6 ms·

I’m always impressed when YouTubers who mostly to me appear to be reviewers go down a technical rabbit hole and make something that requires a lot of research a

by vxNsr 3y ago

I’m always impressed when YouTubers who mostly to me appear to be reviewers go down a technical rabbit hole and make something that requires a lot of research and technical expertise.

dcow 3y ago
Did this guy start as a reviewer, or is it more that YT generally feels product review heavy on the software tech side so you assumed this guy was cut from the same stuff? (Honestly don’t know I’ve only seen a few of his videos and they were all deeply technical.)
- r2_pilot 3y ago
  Jeff Geerling is majorly involved with Ansible, so he's not really reviewing for the sake of reviewing. It's more that he's sharing his knowledge about his off-work pursuits, I believe.
  - sureglymop 3y ago
    Iirc he was also heavily involved with Linux phones like the Pinephone and maybe even wrote firmware for it. I think it's more that the guy is a professional who happens to also have a YouTube account, not the other way around.
  - vxNsr 3y ago
    Ah ok. Yea I only know him from when he appears in the sidebar next to other technical videos, there he’s mostly reviewing docker setups or various self hosted options. I didn’t realize how technical he is.
- michaelt 3y ago
  The thumbnail is triggering people's youtube bullshit detectors. That big shot of the reviewer's face. The giant red arrow. The bright background. The breathless title with ALL CAPS. That's like 4/5 for clickbait videos. All it's missing is the face showing some ridiculously exaggerated emotion.
  - loudmax 3y ago
    Jeff Geerling is working within the YouTube algorithm and he does post some clickbaity thumbnails. Don't let those thumbnails mislead you. geerlingguy is an active member of the open source community and he produces some absolute top rate instructional and informative videos.
    - geerlingguy 3y ago
      He's also here on HN ;) And regarding clickbait, I wrote a bit on that topic over in the Ampere Dev Community site[1], but in summary: > I decided to focus the intro bit on ‘Could this be the next Mac Pro’? (needs to be slightly clickbaity to get people to actually click. All of us engineering types SAY that we don’t like clickbait, but for 99% of us, if you gave us the clickbait version and the non-clickbait version in your YouTube feed… we’d click the clickbait version 100% of the time [1] https://community.amperecomputing.com/t/review-of-the-ampere-developer-platform-by-jeff-geerling/277/2?u=geerlingguy https://community.amperecomputing.com/t/review-of-the-ampere...
      - ddalex 3y ago
        Dude, keep up the good work, you're an inspiration !
      - zamadatix 3y ago
        Clickbait is absolutely effective, I don't think anyone is doubting so when they say they don't like clickbait. It's in the same boat as ads. Few like ads but even fewer actually avoid ad funded content (particularly when it comes to sponsors) so ads are effective monetization.
    - traverseda 3y ago
      I've used some of his ansible stuff and was very surprised when he showed up in my youtube feed.
  - rsync 3y ago
    He has addressed this in the past ... apparently this motif is the only thing that works in the youtube environment/interface and other more sensible, or reasonable video thumbnails produce orders of magnitude less engagement. I, also, strongly dislike this (thumbnail) presentation but I suspect it must be necessary as it is very widely adopted.
krabizzwainch 3y ago
He does also run a company (some kind of web solutions business?) and is heavily involved in Ansible (having written multiple books). The youtube channel came after that stuff.

by vxNsr 3y ago

I’m always impressed when YouTubers who mostly to me appear to be reviewers go down a technical rabbit hole and make something that requires a lot of research and technical expertise.

dcow 3y ago

Did this guy start as a reviewer, or is it more that YT generally feels product review heavy on the software tech side so you assumed this guy was cut from the same stuff? (Honestly don’t know I’ve only seen a few of his videos and they were all deeply technical.)

r2_pilot 3y ago
Jeff Geerling is majorly involved with Ansible, so he's not really reviewing for the sake of reviewing. It's more that he's sharing his knowledge about his off-work pursuits, I believe.
- sureglymop 3y ago
  Iirc he was also heavily involved with Linux phones like the Pinephone and maybe even wrote firmware for it. I think it's more that the guy is a professional who happens to also have a YouTube account, not the other way around.
- vxNsr 3y ago
  Ah ok. Yea I only know him from when he appears in the sidebar next to other technical videos, there he’s mostly reviewing docker setups or various self hosted options. I didn’t realize how technical he is.
michaelt 3y ago
The thumbnail is triggering people's youtube bullshit detectors. That big shot of the reviewer's face. The giant red arrow. The bright background. The breathless title with ALL CAPS. That's like 4/5 for clickbait videos. All it's missing is the face showing some ridiculously exaggerated emotion.
- loudmax 3y ago
  Jeff Geerling is working within the YouTube algorithm and he does post some clickbaity thumbnails. Don't let those thumbnails mislead you. geerlingguy is an active member of the open source community and he produces some absolute top rate instructional and informative videos.
  - geerlingguy 3y ago
    He's also here on HN ;) And regarding clickbait, I wrote a bit on that topic over in the Ampere Dev Community site[1], but in summary: > I decided to focus the intro bit on ‘Could this be the next Mac Pro’? (needs to be slightly clickbaity to get people to actually click. All of us engineering types SAY that we don’t like clickbait, but for 99% of us, if you gave us the clickbait version and the non-clickbait version in your YouTube feed… we’d click the clickbait version 100% of the time [1] https://community.amperecomputing.com/t/review-of-the-ampere-developer-platform-by-jeff-geerling/277/2?u=geerlingguy https://community.amperecomputing.com/t/review-of-the-ampere...
    - ddalex 3y ago
      Dude, keep up the good work, you're an inspiration !
    - zamadatix 3y ago
      Clickbait is absolutely effective, I don't think anyone is doubting so when they say they don't like clickbait. It's in the same boat as ads. Few like ads but even fewer actually avoid ad funded content (particularly when it comes to sponsors) so ads are effective monetization.
  - traverseda 3y ago
    I've used some of his ansible stuff and was very surprised when he showed up in my youtube feed.
- rsync 3y ago
  He has addressed this in the past ... apparently this motif is the only thing that works in the youtube environment/interface and other more sensible, or reasonable video thumbnails produce orders of magnitude less engagement. I, also, strongly dislike this (thumbnail) presentation but I suspect it must be necessary as it is very widely adopted.

krabizzwainch 3y ago

He does also run a company (some kind of web solutions business?) and is heavily involved in Ansible (having written multiple books). The youtube channel came after that stuff.