Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

5by5.tv

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 130 posts

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#91

Post by intendedeffect »

mbrd wrote: post #28
AllenKids wrote: post #24

I was prepared to hate the new talk show and Mule Radio Syndicate, but to my surprise, John Gruber sound a lot more energetic than pretty much the last year, now if he can get a co-host to rein him in from time to time and at the same time contribute his/her own thoughts... I think Massimo and Julia from "Rationally Speaking" are a perfect couple. Leo LePorte and Dan Benjamin are total nice guys but seldom say anythi…

I don't think Dan's ability to "move the topic along" should be underestimated. It's a real skill to be able to give a discussion somewhat on topic and on time and he is excellent at it. I can't imagine trying to get even 20 minutes of useful content from Merlin Mann but Dan does it every week on Back to Work!

Along those lines, I listened to The Talk Show a few times, and it often sounded to me like Dan really had to work to pull material out of Gruber. I would've expected Gruber to just stop podcasting before taking the show elsewhere.

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#92

Post by runjake »

camflan wrote: post #75
bruceclark wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leo Laporte is pretty damn classy. But do I agree this was a class-act thing to do for the listeners of 5by5.

Really? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078355/Tech-guru-ac... Dan seems like the real deal.

I have no real idea of who Leo Laporte is, but the article you pasted doesn't paint him in a negative light to me.

He was separated from his wife for a year, and has (apparently openly) been dating this other woman. Some of their personal chat was accidentally displayed "on the air".

So where's the problem and how is it any of our business? And more importantly, how does it reflect badly on him?

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#93

Post by erifneerg »

rkudeshi wrote: post #15

Summary for anyone who can't listen: * Dan says John emailed him and just said it was time to move on and try something new. Dan says he has total respect and understanding for that. * Dan says he thought if they weren't doing the show anymore, they would retire it together. Surprised and disappointed that John's doing the show on his own and re-using the name. * Dan wishes they could have done one last episode to re…

I didn't hear him encouraging Mule Radio or any mention of mule. He just says Gruber started the show on his own.

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#94

Post by jyap »

anon808 wrote: post #79
filmgirlcw wrote: post #49

Disclosure: Dan is my friend. He's actually one of my best friends. I know far more about this situation than most, I am not unbiased. I love Dan for doing this. I think it was the right way to address listeners and also express himself on the topic. John doesn't need to give his take if he doesn't want to -- and I don't think anyone would expect him to. People do expect more transparency with Dan, and that's why, ho…

I think this private situation only became public when dan mentioned it? if it truely is private why not have that trump whatever public business expectations there are. if it's private, it's private. my personal taste is not to use private situations as pr.

It's not PR. Take his first sentence in the explanation, "Since a lot of people have been asking about it..."

There are a lot of rumors and Dan just rightfully is trying to put in a final statement so that he and the audience can move on. It is customary given the abrupt change in programming and it shows proper respect for the audience.

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#95

Post by evan_ »

erifneerg wrote: post #93
rkudeshi wrote: post #15

Summary for anyone who can't listen: * Dan says John emailed him and just said it was time to move on and try something new. Dan says he has total respect and understanding for that. * Dan says he thought if they weren't doing the show anymore, they would retire it together. Surprised and disappointed that John's doing the show on his own and re-using the name. * Dan wishes they could have done one last episode to re…

I didn't hear him encouraging Mule Radio or any mention of mule. He just says Gruber started the show on his own.

Then you missed it- starting at 4:17 he says "I do really want to wish John all the best with anything he does, including his new show, and I encourage you to give it a try too. You can check it out at its new home on muleradio.net."

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#96

Post by da_n »

I give Dan Benjamin huge respect for doing this, he certainly didn't have any obligation to do so. Gruber and Mike Monteiro on the other hand have basically given the audience a massive fuck you. I am not really surprised by that but it is a disappointment and has put me off checking out the new Talk Show going forward, or indeed any Mule Radio podcasts. Dan will be fine anyway, 5by5 has some of the best shows on the internet.

