I would never be a pinball podcaster. All the shit these guys take for having the gall to provide hours of free content is insane. I am 100% certain there was no intent to exclude anyone.

Not like here are dozens of female pinball podcasters out there that they are deliberately ignoring.

Who cares how they are being sponsored? Who cares if Zach is doing it to help his business? People do realize that for some folks, pinball is more than just a hobby where you drop a few quarters and then go on Pinside to bitch about stuff right? For some people it is a business.

Many people on here seem to think that everything everyone does for them should be for free, and every pinball manufacturer should limit their profit to the bare minimum so as to give back to the poor, hungry huddled pinball masses. Sometimes I think the hobby needs to get over itself.

As for Kaneda, he has his own agenda, which is to feed his ego. That's fine, but doesn't make him better or worse than anyone else with a mic.

Don't know that they owed anyone any transparency. They were leaving to start something new, and wanted it to be a surprise. As for honesty, where exactly did they lie about something? Serious ask, not aware of rampant dishonesty.

I have listened to and or watched most of the individuals involved in this, and they all seem to be nice people who love pinball and spend a lot of time, making little or no cash on that time, making content for the rest of us to sh*t on. Why are they suddenly the villains in the latest Pinside soap opera?

Listened to Lauren Gray's podcast. To me it sounds like she has a very personal agenda to promote diversity in pinball, and that is great. More people in pinball the better. Her reaction to TPN's announcement was also very personal, viewed through her own experiences and perceptions. Not sure how much of that should be put on TPN's shoulders. Not that Lauren did, she was pretty clear about not blaming anyone, but then all the "rescuing" had to start.

It's too bad all of this had to be blown so far out of proportion due to virtue signalling and white knighting by all the "woke' people on the internet. A lot of good people taking a lot of shit, but that is the way of the world these days.