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Is AJ like a solo show? Get some help, there are tons of people capable of helping him out.

Was Informative. Not too entertaining per se. Worth a watch tho.

It was a nice break from the really off the wall stuff

Just started the Episode.

ANUBIS IS THERE!!! Attached File
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Really? Maybe it's Upuaut/Wepwawet. Would be much more appropriate. *insert eyeroll meme here.*

"Opener of the way."

"Opens the way."

He opens a whole new topic with Tim Hogan.  Interesting.

I hate to say it, but i really dislike the AI generated moving artwork.  It’s messy, distorted and oily. The effect often tips way into the uncanny valley. If it was a well done still image, or a ken burns style pan, it may not be so bad.  But the way it is, it makes things disorienting and sort of unwatchable in those segments.

I’m not a fan of it either, the only thing I really dislike is the flickering dark vignette that is constantly on screen when its not his face.

I was on discord and patreon.  I stopped all of that and stopped watching a few vids ago.  I dunno, feels like something changed.

Its still pretty much the same, the content overall is still good, there are going to be some hits and misses with the videos though.


The only thing I loath are the in video ads, but I just skip those, if I watch a premiere I just start 5 minutes late so I can skip the bullshit

He has just grown from a couple of people in his house to a studio and team.  Its a job for him now and it looks like it sometimes takes a toll.  Still a great show, (minus the ai motion animations ) just big.

Here's the site:  https://www.thisman.org/oldsite/

Vice:  https://www.vice.com/en/article/znw9d3/have-you-ever-dreamed-of-this-man-111

Shit episode.  The whole way through I was thinking "this is clearly a hoax".

At least they are obvious in what they are. I take issue with the mix of actual images of subject matter and then spliced in CGI. IMO there needs to be something in the corner of every frame other than the the studio shots that signify if we are looking at cgi or real images, ai art or attributions to source of images.

It was educational but lacked in "edge-of-your-seat" conspiracy. I think he's running out of subject matter. He needs to do interviews or have an open phone line like Art Bell. Present a controversial subject, give the public a voice with their experiences, and gently debate/agree with them. Much less work involved as well.

I'm not sure you can "run out of" this material.

There's enough subject matter out there for lifetimes. He just doesn't want to touch the "classics" like Samsquatch or Nessie because they've been done to death, so he purposefully looks for more obscure topics. Also, every single episode (or so it seems) he mentions 1-2 other topics and tells people if they want to see those, comment below. And, as he also says, most of his topics come directly from the audience, through the suggestions link on his website. With 3.3 million actual subscribers and a list of Patreon supporters that takes something like 6 full minutes to scroll by double-columned and too fast to read, I doubt he lacks for suggestions.

No, I think it's simply that not every episode of any show is a gold star. And while some might not resonate with you, or might even be shit in your eyes, remember...3.3 million. He's not trying to please you specifically. I've also pointed out before in this very thread that those of us who spend our time here in this forum are likely to be significantly more informed and much more deeply into some of the topics he covers. His show is for the layman, the average viewer, the masses.

I wasn't super entertained by this episode either. Doesn't mean AJ and HF aren't going to get 30-40 minutes of my time each week in the future.

And the topics and overall quality has dropped it seems. The last one sucked and there was one a couple months ago too. And the ones in-between have been OK,  but not great. The Templar Atlantis one was only like 5mins talking about the connection.

There is such a thing as expanding a business too quickly and ending up going out of  business.

If anything, he has largely been in a rut for a few months.  Most episodes are Atlantis, Ancient Aliens, or just plain Aliens, or some combination of them.

The stand out episodes of late have been Neanderthals, Madman Marcum, NDEs, Looking glass, and Plum Island.

Aliens are the hot thing right now pretty much everywhere.   Its kind of amazing to see every day people discussing aliens and ufos where 20 years ago those people would have laughed if you mentioned either.  

but I'm kinda sick of alien episodes, I'd rather he do some of the stuff he keeps hinting at, possibly even two part episodes to dive into some of the deeper topics.

i really enjoy the why files but i wish he would start posting to rumble again, i hate utoob

The After Files is a 3-4 hour show that only gets 10-20% of the views of an episode.  At this point, I would stop doing those if I were him.  Yes, the hard core fans watch some of them, but its a huge brain drain to do those I imagine. Plus, interacting with so many people, who are sometimes negative, can be a demotivator for a creative person. It has to be a detriment.

Suspect we're seeing the results of AJ no longer doing everything from start to finish.  Now with a bigger team, someone else is coming up with the subject matter and writing the script.   AJ takes that and does some high level editing and adds in some Lizzid Peeple humor.

And after all that, think we may have a keeper this week.

Here we go with the 12,000 year pole shift.



Again.

Meh, that was pretty weak.

Agreed.

AJ did not seem very enthused at all, overall the energy seemed low, or off in some way.

Also, they did an ad for TEMU, which was really stooping. He clearly tried to put some distance between himself and TEMU by having "Hecklefish" do the entire ad without the usual back-and-forth between HF and AJ, but he still did the ad. That was a disappointment, and showed they are apt to shill for any crappy old product like so many other greedy YouTubers.

Watched the Antarctica episode. Enjoyed it - made me wonder if anyone has asked David Grusch if there’s anything going on in Antarctica.

Antartica and the seas are still quite mysterious. We look at google earth and maps and feel like the age of exploration is long over.  But, men haven't really been to 80% of the planet and looked in any detail yet.

