Jumping the shark - crowd-sourced reviews

@Alexsweden - Reading it was, how shall i put it, entertaining?! ;)

Excuse me @RianC, but "STDs"?

As I stated way above†, I like Ralfy. I really like Ralfy. He's like an old sweater you wrap around yourself on a chilly Sunday while you read a book. I often put on his videos when I'm working late, and I let my attention wander in and out of his talk as he drones on and on and on—in a good way!

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† FYI to the folks newer to this site: I used to post on this site under a different name. It's one of the names you see above in this thread's old chatter. I'll leave it to the super-sleuths among us to figure out which one it is.

@MadSingleMalt - STDs . . . well I wouldn't know!

Quoth the Ralfy, at the very end of @MadSingleMalt's video, above: "The increasing problem is decreasing. I'll leave it at that". Delphic man, Delphic. And oracular, too.

@MadSingleMalt, you could have warned us that we'd have to go 18 minutes in to hear Ralfy's comments on cancer. Geez, that guy is long-winded! Which is why I've seen fewer than 10 of his videos.

That 21 minute video would have made a good 6 or 8 minute video. Listening to something like this video requires a very laid-back, relaxed, almost meditative attitude, for me, anyway.

Well, now @Victor is showing off some vocabulary! :) And yeah, that's one helluva quote.

My link was supposed to jump you to the cancer moment at minute 19. It didn't work?

Mine did not work.

It gets very boring using the same words all the time.

Seems like Ralfy has gotten a lot more curmudeonly with time.

@MadSingleMalt It seemed to work for me.

But if you want the best bang for your buck, this is the one that I used to show my house-staff as an example of a PHA gone horribly wrong:

www.youtube.com/watch

Yes, @RianC, very much so. So has anyone contributed any cash to ralfy yet?

@Nozinan - That's not an image or thought I needed whilst having my lunch . . ;)

And it gets worse. Now he's spreading inaccurate information about the liver and recommending Liver pills...

www.youtube.com/watch

My ex-girlfriend, despite her choleric temperament had some of the funniest expressions. She once said this in reference to that moment I'm certain wev'e all experienced. you're having a seemingly normal conversation with someone you don't know well, that then veers into quackery. "The person keeps talking, but all you can hear is the sound of a toilet flushing"

He actually said there are very few beer and wine alcoholics. That is patently untrue. My wife is an addictions specialist and she has spent a lot of time with wine alcoholics (mostly women) and beer alcoholics (mostly men).

Dear old Ralfy loses a few pounds, goes to a gym and is suddenly a fitness and nutrition expert doling out dodgy advice to his doe eyed fans.

@BlueNote - I've known and lived with two alcoholics - one was much more severe than the other. They drank anything, pretty much, but probably started on wine.

I'd hazard a guess that the richer you are the classier your tipple of choice becomes?

In fairness to ralfy, I bet he's encountered his fair share of alcoholics having lived in Glasgow ( slight stereotype there perhaps but, well . . .) and I'd also bet they were mostly getting lit on cheap vodka and cider.

@BlueNote I have a feeling that I'm not the only one that has recently - for reasons not entirely known or understood - developed a certain antipathy towards good 'ol Ralfy? I just have a feeling that he's had a bit too much of himself gone to his head... which I suppose might have made me less tolerant to 45min of ramblings prior to getting to the 'malt mark'

@RikS - I hear that. I'll always have a soft spot for Ralfy but I find I just skip to the mark these days. I think he should go back to doing more standard malts and a few blends like the 'old days', and his refusal to cover any NAS (and I get why and respect it) means his reviews are targeted at a pretty niche group - amongst a slightly larger niche group.

@RianC the thing about nas strikes me as just silly. I see ardbeg, amrut, nikka and many others almost exclusively non age stated being highly appreciated... And after all, we're looking for taste above all right?!

I guess this would be my defense of Ralfy. Is he long winded? No question. Has he changed from those initial videos in his kitchen? No doubt. But I much prefer that Ralfy set up a Patreon account and have viewers send $1 - $5 for whisky purchases. If Ralfy had to give up his day job to take care of his mother, I don’t begrudge him asking for a few dollars or pounds. I admire Ralfy for taking a stand on artificial coloring, age statements and non chill filtering. I’ve seen too many other reviewers taking freebie samples directly from the distilleries. It’s rare to see many negative or ambivalent reviews from those people.

I will state that I am among those who listen to the first few minutes of Ralfy’s reviews and then cut to the end to see his malt mark number. I am not fond of how he splits his reviews into two parts these days. Like most things in this world, if Ralfy annoys you then avoid watching his videos. Life is way to short to get bothered about something like a whisky review. I have my doubts he is going to change due to some negative reviews about him personally.

