Episode 878: "When Cowards & Thankfullness Collide"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·26m 53s·analyzed·Nov 22, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Kaneda discusses industry news while mounting a personal crusade against TWIPI removal and awards exclusion.

Summary

Kaneda discusses Stern's manufacturing delays pushing Jaws Pinball to February, rumors of Jaws featuring an upper playfield, criticism of American Pinball $17,500 premium Galactic Tank Force pricing, and Jersey Jack's Elton John pricing challenges. The episode centers on Kaneda's personal grievance over being removed from the This Week in Pinball (TWIPI) database and awards voting, which he frames as retaliation by Colin and Will for his success and independence. He issues a call-to-action for listeners to vote heavily for his show in the upcoming TWIPI awards to send a message.

Key Claims

Stern Pinball has pushed their winter manufacturing break from January to the last two weeks of December, likely delaying Jaws Pinball to February
high confidence · Kaneda stating manufacturing news directly; framed as established fact
There is a rumor that Jaws Pinball might be the first Keith Elwin game to feature an upper playfield
medium confidence · Kaneda explicitly frames this as 'I'm going to give you a rumor right now that I'm hearing' — unverified speculation
Pulp Fiction games will likely not ship before November 30/December 1, making them ineligible for TWIPI 2021 awards
high confidence · Ryan White (CGC) communicated this to Kaneda, per his statement
American Pinball is unlikely to sell 50 units of the $17,500 premium Galactic Tank Force edition, possibly fewer than 20
medium confidence · Kaneda's personal opinion/prediction based on market analysis
Barrels of Fun's Labyrinth will likely cap out around 650 orders, not reach the full 1,100 unit run
medium confidence · Kaneda's prediction based on theme popularity assessment
Kaneda was removed from the TWIPI database and voting database by Colin and Will, erasing his show from searchable history
high confidence · Kaneda stating directly: 'for Colin and Will over at This Week in Pinball to remove my show from the pinball database of content creators'
The TWIPI committee has repeatedly changed rules (weighted voting, free show requirement) specifically to target Kaneda and prevent his show from winning
medium confidence · Kaneda's interpretation/accusation; he frames this as targeting him over six years
Kaneda has 660 Patreon subscribers, which he claims is 'more than everybody else combined'
high confidence · Kaneda citing his own subscription data directly

Notable Quotes

“They made a Godzilla pinball machine in which Godzilla physically does nothing now... if Godzilla was standing over a pinball machine his arms would never reach the Flipper buttons.”
Kaneda @ early episode — Criticism of mechanical design expectations vs. reality in recent Stern games; reflects broader community frustration with underwhelming physical features
“I just feel like they should be embarrassed. Like they don't even know what they're doing. [Re: American Pinball]”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Strong negative assessment of American Pinball's business strategy and market understanding
“You can't sell the regular version of the LE which was what $11,000 and you think you're gonna sell another version with only 200 units for freaking $17,500?”
Kaneda @ mid-episode — Specific critique of American Pinball's premium edition pricing strategy and perceived disconnect from market demand
“If they put magical themes in a box in a way where the ball interacts with special stuff and we see the value in the game and the theme itself emotionally clicks with us, we will send our money over there.”
Kaneda @ gratitude segment — Statement of his philosophy about what makes a game worthy of purchase; appeals to substance over FOMO
“It's like I don't even exist to them... it's a very difficult subject to discuss because it's an issue that nobody should be supporting a move like this where you erase somebody's existence.”
Kaneda @ TWIPI grievance section — Core grievance framing — removal from database as existential erasure and censorship
“I don't even need a freaking pinball machine set up and I can make more entertaining pinball content than you can with every single pinball machine in your disposal.”
Kaneda @ streamer category discussion — Assertion of superiority in content creation capability without hardware; highlights competitive tension in pinball streaming category
“I'm tired of living in a world with so many cowards. So many cowards everywhere. They can never get in the ring with me.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyKeith Elwinperson American Pinballcompany David Fixperson Barrels of Funcompany Jersey Jack Pinballcompany Colin

