Opinions about "The Geek Group" on YouTube

[senso]

I'll gladly pay you twenty bucks to come teach me on camera.

Throw in the price of a flight and I would do it..

[ChrisBoden]

I rest my case.

Everyone wants to bitch from the sidelines, nobody wants to actually do something to make a change.

Thank you for proving my point.

Cheers everyone.

[Phaedrus]

Offer $20 to do job worth much more that should be paid by % of ad revenue of that video...

When everyone refuses, claim victory.

This following several pages of arrogance.



I can tell I'm going to like your channel...

[Rasz]

The only "do something to make a change" that I see in your videos is "donate plox"

[c4757p]

Disclaimer - I haven't read all 11 pages. I'm kinda feeling the TL;DR today...

but... I don't really get what "do something to make a change" is even supposed to mean. It's not our channel.

[EEVblog]

Because hidden by the anonymity of the digital domain there are a nontrivial number of rancorous assholes who feel it is better to fling poo than it is to stand up and do something. The majority of our worst comments all have the same thing in common, they come from people who have never posted an original video.

Indeed.
But you don't have to approve comments in order to get rid of these people, you simply ban them. It's much less work than moderating comments. A small percentage of them will open another account and try again, but once you ban that one too, they get the hint. I still don't see any need to moderate youtube comments. You should be spending the time making content.

[EEVblog]

another $20,000 in Video Production equipment upgrades

That's at least 5 times more than I've spent on all my video production gear in the entire history of my blog, but I'm a tight arse 
What do you use now?, and what cool new toys are you getting?

[EEVblog]

Offer $20 to do job worth much more that should be paid by % of ad revenue of that video...

Given that the latest videos seem to get about 2000 views on average, I'd take the $20 bucks!
Seriously, video views on average don't pay much. I can assure you that The Geek Group are making very little of their money from the video ads themselves.

[Phaedrus]

Ah. Wasn't aware. Well, $20 is still pretty much a dickish offer, and one designed to be refused.


I had no idea who this joker was until I saw this thread, but based on his behavior in his thread, my first impression is that he is a Class A Douche.

Nice marketing!

[Bored@Work]

I rest my case.

Dude, you never had a case.

[Legit-Design]

You may not like it, but I think you're overstepping yourself by deciding that it has no value for "most people". Is the presentation perfect? Probably not, but I think your bias against Chris and how he chooses to present is clouding your judgement of the video's value (and having worked with him for 2.5 years now, and knowing/experiencing what he has to do to be educational, accurate, and engaging, I invite you to teach him how it's done "properly". It'll amuse me.).

We're not perfect, and we often struggle to make things accessible and interesting while still keeping with how we do things. We don't cut down content or dumb down the lingo for those with short attention spans. That's not the point, for us. We do the we can best to show the ENTIRE process in most things, even the soul-crushingly boring parts. Because science doesn't always happen in 30 minutes with an awesome soundtrack, in spite of what channels like Discovery presents. And the fact that Chris can even be in a good mood by the end of our average length (easily 60+ minutes) shoots, let alone still engage the audience, is no small feat.

EDIT--If anyone has an interest in our production process, I'd be happy to answer.

Again, just my opinion. Maybe it came out wrong and I judged the wrong video, but the geek group videos still have serious problems about being slow paced and BOOORING. I don't have too much against Chris, but usually when watching a video from him it seems like a complete waste of time to me. Don't watch videos you say? I thought geek group made these video so people would watch them.

Some videos have same problem that mjlorton had on his videos, he actually got alot of critique about not providing much of any content compared to length of videos. Mjlorton actually admitted some of his videos provide terrible content to length ratio. Some of his videos could still be cut 3/4 out(as some other people suggested). Mjlorton added disclaimer before his every video because he was getting so much complaints, maybe we could have same kind of disclaimer with videos which mostly have Chris and not much education.

