A Message From RiffTrax

[BadFilms]

I wonder if they've even been bothering to read this thread? Can we get some responses to this "officialrifftrax"?? Are you even still there? Will you have the courage to stand by your identity and ACTUALLY identify yourselves to us? Conor?? Sean??? Jason????? Zach???? Is that you?? Or is this someone else entirely????? Who are you really, and what are your thoughts and opinions on what we've said???

I thought Erik was usually the one to do web stuff. I forget if he's the one that handles the Rifftrax Twitter or if I'm misremembering.


I don't know the point of him responding, though. I mean, if we're honest with ourselves, we all probably know our distinct reasons for not always paying for RiffTrax and they probably don't all necessarily align, even if we're being completely honest with ourselves about what they are. For one member of the company to try to debate everyone on their various lines of thinking isn't a good use of anyone's time. His goal is simple: to remind us all that they're a small company and maybe make us feel guilty enough to stop what we're doing and pay for what we're using. It's all he really can do: appeal to our humanity and hope for the best. It's not an unreasonable request, the company has never been unfair about the way it provides its products, and - while we all may get varying levels of enjoyment out of it over a period of time - we're still here looking at the forum. But I think most, if not all, of us realized it was a small company already and will continue to give as much money as we feel comfortable giving, whether our reasons are good, bad, honest, or self-serving.

I agree with blurg and jimmy_breeze that there's an inordinate amount of pearl-clutching that someone would have the audacity to embarrass us by pointing out what we're doing directly to our face. Some take that in stride, recognizing their position as being reasonable; others will use that as an excuse to exclaim how right they are to not pay because look at the terrible, self-righteous attitude of these people who want to be paid for their work, because art should be free, maaaan and who can really own data and we were going to pay you in exposure and blah blah blah.

Most of us are here for one of two reasons: we can't or we won't pay for something that we want, perhaps rarely or sometimes or all the time. We aren't depriving anyone of their physical goods or directly stealing from their pocket, but they aren't making all the money they could on their endeavor and we are providing a place to make that easier. This is a very fair point, however you want to argue or justify that fact. If you own it and understand their point of view, I don't think there's anything to argue about. The point is clear and you make your own personal reckoning with how you feel about that fact. Those of us who share also aren't doing so out of malice any more than you were when you were a teenager and wanted to play an album by a new band you just found for your friends. People want to share the things they like with others. It's an important part of human connection, but you still know what you're doing. You can justify this forum's existence with "Just The Jokes" syncs and no-longer-for-sale VODs, but we know what this place is for and what it does. You probably won't spend any more or less than you did before, but some people can definitely stand to drop the childish, ill-formed attitudes.

[Miss Martian]

HURRAH Bad Films! I couldn't agree more with everything you said. Very well worded and refreshigly honest and sincere. THANK YOU!

"Those of us who share also aren't doing so out of malice any more than you were when you were a teenager and wanted to play an album by a new band you just found for your friends. People want to share the things they like with others. It's an important part of human connection" < this more than anything.

But also, absolutely, I know what I'm doing. I can't always afford every release, and I give to small artists when and where and how much I can. I can't afford every Doctor Who audio that comes out every month either, so I often pirate some of that stuff as well. Many releases I'm not even interested in (like z grade films with phoned in riffs about how bad the production values are). And when there's a release I particularly want to show my support for - I buy it to try and let them know which content I want more of. Same as I do with rifftrax, big finish, or any of the artists I follow.

With all the damn streaming services etc, who can even afford to pay for all their media consumption these days???? The smaller the artist, the more likely I am to pay for their latest endeavors. And when it's big names like WB and Disney who regularly screw over their creators - I could care less. I've already made more money FOR those companys, than I'll ever see in pirated content.

So make whatever you want of that. Just don't kid yourselves into thinking whatever decision you've made about this is the moral highground.

But... THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART: Do you live in a house? Do you own a car? Is that car in reasonable condition? Do You wonder where your next meal is coming from? Are you living in constant fear that you will be evicted from your shitty aparyment and end up on the streets? Can you get a job? Do have to live on a measley disability paycheck? Have you ever stayed at a homeless shelter? or under a bridge? Or slept (multiple nights) in your rundown car? or on a park bench? Have you ever cried because you were refused food stamps, or they cut down your food stamps to an unlivable amount? Do you have to go to the food bank and try and make the mismatched products you get there work out into meals? Because that's what life is like for many of us. So take that into consideration before you judge anyone here. And maybe be thankful for what you DO have and get? Maybe be thankful that you can make a living in the arts and entertainment field. Because I'm thankful any and everyday that I'm above ground, there's food in my belly, a roof over my head. Even when they aren't ideal. And even when I have to demean myself to make the lowest part of "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" into a reality.

[moondoggy1111]

I wonder if they've even been bothering to read this thread? Can we get some responses to this "officialrifftrax"?? Are you even still there? Will you have the courage to stand by your identity and ACTUALLY identify yourselves to us? Conor?? Sean??? Jason????? Zach???? Is that you?? Or is this someone else entirely????? Who are you really, and what are your thoughts and opinions on what we've said???

I thought Erik was usually the one to do web stuff. I forget if he's the one that handles the Rifftrax Twitter or if I'm misremembering.


