Lindsay Ellis (Nostalgia Chick) to Leave Channel Awesome

[The Bucket]

Am I the only one who's found TGWTG's behind the scenes drama infinitely more entertaining than any of the actual videos for a long while?

 

[Armadox]

Phelous and Lupa keep mentioning "Mike". Mike J, I assume?

Anyways, it kind of stinks when business management gets in the way of friendships, but that's just how it is.

I hope not, I rather like him. And besides isn't he in England? I thought they were talking about people specifically in Chicago where they are head quartered.

I can't help but agree with your last statement though. It is sad but this is also pretty typical.

Mike Michaud

One of the founders and publishers that formed CA, and has done very little to keep up with it. Think of him as the John Riccitiello of Channel Awesome. Could also mean Mike Ellis, but I'm doubting that.

Mike J. seems to be a really ok guy, as far as how he goes about stuff.

 

[Brandchan]

Does Oancitizen have a blog? Is there any means by which he's said why he's left as well? I'm quite interested in watching this more closely. Thank you.

He has two tweets:

Klye Kgalreln @KyleKallgren · 4h 4 hours ago
It's been fun. http://channelawesome.com/a-parting-of-ways/ ?

Klye Kgalreln @KyleKallgren · 4h 4 hours ago
Elaboration to follow.

I watch him on Chez Apocalypse so not such a biggie. Though, I wonder what this means for the newbies like Erza, and Rantazmo who are on Chez Apocalypse but joined Channel Awesome this year?

 

[Vault101]

Does Oancitizen have a blog? Is there any means by which he's said why he's left as well? I'm quite interested in watching this more closely. Thank you.

whoa whoa whoa...he's going too?

Christ he and Lindsey were like my favourite internet people ever...

 

[SoranMBane]

Does Oancitizen have a blog? Is there any means by which he's said why he's left as well? I'm quite interested in watching this more closely. Thank you.

He has a Tumblr: http://kylekallgren.tumblr.com/

He doesn't seem to have posted anything about why he left yet, but I imagine he will eventually.

 

[Vault101]

Though I would also add Linkara and Angry Joe to the "perma-list". Oh, and the AVGN, who has the dubious honor of being the only internet reviewer who ever managed to pretty much abandon his original content and persona and still managed to keep his fanbase aboard with other content.

as a long time AVGN fan (from when he started pretty much) his schtick was not a long lasting one, even I can se that...personally his best ones were where he took us into the weird world of console hardware, I prefer the structured stuff to the looser style of say "james and mike" mondays

[quote/] (if I recall it was about offering a place for JO in his nonexistent BDSM dungeon), to which Lupa took offense (because "durr sexism!!!")[/quote]
people are allowed to be offended at shit...even if you don't think its justified

 

[Falling_v1legacy]

Aw, a passing of an era
I came for Nostalgia Critic, but over time Nostalgia Chick became my favourite, even to the point of neglecting the Critic. On the otherhand, she has been so busy with other projects, so I'm not surprised she's stepping down completely. I hope she does put out videos on occasion sans the Chick schtick.

Todd and Rap Critic are favourites these days.

 

[TravelerSF]

Really disappointed to hear about Doug's and Rob's behavior. I was kinda hoping the incompetence would be limited only to the upper corporate ladder.

Other than that, Elli's departure seems rather natural at least. People grow, people chance, and not many keep working in the same company, doing the same job for all their life.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Am I the only one who's found TGWTG's behind the scenes drama infinitely more entertaining than any of the actual videos for a long while?

Nope. But then that might not be saying a lot.

Entertaining might not be the right word. Morbidly fascinating might be better.

 

[GabeZhul]

[quote/] (if I recall it was about offering a place for JO in his nonexistent BDSM dungeon), to which Lupa took offense (because "durr sexism!!!")

people are allowed to be offended at shit...even if you don't think its justified[/quote]
And I am just as allowed to find their offendedness (is that even a word?) superfluous and silly, especially when they are being offended for someone else. I mean, yeah, Noah's post was incredibly dumb and awkward, but there were ways to react to it other than "I am offended for this other person because I perceive what you said as sexist."

But then again, this is the internet and reviewers are also people, so I cannot be too mad at Allison either. It's just that in hindsight the entire thing is like a bunch of kids throwing a tantrum on a playground and I don't like seeing people acting like that.

[Edit]: I've just read Phelan's and Allison's blogs, and damn... It seems like me feeling that the site was feeling apart since To Boldly Flee wasn1t just in my head...

