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Is youtube ruining the canals?


doratheexplorer

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Well, in the last YouTube vlog that I watched the couple got stuck in ice with 2 full cassettes, and hardly any water or food then got Covid and ended up on the wrong side of a stoppage leaving them stuck on the Erewash for 3 months so not all vlogs are roses and castles…

 

What I have found interesting is that quite a few of the vloggers seem to have moved aboard thinking that the lifestyle will help them with various mental health maladies only to discover that incidents like the above, plus dodgy batteries, breakdowns, mysterious engine problems etc. mean that the idyllic lifestyle is actually just as stressful as the rat-race plus mortgage they think they’ve left behind. 
 

 

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1 minute ago, Jimbobs said:

Well, in the last YouTube vlog that I watched the couple got stuck in ice with 2 full cassettes, and hardly any water or food then got Covid and ended up on the wrong side of a stoppage leaving them stuck on the Erewash for 3 months so not all vlogs are roses and castles…

 

What I have found interesting is that quite a few of the vloggers seem to have moved aboard thinking that the lifestyle will help them with various mental health maladies only to discover that incidents like the above, plus dodgy batteries, breakdowns, mysterious engine problems etc. mean that the idyllic lifestyle is actually just as stressful as the rat-race plus mortgage they think they’ve left behind. 
 

 

Thats just poor planning on their part, agree about the mental health thing, if i was a teetotal non smoking vegan i would be going nuts too.😊

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I think You-Tube is spoiling a generation, not just any particular activity. "We" used to get on a boat, go touring in a clapped out van, play football... (insert activity of choice) because it was fun, not because it would look good on our vlog to have a video of casting off, nailing two bits of wood together, or our mate Dave falling over in the mud.

 

I am a member of a camper-van group on facebook and just saw a post "see the latest video of us unboxing our acme travel-power" (/useless p-o-s that has no place on a properly converted van). Unboxing? Really? I must make haste to see some cretin take something out of a box, suck my teeth, and say "ooh, look, shiny" before dashing out to buy one.

 

Maybe I am just a cynical old Hector, but one of the comments was "how does it work?" and my first thought was "well, acme rubbish products Ltd. pay Bill and Ben Imbecile to show the shiny piece of junk on their blog, Bill and Ben promote their blog on Facebook, and, like sheep, we click to watch them taking something out of a box. Enough of us will baa loudly and go and buy a shiny thing to make the whole exercise worthwhile for acme whilst the sum contribution to motor-homing or knowledge is a big fat zero.

 

(and... breathe! 😉)

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11 minutes ago, Jimbobs said:

Well, in the last YouTube vlog that I watched the couple got stuck in ice with 2 full cassettes, and hardly any water or food then got Covid and ended up on the wrong side of a stoppage leaving them stuck on the Erewash for 3 months so not all vlogs are roses and castles…

 

What I have found interesting is that quite a few of the vloggers seem to have moved aboard thinking that the lifestyle will help them with various mental health maladies only to discover that incidents like the above, plus dodgy batteries, breakdowns, mysterious engine problems etc. mean that the idyllic lifestyle is actually just as stressful as the rat-race plus mortgage they think they’ve left behind. 
 

 

Jeopardy can be a driver of views too.  In those cases the channel will try to exagerate all the potential dangers for shock value.  Still painting an inaccurate picture but at least they don't encourage boaters onto the cut who really don't understand the downside.

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I think that the videos are harmless up to the point where it’s suggested that living on a boat is cheap!

We seem to have an unending supply of articles in magazines and newspapers written by idiots who are suggesting that you can buy a boat and live on the canals free of charge.

Some time ago I was visiting an acquaintance who is a broker, he told me of a former professional colleague of mine who had called in and asked about buying a boat he could site at a nice spot on the Trent and Mersey he had just spotted! A quick run down on the facts of life had sent him away at speed.

Journalists and other presenters don’t seem to be shy about climbing onto a popular bandwagon if they can sell a story.

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Bacchus said:

I think You-Tube is spoiling a generation, not just any particular activity. "We" used to get on a boat, go touring in a clapped out van, play football... (insert activity of choice) because it was fun, not because it would look good on our vlog to have a video of casting off, nailing two bits of wood together, or our mate Dave falling over in the mud.

 

I am a member of a camper-van group on facebook and just saw a post "see the latest video of us unboxing our acme travel-power" (/useless p-o-s that has no place on a properly converted van). Unboxing? Really? I must make haste to see some cretin take something out of a box, suck my teeth, and say "ooh, look, shiny" before dashing out to buy one.

 

Maybe I am just a cynical old Hector, but one of the comments was "how does it work?" and my first thought was "well, acme rubbish products Ltd. pay Bill and Ben Imbecile to show the shiny piece of junk on their blog, Bill and Ben promote their blog on Facebook, and, like sheep, we click to watch them taking something out of a box. Enough of us will baa loudly and go and buy a shiny thing to make the whole exercise worthwhile for acme whilst the sum contribution to motor-homing or knowledge is a big fat zero.

