Originally Posted by
William Chain
I’ve posted about this in the past, but I have little tolerance for the sponsored schlock. Sponsors screw everything up. Social media screws everything up. Just look at what PWW and WJ have become. YouTube and Instagram are a revolving door of sponsored bobble heads. And I’m sure manufactures are simply following the tide, it is what it is with print and traditional radio/tv media now.
If you get entertainment from these folks, great. I was done with AW way back when during the episode of making a tool wall with all my shiny triton tools to hold all my shiny triton tools (or perhaps using all those Rockler doodads to make a cart to hold all my Rockler doodads). I was done with WW after he posted his diatribe on Festool after the $ pipe dried up. They are transparent traveling salesman. Would WW be doing what he’s doing without the shed full of gold painted power tools? Would AW be doing what she’s doing without all the free orange and green tools? The whole botched dovetails thing with WW was just another data point on the familiar curve.
Say what you will about Norm Abram and TNYW, and yes some of the demonstrated techniques are cringe worthy, and yes he had tv sponsors. But did he ever stop to flog the brand of table saw or jointer or whatever? Nope. You could see what they were but at no point did he make a big deal of it. That’s a classy bit that’s just gone from the modern offerings.
The "fake it till you make it", "I make videos to get attention" and "social influencer" crowds turn me off. And if I watch a you-tube vid that turns out to be a glorified infomercial, I turn it off. But I enjoyed and learned from the small shop, regular guy who does "twisted workshop" as an input to building my moxon vise.
I never understood the hype with "Wood Whisperer." I bought a book of his once, before I even knew who he was. I thought he had some "pretty designs" but didnt get anything lasting or useful out of the book. I think I threw it out. With that said, I think the guy has probably brought some new people into the hobby - April too - if only by showing people that they didnt have to take 4 years of high school shop to learn to build something. And as long as they dont get hurt, I think that's a good thing.
YMMV.
Fred
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”