Signals

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manufacturing_signal: Stern Pinball moved winter manufacturing break from January to last two weeks of December, effectively pushing Jaws Pinball release from December to estimated February 2024
high · Kaneda: 'They have pushed up the two-week schedule in which they take their winter break... it is really starting to look like we are not going to see Keith Elwin Jaws at the end of the year. And I'm not even sure now we're going to see it in January. I think we might see it in February.'
?
rumor_hype: Rumor that Jaws Pinball will be first Keith Elwin game to feature an upper playfield, possibly designed as sinking Orca ship
medium · Kaneda: 'I'm going to give you a rumor right now that I'm hearing. I'm hearing that Jaws Pinball might be the first time ever that Keith Elwin puts an upper playfield into one of his games.'
?
product_concern: American Pinball's $17,500 premium Galactic Tank Force edition with 200-unit limit viewed as severely overpriced and unlikely to sell more than 20 units; reflects broader market resistance to premium pricing
high · Kaneda: 'There is no way they're going to sell 50 of these things. They're not even going to sell 20 of these things for $17,500.'
$
market_signal: Jersey Jack Elton John at $12,000 creates adoption barrier for operators; requires 2x player base vs. Stern Pro to justify purchase; limited visible pre-orders on Pinside
high · Kaneda: 'It is legitimately, literally and metaphorically, not even metaphorically, literally it's twice as much money as a Stern Pro and that's crazy. You have to have 6,000 more people to play in Elton John to justify buying it if you're an operator.'
?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.081

