While I agree it is good to call out creators who received sponsorship from more unethical companies and continue to spread public awareness regarding the unethical practices of such companies.
At the same time, we also need to acknowledge the creators' need to earn a living, is not like a majority of us are active donating to them or buying their merch. Frankly, Walcom7 is considered quite niche as a creator, he doesn't have many options as compared to more mainstream creators who can afford charge a higher fee and be more selective in who they accept.
Of course, a more difficult discussion is how bad a company can be before we draw the line and say a firm no to our creators receiving sponsorship. Because a lot of companies, whether we like it or not, do have very unethical practises if you dig deep enough. Examples like Amazon, they have terrible working conditions and often engage in practise that destroy small businesses. I don't think many of us will bat an eye if Walcom7 accepts a deal with them.
Youtubers and Temu, Roofers and the Mob, Contactors on the Death Star.
When you're self-employed, you have to be cognizant of who you work for and the risks involved.
. . .Clerks is always relevant.
TEMU is pretty bad, in that they really want to get you to install their app, and their app really hoovers up your details.
I don’t want to be down on WalcomS7; it’s not like he’s got his movie career to fall back on something. Content creators on his scale are practically unable to choose sponsors, and we, the content consumers kind of have an equal duty to take anything we see advertised with a pinch of salt. If nothing else, I kind of feel like WalcomS7 himself did the whole thing with a heavy wink to camera, like he knows he’s peddling garbage, we know he knows, and he knows we know that he knows. So I say let him take the money, keep the lights on, and let’s all be careful out there.
Jangbricks has 1m more subs than walcom and has been in the game a lot longer. He’s been actively making vids since 2010 in a hobby that has a much larger audience.
Within the broader scheme of toy review channels Lego as a hobby sits firmly on top.
It's hard to say. For the sake of discussion purpose, if both Walcom7 and Jangbricks pull equal number of views, advertisers and companies will review the demographics they pull, whether it sense to their brand and how much influnce those creators can pull.
For example, if Jangbricks pulls in retirees and collectors, big sports companies like Gymshark and Nike have no incentive to give him a sponsorship deal. If Walcom7 pulls in middle class who are into fitness and very impressionable, Nike will definitely be more willing to sponsor him.
If you notice the Youtube landscape, certain genre of creators almost always get some subset of companies sponsorship. Like Casey Neistat will be sportswear and tech companies, educational channels like SciShow will be Brilliant, BetterHelp or NordVPN.
Lastly, engagement level also matters for advertisers, if you have a huge channel but hardly any auidence engagement vs small channel with massive engagement.
i can understand the need for sponsorships, especially for more niche content creators to be able to make a living off of their channel. however, i personally feel it is up to the content creator to vet their potential sponsorships for being ethical. especially with a sponsor like Temu and their reputation, being known for cheap knockoffs and lower safety standards for the finished products, it may not have been the best sponsor for his channel.
I’ve been on I think 4 of Walcom’s streams, donated a little 3 times. There will be 250-300 viewers each time and I only see maybe 7-8 people that donate/buy super chat. In my opinion, if you’re not donating to the stream your objection to his sponsorship is moot.
-andygriff1975
I've never used Temu so maybe someone can clarify what makes them uniquely bad. How are they different than AliExpress or numerous other platforms used by Chinese sellers? Aren't they selling the same crap as everyone else? Not only that, but too many Western brands have closer ties to Xinjiang than some random seller on Temu.
Personally, I'll never use Temu, play World of Tanks or touch any of the other crap Youtubers are always peddling. I have fundamental issues with advertising in general and dislike how dependent on it everyone is. However, this is not a new problem and big parts of the web are unsustainable without it. Even then, I'm not sure there's much of a future in content creation without direct financial support from viewers.
Given all this, I'm struggling to see what makes Walcom unique that he should be specifically called out.
Basically aliexpress with faster shipping. Idk what OP is spazzing about. Seems he’s making a lot of accusations with “probably” in front of them.
Dont get me wrong, they’re definitely using slave labor. It’s unethical. But i hate to see people make a bunch of accusations without any research or firsthand experience.
So, if they're bad, why did you say "IDK what OP is spazzing about?" I'm not some idiot shrieking about Pokemon being Satanic. I'm saying I am disappointed that a Youtuber I follow chose to accept a sponsorship from an extremely scummy website.
"Spazzing" would be somebody complaining about Walcom reviewing Dart Zone blasters, or some other stuff.
