Is the show going down slope, or is it me?

[thedude01]

Hey all,

I'll start by saying that I was watching Diggnation right from episode no. 1, and it almost instantly became my favorite show on the internets. The concept was extremely appealing. Two slightly (or sometimes more than slightly) drunk guys talking about all the cool/funny/interesting stuff on the web. Tons of humor, tons of laughs, and even an opinion or a statement, it was all there.

But lately I find myself watching the show with less and less enthusiasm. Kevin and Alex seem to not care about the stories at all nowadays. It looks like someone else is picking the stories now, and the guys seem to read about them for the first time on the show.

More and more, they just read the title and completely screw up the story itself. Every time Diggnation features a story that I've seen on Digg myself the guys mix up all the facts, or drift away from the stories after a sentence or two.

There are moments that they don't care about the show at all, getting all caught up in IM'ing on their computers, sending/receiving sms/emails, or just doing other random stuff, forgetting that the camera is running.

I know that the whole podcast thing is suppose to be a bit random, a bit unprofessional, a bit of a mess, but for me the past few episodes had gone beyond that. I mean come on! Put some effort to it, find the story yourself, read them before the show, if you are talking about a picture or a youtube clip, have it preloaded. How hard can it be?

So my question is: Is it just me becoming an old fart, and should I go and switch to watching FOX News, as it may be better suited for me? Or do I have some sad point here, and Kevin and Alex seem to not care about Diggnation as much as they did in the beginning.

[danhauk]

Not just you...
http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26984
And for a while there were many complaints in the episode discussion threads.

Though for me, the past few have been great, except for the most recent one yesterday. That was a little bland. But the ones before that were really good.

I'm also looking forward to next week with Adam Savage and hoping for a great one.

[lobasuu]

We have been over this ten times before.

One thing and one thing only is to be blamed for this: taping more than one episode at a time.

[gearhead364]

@TheDude01

I totally agree with you, the lack of preparation sometime feels like an insult, considering a large portion of the audience uses digg.com on a somewhat regular basis, and neither Kevin or Alex read the articles they have chosen prior to the episode. If a story that I have read and digged comes up on the show, I am rarely pleased, because neither host has any idea of what the story is about and they know none of the details of the story that make it interesting. This is something very easy to remedy, require both hosts to read the stories prior to filming, this can take as little as 15 min or as much as an hour. Considering the hosts are being paid for the show, I would consider this as a service the audience. On TRS, the guys do not review a movie/game/comic/tv show as they are first seeing it, they spend time to carefully review and determine their opinions prior to each show, this amount of work is not necessary for diggnation, but some effort would be appreciated.

With regards to pre-loading the stories, this is easily resolved, create an xmarks account specifically for diggnation. Create two folders on the bookmarks toolbar, one for Alex and one for Kevin, and store the links for that weeks stories. This way whoever chooses the stories can provide them to the hosts prior to filiming, and Kevin and Alex can read the stories at their leasure. Plus, if either browser crashes the stories can be easily reloaded.

Also, the continuing trend of reducing the show length and the quantity of stories is rather annoying. I understand that bandwidth costs money and profit is increased as the length of the show decreases, but rather than decreasing the number of stories or not answering emails, I think it would be better to promote stories that take less time to explain and discuss. For example, throw in a pic and comic of the week, this is something very easy to find considering the submissions to digg and takes little time to explain and discuss, but at the same time the viewer is not loosing the quantity of diggs they normally expect. With respect to the emails, answer at least one every week, this is typically half the enjoyment of the show and the only thing keeping from stopping at the advertising roll.

So to conclude, TheDude01 I agree with you, and I hope that both of our concerns are at least recognized before this post gets flamed.

[masherscf]

It's just you guys. The show is remarkably the same as it was when it started. perhaps the formula is a little tired. That's not unexpected. This genre has grown a bit since episode 1.

[danhauk]

Originally Posted by gearhead364

Also, the continuing trend of reducing the show length and the quantity of stories is rather annoying. I understand that bandwidth costs money and profit is increased as the length of the show decreases, but rather than decreasing the number of stories or not answering emails, I think it would be better to promote stories that take less time to explain and discuss. For example, throw in a pic and comic of the week, this is something very easy to find considering the submissions to digg and takes little time to explain and discuss, but at the same time the viewer is not loosing the quantity of diggs they normally expect.

Quality > Quantity

I'd much rather have them discuss 3 stories in detail, with tangents and meaningful, humorous discussion, than quickly blow through 8 stories.

And yes, this has come up before on many occasions.

[masterq]

Originally Posted by Lobasuu

One thing and one thing only is to be blamed for this: taping more than one episode at a time.

I think thats part of it, but I dont think thats the only thing. Taping two episodes severely hurts the show because the internet is all about being current. When your stories are a week old to begin with and you tack another week on to that you just look ridiculous. On more than one occasion they bring something up that was the coolest thing since sliced bread for a few days and then became really old and kind of stupid, but because of the two week delay they act like its recent.

