A Bit Fed Up. There Needs To Be A Balance.

[DRAY]

I've notice in the past few weeks there's been a lot of short videos themed with accidents.
This annoys me and it perpetuates the negative side of riding. Not only that but it seems no matter where I look the danger of riding gets highlighted to the point of overkill(no pun intended) by the media that make a living from it.
I suppose for some it's a gruesome spectacle that gets attention and passes for second rate though effective entertainment.
It's disappointing and who am I to dictate censorship however it would be good to see more positivity around motorcycling.
I think the motorcycling community really needs to change it's tune on how motorcycling is portrayed and promote how to do motorcycling the right way. /endrant
I'd be keen to hear views on how this can be demonstrated from boy scout riding to feel good charity!

 

[kryten]

Negativity sells. People need to hear more positive stuff but the positive stuff doesn't get ratings or clicks. I've told stories on my channel of positive things and they get very little interaction or views. If I talk about someone being a douche or a bad thing happening I get a lot more comments, likes and shares. People love to revel in other people's misery.

Just do your thing and try to show people that we're not all twat-waffles and feel good that you haven't contributed to the douchebaggery that most people associate with motorcycles.

 

[DRAY]

Yeh sorry if this post seems a bit preachy but I'm quite sincere. Just thinking of examples, I watched an Isle of main vid which started off showing the incredible speed of these superbikes as they took a bend, it was very impressive, then it went completely down hill as the next 2 mins or so just showed crash after crash... why couldn't they show some epic cornering and overtaking instead?
Throw that in with the countless 5 - 15 second vids floating around of bikes on freeways getting totaled and after a while it looks like chaos.
Another example which sticks out to me was I watched what could have been a fantastic video - GoPro: Babes Ride Out - A Motorcycle Story.
This video excited me on so many levels and it had such a passionate message and showed riding in a positive light until the last SIX Long F###ing Minutes where the director decided to take the wrong turn and create suspense and drama with a rider down situation.
There's a butterfly effect in all of this, it reenforces stereotypes and for viewers, it confirms their worst fears of motorcyling tainting it's reputation.
This flows on to governments who cave into public demand/perceptions, a good example is Operation Motus in Victoria Australia.
For Babes ride out, I could just imagine a number of hotties curious about riding, getting put off and fleeing back to their VW golfs and fixies never to admire a motorcycle again.
I guess what I'm trying to say is as vloggers, we try to reach people with a situation and/or message so I think we have a responsibility with what that message is.
I am interested in ways we can demonstrate how great motorcycling is, comraderie, (safe) fun, leadership and so on.
Any something to think about, cheers
Peace out

 

[SevenCube]

You've got a point DRAY. It does enforce the thought that motorcycles are dangerous. I however do watch those videos too as a reminder that it isn't all fine and dandy and fun.

Like you said, the balance must be restored.

 

[dandoolittle]

Let's face it. 'Bikers' are stupid and we do nothing to make society think otherwise.

In the UK we have something called 'think bike' campaign which basically tells everything that were incapable to do basic things for ourselves

Crash and argument videos work, it's as simple as that which is a shame but we are all guilty of watching them

 

[willph]

The general public likes seeing bike crashes and ppl doing stupid shit. The views don't lie.

I will still try to continue making good content and content that I enjoy making. And that is all that you can do.

 

[F4celess]

Most humans are naturally geared towards focusing on the negative. I'd say its a key to survival in evolutionary terms.
So naturally the accidents go viral first.

I don't think the media is the worst at this though. How many times haven't you been told about "the danger" of riding by simpletons you meet and live with. Getting reminded over and over about the risk you take every time you enter the saddle. That's what annoys me more. Because I most likely know more about the risk than they do.

 

[lupin]

Your Australian were even more stupid than most.

E.g. http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/v...-tables-video-goes-viral-20151117-gl122y.html

Nobody is really interested in everything being good. We all like to see others fall. I'm sure there are plenty of videos on YouTube of people not falling off or crashing. But they get nowhere near the views of the ones where they do crash.

Motorcycles, teens, hoons, people with guns, and all the other stereotype bad people will always get more attention than those just going about thier day and doing the right thing.

 

[DRAY]

Sure, we watch crashes and other disaster in that horrified, can't-turn-away fascination but I don't think it's fair to be too harsh and cynical about the human race.
We LOVE a good win and watching success too! Watching sport is all about wanting our team/player to win.
I'm sure you've seen those "humans are awesome/amazing" videos too. Those compilations have 10's of millions of views!
When people ace stuff, they get a standing ovation and hu-rrah from the crowd.

 

[SalvageSV]

IT's already been said, but it's what gets views. It's no different than the news, magazines, etc. People and Us Weekly run stories about celebrity break ups becasue people read it. The nightly news talks about the fatal crash and corrupt corporation because people watch it.

But here's the catch ... they don't do it because someone is taking a chance on content. It's proven to get views. The media is running what the public wants to see. The media (or YouTubers, etc) aren't the problem ... the viewers are. If people told Neilsen (or other testing company) that they flip the channel when there are crash stories or if we didn't click the links on crash videos or if people didn't binge on crappy "reality" TV we could change things.

