Lancehedrick wrote: Ok. But I have a cease and desist letter they sent. And my promoting 1zpresso has NOTHING to do with that beef. If you go to the reddit thread about my speaking against their bullying tactics, it was well AFTER I called K plus better than comandante.

I genuinely don't think comandante is as good. No fixed burr, no innovation, no exterior adjustment, massive steps. Not competitive in this day and age.

I'm fine if you don't subscribe. I'd ask that you just don't watch any If youre not wanting to support. Plenty of other incredible creators out there. Cheers

hehehe as much as I love 1Zpresso I still think the C40 is quite a bit better than the K-burr grinders in terms of unimodal output

That being said, way before I sent Lance my Zp6 to review, I actually contacted Comandante offering them free advice about how they could improve their product from having a fixed burr or trying to improve their burr geometry, improving their ergonomics, to even just numbering their clicks. I actually told Comandante about the existence of the 1Z Zp6 and JS before ever talking to Lance.

They just told me that since I don't have a PSD laser their burr is still the best. And I guess making more colors and increasing prices matter more than innovation. Sucks for them.

Oh and the Zp6 comparison to SSP Brew Burrs (OG MP burrs that don't have the flat edges) is actually because I do have a hand grinder with 64mm SSP Silver Knight brew burrs and the Zp6 is the closest to that in the conical hand grinder world.

Anyways, Lance is legit, kinda weird, but legit.

I came here thinking this would be a Timemore 078 thread, thankfully it's a bash Lance thread. Grow a better, more musical beard why don't you

jrcdzn wrote:Yeah, that Onyx organization seems pretty made up and shady, for sure! I mean who starts a business in Northwest Arkansas?

I thought we were talking about Lance Hedrick by the way... Not sure who Lance Hendrick is. I for sure don't trust that guy.

Coffee haze! All in my brain!

Lancehedrick wrote:Please let me know what I do that makes me unreliable. I don't do affiliate links, I don't partner with brands, I've literally taken massive potential payments and thrown them down the toilet to maintain authenticity. Do you all just not like my personality? If so, please say that. I try my hardest to be authentic and do all this youtube stuff in the middle of the night so as to not affect my time with my kids. Disheartening to read the rampant distrust when I'm working so hard for the opposite.

I like lance a lot. I think lance's content is transparent, well produced and thorough. I particularly enjoyed the recent videos on the femobook, and the etzinger manual (giant) hand grinder. I thought both of those videos were open and honest. And they also showed the products in depth. These were products that were reviewed by very few others, and when others did review these products, they did not go very deep into the weeds. Lance has a heartfelt personality imo, and I think the content is refreshing and extremely helpful in a marketplace that is extraordinarily saturated with competitive products.

I agree, have found Lance's channel helpful as I look to switch up my gear. But I guess it's cool to be dismissive of people's opinions on the internet. Can't please everyone!

Lance is eccentric but has solid technical knowledge and experience. I value his advice and detect no obvious shilling in any direction. (For what it's worth)

Lancehedrick wrote:Please let me know what I do that makes me unreliable. I don't do affiliate links, I don't partner with brands, I've literally taken massive potential payments and thrown them down the toilet to maintain authenticity. Do you all just not like my personality? If so, please say that. I try my hardest to be authentic and do all this youtube stuff in the middle of the night so as to not affect my time with my kids. Disheartening to read the rampant distrust when I'm working so hard for the opposite.

If someone is calling you unreliable its not a genuine criticism, they're just spewing online negativity. Ignore the haters

Heck, if Lance did a standup comedy special... I am pretty sure it would be pure gold. (I know you're reading this dude... make it happen!)

Lancehedrick wrote:Please let me know what I do that makes me unreliable. I don't do affiliate links, I don't partner with brands, I've literally taken massive potential payments and thrown them down the toilet to maintain authenticity. Do you all just not like my personality? If so, please say that. I try my hardest to be authentic and do all this youtube stuff in the middle of the night so as to not affect my time with my kids. Disheartening to read the rampant distrust when I'm working so hard for the opposite.

Rant Warning: Read only if you're up to hearing one person's opinion (there are others, even opposing):
Ok, I'm going to try and be as kind as possible here. Lance Hendrick is a real human being after all as are other social media "influencers." So that said, I will attempt to reasonably address this question Lance Hendrick raises.

