#this is why shane left reddit

[pinkcrocss]

Randomly fell down a rabbit hole of the original Gen V castings, and here is what I surmised from a combo of wiki summaries, rumours on reddit and vague screen rant articles...

Originally the show was pitched/written by Craig Rosenberg. From there, Jaz, Lizzie, and Maddie were all officially cast. Furthermore, Shane Paul McGhie was cast as Andre and Aimee Carrero was cast as maybe Shetty (not certain). At this point, the script was completely different from what it is now, and I believe was much more of an ensemble show as opposed to Marie being the central character.

Okay, then Reina Hardesty was cast as Fem!Jordan. At this point, Craig Rosenberg left the project due to "creative differences with Amazon" and Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters were brought in as show runners. At which point the original script was heavily changed and both Shane Paul McGhie and Aimee Carrero left the show. Aimee because pre-production ran too long and she received other jobs, and Shane because of "creative differences" again (I think maybe Andre's role was maybe reduced in the new script).

So then, Chance was brought on to replace Shane and I think Derek was brought on around this time. At this point the other cast members had had a few weeks to bond already, but then Reina also backs out, citing "creative differences". Then they brought on London to replace Reina (which according to London was very last minute).

The last to be cast, I believe were Asa (Sam), Shelley Conn (shetty), Patrick (Luke), Sean Patrick Thomas (Andre's dad), Marco Pigossi (Cardoso) and finally Clancy Brown (Brink).

Note, a lot of this is speculation, and it's possible the order of events might not be 100% accurate...

So my questions are...

What was the first script like? And what were the changes that Amazon was so insistent on that it made the original writer leave the project?

What changes were made to Andre and Jordan's characters that made the original actors leave such a lucrative opportunity?

And despite Jordan being portrayed as 100% East Asian in the show with two fully asian actors cast as their parents, why did the casting directors insist on only casting visibly biracial asian actors (particularly wasian) for this role?

Like, I love the casting we did end up with. But it seems like such an intentional casting choice to make three times, why not just make one of Jordan's parents white, then?

[ithisatanytime]

Ecco2k & Bladee - Amygdala(slowed+reverbed)

 i just want to expound a little on my point about comedy existing sort of outside polite society, before the internet celebrities and entertainers were so far away as to be untouchable, with the exception of concerts most peoples entertainment wasnt live but pretaped or if it was live you watch it from your tv set, but standup was different, its much more personal, today you can chat to your favorite youtuber live and hell probably respond or you can comment on twitter, but back in the day the people entertaining you would likely never know you exist, but in standup they were literally right there often times making shit up on the spot, and working with the crowd, improvising, etc. its much more alive and real, and comedians were given a sort of special pass at the time to talk the way real people talk, and to talk about the things in life that didnt get mentioned on televisoin because they werent kosher, because well its real life, and most importantly fuck you its funny. comedians have always had this liberty, this expectation that they would be pushing the envelope, i guess the word im looking for to some it all up, is that comedy was always very candid and therefore wasnt expected to be as constrained by the sort of rules that tv and movie directors were constrained to. thats why i was so hard on shane gillis, its not that hes so bad, hes actually quite funny, but as a comedian i find him impossible to respect because he kowtows to the left and cancel culture, i can just tell hes scared, hes scared of being ostracized, hes afraid deep down of eating alone in the cafeteria still, school does this to men and its unnatural, its calhouns mouse utopia. its especially bothersome when its a comedian whos actually funny because in order to be funny you have to be at least smart enough to know better than to care about what literal retarded college girls think about your act. stand up comedy is a fucking dumpster fire and has been for almost a full decade now, i wish there was a place discussing the state of it where the userbase has some standards. honestly i wish for that more than almost anything at this point, just a website like reddit used to be waaayy back in the old days, it was always cringe but damn i just want to be able to read someone else mirroring some thoughts like the internet getting worse since covid, you cant even google that search query because it has covid in it so it totally ruins the results (try it) but even if you do find a thread on a public forum everyone is so pants shitting scared of the moderation that everyone has to pretend either the internet didnt dramatically change during the pandemic or if they do aknowledge the change they need to assign the cause to something like SEOs and corporate greed. the sheer level of censorship on the internet is what assures me most of all that the jews will not end this year in power. i predicted the black eye they got publicly, even within a pretty narrow timeframe, but they wont end this year with any sort of political power in the west, the censorship alone is proof of that for me, its a terrible mistake from their perspective but i believe they are literally out of options.

[secretshyanaccount]

Ain’t no way…….

GIRL IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR ASS OFF OF REDDIT AND BACK TO TUMBLR WHERE YOU BELONG—

[roosterteethwatchdog]

how are people supposed to know who the former animators are

Oh people know about them. You know how I know they know?

I have seen the reddit and some folks on twitter not be kind to former animators. There's one former animator that has called out and criticized the company to the point that someone was like "They're coming across as a hater" and got lots of upvotes. Someone on twitter actually confronted them because they said something along the lines about not trusting the company when they say they'll improve and explained to them it was because management would constantly lie about improving things when they worked there. the person who talked to them then asked " Well are the RWBY people good?" And the animator stopped talking to them.

Back in 2019, when people got laid off the week before Christmas some former animators and a couple who did live action tweeted out their frustrations and the reddit was like "Why are they being vague, either say something or don’t" as if blacklisting is just not a thing.

When the creator of Nomad first left the company the reddit was like "Lets hope this isn't another Shane." Speaking of the blacklisting I mentioned earlier, I really hope people understand the risk the creator took by speaking out and appreciate them doing it.

Whenever I try to point out how the company has done shit some fucking twitter rando just constantly calls me a troll or says I'm doing this for attention when I tried to do my whole ���investigation”  privately or that I'm the one making it harder for people who work there to speak out when I bring it up. Someone on this site told me to get mugged. I'm sorry but with how I've seen fans talk about or treat former employees over the years, I just don't believe them when they say they “Appreciate CRWBY”. That appreciation is gone when you leave and open up.

Since we’re talking about the animators, let’s play a game. Go watch the v2 production diaries or the v6 behind the scenes featurettes on the website. Just whatever RWBY behind the scenes stuff they have publicly out there and count (you're probably going to have to google to be sure) how many people they show/interview that don't work there anymore. People had to throw themselves into the fire to make RvB, RWBY, X- Ray and Vav, etc and have done so for years and no one wants to acknowledge the mental toll this took on their animators.

I have no reason to believe the company when they say they're getting better.

[mariaiscrafting]

can i ask why you dislike dream? im not being passive agressive or something lol i am genuinely curious

S’all good, kinda figured you weren’t being, and a lot of people have asked me this lol. There are so many reasons, and I’ve said this so many times already, but I’ll try to go over some of the main things I can remember:

1) Arrogance: kinda put me off how he’s always responded to criticism. Always kinda had an air of superiority about shit, and it never really bothered me on its own because I think lots of CCs are arrogant & I’m arrogant myself, but combined with all of the following, it became a reason for me to dislike him lol

2) Manipulation of his audience: look, I kinda always knew that CCs with huge fanbases, especially CCs who grow this quickly, have some kind of grasp of how to treat and foster their audience to their greatest advantage. I’ve always been wary of CCs that put on soft or nice personalities, especially since the whole Shane Dawson debacle. But with Dream, it’s been a whole other thing ever since his cheating response video, and I’ve never been able to see him in a good light in regard to how he responds to his fans, ever since. I went into it in a lot more detail back when I first watched the video, the day it dropped, but I’m too exhausted to scrounge that post up, so I’ll summarize: that video had a very specific strategy that he used to victimize himself and appeal to his fans’ compassion for him, and after rewatching the video for the third time that day, it felt gross and calculated to me. The way that he focuses very little on the actual mathematical part of his argument. The way he frames the issue of the mods having favoritism or bias. It was already proven on Reddit and throughout Twitter that the numbers the mods looked at were for good reason, and not because they just wanted to pick the numbers that made Dream look the worst, but that’s how he framed the argument. When I logged onto Twitter and Tumblr that day, there were thousands of fans who had latched onto what he said in the latter half of that video and coming to Dream’s defense, and that’s kinda when it hit me: this guy fucking knows what he’s doing, and he’s doing it well, and I really really dislike it. There’s about a hundred other ways he manipulates his audience, including not coming to people’s defenses when huge chunks of his audience attack them (even though the people had respectful and correct criticisms of him), defending stans so adamantly in the face of antis, and posting periodic alt tweets that help garner the illusion that he super cares about his fans; but, that cheating response video was the major red flag, for me.