I personally try to not watch that stuff. I don't click the crash/fail videos or the "boobs ride in a supercar" videos that my feed is plagued with. But it's a tough trend to impact as it's not just bikers. It's the entire damn world.

 

[SevenCube]

IT's already been said, but it's what gets views. It's no different than the news, magazines, etc. People and Us Weekly run stories about celebrity break ups becasue people read it. The nightly news talks about the fatal crash and corrupt corporation because people watch it.

But here's the catch ... they don't do it because someone is taking a chance on content. It's proven to get views. The media is running what the public wants to see. The media (or YouTubers, etc) aren't the problem ... the viewers are. If people told Neilsen (or other testing company) that they flip the channel when there are crash stories or if we didn't click the links on crash videos or if people didn't binge on crappy "reality" TV we could change things.

I personally try to not watch that stuff. I don't click the crash/fail videos or the "boobs ride in a supercar" videos that my feed is plagued with. But it's a tough trend to impact as it's not just bikers. It's the entire damn world.

I agree with Salvage here. It works because it sells. And when people want subs and views on their channel, they find this to be a shortcut.

 

[Reize]

My crash vid got 3000+ views in 2 weeks. My FZ16 bike review only hit 6000 views after 2 years.

Kind of speaks for itself, even I would start posting only videos of me crashing into shit if the bikes I ride were fully covered by a sponsor.

 

[DRAY]

Guys! Please! you're missing the point!
I typed in people are amazing into youtube, I get no credit for any of these vids, but look at the views! In the 10's millions! and its of people doing fantastic stuff. People at their best! see for yourself....
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=people+are+amazing

 

[RoadSprock]

To be fair I'm a subscriber to crash videos

I get what you're saying, the media love to illustrate a bad image on just about anything as they get readers from it. So your point is, why feed it? Unfortunately there's a market for things that don't go as planned, adrenaline, explosions, bangs etc and it's a big market. But I find motorcycle crash videos are something we can all learn from, to show when we leather up and jump on our bikes we aren't immortal and things can go bad.. very quickly. But we can learn from our and other peoples mistakes.

 

[F4celess]

Fail compilations is a much bigger business than Win complilations.

 

[SighBored]

You will gain views, you will gain subs, and then you will lose subs. You can't lose views though. Look at RNickeyMouse, he just chills at the specific turn and films riders, some are awesome crazy mad skills, but mostly the crashing ones get the most attention.

It's a human thing. How many TV shows do you recall that are mainly home videos of people stupid or dangerous things?

Nobody here can deny that they wouldn't watch a crash video if it was shared, whatever your reason for watching may be. There are even channels dedicated to just showing crash compilations.

People don't really want to watch mundane commutes, they want something interesting that will catch their attention like high speed riding and stuff. Not saying you should break the law just to do a motovlog but think of a way to incorporate such elements into your video I guess.

 

[DRAY]

You will gain views, you will gain subs, and then you will lose subs. You can't lose views though. Look at RNickeyMouse, he just chills at the specific turn and films riders, some are awesome crazy mad skills, but mostly the crashing ones get the most attention.

It's a human thing. How many TV shows do you recall that are mainly home videos of people stupid or dangerous things?

Nobody here can deny that they wouldn't watch a crash video if it was shared, whatever your reason for watching may be. There are even channels dedicated to just showing crash compilations.

People don't really want to watch mundane commutes, they want something interesting that will catch their attention like high speed riding and stuff. Not saying you should break the law just to do a motovlog but think of a way to incorporate such elements into your video I guess.

And yet you have guys like walteriffic who ride around spamming cards and patting dogs on his commute... with to date 560k? 580k? subs. no reviews nothing useful, just goofing off.
I give people more credit, interesting doesnt equal negative or misfortune. dont go for the cheap shots, reputation is everything. What you want to be remembered for?

 

[SighBored]

And yet you have guys like walteriffic who ride around spamming cards and patting dogs on his commute... with to date 560k? 580k? subs. no reviews nothing useful, just goofing off.
I give people more credit, interesting doesnt equal negative or misfortune. dont go for the cheap shots, reputation is everything. What you want to be remembered for?

People like to watch others goof off, or crash, or both, I guess. Those guys either like to do it, or do it for the likes, either way it's not our business. If you want to share your knowledge, give something to the riding community, like minded people will appreciate it. Sure you may not have the following of someone that goofs off but like you said - "what do you want to be remembered for?".
On another note, my guess is also that perhaps a vast majority of their followers aren't really bikers, just like to watch people goofing off and so happens they are on motorcycles, I don't think what these guys do represents the motorcycling community nor people that ride. YT is an open platform just about anyone can be watching anything.
Bottom line, I would say, if you feel strongly about this trend, you could talk about it, giving points/facts (not just a rage/rant), people that agree with you will support you, and even if you don't make the big time scene, at least you will be pleased with your contribution.