@DaveM - Please don't take my post as a criticism per se: Were there a 'Ralfy-War' I'd back him to the hilt

It's perhaps as much a reflection on me as him as to why I don't watch as much these days but his content has definitely changed and become, how can I put it, more goal orientated, perhaps? I admire him for being principled but I do find that nowadays there are lots of other YT's that review more accessible malts. For the average Joe, or those new to whisky, his reviews probably aren't as useful anymore.

I also don't mind him selling whisky and using his modest popularity to make income - he's earned the right and it's par for the course these days. Considering what some must earn uploading videos of ink blotches on lenses masquerading as evidence of our Reptilian Overlords I'd say he still has a heck of a lot of integrity.

I guess, simply put, I just don't find him as entertaining as I once did.

@RikS - I think he's missing a trick, certainly. I wonder if he regrets making such a carpet ban at times, especially where non-Scotch is concerned. But, as said above, I get why and respect him for it.

End of the day he's a proud Scot who loves his whisky and wants to make sure its reputation stays in tact. He sees NAS as a threat to that, and often I'd agree, but not always; I'd find it useful to see which NAS he rates highly, but there you go. Plenty other sources available.

I do like that Ralfy reviews spirits that I would not be able to find at my local liquor stores. I do like investigating those whiskies just in case I might blunder into those certain bottles one day. Yes, Ralfy has changed over the years and I don’t begrudge him because of that. Don’t take this the wrong way, but if I want entertainment I will download a movie.

@DaveM - Fair enough

@DaveM Is it ralfy who has changed....or have we all changed, and diverged?

@Nozinan We seem to be in an age of intolerance and a dislike of what the next person thinks.

@DaveM I think that, actually, we live in an era of historically unprecedented tolerance, and one where diverging views and free speech has never enjoyed so much protection. And, that's, of course, great.

@RikS I’m afraid we must disagree on this subject. I need only look at the news headlines to find that the world is in a state of major flux. Maybe in your small corner of the world things are rosey, but there is dissension elsewhere.

@DaveM - The UK's never been as together as it is now

Whilst I see @RikS's point I'm more inclined to agree with your assessment. It's a subject I think about quite a lot (I don't talk about it anymore - she doesn't let me ) coming from a social science background. The poles are definitely widening.

@DaveM Of course we can disagree. That was, so to speak, sort of my point. I didn't mean to be polemic or rub you up the wrong way, just pointing to the discrepancy between facts and statistics, and perceptions from the news headlines you referred to. You might possibly find this an interesting read: forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/…

As regards the 'small corner of my world' as you so cavalierly put it, I'm presently in the United Kingdom, but used to live in a few other places in Europe as well as Asia, South / North America and Africa. Some were better, others worse - yet all good for perspective.

Have a nice weekend, and enjoy the dramming

@RikS I wasn’t being “cavalierly” as you put it. I just see great strife in every corner of the world these days. You disagree and that is fine. I am here to enjoy the whisky discussions. In general, Ralfy gives me a greater understanding of all things whisky .

My nephew was watching a YouTube video where some idiot got a fire ant to bite him and then explained the symptoms and how painful it is.

I said what an idiot how much money does he make engaging in that stupidity?

My nephew then went to this site where it analyses the traffic to a YouTube account and tells you roughly how much they make.

So I asked him to look up Ralfy. Turns out Ralfy makes around £10-15k a year through YouTube. So not a lot really.

Incidentally being an idiot who gets poisonous spiders to bite you earns over £1m a year.

What a world.

I figured this would be a good topic to post this story in.

I'll preface by saying I don't have anything against whisky vloggers in general, there's some who's style I like and other for whom I care less. it's a genre I've considered dabbling in as I think there's still unexplored territory there (women & people of color in the spirits business, reviews in French and a different take or style, spirits other than whisky and straight up geek talk not just re-hashing the marketing blab or looking for hits).

I know they aren't for everybody, who wants to watch other people drink? To me I've always been looking for a deeper and more passionate discussion, to see a different point of view ...without going into self prostate exams I guess

I don't begrudge folks like Ralfy or other vloggers for taking advantage of YouTube's monetization features or for using Patreon to fund part of their content as it comes specifically from the people who care for this content and support it.

Then then on the other end of the spectrum there is this. thewhiskeyjug.com/whiskey/…

I am glad someone has dived in depth about the goings on at the "whisky marketing school" because I have been seeing more people posting on Instagram or elsewhere that they attend these classes and always found the whole thing to be rather dubious in nature. I know many will say it's just fools and people helping them part with their money but I think this kind of things can have bigger repercussions as discussed by Josh in his article.

It's worth reading and I like that he kept it tight by talking specifically about the school and it's structure.