3) Cheating & lying: as is likely no surprise to y’all, I think Dream cheated lmao. At first, I was ecstatic that he had actually made a detailed response video and put out a report with the help of an actual professional, but as I read up on his supposed statistical argument and dissected the parts of his argument that felt off to me, I realized maybe he had cheated. Talking to some STEM major friends of mine, who weren’t into MCYT but had obviously heard about the whole debacle because they like Twitter and Minecraft, kinda put the nail in the coffin for me. I’m not nearly smart enough or have a good enough memory to detail exactly why I think he cheated on this blog, right now, in April, but essentially: his main argument relied upon claiming mod bias, instead of a sound mathematical or statistical argument; there’s no way of proving that the world files he provided to the mods and in the open source weren’t altered; the statistical problems he points out (i.e., stopping effect) don’t actually skew the original mods’ model nearly as much as his supposed PhD guy would say; and the odds he comes up with might not be nearly as impossible as 1 in 7 trillion, but they still come up to around 1 in 100 million, which is still fucking ridiculous, considering that there are only, like, 120 million people in the world who play Minecraft.  Not impossible, but laughable that he expects people to believe that. But... I guess they did, lmao. The thing that peeved me the most about the whole thing was the adamant lying lmao. When you look at the situation from the perspective of “dream cheated,” you realize just how fucked up all his Twitter responses, his adamance in streams and that video, and the general mood among his friends is... idk man, it’s just highly fucked.

4) Relationship with stans: look, there are significant numbers of  his fans that take part in Twitter cancelling vendettas, who spread around information about other CCs and their fellow fans that is false and meant to villify them, etc., and he never fucking says anything. It really, really bothers me. There are too many instances to enumerate, but a few that have caught my eye were when Dream stans would attack Techno, prior to their battle and when a Native American woman politely explained why he shouldn’t use Native music, he responded and said he wouldn’t, but tons of stans continued to attack her in her replies for “being so harsh/mean.” Like, he knows that just one word from him will make his fandom follow his beck and call. All it would’ve taken was one fucking word. There are so many fucking people that have been harrassed off of social media platforms because of the hivemind that is dttwt, for christ’s sake.

5) Reddit posts: All of the above were reasons for me to mildly dislike the guy prior to the Reddit posts, but they weren’t really enough to make me stop posting about c!Dream or reblogging fanart or reading DNF fics or watching Manhunts. I kinda just clowned on the guy, answered the occasional ask about the cheating thing or something related, and left it at that. The Reddit posts not only pissed me off for their content, but for the lying, as well. Do you think I fucking cared about him cheating at speedrunning Minecraft, of all games? Fuck no. What I cared about was the adamant lying that went into the whole debacle. Kinda the same with the Reddit posts. I’m one to usually forgive creators who acknowledge past errors, obviously. It is creators who try to brush stuff off, or even worse, create an elaborate lie to cover up allegations, that put me off a fuck ton. This is the reason I could never be comfortable with watching Pewdipie after I realized all the shit he had brushed off, and it’s now the reason I can’t go back to watching Dream. There is so much evidence that points to guilt, including but not limited to: his first move when the slideshow dropped (before posting to Twitter) being deleting as many old Discord messages as he could, the contradiction between him at first denying the account was his at all then changing the story to say he shared it with a friend, the wording and phrasing in the political posts being almost identical to the non-political posts that were clearly him (i.e., the one that explains his demographics perfectly), and the timing of the political posts (some of them being posted mere minutes after posts that were verifiably him, like the picture of Patches to the cats subreddit). People can claim that he’s likely changed, and what this it matter, as long as politics don’t affect his work now, but I can’t believe this fundamental misunderstanding of why bigotry in entertainment matters. I’ve always had a problem with the adoration this fandom has for cishet white men, and the constant criticism of non-cishet, non-white, non-men, but this really feels like the final slap in the fucking face. It’s like everyone truly believes that it doesn’t matter, that his beliefs couldn’t have possibly affected the way he’s treated fellow CCs in his circles or any of the number of people that depend upon Dream, directly and indirectly, for employment/CC clout. It’s like everyone truly believes that political ideology has no effect on the way we perceive, treat, and behave around other people in literally any field, not just politics. I, just... Christ. I don’t really wanna unpack my emotions about this whole thing right now, so I won’t. I’ll just say: I dislike Trump supporters and ex-Trump supporters alike, I dislike conservatives who claim they’re centrists (every fucking guy my age does this, it’s infuriating and makes me want to bash my head into the nearest wall), I dislike people who levy their fans against criticism - even when it’s righteous - and I dislike people who lie about their past actions; Dream fits all those categories, so I dislike him.

[steves-on-a-plane]

Ghost Hunting

For @thefanficfaerie​‘s OTP Challenge (2020)       Words: 533 Pairing: Tony Stark x Reader         Prompt: Spooktacular Halloween: Day 18 - Ghost Hunting Summary: Reader is winding down for the night watching Buzzfeed Unsolved and Tony comes to snuggle up and watch with.

“What are we watching?” Tony asked before dropping himself onto the couch next to you.

“Buzzfeed Unsolved.” You answered with a yawn. You snuggled closer to him. “This is a supernatural episode. The dynamic of the show is that Ryan believes in the supernatural and his co-host Shane doesn’t. They go around investigating allegedly haunted locations trying to prove or disprove the existence of ghosts. This is one of my favorite episodes.”

“You’ve watched this more than once?” He raised an eyebrow at you.

“I’ve watched every season at least twice.” You replied. “I tend to prefer their true crime series more, but you know Halloweeeen!” You warbled the holiday’s name out in your best ghostly impression.

“Right, Halloweeen!” Tony laughed as he impersonated you. “So what do you think of all this stuff? Ya know ghosts and haunted houses. When it’s not Halloween of course.”

“Oh, ghosts aren’t real.” You snorted as if that should be obvious.

“How can you be so certain, Sweetheart?” He asked you. His tone nearly serious.

“Well, have you ever seen a ghost?” You questioned him.

“Just because I haven’t seen a ghost doesn’t mean I can’t believe in the paranormal.” Tony stated. “I mean look at Rogers! The guy was frozen in ice for 70 years and they thaw him out and he’s just fine? That’s supernatural and no one ever talks about that.”

“Have you been reading Reddit Avengers conspiracy theories again?” You laughed. “Babe, those people think Clint crawls around in the vents for fun and that you and Bruce are lizard people.”

“It would explain why we’re so much smarter than everyone else.” Tony shrugged.

“I cannot believe that you Tony Stark a man of science believes in the supernatural.” You shook your head.

“Not everything can be explained by science, Sweetheart.” He insisted before kissing you. “For example, how much I love you couldn’t possibly be quantified.”

“Nice save there, Science Man.” You teased before kissing him back. “That was a calculated answer only a lizard person would think of.”

“Well how do I know you’re not a lizard person? Or an alien?” He questioned.

“You’ve seen my birth certificate and you’ve met my parents.” You reminded him. “You also had unlimited access to my DNA and multiple labs to test it.”

“It sounds weird when you say it like that.” He frowned. “Are these guys on a haunted bridge?” He pointed at the TV.

“Yeah, it’s supposedly haunted by a demonic Goatman.” You explain. “I disrespect your bridge Goatman!” You repeated one of your all time favorite Buzzfeed Unsolved lines. A few seconds later Shane Medaj called out the same sentence to the Goatman.

“These guys are pretty funny.” Tony decided. “How many episodes of this are there?”

“I don’t know. There’s about six seasons of Supernatural.” You shrugged. “Why you wanna watch more after this one?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of into it.” He nodded.

“I’ll go make the popcorn.” You said getting up from the couch.

“No, you stay. I’ll get it this time and I’ll bring you your electric blanket from the bedroom.” He offered.

“I knew I loved you!” You called after his as he left the room.

