#I go on reddit to read hobby drama posts but since I looked at this subreddit once my homepage is just it

[lesferatu]

I have read a lot of Welcome to Tumblr posts for reddit people and I agree with most of it but something I haven't seen has to do with tag etiquette. I've seen people say "do whatever" and I don't completely agree with that specifically. What they should say is "there is no specific tag for each community, so don't worry too hard about it and if you want to talk in the tags, that is more than encouraged" but there are a few rules

So here's some tagging guidelines:

Only tag what is relevant to the post at hand. If you have specific tags for organization of your blog, then you can use those. If you tag irrelevant stuff, not only is it super annoying and clogs up the tag but you will be reported for spam and that can get you banned. So chat and keysmash all you want but don't tag something that's trending to get more attention and dont mention characters in the thing you are talking about who arent mentioned in the post. The search function barely works as is on a good day, don't make it worse

If you are unsure what to tag, search what you are posting about and look at what other people are tagging. Keep the above rule in mind. You can save your post as a draft if you are in the middle of writing and can't search

If I remember correctly, the first 5 tags count for the search feature and the first 10 tags (? Could be 15) count for filtering tags, which is important for tagging spoilers and triggers, if you do that

On that note: Tag Spoilers for new media

If you do chat (which again is greatly encouraged and is, in fact, half the fun) remember that the person you reblog from and the original poster (or OP) will get a notification and will be sent your tags, so be respectful. You *are* yelling into the void but some of the void can read

I wouldn't use "prev tags" right now, since staff broke the ability to follow reblog chains easily, so it's hard to find what you are referring to. If you must talk to the person you are reblogging from, do something like "prev tags: [insert prev tags here]" or "[insert prev tags here] <- prev tags" in your tags then say what your going to say

And just cause I know this has been a problem in the past, if you are here for minecraft youtubers/streamers, Do Not tag your posts as "minecraft" or "mineblr". That tag is for people who play the game normally to share their builds and the like. Again, you can search the specific youtubers/streamer/smp to get the tag that most people use for that specific community or use "mcyt" to find the general stuff

And last but not least, you do not have to tag! It is a personal choice. It'll get your own posts to the people who might like it, some people like to organize their blog (not me lol,) and tagging spoilers is just common decency, but reblogs dont show in the search, only the og post, and you don't have to tag if you don't want to; the people who follow you/look at your blog will see your post and nobody else

Edit cause I just remembered this one: don't main tag hate. If you hate a ship and want to post about it, don't tag the ship. At least tag it as "[ship name] hate" or "[ship name] discourse" so people who like that ship don't have to stumble across it on the main tag and can filter it. Doesn't have to be a ship, could be a show or a hobby or a book. People who enjoy a thing have just as much right to have a good experience on here as you have a right to hate that thing. Stay civil, it's the only way this place is as chill as it is now (and I say that as someone who's been here since the beginning. Whatever drama you find on here now is Nothing compared to what it was on this hellsite (affectionate) before)

If you can think of anything else, please add, and if you have any questions, just ask!

[steampoweredgiraffefannews]

David makes a Post a few days ago clearing up rumors about why past members left

Its a lOOOOONgG Read (3 walls of text) but I copied and pasted just his part in the read more section just in case you don't want to go to reddit for whatever Reason.

When stated that he should not feel obligated to explain himself as their lives are really none of our business (as it's not) David explained:

“ All of us in the band don't think we need explain everything either. We know most people understand that people leave for various different reasons, but a few people over the years just like "juicy details" and "drama", and for us it is frustrating when nothing those folks make up out of "lack of details" is true. We think our vagueness on our website is "good enough" and we've given closure in more "touching" posts online when members leave, but yes...there are folks who get into the band and want to know "Why". I hope this post is seen as a "deep cut" of SPG behind-the-scenes info, and then people who really want to read it read it and go. "Oh". "Well that's that". Bunny and I have definitely made countless posts over the 10 years we've been doing this act online. They all get lost in the internet, so every few years, I inevitably make a most "explaining" stuff for new people. I dunno what the "right" thing to do is, but I certainly want to try and do right by every fan, even if they make up or speculate on terrible stuff happening. Thanks for being one of the many understanding ones!”

https://www.reddit.com/r/SPG/comments/754t71/why_does_the_third_member_keep_getting_switched/

1 of 3 walls of text)

I probably shouldn't be replying to posts like this...

For one, it only encourages people to post more stuff like this to get responses from the band I think...which isn't healthy for me or the band... ...and two the OP has posted questionable stuff here according to the actual mod messages I see. (I am not really a mod, it's just a pleasantry from the actual mods since I am in the band I guess).

I am not the best with words or typing this stuff up, but I always try my best even if it���s a tangled mess of sentences.

TLDR: We don’t plan for the 3rd member being switched out.

No one plans for the “third member” to be switched out.

We started with four people who all wanted to try their hand at street performing with a robot group.

One of them couldn’t commit since it was “just a hobby on the weekend and didn’t want to be in a “band”, so they left (Erin Burke, Upgrade), we are still friends, she left willingly on her own. We’ve had her on an episode The Bennettarium Podcast and reminisced about her time in the group.

