I haven’t been writing on rollerblading much because, well…
Actually, there are a lot of reasons. I guess as I get older, there’s more to experience and do. Some of it has to do with rollerblading, some of it doesn’t. Some of them are distractions, others are steps closer to doing what you want to do. Personally, I’ve been working my ass off on my book, which has a few rollerblading references in it.
Then again, the main reason I haven’t been writing about rollerblading is because I haven’t checked Rollernews once in months. It feels really good.
Does that make me ignorant about blading? No, it just makes me lazy.
Still, somehow without that aggregate site, I end up seeing the new shit, like this…
Rollernews reposts shit they find on the internet, just like I do here. However, if you’ll look around, you’ll see not one bit of advertising on this site. (Of course, other than me trying to whore out my book.)
Why? Because if anyone in rollerblading should get paid, it’s the actual people who put on the skates or work as a business owner. Those are the real people in blading.
Sure, Soul Skating is where it’s at, but if some chump is making money off of your blood, sweat, and sacrifice and you can’t afford a post-sesh cold one, you’re a chump.
Besides, Rollernews fosters laziness. I wonder how many people on there commenting are too lazy to put on their blades, yet are still prone to spit out some of the dumbest and most ignorant discourse and disinformation in the sport.
Seriously, I’m sick of celebrating people’s ignorance and loading up the internet with even more shit talking. I’m fucking sick of it to the point where even scrolling below an edit or photo makes my balls creep up into my belly button. Half the people there are just trying to get a reaction from people like some retarded high school bully.
Sure, ignoring the comments is easy enough, but for every click on Rollernews, the dude who owns the thing makes even more money. Just the way the real ways consumers vote is with their money, the way you support something on the internet is by visiting it and clicking around. All those clicks mean more money.
The companies that advertise should save their fucking money. That money should go to their riders—or at least hooking up some random poor ass little kid with a fresh setup once a month—instead of some jerk off aggregate site like Rollernews. Seriously, it’s the Huffington Post of blading:
- Little original content
- Steals web hits from the original poster
- Has little to do with actual news other than what’ll drive traffic
Sure, fans of Rollernews will argue that it provides skaters exposure. As a guy who tries to make a living doing a full-time job and freelance projects, I warn you to always be weary of anyone offering “exposure.”
That’s the magical word they use for using people. They take YOUR talent and make THEIR money off of it. If you ever see your shit on a site with advertising, demand your fucking check and never settle for exposure.
Exposure is for film in cameras, not for people looking to be known.
At least the SHOCK guys had some fun at at the expense of the guy who runs Rollernews. Then again, since it’s the SHOCK guys, I have no idea if it’s real or not, which makes it all the better.
Besides, it’s not like you’re going to learn anything new from Rollernews.
Basically, Facebook has remedied a lot of the problems there were with Rollernews.
Mainly, if someone is going to say something, you have some kind of idea who’s doing the talking.
See what I mean. Those things next to the pictures are names. Real names, of real people, saying real things they can be held accountable for. And before I go any further, yes, I know it’s just Facebook.
Then again, you can customize Facebook. You don’t have to see p-rail edits by little kids if you don’t want to. You don’t have to hear the word “swag” used over and over like it isn’t a cliche already. A few clicks and you never have to see shit from a certain person if you don’t want to.
You can follow the brands, shops, and skaters you love.
You can add people, you can ignore people, you can see what people are talking about, and you can leave direct feedback to the people in the edits.
The most important thing is that Facebook is free to everyone. People won’t have to pay for advertising for “exposure.” Advertising on Facebook is free because all anyone has to do is drop a link on your wall and it’s just as good as an ad.
It sucks that we have to give Mark Zuckerberg more traffic, but fuck it, you’re on Facebook enough already. Either way, you can’t put Facebook out of business, no matter how hard you try, but you can get rid of Rollernews. Just stop going there.
Start going here instead:
- http://www.be-mag.com/
- http://irollny.wordpress.com/
- http://stabyourselfintheface.com/
- http://www.rollingupdates.com/
- http://www.valo-brand.com/
- http://www.shimamanufacturing.com/
- http://vandownbytheriver.tumblr.com/
Blade or Die,
— Brian Krans
P.S. — Seriously, you should check out my book, Freeze Tag on the Highway.
