A few thoughts about the new pre-recorded livestream format. @Ryan, @Josh, and anyone else that would want some input. First off, I see the advantage to the Mirai crew in that they don’t have to be on site on a Tuesday evening. Second, I see the advantage to filming the stream in advance so that the boring stuff that people don’t need to see for the 100th time can be edited out to keep things tight. The major disadvantage to me, and I think to others as well, is that I can’t both pay attention to what @Ryan is saying on the stream and simultaneously monitor questions and answers as they flash by on the chat. Additionally the questions on the chat are separated from the answers by quite a bit sometimes, so even if one can catch an answer from @Ryan while still trying to pay attention to the stream, it isn’t always obvious what the question was. Since the chat stream doesn’t carry over to the library the questions and answers are lost. I see this as a major downside to the new format as many times there are very interesting and informative questions and answers during the livestream. One other thing is that the live interaction between @Ryan and the chat questioners is something that I think really adds to the livestream and makes it unique.
Well said and I agree. I am missing the questions as I generally watch in the archives
I also watch the archive so that I can take notes. it is often the answers to the questions that are most valuable in my notes.
Yeah, the not hearing a question and answer is a huge loss. I learned so much from ppl’s questions when watching old streams. I found myself paying most of my attention to the chat. When Ryan would answer I would have to scroll back up to find the question. Scroll back down to see the next answer. Scroll back up to see the question. Rinse and repeat for 90 mins.
Honestly, if the reason for the change is that the crew shouldn’t be there at night then perhaps a time change is in order? Idk. I’m good with a mix of Mirai Live and Mirai Prerecorded (I can’t claim credit for that one lol). If anything the Mirai crew has shown that they’re willing to try something and then make the necessary tweaks.
I will say that the pot selection portion was not as fun/engaging since what we said didn’t really impact the already selected pot.
Ryan does keep saying that the upcoming app will alleviate some of these issues. I’m guessing the app will cover common questions that Ryan has probably answered more than a few times. 
I must admit, when I watch a live stream I never watch the chat. I find it to be a distraction and my focus is 100% on what Ryan is doing and saying.
I almost never get a chance to watch a stream live and just happened to tune in. I was super disoriented by the chat and thought, “how do these folks follow anything Ryan is saying?” Then I saw this post.
It was all a bit frenetic.
I have a feeling the Mirai team is trying to condense down some labor intensive techniques to keep stream lengths reasonable. A potentially more valuable tweak would be to host a post stream chat rather than take attention off of the material during the stream.
The original format with moderated questions is absolute gold.
The chat gets pretty hype at times. It’s more akin to a viewing party. I always rewatch the stream when it releases. I have a desk job and work from home, so it’s easy for me to do that.
Are the prerecorded streams the new normal? I feel that would be a mistake. I greatly enjoy the “aliveness” of the streams, even though I never watch them live. The non-streamlined element of the questions and the live work is a feature, not a bug - a lot of my biggest aha!-moments have been due to off the cuff remarks and and other “artefacts” of the live format.
That being said, if the schedule isn’t healthy or whatever, then of course take care of yourselves first.
Just to be extra clear, I really like the prerecordeds as well, just don’t stop doing the live thing unless you have to.
Agree. More pre-recorded streams yes but please do not let it be the new normal.
Just watched Q+A 212 and Bentley’s question/remark about people who can’t watch live streams and therefore missing q&a . I am very disappointed with Ryan’s reply; could be only me but he sounded cold and dismissive. App will be great , no doubt. But can not replace live interaction we have with a teacher. Of course , questions not covered in app we can ask in Live Q&A ( for most of us is never live ). But,…
Magic is lost. I’m afraid.
When the new norm is prerecorded it is no longer Mirai Live. I am sure the twist would be, well the chat is live. I came here years ago for the personal interaction of the streams. Prerecorded stream takes all that away. The way it is just being passed off as the app is going to fix it all just doesn’t add up logically. The app will still be impersonable, the changes in the class structure (where you need to go someone else’s first) and the live stream changes really makes it seem as though Mirai and Ryan is distancing himself from a large number of practitioners.
I have accepted that I cannot watch a stream (either live or pre-recorded) while paying attention to the chat. I agree the Q&A’s are very valuable.
My solution is to watch the chat live (and hope I’m not too distracted by the guy doing the demo) and then watch the demo when it is posted.
Yeah, I’m going to have to do the same. Now even ppl that are live and in the chat are still missing things because there’s no rehash of the question when it’s answered. I’m going to try to keep my chatter down in the chat because it’s probably more annoying and in the way than ever when ppl are trying to ask questions and get their answers in the chat window.
I think that tonight’s juniper on rock stream that turned out to be actually live really shows the value of the live format. The questions and answers that everyone can hear, and the live interaction with @Ryan as he worked on the tree is one of the most valuable things that Mirai does. This would have been just a good stream if it had been pre-recorded; but it was a really great stream live with all the interaction, and those who watch it in the library will still be able to benefit as much as those who watched it live. I hope that we can keep more fully live streams going forward.
