Episode 39 - Dash Darn It!

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

RE: Episode 39 - Dash Darn It!

Kirk · Senior Member

Dave Fleet wrote:
RustyRuss wrote:
Come on boys put us out of our misery! Is Project Binky dead?
Yeah, it's toast.

Do you have inside information then Dave?

Last I saw, the chaps were announcing commercial release of switches that have been designed so that can be used in Binky. Can't see why you'd do that if you were abandoning a decade's work.

As GRC suggests, Binky is not (and has never been) a social media click-gathering exercise. If you want fast-movin' car shows, perhaps some episodes of Overhaulin' episodes would be more your cup of tea?

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
Last I saw, the chaps were announcing commercial release of switches that have been designed so that can be used in Binky.

Kirk,

Where did you see that? I'm on Facepalm, twiXXXter, and InstaSPam, with notifications turned on, and I never see stuff like this!

GRC

Kirk · Senior Member

I saw it on Xwitter, on the BOM account. I'll have a look when I get on my PC and see if I can post a link; Can never seem to find anything on the mobile site. Incidentally, I notice that Edd China's YouTube channel has gone quiet save for some clips from old Wheeler Dealers episodes. I'd guess that small scale social media content production messes with your head eventually and all of the decent ones need to step away for bit from time to time to do something real, away from the toxic brain farts of keyboard warriors. Anyway, I'll see if I can find a link.

Kirk · Senior Member

Thought I'd finally lost the plot, but then:

Richard Brunning on X: "I'm so bloody excited. After months of work, we'll soon be launching a range of super high quality automotive switches. It's all Nik's fault TBH with you. Not being able to find what he wanted led us down the path of getting our own made..." / X (twitter.com)

*Dunno why I can't paste links properly. I'm sure you can figure it out.

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
Thought I'd finally lost the plot, but then:

Richard Brunning on X: "I'm so bloody excited. After months of work, we'll soon be launching a range of super high quality automotive switches. It's all Nik's fault TBH with you. Not being able to find what he wanted led us down the path of getting our own made..." / X (twitter.com)

*Dunno why I can't paste links properly. I'm sure you can figure it out.

Kirk,

Thanks for the link! I checked both Richards and BOMs xtwitter accounts before and didn't see it. I don't know why.

BTW the link worked fine for me, all blue and clicky!

GRC

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
Incidentally, I notice that Edd China's YouTube channel has gone quiet save for some clips from old Wheeler Dealers episodes.

Kirk,

I thought something was up with Edd. I do get notifications for YouTube, and Edds had been mostly reposts and clips of older content during summer and fall. I just chalked it up to Edd taking another extended vacation. But now that you mention it, I've not gotten any notifications from his channel for a while.

GRC

p.s. I just swatted yet another SPAM post from the user Dreefter, and banned the IP again. He posts more often than 98.4% of BOM Forum members! I wish I could ban him, but I don't have the tools.

Kirk · Senior Member

It's funny, I was browsing around the site earlier today and found all sorts of features that I didn't notice before like post count rankings by user - and came across the thread that led to you becoming a moderator. That was to help separate the spam from genuine user contributions (of which there were many). There was this chap called "Rich" who seemed to take an interest in what went on here...

I also keep an eye on what 'Sarah 'n tuned' posts on YT regarding her (mostly Toyota) builds. She's been commenting recently that there is a huge pressure on content creators to regularly churn out stuff and feed the "like, comment and subscribe" algorithm. I fear that this will ultimately result in a race to the bottom; anyone doing something genuinely interesting will stay away, earn their money elsewhere and preserve their sanity.

Anyway, keep up the good work, GRC. We may be circling the plug hole but at least it's a minimal spam plug hole!

-- Edited by Kirk on Thursday 21st of December 2023 01:18:48 PM

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
It's funny, I was browsing around the site earlier today and found all sorts of features that I didn't notice before like post count rankings by user - and came across the thread that led to you becoming a moderator. That was to help separate the spam from genuine user contributions (of which there were many). There was this chap called "Rich" who seemed to take an interest in what went on here...
I also keep an eye on what 'Sarah 'n tuned' posts on YT regarding her (mostly Toyota) builds. She's been commenting recently that there is a huge pressure on content creators to regularly churn out stuff and feed the "like, comment and subscribe" algorithm. I fear that this will ultimately result in a race to the bottom; anyone doing something genuinely interesting will stay away, earn their money elsewhere and preserve their sanity.
Anyway, keep up the good work, GRC. We may be circling the plug hole but at least it's a minimal spam plug hole!

