perception of footbag from youtube perspective

[Rieferman]

Watched "Jorden Huge Tricks" (or similarly named) on youtube and was blown away by the huge volume of negative comments from all sorts of uninformed/closed minded morons. I wonder if that's just how a small selection of people acts when they're spamming the web, or if their comments are pretty good indications of what the average Joe/Jane thinks when they see footbag at a high level. I dunno, just was surprised at the comments.

[ericksonj]

I think when you use the term hacky sack and not footbag, people always make comments about how you are hogging the bag and not passing. I get that all the time in Eugene and I just say that I am playing footbag, which is different than the game of hacky sack, and I am not after a 'hack'. I think it is just a spawn of the no self serves, pass the bag, don't show boat too much etiquette that is typical of hack circles. In my opinion hacky sack and footbag are essentially the same, but to a lot of hackers what we do is just show boating and bag bogarting, especially if they have seen it many times. For that reason if I join a hack circle, I just play hack do 1-2 tricks and pass.

[Zeke]

I think it's definitely this:

all sorts of uninformed/closed minded morons.

just not a small selection. It's just a lot easier to talk shit on the net and not give a fuck about it. I see it in just about every video I've watched on youtube. EDIT: I'll even admit to being guilty of it from time to time

I just stopped reading the comments.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Well, that's the thing about the internet - its full of assholes. Youtube comments seem especially full of ignorant, inflammatory or bigoted shitheads.

Just gotta try to not let them get to you.

But I don't think they represent anything about the general perception of footbag.

[Zeke]

Just gotta try to not let them get to you.

Yeah, as discouraging as those comments/people are, I'd like to think that I'm countering it by showing every person that I come across and play with how fun footbag in all it's forms can be (except WAR, it's teh guay). It may be foolish and naive, but it gets me through the day.

[zach4th]

Trust me If people at my college or even the general population in London saw Jorden shredding in person the would have happy splashies in their undies.

[Benzilla]

happy splashies

LMAO!!!!

[SpYdeR]

What can I say people are fucking idiots......they just dont understand. I try to explaine it to people i know/friends, and all they say is....its hacky sack..whoopde do.

[FlexThis]

When I started out playing footbag I couldn't tell that guiltless was actually back to back tricks. So my butterfly > toe stall > butterfly - I thought was infinity. AND I PLAYED!!!!

So it's no wonder the ignorant run rampant. They just don't have their footbag goggles on.

~peace
Damon

[Muffinman]

They just don't have their footbag goggles on.

It's not just ignorance, either. It's definitely something about people being uninhibited on the internet. Look at Modified... 80% of this stuff isn't worth reading. This post is a great example too; everyone is so negative and angry in general.

We do the same thing to videos of other activities that are posted in The Kicking Circle, take cup stacking for instance.

[Jeremy]

I disagree. I think the perception that people are negative depends on the person. Because you can't see how people's body language etc. when you read their posts, if you don't know them it's easy to make assumptions about what they've expressed. The people who I've met in person who post on this forum, I almost never think they are angry or in a negative frame of mind.

Blue Turnip (Oliver Adams) posts are a great example. When he says something like

Oh my god.... I would have driven a halberd through his face.

I can picture him saying it, and I know that it's merely a facetious comment. I assume everybody are like this, because really nobody takes internet forums seriously, and I don't know anybody outside of the internet who is particularly negative or angry, so I assume that people on the internet are exactly the same, they're just hard to read when all you've got to go by is their text.

[C-Fan]

Fuck you Jeremy.

[Blue_turnip]

Ah, I take the rare stroll across the "kickin' it" barrier on the forum page to find myself quoted. I feel empowered.

I was about to make a really aggressive post about how much I hate youtube and people in general but then I changed my mind. lol.

But seriously - I hate people on youtube. Just because they can't wang out a footbag and hit triple dexes on call means that we suck and have too much time.

Which brings me to onto an unrelated point: I hate people who pull out the 'too much time' comment. Time that could be spent doing what else? Is there some sort of absolute definition of what you should do with your time?

I know a wow addict at school who actually had the audacity to accuse me of having too much time on my hands because I can do a few juggling tricks. I reminded him that I am better than him in every subject we both do and that for every second I've spent juggling is probably an hour he has spent on WoW. That is how much I HATE that comment.

Youtube fills me with much rage. In my opinion, blatantly insulting someone doing something as innocent as footbag is 10 times worse than jokingly talking about driving a halberd through someones face.

Garrgh.

[abstract]

http://photopile.com/photos/charmaniac/Fark/277715.jpg

i think a part of it is controversy over something fairly new, culturally speaking. like others have said, most people don't even understand what they are seeing.

in north america, 'hacky sack' is footbag's cultural heritage, which undoubtedly hurts it's own cultural progress due to the correlation to "hacky slackers", an image unbecoming of an athletic sport. ( how is the image of footbag in europe / asia by comparison? does the same stigma exist? )

having such an easy way to make derisive comments mixed with the anonymity factor will make for some very negative responses. however, take those same people and show them footbag in person & you'll be seeing a different side.

nature of the beast, the internet requires some thick skin. but i think 'any press is good press' still applies.