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#97

Post by achompas »

protomyth wrote: post #86
rjj wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent point. The title of the article which he craftily links to is "The Odd World of Digital Groupies". It's 2.5 years old and has the bolded subtitle " Obsessed fans spend hours online trying to talk to their rock gods—and sometimes, the efforts turn toxic. Doree Shafrir goes inside the bizarre world of extreme internet fandom."

When you live your life off the advertising dollars directed at your audience, it seems like an odd way of commentary.

Right. I hope this isn't Gruber's intent, given that he monetizes his brand (i.e. him) by selling shirts and appearing at conferences. You can't really dictate the terms for interaction when you when you're such a public figure.

If he is saying what GP is suggesting, well, that's the problem with building a cult of personality around yourself: people might buy in a bit too fervently.

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#98

Post by JeanMertz »

anon808 wrote: post #61
rkudeshi wrote: post #15

Summary for anyone who can't listen: * Dan says John emailed him and just said it was time to move on and try something new. Dan says he has total respect and understanding for that. * Dan says he thought if they weren't doing the show anymore, they would retire it together. Surprised and disappointed that John's doing the show on his own and re-using the name. * Dan wishes they could have done one last episode to re…

"Dan Benjamin comes across in this audio clip as a total class act." He definitely comes across as that, but I'm not sure he is. My gut tells me there was more meaning behind this that none of us are owed, creating public content from it maybe not be the right move; it shows bigger class not to talk about it.

Dan is "on the air" several hours a week. He also has several high profile co-hosts on the air 1+ hour a week. He is also pretty active on Twitter. Plus he has million(s) of fans/listeners of his shows.

How on earth could he let this go without mentioning it in any way? He couldn't have possibly instructed all his co-hosts not to talk about this situation.

Him being a radio man through the bones (as he recently again explained on his interview with Jeffrey Zeldman) I think he handled this the best way he can. Plus, he knows Gruber has an ever bigger following, so he obviously has every reason to tell the truth, or at least tell something Gruber can live with.

All in all a good short explanation, now we can "move on" and enjoy the other 5by5 shows (tried the new Talk Show, didn't like it at all, but maybe it'll improve).

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#99

Post by meej »

tjogin wrote: post #85
moron wrote: post #44

I like Gruber's writing and often chafe at some of the less-insightful things people have to say about him, but I agree 100% with Dan here. It would have been right for Gruber and him to properly cap off the show for the listeners. It would have been right to acknowledge that it really isn't the same show anymore. In addition, it would have been right for Gruber to say how great of a co-host Dan has been, because he…

I agree, but on the other hand, Dan always says "it's your show" whenever they need to make a decision about something. Dan also often refrains from correcting or informing Gruber at times when he's unsure or is wrong about something, much to Gruber's disappointment the following episode when Gruber has found it out, again with Dan excusing himself with saying "it's your show". If I were to venture a guess, Gruber wo…

I would venture a similar guess. I haven't listened to The Talk Show, but I did listen to The Critical Path with Horace Dedieu for its first few months and based on that I would say that Benjamin isn't even that great of a guide -- I often found his questions and reactions to Dedieu to be naive or uninformed, which eventually irritated me out of listening. His voice is nice to listen to, but I'm not terribly interested in what he has to say.

Re: Dan Benjamin: Regarding The Talk Show

#100

Post by mikeryan »

harpastum wrote: post #89
cw4 wrote: post #69

There were lots of armchair quarterbacks talking about how "they don't owe us anything". There were lots of comments from Gruber, Mike, etc basically mocking people for being upset that the show dropped Dan and moved with no warning. Dan pretty much nailed it: he feels like they owed the fans one last episode to say goodbye and they didn't get to do that.

Any links for those comments from Mike and Gruber? I haven't seen them.

Its mostly been a twitter based phenom.

http://twitter.com/#!/Mike_FTW

Check out the tweets from May 19 when it seemed to have blown up. Gruber's twitter feed seems more silent.

Post reply on HN