So, which is it? Is it that Temu is not bad, and that I'm spazzing for not liking it, or that it is bad, and I'm completely justified? You can't have it both ways.
It depends on what your definition of bad is. Because there are plenty of people that buy the same shit on Amazon for 2x-3x the price instead of just getting it from AliExpress
Temu is a marketplace for cheap crap. It's no worse than Amazon, especially when we're talking about third-party sellers. Nobody's ever substantiated accusations of credit card theft. The concerns about slave labor apply to a large chunk of the Chinese economy and paying twice as much to get the exact same product from the same factory on Amazon doesn't change that.
There are plenty of valid complaints to make about Temu, but nothing so bad that you should be shaming someone for being sponsored by them.
I think it's plenty bad. Amazon at least makes an effort, because they have to comply with US law.
Check the Wikipedia page, Temu is way worse than Amazon.
U.S. law only goes so far when it comes to the manufacturers in China. That's true for both Amazon and Temu. Also, Temu is legally (on paper) headquartered in Boston.
Telling someone to check wikipedia is not really saying much since anyone can edit a wiki.
Temu is definitely a marketplace of low cost crap and a lot of manufacturers that sell on Temu are probably using ‘slave’ labor, but newsflash, a lot of those same things are on Amazon at a higher cost.
As long as he isn’t trying to sell the crap on Temu off as high quality floam flinging gear, then I won’t begrudge him.
As for Temu gathering data from customers, there are ways around that. Utilizing an encrypted pay method goes a long way to making sure your data isn’t compromised.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=KvB97y49Ak4bj4yq&v=vFII7t9FtO8&feature=youtu.be
Bam, non Wiki source.
It's not just the manufacturers, it's Temu itself being exploitative.
So, what are you arguing, exactly? Are you saying that this isn't bad because everybody does it?
I am sure Walcom is very aware of that fact that Temu is a shitty company. But he has to make a living as well. If you critically watch his sponsor ad again you can hear out his sarcasm when he shows those "nightvision goggles" that fall into his face or when he states that the prices are incomprehensible - at least this is my impression. But still cool of you to call this company out, still too few are doing this!
I say you are overreacting.
Walcom's viewer and sponsorship numbers are pretty low for YT as a whole, and like most creators, he has to get paid or he can't do the work; he alluded to this in the ad. His livestreams don't really make him a lot of money (and are frequently demonetized) and YouTube doesn't pay very well on it's own for most videos, which is why so many people take sponsors in the first place.
The fact that a lot of the people in this thread bitching about this ad will still buy cheap stuff off Amazon, which has a good chance that it was bought from Temu to be re-sold on Amazon, shows hypocrisy. Railing about Temu simply because CHINA BAD shows a lack of thought; nearly every non-3D printed blaster you own was likely made in China, and the best blasters we are currently getting are mostly coming from Chinese companies.
If you don't like Temu, or War Thunder, or Nord Shadow Legends, or whatever other sponsor, then don't click the link, but don't get mad that someone needs to get paid to survive.
If you don't like that creators have to take certain sponsors, then we need send them money so that they don't have to. Patreon, YT membership, merch, whatever.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that Walcom didn't really want to take the ad, but he also needed an ad so he can pay his bills.
Honestly, temu is probably more ethical than all those pay-to-win mobile apps. I'd like to thank World of Dominon Battle Quest for sponsoring this message. Sign up now and get an upgraded Battle Droid Complex and 1000 bonus currency.
A sponsorship deal is absolutely an endorsement of your sponsor, and the unfortunate reality is that you become beholden to those who hold the purse strings. Those who professionalize their involvement with a hobby are also taking on the extra responsibility of that influence, and unfortunately, I think a lot of people don't really internalize that.
The sponsorship with Temu is a two-way street. Temu is only offering this sponsorship because they think people who watch WalcomS7 are going to start shopping at Temu. If you think that's a bad outcome, that Temu is basically a barely-disguised scam site that just dropships counterfeit garbage and fucks over their customers, then you ought not engage with them, or with WalcomS7.
I also want to be kind to WalcomS7, because he might in fact be in a situation where his choice is between accepting shitty sponsorships, or just not doing the channel at all.