 

[Trooper924]

Linkara was answering some questions about this on tumblr:

http://atopfourthwall.tumblr.com/post/108020599623

http://atopfourthwall.tumblr.com/post/108027321543

http://atopfourthwall.tumblr.com/post/108028820218

 

[maninahat]

Well I may not be a fancy business consultant, but I will all the same presume to tell CA how to carry out their own damn business, as though I'm an expert on the subject (I'm not).

CA need to rethink their business model: An agregator benefits both the producer and the site when the producer is less well known and needs to find a certain audience (and get an audience to find them). But when a producer is fairly popular, not only will it will cease to need the agregator, it will only serve to overshadow the new producers coming to the site. The agregator wants to hold onto these big earners for obvious reasons, but by doing so, they are creating an unsustainable model in which they piss off the trapped popular producers to the point in which they will eventually storm out, and make it harder to foster new popular producers to replace these guys.

Basically, they need to let the popular producers go once they can make it on their own. They need to give up depending on short term benefits of these big earners, and have a long term plan of capturing new talent. They need to present themselves as the place for seeing new, original comedy (but of an acceptable standard - not an "accept any quality, see what sticks" approach to showcasing talent). It shouldn't be an over-crowded place of disgruntled internet celebs who are doomed to wear out their shtick.

 

[faefrost]

Well I may not be a fancy business consultant, but I will all the same presume to tell CA how to carry out their own damn business, as though I'm an expert on the subject (I'm not).

CA need to rethink their business model: An agregator benefits both the producer and the site when the producer is less well known and needs to find a certain audience (and get an audience to find them). But when a producer is fairly popular, not only will it will cease to need the agregator, it will only serve to overshadow the new producers coming to the site. The agregator wants to hold onto these big earners for obvious reasons, but by doing so, they are creating an unsustainable model in which they piss off the trapped popular producers to the point in which they will eventually storm out, and make it harder to foster new popular producers to replace these guys.

Basically, they need to let the popular producers go once they can make it on their own. They need to give up depending on short term benefits of these big earners, and have a long term plan of capturing new talent. They need to present themselves as the place for seeing new, original comedy (but of an acceptable standard - not an "accept any quality, see what sticks" approach to showcasing talent). It shouldn't be an over-crowded place of disgruntled internet celebs who are doomed to wear out their shtick.

I actually am a sorta kinda fancy business consultant. And honestly from reading everything I have read, what is happening at CA is an all too common thing when an entrepreneurial startup matures. It grows out of its "club" feel and has to start behaving as a business. Some are capable of doing this. Some are not. Staff feelings often get bumped and bruised along the way. And those performing simple basic management tasks for the relatively small operation may not be up to the task of growth. This is a point when a great deal of small to medium businesses fail as they cannot transition to growth and end up devouring themselves in one way or another. It will be interesting to see how CA does going forward.

 

[Vault101]

Linkara was answering some questions about this on tumblr:

http://atopfourthwall.tumblr.com/post/108020599623

huh that was interesting

they have picked up some small time video people whom I quite like...probably to diversify (Needs more gay and Stuff you like) so yeah...

snip.

from what I can gather that's pretty much what Kyle (oancitzen) said....he doesn't need CA anymore

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

i wondered why she hasn't done a new video since September of last year... now i know

 

[Casper Andersen]

I actually am a sorta kinda fancy business consultant. And honestly from reading everything I have read, what is happening at CA is an all too common thing when an entrepreneurial startup matures. It grows out of its "club" feel and has to start behaving as a business. Some are capable of doing this. Some are not. Staff feelings often get bumped and bruised along the way. And those performing simple basic management tasks for the relatively small operation may not be up to the task of growth. This is a point when a great deal of small to medium businesses fail as they cannot transition to growth and end up devouring themselves in one way or another. It will be interesting to see how CA does going forward.

Yeah reading through the posts linked to in this thread, it seems obvious Channel Awesome is in a transition phase where the higher ups are trying to run things like a real production company, but are kinda flailing and seem out of their depth. And the "talent" are getting angry and straining under the new approach, particularly the guys who was there from the start. And there is also the fact that many of these same people don't really need an aggregate site anymore, they already have an audience and now there is Patreon that lessen the need to pay the bills solely from ads. They can basically make a living off a small but dedicated fanbase.

Unless the people like Mike Michaud and Rob Walker who seem to run things, wise up or hire someone to help them out I see things imploding at some point in the near future. At the moment they definitely seem to go more with quantity over quality when getting new producers on the site, which will hurt their brand in the long run. And to be honest the content from Channel Awesome was only quality compared to other amateur comedy stuff and the average v-log from youtube.