0:00

Don't you forget about me. Don't, don't, don't, don't. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said. Welcome everybody to the only pinball podcaster that's been scrubbed from the history books of this week in pinball. We're going to talk about pinball news. We're going to talk about what I'm thankful for in pinball. It's not going to be what everybody else is saying. And then we're going to talk about this final twippy drama at the end of this show. But first, I want to give a huge shout out to Jamie over at Wormhole Pinball. Had an amazing hour-long conversation with him. I hope you check it out. I posted it here on Patreon. It's on Facebook. Jamie is a New Yorker like myself, and we just sat and we talked pinball, and it was a heck of a good time. So everybody check out that. It's on YouTube. It's on his Wormhole channel. Now let's talk about some pinball news ladies and gentlemen Stern Pinball they finally figured out how to get Stern Insider Connected into app format for your phones and that's good news. You know we don't really talk about InsiderConnected very often but it is probably one of the greatest innovations that has hit pinball in the last 1000 years because it gives everybody something to strive for. It connects the community in a really great way. It gives operators a great opportunity to reward people for playing games on location. I think they need to amp that part up. You know, like you go to a machine and you set a high score and maybe you get like free drinks and nachos. I'm not sure if people are doing stuff like that with insider connected. The next great river they need to cross over at Stern Pinball with the connected stuff is they need to get head to head gameplay much more into these games. They need to make it so there's like co-op modes, they need to make it so you can battle against your friend who also owns a Foo Fighters or a Ninja Turtles or a Star Wars. They need to figure out a way to do player versus player with pinball machines. It's a lot of fun. If you've ever played like head-to-head on Multimorphic P3, their head-to-head game is really fun. I mean I don't really say a lot of nice stuff about Multimorphic, but when they have those two games linked up with each other at the shows, it's a heck of a lot of fun. Alright, what else is going on? We also heard that Stern Pinball is going to have some delays with their manufacturing. They have pushed up the two-week schedule in which they take their winter break. Normally it's in January, now it's going to be the last two weeks in December. So it is really starting to look like we are not going to see Keith Elwin Jaws at the end of the year. And I'm not even sure now we're going to see it in January. I think we might see it in February. If we think about the day that they launched Foo Fighters, remember it was in February and they came out in front of everybody and they shocked everybody with that early February launch of Foo Fighters and they were like the first game to show, right? As we were getting excited about TPF, Stern swooped in and scooped everybody with Foo Fighters. Will we see the same thing with Jaws Pinball? Now, if you think about Jaws from a marketing standpoint, it's a movie about summertime at the beach and a great white shark. So is the best time of year to launch Jaws Pinball in the winter or should you wait till it starts to warm up a little bit and it's safe to get back into the water? We will see what happens when this game comes out. All eyes are on this game. Everyone is expecting big things from Keith Elwin. So we shall see what happens with Jaws Pinball. I'm going to give you a rumor right now that I'm hearing. I'm hearing that Jaws Pinball might be the first time ever that Keith Elwin puts an upper playfield into one of his games. Will this be true or not? And if you think about Jaws, what would the upper playfield be? You know, I think it might be a ship. If they're gonna do anything, make it the orca, you know, like the pirate ship in Pirates of the Caribbean that rocks back and forth. How cool would an upper playfield be that is the orca and as the ship is taking on water, it starts to lower and sink into the ocean? How cool would that be? You know, every time I dream about the mechanical possibilities of what could be in a future Stern Pinball Machine, Every single time we are sorely disappointed. I mean Godzilla was cool and all don't get me wrong, but come on, man They made a Godzilla pinball machine in which Godzilla physically does nothing now Look, I know people are like well You're playing as Godzilla and that doesn't make much sense because if Godzilla was standing over a pinball machine his arms would never reach the Flipper buttons. All right, so we've got that we've got delays at Stern Pinball. We're gonna push back the jaws date It's not gonna be December So that means really the only thing that's going to happen between now and the end of the year is either we're going to see Pulp Fiction games start to get on the line. I want to give a shout out real quick to Mr. Ryan White. He called me up yesterday all off the record. But basically, he said, Chris, I want to let you know what they did to you by removing you from the database was absolutely wrong. And I reached out to all the committee members over there to tell them, even though you talk so much smack about me and CGC, I just want to let you know that ethically, I found that to be very Thank you Ryan for the support. I really do appreciate it. And I did ask him when are we going to see Pulp Fiction games and he gave me some vague answer like someday soon. So I'm not sure what soon means in the world of CGC, but I also heard from him that they most likely will not be eligible for a TWIPI, which means games will not be shipping before December 1st or November 30th, which also means that Pulp Fiction will not be eligible to win Favorite Pinball Topper of 2021. I think that's a shame. I'll tell you why. I mean the toppers not gonna change, right? Like what is the game have to ship for the topper to win? We've all seen the topper. It's not gonna change It is one of the greatest pinball toppers in the history of pinball toppers. So just make it eligible, you know But any advice well, I've got a lot of advice for the Twippy committee We're gonna talk about that. But if I had any advice for these people you got to start using more common sense You gotta be a little bit flexible. You gotta use common sense like it's absolutely stupid that you would open up voting for the twippies to be a month long. If you're trying to mitigate fraudulent votes, the easiest way to do that is minimize the amount of time people have to vote. By making it four weeks long, you're basically opening the door for a lot more corruption in your own voting system and it makes absolutely no sense. And that is why I don't understand why common sense seems to elude almost everybody who's like in the pinball marketing space, like common freaking sense people. So we're not going to see Pulp Fiction. You know, people have been starting to sell their Pulp Fictionality spots and I keep telling people, you know, I would just hold on to your Pulp Fiction right now. And here the reason why is still you know in a world in which all these games over at Stern you know the limited edition games over at stern that are not truly limited you know first of all stern and made pulp fiction they would have charged you 13 for the le they would have I mean think about it a single level game with no screen guess what they charge you for the last time they did that over at stern they charged you for freaking James Bond 60th so stern would charge you 13 for the machine and then they would have charged you another for this topper they would have charged you Your receive a free online bits

