Channel Awesome #changethechannel Controversy
So I have been following this story for the last couple of days. If you don't know what Channel Awesome is, let me give you a quick rundown.
Channel Awesome used to be That Guy With The Glasses. It was basically known for the site to go when BlipTV was a thing, and it is best known for the Nostalgia Critic, one of the earliest internet reviewers that focused (originally) on nostalgic movies. Early on, the site had tons of producers on the channel (movie and game reviewers, mostly), many of the major ones are still active to this day on YouTube, including Nostalgia Critic/Channel Awesome.
Basically, lots of former producers started to discuss on Twitter a lot of shady stuff that happened in the roughly ten years since the site's inception during March. On April 2nd, a HUGE google document was released containing former producer's grievances, frustrations, stories of mismanagement, and frankly completely unacceptable behavior. Even if you have no idea who any of these people are it is worth a read to see how easily internet fame can go off the rails if handled by incompetent people. Be warned. This document is a LONG read. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...UBa4dA/preview
Now, I will admit that some of this reads like people have a chip on their shoulder, and they probably do. But that fact that this many people (and there is another document linked in there that contains negative fan experiences, as well) have this much to say? I tend to believe that most of these stories are true. There are some screenshots and whatnot of some of the stories, verifying them, and thus proves how these people operate. Because of that, I can easily see most of what these people say going down. Also, there are far too many people on this document for this situation to be a simple misunderstanding or some other innocent explanation. I do understand that I am only seeing lots of one sides to an overall larger story, though. I still say the document shouldn't be ignored or brushed off in any way.
It really, really doesn't help that Channel Awesome released one of the weakest apologies ever written. It literally says "We regret you feel that way" in it. https://twitter.com/ChannelAwesome/s...56519280861184
Most of the problems seem to stem from Mike Michaud, a sociopathic manager that has ego and anger problems. However, Doug and his brother Rob basically contributed to some problems, or stood by and did nothing. Michaud actually owns the Nostalgia Critic as a whole. He's literally the boss. I still think it is shady that Doug didn't even try to interfere with, frankly, some very dark things that happened.
I used to be big into Nostalgia Critic from the very early days. Although I haven't watched the content religiously since around 2012, I still popped in and would watch a few reviews once in awhile. I can't in good consciousness support the channel anymore. Again, even taken into account that some people involved in that document has a chip on their shoulder is exaggerating or is taking some misunderstandings too harshly, it seems that there was a torrent of bulltrout underneath all the fun times, wacky gags, etc. It's a damn shame.
As of this writing their subscriber count has gone down over 10,000 and it is slowly and surely continuing to go down. https://socialblade.com/youtube/user...esome/realtime
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Originally Posted by Fynn
Master of the Fork
