MrBiffo
patreon
CONFUSE-A-TROLL
🕑 Added 2018-11-20 11:20:10 +0000 UTC Hello you lot. Sorry it has been a while since I did a new Patreon post. Been a leeeetle busy. But I just wanted to scrawl down some thoughts post-Digitiser The Show, which are for your eyes only.A lot of you have been a bit concerned about some of the flack that Digi has been receiving on Youtube and other places. Some of you feel so aggrieved that you're taking on the trolls. I'm incredibly flattered, and feel proud, that you'd do this on my behalf, but I also really don't think we need to.
I want to reassure you that all is well. The subscriptions on the YT channel have been soaring - we've gone from 10,000 on Saturday to almost 11,000 in just a couple of days - and the likes far, far outweighs the dislikes. Likewise the positive comments to negative comments. People generally just like things without feeling the need to comment.
When they hate things, that's when they get vocal. I know I've been guilty of that - I mean, even in terms of writing on Digi, I find it easier to slag something off in funny way than I do to praise something in a funny way. Hence the many lists of 10 Awful Things.
I think what we're seeing is what Digi used to get in the olden days. For the last few years, we - you and I - have been in a lovely bubble, where we're all friendly, and we're all nice, and it's a strong community of people who are all there because they love the same thing. That is not Digitiser's natural state, and I think we've forgotten that, because of our bubble.
Back in Teletext Times, Digi would receive dozens of letters every day telling us how shit we were - and that was in the days when people had to physically put pen to paper! Imagine how many other people who hated us who never wrote in! Digi by its very nature is divisive. It always has been. In a weird, perverse, way, I always enjoyed getting those letters more than the nice ones, because we could take the piss out of the person writing (and, indeed, I'm treating the YouTube comments now very much as the Digi Letters Page of old - and loving it!).
Digi sets out to piss off people who hate it, but in doing so the people who love it... they REALLY love it. If I was making something that was trying to be all things to all people then I wouldn't be true to myself, or to the spirit of Digitiser.
This is going to sound mental, but last night Sanya and I went to pick up our daughter from her dance class. I got bored while waiting for her to come out, and I started screaming and banging on windows. No, that isn't a joke; that actually happened. I had a moment of realisation this morning, and said to Sanya: "I just realised - Digitiser is basically just me being me".
And she looked at me shocked, and laughed, and said "You only just realised that?". Not everyone would find a 47 year-old man screaming and banging on windows and doing a weird dance, endearing or funny. Most people would back away, confused and scared, going "There's something wrong with him"...
Such as it is with Digitiser. And I'm not going to change it, because I can't. The thing that irritates people, because they don't get it or like it, is what makes it Digitiser.
Digitiser The Show is a big, noisy, public thing that is drawing attention to itself, and so - especially in this era of opinions and trolling - we're going to get flack. It's not for everyone. People don't always censor themselves when talking online. People get a dopamine rush when slagging people off.
But what we can do is either ignore it and not worry about it (because the show is in rude health and isn't going anywhere), or engage with it in a way that confuses.
There's a book that Penn & Teller released years ago, and in that Penn tells a great story about how he was once in a bar, and was about to get beaten up by a bunch of bikers, who were taking the piss out of him for ordering a milkshake.
Just as it looked as if he was going to get the shit kicked out of him, he tipped the entire milkshake over his own head. The bikers were so weirded out by this that they just backed away... I've always remembered that, and tried to live by it. We're not going to change their minds, but... if we do have to engage with them, we might be able to make them back away in utter confusion, and weird them out. And maybe we'll win a few of them round (certainly, this approach has already seemed to have worked with a couple of the YT commenters).
I can't think of anything more Digitiser.
Paul
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Comments
Cool
I guessed there would be lots of trolls, but to be honest, I wasn't expecting it to happen quite so soon after the first episode was released. It does make me think that the trolling is maybe orchestrated. I did hear a name mentioned in the chat last Sunday!
I blow my nose at you!
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
Wut?!
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
The bubble is still here!
Well that escalated quickly... :o
Nicola
Say what you want about me, but at least I'm not attractive!