7:38

The reason why I would hold on to Pulp Fiction is I think it's one of the coolest pinball themes of all time. It's the only Tarantino movie in pinball format. It's a game that is new and old and classic all at the same time. When you look at this thing, it just feels like it comes from a different period in time, but it's got enough modern stuff in it as well. And I think it's going to be a keeper for a lot of people. And my point is this, why sell it now? Right? The most you're going to get for this game is going to be when the game is out. And I know a lot of I'm a fan of the PULP FICTIONs. I've seen a lot of people are like hype on PULP FICTIONs gonna die down the same way it died down on Rick and Morty, the same way it died down on Foo Fighters, the same way it died down on every single game coming out right now. And again, the reason why I don't think it's going to, if PULP FICTION started at $13,000, then yes, I could see it sliding down towards 10 grand. But because it starts at 9,700, I don't think this game's ever gonna slide down, not with We're hearing really good things about the way the game shootses. We're hearing the Platinum Edition artwork is some of Christopher Franchi's best. The game is a great shooter and it's stunning and everybody wants to buy it for $8,500. But here's the thing, 95% of us have had opinions about Elton John and only 5% of us have actually played the game. And will this game have enough gameplay? Will it have enough code? Will it have enough in it to make people pay the MSRP price for this game? And I just want this game to come out. I'm just worried though that even when this game comes out, I'm not going to be able to play it. There's not even a Godfather in New York and I don't know if anyone's going to even order Elton John. I don't think John at Jack Bar is and that's the real dilemma for Jersey Jack games at $12,000 is operators aren't going to buy these things. I mean it is legitimately, literally and metaphorically, not even metaphorically, literally it's twice as much money as a Stern Pro and that's crazy. You have to have 6,000 more people to play in Elton John to justify buying it if you're an operator. And then when you go on pin side, like nobody really is ordering this game. You don't see that many people declaring they ordered in Elton John. So I just hope this game gets out. But I do think the problem for Jersey Jack is the price is always gonna be an issue. And then we know that Matrix is next. And I think knowing that is just gonna make people wait and see. What else is happening by the end of the year? Did you see American Pinball is trying to get people to have FOMO around the $17,500 version of Galactic Tank Force? So let me get this straight. You can't sell the regular version of the LE which was what $11,000 and you think you're gonna sell another version with only 200 units for freaking $17,500, a $6,500 premium to get all these ugly cigs on the apron and then it's got a 3D Translite and then it's got a thermos and a lunchbox and a bunch of throwaway posters and people think about it add up all that stuff along with the cheap 3D printed sculpts in the game add all those extras up and all that is $6,500 in value? I mean that's the price of a Stern Pro machine you can get an entire pinball machine for the price of this useless junk they're putting onto this game American Pinball is just an anomaly. I don't think David Fix knows what he's doing. I don't trust what he says about how many orders they have. And there is no way they're going to sell 50 of these things. They're not even going to sell 20 of these things for $17,500. Limiting these to 200 units just shows me how delusional they are and how out of touch they are with the pinball marketplace. I just feel like they should be embarrassed. Like they don't even know what they're doing. Alright, so that's what's happening over there at American Pinball. What else is going on? Barrels of Fun, they're getting more of these labyrinths out the door. I think the more these games get unboxed, the more they're gonna get new orders. But do I think they're gonna end up selling all 1100 of this game? I don't. I don't think the theme is that popular. I think they're gonna start to stall out around like 650 orders. And then I think people are gonna wait. They're gonna wait for those 650 to be built. And look, Barrels of Fun said, if we don't get 1100 orders, We will simply cap it at the number of orders we get. So that could be a good thing. It would be interesting. So let's say they cap it at 700 units. If they make all 700, does that mean they're still allowed to make another 400 because they said the initial run would be 1100 or will they say we're never making any more? If I'm a boutique company that's looking to create a community of buyers that have trust in me as a manufacturer, I would really play this marketing card. I would say this is how many we're going to make and we're never making any more and we're never making other variations and this is it. I think these companies need to start building trust. They need to look at the market right now like Stern is burning everybody by destroying all of its LE community like nobody thinks Stern LE is special anymore because they keep making new versions of it. And if I'm a boutique company, I would say this is it. This is final. You can trust us. What am I thankful for in the pinball world? Well, look, you know me. I not going to say what everybody else is saying Everyone else is going around the horn and they thanking every manufacturer and sure I thankful all these companies are around and making all of these games I not thankful for every single game I don think every single game is great I not thankful for these prices but I thankful that they keep making new stuff because without new stuff it would be boring Observing this hobby it would be boring speculating on what around the corner But what I really thankful for other than my beautiful wife and my beautiful family and all the people that support me personally you know I thankful for my job that allows me the freedom to do my real job and also do this I'm a fan of your podcast and I think they support it. They don't really say anything anymore. As long as I'm not hearing from the lawyers, I think all is good with my company. The thing I'm really thankful for is each and every one of you. And I mean that because your support of this show is what helps me get through weeks like the week I just had. A week in which once again they're trying to cancel Kaneda. Once again they're trying to label me as the bad guy. Once again they want to deny me the hard work I put into this hobby. 