Stosh Calls It Quits

[GameShowGuru]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'190965\' date=\'Jul 15 2008, 08:37 PM\']
[quote name=\'GameShowGuru\' post=\'190928\' date=\'Jul 15 2008, 07:59 AM\']
I am picking up a vibe from this forum that he isn't "all that" as far as being an authority on game shows.  Am I correct and if so, what is the reason for it?  Just curious.[/quote]
Depends on what you consider an "authority."

Does he know a lot about game shows? Without question.

Does he necessarily know more than anyone else, including many people here? Not at all.
[/quote]

So is that the consensus' point of contention: that he knows a lot about game shows, but he passes it off as if he knows more than anyone else?  If so, then I can see where everyone here is coming from regarding the Prof.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'GameShowGuru\' post=\'190981\' date=\'Jul 15 2008, 10:44 PM\']So is that the consensus' point of contention: that he knows a lot about game shows, but he passes it off as if he knows more than anyone else?  If so, then I can see where everyone here is coming from regarding the Prof.[/quote]
One of the things I hope you'll learn here is that there is no single "consensus" on anything.  Some people have a problem with that, some people have a problem with other things about Steve, and others don't have a problem with him at all.  Some are even big fans of his.  There are eight pages of opinions on this thread alone, and you'll see a wide variety of viewpoints.

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'GameShowGuru\' post=\'190981\' date=\'Jul 15 2008, 10:44 PM\']
So is that the consensus' point of contention: that he knows a lot about game shows, but he passes it off as if he knows more than anyone else?  If so, then I can see where everyone here is coming from regarding the Prof.
[/quote]
My 2 cents -- he seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of a TV era that no longer exists (if there ever was a TV trivia contest that was exclusively material before 1980, he should be your first draft pick) and will never come back.  Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to get that it never will come back and can't seem to let go, which clouds his credibility as a commentator on the modern scene.  That, and pretty much whatever has been said about self-importance, third-person quoting, etc.


--Mike

[uncamark]

In doing some Googling, Steve was on a.t.g-s in the group's early days, back in the Paleolithic Internet Era.  He also was on one of the early listservs--I recall him telling someone that he wouldn't be at the next GSC (not the "Congreff," the more informal events that used to be held)--something about the people who go to them being too immature and profane.

Which in the end was my problem with him--he was too attached to an era that can't or won't come back to be taken seriously as a contemporary commentator.  And the pomposity.

[parliboy]

[quote name=\'GameShowGuru\' post=\'190928\' date=\'Jul 15 2008, 09:59 AM\'] Personally I have been a longtime fan of the Prof's tvgameshows.net website, and I have downloaded a number of his commentaries and interviews with tv game show greats.

I am picking up a vibe from this forum that he isn't "all that" as far as being an authority on game shows.  Am I correct and if so, what is the reason for it?  Just curious. [/quote]

My personal beef has been less with his knowledge of game shows (though it really isn't quite so encyclopedic -- that's ok, since neither is mine) and more with some of his journalistic acts.  He very frequently got heat for using unattributed online sources.  The final straw was when a someone posted a deliberately untrue statement as a honeypot and it showed up on his site.

Some people have this very wrong viewpoint of "those who can, do; those who can't teach".  Actions like that perpetuate such a viewpoint.

[chris319]

Now, I'd disagree on that "you have to have done it to be an expert" thinking.

That's not what I said. I said he'd have more credibility if he had been in the business. Someone who is/was in the business is more likely to have firsthand information than someone whose knowledge comes from Internet research and hearsay (cf. problems with Wikipedia).

[chris319]

I think the word "expert" is more semantically precise than "authority". Several definitions of "authority" imply legal powers. "Expert" describes exactly what the Perf is.

[Don Howard]

I do wish Stu had asked Stosh to share with his audience why he refers to himself in the third person in much of his written prose. Certainly, he's got to know his readership is aware that it is Steve himself who has composed those words. I was all set to hear a good reason why he writes in that style in the interest of equal time for what some of us have said about him, but he remained silent while Stu delivered his homily.

[Jimmy Owen]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'191090\' date=\'Jul 16 2008, 09:17 PM\']
I do wish Stu had asked Stosh to share with his audience why he refers to himself in the third person in much of his written prose. Certainly, he's got to know his readership is aware that it is Steve himself who has composed those words. I was all set to hear a good reason why he writes in that style in the interest of equal time for what some of us have said about him, but he remained silent while Stu delivered his homily.
[/quote]


I don't know if this is the reason, but maybe he (Steve) treats the articles on his website as psuedo-press releases.  They seem to be written in that University press release style.  Then again, it's possible he doesn't write articles which quote him and that a journalism student or teaching assistant does the work.

[chris319]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'191092\' date=\'Jul 16 2008, 06:30 PM\']
[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'191090\' date=\'Jul 16 2008, 09:17 PM\']
I do wish Stu had asked Stosh to share with his audience why he refers to himself in the third person in much of his written prose. Certainly, he's got to know his readership is aware that it is Steve himself who has composed those words. I was all set to hear a good reason why he writes in that style in the interest of equal time for what some of us have said about him, but he remained silent while Stu delivered his homily.
[/quote]


I don't know if this is the reason, but maybe he (Steve) treats the articles on his website as psuedo-press releases.  They seem to be written in that University press release style.  Then again, it's possible he doesn't write articles which quote him and that a journalism student or teaching assistant does the work.
[/quote]
Or perhaps Stosh doesn't know how to write in the first person ;-)

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'191122\' date=\'Jul 17 2008, 03:41 AM\']
Or perhaps Stosh doesn't know how to write in the first person ;-)
[/quote]
Never has, never will, as evidenced by this:

Steve Beverly's Diary, June 16, 1962

Steve Beverly woke up, and ate a bowl of Kellogg's All Bran. Then Steve Beverly realized it was Saturday morning and figured out that "Seven Keys" wasn't going to be on. Steve Beverly went back to bed and cried himself to sleep.

[inturnaround]

It's why he failed the Wheel audition.

"Steve Beverly would like to buy a vowel."

"Okay, which one?"

"A Steve Beverly!"

"There are three 'i's"

[Vahan_Nisanian]

Okay, I'm ignorant. What is the difference between writing in 1st person and writing in 3rd person?

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'gameshowlover87\' post=\'191142\' date=\'Jul 17 2008, 10:11 AM\']
Okay, I'm ignorant. What is the difference between writing in 1st person and writing in 3rd person?
[/quote]
First person is "I".  Third person is "he".
(For the record, second person is "you".)

First person:  I've decided to stop running tvgameshows.net

Third person:  Steve Beverly decided he would stop running tvgameshows.net

Journalists typically write in the third person (most fiction is also written that way), but they don't typically write about themselves.  Steve uses third person like any journalist would, but it comes across as a little silly to many people here when he does that while "reporting" on his own actions.

Bonus trivia:  I can think of two pretty well-known examples of pop culture that were written in the second person.  Can anybody name them, or perhaps add to my short list?

[rigsby]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'191144\' date=\'Jul 17 2008, 09:24 AM\']Bonus trivia:  I can think of two pretty well-known examples of pop culture that were written in the second person.  Can anybody name them, or perhaps add to my short list?[/quote]

The Choose Your Own Adventure series, for starters.

If you start a game show-related website, turn to page 57.
If you choose to make snarky comments about another person's game show-related website, turn to page 94.

ETA:  The other one that comes to mind is "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.

You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You're paralyzed