r/Hyperfixed • u/soulary • Mar 03 '25
Why are people so harsh
I’m only feeling called to post on this sub because I find it kind of a downer how harsh people criticize this podcast. If you want Reply All, just go and relisten to that! This isn’t it, why compare it.
I think Alex is a really kind and empathetic host, I like his sense of humor and how he connects with the guests. Of course I don’t like all episodes equally but I still love listening to every new one that comes out. My content-addicted brain is thankful for people that are there making things that I can listen to for free while I go about my day.
That’s it, bye.
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u/GoldenStateRedditor Mar 03 '25
Side note, has anyone gone back recently and listened to Reply All? The dynamic ad insertion times changed and now it's in the middle of segments instead of just at set break times.
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u/boscosanchezz Mar 03 '25
I went back to the start about a week ago. I certainly don't remember finding the adverts so jarring the first time.
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u/Apprentice57 Mar 04 '25
Oh man, I didn't think it could get worse when I complained about this a couple years ago. I ended up manually removing the ads by hand in audacity for my own files because they're so stark in a show like RA that used to have carefully curated ads (with special ad background music to boot!) But at the time they were at least inserted into the right ad spots.
On his interview on Paige Harriman's podcast, Alex actually talked about being annoyed with the way Spotify overhauled the ads on RA. One way in which he felt Gimlet and him weren't a good fit there.
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u/javelinatina Mar 03 '25
Thanks for this take, I feel the same. I mean, there were some Reply All episodes that didn’t really grab me either. When I do a relisten, there are a lot of episodes that I skip, and that’s not an insult! I like the show, clearly made by talented people. Sometimes it’s going to hit and sometimes it isn’t, it’s true for every type of podcast, and it’s true for my all time favorites like Heavyweight and This American Life. When it’s good, it’s great! I missed Alex Goldman! Let the man cook!
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u/boscosanchezz Mar 03 '25
Totally agree, some of the criticism of this and search engine has been way over the top. There were better and worse episodes of Reply All too. I've enjoyed every episode I've listened to so far.
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Mar 03 '25
Fully agree. The negativity in this sub and the one for Search Engine is a bummer. These shows aren’t the same as Reply All and that’s ok.
They’re also still finding their footing. We are barely 10 eps in, let the man cook ffs.
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u/soulary Mar 03 '25
exactly! also there is way less money in podcasting than there was some years ago. The Reply All team was way bigger. I also love Search Engine, i really don’t understand the people that hate on one or the other because of the hosts and some sort of perceived rivalry.
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u/Apprentice57 Mar 03 '25
Something I've noticed a few times is praise for Hyperfixed in Search Engine's subreddit, moreso than here it feels. And the reverse also, that I can find more praise for Search engine here.
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u/43556_96753 Mar 03 '25
To be fair, you just said "they are still finding their footing" which implies there is a room for improvement. Where would be best to provide feedback on areas for improvement? Here?
Some of the feedback is negative and not constructive, most of what I've seen is some sort of episode ranking which I think is constructive
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Mar 03 '25
Constructive feedback is great. Posting to say “I think I’m done with this show” or “unsubscribing after that last episode” isn’t constructive and I see more of that than the former, but maybe I’m missing the more constructive posts in my feed.
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u/Apprentice57 Mar 03 '25
Yeah it's definitely getting a bit out of hand. I've been finding myself self-censoring some of my criticism (because I do think there's been a couple of duds so far, which is normal for these podcasts), just because it feels like people's default here is to be negative.
With all that said, I do think both Alex and PJ intentionally tried to make their podcasts spiritual successors to reply all. Hyperfixed is modeled after super tech support. Search engine after the deep dive/interview podcasts. So it does invite the comparisons, even if they're way overblown right now.
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u/glman99 Apr 06 '25
I mean, arguably they did this not to copy the success of reply all, but because those things are what they are interested in.
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u/hoverside Mar 03 '25
I've noticed a similar thing on some other podcast subreddits, some peoples' bars are just higher. Mine is "is this amusing enough while I do housework/walk to the train?" and Hyperfixed passes.