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The Fall of [Channel Awesome]
Harry Dresden
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Over the last few weeks a drama has been unfolding at Channel Awesome. For those who don't know what that is, it's a review website/company based around Doug Walker AKA That Guy With The Glasses AKA Nostalgia Critic. You've probably heard about their contributors over the years, who have gone on to make a name for themselves: Lindsay Ellis, Folding Ideas, Chris Struckmann, Atop The Forth Wall, Linkara etc. What the audiences didn't know was that all through that time it's been a train wreck behind the scenes. Abuse, isolation (in regards to one contributor), sexual harassment, lack of communication, poor management and so on. Now, Keep in mind how I've been explaining this has been an understatement.
Here is an overview about the details which go into depth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1180&v=FvedKSaHCBQ
and here are the complaints from the staff themselves which caused this to blow into the open.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WZFkR__B3Mk9EYQglvislMUx9HWvWhOaBP820UBa4dA/preview#heading=h.smmxroimnosh
#ChangetheChannel is their topic name for twitter.
It's sad how a company which so many people held in high regard has imploded on itself, because the people running it were unprofessional douchebags.
edit: Another thing that surprised me was that the company was a corporation swimming in money. I always assumed they were a small amateur production, though that seems to be how they were operated with their contributors.
Dan Olsen is a movie critic and former CA contributor
Here is an overview about the details which go into depth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1180&v=FvedKSaHCBQ
and here are the complaints from the staff themselves which caused this to blow into the open.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WZFkR__B3Mk9EYQglvislMUx9HWvWhOaBP820UBa4dA/preview#heading=h.smmxroimnosh
#ChangetheChannel is their topic name for twitter.
It's sad how a company which so many people held in high regard has imploded on itself, because the people running it were unprofessional douchebags.
edit: Another thing that surprised me was that the company was a corporation swimming in money. I always assumed they were a small amateur production, though that seems to be how they were operated with their contributors.
Dan Olsen is a movie critic and former CA contributor
Harry Dresden on
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It feels weird that such a hodgepodge operation managed to grab quite a few people who went on to be pretty great content creators in their own right. And the Amazing Atheist.
Last week or so, Allison got another fan wondering what exactly happened over at CA and Allison talked about Michaud and the mismanagement, more or less as usual. Except this time other former producers, for whatever reason, jumped in as well.
And then the dam burst.
Holy fucking shit.
I was kinda, sorta hoping that Doug and Rob were better than this.
I can't believe that anymore. There's no way. Holy fuck. And I was just starting to get back into Doug's works, and really enjoying Tamara's stuff.
I'm also wondering why a lot of the early videos I've seen about this were from guys with channel names like "Social Injustice Warrior".
Yes. Basically. As far as I know, she was never particularly happy about being 'The Nostalgia Critic Except Female', and had major issues with the production of the anniversary movies.
And then Dan Olson did a video about 8chan, which attracted the GG hate brigade. Michaud got really damn angry at Lindsay about the whole thing because she was the one who helped bring Dan on board. Michaud did not try to actually, like, defend anyone working for his company against the GG hate brigade.
That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Lindsay, Dan and Kyle left Channel Awesome shortly thereafter and founded Chez Apocalypse.
EDIT: It's all in the Google Doc, really. All this, and so much more.
Huh, I guess that explains why people who normally don't care about sexual harassment or other issues are jumping on this as well. They already had a beef with Channel Awesome.
So, her section of the complaint lists some pretty awful stuff that CA did, but she lists basically this sequence of events as why she left
The problem is that 1) a lot of these people weren't professionals and 2) we live in a culture that vilifies lawyers, especially online.
Most of these guys just started out doing random crap on the Internet, it's not like they were planning to make a career out of it. Same reason for why Penny Arcade almost lost their book rights, stick a contract under the nose of someone who's just been doing something creative for fun and odds are he wont read it
I was thinking of the parallels on that. Like, PA got very lucky with who they found. Imagine if they went down this path...
It's pretty insane how many hurdles PA has cleared to get where it is. It's not like, say, PvP, where there was just one guy doing it and he set out specifically to turn the series into a financial success and move into print at first chance.
I'm so glad Lindsay found her own voice.
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Yup. Her and Extra History are basically the only Youtubers i follow with any consistency (though not actually follow because I need more push notifications like i need a hole in the head).
Considering that she was basically hired to be a Smurfette, I can see why she'd be pissed about it.
And then like the music-guy with Total Distortion, the Wario-hat, and Sean Fausz?
There were a few musician guys. Todd in the Shadows, Rap Critic, the one who reviewed musicals whose name escapes me right now.. Paw, I think? I enjoy all their work, except Paw whom I haven't seen in a while.
As for the Wario-hat... that was JewWario. He took his life a few years back. I hate to think anything with this contributed to that.
Forgot where I found this, but there is a google document about former Channel Awesome producers and where they are now. It's a start, I guess.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yxt7CCtzMsOCEZZTUnv7vZuA80NfUc0T-SC1zR-SGhI/edit#gid=0
yyyyyeah.
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I liked Spoony. From what I understand his fanbase was unusually toxic and would leave hateful comments targeted at him whenever he did a video with his girlfriend, brother, or dog, so I can understand why he quit.
Apparently he did something shitty too at some point, but from what I understand the person he wronged forgave him.
I still follow Lindsey Ellis, Brad Jones, Brandon Tenold, and Bennet White.
I remember when they tried to stop GIF bombing (certain users were abusing the function). When they made it a rule that you couldn't do that, it got a lot of flack. Then there were the people who got banned only to log back in a minute later, so bannings were basically toothless. Users were pretty much allowed to use almost whatever insults they wanted. For at least 2 years, there was only one moderator for the forum. Certain users made threads where the subject was "I hate inset username here." All of this was allowed to go on for months if not years.
Side note: Holy cow has her overall quality and professionalism improved. That's kind of a given, having been many years, but still she had fallen off my radar when I stopped following TGWTG. I am excited to go back and watch her recent work.
IIRC it was a tweet to a female colleague that looked really bad but was taken out of context, if still kinda iffy. However he reacted terribly to the backlash and publicly at least it resulted in a mutual agreement to leave CA. Then he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and improved a bit, but then he just kinda faded. Kind of a shame.
I still follow Lindsay, Todd and Kyle Kallgren. They do good stuff. I should watch Cinemadonna again.
Add a really toxic fanbase that seems to hate every member of his family apart from Spoony himself and Spoony himself being a bit of an asshole...
Honestly I am surprised he lasted as long as he did.
For me the Straw was Linkara. When the guy that everybody thinks is a good guy, who without fail puts out content, decide that he has had enough of your bullshit, its time to erase your link from my bookmarks.
It sucks that channel awesome is run by assholes. I used to watch their stuff all the time.
Yeah, i like Down the Rabbit Hole and that episode really made me both nostalgic and upset.
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