I think I understand now

[u/Lufgow]

I've watched Mr. Ballen since he started on YouTube. I was hooked. I started listening to his podcast, which is true crime and his Medical Mysteries.

I see many people say his content isn't as good as it was in the beginning. Well, it's different for sure.

He stopped doing the Paranormal videos. He stopped doing the unsolved content and he stopped doing stories from real people claim crazy things.

I think that's why his content degraded over time. The content he's been doing since the Amazon signing is the same content we can get from That Chapter, Coffeehouse Crime and countless other channels.

What separated him was his genuine love of unsolved mysteries. I believe he's moved into True Crime and remastering old episodes.

[u/Significant-Rent9153]

"If you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, you've come to the right place."...THESE words are what brought millions to his channel and would return every time. This format is what his core audience came to see and hear. You're not saying anything wrong at all, you're not being mean, you're certainly not hating. If anyone tells you otherwise, they're the ones with the problem who can't handle hearing an opinion. You have every right to voice your opinion as to what you miss and the type of content you'd like to continue to hear. Now some people are perfectly happy with whatever he puts out. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. And I mean that. They'll voice their opinions about it, and they have every right to, and I would never say they shouldn't be allowed to. But for them to get upset with the people who prefer the original format (because, again, "strange dark and mysterious", THAT'S what brought them in to begin with), to try and stifle those people, it's asinine. To try and tell others simply "Don't listen to him anymore, just go away." it's basically saying "You're not allowed to like what you like." It's silly. What they don't get is this: If someone truly didn't like the channel and more importantly, the man who created it, if they didn't have the passion for something that meant something to them, they would just give up and not say anything at all. Those people would walk away. The real fans might not be pleased, yet they're still listening every week because that's what real fans do. They don't desert, they DON'T stop listening. And real fans will be genuinely honest. And I guarantee MrBallen would be the first person to say (just like any good content creator): "What do you think? How am I doing? Please be honest with me. I want this to be as enjoyable as possible for EVERYONE. What do you, the viewer/listener, like and don't like?" (anyway, for everyone reading, have a good day and be good to one another)

[u/Sourmoth → u/Significant-Rent9153]

I agree with most of what you're saying (not necessarily the way you said it, but that's by the by), but I think "strange, dark and mysterious" has a lot of broad range that doesn't have to be supernatural and paranormal, there is plenty about the seen world that is "strange dark and mysterious"

Also "stop watching" is not saying you can't like what you like, and therefore is not asinine, it is saying "you clearly DON'T like the current content so why spend your time watching and getting annoyed by content you're not enjoying"

I 100% agree everyone is entitled to give feedback, and I also agree Mr. Ballen would be the first to want to know and would be grateful for feedback, but he also has access to his video data and will see which videos are most popular and do best and also how they watch them (when they repeat bits, when they turn off etc), so I wouldn't be surprised if he tweaked his content based on all that.

[u/Ok_Rate5871 → u/Sourmoth]

I think for me it’s the very generic way the stories are being told now and the lack of reveal and details in the early parts of the story that are obviously a way to conceal the obvious reveal coming later in the story. The suspense for me isn’t there anymore. It’s almost like the studios got Involved and were like “true crime is super popular so just do that from now on”. The stories are a lot less strange dark and mysterious overall. It’s basically just a true crime podcast.

I remember the stories about the wolf creatures that attacked the house, or the bell ringing in the woods where the girls father came to rescue her and he heard it or the laughing creature outside the peoples tent. Those were the ones that got me hooked. It was a look into the unknown, not Just a story about a murder.