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My favorite thing about podcasting is that it's largely non-mediated. With the exception of the insertion of ads in some podcasts, what I hear is what the podca

by api 5y ago

My favorite thing about podcasting is that it's largely non-mediated. With the exception of the insertion of ads in some podcasts, what I hear is what the podcaster intended to say and there is largely no algorithmic timeline style sorting or other mediation. Podcasts win by having content that interests someone, not by gaming algorithms. I sincerely hope that these "podcasting 2.0" efforts fail. It's one of the few remaining parts of the Internet ecosystem that has not been ruined by gamified social media.

smoldesu 5y ago
100% with you on this. People forget that podcasts are a syndicated medium, and even more people forget the days when you had to set up an RSS catcher if you wanted to be notified about the latest podcast episodes. The glory of that system was the simplicity in it's federation, it was no different than expecting the paperboy to throw you a bundle of mail in the morning. If you add more layers that I don't care about, I'm probably not going to participate. I can only speak for myself, but I doubt many people are interested in making podcasts more complicated.
- api 5y ago
  The thing gloriously absent in podcasts is a tight optimization feedback loop. Whenever you introduce a tight loop, content goes to shit. Everything is flattened down to memes using superficial cliches, rage baiting, cheap humor, etc. to get attention so as to be forwarded, liked, or shared.
  - mikece 5y ago
    The feedback loop is a specific goal of podcasting 2.0. One goal in particular is cross-app commenting such that if you leave a comment on a podcast with Podverse you'll see it in Fountain, Hypercatcher, PodcastAddict, Overcast, Castomatic, etc. The "big players" (Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify) have little or no interest in this as it would break down their walled gardens that they think is their key to making money (except for Google -- I don't think they see podcasting as a revenue thing for them beyond expanding the psychographic/marketing profile of a user). For more info: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      If they want to break their walled gardens, they should just outright build a better protocol. The reason why Apple and Spotify have a monopoly over the money-making side of podcasts is because they pay for hosting and make aggregation simple. The average user (and many developers such as myself) have no interest in adding Bitcoin transactions to our podcast experience, or unifying our commenting experience. I just want my podcast on my doorstep every morning, and unfortunately Spotify still is (and likely will be) the best place for me to get them for the foreseeable future.
mikece 5y ago
I used the term without defining it but podcasting 2.0 is exactly what you are hoping podcasting remains: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/
adamrezich 5y ago
from my understanding, "Podcasting 2.0" is "just" a series of extensions to the feed format that optionally allow additional functionality. your podcast app doesn't have to do anything with these if it doesn't want to. it's not a Microsoft EEE-type approach, there's no intent (or even means, really) to render "non-Podcasting 2.0-compliant" apps nonfunctional, to prevent new ones from being made, or to otherwise splinter podcasting into different strata. quite the opposite in fact—it's just extensions on top of a format that was designed to be extensible anyway, with the intent of keeping podcasting "open" in a world where the Apples and Spotifys of the world seem to want to lock it down. what's to dislike about this?
Nextgrid 5y ago
> My favorite thing about podcasting is that it's largely non-mediated Don’t worry, it’s just a matter of time before “growth and engagement” scum jumps on this opportunity. Hell, Spotify is already trying.

by api 5y ago

smoldesu 5y ago

100% with you on this. People forget that podcasts are a syndicated medium, and even more people forget the days when you had to set up an RSS catcher if you wanted to be notified about the latest podcast episodes. The glory of that system was the simplicity in it's federation, it was no different than expecting the paperboy to throw you a bundle of mail in the morning. If you add more layers that I don't care about, I'm probably not going to participate. I can only speak for myself, but I doubt many people are interested in making podcasts more complicated.

api 5y ago
The thing gloriously absent in podcasts is a tight optimization feedback loop. Whenever you introduce a tight loop, content goes to shit. Everything is flattened down to memes using superficial cliches, rage baiting, cheap humor, etc. to get attention so as to be forwarded, liked, or shared.
- mikece 5y ago
  The feedback loop is a specific goal of podcasting 2.0. One goal in particular is cross-app commenting such that if you leave a comment on a podcast with Podverse you'll see it in Fountain, Hypercatcher, PodcastAddict, Overcast, Castomatic, etc. The "big players" (Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify) have little or no interest in this as it would break down their walled gardens that they think is their key to making money (except for Google -- I don't think they see podcasting as a revenue thing for them beyond expanding the psychographic/marketing profile of a user). For more info: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    If they want to break their walled gardens, they should just outright build a better protocol. The reason why Apple and Spotify have a monopoly over the money-making side of podcasts is because they pay for hosting and make aggregation simple. The average user (and many developers such as myself) have no interest in adding Bitcoin transactions to our podcast experience, or unifying our commenting experience. I just want my podcast on my doorstep every morning, and unfortunately Spotify still is (and likely will be) the best place for me to get them for the foreseeable future.

mikece 5y ago

I used the term without defining it but podcasting 2.0 is exactly what you are hoping podcasting remains: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/

adamrezich 5y ago

from my understanding, "Podcasting 2.0" is "just" a series of extensions to the feed format that optionally allow additional functionality. your podcast app doesn't have to do anything with these if it doesn't want to. it's not a Microsoft EEE-type approach, there's no intent (or even means, really) to render "non-Podcasting 2.0-compliant" apps nonfunctional, to prevent new ones from being made, or to otherwise splinter podcasting into different strata. quite the opposite in fact—it's just extensions on top of a format that was designed to be extensible anyway, with the intent of keeping podcasting "open" in a world where the Apples and Spotifys of the world seem to want to lock it down. what's to dislike about this?

Nextgrid 5y ago

> My favorite thing about podcasting is that it's largely non-mediated Don’t worry, it’s just a matter of time before “growth and engagement” scum jumps on this opportunity. Hell, Spotify is already trying.