Suggestion: A WAN SHOW FORUM THREAD

[Pitboy64]

Too often, we find ourselves sitting in front of our computers, awaiting the beginning of the WAN Show.  Usually, it invariably begins, often a bit late ... occasionally VERY late ... today, its 8pm Vancouver time and it still hasnt started, no post anywhere we know about; no tweet, nada FB post, and certainly no LTT Forum post informing the dirty masses that its running late, or potentially not starting at all.

 

When awaiting the show, a lowly viewer may tend to peruse various LTT feeds on the interwebs, in an attempt to find any info on the possibility as to when the WAN show will begin ... if at all.  One in this moment may think "gee ... maybe I should check the ever-famous one stop shop that is LTT Forums.

 

While one attempts this, one realizes just how fruitless it truly is.  How could any sort of a timely update regarding the WAN show be on the LTT forum ... if there is no thread on this forum, specific to the WAN show for anyone to check?  Well ... there isnt  ... at all.  It just doesnt exist.

 

Am I wasting my Friday evening awaiting a show that will never come?  Can I perhaps do something useful in my life for a while ... pop out to the store ... change the babies diaper ... if I knew the show was going to start late?

But no, we know nothing, we are just left hanging.  
Do we ... matter so little as to not deserve any sort of update notification at all?

Lets assume that LTT, LMG and all attributing conglomerate properties attached to the WAN show actual gave a crap about what the rest of us are doing on a Friday ... awaiting a show even though we have no idea if it will start at all, or if it did ... when?
 

Therefore, a formal LTT Forum suggestion:

A pinned thread on the forum main page, titled simply WAN SHOW.

A staff person: probably Linus or Luke or Dan be charged with the job of posting the known approximate time for the show to start, once the information is available (be it team meetings or key person communications through the day or early evening), and this thread be used to post the expected showtime, or forward that the show is cancelled ... on this forum thread.

If concerned, this particular thread could even have user comments turned off so it doesnt fill up with the usual meanderings of responders ... it could literally be focused on just one way facts: When the show is expected to start, or if it is cancelled.  It could even grow someday into providing a bit more info on what to expect during the show, subjects, topics, etc.

Week after week this single one way communication would just be there, creating knowledge, warmth and comfort for WAN show viewer angst ... like now ... its 8:30pm Vancouver time ... and around the world ... we are just simply ghosted.

 

Sure, stuff happens, even emergencies ... lots of reasons why it may be late or cancelled ... and all those are perfectly fine, LL&D are people ... stuff happens, everyone has families, no problem.  BUT no one even thinking about the massive amounts of viewers left hanging, or just not bothering to let us know that 'unforeseen circumstances' or whatever have happened. 

 

Whats missing is a simple process, a small delegation, a momentary attention to an extremely dedicated crowd.

 

Not one staff person is tasked with just dropping a note. And if there was, theres nowhere to drop it.

Thats honestly not good enough, we deserve a little more than just being "oh, dont worry about the viewers ... they'll just be there, whenever we get around to it, we dont need to tell them anything".

Linus ... Do better.

Admin: dont unilaterally boot this, please kick it up the food chain to LTT, let it be discussed.

 

Thank You,
Pitboy

[sarah.kallista]

I'm glad I'm not the only one... searching all their social media accounts trying to at least find a "sorry guys, no show today"... I really don't think it would be that difficult

[Nexxus]

Yeah this is actually quite frustrating the wanshow is like one of the only things I watch from LTT anymore, certainly on the regular and its just I could be gaming or something right now but rather Nah I'm just waiting around for something that god knows if its gonna happen.

 

[Thamli]

Maybe something happened? Family emergency or something...

But it is strange indeed, they usually communicate quite good.

[Rbakker02]

What is up with the completely random polls on floatplane chat

[Rekttryhards]

The old ceo would never let this happen. This new guy sucks.

[meowingtonspHd]

I don't have twitter or FB so this forum is really my only way to get some sort of status update. The 24/7 stream chat seems to be just as confused as I am. 