I'm willing to bet TEMU made an offer they couldn't refuse...if you watched the Sportsball Superbowl, TEMU had at least 2, and I think 3, full-length commercials. Millions of dollars in advertising revenue. I think they're just throwing massive amounts of cash around trying to become a competitor in the online shopping market. I'm willing to bet no YouTuber would turn it down.

I understand that almost every one of us has a price, one that, if met with high enough remuneration and the association is not too terrible, we might hold our nose and do the job, but Brass expressed things a bit better than my earlier comment did. For most of us, that is pretty much the deal even with our jobs or careers, and that is just us doing what it takes to keep a roof over our heads and keep our families fed and able to raise our kids to reach for their own dream careers and lives, or at least as close as they can get get once they also start having to make their own choices.

During one AfterFiles, AJ admitted that their once-weekly AfterFiles were bringing in a fairly sizable infusion of cash from the superchats and merch and whatnot, but the 2.5-3 hr blocks of time involved for him and the crew to do the AfterFiles were physically draining on all of them, week after week, especially coming right on the back of the push to get the new episode out each week, and that they very much noticed that loss of cash being flung at them when they cut back on the AfterFiles. AJ had also commented later (on a different AfterFiles? cannot recall for sure) that they were being "courted" by a company that they were pretty much sure they were NOT going to do the ad for, and people guessed it was TEMU, and then not all that many weeks later, BAM here's a WhyFiles TEMU ad, hence my disappointment.

(Plus this ad came right on the back of another unseemly ad spotted on a different YouTube "show" I watch, just a family-friendly "building-their-home-with-their-own-hands" type vlog series that recently did an in-program ad for an online gambling site which REALLY got their viewers riled up in the comments...it was just a kind of slap at that channel's viewers and supporters, who were apparently not much for online gambling and overall that type of ad was very much a surprise to all of us watching that episode.)

It would be interesting to know just how much cash it took TEMU to hook the The Why Files. I do hope it was worth it for tWFs and was a one-and-done sort of thing, but I guess time will tell.

Overall, it seems that WF is going through some growing pains as the show tries to find its footing as a larger production with a bigger crew, and works out its need for more funds to keep things rolling. Here's hoping that get back in their groove soon and start having fun again.

Meh. If the biggest complaints about TWF are:

--the ad each episode that I don't agree with but I can just fast-forward through at will sucks, and
--the episodes aren't quite up the the standards of the "professional nutjobs who know way too much about this shit already," i.e. US, but are catering to the general populace, well...

I'd posit that TWF isn't going anywhere.

You guys are pretty hyper-critical about things. I remember being put off by a few episodes AJ put out where the sponsor was debt-consolidation companies, which are outright scams. Then I thought to myself, "self, you might turn down the money from that advertiser and go for less money from someone else, because you know some things AJ might not. But if they offered you ENOUGH, would just just do it anyway? Everyone has a price."

Who knows? TEMU might become the next Amazon, and knock Bezos off his throne. I'd argue to keep buying from Amazon and not support TEMU because it's probably purely Chinese, but since 99% of the shit we buy from Amazon is pure Chinesium too, that's kind of hypocritical. If I have a choice, I ALWAYS buy local, even if it's more expensive. Living in a rural county in MT that's larger than some US states but has around 10,000 people total, it's not always an option. I've never even been to TEMU's site, much less bought anything, but fuck it...if it's legit and sends me the shit I need for less than Amazon, I might. I can't spend 8 hours and $200 in gas to drive to a major city every time I need something, because Missoula and Kalispell aren't exactly major hubs of commerce.

I'm not going to fault AJ for chasing the dollar. Everyone does it, all of us included. Just fast-forward through the ad section if it bothers you. If enough people do that, the advertiser notices, offers less money or pulls their ad, and the problem goes away. Just know that you're pulling money out of the content producer's pocket. I'm sure AJ will be fine with thousands of Patreon supporters. If he's spending more than he's making to produce the episodes, that's his problem.

Well, this is arfcom, so of course there's gonna be some nit-picking and belly-aching!

(And yes, I will still be watching Why Files. They have not "ruined" anything yet. But I do reserve the right to grumble!)

Well. I liked the Antarctica episode.  So it was fun.

I absolutely want the show to continue and grow and succeed.  I don't mean to be overly critical.

I don't think any of us are being too critical.   I consider this thread to be like a bunch of guys sitting around a fire shooting the shit, we’re all just talking about ideas, likes, dislikes, etc

Agreed.  Everyone in the creative business goes through this in some way. Ive worked with hundreds of authors over the years.  Usually they get drained.  And then one day, something new, an idea or topic, grabs their attention and reignites them.

If anything, I would like to see him take a few weeks vacation and spend some time rabbit holing some new topics. There is so much, in so many directions, he could explore. Shit he finds interesting.

(That said, he should do a David Jacobs episode.)

Small confession;
The Temu ad didnt bother me. My wife lives on the site and the stuff she buys (mostly decor and clothes) is on par with target or ikea, but super inexpensive. In my mind,Its more legit than selling VPNs, Scottish titles or debt consolidation.

Almost every episode he (wisely) talks about additional or branching stories he could tell and requests people to ask for them in the discussion… he’s got hundreds of those stories already.

Agree, too, that he should get more assistance, take a step back, and continue pushing out quality shows. Or put them out less frequently and/or drop the deep dives. That kind of production schedule is hard to maintain and burnout is a thing.

Lol, I skipped from 2022 to the last page to see how it's going and I am not surprised that it has gone from great discussion on the well done topic to talking about ads and how the content has changed. I am going back and watch some more.