THE Cub Report, 04.14.2014, Version- Fake Friends

I am not, nor never have been, or ever will be, a fan of Facebook. Early in the FB life cycle I looked at it as a very bad looking website with a number of fundamental flaws. The largest of the flaws being the cute little “friend” button. Why was that kid I barely knew in second grade hitting me up to be my “friend” 35 years later? Why was my 6th cousin who I’ve never met wanting to be my friend? Why was the lady from an Asian OEM claiming to be my “friend”? Oh and, I really knew FB was screwed in the head when my 4th grade English teacher (who obviously wasn’t very good at her job, LOL) wanted to be my friend too. I didn’t like her then, I have never talked to her since, and now all of a sudden she wants to friend me? Hey, maybe my definition of “friend” is a whole lot different than the rest of the world, mine means somebody I actually know, someone I actually like, and someone who would actually pour water on me from across the street if I was on fire. Strangely 99% of the people on FB who wanted to be my friend did not fit my definition.

And that was the early days of FB, since then it’s been all about monetization, and that has resulted in a real train wreck on the business side. If you are a casual user, a person who only gets on to see what your Uncle Bob is planting in his garden this spring or to get updates on what Happy Flower RC is up to, things are probably fine, but on the business side of things, it is downright ugly. For instance, BSRC has around 9k people that have liked our FB page, while other rc media outlets have over a hundred thousand, and they add 5k-10k new followers a week. If you didn’t know any better you would just think a page with 150k likes is sooooooo popular, but for those in the know, those are some insanely bulls$%^ numbers. There are some very big rc companies out there, some with some integrity that don’t buy likes, that have 20k total likes and add 50 new ones a month.

FB, which has constantly shoved down everyone’s throats that they were all about fighting bulls%^& likes/numbers via press releases, has turned out to be all about bogus people, bogus likes, and bogus numbers. Luckily that has turned out good for us at BSRC. When a potential advertiser comes to us, it is ridiculously easy for us to pull up FB numbers and show them how Company X just added 5k new likes this week (All based out of India, have you been to India? I have and I can assure you rc is the last thing on their minds there.), while BSRC added 5 actual human beings that might actually be interested in driving a real rc car. The potential advertiser sees that Company X is just fine and dandy with buying fake FB numbers, so how can Company X be trusted at all? Potential advertisers are not stupid and they only want to invest their precious marketing dollars with companies they trust, Company X buying 5k FB likes a week is an easy way to blow that, which turns out awesome for us.

On the downside… for companies unwilling to cut the check for bulls%^& numbers (like us), there is a penalty to be paid. FB seems to want advertising dollars above all else, so the powers that be have limited the number of people that see our posts since we stopped paying for advertising. For example, only about 2% of the real human beings that have liked the BSRC FB page see our posts in their feeds (we stopped advertising there because we started seeing fake likes). For the average hobbyist that has willingly liked our page, they would need to actually visit the BSRC FB page to see our posts because it is highly unlikely that any of our posts will appear in their feeds. Of course there is a way to change that, just throw some big dollars to the folks at FB, but unfortunately that would also create an avalanche of fake new likes, something we do not want. “Sigh”

So where am I going here? We are going to do some changes to what we do on FB. We are not going to be bullied into playing their game, all we want is a fair shake, one where real human beings that like both FB and BigSquidRC can get together, without any robots from India having to join in the game. We’ll let you know what’s up in the coming weeks here on our main page and via our various social media outlets. Personally, while I am not a big fan of Google, I have long ago killed off my FB account and have been G+ ever since, where none of the BS exists at all, (and we have a killer page over there) but that’s just me…

In “real” rc news…

You are not gonna believe this, but the HPI Savage Octane is nearly here. I’ve held back talking about it for a while because after a few years of teasing it gets really old, but I have it on some pretty reliable sources that yes, it is indeed going to be in consumers hands the first week of May. After all this wait we finally get to find out if good old fashioned gasoline is going to change the rc market for years to come. If the Octane can do all that it promises- longer runtimes, less engine tuning, and easy starting, our industry is in for a T-Maxx type of revolution. For those of you that got into rc recently, the nitro powered T-Maxx turned the rc world upside down, it made nitro engines incredibly popular when electric had ruled the roost for years. Anyways, if you want to get your hands on one, it sounds like the initial release is going to be limited, as in most hobby shops will only get one or two. So… if you want to be one of the first people to own one, your name had better be first on the list at your LHS.

The latest word that I’ve heard about the gas powered Losi XXL is that it is scheduled for a late May release. First to the market is always a big deal and can make or break a product, but who knows, I know it’s a nuclear arms race for several companies to get their gas powered products to the marketplace. Will it end up being HPI or Losi first to dealer shelves with a gas powered MT???? Time will tell, but needless to say the next 6 months is going to be very interesting in the world of rc, and the world as we know it might look much different this time next year.

In BSRC news…

Expect our Durango DETC410 touring car review to drop later this week, as well as coverage from the STL round of the Axial G6, along with multiple other original pieces that you won’t find anyplace else. Thanks to you guys, life is very good at BSRC, we are hardcoring the rc life and hope you know that we appreciate everyone who supports us.

Until next week, support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can…

YOUR Cub Reporter