Once the band picked up, formed as an official business and started becoming “a living”, the third member couldn’t commit and it dragged the rest of the band down in rehearsals, shows, and album recording. Everyone in the band mutually agreed that letting that person go was for the best and they didn’t want to stay around. Person couldn’t commit to the schedule/didn’t want to do it full-time, and they left (Jon Sprague, The Jon). We keep in contact, pleasantries and all that, keeping “up with life”. No real chance of podcast visit and such, it’s just not the relationship we have with Jon.

Backing musicians Mike and Matt we stopped traveling with after about a year of traveling with them. Matt did the show with us for a year, Mike had been with us pretty consistently for live shows after our first album. However, we made a decision to cull the act down. Everything to do with expenses and managing 8 people in a band. It ended up saving the band financially and made way for tons of technical improvements to the live show, which we wouldn’t have even thought of if we kept the same standard “band setup”. Mike has been on The Bennettarium Podcast recently, and we’ve invited him to three live shows this year in California. We had one this summer, and then two more are coming up in November and December. Adding him to local shows that we are able to has been fun, but unfortunately it doesn’t make sense for all of them or shows out of state where expenses get more. That’s due to travel itself, but also us having to pitch the act and costs to a plethora of venues and events.

As for Sam/Hatchworth, he took over for Jon when he left. He wanted to commit, always showed he did, and expressed interest. So when the band went through growing pains, it only made sense. Sam is the longest running member consistently after The Bennetts. Sam told us when he started that he wasn’t in it for the long run, but really wanted to do it and we all said we would see where it went. Sam eventually let us know the year he wanted to be his last year performing with us. He wanted to pursue his own personal art projects and said he didn’t want to stay in SPG for ten more years and look back with regrets of things he could have done outside of SPG. It came as a shock for us all, as it’s not like any of us were anticipating it, but we all understood. He made the transition as smooth as he could, having seen other people leave the band before, and caring about the fans he would be leaving behind.

Bunny and I knew exactly who we wanted “as a third robot” if we had “our dream team” since the beginning...heck Erin and Jon wanted him in the act too, we all did. We never thought it would happen in a million years, but years had passed in all our lives, lots of different experiences, and the time was ripe. I made a private post on my private Facebook account reaching out to my college chums, and Bryan responded within the first week. Sam stayed on for the rest of the year (we started looking for his replacement early September), but Sam said he would stay on “as long as it took”, as he didn’t want to leave us “high and dry”. Once Bryan was in and rehearsing, we mutually agreed with Sam that a Bakersfield show in December would be his last.

Bryan is new. He hasn’t had years of being a robot under his belt, and he’s had to pickup harmonies written for two other performers.

We don’t get the luxury of years and years of honing with him...

But he’s a champ. He believes in the act, and is bringing an excitement to the band that Bunny and I haven’t seen with previous members.

The act is Bunny and I’s act. That’s not to say people didn’t contribute a boat load of awesome stuff to it, but at the end of the day, we’ve put in the most work, we run it finically, book the gigs, and spearhead it’s direction. It was apparent early-on even when we were street performing that we were going to put more time into it than anyone else. That’s not a “we are better than our other members” flaunt, it’s just how things ended up becoming.

SPG was in fact just a fun hobby that four mime students started for fun, and it was fun at the time for all.

Those first two years saw the most growth, and growing pains did push out folks who weren’t on the same page. It started as a hobby, but quickly became a goal of “a living” for Bunny and I. I think all four of us wanted that at some point, but after a few years, people change, and their wants and desires can change too. Short of that though, people have different ideas of “commitment”. It’s not as if anyone was “forced out” ever either. We talked about all our ideas for the band together, and only after years of working together did we all come to the conclusion what we all wanted to do. I guess that’s the only way I can think of saying that people leaving in our band isn’t about knee-jerk reactions. Everyone we’ve ever worked with has been loving individuals. We all communicate differently, but even in our young age in our early 20s, we all treated eachother more maturely than we’ve seen other bands. I know it all sucks from a long-time fan’s perspective who like certain characters or band members, and to those folks all I can say is that it’s not like the rest of us go “thank god that asshole is gone”. Of course we would put up with eachother if it was minuscule personalities clashing, but when it’s not and it’s something affecting he bigger picture like “well we can’t really do more shows and make more albums without rehearsal and getting together to hash out songs if not all of us want to”, then naturally everyone and that person comes to the conclusion “Oh I am an Inconvenience to everyone else in the group, I guess I should go”.

When Jon left, he never posted about it online and all people got was a blurb that Bunny and I wrote up and double checked with Jon. We asked him if we wanted to add anything, or if he wanted to make a post himself, but he said he wasn’t good with words and that we put it well enough.

That was probably a big mistake on my, Jon, and Bunny’s part (although I do remember thinking him not saying something personally was going to backlash). It did backlash a bit with our fans.

The truth wasn’t good enough, and soon started the “theories” and “rumors”. We spent weeks trying to respond to fans, reiterating the same stuff, we even asked Jon to help and post something, but he said for us to not worry about what those people think, and that they weren’t there and we know how it went down.