TAGS:

@littlegasps​ @thefanficfaerie​

[sir-adamus]

so apparently JNPR was supposed to CFVY in the first tournament fight and i have to say im so glad we didn't get that (Jaune was supposed to 1v1 beat Yatsu) there is released bare bones animation of parts of the fight online

so i looked into this and its stuff that turned up on a reddit thread about a year ago that looks like it might have been very early bare-bones Monty work (that or it was Shane and he animated all that without getting the go-ahead because he was working to his own schedule, narrative coherence be damned, he decided what Monty wanted best and everyone else was wrong and bad and a corporate shill and the reason his wife left him)

thing about that is, Monty liked to dick around and animate stuff all the time, even for stuff that was never gonna get included or was planned for well down the line (and then sneak it in anyway despite how little sense it makes - Monty was great at cool fight scenes and ideas but cohesive narrative wasnt his strong suit, which is partially why Miles and Kerry were brought in, to say no when he got too wrapped up in rule of cool that it was harming the narrative), especially as we know the actual narrative was to have Em and Merc take out Yatsu and Coco, which wouldnt have worked in the tournament as they wouldve had to have won the first round, which would make it impossible for Pyrrha to get to the finals - so it doesnt mean much of anything (hell we dont even know it was planned for the tournament, the footage is solely without context, it mightve just been friendly sparring, but even then, it makes that limp noodle way too skilled at that point in time, he sucked)

[whitewolfofwinterfell]

What do you think of how TWD has become? Personally I recently just stopped watching since Lauren left. Before that every episode became a chore to watch and then it just became a show I analytically judged and cringed through. And I’m really not one to stop watching shows after years of being loyal. So I was wondering if it’s the same for you. And if so what it who or what is still keeping you to watch.

I literally couldn’t have received this ask at a better time - I’ve spent the last half an hour or so browsing through Reddit to hear people’s opinions on why they feel TWD has declined in quality and what the best/worst seasons are (yes, I know, I’m sad haha). To answer your question about what I think of what TWD has become - I’m very disappointed with what it’s become and I feel exactly the same way you do. There are so many amazing elements of TWD that make it one of my favourite shows and I will always love and re-watch the earlier seasons, but it’s gotten so bad. Like, so so so so so bad. I haven’t watched the show since the end of season 8 but I’ve still seen snippets of season 9 from the TWD blogs I follow and have no desire to pick it up again. I’m like you and I find it very difficult to give up on shows that I’ve loved and followed for so long, but it gets to a point where you have to prioritise enjoyment above loyalty and it got to a point where I felt the same as you and that watching new episodes was a chore. When it gets to that point with any show, it’s time to quit, because watching shows should be an enjoyable experience, not something you’re forcing yourself to do and that’s putting you in a bad mood afterwards (which TWD often did for me before I stopped watching). 

I began to lose interest in the show during season 6 with the introduction of the Hilltop and the Saviors. Personally, I’m not a fan of the focus on human conflict and community vs community, this is a zombie show and zombies should be the main conflict not petty squabbling between humans (plus, we already had that plot in seasons 3 and 4 with the Governor). I had no interest in Negan and the build-up to his reveal was so dragged out that I cared even less by the time we finally met him. The circumstances of Glenn and Abraham’s deaths angered me beyond belief (like it did for many fans), and losing Glenn was a massive hit for me. At that point, I considered stopping watching, but I was willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt and committed to watching season 7, which was undoubtedly the worst season of the show by a mile. Nothing even happens in season 7, it’s all filler (what even is that god awful episode with Daryl in the cell with that annoying song that replays constantly?), there’s too much focus on Negan, the core croup are divided for a majority of the season (again) and 99% of the characters are utterly detestable. Honestly, the only reason I kept watching at that point was because of Rick and Carl. When Carl was killed in season 8 I was sure that was the point at which I would stop watching, because I’d only been holding on by a thread for two seasons. Again, I forced myself to watch until the end of the season partly out of curiosity as to how they would handle the aftermath of Carl’s death and what would happen to Rick, but mostly because I was clinging to that teeny tiny little chance that Carl wasn’t really dead and it was all some cruel trick. When I realised that Carl really was dead (and saw the shit-fest that the rest of season 8 was) I just had nothing left to watch for. 

TWD is a dark and depressing show and a big problem that has led it to the place it is today (aside from atrocious pacing, poor writing decisions and a bad format) is that it systematically kills off all of its characters who represent hope in a universe that is hopeless. Sophia, Hershel, T-Dog, Beth, Glenn and Carl all symbolised optimism and hope in some way because of what they represented and/or had overcome. Carl’s death, in particular, was such a huge blow for me, that I couldn’t recover from it. For me personally, Rick and Carl are the foundation of TWD and without them it simply doesn’t work. That father/son relationship is at the heart of the show - Rick is the main protagonist, he is the hero who is responsible for rebuilding a new world and his primary motivator (excluding Lori) is his son. When you take Carl away you take away the heart of the show and the show no longer makes sense without him. Fans watched Carl grow from a young boy, witnessed all the traumas he suffered through and regardless of whether we liked him or not, we were invested in his well-being and rooting for him. As a child, he was the symbol of innocence, of the future and he was the one character we wanted to see still standing at the end, we wanted him to be the one that beat the world, just like Lori said on her deathbed. Without Carl who’s going to take Rick’s place? The whole point of the show was for Carl to grow into a strong, brave leader who could one day step into Rick’s shoes and continue down the same path. Rick’s character no longer makes sense without Carl, and as endearing as his relationships with Judith and Michonne are, they are no substitute for his relationship with Carl. 

So, if Carl had survived perhaps I’d still be watching the show right now (I might’ve even been able to deal with Rick’s absence with Carl still around, although I would’ve found it very difficult), but I’m doubtful that even Carl and the Rick/Carl relationship could’ve kept me watching since I grew to dislike every other character and aspect of the show before I stopped watching. All of my favourite characters have been killed - Lori, Shane, Beth, Hershel, Glenn and Carl - and the new characters that have been introduced are not adequate replacements at all. Even the well-liked Jesus is a bland character that I have no emotional investment in at all. As for the other long-standing characters like Daryl, Michonne, Maggie, Carol, Rosita and Tara, I don’t like any of them anymore because of the way they’ve been written. That’s a huge problem, because TWD is a character-centric show and the characters are what keep people invested. That’s particularly the case for me, because I’m a very character-orientated person. Like, I’ll commit to watching shows I don’t even like just because I love the character(s) (e.g. The Punisher). 

Putting the characters aside, there’s just no plot there anymore either. Granted, I haven’t watched season 9 so I don’t know whether it’s improved (although I’m assuming it hasn’t if you’ve recently stopped watching), but there’s been no real story except the Rick vs Negan plot for the last 3 seasons and it’s so dull. I know Negan is important in the comics and people would’ve rioted if he hadn’t been introduced on the show, but I just think that his entire arc has ruined the show. People are seduced by his character because of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s performance (and their love for comic!Negan), but the character has no substance and is a poor antagonist in comparison to the legendary Governor. Also, where the hell is the story even headed now? I don’t know and at this point, I’m pretty sure the writers don’t know either. There’s no coherence or sense of vision. That’s largely because it’s such a popular show that it has been given the luxury of having as many seasons as it pleases, but it’s also a curse because it means that the writers hash out episodes and seasons with no end in sight, because they don’t know when it’ll end. TWD is supposed to be unpredictable, so no one could ever guess what the ending would be, but back in the day I could at least picture a feasible ending in my mind (which involved Carl, obviously) but now I can’t, because what’s the end goal? If Carl is gone, it’s not going to end with him in the “new world” continuing Rick’s legacy (which is what I always imagined it to be) and they’ve already found a safe haven and established a community built on friendship and cooperation with other communities which was another primary goal for the characters, so what else is left? What is a fitting ending for the story given the direction it has taken now? On any other post-apocalyptic show the basic goal would be to establish a cause and cure for the disease to attempt to save the world, but we’ve already been explicitly told TWD isn’t a show about finding a cure (which makes no sense, because honestly, who would just accept it and go ‘okay, this is the way things are now’?), so it makes no sense. It’s very difficult (if not impossible) for people to continue watching a show like this where all of the characters they become invested in eventually die and there is no sense of purpose or meaning. It’s an apocalyptic world, meaning is all anybody is really looking for, we don’t really care about the survival aspect (although that’s interesting), we want to see them find a new purpose and place in a world that has been ripped apart at the seams.

Sorry, I’ve gone off on a complete rant about this, I just have a lot of feelings about TWD. It makes me sad what’s happened to what was a once great show and it’s all because the people involved are so greedy. They don’t care about telling a brilliant story, they care about dragging it out for as long as possible to bleed every last dollar from it that they can. I’ll still most likely watch the last ever episode of the show, because I always do with shows that I’ve been a long-term fan of but stopped watching (such as TVD), just to get some closure. Also, since I love Rick’s character so much (and based on what I’ve seen he’s not dead so will eventually return to the show), I won’t be satisfied until I see how his story ends (and it better be a damn happy ending, because there’s been enough heartbreak on this show lmao). 

