The dumbest moments in New Media history

[Venus Spa]

With only a month or so left in the decade I thought it would be cool to do a Top 10 Dumbest Moments in New Media History thread. (Or how many we come up with.) These could be screw ups of all kinds, shapes and sizes as long as they are industry related. (Miscues that derailed entire shows, firings that sank companies, etc.) Unavoidable problems like the economy and funding issues should be left out of a list/thread like this since that isn't stupidity, that's life.

Okay, the floor's wide open, who wants to take a crack at this?

[milowent]

hmmm. i wonder if we can think of any before 2005.

feb 2006 - NBC demands that all copies of Lazy Sunday, going viral on youtube, be pulled down. nbc looked like a dummy for not recognizing they could capitalize on it. however, the upside was that this was the first major press that youtube got, and it helped the site begin its huge growth.

2008(?) - Renetto and a few other youtube vloggers form vloggerheads, thinking that people really want to watch old dudes vlog all day long, because that preserves the "community" of youtube from 05-06. the site tanks.

next ...

[Venus Spa]

I keep thinking Quarterlife is going to end up in the conversation but I don't know enough about the show or production team to think of a specific moment.

TSIY 1 has to be up there.

[Mathieas]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the biggest one of all... killing Bree. The C's not finding a way to keep Jessica Rose resulted in the slow downhill spiral of the biggest web show ever,!(sorry Guild but its true)

Of course as with all hindsight games and what if scenarios its all open to supposition. After all remember we had been subjected to months of "crazy Bree", "cult Bree", "really crazy sleeping with Jonas Bree", and "hostage Bree" so who knows had she continued on the show we might have ended up hating her, rather than making photo collages and shrines in our breakfast nooks.... Don't judge me!

[Mathieas]

This is all of New Media so I guess we can include Twitter stuff.

So that guy making Miley take down her twitter. Remember all the prepubescent boys who woke up dreaming of visiting Miley's twitter only to discover that her twitter wasn't there?

Also, that Tom Cruise video

[Venus Spa]

Was it a case of Greg and Miles being unable to afford JLR after she became a member of SAG?

As for killing Bree, that's a good one but it does raise the question, could LG15 have maintained what they had if Jessica had stayed? You could argue that the multitude of trait positive girls kept the boat floating until CBS made Eqal rich.

The Resistance as a whole would qualify as a dumber moment than killing Bree in terms of execution, lack of marketing, (remember when it wasn't "cool" to market your shows?) Actually the trend of "I don't need to promote my stuff to get viewers" that plagued the industry for much of 2008 and the first half of 2009 probably cratered many shows that had a chance of succeeding.

I still think TSIY 1 is the biggest mistake Eqal has made to date. Eqal has made some serious mistakes, (you can combine lack of experience in the industry, the inability to hire a quality tech staff among their many rookie blunders,) but the way TSIY 1/Misfits vs The Last was handled may have been the biggest blunder the industry has ever seen. I don't think they did anything right in this one and announcing a winner publically without any real dialogue with the winners let alone signing them to a contract was "Darwin Award" level.

COMA's promotional blitz has to also be in the conversation. They advertised in print media almost exclusively and gave the whole show away on Blu Ray before they released a single episode online. This crippled the show's ability to gain a viewership ONLINE or make ANY money. If Dr. Horrible was huge money well spent, this was the polar opposite, huge money flushed down the toilet. This one probably had deeper industry implications in terms of big money people spending serious cashola on the New Media.

[curiousgeorge]

JLR's leaving was just "life". As much as I would have liked to see her continue, that was something the c's had somewhat limited control of. I'm sure she had her reasons and I don't fault her at all from getting away from those clowns. As for Jackson and the RL coffee cup waving...

I agree, TSIY 1.0 was just incredibly stupid from concept through notExecution. Hands down. Worst. Moment. Evah. At that point in time the "no experience" excuse was dead and buried. They screwed it up. Royally. On every front.

*Hopes Mason has a good attorney*

[Venus Spa]

Strike TV's refusal to promote their own product after the initial media blitz when they launched has to be one of the dumbest non Eqal moves of all. Since then only 2 shows have gained significant views on Youtube and that may be the very end of the line for a network that was looking like it may become the biggest player of all.

[Mathieas]

Okay, since we are compiling a list I'll throw this one out there.

The Streamy Awards choice of winners. Now, I have often argued that they had no choice but to heap award after award on DR. Horrible, but to completely ignore the independent webseries in favor of tie-in shows like BSG, I think was a huge mistake. They could have easily balanced the need for mainstream attention while still honoring the people who put them there.

[Venus Spa]

Okay, since we are compiling a list I'll throw this one out there.

The Streamy Awards choice of winners. Now, I have often argued that they had no choice but to heap award after award on DR. Horrible, but to completely ignore the independent webseries in favor of tie-in shows like BSG, I think was a huge mistake. They could have easily balanced the need for mainstream attention while still honoring the people who put them there.

That's a good one no matter how many Academy members defended the process here. They looked very, VERY desperate to be close to celebs and with the only exception of Felicia Day, spit on the indies as hard as they possibly could. The problem is that they considered this approach a SUCCESS and have no plans of changing. If they did want to change things, you'd see more legit indies in TF and NTV...