Videos

[amolitor]

I am finding the trend on LuLa's front page toward more videos of talking heads to be, well, to be less than ideal.

I realize that it's fun to just chat and present a lightly edited recording of that, and it does give a sort of richness of experience, but a well written essay based on a conversation more or less by definition compresses the content into a much more readily consumable package. A 30 minute video that is, in reality, just an audio recording with some bobbing heads, is something I am likely to put on in the background. Then I space out, and lose track of most of it. I'm not getting value from it because it is ultimately too unwieldy.

That's my personal experience only, of course. What say ye, if anything?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I tend to feel the same way. If the visual interest isn't there, I would much rather read the content at my own pace, instead of at the pace of the original conversation.

I make an exception for the instructional videos, because there is good visual content with Jeff and Michael actually doing processing on their computers. Also, interviews with photographers in the earlier video DVDs are very nice as the videos also showed a lot of what the photographers were photographing.

[MarkL]

I am finding the trend on LuLa's front page toward more videos of talking heads to be, well, to be less than ideal.

I realize that it's fun to just chat and present a lightly edited recording of that, and it does give a sort of richness of experience, but a well written essay based on a conversation more or less by definition compresses the content into a much more readily consumable package. A 30 minute video that is, in reality, just an audio recording with some bobbing heads, is something I am likely to put on in the background. Then I space out, and lose track of most of it. I'm not getting value from it because it is ultimately too unwieldy.

That's my personal experience only, of course. What say ye, if anything?

I was just thinking the same. I'm just not compelled to sit and watch/listen to 30mins of video on my computer especially if not if it isn't broken up with a menu so I can skip to relevant parts. A photographer who I follow and find has very interesting ideas has stepped up his podcasts and though I skipped through the first few I honestly just cannot listen to 30-40mins of largely unedited recorded talking between people. Even with tutorials I'll resort to a video tutorial as a last ditch option.

Written articles are a much clearer concise distillation of thoughts in a structured manner which can be browsed easily. In contrast though, I have often found recent articles here to be a bit lightweight.

[David Sutton]

The catch is that someone's got to precis a video, type it up, do the layout and then check it.
You can always download the video and play it at 1.4x speed on something like VLC with a finger on the jump button.

[bassman51]

I find a well written essay is more useful/enjoyable/efficient than an unscripted/unrehearsed/rambling video.   

[Krug]

I agree with the other comments on this - I would far prefer a crisp written account of the conversation which stressed the key points. Interviews only really work with experienced and well prepared interviewers and interviewees otherwise it is unfair to put people in the position where they may appear rather embarrassed - or embarrassing.
I am a regular user of Moab products and I am sure that the people at Moab know very well what they are doing and are very professional otherwise they could not produce the quality products that they do. Unfortunately, and rather unfairly on them, my impression was that this video gave a rather different impression.
 

[Kevin Raber]

Thanks for the comments.  We were trying something different and wanted to see how it worked.  It may have not worked as we hoped.  Technically speaking we know how to improve future ones if we do these again.

Videos will be part of what we do in the future as many folks like them. We recently launched a YouTube channel and have had many positive responses from this as well as a large number of views. 

What we are learning is how to do a good blend of video content and textual content.  We have readers that like videos and we have those that like more essay based content.  We offer a lot of the normal content to be read.  There are somethings though that we feel using video for helps to enhance the story and adds a personal message with expressions and such that you can't do with text.  In some cases it allows us to show and explain a product better.

I appreciate your comments and we'll do better incorporating videos along with textual content.  There will be some videos though that are interview based and much better presented in that fashion.  And, we will not abandon our regular content of essays and reviews as we have done them in the past.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Sounds good to me, Kevin.

[JeanMichel]

I have enjoyed viewing your video interviews (Kevin and Michael, and the Moab video). Just as with the other content on the site I can read or listen to it when it is convenient for me. I do find 'skype' type videos rather so-so and usually find that the poor video images distract from the voiced content. I listened to the Moab interview while dong some other admin-trivia work, there was no need for me to look at the two talking heads, what was said in the interview was valuable.
As  always, I thank you and your team for providing generally excellent content and a place to exchange good information on what we do.
Jean-Michel