Thanks for your ask :)

[wetookanoath]

Different anon, but I have also been wondering if they were friends beforehand. And also, do we know how close of friends they are? They show up a lot on each other's social media, but unsolved is also both of their biggest projects atm. Are they just casual/work friends, or do we know if they're actually quite good pals? Sorry if this has been answered before!

Why are you guys so into questioning their friendship? Nonnie,

They have said it a million times on Q&A, on panels, on reddit, on twitter: they ARE very, very good friends. Unsolved has only got them closer.

There’s literal pictures on Ryan’s instagram (and I think there’s another one on Shane’s, and there’s like one or two on Quinta’s) of Shane hanging out with Ryan’s family, there’s like four of them. From 2015, 2016 and 2017. 

Also, Quinta has one with her family, Ryan’s and Shane is there, too, with one of his closer friends from damn Chicago.

Ryan is friends with ALL of Shane’s friends from his hometown, there’s actually pictures of all of them together in both their instagrams, in all of Shane’s friends’ instagrams (and even in the wives of the friends’ instagrams). Seriously, all that is public, no one is hiding anything.

Shane also knows and hangs out with Ryan’s friends. In fact, there’s pictures in Ryan’s instagram and in one of Shane’s friends insta of both, Ryan’s friends group and Shane’s, all hanging out in different places from different days.

Weird how Shane reacted at Ryan’s “fuck you, Roland” this last season of Supernatural? That’s because he and Roland know each other, too. Roland is one of the dudes Ryan is living with now, the other one being Danny, his best friend for years and years. The two of them? Friends with Shane, too. So, like. Come on.

Ryan recently wrote a tweet reminding us all that they are okay, they are good friends, they just like to bother each other.

Ryan puts Shane in the same level as close family and cried because an alien killed him and his mama in a dream.

“The ghoulboys have a bound that can’t be broken, wherever we like it or not. We took an Oath”

The person Ryan asked to be in his first ever video was Shane. That silly gif we say is their first date? It’s Ryan’s very first video and he asked Shane to be in it as his friend.

They have made couple trips together, and also taken family trips together, too. For real. Everything is on instagram.

Back in 2015, Shane and Ryan used to post typical best friend shit like the kind of ridiculous messages they sent to each other on fucking whatsapp, it’s all on twitter.

When Helen left for New York the first time, Ryan spend A LOT of time with Shane and has keep doing it now, even with moving and so.

I mean, I’m being serious here. Would you spend your entire weekend with a co-worker you see EVERY. SINGLE. DAY., that sits at your side every day from morning to noon, just to gain some numbers? At 29 and 30-something???? Nah, fam.

Please keep in mind Shane doesn’t use social media that much, but when he posts on instagram is either Sara or Ryan, there’s very few in between, ‘cause he loves that guy. They are really, really friends.

Both are good friends with their respective brothers. Ryan hangs out with Scott and Shane when the dude visits.

Shane ALWAYS gets Ryan on his videos every time he can. On It’s Personal? Ryan. On Debatable? Ryan. On Ruining History? Ryan right at his side. Every other video when he has needed help? Ryan.

For more, please read this post.

Really, guys… how can you not see it? Do you really think people can get that kind of chimestry and have so much fun, on a youtube viral series that is not acting based, just to have some clicks? After seeing them in the Test Friends? In every single video they were paired up BEFORE Unsolved because they have always been good friends?

Guys. Come on.

[knightofbalance-13]

http://xenodweeb.tumblr.com/post/177174184562/misterblank42-hey-so-lets-talk-about-this-this

You people make me sick.

Hey so lets talk about this. This is a work in progress of the Adam VS Yang fight that Shane said was cut. So I’ve had this since May I found this on accident in a comment section on YouTube. I was going to some of you here but when I was still deciding weather or not I should RTX came and when the Adam short came out someone, since the link was out in the wild, had the audacity to not only post it on the RWBY reddit (y'know Roosterteeth territory) but also didn’t at least try to hide the name of the person who posted it on they’re dropbox since it was supposed to be a private thing. I had to go warn the individual to take it down since I didn’t want RT breathing down their neck. So if you were there and wondered why the link stopped working after an hour there’s your answer and now it’s back on the reddit and made it’s way here though it got overshadowed by the Adam short.

Anyways back to the vid I contacted the person who put the dropbox on the comment section I found and they showed me a chatlog they had with the person who gave them the link. That person got it from a discord from someone who claimed to be a friend of Monty. That friend also said some other things.

1. Monty came up with the maidens. He pitched it and Miles liked it.

2. Monty wasn’t an assertive person and because of this Miles and Kerry meddled in some of his scenes and changed the overall plot causing Monty to want leave RT.

3. Sheena was supposed to be Winter.

Speaking of Sheena here’s an old AMA I found that she did a couple of weeks after Monty died.

https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/2x6ac1/i_am_sheena_duquette_oum_ask_me_anything/?utm_source=BD&utm_medium=Search&utm_name=Bing&utm_content=PSR1

Notice how she seemed so excited to cosplay as Winter and  she details how she helped Monty with RWBY. 

Also the person who gave the chatlog also showed me a conversation because he actually DM’d Shane about this and to his surprise Shane responded and he refused to look at it. Shane’s reasoning being that something felt off  and he isn’t “Eager to cause any kind of  trouble over anything RT related"  

So now with all of this there is a question in that “What does this say about the letter now?” like this exist even if Shane doesn’t want to confirm its validity. (Which if he did would make RT less than pleased) So if anyone has questions or anything of the sort let me know.

EDIT: So this is a detail about the fight that was pointed out by @kaedeichinose   The song used is a song called “Session” by linkin park. I went back to the letter and read the section where Shane talks about the fight.

Wanna know what’s missing in the original post here?

PROOF.

All of this is copy pasted from the original post. There is no alterations or modifications from me, this is what you get.  And yet, there is next to NO links, no screenshots, no names and the OP has even admitted to convincing someone to delete evidence complete with a built in excuse to weasel out of any issues. So there is NO way to validate what they are saying. For all we know, he made the video in the link and made up the rest of it just to start shit. Considering this si from the same guy who uses Glassdoor reviews, reviews that can be FABRICATED mind you while all of them being from ANONYOMOUS EMPLOYEES, this is very much likely.

ESPECIALLY the shit involving Monty and Shane.

“Monty wasn’t an assertive person”

I call bullshit on this using the Penny fight scene and the Raven fight scene. BOTH are things that Miles and Kerry noted on not wanting and yet BOTH are canon. If Monty was not assertive, HOW did these things get into canon against the wishes of his co-writers? Not to mention the numerous times we’ve seen people telling that man to take a break and the fact that Shane’s letter NEVER MENTIONED THIS.

“because of this Miles and Kerry meddled in some of his scenes and changed the overall plot causing Monty to want leave RT.“

A. If Miles and Kerry were THIS bad, WHY did Monty approached them for help? Obviously Miles nor Kerry are experienced writers so it couldn’t be for their expertise. So what else does that leave us aside from ‘they’re nice’?

And B. Once again, I looked through Shane’s letter. he NEVER mentions this nor Monty wanting to leave RT. Despite Shane being a bit out of his mind at the time of the letter: I believe HIM before I’d believe YOU. And if he never mentioned it then I’d just suspect you’re lying.

‘Shane responded and he refused to look at it. Shane’s reasoning being that something felt off  and he isn’t “Eager to cause any kind of  trouble over anything RT related"  So now with all of this there is a question in that “What does this say about the letter now?” like this exist even if Shane doesn’t want to confirm its validity.’

WHY would Shane respond to some rando who messaged him about something he hasn’t spoken about in THREE YEARS, especially to denounce his own letter? That doesn’t make ANY sense.

So this whole post is just a case of ‘it happened because I say so!’ without so much as the BARE MINNUM of evidence or proof. This is just stirring up an old issue to get people to fling shit again.

As evidence by the reblog here.

This is why it disgusts me that the only true gotcha non-fans can come up with to dismiss/belittle thinking about it deeply than “show bad” is just “It remixed assets and that’s still bad in a generation where a game made of unchanged assets can get popular enough to help bring a game genre to the mainstream.”

There’s far worse things RT has done than just “Despite being enough of a hit to appear in an anime fighting game made by one of the more well known fighting game devs, they somehow managed to steal assets from Bethany Esda for the very first trailer the show had,” Especially when those posts had shit that read like a 4chan post and took Monty’s words out of context to demonize him for remixing pre-made assets.