-- Edited by Kirk on Thursday 21st of December 2023 01:18:48 PM

Kirk,
Thank you for noticing! It is appreciated. I vaguely recall a "Rich" agreeing to me volunteering as a "moderator". I don't think we've communicated since then?
I follow Sarah-n-Tuned, and am a big fan of her vehicle builds/restorations, etc. Kathleen (my Better Half) and I have seen them all, some multiple times. Being that we are not going to buy a new car (ever!) we typically don't watch Sarahs new car reviews. I am surprised that she's seeing pressure from YouTube, considering she posts every 72 hours.
GRC

Forsh · Senior Member

Twixxter:

https://x.com/richardbrunning/status/1738221748309602734?s=20

smile

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Forsh wrote:
Twixxter:

https://x.com/richardbrunning/status/1738221748309602734?s=20

January?

Sigh.

I'll still be here.

(Where else would I be?)

bmwmaniac · Veteran Member

How hard would it be just to post a 5 minute update video, maybe once a month keeping us updated on progress and/or lack there of.

Forsh · Senior Member

That would be YouTubers who do cars rather than car guys who do Youtube

wink

Kirk · Senior Member

January? Dull month usually. Episode 39 to look forward to. So much better than December.

Kirk · Senior Member

in case you missed it, Edd has made a reappearance on YouTube.

Forsh · Senior Member

Well, Binky's switches have arrived

GDEnJUIXwAA3IBE?format=jpg&name=small

https://x.com/richardbrunning/status/1743217574093922813?s=20

smile

-- Edited by Forsh on Friday 5th of January 2024 02:15:28 PM

Kirk · Senior Member

..and they're now on sale. (Or "there now on sale", if you're Mr. Brunning...)

Surely this means they will be installed and in Ep.39 within hours?

Dave Fleet · Member

Kirk wrote:
January? Dull month usually. Episode 39 to look forward to. So much better than December.

disbelief

Kirk · Senior Member

Ah, but WHICH January?

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
Ah, but WHICH January?

Kirk,

Getting existential on us? "Next" January, of course!

"Yesterday has gone forever, but tomorrow never comes." ― Robert Ashby

-- Edited by GrayRaceCat on Wednesday 7th of February 2024 05:37:36 AM

Forsh · Senior Member

From the platform formally know as Twitter...

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Malcolm: F4VRX🇪🇺🇫🇷
@MAQ_Ecosse

When’s the next episodes of Project Binky and Escargot being released ?

Richard Brunning
@richardbrunning

We're nearly there with Binky 39.
6:33 pm · 15 Feb 2024
·

smile

-- Edited by Forsh on Friday 16th of February 2024 01:22:54 PM

Kirk · Senior Member

So that's pretty clear. Expect an episode of Escargot in March or thereabouts. :D

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
So that's pretty clear. Expect an episode of Escargot in March or thereabouts. :D

If it's all the same, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for any videos.

bmwmaniac · Veteran Member

its like a smart blonde, you hear about them, but never seem to find them

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

bmwmaniac wrote:
its like a smart blonde, you hear about them, but never seem to find them

I got lucky and married one! As a bonus, she loves cars and racing too!

(Before you ask, yes she's a natural blonde.)

Dave Fleet · Member

bmwmaniac wrote:
Regrets - We've Had a Few...