[Rekttryhards]

Someone said on the unofficial subreddit that they saw the channel saying on the 24/7 tech tips that Linus was at a badminton tournament and kept on delaying the stream.

edit: people in chat were saying he was at a badminton tourny not the channel. Makes sense because he wouldn't have the time to tweet, but i doubt it because how would chat know.

[Nexxus]

This is disgust. I am vomit.

[meowingtonspHd]

1 minute ago, Rekttryhards said:

Someone said on the unofficial subreddit that they saw the channel saying on the 24/7 tech tips that Linus was at a badminton tournament and kept on delaying the stream.

I'm calling it. He missed it and so did Luke and Dan by proxy. Streak over. GG. 

[ZipTieTyler]

We can call it the When show thread

 

[s4nari]

Always look forward to the Friday night Dan show with guest's Linus and Luke. Guess I'll have to do something productive. Much Sad.

[Acehifi]

Just noticed the red dot of doom on the LTT logo. Linus got himself banned again.

[MrSheep110]

10 minutes ago, Acehifi said:

Just noticed the red dot of doom on the LTT logo. Linus got himself banned again.

That's not what the red dot means. The Red dot shows that they are live... because they are. On LTTtv. If they got them self banned again it would change the whole profile picture to a default person.

[Nexxus]

apparently luke is in FP chat

[s4nari]

Luke has joined Chat in Floatplane Live - THEY LIVE BOYZ!!!

[MrSheep110]

HERE WE GO BOIZ!

[manikyath]

i'm late to the party, because i'm one of those people who just goes to bed expecting them to be late at this point.

 

having that said - a forum thread wouldnt fix this. there's plenty of options in place already, on the pages you're waiting at already:

- youtube has a "countdown until live" feature that can be delayed as you please, nasaspaceflight uses that for just about any launch coverage they do. (because they inevitably get delayed)

- on twitch they can just edit the title

- i'm sure they could make a "live at N time" feature on floatplane just the same as youtube's counter.

 

the problem here is in determining how late they will be, and communicating that. let's say linus is stuck in traffic returning from a shoot on-site somewhere. the GPS may say 30 minutes, but that could turn into an hour by the time he's there, or the traffic problem may resolve before he makes it trough the jam and it ends at 15 minutes. sometimes you just simply dont know how delayed things are gonna be, so you cannot provide an ETA either way.

[Needfuldoer]

They could have communicated this better, but a forum thread doesn't seem like the answer to me.

 

I think they should have started the usual livestream, but left up a "sorry, WAN Show's going to be late today" slate. That would reach the usual WAN Show audience without requiring them to check a subreddit, Twitter/Threads/Mastadon/Facebook/etc post, or the forums. Maybe they could have left a note directing viewers to LTT TV, if they have the ability to break into that channel with a notification when WAN Show finally goes live.

[Kilrah]

30 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

I think they should have started the usual livestream, but left up a "sorry, WAN Show's going to be late today" slate.

That would be terrible in terms of YT metrics. It sucks but using the best way of communicating you have available would bite you in the ass more than doing nothing...

[LogicalDrm]

Youtube has push notifications and community posts. If channel you are subscribed to posts community post, it will be shown in the subscription page and you might get notification from it when its published. That and I think most if not all other platforms having such mechanic.

 

I don't think having forum post telling such things would do much. You are watching and waiting on some platform first, right?

[Pitboy64]

Soo ... in response to a few comments here ...

Sure Youtube, Twitch and other access points may or may not have ways to create updates ... but that on its own is a multi-zone mess.  A staff person would have to go to half a dozen social points to independently post news regarding the hopeful start of the show.  Thats a waste of time. IF ltt didnt have its own online focal point for users ... ie: didnt have the forum, then ya ... it would all make sense to find a way on those channels to post something ... but ltt has the Forum ... in other words the perfect tool.  

 

Use it.

All other video and social site pages could simply post a permanent link to the Forum thread, telling viewers what to check in case of needing to know when its going to start.

