Holy Mother, my foot! Ow! My other foot! Two hours later he hit a vital organ and died. Oh, Canada's Pinball Podcast, and also probably the most controversial podcast in pinball. But congratulations, Canada, to that. Sorry, I dropped the F-bomb. Of course you did. I'm beers in. We're talking about Canada. In Canada's spirit, I gotta drop an F-bomb with some beers. Poor Jeff is dumping Alka-Seltzer right now and just, poor guy. Canada. Oh my god. Nice job, dude. Great, great job. We all love you. We all hate you at the same time. But you are so damn entertaining. Keep it up. Alright. Pinball drama, pinball drama, and pinball drama. And I'm gonna just try to make this off the cuff right here. Hopefully minimal editing because I do not have the time for it. But mainly, let's just start out by saying, can we all agree how absolutely ridiculous this entire thing is? What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. And today we're going to be talking about the upcoming Twippies or maybe the lack thereof, because today it was officially announced that they are going to be slashing pretty close to half of the categories. And those categories have to deal with all of us when it comes to pinball content creation. YouTube, podcasts, streamers, all the favorite categories have been wiped off of the list for us to vote on. But why? That's the big question is why? And my phone is still blowing up here, guys, because people are constantly messaging me and getting back. And of course, so I'm going to try to respond to some of these. Yes, people are waiting for me to respond to this. So like, yes, and I'm working on it. Give me some time. It's not a day where I can just sit down and do nothing and record all day. So anyways, this all stems back from literally, and now my phone's going off, so I guess I may have to pause this and then take this call and get back to recording. All right. Maybe my phone will be quiet just a little bit longer for this. I don't even know where I was at. But this honestly has been building for years now. And sadly enough, it's more than likely due to one content creator in general. And I can say his name. I will do it right now. It's obviously Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. For the last three years at least, there have been changes made to the Twippies Awards. And it always tends to be changes that affect that particular category in general. But may not be directed, but it does affect it. Whether it be starting a weighted voting system, and then eventually where he went behind a paywall, then they had to make it to where the only way you can win is if you are not behind a paywall or have so many episodes free to the public. And basically he's been able to meet every rule every year, giving him the eligibility to be voted on. But things have changed in the course of the last month, I want to say. And look, I'm not here to defend Kaneda. That's not what this is about. The main reason why I'm doing this is because of the principle behind it. The censorship, the canceling—this is the reason why I'm doing this. It could have been any other content creator or any individual for that matter. I would still be upset about this, but it definitely does make it more prevalent because of the fact it is a well-known content creator. I mean, it shouldn't be a secret that me and Kaneda have had our little things every once in a while, little tips here and there. So I'm not here to defend him. Let me just get that straight. This is not about defending Kaneda. This is a matter of defending all content creators because we are all affected by this. But it started, I want to say, a few weeks ago, and no, no, no, I'm wrong. It started all the way back in regards to the pinball media mixer. Guys, this is, like I said, this is so nerdy, pinball nerdish, and ridiculous. But if you want to know the backstory, this is what's going to happen. So Colin, with Kineticist, decided to have a pinball media mixer, which basically everyone in the content creation space for pinball was invited to a mixer for all of us to eat, drink, and be merry and stuff like that. Evidently other content creators mentioned to Colin that if Kaneda goes to this pinball media mixer, then they are not going to go. So this one individual would affect multiple other people from coming to the mixer. So Colin was trying to please what he believed to be the majority by telling Kaneda that no, you're not invited or it wouldn't be a good idea if you came. And reasons—now, Kaneda's response was the typical, like, if you don't do what I say, then I have an audience and I will use them against you because of what you're doing to me, kind of thing, was his response. The best? No. But this goes along with the whole backstory, and Colin has shared basically this whole backstory on his website if you want to read through the text message logs and stuff like that or whatever. I'll put a link in the video description down below. But I'm merely just kind of giving you the highlights here. So needless to say, things escalated, and I'm sure words went back and forth between these two gentlemen, and it got to the point to where there's probably animosity or emotional disgust with one another for what is going on. And I'm not here to defend either of the two for what was said to each other. I don't know all that. All I know is, you know, Expo happened, pinball media mixer happened, more time went by, things may have happened in the background, I don't know. But all of a sudden we see on—my lord, we see on the This Week in Pinball database—for whatever reason, only Kaneda's Pinball Podcast was removed from the database. Now, of course, it's like, my lord, my phone is blowing up. So obviously it's like, okay, well, that's not a good thing. But from my perspective, I was like, I'm not gonna make a big deal out of this for a couple of reasons. You know, one, it could be just a glitch. They may be working on the website and it's going to be back up in no time or whatever. So I wasn't going to like blow it up on this. But secondly, it was also just the database. That's the way I looked at it also. And I think more than likely for a lot