Something is Plaguing cubing: A Video Essay by Prozzta

[Garf]

So I'm scrolling on YouTube and I see this video called "Something is Plaguing Cubing #IAMJPERM", and I go and watch it. THIS NEEDS MORE VIEWS!
#Iamjperm

I agree with every point that the guy brings up. MAKE CUBING ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE!

For those who can't access the video, here's a general idea of the video:

Cubing used to be more accessible to people to learn and whatnot. But now it has changed. Jperm used to be the goat of cubing tutorials, and he left to explore Mario kart and get popular with that. Enter Cubehead, who recently posted his Cubing Academy, where if you want to learn how to solve a cube, you have to pay ~$60. This is bad since the narrator mentions that you can't reproduce the content the course brings up, as you will get into legal trouble (according to the terms and services provided in the course). For example, you buy the course, look up the guide, and see there's a tperm you already know and you think might be good to show. YOU CAN'T EVEN MAKE A VIDEO SINCE YOU WILL BE BROUGHT DOWN AND GET INTO LEGAL TROUBLE. And it's not just Cubehead that's doing this. Antonie Paterakis pulled off all his 2x2 tutorials off of YT. Why? For his course that costs 150 smackaroos. And you can't forget about Tymon's $200 course that you can probably find all the resources on YT, though it might be tough to do so since everything is YT shorts and challenges nowadays
Cubing shouldn't be about marketing and money grabs. It should about expanding it out to the people, and sharing your knowledge with other people. @Faz didn't do that when he was younger. He made all his resources free for everyone (Except for a few videos on cubeskills, but most of his videos are free for people to view and enjoy). Tingman still posts wholesome cubing to everyone. STUCUBE and other cubers bring news to everyone and keep people updated on what's happening in cubing.
So guys, as the narrator says, you can be Jperm. We can be jperm, and bring back tutorials and tips for everyone.

Signing off to make my big cube video,
Garf (Anthony Tindal), 2022TIND01

 

[qwr]

Another big fuss and call-to-arms over nothing. Plus Jperm stanning

btw CubeHead responded in the comments

 

[Cubinginatree]

The video is pretty stupid. I watched it I agree with @qwr. Please read CubeHead’s response and what Twan Dullemond said.

 

[Fred]

The video may be a bit over-the-top, but I like the encouragement for more cubers to post youtube videos and share their knowledge. I'm inspired to do so myself, though that opinion might change when I'm editing.

 

[1x1 wr holder!]

I don't really like this video.
but on the topic, i mean, this is what happens? as cubing gets bigger and heads toward more of a "sport" image, people are going to capitalize. whether or not they like it, channels like jperm fueled cubing in this direction by popularizing it. I think this direction can either be good or bad, and it's not good when people start talking about greedy aspects or whatever.

this really paints the picture of how you want to be on the producing side of things and not at the mercy of it. Either that or you need to know how to consume produced material. a lot of people complain too early that something is inaccessible because they are too lazy to do the work themselves. even if they do pay for this stuff like classes, they will have to learn the material.

The video may be a bit over-the-top, but I like the encouragement for more cubers to post youtube videos and share their knowledge. I'm inspired to do so myself, though that opinion might change when I'm editing.

yes definitely. i want to start making cubing tutorial content too, and i want others to do so as well. and yeah editing is the hardest part, and i think we should learn from jperm and cubehead to take breaks and do as much as we can to not get burnt out.

 

[L4NC3_D4_AS14N]

Another big fuss and call-to-arms over nothing. Plus Jperm stanning

btw CubeHead responded in the comments

what did Cubehead say? I have school Chromebook so I cant read yt comments

 

[ifpigscouldfly54]

what did Cubehead say? I have school Chromebook so I cant read yt comments

This is exactly what he said:

'1:46 is obviously about sharing content & PDFs that I made, you really think I can own algorithms? Why don't you mention that all of my tutorials on YouTube are free and I will be making tons more of them? That's what Cube Academy is about, the goal is to educate the next generation of cubers for free. Sure if you want to you can buy extra resources of the CFOP Pack, but I'm not forcing anyone. I flew Matty over from Hawaii to Belgium to make some of these packs, I even payed him for it, of course this stuff costs money, what is wrong about trying to sell something at a fair price? If you don't like me that's okay, but portraying me as a villain cause I'm trying to make a profit myself and totally ignoring all the good I've done is just painful'