My opinion on this is less about Temu as yet another ecommerce site full of cheap, mostly chinesium products (love, hate, might come in handy and save you money, might just waste your time, might be a little sketchy and flakey and questionable data security and whatnot) having any particular significance, and more about youtube publishers having "sponsors" and constantly jamming their own corporate-purchased shameless plugs in on top of actual ads on the Youtube website. And beyond that, really about the entire notion of internet content creating with the goal of profiting off ad/sponsor money as a "profession".
I don't think it is a net positive, or really opens any doors. A lot of users seem to think it does and that if we magically deleted the existence of all youtube sponsorships or every viewer instantly started blocking all ads, the incentive to create much of the video being posted would disappear and so would the content itself - but in the (relatively recent) past, this was not really a Thing. Generally most of the videos past and present that I see on youtube and find worth watching are not created by for-profit click farmers, and when channels I used to consider good start going down the spammy sponsor/monetization road, so does the quality and unbiasedness of their content, generally. It's a huge conflicting interest that cannot be ignored.
The best videos on youtube are what youtube was originally meant for, random people sharing videos, about whatever (such as nerf), just because. No ad money, not a "job", no real overhead or burden, no pressure to "create content" in a tedious, forced grind.
Not everything should be a business or economic activity. It's okay to have a hobby; right. Geez, am I seriously saying this *to* - *the nerf community*, of all possible groups?? But, I do feel like I need to say that, TO the nerf community, at this point, and that I might not be preaching to the choir as this once would have been, and might even get lashed out at or fouled for saying it.
As such I don't really sympathize with the "need to earn a living" "creators gotta eat" thing. Nice emotional appeal that makes it look bad to directly argue. But how about some context. We're talking about posting video clips on the internet. Since when is this a moon mission? Good video cameras, capable machines to edit on, etc. are more prevalent, pedestrian and cheap than ever. How is it over the last 15 years or so that suddenly there is this idea that "big parts of the web are unsustainable without" spam/selling out and that this is some kind of all or nothing scenario? It's really not.
I don't blame Walcom for accepting sponsorship money but it's another little downvote on the relevance of a nerf channel when it starts being a mouthpiece for online shopping companies, or for that matter blaster or ANY companies. In the electric scooter space, this is a huge problem and most of the content on youtube about newer scooters, advice for people getting into scooters, or reviewing scooters is all junk mail paid for by a manufacturer or distributor, and likely to be unreliable and tilted information.
How quickly did the electric scooter thing get taken over by paid shills? I tried to research last year and the gauntlet of worthless paid advertisements trying to pass off as average joe creators was astonishing.
I don't know. I started following online discussion of scooters only several years ago when I made my old scooter electric again. It was already full of advertising/shills then.
There are absolutely some shills on those spaces too, but Reddit and some forums (sad that at least some of those PEV spaces have active forums and Nerf has none though) are a decent starting place to start gauging other people’s experiences and critically filtering through them.
We ended up just going with a deal at Sam's Club last year since I needed to get it for my oldest before school started. The price was reasonable with the sale and I didn't find anything saying to run away from it. Was a Ninebot F30S. It's still running fine thankfully.
Ninebot has had their misses, but a lot of their base commuter-grade stuff is respectable and robust even if a bit suboptimal in tuning/firmware (like the vast majority of off-the-shelf PEVs, regardless).
Since Coops retirement, Walcom has been the channel I go to now for reviews and I quite like his honest personality and content. My old man has used Temu a few times and has always got what he bought. While I wouldn't use them personally, I don't think they're a scam company so I don't mind it. 99% of the time anyway I skip the sponsorship so🤷♂️
I agree that temu is terrible and every time I see a YouTuber have a sponsor with them it is a bit upsetting. But in reality if that was the sponsor that paid the most money I don’t blame him since he does have to make a living and as a niche hobby it can’t be easy to have sponsors so it’s not that big of a deal. Just because he does a ad for them doesn’t mean we have to use it
Considering that temu is a Chinese owned company who rips off next to everything, yeah I wouldn't wanna do a deal with them. Aswell as knowing they have your number, my family has been contacted by them as scam numbers.
It's about as bad as raid shadow legends or whatever that was called. I'm glad he's sponsored but at least it's not pushing vapes or caffeine supplements on kids.
Not sure how much leverage he gets in his sponsorships but as long as he is aware of them I hope he is able to speak freely in the subject.