Pixels.Ltd (Samuel Victor)
Speaking from a personal account, if I can tell an over indulgent story for a second, Paul. As a (usually very low budget) movie producer, I was in Athens, Greece, shooting a horror film when I heard the Digitiser funding page had gone live. Now Greece is a beautiful country, with wonderful people. But I'm sure you know of their recent financial troubles. It was the first time I'd produced a film over there, and I wanted to make a good impression. So I packed only 2 Hugo Boss suits, a selection of extremely expensive (and shiny and austintacious) shoes, a gold and diamond Rolex, and a brand new thousand pound+ mobile phone, and silly Gucci man bag. I was promotly robbed, three times in one week, by street gangs of homeless people. The first time was the worst, literal knife to my neck and removed of both some blood, and my wallet, full of a wad of £5K+ and several credit cards. Yes, I was bloody foolish to be walking around like that, this I now realise. My pride and bullishness from recent financial successes made me feel untouchable. I was wrong, and stupid. Thankfully I had an emergency credit card hidden in a compartment in my suitcase. Back at my hotel about half an hour after the incident (I was told it was so common there was no point informing the police!), trying to calm my nerves I booted up my laptop and went online. And I saw that the Digi campaign had gone live. I promptly, without thinking, filled in the details of that emergency credit card, and paid £500 to be an Executive Producer, thus giving me only £250 to last the rest of my stay. But rather than feeling stressed about my lack of funds, I grinned from ear to ear, and felt decidedly better about my situation, knowing that I had helped in some small way to let you know just how much Digitiser had meant to me from 1993 all the way through to today. Sure, I could have waited and paid it later, but I wanted to be part of making that total grow as fast as possible. I wanted there to be no doubt at all in your mind just how much we all loved Digitiser, and wanted to show you that. Yes, you could argue that as someone starting up my own games channel, there was some cache in having my name attached as an Executive Producer of such a prestigious show. And you'd be right. But even if no credit was given, I would have happily donated the money anyway. Because I bloody love Digi. And I wanted you to know it. So THANK YOU Paul, for all that you have done over the years. You may not have intended for it to make the difference that it did, but it most certainly did. I bloody love ya fella. And now I am going to stop typing, for fear of sounding like an utter cretin. So, um... Moc Moc! Or something. :P
Pixels.Ltd (Samuel Victor)
As you say, we have all been somewhat of a bubble, an echo chamber of people who "get it", but the show is breaking through into somewhat more of a mainstream audience, and of course will attarct the occasional person who doesn't "get it". We are all fiercefully protective of what we love. And love Digitiser we do.
Kelvin Green
You are doing excellent work, BIffster. Keep it up.
Rodent of the Astrowaste
As a frenchman, i don't get enough, in my own country, of my daily dosage of absurdist/juvenile humor (meaning: lots of bum and fart jokes about the void of existence). So, i have to raid the neighbor (the UK)'s pantry for my fix of Barshens, Cheap Show, Look Around You, Mr. Biffo's Found Footage and, indeed, Digi The Show. So, please, Mr. Biffo, keep being you. You're good at it. And keep trolling the trolls, that's a rather enjoyable delicacy, too.
Nick
I miss the bubble and fear change but am very much enjoying the show. I’m pretty much the reverse of Nathanlel having never heard of “that lot” before being introduced to them one way or another by Digitiser and finding them all smashing. Your attitude to bad faith, unsolicited, non-constructive critics (always thought trolls was too cool a word for em) is most commendable.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
Cheers, mister. Glad to have you as part of the family.
Nathaniel McMahon
Came to the show because I was a fan of Larry Bundy Jr., Ashens, Barshens, Cheapshow, that lot; and I'm always happy to add another middle-aged British nonsense-humor champion to my list of "entertainment that none of my friends here in the U.S. will understand." Keep being you chief!
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
Oh god... HIM! Yeah, he's at least one of the trolls, if not more...
Adam Humphreys
I’m currently playing with one of the trolls (a parody twitter account of Top Hat Gaming Man) who I think may actually be several of the trolls at once. I’m not doing it to defend anyone, I know that you’re all capable of defending yourselves. I’m doing it because he seems to get genuinely infuriated & that amuses me so I suppose I’m trolling him too. I like to think that mine is trolling for the side of good though.
I love the random picture responses. The golden poo one killed me. :D This is everything I hoped it would be - worth every shekel! Oooh and I found myself in the datablast (, and . are frame skip, peeps). Thanks for that - shame I'm too paranoid to use my full name on the interwebs. :)
The Gaming Muso
Excellent mate! I owe you a beer!
This is really nice to read. Glad the dickheads aren't getting to you. And I'm super pleased that the sub count is growing and growing! Six Seasons and a Movie :-D
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
Hah!
John Veness
Right, I know what drink I'm buying you next opportunity I get!
