UPDATE 03/15/20: I came across this when updating the blog and largely forgotten I'd written it. I seem somewhat upset about video reviews. Part of the reason is that a lot of YouTube, then and now, comes across as eating challenges. With any kind of challenge, it's always a game of one-ups-manship. You got hot, someone else goes hotter, you eat 57 hot dogs, someone eats 70, etc., and that sort of thing remains of limited interest to me. It took me a while to think of a way to do the videos (at the time of writing, I was very against doing a YouTube channel at all) in a way that would add on to the written reviews (which I still consider a lot more important), and cover things that the written review could not, such as the motional viscosity and to a degree, the reaction with the sauces. I'm leaving this as I wrote it, as sort of a capsule, though some of the elements in it have obviously "evolved" over time.
Scott Roberts (go to his website if you haven't already) recently did his usual fantastic job of wrapping up the Weekend Of Fire 2012 and put up a post about a Bloggers roundtable he and some others did. I have not taken the time to go through the video (more on that in a bit), but in his blurb about the episode, he mentions the discussion of video/audio vs. written reviews.
I wrote on this briefly earlier when I mentioned there would be no pictures, etc. but while I may, at some point, add pictures of the bottle, at least, I won't be adding pictures of the sauce on food or videos of my reaction, etc. The reason for this is that I view the reviews for posterity and after doing literally thousands of them on other subjects, I think I've got them more or less nailed down, in terms of what I want to see.
What I don't want to see if having to pore through three and a half minutes or 45 seconds or whatever length of video to get to the information I want. If someone wants to be a star and be on camera or whatever, good on them. Go for it, do it up, go crazy, but if there's a review in there, it's worthless to me. Take a look at any of my written-only reviews and you can find the information (the most important of which is should you spend your money on whatever the thing being reviewed is) in seconds and if you decide you're tired of reading the strings of letters some asshole has cobbled together, then you can skip out and no real harm done. If you're like me and you sit through a few minutes of video, it had damn better be worth your while or you're going to be disappointed or possibly pissed that someone just wasted your time. If you want to go back to it, are you really going to remember the time stamp of when some cutesy fucker said just the right pithy thing that kinda sorta stuck in your mind? I don't think most people have the time to sit through those and if they're like me, they also lack the inclination.
Perhaps equally important is the idea that something written, by nature, is inherently more considered than off-the-cuff remarks, even if they're as practiced and well (perhaps over) rehearsed as those of any given politician. Take a look at literally any random YouTube sauce review (and I say this having seen exactly zero of them) and tell me if they seem polished or outlined or scripted out at all. There might be some general framework and continuity and may even border on cohesive, but are they useful, other than possibly as (light) entertainment? If you're looking for some guidance before you plonk down your dancing-for-tip money for a bottle of magic elixir you haven't tried yet, do you want to see some schnook prancing and dancing around trying to get to whatever point there is to be made or do you want to see something organized or at least static, so you can stare at it to glean whatever useful knowledge there is to be had?
Even if this blog somehow takes off and people stream here by the droves, you won't see video reviews (*ahem* see update) or audio reviews and probably not much in the way of pictures. What you will get is hard, truthful information. Just the facts, kids. Just the facts.
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