I don’t blame Jon for not wanting to post online about his departure. For one, he never had much of an online presence and didn’t like social media much, and it’d be weird if he suddenly had a presence online out of the blue, and two his family hated Bunny and I once we split ways with him in the band. These were folks we had knew for probably half a decade...went to holiday dinners with and hung out all the time with (Jon has a super close and numerous family). We went over to hang out a bit with Jon after the split, and to give him some old equipment he wanted for a gig he had coming up. His family was like night and day to us. We had no idea they suddenly hated us like that. Later they started posting hate online about us and making things up like “They are destroying all fan mail sent to them for Jon”. We asked Jon later and he said at the time that his family kept bugging him about what happened and he wouldn’t tell them, and for us to not worry about it.

That wasn’t fun for Bunny and I. Of course we were worrying about it, we got hate mail every day.

(Continues in comment I made to this comment)

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[–]spineraptor 17 points 2 days ago*

(2 of 3 walls of text)

In hindsight though, when Sam left, he gave us a write-up to post to fans, made an appearance with Bryan on our podcast and “passed the torch to him” so to speak in video and photos.

...BUT STILL people cried “Something is fishy here! What happened!”

But you know I guess that’s par for the course. In the ten years we’ve been doing this act and having an online presence, it’s all par for the course, it just what comes with the territory.

If you look at any quasi-celebrity or fandom or creator online big or small you see the same stuff. You can’t win. You cannot make everyone happy.

Part of that is because no one gets to see your day-to-day life. Fans don’t get to “witness it all” and part of it is because the internet gives people a vehicle to communicate their thoughts and feelings to the creators. There’s no way I or Bunny (the only people who really post anything introspective or deep about the band in the band online), can write anything up or make a tweet that will appease everyone. There is no end goal for ever being able to do that.

I can post things like this in more obscure social media places in hopes a few people care to read and feel better about the band, but my ultimate goal is really just to vent a bit and give the information that’s not easy to come by to the people asking. It’s true it’s no ones business and It’d be healthier for me and the band to not to post things like this, because in a way we are just enabling the worst of the internet and that always comes to bite you in the butt later :P (I am not saying this subreddit or this user in particular, you’re all fine as far as I know).

But yeah... No one saw the meeting we had in early 2011 before we did the San Diego Zoo for 2 1/2 months when the band sat down with Jon to discuss “if everyone is on board for the future”, since Jon had been taking a back seat in the group a bit.

No one saw the meeting after the first year after the zoo ended in 2011 where we all sat down again and discussed the future and next year’s zoo gig, where we asked Jon if he was fully committed because things were still flaky.

No one saw the meeting we all had in 2012 right before the zoo where we confronted Jon about him not knowing any of the new songs for the Zoo that year, and not having even started his two songs for The Two Cent Show Album, when the rest of the album was done, and missing a lot of his harmonies (ended up having to use Mikes voice for about half the songs in place of Jon’s right before release anyways).

No one saw the discussions and emails the other members sent and we had in person where people complained to Bunny and I that Jon wasn’t pulling his weight. Keep in mind there were six of us in total then, and we were doing the zoo for our second year 7 days a week, for 2 1/2 months in total.

No one saw the meeting after we finished the 2nd year of the zoo and a show in Texas where we discussed with Jon going our separate ways.

No one saw the conversations later with Jon about him saying “I think Sam will do a good job and you guys will be fine”.

No one saw Jon consoling us from the fan backlash.

No one saw the discussion when we didn’t hire on Matt or Mike for more live shows or album work.

No one saw the discussion and stuff from Sam wanting to leave and saying he’d perform with us for as long as it took to get another member to replace him.

But the thing is with all of this stuff is, no one sees this stuff because it’s not possible to, isn’t feasible, and isn’t anyone’s business.

Everyone wants to know juicy details, and some part of me would want to as well in a fan’s position...but we haven’t got them.

What more can we say while being tactful than “he couldn’t commit so we went or separate ways”, or just giving a copy and pasted write-up from the person leaving? There’s nothing more to be done.

Most people understand and will accept all of that. Realistically there is no better way for it to be handled. Sure we learned better social media stuff in between Jon and Sam’s departure, but a lot of that is due to the two different people and what they wanted to put in and felt comfortable doing online.

But the band understands that fans will be upset with lineup changes. We honestly do.

Bunny, Steve, and I aren’t sitting here going “how can we piss off our fans and make them hate us? I know let’s get rid of their favorite characters!”.

We also aren’t going “How can we make this act more about Bunny and David and less about everyone else?”.

We’ve always made the act equal. From the pay, to balancing the amount of songs on stage, lead singer always changes, we shine a spot line on every member during our shows (or try to)....etc.

If a member leaves, it is totally acceptable to not like the act anymore. We aren’t forcing anyone to feel bad about not liking changes.

Every single step of the way we have lost fans.

It was easy to see in the early days because we had so little and only did street performing, but every time we make a change intentionally or not, we loose fans. The other side of that though is that we gain new fans. That’s not us saying “screw the old fans”, that’s just us still performing with a new lineup and new albums and new people liking THAT stuff.

People who liked our Balboa Park shows hated our first album Album One, because it didn’t sound like Balboa Park and was “too overly produced sounding”.

People who loved Album One hated Two Cent Show because it “didn’t sound the same, it’s too fast, there is no lo-fi sound, the lyrics don’t mean anything anymore”.

People who loved Two Cent Show (aka Honeybee and AEHarmonics), hated MK III because “Jon isn’t on it, it’s too modern sounding, don’t like concept albums”

And so on and so forth....you get the idea.

All of those are perfectly valid reasons to not like a band anymore. I like bands, people in SPG like bands, but we’ve fallen out of love with bands before too.

We do not take it personally.

I mean, we can if you make us feel bad to our faces or something, but overall it’s fine. Of course we want people to like our new stuff whether that’s with the lineup or albums or whatever, but it’s not like we think we can do that or think fans SHOULD.

We aren’t trying to say “what is now is better or worse than before”, why would we do that with our own stuff? I assure you the things WE all don’t individually like in the band with very specific things are NOT the same things other people dislike for the most part.

We are the artists, it’s way different for us. We absorb critiques and such like anyone else, but just like most people, we aren’t in a bubble...we know what we like ourselves too and what we don’t like. If I like one of our songs that everyone of our fans collectively hates, does that make me wrong? Should the fans decide what songs go on an album? (I don’t think there is a song like that, just a hypothetical). Of course not. It’s art, and it’s not perfect and never has been.

Someone can say the last season of Rick and Morty lost its charm and isn’t as good as the other seasons, and I can say it “just keeps getting better!”.

Arts subjective, we all have opinions. Really hard for the world as a whole to agree on art as “good” or “bad”.

Is that an excuse for making bad art? Hell no. Bad art is bad.

If someone puts a lot of effort into it, that’s great. It probably means a lot TO THEM. It’s entirely a different thing to expect that other people feel the same way.

We can make a stupid song or bit and tons of people love it while we go “WHY? ITS SO STUPID!”, and then make something that speaks to us personally and we love with our entire being and people can go “This is shit, it’s like they aren’t even trying anymore”.

It’s just art. Have your opinions.

All I or anyone else in the band would hope is that people don’t try and make us directly feel terrible for making an album or something. If it’s bad, it’s bad. Same goes for decisions in the direction of the band.

I hope you all know we don’t see it as “let’s take this left turn and throw everyone off!”.

Like...I’d like to think we make informed decisions. Not every album comes about the same way.

I don’t think anyone has to agree with us. I certainly don’t want to make anyone feel bad about hating our stuff.

...I mean, I think hate is a strong word for art. I don’t think ours is offensive or something to the point where the word hate is honestly used.

I don’t like Stephen Universe, but I respect the artists and creators and don’t wish them ill ya know?

Maybe some things seem obvious to fans or consumers of art and not to their creators.... And that’s subjective...

Maybe a fan would say “you should have kept Jon” or “you should have kept Mike in all the time for albums”, but that’s not our reality in the band.

It wasn’t even options for us. They weren’t “terrible mistakes we made when making decisions about the band” for us. I am sure we’ve made some mistakes, but they aren’t on the surface and they aren’t things fans would care about or even know about (logistics of business stuffs San example ya know?).

Of course we would have liked to keep the act the same and not have member lineup changes. That would be great for marketing and fans.

But we couldn’t foresee people not wanting to continue on with the band, we couldn’t foresee Bunny transitioning, and we couldn’t foresee changes needing to be made due to growing pains financially, and personally.

There’s no way or reason to defend the band in all this.

If you think we are terrible from changes, then so be it.

I’ve said it before in past posts over the years, and it still works here...

The options are, we stop doing the band due to people leaving or changes happening...or we find a way to make it all work and continue on.

(Continues in comment I made to this comment)

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[–]spineraptor 24 points 2 days ago*

(3 of 3 walls of text)

That’s not to say don’t we have doubts ourselves, but hopefully you can believe that we make the best choices for the band that WE think will work, make last members and future members happy AND keep the act going for new and old fans. Maybe some folks will fall out of love for the band forever, or maybe they will reconnect in a few years when the changes aren’t fresh and things have settled in.

I personally don’t see an issue with the transitional phases of a band being public. We aren’t putting new people on stage or on an album without rehearsal or anything, and it’s not like we can stop performing or creating publicly while we work in a vaccine forever. It’s gotta be public eventually. We aren’t a super duper popular band, but we have done better than most and have a pretty supportive fan base, which we owe or livelihoods to.

We can’t make the band a democracy with fans, but hopefully folks understand that. We will make what we will make and we will art how we art. If we upset fans and make something they don’t want or like, all we can say is that we are sorry for letting you down and hope that we can make something in the future that you WILL like. If not, then no harm done, our past stuff stays the same and people can always revisit it. We always play or past stuff on stage too, and it’s not like we forget where we started.

I mean, I can argue anything with any fan, but I don’t. All of our albums have songs about being a robot in them, but even Album One has songs about not being a robot and you’d never know we were a robot band from JUST those songs. It’s never been 100% robot songs from the get go. That view is stilted in picking and choosing songs either from upload date of music videos on YouTube or live shows or whoooo knows.

Vice Quadrant had very little robots and we knew it wasn’t about robots ourselves, but we tied it in because we wanted to stretch our creativity and do something “not about robots”. We’ve always done that, that albums was just more so.

I digress though. Most people know that if they listen chronologically from our first album.

There are lots of songs with “not as deep lyrics”, because we are fans of lots of different stuff, and one type of song doesn’t fit the lore or image of the band to us.

Anywho...

Maybe Bryan isn’t the best at doing the robot due to not having done it for the years like Bunny and I.