However (Awesome vid in my opinion btw  ) videos like this, Chris actually has idea what he is talking about (this amazed me after some other of his presentations), he is providing good information, actually makes me want to make my own teslacoil. I'm not claiming every video could be like this. But in some videos we have Chris sitting there sitting silent (or making weird noises) trying to tinker, then he tries to say something and actually has no idea about anything, after that we get commercial asking for donations. In that commercial The geek group claims to be educational entity, and all that stuff, I'm sure they are. Why say you are educational entity, when the content and video are not actually conveying it. In youtube seconds feel like forever when there is nothing actually happening. Why not cut the silent no action parts out, or fast forward much much more? Maybe the editor wants to make Chris look like idiot and leaves the parts in where he looks like one. I suppose you have someone who edits this stuff?


Just watch videos from Dave, he is always fun to watch, he knows what he is talking about. I know for a fact Dave wouldn't dare wasting anyones time just sitting there and thinking what he should say next, and leaving that in when he uploads it. Nor would he be doing some trivial task and expecting people get "education" out of it. Dave will actually go back and shoot particular part again if he missed something, or it wasn't good.

Maybe you can have separate channel where Chris can make weird noises and hammer shit out looking like some idiot. I'm not claiming Chris is idiot.

[EEVblog]

Just watch videos from Dave, he is always fun to watch, he knows what he is talking about. I know for a fact Dave wouldn't dare wasting anyones time just sitting there and thinking what he should say next, and leaving that in when he uploads it.

Yet still I will get endless complaints about my videos being too long 
But yes, I think I've gotten better at this over the years. I now shoot shorter takes and more of them, so there should in theory be less rambling, and more info per minute. That makes it much easier to realise at the shooting stage that I took too long to explain that point, or left something out etc.
My videos will typically contain 50-100 separate clips, and some of the bigger videos like an hour long review might have almost 200 clips.
Being the on-screen "talent", the video operator, and the editor, I'm always thinking about the production of the video while I'm shooting it.
This works well for a lone one-man-band like me, but I'm not sure how applicable it would be to larger outfits like the geek group that presumably have a different camera person and video editor, and the pressure of people watching etc.
I for one would certainly not like to shoot my videos with other people watching.

Nor would he be doing some trivial task and expecting people get "education" out of it. Dave will actually go back and shoot particular part again if he missed something, or it wasn't good.

Most of my retakes are because I goofed the shot and nothing sensible came out of my mouth. The disadvantage of not really knowing what I'm going to say until I hit the record button.
There is unfortunately a lot of stuff I don't think is that great, but it's "good enough", so I simply leave it and carry on rather than trying to perfect an explanation. I rarely play back clips during shooting, so I have to remember what I said and make call after the shot that it was either "good enough" and move on, or deserves a retake. Mostly it's a gut instinct thing.

[ChrisBoden]

"That's at least 5 times more than I've spent on all my video production gear in the entire history of my blog, but I'm a tight arse 
What do you use now?, and what cool new toys are you getting?"

We currently shoot on old JVC-HD-100Us and a well beaten Sony NX5 with a slight case of epilepsy. Our lighting is simple home-depot flouresants on makeshift stands. Our entire live production setup (the two TV channels) is entirely donated gear, mostly 90's vintage and held together with clever hacks and a lot of duct tape.

If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid.

As far as the length to content ratio, there's a couple things to consider.

1. First off, when you look at our video catalog you're looking back across years of us learning HOW to make videos. The past 6 months is radically different from the first 6 months. We don't delete the old ones with no titles just because we learned how to make titles. Each video is a snapshot of our level of production, funding, and ability at that time. Some of them truly suck compared to what we can do today. But there they are, out there for the world to see, forever. Such is the nature of the internet. Yes, we could delete them...but to what end?

2. We don't make them to get hits.

Let me reiterate that.

We do not, have not, and never shall produce content driven by viewer count.

If I wanted a million hits, that's easy, with the toys at our disposal I could spend all day blowing shit up with high voltage and get million-hit videos every week. That's easy, hits are easy.

