So the recent controversy about Channel Awesome mismanagement

[Natemans]

Strange that I don't see Angry Joe and Spoony contributing to this document?

Joe's kinda busy right now since he went to a con.

Spoony, on the other hand, has just disappeared into doing let's plays on his channel or hide from his own insanity

 

[EscapistAccount]

for quite a while I had a hard time wrapping my head around the site as a "company" that actually "made money" mostly due to it's god awful design and the general lack of production values... my little half theory (especially after grabbing a sad popcorn and reading the WHOLE document) is that Doug and co were a little behind on the internet side of things...they had cultivated their little bubble while the "media review"/youtube in general world was gettering slicker, more professional....that home made aesthetic was never really updated

Their size surprised me too when I first realised it, as you say they were genuinely hot shit around 2009 but time stood still for them and Youtube has completely morphed from what it was at that time into a real CA-killer. Kind of like the Escapist itself TGWTG and later CA is part of a dying breed, the independent media subculture site. A once proud creature driven to extinction by destruction of habitat and scarcity of its natural food source.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Yeah, heard about this. Even listened Fredrik Knudsen's 4 hour livestream where he read through the document. The document seems to paint the picture of Michaud as a control freak who's deathly afraid to lose a single drop of power, or "selling out" by hiring professionals to run the company. So he has to resort to shaming and intimidation tactics to keep a grip on the thing. Doug Walker seems like an obliviously happy idiot in the middle of all this, who's so happy to have had his ego stroked for years on end that he genuinely thought a nearly 4-hour, no-budget amateur film (meaning To Boldly Flee) that's completely incomprehensible to anyone who's not familiar with all the creators once on the site, would be something people would want to see. To hear the production of every anniversary movie was an ineptly handled clusterfuck as well only drives that point further home. Not to even speak of Demo Reel, Pop Quiz Hotshot or all the other shit I never watched, but which seem only tragic in retrospect.

I don't think they're going to bounce back from this. Michaud doesn't seem like the type to handle any sort of criticism well. Doug Walker is either going to plug his ears and keep on as usual, or leave and start a show called Shmoshtalgia Shmitic. I now seems tragic that when Chris Stuckmann got featured as part of the site, it was seen as a major expansion of outreach for him.

 

[Cold Shiny]

I read the whole document, I don't see any of the normal signs of any of this being made up. Channel Awesome appears to have hid its bad side for a long time.

I was a huge CA fan back in the day, and I still watch NC videos when he releases them. But after all of this, I'm not sure its ethical to support them in any way.

The best thing to do now is support the individual producers on the YouTube channels and other websites.

I also looked up many ex-CA producers and most of them are still doing stuff, so that's cool.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

I've listened to about 3 different readings of the doc; man, it even HALF of what they're being accused of is true, especially the sexual grooming and stalking...

 

[Natemans]

My friends and I did a video retrospective on Channel Awesome and the bullshit that's been going on.





Side note: I looked at their subscription numbers dropping a lot over the past week after that non apology was posted. Seriously they lost 7,000 on Friday the 6th. They're totally screwed.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Maybe I'm from the future or have dreams of the future, but didn't we all know this years ago? Like Doug and Rob were infamous for being terrible, selfish and egotistical managers and the other guy was well known for talking down to women and being unreasonable.
Spooney, the mismanagement, the stealing and lying and sexual stuff. This has been an open 'secret' of the site for a very very very long time.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I think at this point the only Channel Awesome contributors either past or present I still remotely bother watching are Linkara and Lindsey Ellis (the Nostalgia Chick) and even then it's trouth their own individual YouTube channels and not through CA itself.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I think at this point the only Channel Awesome contributors either past or present I still remotely bother watching are Linkara and Lindsey Ellis (the Nostalgia Chick) and even then it's trouth their own individual YouTube channels and not through CA itself.

I recommend checking Todd in the Shadows' stuff out too. His content is as good as ever, including a new series he started called "Trainwreckords" where he examines how various musical acts ruined their careers beyond all repair. Though I wish he uploaded more, he's one of my favorite content creators these days.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I think at this point the only Channel Awesome contributors either past or present I still remotely bother watching are Linkara and Lindsey Ellis (the Nostalgia Chick) and even then it's trouth their own individual YouTube channels and not through CA itself.