And yet you’ll push that shit in regards to RT, Xenodweeb.

And not like this post reads like anything better. Wanna know what OP reminds me of? That Kiwi Farms post that said Sheena killed Monty for insurance money. Should we just believe THEM because they said it, regardless of human empathy and emotion Xenodweeb?

Or are you no better than they are?

RT is pulling some Konami grade shit with Monty’s show and those people are supporting callout posts that also treated Monty like scum to dismiss looking into it and discovering RT’s ACTUAL bullshit and I’m still so fucking bitter about that.

No, you’re bitter that you can’t fling shit and accuse people of bullshit without reprocussions. I also happen to know that you don’t give a FUCK about people’s lives considering what I’ve heard. Why?

THAT is why HBomb’s RWBY video is so much more important than the milquetoast garbage RWBY critical youtubers so far have been and have given us. Unlike those people, who are cool with associating with reactionary scumbags like Chris Ray Gun or talk like reactionaries themselves, HBomb has actually made some strong hard left criticism towards both media and reactionary types.

Because you’re fucking PSYCHO. You see the death of a man before his time and the depression and sadness of another man as EXCUSES to push your own political agenda.

Well, not like the rest of you are any better considering Sokumo bitches about how RWBY doesn’t portray groups like BLM as innocent angels (despite the WF not BEING like BLM intentionally) and Dudeblade bitches about RWBY not being sexist.

Just goes to show how fucked up you are Xenodweeb since THEY never had the AUDACITY to use Monty for this.

I trust HBomb can, if not kickstart the discourse so it’s not dogshit anymore, at least give us something decent to use to show people how bad RT actually is.

Heh, wanna know what the funny thing is?

https://twitter.com/Hbomberguy/status/985266613707595778

Your precious Hbomb would actually DEFEND RT.

And let me guess Xenodweeb, he’s wrong now and he must burn for his sins?

Because that’s ALL you people think about.

Not the consequences of your actions, not whether or not you’re doing what is right, not who you are hurting with this shit, not even if this shit is correct:

Just whether or not you get what you want.

You’re all sick.

P.S. Stop calling everyone who disagrees with you an alt account of me.

[artificialqueens]

Bunk Mate (Bitney, hints of Witney) lolacola01

AN: When the AAA girls hit LA, Shane wants to invite his knew boyfriend onto the bus, only Willam and Alaska aren’t too sure, and when Willam finds out who Shane’s new boyfriend is, he’s really not sure.

“So I want to bring a guy on the tour bus.”

The sound of Shane’s voice caused Willam and Alaska to turn around from their space on the sofa where they were watching Golden Girls.

“A boy to share?” Willam’s eyes lit up.

“No,” Shane sighed. “Not a boy to share. Just a… just someone I’m seeing.”

“Like a boyfriend?” Alaska frowned. “Are you telling us you have a boyfriend?”

“I… guess I am,” Shane nodded. “And he’s in town and I want him to stay on the bus with us.”

“Stay?” Willam asked. “Like all night? Like sleeping on the bus with us?”

“I’m not too sure I want some random guy sleeping in the same space as me,” Alaska said.

“Yeah,” Willam nodded in agreement. “It’s cool for an hour or two, but all night?”

“He’s not some random guy,” Shane sighed. “You both know him.”

“You’re fucking someone we know?” Willam asked.

“Not fucking,” Shane shook his head annoyed. “It’s more than that.”

“Are you seeing another queen?” Alaska frowned.

“Of course she’s not,” Willam laughed. When Shane didn’t answer Willam raised his eyebrow. “Or are you?”

“You can’t make a big deal out of this.”

“You’re seeing another queen,” Willam accused. “But why are you being so secretive about it?”

“Because it’s Sharon,” Alaska said quietly.

“You’re fucking Needles?” Willam laughed.

“Of course I’m not fucking Sharon,” Shane sighed.

“So if you’re not with my ex why are you being so secretive about it?” Alaska asked.

“Because it’s new,” Shane answered. “And no one knows about it.

“So you’re starting something with a queen?” Willam asked. “Is it Adore?”

“Adore’s like my sister,” Shane answered.

“We’re all sisters,” Willam pointed out before going back to guessing. “So if it’s not adore is it Farrah?”

“That would be like fucking herself,” Alaska laughed.

“It’s Trixie,” Willam gasped. “You two are always on the phone with each other.”

“I’m not Trixie’s type.”

“Is it Katya?” Alaska asked.

“Is it?” Willam gasped again.

“I’m not seeing Trixie or Katya,” Shane answered.

“Is it you?” Alaska asked pointing a finger at Willam. “Is this your way of telling me you’re both together.”

“Are you crazy?” Willam scoffed.

“Because I’ve always thought you two were a little too…”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Shane warned. “And can we stop playing the guessing game?”

“Is it Rupaul?” Willam asked. “Is this your way of telling us you’re fucking Rupaul?”

“I’d rather fuck Michelle,” Shane remarked dryly.

“Is it Pearl because…”

“It’s Bianca,” Shane blurted out. “I’m seeing Bianca.” Willam and Alaska sat quietly next to each other as Shane stared them down. “Why are you both quiet now?”

“You’re not seeing Bianca,” Willam frowned.

“I am.”

“But that’s… Bianca.”

“I know,” Shane nodded. “And I’m seeing her well him. I’m seeing Roy. I’m not seeing Bianca. I’m seeing Roy.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

“I mean why,” Willam answered. “Of all the queens you pick Bianca?”

“Look it’s not like I just woke up one morning and decided to fall for one of you,” Shane remarked annoyed. “It just happened. And if I’m honest it was in the works for a long time. We just weren’t brave enough to admit it to each other.”

“I don’t get it,” Willam admitted.

“What Willam means is we’re happy for you guys,” Alaska said giving Willam a look. “And of course B can stay on the bus. Right Willam?”

“I guess,” Willam answered as he continued to stare at Shane with a confused look on his face.

….……………………

“What do you mean Willam didn’t get it?” Roy asked as he struggled onto the bus with his bags.

“It’s like my words didn’t register or something,” Shane shrugged.

“Dumb bitch,”Roy mumbled. “You should have explained it with Alphabet soup.”

“Well I’m sure it will just take some time for him to get used to it,” Shane shrugged.

“Where are they now?” Roy asked looking around the empty bus.

“Everyone’s gone shopping,” Shane answered. “I think they wanted to be out of the way when you showed up.”

“Like I’m some monster?”

“No they just wanted to give us privacy,” Shane smirked.

“Yeah well I’m not fucking you on a tour bus,” Roy frowned. “I’m not a groupie.”

“And yet you’ll fuck me in your dressing room?”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“It was my dressing room,” Roy answered. “You were my groupie then.”

“I know you’re only mean to me because you love me,” Shane smirked.

“Then I must love the fucking world then,” Roy remarked back.

“You’re not saying you don’t love me.”

“Are you going to show me where I’m sleeping?” Roy said ignoring Shane’s wide smirk.

“That bottom bunk there,” Shane nodded towards the bunk on the left.

“And where’s your bunk?”

“That is my bunk.”

“Okay,” Roy frowned looking around. “So if I’m sleeping in your bunk, where are you sleeping?”

“In my bunk,” Shane answered causing Roy to look around confused.

“But…”

“We’re sharing a bunk,” Shane explained.

“Like hell we are,” Roy scoffed. “I’m not sharing a bunk with you, while Willam and Alaska sleep inches away.”

“Like they care,” Shane sighed. “I had to listen to Willam and a stripper last week.”

“Well I’m not your stripper,” Roy frowned. “I’m not going to become one of that bitches stories.”

“Look Willam knows that we’re not just fooling around,” Shane explained. “He knows we’re serious.”

“You know for a fact that if I get into that bunk with you then it will be all over reddit before morning.”

“And you don’t want that?”

“Of course I don’t want my fucking love life all over reddit,” Roy answered giving Shane a look. “And before you even open your mouth and start with the ‘are you ashamed of me’ routine. You know the answer to that.”

“Do I?”

“Of course I’m not ashamed of you, Shane,” Roy groaned. “I just…. oh for fuck sake. Okay I’ll share a damn bunk with you.”

“It’s scary, isn’t it?” Shane smirked.

“What is?”

“That I have you wrapped around my little finger.”

“Yeah well my manager said I should do more for charity,” Roy shrugged.

….………….

