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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

by dcow 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y ago
      Dude, keep up the good work, you're an inspiration !
    - zamadatix 4y 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 4y ago
    I've used some of his ansible stuff and was very surprised when he showed up in my youtube feed.
- rsync 4y 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.
- iso1631 4y ago
  Trouble is clickbait works :( Veratisium did a video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng

by dcow 4y ago

r2_pilot 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y 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 4y ago
    Dude, keep up the good work, you're an inspiration !
  - zamadatix 4y 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 4y ago
  I've used some of his ansible stuff and was very surprised when he showed up in my youtube feed.
rsync 4y 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.
iso1631 4y ago
Trouble is clickbait works :( Veratisium did a video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng