Two Reviews
We love, love, love comments left here by our listeners after we post a new show. Be it praise, criticism, or simply adding a little more to the story (yes, everyone, I do know “”Rosebud” was the name of the sled in Citizen Kane). We also take in a review from time-to-time on our favorite online marketplace, the iTunes Music Store. Take, for instance, this gem:
Couldn’t get beyond the 1st 5 minutes [one star]
by Anonymous
I didn’t care for the jokey, casual-to-the-point-of-smug style of the pointless banter. Irritating.
Really? I made it through all 25 words of your irritating review, Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. I-am-too-insecure-to-reveal-even-my-fake-internet-identity. We are quite fond of our pointless banter, thank you very much. In fact, our pointless banter with Eric and Adam from Volume Inc stands out as a recent favorite. But really, I do not think you must be a designer, as any designer who has withstood a classroom critique knows that if you really detest something, you will spend much more time and energy tearing it down than a single sentence. at&t or UPS, anyone?
We also receive the occasional e-mail including this one we got in from Pennsylvania:
Hey guys,
Thanks for the great pod casts. In addition to my professional career I have been teaching design since 2000 and have been talking until I’m blue in the face on the importance of proper typesetting and thumbnails. Your student tips and taboo typeface have let me know I am not alone. As a result I am now making the BA Design Group pod cast required listening for ALL my classes.
Thanks and please continue the great work.
-T (full identity withheld by BADG)
The value of pointless banter must be on the rise.
September 5th, 2006 at 4:52 am
I think the show works very well. I think the conversational format of the show is great, and the content is top notch so far. I’ve been an in-house designer in the music industry since I graduated design school, so I’ve been living in a design vacuum. I don’t have that many opportunities to hang out with an assortment of designers….there is only one other designer in my building. The Be A Design Group podcast has reminded me of what I’m missing and helped to expand my horizons. After listening to just four or five pod casts, I’m getting more and more energized about moving on, finding new challenges, a new job, so I can grow as a designer. So there, I think that at least in my case, this show has had some significant impact. My only gripe about the show would be that I wish it came out every week, or bi-weekly. Keep up the great work guys.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:37 am
Don’t take it too personally. Bad reviews happen, and it isn’t going to be everybody’s thing. The podcast is like a fine bottle of wine, or something.
September 5th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
I’ll surely check out the podcasts.
And if you can’t say something nice…
Respectfully,
September 5th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Trust fellas, if they are taking time to hate on your efforts, you still win because they offered up unsolicited time to comment. Even if they hate you, they are still thining about you. Ahhhhhhh feel the love!
September 6th, 2006 at 10:02 am
C’mon guys, this is a rather pointless post, don’t you think? Calling out your reviewers is frankly in poor taste. Pointing out the negative ones smack of bad sportsmanship and highlighting the good ones is smug and self-congratulatory.
If you’re going to post some reviews, find constructive ones that can lead to some discussion or even improvement of the blog.
September 7th, 2006 at 6:22 am
Jon, try to think of it as a Letters to the Editor column. We received both of these reviews at approximately the same time: one glowingly positive, the other incomplete and negative. And my only problem with the negative review, really, is the lack of a name to back up a bad review based on less than five minutes worth of programming. I thought presenting such a narrow view (good and bad) of our feedback would be fun-most of it is already available for everyone to read right here on Be A Design Group.
As for constructive reviews, that’s really what I’d love to see. In fact, Nate Hook’s comment above about getting the show onto a regular schedule cuts me deep, because its something I’ve always wanted, but never been quite able to achieve. Although starting next week we’re going to attempt to bring you three interviews (closing out our Summer-of-Interviews) in three weeks. After that it it will probably go back to our “two per month” schedule until Donovan and I can get onto a biweekly, regular release.
September 7th, 2006 at 7:22 am
Nate, even a Letters to the Editor column is still edited. A silly, anonymous review/letter would never get printed. Plus, an editor would rarely post a response, unless real journalistic clarification was necessary. There’s just nothing to gain from posting such a response, other than a moment of “Hey, look at the morons out on the web.”
September 7th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Jooooooooooon, did you leave the anonymous review on iTunes? Come on man, you can tell us.
September 7th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
heh heh. No, not me, sorry. Don’t misinterpret my crankiness on this topic for lack of affection. I visit BADG regularly and will continue to do so. Take what I said for whatever you feel it’s worth.
September 20th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
I just listened to the first five minutes of my favorite episode… he’s damn right, they mostly sucked. The value that I got out of the remaining 22:52 however, was much greater than the “pain” of those rather pointless 5 minutes.
Rock on, dues.
September 23rd, 2006 at 10:56 am
Now THAT’S a review.