“So this is nice,” Shane said pressing a kiss on Roy’s neck.

“Nice?” Roy frowned. “I’m squashed into a box with you on top of me. It’s like I’m in a coffin.”

“But we’re alone,” Shane pointed out. “We’ve got this nice little curtain closed. It’s like there’s no one else in the world.”

“We could have that exact feeling in a hotel room,” Roy pointed out.

“You know when I told Willam and Alaska about us, Willam didn’t seem to get it.”

“Like I said, that dumb bitch needs Alphabet soup to understand things.”

“It’s like he sees us as the complete opposite of each other.”

“Because we are,” Roy remarked.

“I don’t think that,” Shane frowned. “Sure I always see the world as this bright happy place, while you walk around complaining about everything and hating everyone but my point is…”

“You’ve got a point?” Roy interrupted.

“My point is, we…”

“If you say we complete each other I am getting up off this bus and you’ll never see me again,” Roy warned.

“Never mind,” Shane sighed. “Maybe Willam’s right. Maybe we are a weird couple.”

….……………………

“I just don’t get it,” Willam complained as he and Alaska headed for the bus. “Courtney could have anyone in the world, but she picks Bianca. I mean it’s weird isn’t it?”

“Not to them,” Alaska answered. “Maybe to them it makes complete sense. We don’t know what they’re like when they’re alone.”

“Bianca’s too rotten for Courtney,” Willam frowned. “I mean Courtney really could have anyone.”

“You’re starting to sound jealous,” Alaska warned.

“Of Courtney?”

“Of Bianca,” Alaska answered. “You know earlier when I said I thought you and Courtney might be…”

“Are you trying to say that I have some sort of thing for Courtney?”

“I’m just saying I see how you look at her,” Alaska shrugged as they got to the bus door. “Or more importantly I see how you look at Shane.”

“That’s… crazy,” Willam said as he glanced away from Alaska. “I don’t have feelings for Shane.”

“Okay,” Alaska shrugged. “Maybe I got it wrong.”

“Yes you did,” Willam frowned before quickly walking onto the bus.

“Well sorry if I…”

“Shh,” Willam hissed as low voices came from the back of the bus.

….……………………….

“Are you seriously pouting?” Roy asked as Shane tried his best to lay as far away from Roy as the bunk would let him.

“I’m not.”

“Of course Willam’s not right,” Roy sighed. “Well maybe to him we’re weird. But to me It makes complete sense. And maybe what you were trying to say about completing each other makes sense. Maybe.”

“That’s a lot of maybe’s in a sentence,” Shane remarked.

“You know sometimes you’re too outgoing,” Roy pointed out. “You’re too willing to trust people. I swear if you saw a man in a white van with a basket of puppies you’d go running to him.”

“Is this you trying to explain yourself to me?”

“I’m trying to explain to you that you’re too nice sometimes and I’m…”

“A hateful bitch?”

“And I’m not as nice,” Roy answered. “So maybe what I’m saying is that you bring me into the light. You make me see that I don’t always have to be in a bad mood all the time. That sometimes life can be fun.”

“Well that’s nice,” Shane nodded as he inched a little closer to Roy. “And maybe you make sure I don’t go running towards men in white vans.”

“So maybe we do complete each other,” Roy sighed.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say,” Shane smiled.

“How the hell did this happen?” Roy groaned.

“What?”

“How did I fall in love with you?”

“You have great taste,” Shane answered.

“Or all those years of using wig glue has finally screwed with my brain,” Roy added.

“Okay we’re going backwards,” Shane warned. “I want you to say something nice to me.”

“Something nice?”

“Just one thing,” Shane nodded.

“Okay,” Roy sighed. “Your crows feet don’t look that bad up close.”

“I’m being serious,” Shane warned. “One nice thing.”

“Okay okay,” Roy said rolling his eyes. He paused for a moment before looking Shane in the eyes. “In the past I’ve thought I was in love, but I didn’t know what love was until I met you.”

“Aww,” Shane gushed as he pressed himself closer to Roy’s side. “See, you can be nice.”

“Yeah but I think I almost gave myself an ulcer doing it,” Roy complained causing Shane to giggle.

….…………………………………

“Do you get it now?” Alaska whispered.

“That love line was a fucking lyric from a disco hit,” Willam complained.

“I give up,” Alaska sighed before walking towards her bunk, leaving Willam standing alone looking miserable.

[steveholley]

Farewell, Rod Bramblett

If you grew up in the 80’s or 90s in the Deep South as my generation did, you grew up surrounded by college football every Saturday.

If we’re being honest, it wasn’t just Saturday’s. In the state of Alabama in and other SEC states in particular, college football — Southeastern Conference football — was and is a 7-day-a-week event.

But nothing was more exciting than game day Saturdays and the night before leading up to a big conference game.

Things are still that way today and always will be, but it’s different now. The biggest difference between us is how we followed our teams back then and just how reliant we all were on the radio broadcasts of our team’s games. This was before the days of 740 channels (or even 60) and before every single game on the schedule was televised nationally. Before ESPN expanded to eleventy billion spinoffs and FOX launched regional sports networks and conferences began launching their own networks. Before you could get instant notifications on your phone letting you know every first down, change of possession, scoring update and red-zone alert. Before Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and the whole internet in general.

If you were lucky in those days, you had basic cable — all 30 some-odd channels — and could watch your team on ESPN. If not, you’d better hope they’d be in the ABC Game of the Week with Keith Jackson or Brent Musburger and Frank Broyles and Bob Griese.

But the only real, sure-proof way to stay in touch with your team on a weekly basis was through radio. In my hometown, we had an FM station that carried Alabama games each Saturday and a smaller, AM station that broadcast Auburn games. Birmingham and Tuscaloosa each had their own Alabama affiliates to choose from depending on which had the best signal reception on a given Saturday.

And there was nothing — absolutely nothing — like the feeling of being in the car with your parents and listening to your team on the radio. For me, that was Eli Gold, now in his 30th year as the play by play voice of the Tide, the late Doug Layton and the always colorful Jerry Duncan.

Games that weren’t on TV — ABC, CBS, ESPN and the late dearly departed Jefferson-Pilot Sports — left us strictly reliant on radio unless you wanted to shell out $40 for Pay-Per-View. My hometown’s Alabama radio affiliate even had a setup where you could call the station’s number, be put on hold and listen to the broadcast over the telephone. Looking back, I suppose it was the precursor to listening through smartphone apps like Tune In, iHeartRadio, Radio.com and Sirius.

But whether the game was on TV or not, there was always radio, and nothing made you feel closer to your team than being in the car or sitting around the house listening as Eli Gold or conversely Auburn’s Jim Fyffe describe each play as it happened — the excitement in their voice as David Palmer broke free on a punt return or Sherman Williams made a man miss to make it a foot-race to the end zone.

The first Iron Bowl I ever watched as a kid was in 1990. The game was on CBS, which in Birmingham had always had the weakest of all the over-the-air network TV signals and was hard to catch in a lot of homes more than 30-40 miles away from the city. Alabama had gone up 10-0 in the game before a late first-half Auburn score made it 10-7 at halftime.

I vividly remember my 9-year-old self getting sick to my stomach that day and had to be taken to the urgent care center a good 30 minutes away. My father loaded all of us into the car and we drove into town with the game on the radio. By the time we’d arrived and Auburn looked as though they were about to score following an Alabama turnover inside their own 10-yard line, my father couldn’t take it any more. He snapped off the radio dial right as we pulled up and didn’t find out until he was in the doctor’s room with me later that night that Alabama had won. As Tide fans will recall, it turned out that Auburn had fumbled the ball right back to Alabama on the very next play, the pivotal turning point in the game.

The Tide won, 16-7, off three Philip Doyle field goals, snapping a four-game losing streak to Auburn that had cost Bill Curry his job. (Fun fact: the first time I ever heard my father use profanity as a kid was when he’d yell at Bill Curry during the middle of a game while sitting on the couch. Until I was 9, I thought Curry’s full, legal name might actually be, “That Goddamn Curry.”)

As years went by, I listened on the radio as Alabama came from behind to beat Mississippi State after trailing late in the game in their championship season of 1992, and a few weeks later when Antonio Langham — my favorite player growing up — intercepted Shane Matthews’ pass and returned it for a touchdown to beat Steve Spurrier and Florida in the first ever SEC Championship Game at Birmingham’s Legion Field.

