I'm not sure what happened, but it doesn't seem like this is the whole story. He deleted his tweets, but Twitter replies seem like this writer may have started the aggression. This is the best I could find in regards to context:
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.)
Well it's one thing to have a twitter argument but it sounds like they sent threats towards his family and he is quitting for their safety as he knows how crazy some nuts are on the web. Chances are they were hollow threats but sounds like it just wasn't worth it to him. He really should follow up with the police and see if he can get whoever did this and see they get some prison time for terroristic threats as they likely will just do it again with someone else now that they probably feel empowered.
People don't tend to walk away from something they spent that much time on without a very good reason. As the - former - owner/operator of a large community I find it totally believable.
The author of the site went on a pretty fierce meltdown on Twitter, throwing shit at several people but mostly Gerald Undone who is a very loved, likeable, competent and successful gear reviewer on youtube. Now he has just deleted all these tweets. https://twitter.com/canonrumorsguy/with_replies
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.
Definitely not justified, but makes me as a consumer rather sad.
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.
But did you read the canon rumors post? Without an ad blocker on mobile it is a relentless wall of ads with occasional sentences stuck between them... And of course a plea to allow notifications.
I much prefer YouTube reviews to written ones these days. It’s so much easier to watch them on the treadmill compared to reading. I also like to wind down with some videos before bed, whereas reading makes me focus too much and I can’t sleep.
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.
Not only is it shocking that so many people want video content but once quality article websites are gone the quality of videos that use the written content online as the basis for the video scripts!
I generally prefer written articles as well, but this is for camera reviews. The video format, when executed well, is actually a great fit for this. I learn more from watching a YouTuber handle a camera and operate it than I would from someone describing it in text. Video conveys an extra dimension that is lost in text for camera reviews.
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.
That wasn't what his original twitter rant was about though. His original rant was about YTers being overpaid and overrated, then this "someone threatened my family" claim was after that all blew up.
It isn't at all clear what started all this, but the claim of threats/actual threats was the end of it.
Having watched a lot of Gerald Undone's videos, I have a very very hard time imagining how he could incite anyone to threaten someones family. But I don't know the backstory, just saw the meltdown.
There are lots of people, especially YouTube commentators who will rush to attack anyone who is seemed to have hated on their favourite creator. It doesn’t matter who started what, it ended with apparent threats which is not ok
CanonRumors is a good site about... You guessed it, rumors about upcoming Canon gear. It's actually a great site, the original afaict, read by a lot of working pros and amateurs alike. The posts by CanonRumors Guy are balanced and vetted (as well as he can for rumors, anyway), and the discussion boards are great if you're a canon nerd.
It's really hard to see the guy have one really shitty day on Twitter and as a result have his site basically go up in flames. I don't know GeralUndone from a hole in the wall, but there are more than enough YouTube reviewers, while CR played a very important part in the Canon news ecosystem. As others have said here, plenty of YouTubers source their info from sites like CR.
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.
Well it's better than my initial reaction (is author dying?), but not by much. I'm not sure what the right solution is for cyberbullying, but at some point we'll probably have to figure it out.
Is anyone able to get a little more specific about the kinds of "creators" he's talking about and what they do exactly which drive these abuse problems?
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.
I don't understand putting your whole life online, failing to appreciate trolls will try to get personal because 4chan was down, and then taking your toys and going home because you engaged them. Don't engage them, don't listen to them, and don't change what you're doing because of haters. It's not like they're blasting doom black metal at your house and burning a cross on your lawn. They're unshaven, overweight misanthropes who like tearing the wings off small animals, arguing with people online, and stalking digital personas. It's not victim-shaming to say it's a shame to make yourself a and play the victim is weak self-victimhood.
Incredible how the assholes will even destroy something so obviously good and by going after the guys' wife and kids no less. It is absolutely disgusting.
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.
When I ran a torrent site I had a nuisance hacker working for a competitor who would regularly try to take down my site and leak all the content everywhere. I would talk to him on IRC to try and get info from him to figure out who he was. Claimed he was a 24-year-old Russian living in London. Made lots of claims about the cars he drove and the women he used.
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've already made up my mind to walk when dang does.
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 :).
> Incredible how the assholes will even destroy something so obviously good and by going after the guys' wife and kids no less. It is absolutely disgusting.
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.
When I was in college, my girlfriend lost her driver's license. Somebody mailed it back to her, but with a pornographic image pasted onto her face picture.
That's a rather dismissive attitude. Internet personalities and their fans have gone to war before, and you could dismiss those just as easily as just about "gaming" or "PC hardware" or similar.
Like why not "just politics" and "just land." See everything can be thrown out with the bathwater that way.
It's good to see how crazy people on twitter can get and why one's identity is something worth keeping anonymous. I'm guessing he got death threats towards his family and one should know about the reality of such things when dealing with crazy people on the internet.
