Opinions about "The Geek Group" on YouTube

[expertmax1]

Hi everybody !

I don't know if I'm in the right place for this but I have a rant about the YouTube channel "The Geek Group" and it's founder Chris Boden.

I don't personally know anybody from this organisation, this is a personal opinion solely based on videos that I've watched over the years on their YouTube channel. Their content is great, they have a massive collection of video from High Voltage stuff to CNC. They make some donations to charity and they invest in educational spheres for everything that is electronic-related.

But gosh, I don't know, I feel something is going on there. They are super restrictive when it comes to open-world feedback : they have the infamous "Comments may be held for uploader approval." comment system on YouTube, their Forum is very basic and anything a little off-topic or negative is instantly deleted.

Have you seen the attitude of Chris Boden ? Very bossy, very harsh, very spiteful. I feel that his co-workers do not say a word because they are afraid that Chris will kick them out. I almost feel it's like a sect, cult.

Like I said, I could be TOTALLY wrong but this is my opinion based on what I've seen.

If you have any comment to add please reply !


Thanks, have a nice day!

[c4757p]

they have the infamous "Comments may be held for uploader approval." comment system on YouTube

anything a little off-topic or negative is instantly deleted.

That's all I need to know.

[Psi]

A substantial amount of their income is from support by other sponsors, organisations and donations.

I think they feel they have a public image to uphold or they might lose money.
Bad publicity, negative comments and offtopic subjects are, in their opinion, too risky.

Which i kinda understand but yeah, this is why i'm here and not there

I do enjoy their videos though, i really have no problem with them at all.

[EEVblog]

A substantial amount of their income is from support by other sponsors, organisations and donations.
I think they feel they have a public image to uphold or they might lose money.

I don't care if I lose money, or subscribers 
Well, of course, I do, but you know, I do what I wanna do, and say what I say, and whatever happens happens.

[expertmax1]

A substantial amount of their income is from support by other sponsors, organisations and donations.
I think they feel they have a public image to uphold or they might lose money.

I don't care if I lose money, or subscribers 
Well, of course, I do, but you know, I do what I wanna do, and say what I say, and whatever happens happens.

I think that's what makes your YouTube channel awesome and successful.

[duskglow]

I've been following them for a while now.  I get the feeling that Chris is very, very passionate about what he does, and is hoping someday to be able to make a living off of it.  So he guards it very jealously and tries to put forth a very polished and professional image.  But he's not a PR professional, so this takes the form of building sets, jealously guarding their image, and very carefully controlling everything that is exposed to the public.

I really like what he's trying to do, but there are a few reasons I don't give them money.

[Stonent]

For the record, I'm available to shill people's products and or services. Have $$ will travel

The $5 Cen-Tech multimeters at Harbor Frieght are by far superior to any Fluke.
(This message sponsored by Harbor Freight)

[smashedProton]

On a somewhat related note, THEIR ANIMATOR IS AMAZING!!!!!!!! 

[Bored@Work]

For the record, I'm available to shill people's products and or services. Have $$ will travel

The $5 Cen-Tech multimeters at Harbor Frieght are by far superior to any Fluke.
(This message sponsored by Harbor Freight)

You know no shame, do you?

Regarding the geek group, they are executing some kind of business plan. Apparently I am not in their target group. They do entertainment, the geek stuff is just a vehicle to do so. Thats why they point out they do awesome stuff. But I prefer solid engineering over awesome, made for TVYT stuff.

[duskglow]

I disagree.  If you watch enough of their videos, you can see who the target audience actually is, as Chris is very up front about it.  12 year olds.  The entertainment is a means to an end, which is exposing kids to technology and giving them a place to build and experiment.

So instead of the geek stuff being a vehicle to do entertainment, it's the other way around.  The entertainment is a vehicle to do geek stuff.

[Bored@Work]

I disagree.  If you watch enough of their videos, you can see who the target audience actually is, as Chris is very up front about it.  12 year olds.  The entertainment is a means to an end, which is exposing kids to technology and giving them a place to build and experiment.

So instead of the geek stuff being a vehicle to do entertainment, it's the other way around.  The entertainment is a vehicle to do geek stuff.

But doing geek stuff doesn't require entertainment or publicity. You just do it for your own amusement. They are in the entertainment industry.

[smashedProton]

I disagree.  If you watch enough of their videos, you can see who the target audience actually is, as Chris is very up front about it.  12 year olds.  The entertainment is a means to an end, which is exposing kids to technology and giving them a place to build and experiment.

So instead of the geek stuff being a vehicle to do entertainment, it's the other way around.  The entertainment is a vehicle to do geek stuff.

But doing geek stuff doesn't require entertainment or publicity. You just do it for your own amusement. They are in the entertainment industry.

So?  Youtube is an entertainment industry, nobody doubts the educational value it has.  His goal is simply to educate people about technology, and give people a safe and unhindered place for kids to learn technology and be creative doing so.  Not to mention learning how to work with their hands.  I think that he does a great job of fulfilling that goal.  But maybe not at the international level that we expect.

[sleemanj]

I do what I wanna do, and say what I say

Somebody has to send Dave some Hammer Pants for a mailbag !

[Smokey]

I only know about these guys from watching their CNC series on youtube.  While it was pretty obviously an advertizement for Haas and Iscar tools since they apparently donated the equipment, it was also super interesting and they packed a lot of good info in there in-between product placements.  And it was also fun to watch.  I guess I'm just one of those crazy people that can watch someone make chips and think that's fun though.... go figure.