of content creators, I'm not speaking for you guys, but chances are—the more I'm just gonna be blank and blunt about it—fuck it. Look, no one uses the database. No one fucking looks at it. It's there, and whether or not I'm even in it, honestly, if the database came back up and I wasn't in it, I wouldn't shed a tear. I would be fine, as is every other content creator would be fine. The database was nice so that way you could at least kind of get have another way to get feedback on reviews and stuff like that. At all. So I saw some benefits of it. But being removed from it or whatever, I was like, I was like, that's not really that big of a deal, kind of thing. It's like, don't worry about it. But then as time passed by, another week goes by. That's when I see that, okay, it wasn't a glitch. It was targeting an individual to silence them, censor, cancel, or whatever, kind of thing. And honestly, it would be a little bit different also if the website that was doing this was not TWIP, because we are used to This Week in Pinball being for everyone in the hobby, all of us. It has been neutral with the deep dives and everything. And granted, if you look at the history of what TWIP used to be compared to what it is now, there's definitely been degradation because we have other options now that we go to like New American Pinball and stuff like that. So there has been degradation. I'm just saying, speaking from the heart here, guys. It may hurt to hear me say this, but yes, TWIP isn't our go-to website anymore. So the database is more than likely not a go-to link that people are looking for anymore. So I decided to actually step in merely inquire about what is going on when it comes to the database. Are you censoring? Are you canceling a certain individual? And by the time I reached out at this point, the database had been completely removed. And so at that time, I was like, okay, at least it's an even playing field, because it was specified to me and I'm not going to be sharing messages that were sent to me. I have no problem sharing messages that I have sent out, but I'm not going to share messages that were sent to me. But I'm like, okay, it affects everybody evenly. And once again, it's just the database. So, but it was specified that changes were going to be made to it. And that's the thing is that a lot of these messages, guys, some of the words that were used did make me a little concerned. And which made it to the point where I was anticipating this to happen, okay? So certain words were used in there, whether it be the word "changes," and stuff like that, I was like, okay, I'm just saying you need to be neutral. Remain neutral on this. And that's the thing is that regardless of what content creators or let's just say, fucking whatever, Kaneda has said to you, behind it or whatever, like yes, more than likely it was probably him and the people that follow him probably said other things that were mean as well. We cannot control what people think and what other people say. What we can control is how we react to that. And from what I can see as just a pinball enthusiast, pinball creator aside—pinball content creator, let me get that right—just a pinball enthusiast in general, looking at this, it definitely feels like you're censoring people because you don't like what they do. And that's the thing is that even if you do not like what people say or what people are doing, how you react to it is going to mean so much more than what the individuals are doing to upset you. So by disliking what an individual is doing and saying, you know what? Scorched earth. We're going to do it my way. This is all about what I want. I want nothing but positivity in pinball. That's all I want to hear. That's all I want to see. I don't want to think about negative comments, negative feedback. I don't want to see it. That's no way to fucking live life, first of all. Because censoring, canceling, putting up guardrails to only allow what you want, we call that an echo chamber. And that is something I am against. That is why my comment section on my videos is completely open unless they are literally targeting or it's abuse to a drastic extent. I don't delete comments. You can say what you want, whether it be towards me. That's completely fine. I get it. I would love for every video I make to be great and everyone loves it. Nothing but thumbs up. But sadly, I'm also a realist and I know that's not going to happen. By only promoting positivity and only showing positivity, you're basically putting up a facade. You're losing all integrity at this point. I don't care what you do when it comes to website building, YouTube content creation. If you only show the positive and you're always bright and bubbly about what's going on, then I don't trust you, because not everything is good. Not everything people create is good, including myself. I put myself in this. Not everything is good. Not everyone can be pleased. And some people just can't handle that. There are people that have gotten into this hobby, gotten into pinball content creation, and merely a short-lived lifespan of said content creation because the moment they get negative feedback, they can't take it. They don't know what to do. Oh, this is too hard. People are too mean. I can't handle this. Okay, if you can't handle it, you can't. But whenever you put things out online for everyone else to see, and then you do not allow feedback, you're not having a conversation. You're merely dictating at that point. So when you have the Twippies, I'm hoping I'm trying to stay on topic here—what the Twippies have been about since their inception. Every single pinball podcaster, every single YouTube show, every single pinball media content puts a lot of time and soul and effort into this. A second—people who don't stream or make YouTube videos, it's hard to conceive the amount of time that those streamers and YouTube videos, everything of what goes into all that. So it's not only is pinball hard, and pinball is rough to make, and it's hard to get right for designers and artists and everything else, but it's hard for the people that's bringing you that gameplay and bringing you that