OneBigBug

The moment Slick said "Thanks for AT&T" I was like "Wait whaaaat...". To be honest, I think Linus Media Group should take sponsorships from companies they agree with and approve their business tactics, and since we're talking about motherf*cking AT&T here, well... *cough* net neutrality *cough* data caps *cough* throttling *cough*

Honestly, I think random live callers who aren't used to speaking to an audience, or to the hosts and don't overwhelming amounts of social confidence make the whole thing sound awkward. I found myself tuning out on the live stream last week, and had to watch through the archive because I would find myself pausing to relax during a call-in. It makes me anxious to listen to people talk when they're very clearly uncomfortable in the situation, just anticipating them saying something that would make me embarassed in their position. This week I skipped through most of them in the archive to avoid that. Paul was great though, but I thought he could have been around longer.
 
If set on continued use of Razer Comms and on community vocal interaction, I might suggest using it more in the fashion for which it is designed. It's not 'call-in' software, it's software for gamers to communicate in groups in games. It's not exactly representing Comms very well with all the bugs and lacking features, and it's not even Razer's fault; you're not playing to its strengths.  If you had multiple participants in a call where they weren't being moved around and thrown into a conversation, and where the pressure wasn't on them to say interesting things on demand, I think it would go more smoothly and less awkwardly from both a 'social' and technological standpoint.  Move the pressure of change to the hosts, over whom there is some expectation of control and improvement, rather than the guests, who are a more or less uncontrollable entity.
 
I can imagine it would be pretty interesting to have ~4-8 people in a call who are hanging out, have Linus and Slick join it, start talking about a discussion topic, then have those people respond as they have things to say. Sort of like a live focus group that the hosts can bounce ideas off of that could last for maybe ~10-15 minutes. That way no one is on the spot for any given question or topic, and you only get people who feel they have something really interesting to say saying something. A mod could be responsible for making sure that all their mic levels were at least of the same relative value and that there wasn't any background noise, and that everyone's mics were working beforehand, and since it would be as a group, it would reduce mod time per person.
 
I don't really have any suggestions as to how you would choose people for such a call, maybe it could even be prepared before the stream and just have them ready to go when the time comes, but I'm sure there's a way.
 
I think that would both better represent Razer Comms and be less of a bear to work kinks out of, since speed and efficiency of bringing people in and out wouldn't be as important.

Honestly, I think random live callers who aren't used to speaking to an audience, or to the hosts and don't overwhelming amounts of social confidence make the whole thing sound awkward. I found myself tuning out on the live stream last week, and had to watch through the archive because I would find myself pausing to relax during a call-in. It makes me anxious to listen to people talk when they're very clearly uncomfortable in the situation, just anticipating them saying something that would make me embarassed in their position. This week I skipped through most of them in the archive to avoid that. Paul was great though, but I thought he could have been around longer.
 
If set on continued use of Razer Comms and on community vocal interaction, I might suggest using it more in the fashion for which it is designed. It's not 'call-in' software, it's software for gamers to communicate in groups in games. It's not exactly representing Comms very well with all the bugs and lacking features, and it's not even Razer's fault; you're not playing to its strengths.  If you had multiple participants in a call where they weren't being moved around and thrown into a conversation, and where the pressure wasn't on them to say interesting things on demand, I think it would go more smoothly and less awkwardly from both a 'social' and technological standpoint.  Move the pressure of change to the hosts, over whom there is some expectation of control and improvement, rather than the guests, who are a more or less uncontrollable entity.
 
I can imagine it would be pretty interesting to have ~4-8 people in a call who are hanging out, have Linus and Slick join it, start talking about a discussion topic, then have those people respond as they have things to say. Sort of like a live focus group that the hosts can bounce ideas off of that could last for maybe ~10-15 minutes. That way no one is on the spot for any given question or topic, and you only get people who feel they have something really interesting to say saying something. A mod could be responsible for making sure that all their mic levels were at least of the same relative value and that there wasn't any background noise, and that everyone's mics were working beforehand, and since it would be as a group, it would reduce mod time per person.
 
I don't really have any suggestions as to how you would choose people for such a call, maybe it could even be prepared before the stream and just have them ready to go when the time comes, but I'm sure there's a way.
 
I think that would both better represent Razer Comms and be less of a bear to work kinks out of, since speed and efficiency of bringing people in and out wouldn't be as important.