ContactJuggling.org

The Sphereplay theft issue is directly tied into the google spamming. It actually started, or at least came to light on one of these goon spam websites fushigi paid to have put up.
I see plenty of faults in their actions, so yeah, you can fault them for their advertising, because the way they are advertising is crap and bankrupt. For a start, they are misrepresenting cj in the advert, look how that turned out. They are also hiring advertising companies to do this google spamming, steal sphereplay trademark, generally any unscrupulous activity to get it greater exposure, etc.

will you people stop allowing this sort of behavior as being ok and the norm? It's just not ok! at least it can't be ok to be ok with it. yes you can fault them, because the way they are doing it has zero integrity. It's motive is merely to exploit contact for as much profit as can be had.


Not me
My first post in the original thread went like....shenagnigans! round up the posse, break out the pitch forks and torches! though it is far less funny to me now. mainly because it's gotten darker as i've understood it. and i did laugh at it waaay too hard for the first few months.

though, to be fair, it was impossible to foresee all the actual consequences at the beginning. I can't definitely understand people not really thinking of it as so bad. even so, I thought it was corny, whack, and hilariously portraying cj wrong (which ended up not being very funny). By it's mere existence, it cheapened the art and the experience of it. I also knew it had no motive other than, lets milk it for all we can get! If only I could have gotten past those first impression i might have been alright with it as well

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With fushigi, Contact juggling gravitates like an Ungody Sphereplay nose fight inside a post box full of oranges

Do you realize what you just said?
"I wouldn't have seen that happen before fushigi" and before that "...I have less contact exposure to passerbys"
How can you even think of saying something like that after openly admitting that you don't know what you're talking about?

Contact juggling has ALWAYS attracted people. Whether you saw it or not. The thing was, before fushigliblidytyy, people use to come up and ask questions and be generally amazed by the performer and their moves, now they come up insinuating that its just 'that trick ball from TV'.

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Never underestimate the complexity of buttered toast

This is the kind of statement that earns you the headbutts!

Some of us have been getting exactly that reaction for nigh on 20 years.
(It could be that Xan has just reached a level that people suddenly find more interesting.)

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...create pointless acts of beauty.

That really is the truth. While many people watched me, almost all of them, at some point mentioned either the f-ball, or "magic gravity ball", and I took the time to stop, and tell very one of them about contact juggling, and how f-ball isnt magic, just deceptively marketed. I've noticed it a lot, people do watch, but they always (unless they have prior exposure) think F-ball first.

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"We aren't contractually bound to rationality. There is NO sanity clause."

When I grow up, I want to be a seal!

Xan -- are you asking for money / tips while out on campus mucking about?

That is the BIG DIFFERENCE here -- people who have relied on CJ for income are now being passed by / laughed at because they are now just using a gimmick to try and swindle money --

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You are not controlling the flow, and you are not lost in it. You are the flow.

and you can't effectively perform/busk/practice/not be annoyed if you have to stop and do education seminars for every person who say's f-ball.

I found fushigis new marketing slogan - "Just F-it"

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With fushigi, Contact juggling gravitates like an Ungody Sphereplay nose fight inside a post box full of oranges

Yes, but I'm saying, separate the content (misrepresenting CJ) from the tactics (Google spamming). Any company might Google spam. Is Google-spamming inherently despicable?

Obviously misrepresenting CJ, & stealing Sphereplay, is crappy action on their part.

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Use this web page to find local contact jugglers:
http://www.contactjuggling.org/wiki/ind ... t_jugglers

Oh, I know that. I'm on the side of you guys... I can see how Fushigi is pulling money out of the hands of real performers. I was just saying in my personal experience, Fushigi is the first thing the comes to mind with most people.

Trust me, I am not at all pro fushigi. It makes me cringe EVERY time I hear someone say it when they see me, and I know that it does worse to anyone trying to make a living.

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"We aren't contractually bound to rationality. There is NO sanity clause."

When I grow up, I want to be a seal!

