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Author Topic: "The waiting game"  (Read 37211 times)

quarkmark

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"The waiting game"
« on: May 27, 2015, 02:27:30 pm »

Kevin, I really feel for you. Poor guy, with such a long list of expensive things you're desperately waiting for!
Come on, is this really LuLa? Or maybe I didn't get the satire alert?
Do you really think consumerism is the way to go?
qm
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Telecaster

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2015, 03:09:24 pm »

Hehe…I think the targets of Kevin's rant are simply companies who announce stuff way before they plan to make—or are capable of making—it available. In my experience folks in general are less copacetic with that approach than we used to be. (Materialism culture may deserve a direct rant of its own, but this isn't that.) IMO his point, as I take it, is quite right: cut the strategizing & marketeering BS and start shipping already:D

(Just to note: running a site like LuLa provides excellent GAS cover too!)

-Dave-
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quarkmark

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2015, 05:52:20 pm »

Quote
strategizing & marketeering BS
Seems to me that LuLa is becoming more and more part of this.
The bottom line of the Rantatorial is "Don't tease us. Please let us buy and consume things faster. We want more and we want it immediately!"
This is brainwash.
Step back and see what it is: This piece of writing is exactly what the marketing guys of all these companies dream about!
Customers begging for products to spend their money...
Give me a break!
LuLa is wasting its potential if it goes the way of consumerism.
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Schewe

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2015, 06:27:08 pm »

Step back and see what it is: This piece of writing is exactly what the marketing guys of all these companies dream about!

Seems like you didn't get the gist of Kev's rant...in his way, he's actually condemning the practice and encouraging the readers to chill out and wait. Least, that's what I got out of it (course, I know Kev pretty well).

And truth be told, I'm pretty bad about waiting myself. When Kev was in the studio shooting out LR vid he showed me his watch (that came early) and darn if it wasn't the exact same stainless steel watch and band I had ordered. I was immediately jealous because mine won't come till mid to late June. But then my zen approach came back and I told myself I'll get it when I get it so I let go of that jealousy...so I'm waiting patiently with a small smile on my face :~)

BTW, you don't seem to have been much of a poster here in the LuLa forums...you might want to try to fit in a while and be a member of the community before casting aspersions here...just sayin'

Edited to fix typos
« Last Edit: May 27, 2015, 11:24:41 pm by Schewe »
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NancyP

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2015, 07:21:19 pm »

Good parting shot about the Lr6!
The waiting I hate is the outside-in-bad-weather (especially cold) waiting.
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Kevin Raber

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2015, 08:57:42 pm »

QuarkMark...Consumerism??? I think you missed the point.  i listed many items that have been announced and not yet delivered.  More items these days than ever before with some far out delivery dates.  Wouldn't it be nice to see an announcement that that says shipping now?   I also think you should read Jeff's post.  He get's it.  And, remember this is a Rantatorial where we can speak our minds and express our thoughts. 

Kevin Raber
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BJL

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i listed many items that have been announced and not yet delivered.  More items these days than ever before with some far out delivery dates.  Wouldn't it be nice to see an announcement that that says shipping now?
To your last question (with my emphasis added) an emphatic no.  Companies clearly know all significant details of forthcoming products some months before they are ready to deliver, so a policy of announcing with immediate availability is not a matter of delivering earlier (they already have plenty of incentive to deliver ASAP in most cases); it is just announcing later: withholding information that the company has had for some months until the last minute, probably to protect sales and prices of existing stock.

This is not to defend the opposite extreme of announcing a product that is still far from fully developed: "vaporware" in the term coined to describe a super-computer announced but never successfully delivered by IBM.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2015, 10:06:28 pm by BJL »
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Manoli

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2015, 02:14:27 am »

More items these days than ever before with some far out delivery dates.  Wouldn't it be nice to see an announcement that that says shipping now?   

Yup.
But I also believe that the latest trend in pre-announcements falls foul of the Trade Descriptions Act ( or national equivalents). They should more accurately be announced as 'Works In Progress'. The latest Leica S being a shining example - over 12 months(*) and still waiting.

\
(*) the actual announcement was Photokina 2014, but the worst kept secret in the industry can be traced back to Feb 2014, if not earlier - thanks to various trade-in offers, inducements and timely leaks.


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Christopher Sanderson

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2015, 06:58:30 am »

)) Looks familiar!

from left to right, let me guess:

writer, suit, art director, creative director?

ripgriffith

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2015, 12:50:11 pm »

BTW, you don't seem to have been much of a poster here in the LuLa forums...you might want to try to fit in a while and be a member of the community before casting aspersions here...just sayin'


Words to live by.
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quarkmark

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2015, 01:30:33 pm »

Aspersions  ::)
Paraphrasing Kevin: Remember this is a Rantatorial Forum where we can speak our minds and express our thoughts.
... but only after we "fit in a while"?!?