[duskglow]

I don't watch the CNC stuff, but I do like the equipment autopsies.  That's actually how I found Dave, I started with the Geek Group and went looking for more because I exhausted them, and whattaya know, there's a crazy aussie bloke ripping crap apart and explaining how it all works in way deeper detail than Chris ever could.  So in a real way, they're responsible for me being here.

That's either a good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

I tried reaching out to Chris a few times and he never responded, and that told me everything I needed to know.  I joined with the free membership to show my support for what he was trying to do, but I moved on.

[Rasz]

They are more of a PBS 'do it yourself' TV channel than a hackerspace. You can watch, but you cant touch.

[MadManMarkAu]

I have to interject here.

TGG is a hackerspace/makerspace. They are currently not open to the public, but members do visit and work on projects. As soon as the building is given full occupancy status by the city inspector, you will be able to go there and work on your own projects.

In fact, the whole motto of TGG is, "We'll hand you a manual, teach you how to use it, make sure you don't kill yourself or the equipment, and you can rock out doing whatever you want."

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a volunteer external staff member for TGG, but my thoughts and opinions are mine, not those of TGG of Chris Boden.

[EEVblog]

I tried reaching out to Chris a few times and he never responded, and that told me everything I needed to know.

I respond 
But then again, I'm a nerd that spends my life on forums 

[Stonent]

I worked till 1am  didn't get to sleep till 5 woke up at 6:50, and now it is 9:15am and am still awake. Looking at my post times you'd think I was on 24/7. I have to be at work again in 7 hours... I'm on when the Americans are on, when Mike in the UK is on and also when Dave is on  ...  I guess the forums are better than sleep   

[ftransform]

I absolutely love their one CNC video where some machinest says something was pussified and then 10 minutes later you get the girl engineer sponsorship hahahhaa.

also chris boden kind of comes off like a psycho, I could see him breaking into someones house and... yea... get good home security if you know that guy... piss him off and you might become a tesla coil conductor in his basement.

[ChrisBoden]

Greetings Dave, gentlemen.

One of my viewers said I should come over here and say Hi.

If anyone has any questions about The Geek Group, our videos, facilities, etc I'm happy to help.

[TerminalJack505]

Hi Chris.

I'm one of your You Tube subscribers.  I don't have any questions for you but I want to say that I agree with the OP.  I've taken offense at some of your responses to You Tube posters before.  Your responses to criticism are unnecessarily hostile.

Personally, I think you seem a little thin-skinned and need to take yourself a little less seriously.

[ChrisBoden]

Are you aware of the non-official videos where we don't have to play by the rules?
I keep a personal blog channel at www.youtube.com/user/Physicsduck where I get to be a lot more....me.
I also do a live show every morning and evening (around 10am and pm eastern time) where anyone (member or not) can interact live via the IRC channel. http://thegeekgroup.org/live/
It's very laid back, an open discussion, and I answer questions that anyone has in regards to, well, whatever.


I don't mind people having opinions about me or the Group at all (regardless of if their positive or negative, that's your opinion). I just wish to make sure that their opinions are founded in fact, that's all. Hate me all you like, just please do so for a valid reason. There are many to choose from.

[SparkyProjects]

Hi everybody !

I don't know if I'm in the right place for this but I have a rant about the YouTube channel "The Geek Group" and it's founder Chris Boden.

Hmm, would you complain to Walmart if you had a problem with Home Depot ?
The right place would TGG forum

I don't personally know anybody from this organisation, this is a personal opinion solely based on videos that I've watched over the years on their YouTube channel. Their content is great, they have a massive collection of video from High Voltage stuff to CNC. They make some donations to charity and they invest in educational spheres for everything that is electronic-related.

This is what TGG is all about ....  Education

But gosh, I don't know, I feel something is going on there. They are super restrictive when it comes to open-world feedback : they have the infamous "Comments may be held for uploader approval." comment system on YouTube, their Forum is very basic and anything a little off-topic or negative is instantly deleted.

As one of the admins on the forum, i was involved with reorganisation of the forum due to using different software, unfortunately a few posts may have got lost, some older posts have been archived, but should be on view.
The ONLY posts that get deleted are spam and advertising, so if you want to post a well constructed rant, go ahead, it can be discussed and changes can be made.

Have you seen the attitude of Chris Boden ? Very bossy, very harsh, very spiteful. I feel that his co-workers do not say a word because they are afraid that Chris will kick them out. I almost feel it's like a sect, cult.

Chris is passionate about the group, maybe this comes off as a bit bossy, because he wants what is right, he is very open, he has been corrected many times by his staff and members, chris will only kick people out for being totally stupid, or degrading the group publically.

Like I said, I could be TOTALLY wrong but this is my opinion based on what I've seen.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it would make more sense to make that opinion to the right people.

To answer a few other things:
When you have sponsors that keep the organisation going, you do not want to upset them, so a certain amount of decorum should be shown.

@ bored@work, target audience ? sure they may target the young teens, but the group is open to everyone, i'm 57, semi retired electrician of over 30 years, but i totally enjoy all they do.
12 years old is a nice age to start with this sort of education, it's about the age i started teaching my grandson about the things i do, their brains still have time to grow, but are old enough to know rght from wrong.

As i said above, i would like to hear from anyone who has constructive advice, but do it in the right place, thanks.

[ftransform]

holy crap that was fast