"Reliability"

1. LH Statement: "I've been working in coffee a decade." My server at McDonald's (when I used to go), also worked in Coffee for over a decade. They were barista's (at MickyDees) as well. I have, however, no evidence other than noticing they worked in coffee for over 10 years, that they know anything about coffee or engineering other than how to press buttons and serve it. I do know that they can buy coffee machines with money they receive, and they could, if they so chose, make videos about their purchases and even suggest they are experts. They could easily be more expert in coffee than JH for all I know (not a hard thing really).
2. LH Statement: "I've been on sensory panels . . ." I feel like I'm being punk'd when I read a statement like that. But the truth is these LH posts are really just an attempt to market a name for profit and not an attempt to add real contributions to the coffee community and culture. Spending every day telling people how to subscribe and buy merch or buy some type of membership makes sense for proper community hubs like Home-Barista, but when an individual does it, its just a Sensory Assault and diminishes the Coffee Culture turning it into a pale imitation of the movie "Idiocracy" . . . "welcome to costco we love you"
3. LH Statement: "am calibrated with green buyers and Q instructors" While calibration is something that might benefit anyone, this statement suggests a vast misunderstanding of the coffee culture akin to Rick James saying "Cocaine is a Helluva drug." Its a statement for sure but does not necessarily demonstrate reliability, if that is the issue here at all.
4. LH Statement: "I've competed and coached." I am sure this was both fun and rewarding. It does not, however, suggest good influence on coffee culture or the community. I certainly don't think it is bad for Mr. Hendrick to have an opinion, but the problem develops when someone promotes themselves as an expert and contributes questionable content affecting the coffee community. There are literally dozens of very recent very expensive production espresso machines that have been "influenced" by self-proclaimed so-called experts, and that are being sold to individuals and families who genuinely enjoy coffee culture and learning about all things coffee; however, most of these "influencer" collaboration machines are the equivalent of a Styrofoam cup, often disposable due to the influence of non-engineers outside these century old or highly technical new companies producing espresso machines. Many of these "Social Influencer" machines are loaded down with pretty lights and buttons but that leave all but an experienced coffee technician or expert with the ability to maintain it. These machines are very often recycled after just a few years of use even though the social-influencer control panel buttons still light up and the PID display reads "No Pressurestat Detected." I don't necessarily want to say that people who suggest their experience pressing buttons and pulling levers on a $25,000 espresso machine somehow does not prove reliability . . . but it may not qualify them as experts on highly complex machines manufactured to within tenths of a millimeter tolerances and designed by an engineer with 50 year of experience in the industry. Hearing a social influencer talk about flow profiles is to some like nails on a chalkboard. Worse, it takes about three months of mineral scale to render a PID useless in some cases and while a social influencer is recommending his latest flow profile "workflow," the people watching his video are days away from making plans for someone to come and buy their $2500 investment for $50 because the steam wand no longer works or because it makes a funny sound but no water comes out. Home-Barista has literally been a lighthouse in that sea of self-promoting clown-shoes and the experts here on HB have saved people collectively literally tens of millions of dollars, and likely even much more in passive readers finding resources. A self-promoting thread post from a social media influencer wondering why they aren't being seen as "reliable" is ghastly.
5. LH Statement: "I funnel all I make from youtube . . . back into youtube." Proving only that self-promotion is a central concern here. I can find three serious and fundamental errors in any video on your channel you suggest. The same goes for your friend JH. The amount of misinformation being placed in easy reach of people who are trying to learn about coffee and who are interested in Coffee Culture sincerely, is breathtaking. At the very tip of this spear are people who proclaim themselves to be experts and don't take the time to really learn from true experts like the owner of Home-Barista and its many long term posters. There is real information here, but when a person's sole goal is to chase penny-fractions on YouTube and other social media sites, I feel like its time to call Elon and Matt to deep dive into whether families and people are being manipulated. It should be pointed out that Crypto-Sam also plowed money back into promoting his self-interests.
6. LH Statement: "I still work a full time job at Onyx Coffee Lab" I'm a fan of all businesses and hope we will all soon see Onyx Coffee Lab as a site sponsor for Home-Barista. The average Onyx Coffee Lab salary ranges from approximately $30,000 per year for Café Manager to $45,000 per year for District Manager. Average Onyx Coffee Lab hourly pay ranges from approximately $9.57 per hour for Barista to $13.14 per hour for Kitchen Team Member. As I understand it, Onyx was founded around 2012 or so . . . I'm sure many folks have t-shirts that are perhaps more worn in. That said, sometimes newer can be better if done right;
7. LH Statement: "So, curious what the issue is? My theatricality?" I'm not sure "theatrical" is a term that would apply here but it does appear you are trying to inject some humour into your videos for promotional value.

