Podcast on hiatus?

August 26, 2012 7:40 PM

I like the MeFi Podcast! The last one was posted June 12 so if I am not mistaken we are in the longest between-podcasts interval since they got started in 2007. That was a 20-podcast year. We've had four so far this year, good lengthy ones, to be sure. What has changed? Are people not so interested anymore, or are the mods just too busy?
posted by in278s to MetaFilter-Related at 7:40 PM (31 comments total)

We were talking about this recently. The BestOf blog has been where we've been channeling some of our "Hey this is cool!' energy and we should stop doing that. I think we all got really into summer this time around which is great news for us but bad news for the podcast. We'll definitely be doing one that announces the results of the Best Post Contest but probably not before that.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:44 PM on August 26, 2012

It's mostly that the Best Of blog is our new outlet for sharing our favorite bits from MetaFilter and that makes the podcast suffer since most all of the material we normally share on a podcast is on that blog.

For a similar reason, I barely blog more than once every 1 or 2 weeks on my personal site, when I used to post 4-5 times a day before Twitter came out. Twitter is my outlet and I only reserve longer things for my blog when I have sufficient motivation to write them up.

The podcast being a 90min audio file filled with our favorites is kind of a tough thing to take in and is only for the hardest core followers of the site willing to put in the hours of listening, whereas the Best Of blog is pretty easy to read and available to all. Additionally, in the last year or so we mods have taken a much more serious approach to covering the site's moderation duties so it is actually pretty difficult to find two hours that all three of us can zone out and record while the site is covered by someone else.

We should have done one in August, but I think we'll do one early next week to finish up the August Best Post Contest.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:47 PM on August 26, 2012

But some of us miss accidentally mistaking Cortex's voice for our own!
posted by The Whelk at 8:40 PM on August 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

The BestOf blog has been where we've been channeling some of our "Hey this is cool!' energy and we should stop doing that.

Nooooo....I love the Best Of blog; it's an awesome thing to send to people who aren't yet familiar with MetaFilter.

I think there should be an occasional Best Of: From the Archives feature which posts awesome metafilterhistory type stuff.
posted by lalex at 9:05 PM on August 26, 2012 [6 favorites]

Having BestOf around to take care of the good stuff frees up valuable podcast time for inside baseball on moderation issues and dishing about user drama.

Err, I mean, for insightful discussion about social issues pertaining to recent posts and comments. From a moderation perspective. For science.
posted by ceribus peribus at 9:19 PM on August 26, 2012 [7 favorites]

But some of us miss accidentally mistaking Cortex's voice for our own!

Heh. Back when the MeFi pod was first being cast, I was mildly flabbergasted how much cortex's voice sounded like my own, to me. I asked MefightClub folks who were very much used to my voice, what with me babbling semicoherently and occasionally breaking into Sinatra renditions and stuff on our alltalk TF2 servers, and they assured me that we sounded quite different.

Inside my head, though, there is still a some vocal cortex-related confusion.

Also: I forgot about the BestOf blog. Amazing how quick menu items that aren't used regularly just kind of enter the UI Blind Spot.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:47 PM on August 26, 2012

Seconding lalex's idea.
posted by zoinks at 9:47 PM on August 26, 2012

Put the site in read only mode for two hours and knock one out.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:49 PM on August 26, 2012

I did a Mefite Music Challenge based off one of Cortex's songs and man the inflection and tone was eerie. However if the voice has completely random british phrasings of words scattered throughout then I'm pretty sure it's mine.
posted by The Whelk at 9:52 PM on August 26, 2012

I love the podcast too but I also like the BestOf blog, and I don't see why you couldn't use the BestOf blog as a bit of a cheat sheet to help you make the podcasts. Just because we've been linked to something on the blog doesn't mean we listeners wouldn't like to hear y'all talk about the same thing on the podcast.
posted by Mizu at 9:58 PM on August 26, 2012 [3 favorites]

I've been missing the podcasting too; it's really been a busy summer so we just haven't bothered to coordinate, but I'm hoping we'll get back to a little more regular of a schedule. Especially as a geographically distributed team it's partly just nice to just get on the horn and bullshit a little now and then.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:59 PM on August 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I second this emotion.
Am a big time fan of the podcast, it's actually the only one I listen to, and while the best-of blog is fabulous, it feels like outreach and you guys have said that's a key part if it. The podcast is community building and analytical and, well, meta.

Here are some objectively great posts != Cortex over-explaining why he loved some little game-post. Two different beasts, please don't abandon The Mod Show for the lovely, but somehow formal, blog.
posted by Iteki at 11:13 PM on August 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

I can't put the best of blog thingy in my pocket and take it for a walk so I really miss the podcast. I also don't care if you double up because I forget to read the best of blog, whereas podcasts just magically appear on my iPod to be listened to.
posted by shelleycat at 12:33 AM on August 27, 2012

I expected the next one to wait until September, so it can cover the August "best post" contest.