 

(and... breathe! 😉)

I'ts certainly true that across many different types of youtube channels, the creator will big up a product and suddenly that product becomes the cool thing for all the followers to have. 

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Just now, doratheexplorer said:

I'ts certainly true that across many different types of youtube channels, the creator will big up a product and suddenly that product becomes the cool thing for all the followers to have. 

I think every camper van owner in the world has a free Jackery unit, some boaters too.

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14 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

I think every camper van owner in the world has a free Jackery unit, some boaters too.

 

I had to goggle that, and now I WANT ONE!

 

I'm a bit worried that if I bought one, I wouldn't be able to get it out of the box so my next step on this journey is to find a youtube video of how to unbox one.

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1 hour ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

Of our many disaster tenants allegedly vetted by the letting agent we had two university lecturers, they rang up because a light bulb wanted changing, claimed she was too short and he was scared of heights.

 

We are no longer landlords.

See my post about Robbie changing his pump 

 

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17 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

I think it depends on the age of the new boater. My perception is there are as many 40+ -somethings coming onto the cut with their £250k new-build widebeams as 20-somethings buying an old heap of a boat instead of their first house (as I did in 1977).

 

I'd suggest the youngsters are not influenced one jot by the Sunday supplements but their parents are, whose support or opposition would influence the decisions of their offspring. 

 

The old fogeys however, are in my view, likely to be influenced by both the Sunday papers AND youtube.  

 

 

 

Can I just say- as a card-carrying old fogey myself- I never read the Sunday papers. 

A morning spent watching hilarious cat videos is much more fun, and I daresay more informative about current affairs.

 

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8 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

I had to goggle that, and now I WANT ONE!

 

I'm a bit worried that if I bought one, I wouldn't be able to get it out of the box so my next step on this journey is to find a youtube video of how to unbox one.

In fairness they do look useful, more so for vanners than boats but do have their uses.

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7 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:

Regarding unboxing videos... reviews! Google reviews of a piece of kit and 90% of them are reviewing the postman's timely delivery!

it like feedback on Ebay, its how well the seller wraps it up and posts it, no how well the item performs

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20 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

I don't buy this. Do you really, genuinely think the canals need even more boats and the steady decline we a seeing is caused by there being too few? 

Where did I write anything about more boats or widebeams.

I did say an interest in the canals and in boat ownership is good thing. Perhaps you object to  anyone who is new to boating ?

 

 

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2 hours ago, Mike Hurley said:

I think thats the problem with a lot of these tubers, they portray this perfect lifestyle.

....

clickbait titles like are we sinking, disaster, etc. 

 

You can't argue it both ways! "We are sinking" and "disaster" don't sound like perfect lifestyles to me.

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2 hours ago, Bacchus said:

Unboxing? Really? I must make haste to see some cretin take something out of a box, suck my teeth, and say "ooh, look, shiny" before dashing out to buy one.

There's a whole genre of unboxing videos on YouTube. People even make a living out of filming themselves unpacking things and commenting on them! What surprises me is the number of people who have the time to watch all this stuff.

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2 hours ago, Jimbobs said:

 

What I have found interesting is that quite a few of the vloggers seem to have moved aboard thinking that the lifestyle will help them with various mental health maladies 
 

 

Luckily I was three quarters batsh*t before I moved aboard, so no harm done.

In fact, the sense of responsibility after getting three lithium batteries almost drove me to sanity.

 

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

it like feedback on Ebay, its how well the seller wraps it up and posts it, no how well the item performs

When buying online I make a habit of sorting the reviews from bad to good. Looking at the bad reviews gives a much better idea of whether other people's problems have been with the product or the customer service, and whether their issues are likely to affect my planned use of the product.

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2 minutes ago, David Mack said:

There's a whole genre of unboxing videos on YouTube. People even make a living out of filming themselves unpacking things and commenting on them! What surprises me is the number of people who have the time to watch all this stuff.

 

And the 'An american (or other nationality) reacts to.......' somebody videoing themselves watching a UK comedian or other type of performer.

 

What the hell is that all about?

 

Only boaty ones I still watch are Robbie, Minimal List (because they get to parts of the system many never get close to). Cruising the cut rarely puts anything boating related out these days and I completely lost interest in the Foxes after they sold their boat.

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, David Mack said:

When buying online I make a habit of sorting the reviews from bad to good. Looking at the bad reviews gives a much better idea of whether other people's problems have been with the product or the customer service, and whether their issues are likely to affect my planned use of the product.

 

I always do this too. Amazon in particular has a problem with fake positive reviews, so it's a useful exercise to do this.

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3 minutes ago, booke23 said:

 

I always do this too. Amazon in particular has a problem with fake positive reviews, so it's a useful exercise to do this.

 

I've started using a chrome add-on application called Fakespot, that works on pages like Amazon and ebay, and claims to be able to identify the untrustworthy reviews.

 

 

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