I don't know the point of him responding, though. I mean, if we're honest with ourselves, we all probably know our distinct reasons for not always paying for RiffTrax and they probably don't all necessarily align, even if we're being completely honest with ourselves about what they are. For one member of the company to try to debate everyone on their various lines of thinking isn't a good use of anyone's time. His goal is simple: to remind us all that they're a small company and maybe make us feel guilty enough to stop what we're doing and pay for what we're using. It's all he really can do: appeal to our humanity and hope for the best. It's not an unreasonable request, the company has never been unfair about the way it provides its products, and - while we all may get varying levels of enjoyment out of it over a period of time - we're still here looking at the forum. But I think most, if not all, of us realized it was a small company already and will continue to give as much money as we feel comfortable giving, whether our reasons are good, bad, honest, or self-serving.

I agree with blurg and jimmy_breeze that there's an inordinate amount of pearl-clutching that someone would have the audacity to embarrass us by pointing out what we're doing directly to our face. Some take that in stride, recognizing their position as being reasonable; others will use that as an excuse to exclaim how right they are to not pay because look at the terrible, self-righteous attitude of these people who want to be paid for their work, because art should be free, maaaan and who can really own data and we were going to pay you in exposure and blah blah blah.

Most of us are here for one of two reasons: we can't or we won't pay for something that we want, perhaps rarely or sometimes or all the time. We aren't depriving anyone of their physical goods or directly stealing from their pocket, but they aren't making all the money they could on their endeavor and we are providing a place to make that easier. This is a very fair point, however you want to argue or justify that fact. If you own it and understand their point of view, I don't think there's anything to argue about. The point is clear and you make your own personal reckoning with how you feel about that fact. Those of us who share also aren't doing so out of malice any more than you were when you were a teenager and wanted to play an album by a new band you just found for your friends. People want to share the things they like with others. It's an important part of human connection, but you still know what you're doing. You can justify this forum's existence with "Just The Jokes" syncs and no-longer-for-sale VODs, but we know what this place is for and what it does. You probably won't spend any more or less than you did before, but some people can definitely stand to drop the childish, ill-formed attitudes.

I completely agree BadFilms.  Full stop.

[WalnutRancher]

I will probably get flamed for this, but I am being honest. I’m sure most on these forums disagree with what I’m about to say, and I am not trying to elicit an argument in any way, but I believe my opinion is valid as others have told me privately their reasons are similar.

I download movies and shows off of these forums and others purely out of protest.  I can afford to pay for them, but the entertainment industry is loudly championing socialist and communist causes and candidates, as well as openly advocating that the government take more of my hard earned dollars to support their pet socialist projects and delusions.  Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett openly call for socialist and totalitarian rule on Twitter, and unfairly and viciously savage people they disagree with, yet get butthurt when income gets taken out of their pockets?  This is a level of hypocrisy that does not deserve to be supported with one thin dime.

It’s not that they simply disagree with me politically, as I get 99% of Hollywood are lefties, and I still enjoy good entertainment. They’re certainly free to believe whatever they want.  But it’s that they’re so vocal and “in my face” about how much they hate people like me. They’re constantly telling me they don’t want my business anyway.  Frank And Trace also just really nasty, vile, and immature on their podcast and openly hate people like me as well.

I’m not going financially support people who so openly scorn and hate others for moronic political reasons.  There are consequences to their actions and behavior and they don’t get a free pass just because they occasionally write a good joke. Honestly, I spend most of my time watching the old MST3K episodes anyway and not so much Rifftrax.  Rifftrax is hit and miss, mostly miss.

But it’s clear they don’t care about offending about half of their audience, so why do they care if half their audience doesn’t want to support them?

[kkt]

Mods, nuke this whole fuckin' thread from orbit

[enyalep]

Mods, nuke this whole fuckin' thread from orbit

thread should have been closed after SevenMindsets' post

[moondoggy1111]

Mods, nuke this whole fuckin' thread from orbit

thread should have been closed after SevenMindsets' post

Thanks WalnutRancher for taking an interesting discussion about digital content distribution into the right wing Trump swamp.

[MATMAN]

Mods, nuke this whole fuckin' thread from orbit

thread should have been closed after SevenMindsets' post

Thanks WalnutRancher for taking an interesting discussion about digital content distribution into the right wing Trump swamp.

Great - more bickering between the Looney Left and the Ridiculous Right. A pox on both your houses.

[LaGrrande]

But also, absolutely, I know what I'm doing.

Exactly. I tend to shy away from RiffTrax official releases and more focus on things like syncs commentaries released by other groups, subtitle conversions of the Annotated MST3K, and other assorted extras. I've still spent hundreds of dollars on content from RT and will continue to do so. Hell, half of my posts on this forum consist of pointing people at RiffTrax sales, Kickstarters, and Live shows so that MKB and friends can keep doing their thing. I'm hardly an angel, but at the end of the day I still know exactly what we're doing here.

[cdmjr720]

Wild to me that someone is on a board where they clearly are downloading RiffTrax, complaining about the quality of the RiffTrax. Bro, if you don't like 'em stop downloading them.

Also, I'm glad this thread popped up. I've been lax donating to RiffTrax lately, and it's time to start again.