What a rollercoaster of a last 18 months. If we had our time again, well...
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. It's been a turgid time at our secret volcano lair; illness, stubbornness, Elliot Ness and others have seen what should have been the culmination of ten years effort pay off in a satisfactory way have actually left us in quite a state in many different ways. The whole team has been dumped on in one way or another and we have all had to work through our own issues while dealing with the most frustrating and soul-destroying part of the build.
I know many of you have lost faith and truth be told it's been very hard at times for us not to as well; demons come in many different guises... We are not ones to air our troubles publicly.
However, we refuse to dwell on the negatives anymore, we've got loads of new content in the editing phase, we've got tonnes of footage for Binky Episode 39 in the can and we're shooting more every day. The M50 Celica video is just being polished, the 100-year-old Dodge is going to be an absolute hoot over two videos, we've got a beautiful replica Jaguar C Type BOM Classics that just needs a few more tracking shots to complete the shoot and more in the planning. Ben is taking care of most of this in his spare time.
Kicking and screaming the mini is being finished. Whether is bloody well likes it or not and that is our sole focus, after all that's our bread and butter. The payoff will be awesome - I have no doubt. (Narrator: He has doubts...)
Always ones to look forward, we'd very much like to offer you - our long suffering Patrons - the opportunity to give us a steer on what you'd like to see next. We need something to look forward to apart from the road trip to Ireland to get the Mini mapped on the Dyno...
The Escargot is going to take up a fair amount of our efforts in the new year, but the build bay will be empty so we have a number of projects in the shed that are due some attention. We have the MG X Power SVR that is going to be amazing, but very expensive as parts are hard to find. We have the Peugeot 205 Rally car with our custom built 1600 16v engine that we'd like to re-build with custom suspension and a host of modern improvements and turn it into a proper lightweight 1600 class winning car. We have an Opel Ascona shell sitting upstairs that we don't really know what to do with yet - anything is possible. We have a Ford Anglia 105E that's ripe for a nice restomod and we have an extremely rare 1967 (half year) Datsun 2000 Roadster that needs a total restoration. Also it needs an engine, oh, and a gearbox, and a back axle...
So if there's anything in the above list of stuff we already have in the shed that you'd like to see in the build studio, please let us know. None of them will ever match Binky for complexity or sheer WTFery, but each has its own areas that we have proper BOM ideas about. And none of them will take 10+ years!
I know we've been the worst content creators in the history of content creators recently creating barely any content worthy of your consideration so for that, we humbly apologise. In reality, and I mean this sincerely, it's only those of you who have kept the faith that have allowed us to do the same no matter how dark it’s been in the our shed.
Thank you, as always.
Cheers,
Nik, Richard and Ben.

So apart from the vintage car belonging to someone else and switches made by a third party has anything actually happened in the fast-paced hyper-successful world of Bad Obsession Motorsport?

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Dave Fleet wrote:
So apart from the vintage car belonging to someone else and switches made by a third party has anything actually happened in the fast-paced hyper-successful world of Bad Obsession Motorsport?

Dave,

An honest question. Why do you think Nik and Richard owe you anything?

Regards,

GRC

Kirk · Senior Member

:)

Grandell · Member

if Nik, Richard or Ben ever do venture back to these depths of the internet, hopefully they'll be encouraged by the dying few of us patiently waiting for updates, and not just those complaining :)

Kirk · Senior Member

I reckon they'll invite us all(!) down for the full hospitality experience (=cup of tea) and test drive when the dash is in. Fingers crossed, eh?

Forsh · Senior Member

I take it you've all seen the new BOM Channel Trailer '24 ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3YJ6VvuI8U

smile

Kirk · Senior Member

Yes. It's very good. It shows clips from all the playlists we all love.
It's a fantastic displacement activity. Who could ask for anything more?

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
Who could ask for anything more?

Indeed. :)

Dave Fleet · Member

GrayRaceCat wrote:
Dave Fleet wrote:
So apart from the vintage car belonging to someone else and switches made by a third party has anything actually happened in the fast-paced hyper-successful world of Bad Obsession Motorsport?

Dave,
An honest question. Why do you think Nik and Richard owe you anything?
Regards,
GRC

GRC, They don't owe me anything since I stopped funding them through Patreon. Their Facebook page suggests they've gone bust anyway.

Kirk · Senior Member

I reckon we're getting close to an actual episode. I mean, the moon popped in front of the sun so that it could get a look into the workshop, and there are mutterings on Twitter about 3D shenanigans. I'm thinking of getting a little bit excited. Advice?

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Dave,

An honest question. Why do you think Nik and Richard owe you anything?

Regards,

GRC

GRC, They don't owe me anything since I stopped funding them through Patreon. Their Facebook page suggests they've gone bust anyway.