Maybe I am not as good at the robot anymore as I used to be ever since my back issues with degenerative disc disease.

Maybe Bunny is showing her true self now and wanted her character that she lives in almost weekly to match.

Maybe what we want to say in songs and albums NOW isn’t the same thing we wanted to say when we started.

Maybe people fell in love with a music video shot in under an hour at a beach and didn’t know we had comedy in our act and are turned off once they see we are a comedy act in comparison to that music video.

Maybe Bunny and I are not as personable with fans as Mike or Jon were, but you’d be hard pressed to say we don’t try our best, we are just shy, awkward people. Mike and Jon are beacons of light, and everyone loves them. Everyone loved them before SPG and everyone will love them after SPG. I can’t speak for Bunny, but she is similar to me. I am a sarcastic, pessimistic, anxiety and stress ridden individual who had a terrible upbringing and childhood, and basically eats and sleep SPG business and doesn’t like going outside much, or have many “friends” and doesn’t hang out with hardly any people because I don’t like people, but tries their hardest to put on a genuine smile to fans at shows and engage them in conversation and such to hopefully lead by example that life isn’t so bad and that we are grateful for their support.

Maybe social media has influenced some fans to hate Bunny or I. Of course posting nothing at all leaves more positive ambiguity like some of our other members, but posting to lots of people and someone taking something personally or interpreting something the wrong way, or not liking our political opinions or views on social issues or whatever does and can taint us in the view of others. But that’s everyone on the face of the earth and not just people in bands online. I can see my far removed relative post something super racist on Facebook and write them out of my lives immediately, but wouldn’t know that about them if I never used Facebook and only saw them at family gatherings and saw them as a loving caring person. Not saying Bunny or I have sketchy posts or something, I think we’ve picked our words as best we can over ten years and have apologized where we’ve seen fit when someone calls us on something, but even small things that people don’t like about us on a personal level (well as much as you could get to know someone from their tweets) can change their view of a band. Just saying....you get how the internet changes all this kind of stuff.

There are some other comments I’d love to reply to on this post, but I dunno if I can get to them all or if anyone really wants me to....or if I want to. Ha.

I saw one about “why don’t the Bennett’s get switched out?” from the OP, and that’s an easy one to answer.

It’s our act, and has been ever since we started putting more work into it than everyone else within a few weeks of its inception. That just came naturally, and Jon and Erin were fine with that.

Bunny and I ran the improv group, the mime group, and the children’s camp groups that came before SPG. It’s not that it wasn’t an option for everyone else to be “in charge”, its just no one wanted to do the work. They liked doing the art and fun stuff, but not 24/7, and that’s fine. Everyone falls into different roles, and things change over ten years.

I remember Erin wanting to take up the role of “business manger” and she would always talk about getting our business license and doing the taxes and finances and all that stuff, but that never happened when she was in the group, and I immediately did all of that stuff when she left, because it was obvious to me that I was the only one who could/would willingly do all that stuff.

We’ve never made anyone do anything and have kept it as equal as possible while anyone is in the group. We only ask for rehearsals, shows, and album work, and everything else is up to individual members and how much they want to put it.

The only thing I take pride in...is doing the busy work that no one sees. The business shit, the album mixing, the music video shit. I enjoy doing it all. I am not the best at it all, but the difference is I DO IT. And procrastination is not a thing I have a problem with, only with other people, and that’s hard to live up to for some past members. Even with that said, I’ve never made it harder for them.

I remember building a recording PC and securing equipment for Mike for an album he just couldn’t find time to get his instrument parts into. He said he needed a private space to do it, but of course the recording stuff was at my place and I worked at my place a lot. We came up with the secondary computer for him for his own private space at a rehearsal room we were renting, just due to his living situation at the time. It sat their for months never being used and Mike ended up rushing the instrument parts at my place in two weeks before album manufacturing. Sometimes it doesn’t work out great, even if you try.

Now, I don’t say any of the things I’ve said about anyone in these post to make people dislike anyone else in the group or myself, but to give an insight into the fact that we are all people, have our own issues and hang ups, growing pains, life lessons to learn and all that jazz. I hope the theme of “understanding” comes from all this. Members past and present have always tried to make the group work, even through their personal struggles and growing, myself included. That’s how everyone is in any group setting, and we aren’t unique in that sense.

But none of it is as bad as anyone outside of the group could fabricate themselves, and we’ve read and heard it all over the years, unintentionally from hate blogs, emails, and fans in person.

I hope those of you who read all this and think “boy I hope they don’t get hung up on these people, I hope they ignore them and just keep on doing what they do and be happy, because if they dwell on stuff like this I don’t want that to affect the band negatively either and not like the band anymore myself”. And to those folks I would say not to worry. Every once in awhile I feel the urge to reach out and “explain how it is” for us in the band to people who might not give us the benefit of the doubt. It’s not about right and wrong, just perspective I don’t know if it’s needed, but all this social media and fandom stuff with creators is new for the world.

I understand a fans’s perspective because I am fan of things myself, so the band has that, but it’s a bit different because fans don’t have our perspective, it’s a very one-sided relationship...a band to fans, and I hope that’s what people understand in all this.

I am just trying my best to give insight even if it’s kinda pointless, as I can’t do it forever, and boy howdy have I done the same thing on tumblr and the like over these 10 years.

So yeah, not the best at words, but hopefully something in all this text speaks to some of you who really want some sort of understanding on lineup changes (and whatever else I rambled on about).

[biofunmy]

Ahoy There, Mommy! Family Sails Around World on YouTube

NEWPORT, R.I. — They met in Ios, Greece: locking eyes across the town square, both in their 20s then. (She had noticed his distinctive mustache.) Elayna Carausu was playing guitar and singing for a travel company; Riley Whitelum was living on the sailboat he had bought with money saved from working for years on oil rigs.

When he told her had a boat, she thought it was a pickup line.

Luckily he had learned a few things in the months before that encounter. Despite having grown up, like Ms. Carausu, mostly in coastal Australia, Mr. Whitelum had no sailing experience before he bought a barely used 43-foot Beneteau from three bickering Italians.

Ms. Carausu was, thank heavens, not on board the night it nearly sank. It was moored off Dubrovnik, Croatia, slowly taking on water from a hidden leak, when it was swamped by the wake from a fishing boat.

Mr. Whitelum had kept the bilge pumps off to save electricity, a rookie mistake, and he awoke to a cabin awash in water. After pumping it out, he turned to Google: “My boat is sinking, what do I do?”

Google responded, koan-like. “‘All boats are sinking,’” he recalled reading. “‘The main factor is how fast. Don’t panic. Find the source of the leak.’”

Six years later, Mr. Whitelum, now 32, not only no longer has to ask Google for help, he and Ms. Carausu, 26, have also become YouTube stars for their adventures at sea.

More than a million people subscribe to their channel, Sailing La Vagabonde (the name of their boat), which has chronicled their life aboard in endearing, instructive and sometimes terrifying videos: two Atlantic and one Pacific crossings; maggoty trash; broken equipment; storms and becalmings; scaldings and other injuries; the boredom of weeks offshore when you’ve read all your books; would-be pirates; and this year, a stowaway, their 10-month-old son, Lenny.

There are many, many sailing YouTubers, including Brian Trautman, a former Microsoft analyst, and his brother, Brady. Their channel, named for their boat, SV Delos, has almost 356,000 subscribers, and patrons can apply to be crew online.

And there are many attractive people exploring beautiful locations clad only in their bathing suits, as Ms. Carausu and Mr. Whitelum often are.

But in this sprawling universe that also covers the shred guitarists, the dadaist live streamers, the haul girls, the van dwellers and the extreme eaters, the couple stands out because they are good television; escapism without the queasy aftermath. Joshua Slocums for the digital age, they offer a view of life in authentically challenging circumstances, in contrast to the manufactured dramas the medium typically invites.

Since they began posting in late 2014, Ms. Carausu and Mr. Whitelum’s videos have become more polished, thanks to a drone, multiple cameras and editing help. “Our Morning Routine Onboard,” posted at the end of May, has nearly three million views.

Maybe what compels is simply their competence and equanimity. There is no whinging on board La Vagabonde.

Or maybe it’s the accent, shown off when Mr. Whitelum, for example, reads David Foster Wallace, his favorite author. It is doubtful that any member of the badly behaving crews on “Below Deck,” the Bravo reality show about life on megayachts now in its seventh season, is passing around copies of “The Pale King.”

Trading Up

On a recent Saturday, the couple were at home on their catamaran, which was docked at Gurney’s Newport Resort & Marina. Lenny was gnawing an apple and playing with a USB cord. He has barely any baby gear, and fewer toys: a Jolly Jumper; a baby seat; a stick, a triangle and a pair of tiny cymbals.

“To explain the obvious,” Mr. Whitelum said, “boat living is enforced minimalism.”

The boat’s engine was broken and they had been in town waiting for parts for over a week, guests of Sean Kellershon, the dock master at Gurney’s.

Mr. Kellershon has been following their adventures for years; when he saw that they were heading north after months in the Bahamas, he offered them a spot at the marina. “They just seemed like really cool people,” he said.

Mr. Whitelum was wearing what looked like a Star Wars T-shirt, except that Mark Hamill’s face had been replaced with his own; Carrie Fisher’s with Ms. Carausu’s; and under Darth Vader’s helmet was Lenny. Designed by a fan, it’s La Vagabonde merchandise, $29, made by an ecologically conscious company in Los Angeles.

The couple sells shirts, hoodies, totes, sailing guides and cookbooks they have written from their website, mailed in compostable envelopes. But they make most of their living from patrons: about 3,500 subscribers who pay $3 to $10 for early access to the videos and other perks, like the chance to meet the couple for dinner and a sail, perhaps, if La Vagabonde comes to their town.

Ms. Carausu and Mr. Whitelum’s living costs are moderate. Ms. Carausu estimated they might spend $400 every two weeks on groceries in places they can catch their own fish, and $400 every two months or so on diesel fuel. They run their engine as little as possible, and charge their batteries with solar and wind power.

Still, boat maintenance is expensive. Conventional wisdom says that once a boat is more than two years old, it costs 15 percent of its purchase price every year. Their elegant and airy new boat, a 48-foot Outremer, is about two and a half years old, and lists for about $780,000.

After having seen one in Los Roques, an archipelago off Venezuela, Mr. Whitelum wooed the company, which built a boat designed specially for the couple, and arranged a lease they could pay monthly at a slightly discounted rate.

