So it looks like some people are pissed that Blood and Thunder is charging $45 for the Roller Derby World Cup live stream. It so happens Im in a position to have some thoughts to share about this. When Derby News Network went offline for good earlier this year and I wrote a hundred thousand words explaining why, I said that I was leaving many, many parts of the story out. Im glad I wrote what I did, because it was important, but one of my regrets about the fallout was that it made the whole thing look like the only reason I eventually retired from the site in 2012 was due to DNN / WFTDA clashes. Those were the precipitating events of the End, but by no means the only reason. This is another tiny bit of the story. When DNN streamed World Cup 2011 in conjunction with Hinckley Productions for free, people brutally ripped us to shreds for the streaming quality problems on the first day - and rightfully so. Now, I was primarily writing and editing coverage all weekend, since the video side of DNN was never my strong point. But if I remember correctly, the venues Internet connection was strong enough and Hinckleys onsite production was fine, but the streaming quality was crap because we did not have computers robust enough to handle what we were trying to do, plus wed never had to deal with THE ENTIRE PLANET hitting our site at once. For a good part of the opening day, the stream was nearly unwatchable and people were absolutely freaking out. Including us. Because we felt like we were letting down THE ENTIRE PLANET and let me tell you, thats a bad feeling. That same day we explained the situation to the online audience and managed to raise enough money in voluntary donations to run out and buy two laptops (one of which I am typing on right now) and that made the rest of the weekend run much more smoothly. It wasnt perfect, but it was watchable, and we felt pretty good that the derby community had come together to help us avoid a complete disaster. And then when we got back from Toronto, we found that there were people publicly accusing us of having intentionally pulled off a money-grabbing bait-and-switch -- cynically pretending to offer a free live stream and then making money off of it by holding the stream hostage. What? No. We did what we could with what we had, and when that wasnt enough, we were straight with the audience about what we needed to make it happen, then put pretty much all of those funds directly into an improved viewer experience. The accusation that we were trying to exploit peoples desire to see this for our own enrichment was really painful. And really really wrong. Money-grabbing bait-and-switch my ass. I could be wrong on the exact number, but I believe DNN raised somewhere around two grand that weekend, or roughly the equivalent of 44 passes for the 2014 World Cup stream. I did stick it out with DNN for another year after this, but the general response to the way DNN handled the World Cup 2011 experience was just another one of those straws that eventually broke my desire to keep running the show. And yeah, maybe it should have been something I should have been able to shake off, cause virulent criticism always comes with the territory of trying to do something big and important, but that shit weighs on you when it just keeps coming. Its not in my nature to just be able to ignore haters, even knowing that a silent (or at least, less vocal) majority is not hating. Dont get me wrong -- although I will not be watching (because poverty), I fully expect that the quality of the 2014 WC stream will be superior to what DNN was able to offer in 2011. Its three years later and available budget, tech and know-how have all advanced accordingly. Also, presumably the venue itself will be more conducive to a video production, as in no gigantic sightline-blocking pillars right there in the damn infield. If it ISNT a notably superior production, people who pay $45 for it would be justified in rioting (white-person-style rioting, of course, primarily involving caps lock. Not the scary black kind of rioting). Also, Im not actually begrudging B&T the right to make money on their event by charging whatever they think the market will bear. I dont know exactly what a fair price point for such a stream is, but its probably greater than $0. It is highly documented that I think derby as a whole can benefit a great deal from unfettered access to live coverage of its biggest events, and that paywalls are effectively a tax on derby love, but its also highly documented that DNN comprehensively lost that battle to people who are actually in a position to control said access and can profit from it. Its unfortunate, but thats how Real Life works, I suppose. When I started in derby, it was barely controlled, gloriously chaotic beautiful noise. Now derby is Business. Not Big Business by any means. But definitely Business. What Im trying to get across here is that I never wanted to be a businessperson; I just wanted to help amplify that beautiful noise. I dont like the way financial considerations warp and constrict passions. I dont like how unavoidable such financial considerations are. I hated knowing that people didnt know that about me and thought I was the complete opposite kind of person. And I try to be a realist to a certain extent, and eventually things got to a point where being a realist meant I knew I had to walk away if I wanted to keep my derby love alive for myself. Good luck to all of my friends in Dallas this weekend. Have some fun. Make some noise.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:14:14 +0000
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