Sadly, China youth were asked what their most aspired to job was and "Astronaut" was a top answer, while in North America, "Social Influencer" was top. This is a terrible development because self-promotion without expertise is just empty calories and eventually that becomes unhealthy. The coffee community is a very unusual and complex world wide phenomena. When people promote themselves without the accompanying expertise, they are basically actors playing a role. It might be entertaining, but it isn't real. The damage that occurs is when incorrect information is offered to people who have a sincere interest and thirst (no pun intended, well, maybe a bit), for information about all things coffee. JH is a far more egregious offender than anyone in this respect, respectfully . . . perhaps someday we will see Youtube algorithms bury JH's video recommendation of the MyPressi somewhere next to Jimmy Hoffa. When a family or person loses $2000 because of bad advice from JH or another self-appointed social media influencer, we are all just a little poorer sadly, but mostly the family or person losing the huge investment.

I hope I've reasonably offered some points here and not been mean. The concern is the damage that can be done by those who have been increasing their media reach by taking advantage of marketing schemes offered by companies like YouTube etc. While "Influencers" may want to be experts and even in some cases, such as James H., perhaps eventually think they are experts, there really is no such thing. The truth about James H. is that he is good at carrying coffee without spilling and has, some suggest, mastered the art of appearing effete to mask what may be some type of unrefined smarminess. It is obvious from watching these "influencer" videos that almost all of of these social media influencers lack the true expertise of the true experienced experts in their industries, experts like those who have created Home-Barista for a vast world-wide community of non-super-self-promoters. Many of these influencers still prefer coffee truck coffee in wet paper cup flavours and no amount of certification of tasting ability can mask that. The preference many like Mr. Henrick and Mr. Hoffman proffer may be demonstrating all to readily a lack of understanding what espresso and other extractions are and because they don't know how to discover this, they could be seen perhaps as stumbling along in order to push out ever more increasingly misguided and errant desperate content-for-content-sake into the world in a vain attempt to to pickup those penny-fractions, like some cartoon Super-Mario character, they hope to receive by attracting attention to themselves through self-promotion. Coffee Culture and the Coffee Community is a diverse group of people learning from each other constantly and when a peacock starts blocking our view of the game, its time to tell them, "No, you can't hold our espresso thank you."

JH, and similar of that ilk, might be viewed as somewhat entertaining by some, and as the only game in town when looking for coffee community information due to promotional algorithms that bombard people with bad content, often due to social influencers buying marketing on Social Media platforms. I suspect most people see these social influencers as no different than Crypto-Sam or Theranos-Liz . . . damaging an entire industry on the backs of their own self-interested super-self-promotion and self-aggrandization solely for social media revenue when the truth is they are imposters and leading many people to drink hundreds of very bad cups of coffee through provably flawed advice and information.

My offer stands: To James Hoffman and any other Social Media Influencer, name your regular length video uploaded and I'll show you three provably incorrect assumptions/advice points in the video.

I'm sure there are fans of these social media influencers, of course, and there's no question many people are seeking entertainment and insight about anything coffee . . . caffeine is a helluva chug after all. That doesn't entitle PT Barnum or some snake-oil salesperson from the next town over to capitalize on our interests when they are merely self-appointed social-media-influencers. Just because people can get a few laughs from an episode of Bewitched doesn't mean witches are real or that Dr. Bombay's potions work anymore than these a social influencer's flow-profile or advice does. Brutal I know. I'm sure these are real people making these YouTube videos and they are undoubtedly likable people too but bad information is bad information and it can have a very bad effect on people who are just interested in learning about coffee and in being part of a community of people with like minded interests. That is why self-marketing and self-promotion is unreliable, it starts from a place that lacks the goal of enriching a community.

TLDR;

Except... I tried, but your own attempts at dripping wit and humor but not getting to a specific point felt merely manipulative and not substantive.

For example, your categorical minimization of what either LH or JH actually may have to offer from their previous experience to a discussion of products (or coffee topics in general) made me question the point of your post at all... other than your own self-promotion?

Where are the specific examples of their bad and wrong advice you mention? One would think your post would be full of specifics based on the length, if you wanted to discuss why they should not be listened to or why they are not in your opinion suitable to make videos about techniques or devices for making coffee.

And you question their motives? Odd.