I agree. From the very start of Mirai Live, I was always thankful and fairly amazed at how well the format worked as a teaching mode, and very impressed by this novel approach (I’ve not seen this employed anywhere else). I thought it was a brilliant idea, and kudos to Ryan and his team for coming up with the idea. While I also appreciate the shorter pre-recorded content on very specific topics, I do agree with others that there is a huge amount of valuable information that comes from Ryan answering questions while he is working. These are often questions that many of us are thinking, but which Ryan might not have anticipated the need to cover. Anyway - I think if this format goes away entirely, it would be a significant loss, FWIW.
Will just chime in to vote in favor of continuing the old model with live chat questions. It’s really awesome and is a big part of why I subscribed.
Balance of water and oxygen. The pendulum will swing, and a balance will be struck. To date the swing has been one sided. MIRAI has been live, it’s what we know and love…all Ryan all the time, but it’s not sustainable, we all know that at our core. He’s a Dad with a family and growing needs on time, time that cannot be replaced. He’s also an entrepreneur with a growing business, with people, technology, structure builds, and classes going on year round. He’s an artist advocate, to ceramicists, and furniture makers, tree growers and collectors from around the world. Then he has a garden, with hundreds of pieces of living art to maintain, and the daily unpredictability of weather that must be delt with in real time, plus the unique characteristics and needs of each piece that for the most part live in his head, save Troy and maybe a few others. The toll is heavy. Balance. Even if the swing is to the opposite end, all pre-recorded all the time, no live Q&A for a period of time there is more content in the library than one could consume in a year. In truth many questions I have asked have been previously answered many times over and I could have found them had I actually tried, instead of just asking the question live for immediate gratification. It is MIRAI that is most important to me. The archives, the forum, the knowledge, the tree people, and yes the live aspect which I love as much as the next member. Embrace the change. It will swing. Balance will be found.
/rant
steps down from soapbox
wipes rotten fruit from face
Well said Moon. Well said. I have learned so much from Ryan and the team. I do not care what format they use / as long as they keep churning them out while keeping Ryan engaged without burning him out. It has been wonderful to date no matter what they do and I have faith the team will continue to blow us away with awesome professional content. The best there is …
Yeah, nice comment Moon.
An opinion from central Europe. I barely get to actually see any live stuff, sometimes a Q&A is slipped into my time zone but otherwise everything is at 3 in the morning, etc in terms of the best streams, which are the Tuesday live streams.
It makes no difference to me. I still learn so much even though I’m not able to be there and ask a question if it pops in my head. I also have two kids now so watching a full stream can take a week and so I completely understand that Ryan can’t split himself in half to manage god knows how many things at Mirai.
For me, the Forum Q&A’s have been the most powerful. Direct feedback on material I have that I can work with and then get feedback again after perfoming something on the material. That is as close as I can, unfortunately, be to Ryan’s knowledge and eye. These F Q&A’s along with the knowledge we gain from the streams has completely changed the game for me and I’ve now only slowed down a bit because I have no garden, my material is at a friends house which takes time to get to and then I have to help and spend time with my family as well.
As long as the material, and awesome it has been, keeps coming I will continue to support them as I can. March should be 4 years now 
and looking at my trees from that era, jesus christ on a motorbike, what a difference.
Well put moon, but I do have to counter one of your points. Doing the stream pre-recorded isn’t saving the crew time. If anything it’s adding to their day. The last pre-recorded stream was a 3 hour operation for Ryan. Then Josh has to edit the video which resulted in a 2 hour stream. Then Ryan handles the chat for 2 hours.
I agree that several versions of the same questions have been asked several times, but that’s how we learn. Things get ingrained in our heads and eventually I’ve heard the question so many times that I can answer it. I call that progress. Not a waste of time. I spent the first year of my Mirai membership just absorbing those questions because it’s like a fire hose of information. The second year I was finally able to start digging deeper into the knowledge given because I felt like I understood the concepts related to the “commonly asked questions”.
There definitely is a lot of content in the library and I’ve gone through all of it. Again, I have a desk job so it wasn’t a huge undertaking. I feel like my skills grew exponentially when I joined Mirai and a lot of that had to do with the answers to the common questions.
Ryan’s skills and knowledge have grown over time as well. Granted most information he provides has not changed too much, but there have been some changes. This is why he’s against the printed medium. He’s stated that it is too permanent for him and likes that the video format allows him to revise his guidance. That, in turn, influences his answers.
In the podcast with Ryan and Ira there’s mention of wanting to condense the streams a bit to fit the microwave mentality of the world that we live in. Ppl want concise and the instant gratification that you mentioned. Outside of the stream that means no “user question fluff” I guess. 
I believe that’s where the app is going to come in. It will have the answers to the common questions. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water though. The in-stream questions absolutely have merit.
Anyway, I love Mirai. Probably annoyingly so. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to 100% agree with everything they do just as my children don’t agree with everything I do. That said, I wouldn’t mind a mix. Maybe like a 3:1 or 3:2 ratio of live to pre-recorded. I’d be fine with moving all of the questions to the end if that makes it easier to edit that portion out or gives ppl a place that they can end the stream because they’re so dope at bonsai that they don’t need to hear questions posed by plebs.
I too strongly prefer the livestream. The interplay between Ryan and viewing members is one element that sets Mirai live streams apart from other educational videos available via the internet.
Living on the East Coast and given the longstanding schedule, I tend to watch through the archives. If the evening time slot on Tuesdays no longer works for Ryan, perhaps a different day or earlier start time would. Might be worth considering given the overwhelming support for the live format.