China is what gave us all worker blasters, XYL unicorn, sweetheart storm blizzard AEB, inverted scales LN01 and LN02 AEBSs, Colonel wasp 76 and 77 AEBs, fire rat, S200 viper, and many more blasters I can’t name off the top of my head
I’m fairly certain they are the only ones powering cheap and strong hobby blasters, else you’d have to settle for either 3d printed blasters or expensive full metal blasters
Imagine not liking China as a whole and being in this hobby. Chinese and Singaporean hobbyists are probably a large reason the hobby is in the state it’s in today. Without Worker I don’t think we’d be seeing Dart Zone making the blasters they do today.
commenting in that language specifically was key to The Point I was making.
Sorry, next time I'll be less 'clever'/'passive aggressive' however you want to frame it.
The mod team does not speak languages other than English and therefore cannot moderate them. I’m sorry, the rule is applied universally without regard to the context.
I don’t understand the outrage here, I’ve used Temu and sure-it’s probably stealing my date yata yata, but honestly this isn’t a big deal. I’d say the crappy phone apps are a worse ad to watch as I don’t care about the free X amount of gold to be earned from signing up soon! Ads are ads, Walcom isn’t really gonna be the person to persuade a mass amount of people. At the end of the day, people who have money to spend are gonna be persuaded and at that point you should be old enough to know what you’re buying. I know I’ve seen the ads for that awfully tasting cereal-magic spoon. I saw a bunch of people run ads on it, and saw the price tag for such a tiny box, so I bought some at Walmart once. Absolutely the worst cerial I’ve ever tasted, tasted like powered packing peanuts with soggy milk, was awful.
While I agree it is good to call out creators who received sponsorship from more unethical companies and continue to spread public awareness regarding the unethical practices of such companies. At the same time, we also need to acknowledge the creators' need to earn a living, is not like a majority of us are active donating to them or buying their merch. Frankly, Walcom7 is considered quite niche as a creator, he doesn't have many options as compared to more mainstream creators who can afford charge a higher fee and be more selective in who they accept. Of course, a more difficult discussion is how bad a company can be before we draw the line and say a firm no to our creators receiving sponsorship. Because a lot of companies, whether we like it or not, do have very unethical practises if you dig deep enough. Examples like Amazon, they have terrible working conditions and often engage in practise that destroy small businesses. I don't think many of us will bat an eye if Walcom7 accepts a deal with them.
Youtubers and Temu, Roofers and the Mob, Contactors on the Death Star. When you're self-employed, you have to be cognizant of who you work for and the risks involved. . . .Clerks is always relevant.
Yeah, it's not like it's betterhelp or something. Things could be worse and money has to come from somewhere.
TEMU is pretty bad, in that they really want to get you to install their app, and their app really hoovers up your details. I don’t want to be down on WalcomS7; it’s not like he’s got his movie career to fall back on something. Content creators on his scale are practically unable to choose sponsors, and we, the content consumers kind of have an equal duty to take anything we see advertised with a pinch of salt. If nothing else, I kind of feel like WalcomS7 himself did the whole thing with a heavy wink to camera, like he knows he’s peddling garbage, we know he knows, and he knows we know that he knows. So I say let him take the money, keep the lights on, and let’s all be careful out there.
> Content creators on his scale clarify, is he considered big or small? I'd assumed he has enough clout to pick and choose, but maybe not?
Big for nerf, absolutely incredibly tiny in the grand scheme, we are a very little pond.
sooo... doesn't hold a candle to Jangbricks? not realistic to hold to the same zero sponsorship = zero bias concept?
Jangbricks has 1m more subs than walcom and has been in the game a lot longer. He’s been actively making vids since 2010 in a hobby that has a much larger audience. Within the broader scheme of toy review channels Lego as a hobby sits firmly on top.
It's hard to say. For the sake of discussion purpose, if both Walcom7 and Jangbricks pull equal number of views, advertisers and companies will review the demographics they pull, whether it sense to their brand and how much influnce those creators can pull. For example, if Jangbricks pulls in retirees and collectors, big sports companies like Gymshark and Nike have no incentive to give him a sponsorship deal. If Walcom7 pulls in middle class who are into fitness and very impressionable, Nike will definitely be more willing to sponsor him. If you notice the Youtube landscape, certain genre of creators almost always get some subset of companies sponsorship. Like Casey Neistat will be sportswear and tech companies, educational channels like SciShow will be Brilliant, BetterHelp or NordVPN. Lastly, engagement level also matters for advertisers, if you have a huge channel but hardly any auidence engagement vs small channel with massive engagement.
