I personally wouldn't mind a reduction in the schedule. I watch a hell of a lot of podcasts, and it gets pretty hard to catch up with the longer ones if I fall behind. Losing one or two shows per week wouldn't bother me.
I agree. However, we promised not to advertise on GeekNights. Therefore, we must advertise on something else.
While it's admirable that you would keep such a promise, it can also be fine to break it. Nobody here's going to be pissed by that, unless you do it in a scummy way. And neither of you would do that. I have a feeling that you guys would do the Penny Arcade advertising method, where you evaluate and stand behind anything you advertise. It'd be the same as what you do now, only you'd get paid for it. You guys ALREADY recommend things for us to watch, read, play, and use. You'd just be getting paid for it this time. There's nothing wrong with that.
Honestly, it annoys me in say, Anime Pulse, where 2-4 times per show you hear "this episode is brought to you by the navy".
As for cutting down on geeknights in favor of FRC stuff. Honestly, I could care less about video. I'm with all the people who say that they have time for audio but not so much time for video. So really, if you'd be cutting down on geeknights in favor of videos, I really wouldn't be happy with that. But, on the other hand, if you just feel that geeknights is taking up too much of your time in general (which is what you're saying), then by all means do the alternating episodes. That would also lead to less cop outs and such.
I really wouldn't mind if GeekNights switched to 2 nights a week. I can't even keep up with the 4 night thing anymore and I know that if you do fewer shows the quality will only improve. And, hey, if it's something that's really gonna change your daily life in a positive way, who am I to say no?
I think the solution here is to try to get some other members of the Front Row Crew to help with the podcast. It would be a great change of pace to get some new voices on the show and they could take over on the nights that Scrym can't do.
That actually might not be such a bad idea, but I suspect that one could not reasonably expect such shows to be of consistent quality, either in content or technique.
You definitely do have to do what you have to do. You don't owe Geeknights to anyone. I'd personally be a little disappointed if you cut down on the number of episodes -- Geeknights is my number one, listen-to-it-before-every-other-podcast podcast, and I listen to a lot of podcasts. But if your heart is telling you that you need to do other things, better to back off a bit than keep plugging away until you burn out completely.
Maybe rather than reducing the number of shows per week, you could consolidate bits of various shows. You could, say, do all the tech AND gaming news on Monday, making the Tuesday show only about 20-30 minutes long, you could change the Things of the Day to Things of the Week and do them only on specific days, you could cut two shows a week and then just do a 15 minute or so news segment on the off days, you could cut two shows a week and put two archived shows in the off days, you could change it up and do more Geeknights-but-not-really episodes (interviews and the likes).
Come to think of it, only having two new shows a week really wouldn't be so bad if you put older shows in the missing days. Perhaps you could have a "Favorite Geeknights episode" thread here on the forums, and just stick one of those up (corresponding to the day, of course) every off day.
Look, if you make some crap-ass Cafepress store wit some Geeknights swag, I'm sure a lot of us would buy something. As for being tired. Take some time off Geeknights. A week, two? However long it takes for you guys to rest up. I'm sure most of us would rather there not be episodes for a while than you guys being worn out.
Even though it is cool that all of you don't mind me breaking the promise, I'm not going to do it. When you break promises, even honorably, your future promises hold less value. I want all of the listeners out there to always know that when we promise something, we mean it. Your guys trust in us is the most valuable asset the show has, so we must live up to that if nothing else.
We may be shit-talkers when it comes to some things, but I promise we will get to all of those things eventually. We will make swag. We will make videos. We will redo the website. We will make a Facebook app. We will give prizes to all of those people who didn't get them. We will do something with that thing of the day spreadsheet. I won't put a deadline on anything, but it will all happen.
If the audience can't believe everything we say, then there is no longer a reason for us to speak to you, or for you to listen.
Even though it is cool that all of you don't mind me breaking the promise, I'm not going to do it. When you break promises, even honorably, your future promises hold less value. I want all of the listeners out there to always know that when we promise something, we mean it. Your guys trust in us is the most valuable asset the show has, so we must live up to that if nothing else.
Even though it is cool that all of you don't mind me breaking the promise, I'm not going to do it. When you break promises, even honorably, your future promises hold less value. I want all of the listeners out there to always know that when we promise something, we mean it. Your guys trust in us is the most valuable asset the show has, so we must live up to that if nothing else.
Situations change over time, you can't always be held to promises made in the past. After over two years (?) of 4 nights a week podcasting, I don't believe anyone would look upon some way of making back some money off the podcast as a sellout or a broken promise.
Hmmmm... I agree a bit with what Sonic said. Take a few weeks, or even a month, off, outside of the Month of Cons. Relax, sit back, and finish up all the stuff you never have time for. I'd rather lack GN for an extended period but get better shows at the other end than have you guys wear yourselves to a nub of cop-out shows.
Yeah, seriously. I'm a rabid fan of Geeknights, but I can live with the Twit network while you guys recoup. You guys should take a much needed holiday.
You aren't going to make any meaningful money off of swag. Maybe enough to have some fun with, but nothing that's going to sustain you.
There is another podcast that I listen to that has 10,000 listeners on average. They have sold, over two weeks, 4 t-shirts. Their problem is that the t-shirts are ugly, but you get the idea.
I agree with the video comment. I don't watch video podcasts. The only videos I watch are the occasional Youtube type video. I think video can work, but you have to realize that you've just cut off a large percentage of your audience.