I'll admit I still watch the NS, mostly his Stephen King treatments. I'm not a fan of the live-action remakes of the scenes, nor do I like his two sidekicks. They're all terrible actors, the skits are cringetastic with stolen jokes from Marx Bros, Family Guy and stand-up, and the whole thing has a very circle-jerk feel to it.
However Doug's criticism of King's work is still pretty funny and valid.

 

[TrulyBritish]

Maybe I'm from the future or have dreams of the future, but didn't we all know this years ago? Like Doug and Rob were infamous for being terrible, selfish and egotistical managers and the other guy was well known for talking down to women and being unreasonable.
Spooney, the mismanagement, the stealing and lying and sexual stuff. This has been an open 'secret' of the site for a very very very long time.

I think a lot of this properly came up when Pheleaus(?) and Allison left, these problems being big reasons they left, I think it's gained more traction because more people are now backing up these claims in public.

 

[sXeth]

They've been quietly hemorrhaging producers for ages now, it just seems to have come to head for whatever reason. Seemed to start around the fourth anniversary movie. There was Spoony's exit, which was more on him then CA, but then just people slowly dripping off the site silently into the night, to the point most of the people in their anniversary movie things weren't even there anymore before the recent document (indeed now its down to Angry Joe and Brad Jones, besides the Walkers themselves).

Most of it seems to trace back to Mike Michaud, though the Walker brothers are the best, horrifically incompetent as businessmen. Which is exemplified in that they can't even get rid of Michaud to cut their damages because they handed off their own IP rights because they were too lazy to run their own business.

Which is kind of the basic rundown on CA being different from other Youtube channels. Its not a collaborative effort or one guy running his own little show, its a full on production company sitting behind that. Which seems to mostly be sponging off the effort, since they certainly don't have professional production or aesthetics to show for it.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Maybe I'm from the future or have dreams of the future, but didn't we all know this years ago? Like Doug and Rob were infamous for being terrible, selfish and egotistical managers and the other guy was well known for talking down to women and being unreasonable.
Spooney, the mismanagement, the stealing and lying and sexual stuff. This has been an open 'secret' of the site for a very very very long time.

I think a lot of this properly came up when Pheleaus(?) and Allison left, these problems being big reasons they left, I think it's gained more traction because more people are now backing up these claims in public.

The cynic in me says the only reason contributors are coming out now is because CA has been slowing down for years, and they're no longer the only game in town. Many, many contributors were more than happy to work for CA, so long as the bullshit happened to other people, and didn't change their e-fame.
It just feels...shady for all of this to come out(again i'll add) only after the producers left the site, like how Republicans Congressmen come out against Donald Trump only after they announced their retirement. It just doesn't feel as heroic or brave or noble to make these probably true accusations, after you cashed in on the e-fame and after all the repercussions are gone.

I still think Doug, Rob and Matt(I think that's the name of the other dude) are garbage people who treat others horribly, but I have less sympathy for those who stayed for so long, keeping silent.
Like Angry Joe, the fuck is he still doing at CA?!

 

[Mangod]

It's strange... Nostalgia Critic was my jam back in the day; I watched every episode he put out, and through his crossovers branched out to Spoony, Linkara, Angry Joe, etc...

And then, for some reason, I just... stopped. The only CA contributor I watch these days is Nash, because his and Tara's reactions to the news on What the Fuck is Wrong With You? still feel funny and fresh after all this time.

 

[Callate]

"We have no desire to defame or destroy, our only intention is to clear the air and make the public aware of-" [73 PAGE DOCUMENT DUMP]

All right. I'll cotton to it. I have outrage fatigue. I'm tired of people trying to use me as the instrument of their righteous indignation. I hereby declare a non-revocable right not to give a flying %#@&. I don't see this making anything better, I don't think anything creative will come out of this, and I'm dead tired of this impulse to inflict punishment merely to salve the egos of people I've never met.

