John E. Ringo said:
I don't see folks on here trashing McKeen's or ISS (although someone recently did say ISS sucks b/c they stole their reports from McKeen's). That, to me, raises a serious red flag and why above I mentioned a hidden agenda. It scares me when "RLR sucks" is hauled out every time someone mentions RLR or Woodlief. It sounds as if someone has a serious axe to grind.
A hidden agenda
My God, the length people will go to around here to distort things never ceases to amaze me. Why is it that every time someone criticizes or just plain doesn't like something or someone must it always be a hidden agenda or jealousy or whatever freak conspiracies?
Do I truly understand people who enjoy RedLine? Nope. I don't claim to. Whatever float your boat. Do they truly understand me? Doesn't seem like it either. But they'd sure like to put labels that just do not apply. I'll chalk that attitude as being insecurity at its finest.
We can't all find RedLine to our liking, guys. Can you all understand that? I find that the opinion given by you John E., as well as by FDW, to be very interesting and it makes sense: you both seem to view RedLine as an independant scouting staff. They don't try to average things out. It's not a bland compilation and they don't pull the punches. They tell it like they see it.
What the **** do you expect will happen when someone is not bland and doesn't take the middle road? You think no strong reactions will come out of that? Wake up. People/magazines/whatever holding strong opinions will get strong reactions.
That's what I get all the time around here, BTW. I hold black and white opinions often. When people disagree with me, I don't feel the need to tell them they are biased, or have some weak-ass reason like "a secret agenda" or "jealousy". No, the truth is, they just don't like whatever it is I am saying at the time.
By the same token, I try to be consistant with this. I don't think Redline are "jealous" or have a "secret agenda" when they put a weakling, fairly ordinary guy like Chistov ahead of Kovalchuk one month. I just think their opinion is garbage.
As a scouting service that is opinionated, I find that it would be very unlikely that RedLine would be perceived equally well by all. I happen to think very highly of certain scouting staffs in the NHL but not all of them. I think we'd be crazy to think equally well of every scout/services out there.
I am really happy that RedLine is out there and that some people ENJOY it. I do think it's not worth it IMO but that's the freedom of speech giving me the right to say so and people are not under any obligation to take my opinion seriously. It is GOOD that some people are buying this and do NOT regret it and even get their money's worth. I'm sure you've all got friends buying things you simply can't understand. If you're real freinds, you probably express your disagreement from time to time and then move on. I just bought recently a book on Cats' Genetics for approx. $120. It's a little hardbound book of 200 pages, much of it wasted on appendixes and some of it reproducing info I already had available to me. Yeah, some people find I'm out to lunch. They also thought I was out to lunch when I told them how much I paid for my last cat when they can get one cheap at the nearest petshop or even free from a particular.
There's no organized campaign against RedLine. The opinion I hold of RedLine will not prevent you from enjoying it. It will not prevent some people from subscribing to it either. Kyle Woodlief is confident enough in his service that he gives us a little preview, opens up a little window into RedLine's world for us. From the moment he does that, two kinds of people will show up: those who believe everything they see in print and those who will read what he has to say and then react to it. I am in the second camp and my reaction is that this service seems poor to me, just like my cat seems like a bad idea to many in my familily and friends. Some people with react well to it and buy it.
On to the issue regarding McKeen and ISS. The first thing I'd like to say is that unlike Woodlief, they do not put up a preview. I cannot offer an opinion on them much based on that, can I? I mean, everytime Woodlief writes a new column, people post about it here. A thread with "New RedLine column" is created. I actually think that's GREAT that people do that. But at the same time, you gotta understand that people will once again share their various opinions on that.
Now, you can either try to comfort yourself by deluding yourself into thinking I have something against Rick Dudley, Mike Komisarek, RedLine, etc. but that won't make it true. Sorry. I praise lots of things and I express my disagreement with lots of things too. I've been around long enough that I think people should know by now that either I have a secret agenda so huge that I am a master-conspiror, or perhaps, just perhaps, I just have an opinion on things.
When/if McKeen or ISS are available for me to peruse, I'll comment on them like I comment on THN and RedLine. And the world will continue to turn whatever my opinion happens to be.