Consumerism: "the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods"
I always think there has to be more than this.
But that's just me.
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Christopher Sanderson

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #11 on: May 28, 2015, 05:42:54 pm »

 ;D fun!

Telecaster

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #12 on: May 28, 2015, 06:18:49 pm »

Consumerism: "the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods"
I always think there has to be more than this.
But that's just me.

It seems to me your objection is that Kevin observes aspects of (and behaviors resulting from) consumer culture without explicitly criticizing or condemning this culture. But I don't think condemnation was his intent—his rant is ironically more subtle in this respect—and thus your objection is IMO off-target. Beware of binary thinking…lack of explicit rejection of something does not equal support of it.

(Great pics, BC!  :D  And I agree that all this great tech we have hasn't made us any more visually creative. Slicker perhaps…or, to borrow from Adams, we now have sharper renditions of the same mostly fuzzy concepts. The future subject of a Rantatorial maybe…)

-Dave-
« Last Edit: May 28, 2015, 06:26:42 pm by Telecaster »
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bdbender4

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #13 on: May 28, 2015, 07:56:35 pm »

Geez, I wish I could afford to be waiting for all that stuff!  And all tax-deductible as a business expense, too.

Wait a second, aren't there any new lenses to go with that Leica body?  Or did I miss them?

 ;)
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quarkmark

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #14 on: May 29, 2015, 05:46:19 am »

Quote
It seems to me your objection is that Kevin observes aspects of (and behaviors resulting from) consumer culture without explicitly criticizing or condemning this culture.
I agree.
Quote
But I don't think condemnation was his intent—his rant is ironically more subtle in this respect—and thus your objection is IMO off-target.
That's why I say that this is a waste of LuLa's potential. It could have been much more, but if it's only consumerism complaining about waiting times, it falls short.
And don't forget (this is also a reminder for myself!) that Kevin is part of the industry and earns money from selling ads etc. through this website. Nothing wrong with that, just to remind us that he's not unbiased. Listing items with pictures and waiting times is a subtle way of advertising nowadays. Some companies pay bloggers to do just that.
My fault was that I expected to read something that goes deeper, because LuLa has the position to do different things than other consumer websites and bloggers.
But if it's only me, ok, no problem, forget about it.
Cheers
Mark
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Kevin Raber

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2015, 06:43:51 am »

Mark
It's only you. That's OK though.
Kevin
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quarkmark

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #16 on: May 29, 2015, 09:12:26 am »

Another obvious problem with this rantatorial is this:
LuLa generates a lot of traffic (and earns money from selling ads to be seen by this traffic) by reviewing products they get from companies a long time before other customers. Even reports about announcements and expectations of announcements satisfy your need for gear talk that generates traffic. Now imagine the companies would do what Kevin suggests:
Quote
Wouldn’t it be cool if someone would make a product announcement and say ‘available to order and ship today’?
Really? C'mon, this is all part of the industry you're making your money from! Every blogger writes things like that to generate "likes".

Make no mistake: I say all this, not because I hate LuLa, but because I like it a lot. It's been on my daily reading list for years. I think Michael and his team have done a great job all this time! I really think that while being part of the online photography business LuLa has still managed to avoid getting too much money-oriented in its writings. (A lot of other sites in the www went down this way in my opinion.) And LuLa was (is?) always better than the others and just different.
But I've noticed some things that I don't think serve LuLa well.
Just to name one more besides this rantatorial: There was the teaser about "the next best thing" we never heard again from.

But I think I'm going to stop here. It's your right to write what you like, it's my right to criticize, it's your right to disagree and move on.
Kevin's last comment says it all.
Mark
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dchew

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2015, 10:58:29 am »

"What are you waiting for?"

LLVJ
  ;)

Dave
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NancyP

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2015, 08:09:27 pm »

I can't complain. There's one funny picture and some funny captions on this thread. Lighten up, it is FRIDAY.  :D
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pluton

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Re: "The waiting game"
« Reply #19 on: June 01, 2015, 05:29:44 pm »

Let he who has never, ever purchased equipment sight-unseen throw the first stone!
I think it would be wise to remember that part of Kevin's job is to obtain, use, and write about newly released equipment.  Even the Apple watch will have photographic uses.
If you are not in the mood to think about dumping dough on new equipment, stop reading.
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