entertainment. They put countless hours and hard work into that. And this gives a recognition to those people. Regardless of whether you win or not, or if your favorite machine wins or not. Exactly. We all are working hard to make this a better day. We're celebrating all of pinball with the Twippies. That's what the Twippies is going to be year after year. It's going to be a celebration of pinball. I don't care if you're last place or first place. Damn it. You made a machine, and you're here, and people love your product. Exactly. Whether you got the least amount of votes or the most amount of votes for your podcast, who cares? You're taking the time to make pinball great and to grow the hobby. Yep. It's exactly what we want. So for you guys, thank you so much for tuning in. So when it comes to the Twippies, it's been about the people, it's been about the industry, it's been about both since the beginning of the Twippies, the very first one in 2017. That's what it's been about. You've had the favorites category for the content creation side and you also have machines and the manufacturers in the industry. They've always been there. And we can argue, but the content creation side is the more exciting point of going to the Twippies to get to see these personalities that people have favorited and voted on to wonder whether or not their vote actually meant something to eventually watch this particular person go up there and accept an award that the majority voted on. And just because someone wins an award over and over and over and over again doesn't mean you should just create rules to keep them from winning another one. There's also the possibility of like, maybe we should just figure out a way to be better and to win over the majority. Or scorched earth, let's just knock out all the favorite categories in general. No one's a winner. I—I—what? I'm like, I'm like, no, I can't get behind that. And this is coming from someone that has never won a Twippy Award. Like yes, I've been runner up in second or third place. I don't even remember now. I've got the plaque up there or whatever, but like, I've never won a Twippy Award. And those who have followed me since the beginning, I've never asked for votes either. The only time that I have ever done anything with the Twippy voting process is merely encourage those of you out there to vote for what you believe is your favorite or what machine was best or whatever, like that. I have never asked for votes because I feel like if I was to win a Twippy award, I personally would only really enjoy it if I won it because the mass public, on their own accord, came together and felt that I was their favorite YouTuber, pinball content creator, whatever. I don't want to win an award where I have to get out there, ask you to vote for me. I'm merely—and that's why I don't even share my own content online. I do not like self-promoting. I'm freaking horrible at doing it because the moment I do, I feel the narcissism, kind of thing, and I'm like, look at me, look at me, kind of thing. I don't know, it just feels weird. And that's probably why I'm not growing as big as I could because I don't really promote. And so when it comes to the Twippy, and you're killing all the content creators—granted, if you're doing this content creation in hopes of winning a plastic trophy at the beginning of the year, you're doing it for all the wrong reasons, just saying. But I think it's a matter of just the recognition, you know, just kind of like I got the Twippies over here if I want to fit. But I think it's the recognition that people also like. But the winning of an award or whatever, you know, to each their own on that. But to make it to where no one can win an award, I think you just kill the Twippies. There's still time as of right now. I do think that this is a drastic suicide for the Twippies, because you've knocked out a lot of the reason why people watch or go to the Twippies. It's like, hey, let's just kill half of our audience because we're killing at least half of the damn categories. I'm trying to figure out why that decision was made because I was informed that any drastic changes or any changes would get fed to me because I would be able to go from a typical pinball enthusiast to give you feedback. Never got that, but I always assumed. I'm like, we're probably going to be losing this category. So I'm just going to wait. I'm going to wait it out and see if the axe or the hammer actually drops. And lo and behold, it did. And that's why I'm speaking out today because I am against the censorship. I'm against the cancel culture because people don't like what you say. That's the thing. If you don't like what someone is saying, you don't have to listen to them. You don't have to watch them. That's your own decision. You make the decision to listen to somebody. You make the decision as you're scrolling through Facebook to stop and watch someone's live feed. You. Yes, granted, the person that you're watching made the decision to say or do certain things. We can't control that. What we can control is how we react to it. So I've got to wrap this up. I've got things to do. But I just want to say as of right now, I am boycotting the Twippies. I'm not a fan of it right now. But luckily, there's still time for them to fix this. There is still time to right this wrong. Just open the categories back up for all again, and we're good. I mean, do you think the Twippies are going to be enjoyable as you watch people from Stern Pinball go up and down the stage over and over again? No. If anything, just have us vote, then post a list up online. And I'm completely aware, guys, that the people that are doing this, that are running the Twippies, that are doing this, they're doing this on their own accord. They're not profiting off of this. I mean, they could technically, if they wanted to, profit off of this. They could start charging tickets for the Twippies to get in, and maybe they should. But the point is that the Twippies were about the people and the industry. And now you've taken out the biggest point of the Twippies. It's all about the people, and you get to choose. But we're taking away your choice.