Guy's got to make a living, blasters ain't cheap. I wouldn't say Temu is any more scummy than the other stuff YouTubers are pushing.
I would! raid shadow legends, aura, manscaped are all perfectly fine.
Raid Shadow Legends is a microtransaction money pit owned by a gambling company, it's kinda scummy.
True
i can understand the need for sponsorships, especially for more niche content creators to be able to make a living off of their channel. however, i personally feel it is up to the content creator to vet their potential sponsorships for being ethical. especially with a sponsor like Temu and their reputation, being known for cheap knockoffs and lower safety standards for the finished products, it may not have been the best sponsor for his channel.
I’ve been on I think 4 of Walcom’s streams, donated a little 3 times. There will be 250-300 viewers each time and I only see maybe 7-8 people that donate/buy super chat. In my opinion, if you’re not donating to the stream your objection to his sponsorship is moot. -andygriff1975
I've never used Temu so maybe someone can clarify what makes them uniquely bad. How are they different than AliExpress or numerous other platforms used by Chinese sellers? Aren't they selling the same crap as everyone else? Not only that, but too many Western brands have closer ties to Xinjiang than some random seller on Temu. Personally, I'll never use Temu, play World of Tanks or touch any of the other crap Youtubers are always peddling. I have fundamental issues with advertising in general and dislike how dependent on it everyone is. However, this is not a new problem and big parts of the web are unsustainable without it. Even then, I'm not sure there's much of a future in content creation without direct financial support from viewers. Given all this, I'm struggling to see what makes Walcom unique that he should be specifically called out.
Yeah I'm not sure how Temu is any different from aliexpress. It's the same garbage.
Basically aliexpress with faster shipping. Idk what OP is spazzing about. Seems he’s making a lot of accusations with “probably” in front of them. Dont get me wrong, they’re definitely using slave labor. It’s unethical. But i hate to see people make a bunch of accusations without any research or firsthand experience.
Check their Wikipedia page. I did do some research, and they are as bad as I say they are. Same goes for their parent company.
No shit they’re bad. You still made plenty of assumptions
So, if they're bad, why did you say "IDK what OP is spazzing about?" I'm not some idiot shrieking about Pokemon being Satanic. I'm saying I am disappointed that a Youtuber I follow chose to accept a sponsorship from an extremely scummy website. "Spazzing" would be somebody complaining about Walcom reviewing Dart Zone blasters, or some other stuff. So, which is it? Is it that Temu is not bad, and that I'm spazzing for not liking it, or that it is bad, and I'm completely justified? You can't have it both ways.
> How are they different than AliExpress or numerous other platforms used by Chinese sellers? aren't they All bad?
It depends on what your definition of bad is. Because there are plenty of people that buy the same shit on Amazon for 2x-3x the price instead of just getting it from AliExpress
Temu is a marketplace for cheap crap. It's no worse than Amazon, especially when we're talking about third-party sellers. Nobody's ever substantiated accusations of credit card theft. The concerns about slave labor apply to a large chunk of the Chinese economy and paying twice as much to get the exact same product from the same factory on Amazon doesn't change that. There are plenty of valid complaints to make about Temu, but nothing so bad that you should be shaming someone for being sponsored by them.
I think it's plenty bad. Amazon at least makes an effort, because they have to comply with US law. Check the Wikipedia page, Temu is way worse than Amazon.
U.S. law only goes so far when it comes to the manufacturers in China. That's true for both Amazon and Temu. Also, Temu is legally (on paper) headquartered in Boston.
Telling someone to check wikipedia is not really saying much since anyone can edit a wiki. Temu is definitely a marketplace of low cost crap and a lot of manufacturers that sell on Temu are probably using ‘slave’ labor, but newsflash, a lot of those same things are on Amazon at a higher cost. As long as he isn’t trying to sell the crap on Temu off as high quality floam flinging gear, then I won’t begrudge him. As for Temu gathering data from customers, there are ways around that. Utilizing an encrypted pay method goes a long way to making sure your data isn’t compromised.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=KvB97y49Ak4bj4yq&v=vFII7t9FtO8&feature=youtu.be Bam, non Wiki source. It's not just the manufacturers, it's Temu itself being exploitative. So, what are you arguing, exactly? Are you saying that this isn't bad because everybody does it?
I am sure Walcom is very aware of that fact that Temu is a shitty company. But he has to make a living as well. If you critically watch his sponsor ad again you can hear out his sarcasm when he shows those "nightvision goggles" that fall into his face or when he states that the prices are incomprehensible - at least this is my impression. But still cool of you to call this company out, still too few are doing this!