Dave,

IMHO, they didn't owe you anything then, either. As I see it, Patreon is a means of saying "Thank you" to Content creators, not to "Buy" new content.

Regards,

GRC

MikeG · Newbie

While they dont owe me anything technically my problem is that I have been a paying patreon supporter for many years.

Beginning 2 years ago they started making numerous similar statements amounting to the same:

Things are now fixed, production is resumed, episode 39 is beeing filmed/edited and will soon be out. We have issues with the dash lighting, the homebrew PCB-printing etc etc.

None of those statements turned out to be true? You can literaly see the exact same waffling statements in every patreon update and the BOM TV update. For almost 2 years. Does that not raise some flags in your heads?

The issue is that they have not been forthcoming and honest while these last 1.5 years stringing people along? It might have been true at the start but something is not right.

They also removed the lowest cost Patreon tier presumably to increase revenue?

You sit here like the living embodiment of the "Sunken cost" fallacy, immediately leaping to defend and attack anything you percieve as an attack on BOM.

I think it is because you really percieve it as an attack on yourself because it triggers the cognitive dissonance you subject yourself to.

Can´t you see your own behaviour? What would you think of a behaviour like BOM if it was another entity? Would you react the same way? If it was the garage you handed your car, a friend who promised to help you paint your house etc

I dont enjoy beeing strung along and lied to, but realized what was going on so I just walked away. Recently cancelled the Patreon.

Take a good look at yourselves gentlemen.

Dave Fleet · Member

GrayRaceCat wrote:
Dave,
An honest question. Why do you think Nik and Richard owe you anything?
Regards,
GRC
GRC, They don't owe me anything since I stopped funding them through Patreon. Their Facebook page suggests they've gone bust anyway.
Dave,
IMHO, they didn't owe you anything then, either. As I see it, Patreon is a means of saying "Thank you" to Content creators, not to "Buy" new content.
Regards,

GRC
GRC, We'll have to disagree on your point about Patreon being a "Thank you" to content creators. I see it a subscription to allow continued content creation. Your analogy is akin to tipping the staff at a restaurant every time you walk past, whether they have served you or not.

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Dave Fleet wrote:

GRC, We'll have to disagree on your point about Patreon being a "Thank you" to content creators. I see it a subscription to allow continued content creation. Your analogy is akin to tipping the staff at a restaurant every time you walk past, whether they have served you or not.

OK, I concede your point.

Another question: If you're not getting what you expected, why are you still here?

RustyRuss · Member

I have loved watching Binky evolve but I am deeply disappointed that he/she/it/they hasn’t made it to episode 39. We’ve watched and loved your offerings so far. Can’t you put us out of our misery and tell us when you are actually going to air episode 39? PLEASE!!!!

ahenry · Member

There is a podcast with a 2 hour interview with Richard Brunning at
www.hpacademy.com/blog/114-project-binki-stuffing-a-gt-four-driveline-into-a-classic-mini-podcast/

The Binky-specific stuff starts 55 minutes in. The bit on where Binky "came off the rails" is from minutes 85 to 99.

They started with Smiths gauges, but they had a mixture of with serif and san serif fonts, and LED and traditional back lighting. They decided to make their own with back lighting, and then ended up with a load of wiring. They then decided to 3D print the circuit boards, which was nearly perfect straight away, and then wasn't. They have recently found a problem with their shed which was causing problems that they didn't understand. They are now developing various Arduino controllers. The week before the podcast recording, the 3D printing has been finished. They are now adding components to the boards. This will be in Episodes 39 and 40.

Kirk · Senior Member

ahenry wrote:
There is a podcast with a 2 hour interview with Richard Brunning at
www.hpacademy.com/blog/114-project-binki-stuffing-a-gt-four-driveline-into-a-classic-mini-podcast/

The Binky-specific stuff starts 55 minutes in. The bit on where Binky "came off the rails" is from minutes 85 to 99.

They started with Smiths gauges, but they had a mixture of with serif and san serif fonts, and LED and traditional back lighting. They decided to make their own with back lighting, and then ended up with a load of wiring. They then decided to 3D print the circuit boards, which was nearly perfect straight away, and then wasn't. They have recently found a problem with their shed which was causing problems that they didn't understand. They are now developing various Arduino controllers. The week before the podcast recording, the 3D printing has been finished. They are now adding components to the boards. This will be in Episodes 39 and 40.

