Off-topic rant warning.
I love sci-fi and sci-fi story podcasts - hence I love Escape Pod (I've donated about $200 to them so far) and I love Variant Frequencies - they don't ask for money so I didn't give them any yet.
My rant today is about Variant Frequencies, VF is a monthly podcast and in my opinion it's simply the best in terms of quality (both writing & production). The guys behind VF are simply amazing. Except... Except in the last episode called "Creature of God" (which admittedly has some religious themes as the name would imply) the featured an advertisement for indie christian rock music or some such non-sense.
To me the reasons for doing this may be that:
1. the guys at VF are religious and are actively trying to help spread the virus
2. or it may be that they are short of cash and thus in need advertisement dollars
If case 1. is true I am very disappointed, and I feel a bit tricked. It kind of reminds me of one beautiful day in my teens when 2 VERY pretty girls we smiling at me from across the food court in the mall. They then approached me (giggling), made small talk and were being extremely friendly, and then they asked me to come and meet them again in their church :) Wow, what a recruitment strategy, even the Army won't go that far.
Perhaps VF isn't doing exactly the same thing but I do feel baited in with some pretty awesome SF and then hit with a completely bullshit religious advertisement.
If case 2. is true (and I hope to .. err.. I mean I really hope so) I would suggest to VF to put up a paypal donations button on the front page, ask for money at the end of the show, ask for money at the start of the show, put some non-offensive adverts for headphones in, do whatever else but please stay away from pushing religion. I've bough Scott Sigler's books, I've given a fair amount of money to EscapePod (and the guy from there once mentioned he is religious - to my great surprise) so I will definitely support my favourite sci-fi podcast EVER by donating, and once "The last fix" comes out in Australia I buy the book.
If I missed case 3. I hope it's a good one that doesn't involve propagating the evil of religion on purpose.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
SF & christian indie music - wtf??
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2 comments:
Well, actually, I'm not religious. Sorry you felt baited.
The promos that we run at the end of the podcast are not paid advertisements. They are promos for other podcasters. The indie Christian music promo was to show support for one of our fans. He also was helpful for finding some of the music that I needed for this story.
I run the promos at the end of our podcast so that if a listener doesn't want to listen to the promos, they don't have to.
I very much appreciate your praise of the podcast. I hope you will continue to enjoy it.
Thanks.
Rick Stringer
Producer
Variant Frequencies
Thanks for clearing that up for me. Seeing that the whole thing is quite innocent, makes me think a little about my own "slight" overreaction.
I have to admit to having a bit of paranoia regarding all things religious. Looking at human history and even current events I feel it is justified for the most part.
In my personal experience some of these people are capable of pretty much anything get their message across and the idea that VF was somehow a part of that made me quite mad.
Anyway - like I said before VF rocks.
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