1,533.161,520 per annum I want to thank each and every one of you because you know what it means that there's 660 of you that are subscribing to this show. You know what that telegraphs to everybody else? That one guy is saying something that we believe in. And so I want to thank you for showing me that validation because it is important. You know, when people get up there and like nobody follows them and nobody's subscribing and they're like, we just do it for the love of pinball. Guess what happens to all those guys? They get very bitter about the success happening over here at Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I want to thank you that you don't follow the sheep off the cliff. I want to thank you that you're not a shill. I want to thank you for listening to this show without any incentives, without any giveaways, no bribery, nothing. You come here without being forced. You showed up at Kaneda's Pinball Podcast and you subscribed and you've been here for a while. Some of you have been with me since day one. Day one when I first put on a microphone and started talking, I think I talked about like Spider-Man Pinball. I go back and listen to those early shows like they're rough. They're really rough. I was still trying to find my voice I was trying to find my way in the hobby and some of you have been with me for like seven or eight years As I've been doing this podcast, so thank you so much and some of you have just discovered me You're like oh my gosh Who is this guy that everybody hates like who is this guy that gets banned from pin side? Who is this guy that everyone is calling negative and toxic and a narcissist and a sociopath? Who is this guy? I'm gonna check him out and then you check out Kaneda's Pinball Podcast and what happens? I'm really thankful for each and every one of you. And I do this show in honor of you. I do it every week for each and every one of you. And every time I lose a subscriber, it hurts. I don't want to lose any of you. I don't want to say something that makes you want to leave the show. I don't want to become a sellout or a shill in a way that makes you want to leave the show because you get disgusted in me. I want to remain true to the very reason why you're here. I want to thank each and every one of you who is starting to wait and see. I want to thank you guys who are not running at every single new game. I want to thank you for starting to analyze your life and realize that the FOMO is a dangerous thing. We shouldn't be blindly bailing out these pinball companies for every single boneheaded decision they make. We will buy their games if they do it right. If they put magical themes in a box in a way where the ball interacts with special stuff and we see the value in the game and the theme itself emotionally clicks with us, we will send our money over there. I know I'm not the only one that's been in the audience for a while, but I'm sure you're all in the audience for a while now. So I want to thank each and every one of you for saying we're not going to take this. Like, this is not good enough. And I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting an influencer like me who's influencing you not to buy the damn product until the damn product is worthy of you. I want to thank each and every one of you for having some self-respect, some self-esteem, not falling victim to all of the sales pitches out there. So thank you. I think my listeners are the most independent thinkers in all of pinball. Like did you see all that shenanigans yesterday? Oh, here are the top five games by all the pinball content creators. Yup, once again, calling over at the kineticist trying to exclude Hey Kaneda, did you notice who wasn't on that list? And isn't it funny how quickly everybody sells out and makes content for somebody else just to help them in their SEO search engine results? It's so funny to me how everybody folds like a lawn chair. But guess who wasn't on that list? Guess who wasn't going to do work for somebody else? Kaneda wasn't on that list and Jason Knapp wasn't on that list. And I'd rather hold company with Jason Knapp than all those people that are now just like locking arms and kumbaya in the pinball world. Cool. I want to thank all those people because the more there is this group think where nobody can be independent, nobody can challenge the status quo, like how rock and roll is that? Just go along with everything that everybody says, cheerlead everything happening in pinball. It is boring. It is not entertaining. It is not interesting. You know, when I do this show and as much as I have issues with some stuff in this hobby, I also have a lot of stuff that I love going on in this hobby. There's also a lot of things that I'm excited about in this hobby. Back to the freakin' future. Two games from Keith Elwin comin out next year. I'm about to get Batman back in my life with Lyman Sheets, the greatest code he's ever done, Batman 66. I got a Guns and Roses collector's Edition that's lost $10,000 in peak value, but I'm still gonna unbox it when I get a house, and I'm never gonna sell that game. I got a Pulp