YMMV / Blogger Beware

• Bizarro Episode: Earth Geeks Must Go! is written from the perspective of a psychiatrist examining Troy about his blogging fatigue. It's less a review than an excuse for Troy to vent his frustration with Series 2000, which he didn't even read as a kid and has no nostalgia for, unlike the original books.
  "It's just that I kind of feel like all of the nostalgic glee that used to fuel my earlier entries has been replaced with easy tomato-lobbing— I didn't read these more recent books when I was a kid, it's hard for me to figure the appeal this new series has for anyone, and thus making fun of something that obviously sucks seems like something less than a challenge."
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • As you might imagine, genuine Goosebumps fans generally aren't appreciative of Troy's snarky tone, especially given that it dominated online discussion of the books from the late 2000s to early 2010s, making it difficult to discuss them seriously. It essentially created two sides to the fandom: the side that agrees with Troy that the books are nostalgic but easy to poke fun at, or the side that thinks he's punching down and should be less harsh. He got a lot of comments to the latter effect during the blog's life, and usually dismissed them if he responded at all.
  • Nostalgia blog Snarky Two-Shoes began reviewing Goosebumps books in 2009. That blog's fans frequently commented on Blogger Beware in 2009-2010, usually talking up Snarky while insulting Troy. Several flame wars ensued, leading Troy to issue a moratorium on mentioning the other blog.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the 2007 review of "How I Got My Shrunken Head", Troy makes a comment about how there's nothing more boring than watching someone else play video games, and says that the main character of the book — who plays video games very excitedly and is named Mark — would become a sensation on YouTube.
  • In his 2006 review of "The Phantom of the Auditorium", Troy mentions not wanting to be "one of those internet people who points out mistakes".
  • Troy briefly mentions in his 2008 "One Day at Horrorland" review that "[he] feel[s] a little bad because [he is] fairly sure [RL Stine's] seen the blog." 5 years later, we get confirmation.
  • The review of Werewolf Skin had a comment that Stine really likes the names Alex and Hannah (those were the third and second times, respectively, that those names were used for a major character, following The Ghost Next Door (Hannah Fairchild), Ghost Camp (Alex Altman), and The Blob That Ate Everyone (Alex Iarocci). When another Hannah shows up in one of the short story collections, Troy even comments on it in the entry. Guess what the fictional RL Stine's daughter in the movie is named? Thus, an avid fan of the blog might be at a disadvantage compared to a slightly less voracious fan of the books to spotting the twist before it happens: Hannah Stine actually is Hannah Fairchild.
  • In the quiz entry for Werewolf in the Living Room, one question asks how the protagonist is different from the norm. The correct answer is "eleven years old" but the first choice was originally "gay". (It was later changed to intelligent.) The franchise would actually introduce a gay protagonist in one of the IDW comics.
• Reviews Are the Gospel: Goosebumps fans have a tendency to base their opinions off of the blog, since Troy is by far the most popular Goosebumps reviewer.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Despite poking fun at "Early '90s Cultural References" being one of its hallmarks, the blog ironically became a time capsule of its era as well. Troy's posts frequently reference then-recent movies and ongoing television series (eg. Mad Men, Pushing Daisies, Whitney) and recent political and cultural events (such as the housing bubble) that mark it as a product of the mid-to-late 2000s. Particularly the Cuckoo Clock of Doom entry with its Running Gag promoting Juno (In Theaters Now), which is Played for Laughs.

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