 

[L4NC3_D4_AS14N]

This is exactly what he said:

'1:46 is obviously about sharing content & PDFs that I made, you really think I can own algorithms? Why don't you mention that all of my tutorials on YouTube are free and I will be making tons more of them? That's what Cube Academy is about, the goal is to educate the next generation of cubers for free. Sure if you want to you can buy extra resources of the CFOP Pack, but I'm not forcing anyone. I flew Matty over from Hawaii to Belgium to make some of these packs, I even payed him for it, of course this stuff costs money, what is wrong about trying to sell something at a fair price? If you don't like me that's okay, but portraying me as a villain cause I'm trying to make a profit myself and totally ignoring all the good I've done is just painful'

yeah bruv he's just tryna make money he probably spent months trying to find these algs and being able to get a PRO speedcuber ( Matty) . I mean airplane tickets aren't cheap. And yeah its not like Cubehead doesnt make tutorial videos. you can learn intermediate CFOP for FREE. anyway cubehead is a great YouTuber and I hope he keeps on making good content (no glaze btw)

 

[bluecubing]

*skull emoji*

 

[efattah]

People spend hundreds of hours generating content and you are mad because it isn't free? Then make your own content, spend the hundreds of hours, and give it away for free. Be the change you want to see in the world, but don't get mad at other people for trying to make a living in a world where groceries double in price every year.

Why do you think that cubing needs to be 'accessible' and free for everyone? In the 1980's if you wanted to learn to cube (without figuring out yourself) you had to BUY a physical book. Why didn't they give the books away for free?

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

i mean we still have jperm’s old tutorials and cubehead’s tutorials so i dont see a huge issue

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

ok I watched the video now, I don’t really like it. First of all, he’s praising JPerm like he’s the ONLY cubing YouTuber to create good tutorials/videos, and I really like JPerm and all but there are other people aside from him. JPerm is not the only one to create good tutorials, plus, we still have his old ones that are still relevant. Second, CubeHead teamed up with a top cuber, Matty Hiroto Inaba, just to create those packs. He gathered all his videos, tutorials, tips, while even adding more information just to help people improve. I would say the price is reasonable, since he even made some of those videos, which means he put effort into recording and editing the videos. He even made his own website (he made it in cubing academy but still the effort counts). So if you take all that into account, Asking a top cuber to travel across the world just to help him with his website, gathering all the videos, and algorithms and tutorials that he edited and arranged, while making his own website, and this random YouTuber with less than 500 subscribers is saying that it should be free??? It’s like saying that you should give your 120 dollar GAN smart cube to someone for FREE. It’s the effort that makes the price like that, and making one singular video is NOT the same as making an entire course dedicated to improving. (I think he paid Matty too so that probably made it a bit more expensive)

 

[cuberswoop]

I have no problem with cubehead making/organizing a course to buy. I have no problem with anybody taking down their free things to reuse them as paid things (im not even sure this has happened but it was mentioned). I'm fine with cubehead charging money to access algs and whatever even if they're publicly online. Anybody can charge whatever they want for whatever they want to sell; its an issue for the consumer, not the manufacturer. If you dont like the product dont buy it.

Some people in the comments of the video were saying that this makes cubehead a bad person; I'm pretty sure someone even used the term "evil" or similar. I have no problem with those people, its what they picked up from the situation from watching the video, and they're probably not well informed. The problem i have is with the maker of the video. He got into a few arguments in the comment section where he was trying to pass this off as "his opinion". The things he said in the video... are not opinions? He stated them as facts and tried to give proof for them, but was wrong. IMO this guy is more of a villain than what he believes cubehead is.

Side note: the #iamjperm thing definitely just makes me think this is clickbait/done for attention, and is possibly one of the dumbest cubing hashtags I've seen.

 

[EvanCuber1]

We still have 99% of the resources from before so it’s not that big of a deal in my opinion
Plus Im just saying, instead of learning algs form Antoine’s videos, just use the 2x2 alg doc that has literally every alg you could ever need.
Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...9a506JeAcLnUXZr8FgXAY/htmlview#gid=1467226722

My point is, when you lose something, there’s always gonna be a solution

 

[Arcanist]

Don't really like what cubehead has done with his CFOP pack but I mean he isn't forcing me to do anything with it . Also he still has tons of useful content on his channel that helped push me sub 15.