 

[Cold Shiny]

"We have no desire to defame or destroy, our only intention is to clear the air and make the public aware of-" [73 PAGE DOCUMENT DUMP]

All right. I'll cotton to it. I have outrage fatigue. I'm tired of people trying to use me as the instrument of their righteous indignation. I hereby declare a non-revocable right not to give a flying %#@&. I don't see this making anything better, I don't think anything creative will come out of this, and I'm dead tired of this impulse to inflict punishment merely to salve the egos of people I've never met.

People were treated as employees and had to follow the rules like employees, but weren't paid like employees. The company benefited from them for free. There is nothing there about ego.

 

[Vault101]

I was thiking about Michauds apparent disdain for "e-begging" and then just realized a blog post Lindsay elis wrote years ago about how you can't ridiule people for trying to make money while at the same time expecting content from them....hmmm *puts on tin foil hat*

really though calling it "e-begging" is both such a dickish attitude AND shows how out of touch this guy is....payment for ongoing service is pretty much the ONLY funding model that's working for anyone right now, and fuck why shouldn't people get compensation for the work they do?

anyway

Their size surprised me too when I first realised it, as you say they were genuinely hot shit around 2009 but time stood still for them and Youtube has completely morphed from what it was at that time into a real CA-killer. Kind of like the Escapist itself TGWTG and later CA is part of a dying breed, the independent media subculture site. A once proud creature driven to extinction by destruction of habitat and scarcity of its natural food source.

yeah, the purpose of blip was intended to by embedded on other sites, that's why if you were on an aggregate site that's where you'd be getting your veiws...now that everything is centreralised on the big platforms and patreon rather than ad revanue is the income stream...*shrug*

that said though in the very breif window between linday leaving CA and the blipocalypse lindsay expanded her "brand" into a site called Chezapocalpyse where she also did "boose your own adventure" with Nella and nella wrote a "let's read" of an awful self published YA novel...all my favorite contributors were there too, it was great and it was actually a place I'd want to visit....chez went down and the intention was to bring it back but Idon't know if that will happen

point being I think there is a place for that if you have people dedicated to "the brand" and the desire to feel part of a community(which chez very much felt) THAT is what sites like this have over others

 

[Callate]

People were treated as employees and had to follow the rules like employees, but weren't paid like employees. The company benefited from them for free. There is nothing there about ego.

That is an excellent case for a lawsuit, and absolutely no case for a public campaign, which is only likely to complicate any actual attempts at receiving remuneration.

Which makes it extremely likely that either that isn't actually the intent, or those involved are so overwrought that they aren't thinking clearly and/or don't care.

 

[sXeth]

People were treated as employees and had to follow the rules like employees, but weren't paid like employees. The company benefited from them for free. There is nothing there about ego.

That is an excellent case for a lawsuit, and absolutely no case for a public campaign, which is only likely to complicate any actual attempts at receiving remuneration.

Which makes it extremely likely that either that isn't actually the intent, or those involved are so overwrought that they aren't thinking clearly and/or don't care.

I'd put it more in the territory of "in vain attempt to warn others of taking the same questionable deal".

I say in vain, because this isn't really new territory in media. You find the hundreds or even thousands of tales of how garbage record deals actually are for the artists, and still there's dozens of new artists who seem to think they're the sudden exception, or they just lack any of the business sense to see the issue, or they're just impatient and want the quick boost.

So yeah, nothing new on the territory of media companies vs individual creators particularly. A handful of notable complaints in the specifics with the sexual grooming and so on. For the rest, we're starting to see the first generation of "veteran" youtubers who realize they cut bad deals for most of the business side.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I used to watch the Nostalgia Critic back in the day (2008 or so) when the site was called thatguywiththeglasses.com. And not just him, I used to watch the Nostalgia Chick, Linkara, the Spoony One and many others. And granted, I haven't gone to Channel Awesome as much as I used to, considering all the reviewers I like were on YouTube...

But hearing about this makes me feel... conflicted. I feel angry and frustrated and depressed and betrayed and... it's just so hard to watch any of his videos anyone without thinking of this...