish and name names:
> However, yesterday they came at my children and my wife. They came at my family….. little fanboys of certain YouTubers that have obviously been raised horribly. What was in my inbox I won’t even show my wife. I’m tearing up writing this with absolute disgust for how horrible people are becoming. All of this is created by the personalities (I refuse to call them creators), they feed off of it, they profit off of it and they don’t care.
I just don't get it.
That stuff also happens in towns and villages. They just don’t have enough people to make it as much of a news story.
WTF?
Like why not "just politics" and "just land." See everything can be thrown out with the bathwater that way.
Humans indeed like to form groups over any possible variable. Too bad it sometimes brings out the worst.
Edit: spelling mistake
https://twitter.com/ByStephenJones/status/148963260212212121...
https://twitter.com/HarrisHeller/status/1489513376371785728
I've never heard of either person involved, and am not sure what's happening. (It's hard to put together a timeline, and I'm not sure what was said via email, but whatever it was didn't seem to come from the YouTuber in question at all nor was it prompted by him. The YouTuber in question seems like a pretty good guy, if not maybe a bit less technical, from the very little I know.)
edit: not the second time.
I'm guessing the wall of ads in his last post is because CR Guy is bitter about how YTers are paid relative to his site, but he doesn't realize how many appreciate his work.
I read the article, but felt like there wasn't quite enough information to understand what a YouTube person does to cause trouble, although I totally believe it. I know a bit about cameras, but nothing about this adjacent "rumours" subindustry.
