the awful, constant video jumps

The video jumps are the problem, there's a Max Headroom quality to them. Reading the e-mails verbatim didn't bother me. What did bother me is the camera angle on Rob, it makes him feel a bit more aggressive than I think he is. He looks much less comfortable in this than he does on Clubhouse Confidential for example. I also did not care for the piano music playing in the background.

That's a lot of nitpicking, I thought the questions and answers were entertaining. Rob covered a variety of topics (Bryce Harper, Marvin Miller, rules, obscure trivia in the form of Jamey Carroll) and his answers seemed honest and thought out. I'll watch it again.

It's a good idea—I liked the flow of it and the questions/answers they selected—but they need to hook him up with a microphone, a camera, and whoever's editing videos for their [our, I guess] tech website. I think the biggest jump you can make in online video is from looking like you're on an internal camera/mic to looking slightly different from that.

Rob Headroom?

A sign of age? I have no idea why video reports and chats are better than text versions. I HATE when I click on a news headline and it wants to show me a video instead of a written story. And, I'm pretty sure, I'd hate watching Neyer on video instead of reading a transcript.

I seem to be in a small minority so, perhaps, someday I'll probably be unable to get news.

bunyon - I agree, I prefer text largely because I spend very little time somewhere the I can watch/listen to something. Either I'min my office at work, or watching TV while surfing on my iPad at home.

bunyon & Jose - I agree as well. Hate the video. Oh well.

It's fine, but the camera is too close.

I also don't see why this wouldn't work just as a podcast.

I suspect ad rates have some part in the move to video. Harder to block ads on videos.

Ah! I forgot the rule to follow the money.

Harder to block ads on videos.

Harder to deliver said ads when a link to an unexpected video has me immediately hitting the Back button. (Cokes to 5-7)

Harder to deliver said ads when a link to an unexpected video has me immediately hitting the Back button. (Cokes to 5-7)

True, but my sense, working closely with college and graduate students is that they would rather see video and are willing to sit through the ads. I would guess that getting ads in front of them is more important to information providers than having me read an article (or even watch the video).

Video ads -- "pre-rolls," my bosses tell me they're called -- bring orders of magnitude more money than static ads on a web page. So there is a big incentive to do videos, even if they get a fraction of the hits that a blog post would.

Which is why they put a friggin' camera in my basement and have me talk about yesterday's news for video a few times a week.

On Twitter I stopped following Rob last fall. Too blah. I've not seen a single once that anyone I follow re-tweet anything of his. I don't know. I used to enjoy his ESPN columns up until 2004 or something. Perhaps he's burried underneath the fact there are so many solid writers/personalities now.

A sign of age? I have no idea why video reports and chats are better than text versions. I HATE when I click on a news headline and it wants to show me a video instead of a written story. And, I'm pretty sure, I'd hate watching Neyer on video instead of reading a transcript.

I seem to be in a small minority so, perhaps, someday I'll probably be unable to get news.

I'm with you, Bunyon. But after reading this thread it sounds like I should do my videoblog Designated SItter instead of using Wordpress.

WTF Neyer would be way better.

"Marvin Miller is in better shape than most 95 year olds - he's still alive"

I chuckled.

The other thing is that I can read a lot faster than someone can talk... You could read through the transcript in a couple minutes while the video probably takes a lot longer.