So who else misses Randy?

[fishybizzness]

If you like to watch videos where people sit around and BS but reef related. I recommend Reef B

I have definitely taken a liking to their videos. A lot of funny stuff with some good info thrown in,,,

 

[BZOFIQ]

There is some great info and ideas in some videos, some confirmed what I was thinking long ago while others directed me to think outside the box.

But when you are wrong and sell it as gospel only to recall it months/years later you lose credibility and I simply lost interest in their point of view. I guess because I haven't watched it I wasn't aware that he is gone. I mostly order my stuff elsewhere now (tax free too) so I don't really care.

Either way, even with the pure marketing nature of Thomas' videos, he always managed to crack me up. It was good while it lasted.

 

[mindme]

I have mixed feelings. I've been in the hobby for 12 years now and I can remember when BRS was very new and the videos were pretty basic. Also, no Randy back then.

But I learned quite a bit from the videos over the years. Can't say they were all great, but some of them were really awesome.

Lately however my opinion has gone down. They ended up becoming an echo chamber of themselves.

The BRS 360 really annoyed me. This guy has the money for a tank that most of us would only dream about, drops down more on coral in a single day that I spent for me entire setup. Gets live rock that is awesome and isn't even available to the common person. Professionally QT'd fish, and expensive fish. And then he just says eh, and gets rid of it like it's no big deal. It's like you haven't eaten in 3 days, you watch someone fix your favorite meal, then they take a single bite of it, spit it out and throw the rest in the trash.

And I thought that tank really exposed how much of an echo chamber they had become. Because some of the stuff/problems he had was a result of that. All that 6 months of having rocks in water stuff is nonsense, but they always seem to take the path of "what requires more time is better" etc. And I'm not even going to get into the whole barebottom vs sand conversation, other than to say - his problems were expected. Meanwhile, I've been doing the instant tank method for the past decade without issue.

Overall my opinion is still positive I suppose, but it's definitely not without some faults.

Side note: The fact they don't put jabeo products on their site also annoys me. Always the most expensive equipment for sale there.

 

[MnFish1]

Agree.

1) This is a business for everyone except the hobbyists themselves. Bertram, BRS, Eco-Tech and Neptune. Even R2R. If you are expecting them to act in ways that go against their business interests, it's gonna be a long wait. You don't, why should they?

2) The video content is FREE (but it's not free for them to produce). I appreciate all of the information and advice they have provided over the years. They gave it to me for FREE.

3) When I first started doing this, the internet as we know it was still many years in the future. Your sources of information were the guy at your LFS and Moe. I want you to imagine doing this hobby without the internet. No pictures. No videos. No message boards. No one to ask for guidance. Nothing. This is why I appreciate the FREE content.

4) My impression of the older content is that they were always leery of pushing product too hard. That may have changed, I don't watch their content chronologically. But even so, I like when vendors take the time to produce content for my review. It helps me with purchase decisions.

Okay, how did I get here? Rant off. lol

No - I'm not sure they gave it to you 'for free' - my guess is that they gave it to you via advertising revenue. I have been to BRS HQ - met Randy and Ryan - 2 very nice people. The ship is run tightly. I do not think executives from Bertram capital - are sitting there now with black suits and a dour expression. Randy left to pursue a different topic/video opportunity. Props to him. The truth is. no one is irreplaceable

 

[jmatt]

No - I'm not sure they gave it to you 'for free' - my guess is that they gave it to you via advertising revenue.

I didn't say it cost them nothing. I said it cost me nothing. That's free.

 

[Oldreefer44]

When one of the owners decided that he wanted to be bought out, BRS started looking for money. They pitched it to many different sources. As part of that pitch, they stated that their videos were their number one sales tool. Not judging them as that was very smart on their part and they obviously worked. As someone who was directly involved in several transactions similar to this, I have never seen one where it turned out to be beneficial to anyone other than the new owners. They usually designate a couple of their own executive staff to oversee operations which inevitably results in changes within the operational staff who are offered money to "spend more time with their families" or make a change to their career path that allows them to "do what they always wanted to do".
Quite often moves like this that consolidates several brands under the same umbrella are designed to make it viable for an IPO which is the best way for ownership to maximize their ROI. Not sure there is enough value for that yet so don't think they are done accumulating associated brands yet.
Part of this is speculation and am not making a judgement as to the educational value of their videos but I do know someone who was directly involved in the negotiations so do have knowledge about how this went down.

 

[jda]

Nothing costs more than free.

I have no venom for BRS. They are not unbiased and they are not science. AFAIK, I don't think that they ever claimed to be either, right?

Nearly every product video that I have watched leaves out some good, or better, stuff that they don't sell. Hobbyists just need to be aware of this. Caveat emptor, and all...

Also, none of us need to forget their snuggling up with UWC, pushing of dry/dead rock without understanding and discussing all of the downsides... and a few other things that I am forgetting. Nobody who produces that much makes all gems, but some acknowledgement at least for the UWC stuff might be stand-up.

 

[MnFish1]

I didn't say it cost them nothing. I said it cost me nothing. That's free.

Right - I was just saying their costs were probably covered

 

[MnFish1]

I didn't say it cost them nothing. I said it cost me nothing. That's free.

right - so use the information - whether free or not. Not sure what difference it makes

 

[Koh23]

I always considered them somewhat funny, somewhat interesting, rarely educational....