On forums like Reddit, fans have debated the couple’s good fortune. Had they sold out? Were they still relatable? Could you learn from their videos if they were sailing such a high-end craft? Was their video making work anyway?

But as one poster noted, “ … people think that just anyone can get a GO PRO and do a YouTube Channel, get on Patreon and make hay. It just does not work this way. It actually takes quite a bit of onscreen talent and editing skills to get viewers … I’ll admit it. I just like these people.”

Mr. Whitelum and Ms. Carausu did not set out to be YouTube personalities. Mr. Whitelum skipped university and started a business digging trenches for Australia’s phone company before going to work on oil rigs for eight years. Between three-week shifts, he backpacked around the world, intent on saving his money.

At the start of a trip through South America, he broke his neck in the surf at Copacabana beach in Rio. The surgery temporarily paralyzed his vocal cords, and he couldn’t speak or work for six months. Though he had sailed only once, a miserable three days beating into the wind off Southern Australia, he said, it was his dream to buy a boat and learn how to handle it.

“‘O.K., so you’re going to be alone forever then,’” a friend predicted darkly.

‘What About the Sharks?’

Ms. Carausu had been a tomboy with two older brothers who learned to ride a motorcycle before she ever got on a bike; she learned to drive a motorboat before graduating from high school, where her curriculum included marine studies and aquaculture.

Afterward, she worked as a dive master in Queensland, Australia, living in a Kia van she painted and fixed up until the fateful trip to Ios. A travel company had hired her after seeing her in videos she had posted on Facebook, and she quit two weeks early to go sailing with Mr. Whitelum.

They had known each other barely more than a month when he said, “It would be great if you’d sail the world with me.” Ms. Carausu decided to sell all her belongs and go for it.

“I had always hung around guys who didn’t have any goals and here was this sailor guy who just got stuff done,” she said. “I knew he was going to go far, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

“‘What about the waves? What about the sharks?’” Ms. Carausu remembered her mother saying. “Deep-ocean sailing for her was a combination of ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Perfect Storm,’” which was one reason Ms. Carausu began posting reassuring footage of their trip, using a Canon Power Shot.

The first videos are very much like home movies, charting progress south from the Mediterranean to Cape Verde, and then across the Atlantic. “I saw something good in what we were doing,” Ms. Carausu said, “and I thought people would be interested. I wanted to put them up on YouTube, but Riley wouldn’t let me.”

But by Malta, a month in, he had relented. Within a few weeks of its posting, their first video had over 70,000 views. “She was flipping out, and I was like, ‘Cool, but what does it mean?’ For five months it was still a hobby,” Mr. Whitelum said.

After their first Atlantic crossing, funds were low. By Grenada, they were broke. As they prepared to fly home to work, having hauled the boat out of the water there, they announced their plans in a video to let their community know that would be the last for a while.

Subscribers turned into paying patrons by the hundreds. It took some time, however, for Mr. Whitelum to wrap his head around the idea of being crowdfunded. “That was really hard for me,” he said, “taking money from strangers.”

The filming process typically takes three days; after Lenny’s birth, Ms. Carausu hired an editor to make the initial cuts, though she puts the finishing touches on before posting. They hope to keep sailing, boat-school Lenny and continue to make videos, Kardashians-like, but wholesome and afloat.

Ms. Carausu has designed a line of swimwear she calls Vaga Bella Swim, made from recycled, ocean-harvested plastic trash, and plans to donate the proceeds to a charity.

“I’ve always been dreaming of the perfect bikini,” she said. “Something that looks a little bit sexy, but that you can spearfish and dive in without having a body part fall out.” The couple is also hoping to turn the boat into a vessel with zero or low emissions.

Once their engine was fixed, they rode a nor’easter to the Annapolis Boat Show in Maryland, surfing 30 knots of wind for three nights and four days, to meet up with hundreds of patrons there.

Currently they are sailing to Charleston, S.C., where they will leave the boat with friends for two months so they can return home for the Christmas holidays. Then they’ll take the boat through the Panama Canal, and across the Pacific to Australia, a first for them, and circumnavigate their home country, with all the challenges that will bring.

“One year on a boat is like 10 on land,” Mr. Whitelum said. “Now it’s as if we’ve been married for 50 years. If you’re not sure about a partner, take them sailing.”

