A frank discussion about the Rippa situation

This is exhausting, but sure, I made a lot of claims, raised a lot of concerns, I’ll face the music and stand by these criticisms as you guys see them to be manufactured.

And to be clear, I’ve also given the man credit where it’s due. He’s got conviction, he believes in himself, and he inspires others around him to share that vision while being a fantastic personality with great charisma.

What do you guys feel are weak elements of my post? What facts or views specifically do you feel I am manufacturing simply to paint a bad picture of Mr. July because I don’t like him or am an agent of EVS or whatever?

This is a complex situation spanning a long period of time, and involving a lot of individuals, so it would be impossible for me to frame these posts succinctly, so maybe if we just focus on a few elements that can be a better discussion and I don’t just keep throwing up massive walls of texts and we get lost in the weeds.

Ok so a very succinct summation of why I posted all this: I’m a fan of geeks and gamers, I have a huge interest in the counter culture movement. I felt Eric July, though well meaning, is not contributing positively to this movement, though he is making large amounts of money. I would like to see Eric July fix several elements of his venture so he can contribute positively to the mediums he has criticized over the years, and be able to make more $$$ that gives products to the customers that everyone can be happy about. I feel Eric’s thin skin, and the culture of ring kissers that he has assembled around him is counter to him being able to grow as the head of the Rippaeverse and to be able to find and maintain and pay rare talent to be successful with these ventures, that he thus far has not knocked out of the park.

This thread ended up both on Trashcast and Cobracast, and it was pretty damned exciting for me as a fan of both channels, so I did post with some excitement to this thread.

I hope this gives a bit of insight into my weird behavior, posting endless and endless pages responding to these messages in this thread. And to be fair, I haven’t been needlessly replying to this thread it’s generally to replies that are accusing me of stirring the pot without any justifiable concern.

Very exciting times! I even heard Jeremy complimenting EVS on Cobracast today, talked about how he’s the only guy he’s seen on Timcast that was able to dominate the conversation. That’s progress right there, maybe those chickens in the chat wont have to be banned after all.

I’m glad to see these guys being able to lighten up a bit and not see each other as monsters. And Gary just did his own little mini comic with art from the fandom, that’s f*cking awesome! This is exactly the sort of stuff we need to see! Start small, get people excited, learn production lessons along the way, find quality hard working passionate talent and figure out how to get smaller projects done to higher qualities until everyone’s ready to do larger projects.

Jeremy, Rippa, EVS, and all the FNT crew are unique talents, would love to see them bury the hatchet as best they can and learn how to work together to make cool sh*t, entertain the audience, and sell them quality stuff. It’s nice to see maybe they’re becoming a bit more self aware. We’re all new to this emerging youtube scene, so everyone’s just kinda learning as they go. How to make comics, how to find good talent, how to not take things so personal, all that crap.

I don’t think everyone is ever going to sit around and sing kumbaya, but it’s heartening to see these guys start to work towards building back those burned bridges.

Appreciate the consistent optimistic and upbeat attitude, Comicsgate

I don’t know what more you want me to do. I have explicitly stated that any point of information, or opinion you feel that I have unjustly I am willing to have a conversation about.

In fact one thing I want to go back on was I said I didn’t see Eric go out of his way to help people. Eric built a team of very thoughtful and kind people, and I want to redact that bit of criticism.

Also, I don’t agree 100% with your assessment that i’m just here trying to troll or generate controversy. Many of us gave Eric very valid criticism for some time in the spirit of wanting to help, in wanting to see him succeed. Over many months the atmosphere has deteriorated. That’s on all of us, it’s easy to let things deteriorate in online settings.

I mean, I don’t know what more you guys want from me. You keep saying nothing I say has any value or is rooted in reality, so I try to go more in depth into the areas you feel aren’t well thought out criticisms, then you just say i’m pulling stuff out of my behind over and over again.

If I say nothing, I’m dodging and being a hypocrite unable to take the heat. If I articulate my arguments I’m a weirdo who types walls of texts.

What do you feel I am bullshitting you on? What point of information do you feel I have not properly understood or misrepresented?

I’m watching Kara Lynne on Valliant Renegade right now, a Rippa employee:

Here are some videos on the rippaverse site about his team members, you can find more if you’re interested:


They all seem like genuinly good people and all have had good things to say about eric, the Soska sisters had positive things to say at Megacon.

I’m also blocked by Rippa on twitter as I have engaged with him and his community there. I’ve also given shit to EVS about his books, and he was as open to my feedback as much as Rippa was, but only one of these guys ended up blocking me.

I use twitter a casual amount btw, i mostly go on there to see stupid crap in my timeline, I don’t generally engage in online drama or blast anyone in these communities with any nonsense. This is all common knowledge and gleaned at a glance.

I’ve done my best to justify my opinions. This is a nerd sphere, we have opinions on Nintendo, and Fortnite. I’ve never been to Japan, I have actually worked in the Unreal engine, but I’m not much of a fortnite player. People have opinions on political figures, and wars, and all sorts of things they see on TV or on YouTube. If anything, I feel like getting to see these guys live and on Youtube is a lot more real than a lot of the stuff pumped out of Hollywood, that’s why I engage in this stuff. The authenticity of it all.

I don’t even know what we’re arguing about any more. I’ve done everything in my power to support my viewpoint and opinions. If that’s not enough for anyone, you’re welcome to not agree with me or feel as though I have a faulty opinion.

If we only posted threads about people we knew personally or posted music for bands from people we know personally, or talked about shows we were supporting cast members of, no one would be able to post anything. These forums would be a dead wasteland.