I guess this is a different question. hmmmm.

ok here you go. inherently despicable- pretty much, or at least seemingly so. as it is only really used as a tool by the wicked.

basically any company might google spam.... if they don't have an ounce of integrity. or maybe not, and it just appears so integrated with low life type marketing.

we could use the fushigi web advertising as a case and point if you like. I honestly can't see anything, in the motive, tactics, or content, that is actually of a sound ethic and isn't questionable in nature. I really just don't see anything that is above board.

i also don't really think it is fair to draw a distinction between the content and tactics. it's one and the same, there is nothing to spam if there isn't any content. lets face it, they won't be spamming heart warming uplifting messages to make sales, they are just up to and will do things like attempt to steal business from something such as the likes of sphereplay, in this case actually infringing. And would again. and would still be doing it if no one pulled them up on it. Spreading lies and misinformation, selling your information, having no actual information about the product, these are the things i see in association with this form of marketing. tbh, i haven't encountered it a lot or payed much attention to google spamming and how it is used. but from what i have seen, this is its normal trademarks style.

so yeah. pretty much all round failed the moral integrity check. along with google spamming itself, as it is only a tool for wrong doing. or i am way off base and it is quite a helpful, genuine way to accurately promote a product and wouldn't ever stoop to questionable activities like stealing trademarked names to redirect sales form somewhere else.

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With fushigi, Contact juggling gravitates like an Ungody Sphereplay nose fight inside a post box full of oranges

So I had a pretty odd thing happen to me last night and based off the event its clear that the damage is done in an irreversible way.

I went with the wife to meet some friends at the local pub to sit on the patio and have some drinks and grab dinner. One of my friends is a magician and loves illusions. I knew he would love CJ. However in my haste to get to the pub I left my acrylic at home. I only had my 100mm green stage ball.

When we got there I was mostly just talking about cj with him, he was familiar with Labyrinth so he got the idea quick. I started to do some butterflies, when the friend across from me said "Whoa, is that the ball from the commercial? When did they start selling them in green??" I said its just a rubber juggling ball, let them handle it and explained the F-Ball issue. At that point another friend came out of the restroom to join us noticing me doing something with the stage ball and said the same thing! "Is that the ball from the commercial? What is the trick." I explained the whole thing again and that was that... Or so I thought.

Just before leaving someone I met that night came up and asked. "So, what is the trick? Its static right?" I again explained, it is a skill thing and the ball itself has no special properties.

The reason I believe the damage is irreversible is because most people have a tendency to just write things off. Even if that person has no interest in CJ the knowledge of it coming from a bad commercial will lead to influence in people who would have had an interest had it not been tainted by the miss-information of the Fushigi marketing.

Interesting. I still think it will blow over once Fushigi's profit margins go down and the need for so much late night exposure dies down.

So.... I haven't seen anyone post it yet, so...

The new commercial is out..
https://www.fushigimotion.com/?mid=960493

I have to admit, there is no magic, and they do mention contact juggling... But it feels like a powerfully big case of too little, too late.

EDIT: Oops... missed the thread in the video forum about it >.>

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"We aren't contractually bound to rationality. There is NO sanity clause."

When I grow up, I want to be a seal!

I gotta say, the new commercial and most of the new website looks a lot better, and a lot more honest and upfront.

Maybe these guys really are listening to us--or at least to their customers.

And while I know that the damage done is serious and possibly irreparable, we shouldn't dismiss sincere efforts to improve the situation going forward. We're not going to defeat Fushigi, so the best outcomes we can hope for are a) Fushigi becoming a top-of-the-board, respectable company that does little damage and brings new CJers into the fold or b) Fushigi doing itself in through the unsavory tactics already mentioned in the threat. The new commercial (and some signals I see on the website, like allowing the purchase of the glow ball separately, and having some of the move tutorials publicly available so people have an idea of what the training video includes) seems to be going in the direction of a more legitimate company. I see hope in this.

A good company shouldn't have to hide anything or trick its customers into anything. If Fushigi can manage to begin behaving ethically in all respects, then I think we should try to find a way to forgive and move forward. The damage is still done, and nothing can undo it entirely, but there could be a brighter future ahead all the same--for both us and Fushigi.

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www.varf.org --The Virginia Renaissance Faire

There's some discussion about it going on over in the Video forum.

Except they're still trying to rename CJ.

Well, the "magic" was hurting them as well, and having a bad rep with experienced CJers, who would buy & recommend decent products, was unhelpful to them as well.

Yes, several possible hopeful outcomes. Though as long as they keep trying to rename CJ, I'm going to hope they do themselves in/fade away.

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Use this web page to find local contact jugglers:
http://www.contactjuggling.org/wiki/ind ... t_jugglers

Nope! I theorize that this damage will be for the entire generation of people who saw this commercial.

I say this with the knowledge that people saw the Labyrinth once when they were 5, but remembered the crystal ball for 30 years, having not seen it again. At least %40 of my (pre-F.ball) audience asked me about it, or referenced the Labyrinth when I do a show.

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