The fact that Rev3 grew to be a lot bigger since the start of the show is another big factor. They focus much more on sponsors than ever before (eating a klondike bar almost every episode for a few months... really?). I remember an early episode where alex said something like they get paid to read the copy but they can give a shit about them otherwise and they'll talk about them negatively on the show if they want. I know that wouldn't fly now. They even moved the sponsors to before the last story so they can give more focus to them... another horrible move IMO.

They also don't drink anymore. I mean... at all. They may have a beer or two before the show and maybe one during, but they are never really drunk, except for live shows. I can understand wanting to take it easy after doing it for a while, but when its a treat to get a show where they are drunk u know you're taking it a little too easy. I recently browsed youtube for some great diggnation highlights and 99% of the best ones are when they are drunk.

The live shows are good, but I enjoy a good drunk regular episode more than anything. Also I liked the live episodes when it was only like 20-30 people and it was like they just had people hanging out. Now they try to make too big a deal out of it. They have people parading on stage during the episode, they have guests that have nothing to do with the show and its just a "look who we have" thing, theyre throwing stuff out into the audience, having contents with each other, etc. It's waaaay too over the top IMO. A live diggnation should be just that... a diggnation episode done live in front of an audience.

Tech stories are almost non-existent. Diggnation is under the technology category on iTunes because it used to be mostly tech-related stories. Now it's whatever idiotic picture or video made the front page of digg. I realize that the show was always about the front page stories of digg, but I feel they used to be more passionate with tech stories. Now they can really give a shit about what they are reading.

Glenn is cool, but they need to cool down with the hippie jokes. Once in a while was hilarius when he really did something hippie-like, but now they go out of their way to force a hippie joke, and they do it once every 5 minutes. Its almost getting as bad as them plugging their twitter.

I realize a show evolves over time, but I think its gotten to the point where they need to cool off and bring things down to earth before they spin off the planet.

[gearhead364]

Originally Posted by danhauk

Quality > Quantity

I'd much rather have them discuss 3 stories in detail, with tangents and meaningful, humorous discussion, than quickly blow through 8 stories.

And yes, this has come up before on many occasions.

I would agree, but this is not the case, both quantity and quality has decreased. For example, Diggnation: Episode 5, this is one of the original episodes of diggnation. There is a total of 9 stories, which both Alex and Kevin have read in advance. I find this show much more entertaining than any of the last 10 episode and this is over 4 years old. The difference is that both hosts are well prepared, they can quickly summarize the story without, wasting time skimming through the content at the last minute, and quickly state their views on the story in a humorous manner. Not to mention that this is a 27 min episode, so there is no difference in the length of show, just a significant difference in the quality and quantity of stories. If you doubt me, feel free to watch the episode yourself, you will not be dissapointed.

[masterq]

Originally Posted by gearhead364

I would agree, but this is not the case, both quantity and quality has decreased. For example, Diggnation: Episode 5, this is one of the original episodes of diggnation. There is a total of 9 stories, which both Alex and Kevin have read in advance. I find this show much more entertaining than any of the last 10 episode and this is over 4 years old. The difference is that both hosts are well prepared, they can quickly summarize the story without, wasting time skimming through the content at the last minute, and quickly state their views on the story in a humorous manner. Not to mention that this is a 27 min episode, so there is no difference in the length of show, just a significant difference in the quality and quantity of stories. If you doubt me, feel free to watch the episode yourself, you will not be dissapointed.

Numerous times people from Rev3 say that the guys are too busy to tape a show a week and I would assume the same would be said for reading the stories before the show. I think this is bullshit. I understand that Kevin has to deal with digg before anything else and Alex has more than one show, but this is their job... if I told my boss I could only come to work every other week to do the work of two weeks and I would do a half-assed job for the short time I was there, I would surely be fired. Again, I understand they are busy, but again... it's their job.

[pm9]

Diggnation has always had its good and bad episodes, even in it's early days. It is nothing new. Everyone was loving the past 3 episodes before this most recent one, and now another "show is falling off" thread pops up.

That said I do agree that double taping is a bit lame. I think it is best if they just skip a week and not release an episode if there schedule doesn't allow them to. I mean we have to be rational here; Kevin has to run a company, which I have to say if I was in his shoes, Digg would be my first priority as well; Alex has 3 shows to work on and a upcoming wedding he has to plan for, plus I'm guessing some auditions here and there since he is an actor. So driving/flying from LA to SF and vice-versa every week can be a bit tiresome. So just skipping a week when there schedules get in the way, or taping a show a day before or after a live show (Tempe, Vegas, St Louis) would be fine in my book. Just don't have Alex and Kevin throw on a different shirt or jacket and try to play us for fools.