January 2018 minicast

[JaySevenZero]

Attention Patreon subscribers, January's now exclusive monthly update mini-cast is now available for you to download via your Patreon RSS feed.

[KSubzero1000]

Will these mini-updates stay Patreon exclusive forever or will they be made openly available at a later date?

[ratsoalbion]

These are by and large specifically for and about the Patreon and related matters, and as such will remain a little bonus for those who subscribe that way.

[KSubzero1000]

That's disappointing. The December 2017 Update clearly suggested otherwise.

[ratsoalbion]

Apologies if we mislead anyone, that wasn’t the intention.

However, we do need to come up with ways to incentivise the Patreon in particular as it is the lifeblood that will allow Jay and I to continue putting in what we do.

It might be possible to open this up to PayPal donators as well - Jay and I will discuss it.

[JaySevenZero]

That's disappointing. The December 2017 Update clearly suggested otherwise.

Actually I disagree, it's not clearly suggested that they'll be for everyone, we merely say that we'll be doing a monthly update. The problem was that we didn't clearly state that it would be for Patrons only. That said, I don't see a particular problem with making the previous one open for anyone logging onto the Patreon page once the next one goes on the feed.

[KSubzero1000]

Of course, I understand. It's difficult to strike the proper balance when it comes to incentivization. You don't want to be too pushy, but if you don't push enough, well... nothing gets done.

However, I can't imagine that the exclusivity of these mini-updates would be the last straw that broke the camel's back for anyone who's already listening to the normal episodes without contributing. I don't see how this would attract any more supporters.

Those who care enough about the financial details and production status of C&R to download these updates are already the most dedicated part of your fanbase, most of whom already try and support you one way or another. It seems pointless to me to wedge a paywall in the middle of that group. As far as I can tell, this is the first hard-locked piece of content you've created.

That's all speculation on my part, of course. Perhaps you have listenership data that suggests otherwise.

In any case, since I can't listen to it: I hope you guys are doing well on that front and that we'll continue to enjoy C&R for the foreseeable future.


PS: An alternative solution would be to just paste the update's transcript in a forum post, like you already did for past updates. It would deliver the necessary information without necessitating any more tinkering with RSS feeds and whatnot.

[Craig]

In this update you mention the possibility of uploading Cane and Rinse episodes to Youtube and I think it's a great idea (although one that would take a while, I'm sure.) If you were to do that, it'd be neat if you added subtitles to the episodes too. From what I understand, the auto captioning on Youtube does a fairly decent job and then you just have to do a bit of tidying up though admittedly, for a two hour episode this would still be rather timely. I don't really know enough about the hard of hearing or hearing impaired world to know if they would appreciate a show done in this way (or if they already have their own methods to enjoy podcasts) but I know that it's handy for non-native speakers too.

I guess it all depends on how good the Youtube autocaption is and how time costly it all ends up being.

[ratsoalbion]

Great idea for sure. To do it manually would essentially involve thousands of hours of tedious and essentially unpaid work though.

[Alex79]

I propose an oversized coffee table book of the transcripts from every show!

[ratsoalbion]

I propose an oversized coffee table book of the transcripts from every show!

I have genuinely considered such a book comprising of all the show-notes. It would need to be crowd-funded though and I suspect of such limited interest as to fall short of the target we'd need to set to produce a physical item...

[Stanshall]

I would spend thirty quid on such a tome, off the top of my head. If I could get it for Chrimbo, I'd say fifty.

[Suits]

I’d like a coffee table book of the Dennis Dyack interview please.

[Alex79]

Just listening to this podcast on the way home from work - I enjoyed it, thanks!

You discussed possible Patreon rewards etc and I thought of something that would be really easy to implement. On the forum, where it says member or guardian or vanguard I think I've seen too, Patreon subscribers could just be given 'supporter'

Seems like just a little thing that people might be pleased about, and didn't seem to difficult to organise?

[ratsoalbion]

I guess the only slight problem might be correctly identifying people with different names here and there, but I reckon it might be possible.

Any thoughts, Jay?

[TheEmailer]

I've been a Patreon supporter since Autumn last year. TBH I've never looked at any Patreon exclusive stuff, my view is its worth paying for good content, which the core podcasts are. I don't really do it for extras or early access.
Nothing comes for free and ads won't cut it. Value for money wise, the hours of content I get here are cheap vs other mediums. But maybe I'm in minority.

[Simonsloth]

I agree. I decided to cancel a couple of magazine subscriptions as I was barely reading them instead I switched to the Patreon instead.

This is a fantastic podcast and I am happy I can support its continuation.

[ratsoalbion]

Thanks guys, we really do put a lot into it and your support makes it so much easier to justify that!