A year later, I was in the car with the radio on when Auburn’s Patrick Nix found future NFL great Frank Sanders for a touchdown that lifted the Tigers to a victory over ‘Bama to cap an undefeated regular season. The following year, Auburn came from 21-0 down to get to within a score of possibly tying or winning the Iron Bowl when Sanders was tackled one yard shy of a would-be first down to end the game.

When we reached our teenage years, my brother and I gathered around a small, table-top radio in my grandparents’ home and listened as Alabama suffered one of its most embarrassing defeats in program history to Louisiana Tech on a 4th-and-goal from the 26 yard line that Tech’s quarterback somehow converted into a touchdown pass. Those are just a few of the memories I have of listening to football games on the radio growing up.

Arkansas quarterback Clint Stoerner’s late fourth-quarter fumble at Neyland Stadium to keep Tennessee’s undefeated, championship season alive in 1998? The car radio on an AM station out of Knoxville after sunset, when many AM signals from hours away become possible to catch.

Vanderbilt games on WSM in Nashville, the home of the Grand Ole Opry, on 650 AM? The car radio. An occasional Ole Miss game on a station in East Mississippi? A (long-wave) radio that picked up signals out of Columbus. It was always a feeling of excitement when another team’s broadcast signal found its way to your radio at night.

In the summer, we could listen to Skip Caray and the Atlanta Braves but that was nothing; at least three radio stations within our area carried the Braves broadcasts. After dark, you could pick up KMOX’s strong overnight signal out of St. Louis and listen to the Cardinals and occasionally, on clear nights, the Cubs on WGN Radio out of Chicago and the Tigers and Ernie Harwell out of Detroit. But college football in the Deep South was and is the king of all kings.

So why the trip down memory lane? The sudden, tragic passing of Auburn broadcaster Rod Bramblett Saturday night has got me to thinking about all of the ways Mr. Bramblett and his colleagues have given us the gift of college football via the radio dial over the years.

My heart is aching over Mr. Bramblett and his wife Paula’s untimely and almost unthinkable death in a fatal car accident in Auburn. As I always have when trying to process sadness, I sat down at my computer and began to write.

When you’re an Alabama fan, it’s only natural to go behind enemy lines and tune in to the Auburn broadcast whenever they’re not playing at the same time as your team. I was drawn to this as a kid listening to the late Jim Fyffe call Auburn games on the radio with his patented pro-Tigers slant and signature nails-on-the-chalkboard yelling of, “TOUCHDOOOOOOOOOWN AUBUUUUUUURN!” after every score.

When Mr. Fyffe passed away suddenly in the summer of 2003 following a brain aneurysm, Rod Bramblett stepped into his chair and picked up right where his predecessor had left off. It may seem strange coming from a rival fan, but as legendary as Jim Fyffe was, I never really noticed a difference when Rod Bramblett took over his vacancy. That’s a credit to Mr. Bramblett, whose style offered the same mannerisms; the same audible grunts and groans when his team was playing poorly and equally the same jubilation and swag when they were winning.

I won’t pretend to glorify the late Mr. Bramblett or claim that I was a lifelong fan. That would only cheapen the man. What I will say is that what he meant to the Auburn community and its fan base and how much he gave to the school — both on and off the air — is something that precious few broadcasters can do and something that no one will ever forget. I have many friends and colleagues in the journalism industry in Alabama and in radio who met Rod Bramblett and never once did I ever hear that he was anything but a genuinely nice and pleasant person to be in the room with.

I don’t know who Auburn will hire to take his place and it is too soon to even begin to speculate on that. But with Mr. Bramblett’s passing, an unmistakable void is left in the hearts of true fans who appreciate college football that goes well beyond just his loyal listeners on football, basketball and baseball broadcasts; it affects not just “The Loveliest Village on the Plains” but the entire state of Alabama, which is in mourning today, and indeed the college game we love so much on a national level. Tributes are pouring in from all over the country and will continue in the days, weeks and months ahead and rightfully so — beginning with the finale of today’s SEC Baseball Tournament in Birmingham. Mr. Bramblett has earned them.

Life and Auburn football games on radio will go on after Mr. Bramblett’s passing, the same as it did with Mr. Fyffe’s sudden passing 16 years ago. But I hope that for a moment anyway, we can set aside all of these suddenly silly and trivial sports rivalries — as reasonably as we can — and remember that there are real people involved in these rivalries and that they have lives, character, family, friends and so much more. So, so much more.

One last thing before I wrap this up. As painful as it can still be to relive for Alabama fans, even with two championships and a 4-1 record vs. Auburn in the years since, I sat down Saturday night and early Sunday after the news of Mr. Bramblett’s passing and pulled up his two most famous radio calls via YouTube, both from 2013: the “Miracle on the Plains” catch by Ricardo Louis on a Hail Mary pass to beat Georgia and Chris Davis’s “Kick Six” return in that year’s Iron Bowl.

The latter will forever be one of the most memorable calls in sports history, period. The sheer pandemonium and jubilation in Bramblett’s voice as he screams from the top of his lungs: “THERE GOES DAVIS! OH MY GOD DAVIS IS GONNA RUN IT ALL THE WAY BACK! AUBURN’S GONNA WIN THE FOOTBALL GAME! AUBURN’S GONNA WIN THE FOOTBALL GAME!” And in his best Bob Uecker from ‘Major League’ voice, “OH MY GOD AUBURN WINS IT! OH MY LORD IN HEAVEN!”

“They’re not gonna keep them off the field tonight,” Mr. Bramblett exclaims.

Nor will they keep Rod Bramblett off the proverbial fields henceforth, or from having a lasting memory and a special place in those same peoples’ hearts and many others that will always live on.

We are none promised another day. Mr. Bramblett and his wife's sudden passing is yet another painful reminder of that. Be kind to each other while we’re all still here and let love win.

From one radio loyalist to another, rest in peace, Rod Bramblett.

[raganandhersurveys]

8/21/18~XXXVI

What month is your birthday in?

•december. exactly one week before Christmas

How many serious relationships have you been in?

•no serious ones

Do you think you have a vivid imagination?

•for sure

What was the last song you listened to?

•i’m listening to particular taste by shawn mendes

How many hours of the day do you spend on Facebook, if any?

•none

Do you own your favorite movie on DVD?

•no we bought it on amazon on the tv

Do you listen to Mayday Parade?

•no clue who that is

What is your best friend’s name?

•sam, alyna, and sydney

Do you have trouble falling asleep?

•nope. it’s fairly easy for me to fall asleep

What did you have for dinner yesterday?

•cheeseburger and fries

Are you on a laptop, desktop, or phone/iPod?

•phone

Do you have any secret hiding places in your room?

•sadly no lol

What colour is the shirt you’re wearing right now?

•white

Do you have a lot of regrets?

•I do

Have you ever been so mad that you screamed out of nowhere?

•I don’t get like that

What’s the longest movie you’ve ever watched?

•gone with the wind.... ewwww

Do you own an iPhone?

•yes

What grade are you in at school, if you’re still at school?

•10th

Have you ever been on a subway?

•nope

Do you have any plans for Valentine’s day this year?

•it’s already passed lol

What genre of music do you listen to the most?

•pop/rap

Are you in love?

•noooope

Do you replace the toilet paper if you finish the roll?

•YESSS! why is this not obvious to people. one of my BIGGEST pet peeves is when people don’t leave a new roll like SiS i GoTtA wIpe!

What do you usually buy for snacks when you go to the cinema?

•a british person did this didn’t they? awwwww cinema sounds so cute!! wish we said that. anywayyyy usually popcorn and water lol, boring I know but I don’t drink soda

Look to your left and name five things you can see?

•a pillow, lamp, nightstand, a candle, and a charger

Have you ever been to a concert?

•yes!

What is your opinion on Nicki Minaj?

•I personally love her music and I think she’s funny

Have you stayed awake all night to see the sunrise?

•nah, that’s commitment tho

Do you like having your lip softly bitten when you’re kissing?

•mhmm ;)

What can you hear right now?

•shawn mendes :)

Have you ever been on a boat?

•yes I looove it

Who is your favorite Youtuber?

•shane dawson, mikey murphy, ava jules, and tana mongeau

Do you want to get married when you’re older?

•definitely!!!

Are you alone at the moment?

•yes

Have you ever been hopelessly in love with a celebrity?

•oh yes!

Generally speaking, do you like acoustic or original versions of songs better?

•usually original

What was the last band shirt you wore?

•I don’t think i’ve worn one. I need to get one

What did you last put on a piece of toast?

