Back in early 2009 I discovered the TWiT network. I quickly fell in love with it. The idea of some random guy running his own show, telling big media to eff off was great. I quickly fell in love and started subscribing to all the shows, and pretty much had the live stream on 24/7.
Throughout the years my love for TWiT caused me to buy into the TWiT merchandise. I bought the TWiT Fez hat first, the TWiT pillow, my wife made me a custom TWiT tie to wear to work, I even fell for the brick scam.
I even took the time to drive to Detroit to meet my at the time idol, Leo Laporte. I stood in line for 2 hours with the other TWiT Sheep waiting to meet the man that almost everyone in tech looked up to.
At the time, TWiT was still great, so I took no issue in investing in the TWiT merchandise. Then the #CeHo came in, and things slowly fell apart. I don’t need to retell the story, you all know how it went.
Even though TWiT seemed to be losing my interest, I kept with it. In 2013 I got married, at the time TWiT was still my favorite thing, so it made perfect sense to get a TWiT grooms cake.
After Tom left I pretty much lost all interest. I still hung around a bit, until I got banned from every single TWiT community for embracing my opinion. Facebook, G+, Twitter, IRC, I was banned from all of them. See the problem is, if you don’t praise everything that #CeHo and #Soup do, your gone.
Since I had already lost interest, I saw no reason to really fight it. Today I give all my spare time to Cordkillers and DTNS, because I would rather give my time and money to people who are genuinely good people, and not in it just for the money. (I’m looking at you #gold-digger) This message is put out there not to whine, but to warn people of the tragedy that is TWiT. I am not a TWiT hater, I once loved TWiT (as you see above). I am now just a former TWiT Army soldier who is lost, and stumbled his way to the light.
Wow, nice, heartfelt. I feel for you.
Great 1st post!
skieast» Quote comment
What I used to love about TWiT 5+ years ago was that in the early 2000s, I LOVED TechTV. I had never seen anything like it. I guess it must be like women who love shopping and discovering QVC/HSN on TV…..TechTV was just so cool. And all the hosts seemed nice and relatable. Most pleasant of all was Leo Laporte (though my favorite was and still is Martin Sargent).
Anyways, in 2007 I discovered TWiT and Windows Weekly and have listened fairly regularly ever since.
TWiT’s biggest appeal to me was that of all the post-TechTV stuff done by former hosts (Revision 3, LockerGnome, Diggnation, etc.) only TWiT seemed like it honestly could re-create what made The ScreenSavers great (TechTV’s flagship show) because of all the high quality guests and the central Leo Laporte.
But years later, after Leo’s divorce, the exodus of mainly TechTV guest hosts who rarely show up and the new CEO and non-stop focus on money, TWiT feels hollow. A few years into his TWiT stuff and Leo was golden…a decade in, he was only after gold.
Scott» Quote comment
so sorry for your loss. twit was great but now its like all big media pushing crapping content just to throw a ad on top of it.
emojiTECH» Quote comment
Your story mirrors so many others. These days the shows are verging on comedic as they search for a gimmick to get viewers back. Today’s gimmick was for Elgum to throw a mic on the floor and storm off. Trouble us they spent 10 minutes discussing it until they found a mic that they really could throw on the floor.
I’ve been watching more Revision 3 these days it just seems more professional and less like a gigantic infomercial.
Burntheadbob» Quote comment
Tissue? You sound like someone shot your dog.
Totalbasementdwellers.org» Quote comment
TWiT was such a great resource for its niche audience. I was amazed that they were happy for so long and freely gave away such fun shows. I loved that they cared about picture and sound quality, which set them apart from 95% of user generated web content.
These technology networks seem to come and go. It’s sad that our culture takes the epic rise of digital technology for granted. I remember Computer Chronicles, Jones Computer Network, Mind Extension University, c|net, ZDTV, TechTV, The Digital Duo, and any digitally oriented show being like water in the desert as the analog era peaked and faded. Now we’re in a flood and TWiT isn’t really needed.
Sadly, the digital revolution hasn’t been that exciting or revolutionary since manufacturers moved away from open, general purpose desktop PCs toward sealed, locked down devices. Most tech journalism is about covering cell phone market share numbers and tiny hardware changes from on high.
Anyone streaming their working life to the world would end up looking bad when trouble comes along, so I can’t judge people who work on TWiT too harshly. It’s just a shame that such a nice studio is being used for really weak and impersonal content when they could be USING technology to do cool projects to help demonstrate things and enlighten mankind.
dno1967b» Quote comment
Same thing happened to me with Eminem.
Stan» Quote comment
soup’s gone cold i don’t know why
i’m watching twit at all
all this slurping in the mic
and he’s bouncing on the ball
and even if I could I’d walk away
but my brick up on the wall
it reminds me, that i’ve been had
i’ve been had
slim soupy» Quote comment
Imma let you finish, but chickenhead is the best twit fan of all time
Miles» Quote comment
Good post. Its sad how as they try and claw their way to being like “like big media” they have completely abandoned having good content creators.
David» Quote comment