Lengthy - but very interesting. A little bit too interesting to listen to whilst working, so I paused a lot and it took even longer!

It did lower my opinion of your average "social media commentator" even lower though (regular contributors here excepted of course).

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

RustyRuss wrote:
I have loved watching Binky evolve but I am deeply disappointed that he/she/it/they hasn’t made it to episode 39. We’ve watched and loved your offerings so far. Can’t you put us out of our misery and tell us when you are actually going to air episode 39? PLEASE!!!!

I agree, I'm not disappointed that they haven't finished Binky. I know they will.

I'm disappointed because we've been left in the dark.

I would be overjoyed to have seen the occasional episode shot in the style of the Escargo.

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Kirk wrote:
Lengthy - but very interesting. A little bit too interesting to listen to whilst working, so I paused a lot and it took even longer!
It did lower my opinion of your average "social media commentator" even lower though (regular contributors here excepted of course).

The best explanation yet of what has been happening. It's a shame it wasn't posted on the BOM YouTube channel or here on their own forum.

Iain McK · Newbie

As soon as BOM became a business relying solely on content creation funded by a monthly subscription serice (Patreon) and no longer had to rely on advertising revenue from YouTube, their output fell off a cliff. When a business gets paid whether or not they ship any product (content) the temptation is to prevaricate and either strive for perfection (Binky) or abandon (Escargot). In either case nothing is achieved.

Couple this with abdicating from their previously very active social media information channels (Facebook, this forum, Pistonheads etc.) and many people (me included) will be lead to assume that the sole object of the exercise is to carry on recieving Patreon money until the jig is finally up and subscribers cancel.

I note with interest that at no point have BOM suggested that due to a change in personal circumstances a pause in Patreon subscriptions is necessitated to cover the lack of output.

As you may gather, my opinion of BOM has fallen hugely - your opinion will be different. For better or worse, we live in a social media age - there is no excuse for a business not keeping their customers abreast of a situation, whether it is positive or negative.

I don't expect I'll return here, the link was posted on Pistonheads - I had hoped it would be more informative than it has turned out to be.

Kirk · Senior Member

I think that you've really missed the point. Patreon donation doesn't make you a customer any more than, say, sponsoring a Guide Dog puppy gives you a right to pat every Guide Dog you see. Enjoy it for what it is and kick yourself for donating to something you never owned.

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Iain McK wrote:
As soon as BOM became a business relying solely on content creation funded by a monthly subscription serice (Patreon) and no longer had to rely on advertising revenue from YouTube, their output fell off a cliff. When a business gets paid whether or not they ship any product (content) the temptation is to prevaricate and either strive for perfection (Binky) or abandon (Escargot). In either case nothing is achieved.

Couple this with abdicating from their previously very active social media information channels (Facebook, this forum, Pistonheads etc.) and many people (me included) will be lead to assume that the sole object of the exercise is to carry on recieving Patreon money until the jig is finally up and subscribers cancel.

I note with interest that at no point have BOM suggested that due to a change in personal circumstances a pause in Patreon subscriptions is necessitated to cover the lack of output.

As you may gather, my opinion of BOM has fallen hugely - your opinion will be different. For better or worse, we live in a social media age - there is no excuse for a business not keeping their customers abreast of a situation, whether it is positive or negative.
I don't expect I'll return here, the link was posted on Pistonheads - I had hoped it would be more informative than it has turned out to be.

Did you not understand that supporting an entertainment source via Patreon is VOLUNTARY? It is not a TAX. No one twisted your arm to contribute.

If you feel that you "backed the wrong horse," I suggest you cut your losses.

GRC

Grandell · Member

As much as I like keeping the conversation going, I can't help but think we should start a new thread, simply called "I'm here to moan" :)

GrayRaceCat · Senior Member

Grandell wrote:
As much as I like keeping the conversation going, I can't help but think we should start a new thread, simply called "I'm here to moan" :)

I can't help but notice that all the "moaners" are noobs on the forum. I am tempted at times to mute them and delete the posts. But then we'd have no traffic at all!