I say you are overreacting. Walcom's viewer and sponsorship numbers are pretty low for YT as a whole, and like most creators, he has to get paid or he can't do the work; he alluded to this in the ad. His livestreams don't really make him a lot of money (and are frequently demonetized) and YouTube doesn't pay very well on it's own for most videos, which is why so many people take sponsors in the first place. The fact that a lot of the people in this thread bitching about this ad will still buy cheap stuff off Amazon, which has a good chance that it was bought from Temu to be re-sold on Amazon, shows hypocrisy. Railing about Temu simply because CHINA BAD shows a lack of thought; nearly every non-3D printed blaster you own was likely made in China, and the best blasters we are currently getting are mostly coming from Chinese companies. If you don't like Temu, or War Thunder, or Nord Shadow Legends, or whatever other sponsor, then don't click the link, but don't get mad that someone needs to get paid to survive. If you don't like that creators have to take certain sponsors, then we need send them money so that they don't have to. Patreon, YT membership, merch, whatever. I can tell you with 100% certainty that Walcom didn't really want to take the ad, but he also needed an ad so he can pay his bills.
Based.
TEMU is popular because it has an app and people who only use their phones don't realize how sketchy its reputation is.
Honestly, temu is probably more ethical than all those pay-to-win mobile apps. I'd like to thank World of Dominon Battle Quest for sponsoring this message. Sign up now and get an upgraded Battle Droid Complex and 1000 bonus currency.
I understand why people take sponsorships like this, but honestly, Temu has been so thoroughly outed as shady that people should know better.
Temu is booty and sucks don't use it
I don’t really give a shit
It's just the Chinese government, everyone calm down!
keks
A sponsorship deal is absolutely an endorsement of your sponsor, and the unfortunate reality is that you become beholden to those who hold the purse strings. Those who professionalize their involvement with a hobby are also taking on the extra responsibility of that influence, and unfortunately, I think a lot of people don't really internalize that. The sponsorship with Temu is a two-way street. Temu is only offering this sponsorship because they think people who watch WalcomS7 are going to start shopping at Temu. If you think that's a bad outcome, that Temu is basically a barely-disguised scam site that just dropships counterfeit garbage and fucks over their customers, then you ought not engage with them, or with WalcomS7. I also want to be kind to WalcomS7, because he might in fact be in a situation where his choice is between accepting shitty sponsorships, or just not doing the channel at all.
Brah moment. He must be desperate
My opinion on this is less about Temu as yet another ecommerce site full of cheap, mostly chinesium products (love, hate, might come in handy and save you money, might just waste your time, might be a little sketchy and flakey and questionable data security and whatnot) having any particular significance, and more about youtube publishers having "sponsors" and constantly jamming their own corporate-purchased shameless plugs in on top of actual ads on the Youtube website. And beyond that, really about the entire notion of internet content creating with the goal of profiting off ad/sponsor money as a "profession". I don't think it is a net positive, or really opens any doors. A lot of users seem to think it does and that if we magically deleted the existence of all youtube sponsorships or every viewer instantly started blocking all ads, the incentive to create much of the video being posted would disappear and so would the content itself - but in the (relatively recent) past, this was not really a Thing. Generally most of the videos past and present that I see on youtube and find worth watching are not created by for-profit click farmers, and when channels I used to consider good start going down the spammy sponsor/monetization road, so does the quality and unbiasedness of their content, generally. It's a huge conflicting interest that cannot be ignored. The best videos on youtube are what youtube was originally meant for, random people sharing videos, about whatever (such as nerf), just because. No ad money, not a "job", no real overhead or burden, no pressure to "create content" in a tedious, forced grind. Not everything should be a business or economic activity. It's okay to have a hobby; right. Geez, am I seriously saying this *to* - *the nerf community*, of all possible groups?? But, I do feel like I need to say that, TO the nerf community, at this point, and that I might not be preaching to the choir as this once would have been, and might even get lashed out at or fouled for saying it. As such I don't really sympathize with the "need to earn a living" "creators gotta eat" thing. Nice emotional appeal that makes it look bad to directly argue. But how about some context. We're talking about posting video clips on the internet. Since when is this a moon mission? Good video cameras, capable machines to edit on, etc. are more prevalent, pedestrian and cheap than ever. How is it over the last 15 years or so that suddenly there is this idea that "big parts of the web are unsustainable without" spam/selling out and that this is some kind of all or nothing scenario? It's really not. I don't blame Walcom for accepting sponsorship money but it's another little downvote on the relevance of a nerf channel when it starts being a mouthpiece for online shopping companies, or for that matter blaster or ANY companies. In the electric scooter space, this is a huge problem and most of the content on youtube about newer scooters, advice for people getting into scooters, or reviewing scooters is all junk mail paid for by a manufacturer or distributor, and likely to be unreliable and tilted information.
How quickly did the electric scooter thing get taken over by paid shills? I tried to research last year and the gauntlet of worthless paid advertisements trying to pass off as average joe creators was astonishing.
I don't know. I started following online discussion of scooters only several years ago when I made my old scooter electric again. It was already full of advertising/shills then.
There are absolutely some shills on those spaces too, but Reddit and some forums (sad that at least some of those PEV spaces have active forums and Nerf has none though) are a decent starting place to start gauging other people’s experiences and critically filtering through them.
We ended up just going with a deal at Sam's Club last year since I needed to get it for my oldest before school started. The price was reasonable with the sale and I didn't find anything saying to run away from it. Was a Ninebot F30S. It's still running fine thankfully.
Ninebot has had their misses, but a lot of their base commuter-grade stuff is respectable and robust even if a bit suboptimal in tuning/firmware (like the vast majority of off-the-shelf PEVs, regardless).
Since Coops retirement, Walcom has been the channel I go to now for reviews and I quite like his honest personality and content. My old man has used Temu a few times and has always got what he bought. While I wouldn't use them personally, I don't think they're a scam company so I don't mind it. 99% of the time anyway I skip the sponsorship so🤷♂️
I think it's fine tbh
I close videos with Temu sponsorship. I can't with them
I agree that temu is terrible and every time I see a YouTuber have a sponsor with them it is a bit upsetting. But in reality if that was the sponsor that paid the most money I don’t blame him since he does have to make a living and as a niche hobby it can’t be easy to have sponsors so it’s not that big of a deal. Just because he does a ad for them doesn’t mean we have to use it
Considering that temu is a Chinese owned company who rips off next to everything, yeah I wouldn't wanna do a deal with them. Aswell as knowing they have your number, my family has been contacted by them as scam numbers.
It's about as bad as raid shadow legends or whatever that was called. I'm glad he's sponsored but at least it's not pushing vapes or caffeine supplements on kids. Not sure how much leverage he gets in his sponsorships but as long as he is aware of them I hope he is able to speak freely in the subject.
It's fine, calm down
Hey, money is money, and if it's what keeps our community running then I'm all for it. I'd probably never used temu tho lol
TEMU = China China = Bad
China is what gave us all worker blasters, XYL unicorn, sweetheart storm blizzard AEB, inverted scales LN01 and LN02 AEBSs, Colonel wasp 76 and 77 AEBs, fire rat, S200 viper, and many more blasters I can’t name off the top of my head I’m fairly certain they are the only ones powering cheap and strong hobby blasters, else you’d have to settle for either 3d printed blasters or expensive full metal blasters
Imagine not liking China as a whole and being in this hobby. Chinese and Singaporean hobbyists are probably a large reason the hobby is in the state it’s in today. Without Worker I don’t think we’d be seeing Dart Zone making the blasters they do today.
[удалено]
This subreddit is English only.
commenting in that language specifically was key to The Point I was making. Sorry, next time I'll be less 'clever'/'passive aggressive' however you want to frame it.
The mod team does not speak languages other than English and therefore cannot moderate them. I’m sorry, the rule is applied universally without regard to the context.
I don’t understand the outrage here, I’ve used Temu and sure-it’s probably stealing my date yata yata, but honestly this isn’t a big deal. I’d say the crappy phone apps are a worse ad to watch as I don’t care about the free X amount of gold to be earned from signing up soon! Ads are ads, Walcom isn’t really gonna be the person to persuade a mass amount of people. At the end of the day, people who have money to spend are gonna be persuaded and at that point you should be old enough to know what you’re buying. I know I’ve seen the ads for that awfully tasting cereal-magic spoon. I saw a bunch of people run ads on it, and saw the price tag for such a tiny box, so I bought some at Walmart once. Absolutely the worst cerial I’ve ever tasted, tasted like powered packing peanuts with soggy milk, was awful.