The only purpose of making videos, at least lately was to advertise same thing over and over and over....

Best flow in your tank - not a single word what exactly is best flow, just advertising some wavemakers...
10 mistakes..... really no mistakes, just common sense, of course, sometimes we DO this "mistakes", but, solution is simple, for every mistake you made, BRS have at least 3 products you can buy, and solve all your problems.... And of course, half of this mistakes are simply you make mistake by not using something they sell....

I mean, i want to throw up every time when i watch any light related video, rent a par meter from us, rent a par meter from us, rent a par meter from us, rent.... I mean, we got the hint, can we talk about something else

Luckily, i'm too far from them to actually buy anything, but i get it, it is business, so, really can't blame them.... Nice fun to watch, but, nothing actually useful..

 

[undermind]

I mean, i want to throw up every time when i watch any light related video, rent a par meter from us, rent a par meter from us, rent a par meter from us, rent.... I mean, we got the hint, can we talk about something else

It's astounding how much content people here seem to be consuming, considering all of the aggressive sales techniques and vomit-inducing subject matter

 

[915MANG]

I miss NEW YORK STEELO

 

[jmatt]

aggressive sales techniques ... vomit-inducing subject matter

Did you pull that from the Internet Flame War Thesaurus?

Other people, myself included, never felt they were pushing product hard, and nothing they ever did made me want to vomit. So perhaps it's not as astounding as you think.

But that's the beauty of the internet: You are free to not watch things that make you want to vomit.

 

[undermind]

Did you pull that from the Internet Flame War Thesaurus?

Other people, myself included, never felt they were pushing product hard, and nothing they ever did made me want to vomit. So perhaps it's not as astounding as you think.

But that's the beauty of the internet: You are free to not watch things that make you want to vomit.

You seem to have missed the sarcasm, and also that the post you quoted and "agreed" with in your first post in this thread was mine

 

[Bpb]

Nothing costs more than free.

I have no venom for BRS. They are not unbiased and they are not science. AFAIK, I don't think that they ever claimed to be either, right?

Nearly every product video that I have watched leaves out some good, or better, stuff that they don't sell. Hobbyists just need to be aware of this. Caveat emptor, and all...

Also, none of us need to forget their snuggling up with UWC, pushing of dry/dead rock without understanding and discussing all of the downsides... and a few other things that I am forgetting. Nobody who produces that much makes all gems, but some acknowledgement at least for the UWC stuff might be stand-up.

Agree whole heartedly. They present information in a very catchy and easy to digest manner, which to a good many people may be trusted to the same degree peer reviewed science would. I can’t fault them entirely for it, because ultimately interpretation falls on the consumer of said videos anyway.

IF one has the sense to evaluate their videos/reviews/experiments at absolute face value, and ignore any financial incentive, some valuable information can be obtained, primarily in the sense of “how do I use this product most effectively.” Not “should I buy this product” (their answer will always be “YES!”…they’re a business.

I would say it is a shame they don’t offer certain brands and product lines, but honestly I’m missing detailed infomercials on certain brands and models they don’t offer. One source can’t realistically have EVERYTHING, so we can all learn to live with that.

 

[Kongar]

I always considered them somewhat funny, somewhat interesting, rarely educational....

The only purpose of making videos, at least lately was to advertise same thing over and over and over....

Best flow in your tank - not a single word what exactly is best flow, just advertising some wavemakers...
10 mistakes..... really no mistakes, just common sense, of course, sometimes we DO this "mistakes", but, solution is simple, for every mistake you made, BRS have at least 3 products you can buy, and solve all your problems.... And of course, half of this mistakes are simply you make mistake by not using something they sell....

I mean, i want to throw up every time when i watch any light related video, rent a par meter from us, rent a par meter from us, rent a par meter from us, rent.... I mean, we got the hint, can we talk about something else

Luckily, i'm too far from them to actually buy anything, but i get it, it is business, so, really can't blame them.... Nice fun to watch, but, nothing actually useful..

I mean, I agree somewhat - but look at it from the point of a complete noob. When I first started, I knew literally nothing. Even the "common sense" was 100% absent. At a bare minimum, they give you a blueprint for what to buy, how to set it up, how to start it up, how to manage the basics - and if you follow it, you'd be hard pressed to completely fail. If you take the time to listen to all of 52 weeks of reefing like I did - you'll learn quite a bit about water chemistry and corals that are absolutely not known to a noob.

It helped me...

 

[Koh23]

Of course, i really hope that no one consider my post as hate, it was somewhat funny try to say that they advertise too much, and give little information, somewhere down the road they loose some of informational character and started to repeat themselfs, same story, different product....

 

[AquaBen]

I learned quite a bit from the BRS -- Randy and Ryan videos. I have pretty good sales resistance so I took the sales pitches with a grain of salt. I think the content was good for new reefers who just needed a place to learn -- it is just as good to learn that there are issues we all face as it is to learn that someone sells a solution.

I miss them as a team -- after he left it is like Rocky without Bulwinkle (or Wayne without Garth).

 

[gbroadbridge]

I gave up on BRS videos. It’s all just “spotlights” on things you should buy now. I know there are a couple of newer YouTubers that I used to watch that are now at BRS but I but don’t like them as much as I did before.

Yep, I stopped watching the irritating things long ago.
R2R is a much better source of information.

 

[polyppal]

Randy who?

+1