Fiction LE on order. I can't wait to get that game. And if some of these rumors are true, people, if Fifth Element comes out, I'm buying it instantly. If Bloodsport comes out, I'm buying it instantly. Big Trouble in Little China, I'm buying it instantly. But I just want each and every one of you to do me a favor. Just pat yourselves on the freaking back. You made it here. We found our way through this journey together. And without each and every one of you, it wouldn't be what it is. And that is why I'm going to ask each and every one of you for a favor. What happened to me yesterday I took very personally. Because I work really hard in this hobby. I've been working in this hobby for 10 years making content. It hasn't always been good. I haven't always been positive. I haven't always kept my cool. I haven't always kept my faculties about me. I've had some bad moments in this hobby. I've had some moments where I got drunk and said stupid stuff on Facebook Live. I had a terrible moment at a pinball tournament where I was hanging out with Lyman Sheets and Penny and I was rooting for Penny and I was kicked out of the tournament by Tim Sexton and I decided to throw my vodka soda in his face on the way out the door It not something I proud of It not something I wish I did It a moment I wish I could take back I've made some mistakes. We all make mistakes. I've apologized for every mistake I've ever made. But what I won't apologize for is creating this show. And I work hard at this show. And I earned every single vote I've had all these years. and for Colin and Will over at This Week in Pinball to remove my show from the pinball database of content creators. So when you search, when you search who's won a Twippy, I don't even come up anymore. It's like I don't even exist to them. And the fact that they removed the reviews that my fans like you gave me annoys me to no end. Because I know deep down inside nobody, nobody, I don't care if it's Zach Manny, I don't care if it's my biggest detractors, I don't care if it's Dennis Creasel, I don't care who it is. It's a very difficult subject to discuss because it's an issue that nobody should be supporting a move like this where you erase somebody's existence and you pretend like they don't exist and you want to censor them and it is absolutely disgusting and the reason why it's disgusting is because it happened by a guy that doesn't have an ounce of the talent I know I have and you can go listen to his talk at Pinball Expo and you can decide for yourself. Do you want a guy like that being the ambassador for pinball? I make it through 90 minutes every Saturday with a captivating audience. And so what I'm asking each and every one of you, this is the year where it's personal now. I want us to get so many votes for the damn Twippies where Colin's gonna have to sink down in his chair when he sees the results of the votes as they come in for the Twippies. He's gonna do everything in his power for me to lose. Over the last few years, think about it, every single rule change they've made has been made to target one individual. That's it. The first thing that was put in place to prevent Kaneda's Pinball Podcast from being successful. First, they tried to add the weighted system because I was crushing people with the most number one votes. Crushing people. I had three times the number one votes as everybody else. So then they added in the weighted voting system to try to give people a better shot. That didn't work. Then they said you have to have free shows. Why do we have to have shows that are free? Are the pinball machines free? Is anything else that wins an award at the Twippy? Is any of that stuff free? Are pinball mods free? So why does a pinball podcast have to be free to win the freaking award? Again, another effort by a bunch of cowards who have done nothing but try to change the rules to prevent me from winning and year after year after year after year after year after year. Was that six years people? I win. And what do they do? Do they congratulate me? Do they ask me to take a more positive role in the show? No! Like a few years ago I went to the show and there was a red carpet special and they didn't even want to interview me. They didn't even want to talk to me. And I get it people. I've been up there, I've been booed, I've been heckled, I've been called every single name. But what I will not be called is forgotten. And you won't be able to forget me Colin and you won't be able to forget me Will because my fans won't let that happen. And when this ballot drops on December 18th I want each and every one of you to vote Kaneda. I want you to get your family members to vote Kaneda. And the message we're going to send and the I'm not going to be a principal about this message this year. It's not just about my show and my Saturday Morning Spectacular. And that's the other thing they altered people. They are really mad because I do a SaturdayMorning show that talks about pinball. It is a stream for 90 minutes straight. Nobody else can do it. Nobody does it as good as Kaneda. And now they tried to change the rules. They're trying to insinuate that that's me recording a podcast on Facebook live and it's not. It's a separate show. It's not my podcast. They don't want me to win favorite pinball stream. I'm a streamer. You know why? Because the people who spend all this money on rigs and put up content of them playing pinball machines, they're not happy that a streamer like me can win. A guy that doesn't even have a pinball machine set up in his home could win favorite pinball streamer in the world. And think about what message that sends to all of them, to all of my haters. I don't even need a freaking pinball machine set up and I can make more entertaining pinball content than you can with every single pinball machine in your disposal. And it concerns them and it Closed Caption by ClosedCaptioner.com