Wondering About Numbering

[JamEngulfer]

So I noticed that you numbered all of the episodes recently and updated the RSS feed for all past episodes. I'm wondering why you did that, partially because it broke all of my podcasts and partially because it doesn't really make sense.

Other podcasts use episode numbering to denote the chronology of the episodes, but The F Plus has very much standalone content. I don't really see what the podcast gained from adding episode numbers.

[advancedclass]

Dude, how else would we have known to anticipate Episode 100, or to start the inner countdown of our souls for Episode 200?

[Emperor Jack Chick]

[Lemon]

So I noticed that you numbered all of the episodes recently and updated the RSS feed for all past episodes. I'm wondering why you did that, partially because it broke all of my podcasts and partially because it doesn't really make sense.

Answer #1: No I didn't, that's your fault.
Answer #2: RSS is weird.

Serious(ish) answer: I've played with the RSS a fair bit, but except for the one time right after the new thefpl.us site launched and I changed all the GUIDs (detailed here) because I didn't know what that meant, you shouldn't have any problems. You're saying you did and I guess I'll have to try to believe you, but you shouldn't is the point.

Here's what every episode's markup looks like...

XML

<item>
<title>EPISODE NUMBER: EPISODE TITLE</title>
<link>EPISODE URL</link>
<guid>EPISODE URL</guid>
<pubDate>RELEASE DATE</pubDate>
<description>DESCRIPTION, NO HTML</description>
<enclosure url="FILE URL" length="FILE SIZE" type="audio/mpeg"/>
<content:encoded>DESCRIPTION, WITH URL
</content:encoded>
<itunes:author>The F Plus</itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle>reading CONTENT URL(s)</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:duration>RUNTIME</itunes:duration>
<itunes:summary>DESCRIPTION AGAIN</itunes:summary>
<itunes:image href="EPISODE IMAGE"/>
<atom:link rel="payment" type="text/html" href="FLATTR URL"/>
</item>


I've fucked with this a bunch of times since launching the new site, but the one thing I haven't changed (again) is the GUID, which is the unique string that's supposed to say "Hey computer program, this is the ID for this piece of content. Change this and it'll think there's a new piece of content. Is that number helpful? I think so, because I think thefpl.us/episode/144 is a pretty good canonical URL. And while the episodes don't necessarily having a solid continuum, there's a difference between an episode in the 120s and an episode in the 20s, so I think that's a good thing to display.

But, I wanna know what you're using for a podcatcher and what you mean by "broke all my podcasts".

[JamEngulfer]

I'm using plain old iTunes and Apple's podcasts app on my iPod. I've got every episode downloaded on both devices, but I don't think the iPod picked up that all the names/GUIDs had changed but iTunes did. So when I synced my iPod with iTunes, all of the numbered episodes appeared on my iPod along with all of the existing ones, except it's missing some episodes. I don't think it's that serious of a problem really, I can just go through and delete the duplicates.

Also, maybe I just don't like change :P

EDIT: I scrolled through all of the episodes and noticed that stuff like "live1a:" and "out07:" Looks a bit weird for a display name.

[IceTwister]

Maybe it's just me, but does it seem like one half of episode 100 is missing on the itunes listing?

[Fatty Bo Batty]

Yeah, part 2 of episode 100 is gone for me.

[gee golly gosh]

Like JamEngulfer, I also use iTunes, and from 156 onwards, I have two of each episode, one with numbers, one without, and the one with numbers shows up as an unplayed episode. I noticed this a while ago, so I'm not sure if this is an issue that arose when I updated iTunes last or not, but I really like having numbers on each episode as it makes it easier for me to find a specific episode so I don't agree that the numbers should go.

[Fatty Bo Batty]

Like JamEngulfer, I also use iTunes, and from 156 onwards, I have two of each episode, one with numbers, one without, and the one with numbers shows up as an unplayed episode. I noticed this a while ago, so I'm not sure if this is an issue that arose when I updated iTunes last or not, but I really like having numbers on each episode as it makes it easier for me to find a specific episode so I don't agree that the numbers should go.

Do you have them downloaded? That may be the reason for the duplicates.