Here is the way I see it. Radio sucks. It sucks bad. That's why I listen to podcasts instead of the radio. TV is good. Not all TV, but there is plenty out there for me. That's why I don't watch video podcasts. I'd rather watch Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who in the little time I have to watch video. I'll watch some stupid 3-5 minute videos when I'm surfing the web, but I don't have time or desire for anything longer than that.
The other tough thing is that I TIVO whatever TV I watch. That means easily skipping the ads. If it's a pain to skip the ads in an internet video, guess what I'm going to watch. Of course TIVO isn't portable, but I'm one of the large percentage of people who have no use for video on the go.
So this is my long winded way of saying that you should write software for money and do video for fun. But what the hell do I know?
I don't believe anyone would look upon some way of making back some money off the podcast as a sellout or a broken promise.
Unless it's a very large amount of money, there's really no reason to bother. We're quite well off.
I agree with the video comment. I don't watch video podcasts. The only videos I watch are the occasional Youtube type video. I think video can work, but you have to realize that you've just cut off a large percentage of your audience.
The problem is that more people watch a given Youtube video than even know what a podcast is. We need to do other things just to get podcasting to be known to the average person.
Think of it this way. GeekNights is for fun, and to "make us famous," not to make money. Video is a vehicle to support GeekNights and promote us/podcasting, not to make money. Making money is one of the last things on our plates, and GeekNights is going to be our core for a long, long time.
I agree with the video comment. I don't watch video podcasts. The only videos I watch are the occasional Youtube type video. I think video can work, but you have to realize that you've just cut off a large percentage of your audience.
We're not going to make a video podcast. We're going to make the occasional Youtube type video.
You guys already receive compensation for doing GeakKnights.
If not for doing the show would you:
1. Be invited to CONs to run panels? 2. Be able to setup interviews with industry folks (Lou Crane)
Just because you do not receive financial compensation does not mean you are not getting some form of compensation (of value) for what you do.
Advertising? You already do that too. Shit, you got me to buy that horrible WarioWare Smooth Moves game!!!! Every Gaming and Manga/Anime show is one big commercial for the topic of the show.
Want some non-cash compensation that is not based on running a short commercial? Start contacting the mid-sized gaming companies. They WILL send you free/advance copies of new board games for free. Same with some video game companies.
That was part of it. Most of it was that we went to panels at conventions that were sucky or non-existent, and we had the balls to stand up and take them over. Then we put those on the resume in order to get panels at other conventions.
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As for cutting down on geeknights in favor of FRC stuff. Honestly, I could care less about video. I'm with all the people who say that they have time for audio but not so much time for video. So really, if you'd be cutting down on geeknights in favor of videos, I really wouldn't be happy with that.
But, on the other hand, if you just feel that geeknights is taking up too much of your time in general (which is what you're saying), then by all means do the alternating episodes. That would also lead to less cop outs and such.
Come to think of it, only having two new shows a week really wouldn't be so bad if you put older shows in the missing days. Perhaps you could have a "Favorite Geeknights episode" thread here on the forums, and just stick one of those up (corresponding to the day, of course) every off day.
We may be shit-talkers when it comes to some things, but I promise we will get to all of those things eventually. We will make swag. We will make videos. We will redo the website. We will make a Facebook app. We will give prizes to all of those people who didn't get them. We will do something with that thing of the day spreadsheet. I won't put a deadline on anything, but it will all happen.
If the audience can't believe everything we say, then there is no longer a reason for us to speak to you, or for you to listen.
We have a whole bunch of lawyers here, we'll see what can be done
There is another podcast that I listen to that has 10,000 listeners on average. They have sold, over two weeks, 4 t-shirts. Their problem is that the t-shirts are ugly, but you get the idea.
I agree with the video comment. I don't watch video podcasts. The only videos I watch are the occasional Youtube type video. I think video can work, but you have to realize that you've just cut off a large percentage of your audience.
Here is the way I see it. Radio sucks. It sucks bad. That's why I listen to podcasts instead of the radio. TV is good. Not all TV, but there is plenty out there for me. That's why I don't watch video podcasts. I'd rather watch Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who in the little time I have to watch video. I'll watch some stupid 3-5 minute videos when I'm surfing the web, but I don't have time or desire for anything longer than that.
The other tough thing is that I TIVO whatever TV I watch. That means easily skipping the ads. If it's a pain to skip the ads in an internet video, guess what I'm going to watch. Of course TIVO isn't portable, but I'm one of the large percentage of people who have no use for video on the go.
So this is my long winded way of saying that you should write software for money and do video for fun. But what the hell do I know?
Think of it this way. GeekNights is for fun, and to "make us famous," not to make money. Video is a vehicle to support GeekNights and promote us/podcasting, not to make money. Making money is one of the last things on our plates, and GeekNights is going to be our core for a long, long time.
If not for doing the show would you:
1. Be invited to CONs to run panels?
2. Be able to setup interviews with industry folks (Lou Crane)
Just because you do not receive financial compensation does not mean you are not getting some form of compensation (of value) for what you do.
Advertising? You already do that too. Shit, you got me to buy that horrible WarioWare Smooth Moves game!!!! Every Gaming and Manga/Anime show is one big commercial for the topic of the show.
Want some non-cash compensation that is not based on running a short commercial? Start contacting the mid-sized gaming companies. They WILL send you free/advance copies of new board games for free. Same with some video game companies.