One can also say. With all of the rollerblading companies being “liked” out there it almost makes Rollernews obsolete. I get all my news from each individual company in my feed. Fuck Rollernews…
Great article, but I’m really disappointed you didn’t list the Iowa-Connection.com or Fruitboot.com
You should know this, but the Iowa Connection creates original content every week. Don’t forget your midwestern homies, Krans.
100% agree
Here’s my rant:
http://www.be-mag.com/msgboard/showthread.php/39756-ROLLERNEWS-NEEDS-TO-BE-BANNED-FROM-ROLLERBLADING.
Don’t forget bl8ordieblog.wordpress.com that blog tight too.
Brian, this sentiment is whats up. Thank you.
who cares what people say or comment on these videos. If i can jump on there and watch a few new edits Im stoked. Sorry that guys isnt a real rollerblader, but rollernews has edits. Watch them, doesnt mean people have to hate on everything. But thats how some people do it. Its not like someone is a news anchor talking about which gym aragon likes the best. We dont need that. We needed a site thats just edits. Regardless what people post, theres always gonna be someone that doesnt like something and has to talk about that. But rollerbladers arent the best business people. Otherwise, we’d have more sites, that people would know about. idk, it really doesnt matter anyway.
always a great read krans!
If advertising on rollernews didn’t lead to more hits for the advertisers, they wouldn’t advertise there. If it was uneconomical for the advertiser they wouldn’t advertise there. Rollernews is helping the companies sell products by providing them with a good advertising outlet. Is it not then helping skaters get paid?
There are more counter arguments than exposure.
Sure facebook is good. So is rss. Rollernews isn’t that bad either.
Maybe as you get older and collect more things to be interested in and more things to do, you could ride your high horse to a battle worth serving in. Rollernews is a blog. Someone owns it. So what?
Bladeordie is a blog. I like it. I liked your first book Brian and I look forward to enjoying your second one.
i dunno, rollernews is like a comedy show where you see people get hurt from their own stupidity.
Can’t watch the other way its too funny.
encedea afterus
efficiencyiskey.wordpress.com is another dope site
Would have been a good read if I hadn’t written the exact same thing countless times in my head ah ah ! Had this talk with many people, too, including our beloved friends over at Shock. All I can say is, some people are working in order to offer rollerbladers a quality alternative. In the meantime, check out http://www.frenchyfries.fr : it sure is tasty !
Yea my opinion is the comments make rn bad btus the guy behind it has started small and now has a huge site which brings tons of people from all over the world together and able to see stuff in one place. And yea that shock thing is bs i know the guy from Rollernews and he is a cool guy reguardless of if he post our stuff or not he does alotttttt for the skate scene. Its so easy for people to judge but let me see you do post daily everyday for the last 8 yrs. As for the ads if there is money to be made then make it man. There is no selling out in this sport when there aint money supposedly in it to begin with. Love your post each week<3 but this one id have to disagree with but wont stop me from checking it out next week. I SUPPORT ROLLERNEWS! And i even bought your book so does that make me switzerland?
And as far as i know not any one of those sites you posted goes about posting stuff everyday with there own works at hand. They all take content from other places. And like the guy said above if it wasnt rollernews they would complain about something else.
A-fucking-men Krans! I support this movement!
I agree with some points and then disagree with others
yes rollernews when you look past the edits is just a bunch of retards who spam off rollerblading vocabulary and talk shit about people that skate but as some others have commented if you just watch the edits its great. its this great site that you can go to everyday to watch edits and watch people skate whats so bad about that… and as some other guy said above ^^^ the advertising is there because its working, if it wasnt working and making money for blading companies and others it wouldnt be there and if that guy from RN is using that money to keep his site going and posting more edits then thats great… i dont necessarily worship rollernews as much as i do this site but i have to say its a handy website to keep me in contact with what i love to see so let the idiots hate on whatever blading sites they want but just look past the comments and business side of things and enjoy all the websites for what they provide to you and only you because no one else matters….
Yes, correctly.
Onpointblading.com for your Texas insight fellas