•butter

What’s stores would you say you buy from most?

•target, american eagle, belk, and pacsun

Is there a movie you’d like to see?

•mama mia 2! I haven’t seen it yet

What’s the last thing you Googled?

•my rank on the tennis team

Do you use Google or Bing?

•google

What’s the link to the last video you watched on Youtube?

•it was a makeup declutter video

What kind of things do you post on Tumblr?

•literally just these

Do you think people who constantly repost giveaways are annoying?

•I don’t have that problem but I would assume it’d be annoying

What was the last thing you watched on Netflix or Hulu?

•an episode of riverdale

Do you follow any celebrities on Twitter?

•yep

What was the last flavor of pudding or yogurt you ate?

•raspberry

Do you go on Reddit? If so, what subs do you follow?

•nah

[cryptochurp]

What Big Tech’s Ban Might Mean for Cryptocurrency Advertising

Following Facebook’s lead, Google has announced it will ban all cryptocurrency advertising on its platforms by June 2018. This restriction applies to all Google-owned platforms including YouTube and any websites where Google sells digital ad space. On Sunday, March 18, 2018, Sky News reported Twitter will ban a range of cryptocurrency advertising by April 2018, including advertising for initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency wallets and some cryptocurrency exchanges. Twitter has not publicly communicated the ban nor has it denied the report.

As Matthew Frankel with the Motley Fool suggests, the main purpose of Google’s ban could be to protect investors without harming those already currently involved in the industry for the sake of positive development of the blockchain technology business ecosystem as a whole. Still, the reasoning and repercussions of this ban are worth investigating further.

While straightforward in delivery, the announcement itself has far-reaching implications for advertisers in the cryptocurrency space. The instance also leaves others with one more example to gauge Google’s position of power, responsibility and liability over online communication.

The news came as part of Google Adwords’ annual “trust and safety” report in the form of a new policy “to restrict the advertisement of Contracts of Difference, rolling spot forex and financial spread betting” — all speculative high-risk methods for generating greater amounts of profit in the short term with a low barrier of entry.

Because cryptocurrency has always been associated with financial volatility and has more recently become a hot-button topic in finance and technology in general, understanding why Google has banned these other financial products might indicate a more rational consideration for the ban.

Specifically, the update stated that advertisements for “cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets and cryptocurrency trading advice) will no longer be served.” While the statement goes on to say that certain Contracts of Difference, rolling spot forex and financial spread betting can be authorized to advertise through Adwords in certain countries based on Google’s certification, there is no mention of cryptocurrencies. Finally, “Advertisers can request certification with Google starting March 2018 when the application form is published.”

Blanket Approach

Bitcoin Magazine spoke with Rick Hanna, a digital strategist with BTC Inc, to better understand the situation. According to Hanna, setting the update (bans are not typical) ahead of time, for June 2018, is typical of Google Adwords updates and changes. “It gives their developers and end users time to implement and adjust for the changes. And a lot of cryptocurrency advertisers will be using Google and Facebook for the time being until it closes.”

For Hanna, based on past behavior, the most atypical thing about Facebook and Google’s announcements is the “blanket approach” which bans all cryptocurrency advertising:

“Blanket approach raises eyebrows because you recognize how much they act as gatekeepers. A blanket ban seems a bit heavy-handed to squash a few bad eggs.”

Hanna recognized that other social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Medium and Reddit will be used more often unless they follow suit.

Reasons and Repercussions  

Tatiana Moroz is the founder of Crypto Media Hub, a consultancy specializing in advertising, PR, marketing and events for the cryptocurrency space since 2015, with clients like Vaultoro, Blockfinity and Zencash. While her company targets mainly publisher advertising, whether that be through website banner ads and original content or on events, rather than on Google or Facebook, Moroz helped to articulate big tech’s thinking for the ban as well as potential repercussions for companies who rely on various advertising platforms to get their message across.

“This is not intended to sound conspiratorial in any way, but I think that Facebook and Google are very large corporations embedded in the establishment system,” Moroz told Bitcoin Magazine. “They get a lot of benefit from that system. That has been proven with the way they censor their users and the way they exploit their users by incorrectly selling their information. When I look at their policy on cryptocurrency, I think that it’s a disruptive technology that could potentially eat their lunch.”

On the other hand, Moroz also admitted that these same corporations have valid concern with regard to liability: “The SEC regulation around cryptocurrency has been somewhat unclear in an ever-evolving landscape, so, by allowing cryptocurrency advertisements, they might be opening themselves up to legal liability without necessarily knowing it.”

Separating the Wheat From the Chaff

Even for media and marketing companies that specialize in cryptocurrency, filtering potential clients through a vetting process that weeds out scams or potential pump-and-dump projects can be a difficult process that must constantly be redefined. From this perspective, the prospect of laying down a blanket approach to banning all cryptocurrency advertisements may be the easiest way to save time, while eliminating liability and mitigating the responsibility of imposing an evaluation framework that could stunt the industry or appear in any way, shape or form as collusion.

However, the reality of the power which both Facebook and Google hold over the digital world means that even if they are attempting to mitigate their responsibility for something as new and unpredictable as cryptocurrency, banning cryptocurrency advertising is still a method by which they are able to choose the players who can (or cannot) grow their businesses through digital advertising. According to an eMarketer article from last year, together, Google and Facebook were expected to control 63.1 percent of U.S. digital ad investment by the end of 2017.

Art, Not Science

“As a marketing company, it’s very difficult to choose which projects to work on,” admitted Moroz. “It can be an intimidating process for everyone, but I do believe that there needs to be some way to figure out whether a company is real. On the other hand, I am not a venture capitalist or lawyer so I can’t necessarily gauge each [project’s] ability to be successful.”

“We try to be selective with who we work with, but knowing about legitimacy is an ongoing problem within this space. I don’t think Google is in any position to be able to gauge that better, so, on a case-by-case basis, that may be difficult for people at this time.”

It should be noted that when considering how to separate legitimate cryptocurrency companies from scams, it is not often so black and white — most companies fall somewhere in the middle. As a result, it may not always be easy to distinguish illegal activity from mere mediocrity or incompetence.

Cryptocurrency Advertising in a Post-Google and Facebook World

Assuming that Google, Twitter and Facebook’s cryptocurrency advertising ban is here to stay, cryptocurrency and, to an extent, blockchain technology companies in general will be facing new challenges when it comes to promoting their brands and getting customers without the help of three of the internet’s largest corporations.

“I definitely expect to see some blowback from the crypto-community since social media has become the primary channel for communications in this very new market,” said Swan Burrus, a strategist with OgilvyOne Worldwide. Burrus also speculated as to whether further restrictions on these same platforms could be placed on bounty programs which incentivize support and promotion for specific cryptocurrencies.

Moroz, on the other hand, believes filling the space left by the absence of advertising on search engine and social media platforms will result in higher quality interactions through community involvement and relationship building.

I think it is going to become even more focused on relationships and finding trusted partners who can help them navigate the space. If you can’t necessarily afford an agency to do that, it would be worthwhile to at least do research or talk to people who have gone through that process. Projects can always go to different communities or cryptocurrency publishers that they trust for advertising.

Though going through the internet’s biggest online players will likely present advertisers the largest opportunity to receive the most impressions per ad, other organizations who work for cryptocurrency companies have found that it is not always best.

According to Shane Jordan, vice president of strategic insights at Spark Public Relations, Google and Facebook play a much more peripheral role than one would first think:

In our experience and data results, the Google and Facebook ad networks have not proved to be a significant driver of conversion and, thus, in past campaigns we have only included Google and FB ads as a very small percentage of the advertising media mix.

With the understanding that advertisers who use data will build ad campaigns around those places on the internet where performance measures highest, Jordan said his team works more often with publishers. “We've found that the best performing channels have been direct display advertising on targeted websites where we know crypto-investors get their news and market insights — and this is where we will continue to focus our efforts."

At the industry’s early stage, there is still clear disconnect or misconception between where advertising should place ads and where their customers want to see them.

Joking on the complicated yet fascinating dynamic of the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology space on an episode of his podcast, Cointalk, writer Jay Kang aptly summarizes an ideal future for cryptocurrency that many will continue to work toward:

What we really want is an atmosphere where you can make a good faith investment in a project because you think that the project has merit and potential for whatever reason. And that it is not going to be overrun by scammers, that theses shady things will not happen to them, that the exchange where they keep their money will not get hacked. And we’ll eventually get there.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

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