We do not work to a clock. I have never set out to make a half hour, or hour long, or 4 hour (yeah, we did that) video. Hell I don't want to spend the time EDITING a 4 hour video, much less rendering it. If you think it sucks to watch, remember that by the time you see it, I've seen it half a dozen times (in some cases, well over 50 on some of our videos). It's nothing for one of our production videos to take a month and a half to go through post production, that's normal now. Back in the early days it was shot at noon and public by dinnertime, we've come a long way.

We make the long videos that we do, because some things simple require them. Yes, I could do the whiz-bang OHHH SHINY LOOK AT THIS jump-cut crap that appears on TLC and Discovery and wrap everything in 3 minutes.

But you can't actually TEACH people certain things in 3 minutes. Some things take time to break down. We take the time. Because yes, 99% of the world doesn't give a shit, that's totally fine. They can turn on TLC and watch Honey Boo Boo. The 1% that DOES want to know everything about whatever the hell I'm exploring, taking apart, demonstrating...become rabid fans.

Because we took the time.

Yes, we make some purely entertainment videos, with pretty much zero educational content. There are days when we do actually blow things up just because we can. And that's fine. I don't profess to be a professor every waking moment I'm on camera and, well, High Voltage is fun.

I don't expect most people to like our videos. I don't ask them to.

I don't expect anyone to like ALL of our videos, hell, I don't even like all of our videos. And the people that DO, well they kind of creep me the hell out.

What what you like, choose us, choose Dave, choose both, it's a great system.

But hits, don't matter. Actually reaching people actually communicating a meaningful idea, inspiring people to build their own things, to explore science and engineering, that's what matters.

And as far as the money from the ad revenue? LMFAO. Every single cent of YouTube money that comes in the door gets divided among the video staff. Neither I, nor the Group at a corporate level see a penny of that. Last month it was just a tad over two hundred bucks.

Livin the dream on that kind of cash, I tell ya.

And if you want to think I'm a douche, knock yourself out. Opinions vary on my level of discktitude among all audiences. Dave understands I have no doubt. Truth is I'm just a typical guy. I'm not a god, I'm not a politician out to kiss everyone's ass. I don't need you all to love me, and I certainly don't abide being worshipped by anyone. I'm not here to make friends with the EEVblog world. I'm here to tell the truth to a herd of people who had an axe to grind. Most of you seem like decent guys, a couple of your are low-rent trolls who are no different that my low-rent trolls.

Dave and I have two very different paths to the same end goal. We want to make our own little dent in the world and maybe inspire a few people.

And in the end, that's all that matters.

I wish you all well, except the trolls....you guys are xxxxx.

Keep yer head up Dave.

Have fun.

CB

[ChrisBoden]

Btw, here's what we did yesterday. This is the new power supply gear for the High Voltage Lab.



You're all welcome to come and play.

[ChrisBoden]

[ChrisBoden]

These just went public 5 minutes ago...

[Halfdead]

Really like this video, wish there were part numbers and a proper schematic to go with it though.

[milktoast]

I've been advised to make a new thread, since this one is pretty effectively dead.

[Smokey]

just because it hasn't seen a post in a while doesn't mean it's dead.  It's back up at the top of the page now isn't it?

[Rasz]

mmm Boden, classy as always



not contributing = not making enough direct $$ donations

he still treats TGG as his personal cult

[Tallie]

Did Mr. Boden ever verify or refute the claim(s) about him brandishing his pistol?

[DrDeke]

Did Mr. Boden ever verify or refute the claim(s) about him brandishing his pistol?

I don't know, but apparently the IRS and Department of Homeland Security have raided the Geek Group* today and executed a federal search warrant in connection with a criminal investigation. It kind of makes you wonder just what's going on over there.

* Apparently they now call themselves The National Science Institute; I don't know when they changed that.

[coppercone2]

its in flint Michigan they probably think its a crack factory

they are also obsessed with dinosaurs. is this a Michigan thing?

[luma]

its in flint Michigan they probably think its a crack factory

they are also obsessed with dinosaurs. is this a Michigan thing?

They’re nowhere near Flint - Michigan is a pretty big place. 

In other news, they just announced that they are now closing down for good.

[coppercone2]

rofl homeland security too.


is it like the movie 'the substitute'?