Things that Channel Awesome’s Management has pulled according to the #ChangetheChannel folks coming out over the last few days
A handy tumblr list (with links!) for people who are wondering what I’ve been talking about since Friday. There’s a really good compilation thread on resetera here. And the ex-contributors are working on a document compiling their past experiences. But I thought maybe a tumblr compilation might help the curious until said document is completed.
1. Firing an employee who had worked for them literally every day, including holidays and weekends, because she had to take time off for surgery, then holding her severance hostage to have her sign a contract saying she wouldn’t work for another media site for 2-4 years.
2. Turning a blind eye to sexual harassment until it almost (or actually) got violent.
3. Not compensating people for days of work
4. Not providing food or water for people on their movie sets
5. Trying to force two of their contributors to do a rape/sexual assault scene
6. Spending $90k of viewer money on this:
7. Buying a warehouse “studio” and not bothering to sound dampen it
8. Mass producing and selling prints of an artist’s work without informing or compensating her.
9. Firing someone for making anti-Gamer Gate videos.
11. Constantly changing scripts for anniversary videos so no one could learn their lines on time.
12. A general Wiseau-esque approach to filmmaking and treatment of cast/crew. Like, just WOW. WOW. RIGHT DOWN TO PEOPLE FAINTING ON SET. THERE WERE EVEN CAMERA SHENANIGANS AND THIS GUY HAS COVERED BOTH THE ROOM AND THE DISASTER ARTIST.
13. Not informing contributors that they’d be “retiring” the Nostalgia Critic character years ago.
14. General mismanagement of footage, videos, resources and staff. And expecting people to do tons of work in basically NO time.
15. Verbally abusing contributors (to the point of tears) for their advertising practices (the ad revenue that some were trying to live on, and practices that they’d eventually engage in, such as mid-rolls) (Keep in mind these people were not paid in anything but “exposure”)
16. Never addressing contributor issues and complaints. Insulting and harassing (female) people who had suggestions/complaints.
17. Shutting down entire sites without forewarning to the contributors.
18. General misogyny towards female talent.
19. Management not being available to site members. (Keep in mind that CA is a full blown corp)
20. This shit.
21. Randomly dropping people for “not posting videos” despite random rule changes and/or the videos simply not being scheduled right on the managers’ end.
22. This shit too. Basically a “prime membership” thing that never produced anything that cost $30 to get “exclusive” videos…. that they mass-released a year later anyways.
23. A general creepy and flippant approach to the characters they wrote.
24. Ignoring the existence and work of contributors who had been there for years, including excluding them from video events directly involving their own extensive work, such as the Don Bluth Special. And using other contributors’ footage in “response” videos without telling them.
I encourage everyone to check out @marzgurl, @atopfourthwall, @chaosd1, and @allisonpregler. Check Marzgurl’s twitter here, Allison’s twitter here, Linkara’s twitter here, also Foldablehuman’s, Lindsay Ellis’s, Holly’s, and Pushinguprose’s twitter for more info.