Speaking of the podcast, some people are working on transcribing it. The last two are in the can, so we're back on #69. (This is a plug and a self-link.) It doesn't require special software, just a browser besides Internet Explorer.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:24 AM on August 27, 2012

I'm with Iteki. I love the modshow too. It's so fun to listen to a podcast done by people you actually know. I love the enthusiasm for cool stuff on the site, and it always makes me laugh. Without TV, podcasts are my main source of entertainment, and the MeFi podcasts are a special treat.
posted by marsha56 at 4:11 AM on August 27, 2012

Plus, I listen to it when I run. Think of the runners, mods!
posted by gaspode at 5:12 AM on August 27, 2012

I love the podcast - especially the part where the topic suddenly swerves into computer games!
posted by R. Mutt at 5:44 AM on August 27, 2012

I think the idea of using the "Best of" as your starting point would be great.

I also think you don't need the podcasts to be as long, but then I don't have the attention span to make it through a 3 minutes cat video.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:15 AM on August 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am waiting for the Beast of MetaFilter blog which celebrates those endurance posters and long-distance commenters. Until, of course, it begins to run the shocking stories of doping that ruin the sport.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:25 AM on August 27, 2012

I love the podcast - especially the part where the topic suddenly swerves into computer games!

If I drank, I would play the "roguelike" drinking game. And most likely get hammered.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:26 AM on August 27, 2012

Put the site in read only mode for two hours and knock one out.

This is why no work gets done around here.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 7:01 AM on August 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

we should stop doing that.

To be clear I meant "we should stop displacing all of our thisiscool energy into the BestOf blog and save some for the podcast" I really enjoy doing the podcasts. I think we could use the BestOf blog as a stating point to do some mini-interviews with people about things that were interesting on the site as well as talking about some of the back room stuff that comes up occasionally on MetaTalk.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:13 AM on August 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

I like the podcasts. Please keep doing them.
posted by Artw at 8:13 AM on August 27, 2012

I am totally on Team Yay Podcast and I still occasionally crack up at the memory of this delightful exchange

Jess: ...and if they did that they'd be tarred and feathered--
Josh: You can't say 'tard.
Jess: Wh-what?
Josh [giggles]
Jess: ...I hate you so much.
posted by psoas at 8:48 AM on August 27, 2012 [17 favorites]

Is there an easy way to download all of the old podcasts? I keep meaning to download and add to my pocket, but I kinda suck at it.
posted by Deoridhe at 1:51 PM on August 27, 2012

If you click the podcast link on any page there's links to subscribe in your favorite RSS reader, an iTunes link, and a feedburner link.

If none of this means anything to you post your OS preference and people can make suggestions on programs to use and how to go about it.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:28 PM on August 27, 2012

You could also try and get some guest contributors (definitely not me) to post to the BestOf blog as well, which would keep things mixed up and perhaps leave you with more time to do the podcast.
posted by adrianhon at 4:07 PM on August 27, 2012

Please don't neglect the podcast. I love the BOM blog, but still get most of it's functionality from the sidebar whereas the podcast is more unique and I've been missing it.
posted by arcticseal at 4:23 PM on August 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't read the Best Of blog, and listen religiously to the podcast.

Don't look at things as if they aren't allowed to have overlap. Not everyone takes in everything in the same way. Plus, the BOM blog doesn't have the force of personalities of mods behind it.

Use the BOM blog as a springboard startingpoint, don't be afraid to duplicate things between the two (you guys talking will add depth and texture to anything you put in the podcast which is also in the blog), and use some of the freed-up time in the podcast where you don't want to duplicate things to do interviews or special features or whatnot.

Just don't quit the podcast. It's one of my favorite inside baseball things about MeFi.
posted by hippybear at 8:00 PM on August 27, 2012 [8 favorites]

I like the podcast too; I have a long commute and yours are good voices to while it away.

The alternative is taking furtive peeks at Metafilter while I'm driving, and that's hardly good 10&2 Driver's Ed practice! Do it for road safety!
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:09 AM on August 28, 2012

The thing I like about the podcast: it's a reminder that we are a community of friends. I will never meet any of you in real life. Yet, over the years, you have become as dear as family. And your voices add depth and resonance to my perception of you. If, as I suspect, it's become a bit of grind for you, make it shorter as you like, but more please more frequent.
posted by SPrintF at 8:00 PM on August 28, 2012 [1 favorite]