Yes, I am watching and waiting on various platforms, but that just means that its already failing if I didnt know the show wasnt going to start till 9:30, as none of them were updated with the info.  Thats a systemic fail. Telling Dan he (or someone else) has to go to all those sites to post updates is just too much to expect him to do.  He's a busy guy.

 

So, I got to sit there and wait, rather than take advantage of the time and go out and do something.

 

And thats the point, yes I am watching and waiting ... for 3 hours.
The inference that that is ok, you're already there and captive, so just be patient ... is not ok, when the solution is soo simple, and respects the needs and lives of committed subscribers and watchers of LTT product. 

And ya ... obviously Linus in traffic or on a set recording something, a badmonton game where Linus embarrasses himself with Viktor Axelsen (lol) or a myriad of reasons can mean the show might be late ... and thats fine.  Part of the norm of the WAN Show is that its casual and intentionally not the BBC 10pm news, where hell pays if it starts 15 seconds late.  Its ... whatever ... we'll get there casual. And thats fine.

 

But that doesnt negate the need to communicate when it may be 3 hours late.  Its an easy solution of a little communication ... a simple post "Running late, we figure start time could be after 9pm" ... or whatever time. Permanent posts on the video/social sites can remind people to check the forum ... all done.

Why are people suggesting a far more difficult process?

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, Pitboy64 said:

All other video and social site pages could simply post a permanent link to the Forum thread, telling viewers what to check in case of needing to know when its going to start.

Besides that this counters your previous point (why link when they could just post "hey we are late today, no eta"), only fraction of LTT viewers use forum. So if they would do something like this for the whole community, not just those using forums, they would still need to use other platforms too.

 

Having forum post only becomes better option if the thing is updating for longer than few hours at most.

[Pitboy64]

11 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Besides that this counters your previous point (why link when they could just post "hey we are late today, no eta"),

Uhmmm ... no.
 

Maybe misunderstood.

 

Said carefully; post on the other many social sites a link to the WAN forum thread, that viewers could go to regarding relevant information regarding the WAN Show.  Thats what I said the first time and the tried to say the second time.  The 'telling viewers what to check in case of needing to know' might be misunderstood.  Intended to say, tell viewers to check the forum for updates if the show hasnt started.
That is all.

The secondary thing is, live watchers of WAN are not massive numbers, compared to VOD later watchers. Thirdly, it may attract more forum users.

Basically a win, win, win.

[LogicalDrm]

5 hours ago, Pitboy64 said:

Uhmmm ... no.
 

Maybe misunderstood.

 

Said carefully; post on the other many social sites a link to the WAN forum thread, that viewers could go to regarding relevant information regarding the WAN Show.  Thats what I said the first time and the tried to say the second time.  The 'telling viewers what to check in case of needing to know' might be misunderstood.  Intended to say, tell viewers to check the forum for updates if the show hasnt started.
That is all.

The secondary thing is, live watchers of WAN are not massive numbers, compared to VOD later watchers. Thirdly, it may attract more forum users.

Basically a win, win, win.

Would you prefer single locked thread with updates, thread for every show (this is unlikely to happen) or one gigathread with latest show announcement as pinned reply?

 

Forum is already mentioned regularly in videos and most of the topics are still picked from forums so need to bring it up more is minimal.

 

Overall, a thread would cater to very small audience and actually be for those who have almost parasocial relationship with it. There's always VOD, and I don't see other reasons to watch live than chance to spend money earlier than others and maybe get extra shoutout on top of it.

 

I currently watch WAN about month behind anyway.

 

E: Ofc since this would be something done by paid LMG employee, only LMG will make decisions on whether or not they feel the need to use forums for this, or use the existing features of several social media sites. To someone who uses social media, copypasting same message across multiple platforms is fairly quick and easy. So I still don't really understand what adding one more platform to that list would accomplish. Live updates aren't going to happen. It will be "sorry, we are running late" type of message they already use on Floatplane. Its not going to be countdown clock as that would set up expectations. And hearing traffic was the reason, such countdown would not work. I've also been multiple times in situation where there is delay. Someone telling me that something will happen in 15mins vs soon is about as worthless when 15mins means 35mins and soon is anything from 10mins to 60mins.