Defensiveness is what its all about, what makes it hard to discuss
these sorts of issues without people falling out.

Some 'personal' videobloggers are on the defensive because of how the
big media voices have dismissed them. They put time and love into what
they do, it seems valid to them, and it may be that this stuff
incorporates the very elements of videoblogging that get them excited.

Likewise creators of show-type videoblogs may get defensive if people
dismiss their stuff as being pointless and too much like TV.

And then as soon as we get onto questioning peoples motives, the
defensive mechanisms really kick in. Shows are sellouts, only in it
for the money and personal vlogs are all bout the ego and self self
self. At best this is a grotesque oversimplification, and we all know
of many other reasons & motives why anybody would create anything, but
see how easy it is to tread all over peoples brains in a single
sentence. We're human, we are likely to form our own opinions of other
peoples motives, but its one thing to judge others and another to
declare your judgement publically, every day I struggle to keep such
opinions to myself, and fail quite often.

Because Rocketboom is arguably one of the most prominent shows of the
new web video era, when you or Amanda gets press and gets quoted or
give a speech, its going to get scrutinized more than if some nobody
like me starts ranting to myself. People who are dedicating much of
their lives to the personal videoblogging may be looking to you to
defend that stuff, or choose your words carefully, or not mention
personal vlogs at all, when in fact you are under no such obligation.
Likely many times you will have little choice but to enter this
territory, either because of the sorts of questions a journalist might
ask, or because of the realities of number of shows like rocketboom vs
number of personal vlogs. What you arent helps define what you are, so
I think its fair for you to say whatever you like about this stuff.

We wont have a proper debate on this if we steer clear of anything
that could cause offense, but clearly its emotionally draining when
peeps do take things too seriously or get the hump about a specific
phrase someone used and then everyone wonders if its worth talking
about it at all. Clearly I ususally err on the side of making the
point at the risk of offending potentially everyone and having no
friends lol, so Im not best placed to advise on this.

Then there is the role of text in this affair. I think that after
nearly a year of farting around and not achieving anything, I might
finally decide what project to dedicate myself to, and that will be
more video-based communication systems. Ive waffled about video forums
before, and I know someone else has been working on this stuff, and
there are some existing options, and factors such as me finding it
easier to type these long messages than say them to a camera. But I
still want a War on Text, and threaded video conversations etc.

Steve of Elbows
--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, andrew michael baron
<andrew@r...> wrote:
>
> On Nov 21, 2005, at 10:31 AM, Ronen wrote:
> > This is the funnest thread ever.
> >
> > Ronen
>
>
> I'm feeling like I have a major hangover and don't really think its
> funny at all, especially because I don't drink. I apologize for being
> offensive, it's what I always do whenever I get REALLY defensive. I
> have been on the defense for a long time from the likes of many
> outspoken characters involved in this play. I get defensive when I
> dont see any reason behind malicious claims being propagated around
> so unwittingly. I still don't see any justification for all the
> backlash against Amanda and myself right now.
>
> Anyway, from here on out, I'll just stick to asking technical
> questions and answering a few when no one else does because I'm just
> not going to let it get to me anymore.
>