Sahred From Source link Travel

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What's up Reddit? Long time lurker and first-time poster here and I just wanted to share just a few insights on our first year running an online-based business, the things I have learned and some of the mistakes I have made (so nobody else will have to make them).Firstly, I'm a 28-year-old business owner - I have been working independently since I dropped out of high school to work for my father in his company. After the GFC, the company took a heavy hit and had to close down which caused a lot of heartache in our family. Lessons were learned and bridges were burnt. Since then, I have gone and studied at university and completed a number of consulting and contracting work for various companies (small and large) - before jumping into the deep end again and starting my own business(es).Currently, I am running 2 separate online businesses in an industry where there is a high level of demand for our products and services, as the industry is pretty much considered backward when it comes to technology. A few of the things I will point out, will no doubt, have been said on here a thousand times. I feel the more you hear it from other people, the more it will reinforce such lessons, so hearing them again from me won't hurt :-)I’m just going to briefly touch on the basics in this post without going too much in depth, and will most likely follow up on other posts. Please note, these are formed from my own personal opinions, and you may disagree with some of them.Make sure you have enough capital (...and a source for more when you run out)This one is pretty obvious but I’m going to say it anyway. Don’t underestimate the start-up costs for your business. Make sure that it can run sufficiently until you can start generating revenue. Every business is different and there is no one right answer to what amount this should be. If you don’t think you have enough cash in the bank to keep the business running, make sure you have a contingency plan for when that happens! Look ahead of time and plan your spend wisely.If you don’t think you can afford to, or that there may be problems down the track, save yourself the drama down the track and don’t start. You should have enough confidence in your product if you're willing to take this kind of financial risk.It’s not (always) about the money.If you’re building up a business just for the quick cash, the followers or fame, it’s most likely going to fail...Having come from a network of businesses (and seeing them come and go), I can always tell the kind of people who are in it for the minute and try to swim in the success of being a business owner well before they have even gotten their business on its feet. I have seen a fair share of these kinds of ventures fail, simply because their heart wasn’t in the right place and decisions were made in the owner's best interest, rather than that of the business.The most important things you should care about during the initial phase of starting up is gaining momentum and kicking goals. Rather than drawing a fat salary from your initial revenue, reinvest that into actually growing your business. I paid myself just enough to get by in the first few months of starting up and I could say that if I didn’t then we probably wouldn’t still be standing.Be cautious when hiring your first employeesI made the mistake of hiring the wrong person when our businesses commenced. I had worked alongside him at another company and thought he would be a great fit for what we were doing (based on experience). It turned out that he was wrongly suited and started showing an entitled attitude towards us once he had gotten into his comfort zone. This person was disobeying instructions, failing to meet deadlines, constantly taking personal calls and just generally being a poor employee.After his probation period had ended, I told him that we had noted all of his behaviours and it was not what we were looking for in developing our company's culture and that his services were no longer needed. He told me to go fuck myself and that our business is nothing without him, and that he hopes we fail. I let the door hit him on his way out.Thankfully, not everybody is like this guy. It's very difficult to avoid these personalities, as there are little signs you can tell when screening candidates. Also, I always hear that diminishing the employee/employer boundaries is a good way to keep staff productive, but I don’t think that works in all scenarios. Always ensure you enforce company policy when it’s being breached and never be afraid to put on your Mr. Manager hat.If you're successful, shitty people will try to followBusiness is a jungle and there definitely are some snakes out there. When I say snakes, I'm referring to the kind of people who will try and do whatever they can to try and make a quick buck, which including screwing you over. I have dealt with people straight up copying my business concept to the point where they had copy-pasted content from my website! I have also had people call up and lie directly to me, with the obvious intent to try and steal my contact list for their own personal gain. I made sure that whatever they were trying to build never saw the light of day.If you’re going to be running a business, the only advice I can give when it comes to these things is to leave your heart at the door. Don’t spend your valuable time building something up, and have someone come along and try and fuck you over. Defend your business like it's your newborn child. These things will happen, and they can come in any form (such as ‘business networking opportunities’). Always stay on your toes, but keep a positive outlook because not everyone is deceitful.You are not your own boss, your customers are.This one is straightforward and common knowledge. If your customers say your service or product is a piece of shit... Listen and find out why they think that! Don’t be defensive. There was obvious some form of miscommunication that has happened at some point in the transaction. Whether you oversold your product, or you gave a pretty poor service - you have failed to meet their expectations which have left a bad taste in their mouth. The last thing you want is the negative word of mouth spreading about your business from your customers.So far I have had one pretty bad experience with a customer. Although this customer was obviously a difficult person, to begin with, I can say that at one point there was a breakdown in communication and we had not met his expectations. I discovered where things went wrong and focused on improving that aspect in our business. I also went out of my way to personally apologise and ensure that it was a mishap that would not happen again as the problem been fully addressed.You may not agree or see eye-to-eye with your some of your customers, but at the end of the day, they are the ones who are spinning the financial wheel in your business. Also, as long as you’re in business, you will be kissing someone’s ass to get the job done. This isn’t something that only happens in corporate.Make sure you have some sort of social/communication skills...Having adequate communication skills will get you really far in business. Communication is a two-way street and is not just about being a great speaker, but also being a good listener. Being able to listen to someone and address their problems, not only makes you a great an awesome business person, but also a great person to work with/for.The ability to communicate and connect with others will also get you far in terms of marketing your product. Reaching your target audience will be far more effective if you listen to them and if you can address their specific needs/pain points.What if you’re an introvert and don’t like talking to people? That’s fine. There are plenty of successful companies run by introverts, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with avoiding conversations forever. Go out and get used to talking to people you have never met before by going to meetups with people who share your hobbies or interests. I considered myself a bit shy, to begin with, but now I can say I built up enough confidence in myself, and my product, so that I can walk in anywhere and speak to anybody about my product.Final wordsWhen reading and learning how to start up a business, I think there are a lot of things that are left out, or, are misconceived simply because everybody’s story is different. You can replicate the same decisions made by a business you admire but that does not mean you will end up successful.There are plenty of things I can go on about, and I would be more than happy to share if people are interested. I honestly find the best lessons to be learned are from other's experiences.edit: fixed some stupid grammatical errors