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Projects => The F Plus => Topic started by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 23, 2013, 06:26:16 pm

Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 23, 2013, 06:26:16 pm
Got a question about the podcast? Post it here and maybe one of the Ridiculists will be kind enough to not give you some smartass non-answer!

Please note that these are questions about the podcast itself, not about our personal lives or anything like that.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: count_actuala on April 23, 2013, 06:31:23 pm
Ever thrown a submission out for being too vile? If so, provide gory details.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: PurpleXVI on April 23, 2013, 06:43:57 pm
How much editing does the podcast actually see? Entire episodes left on the cutting room floor? Or just the occasional snip for length or quality?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Acierocolotl on April 23, 2013, 06:49:52 pm
There was an attempt at a show on pedophilia.  It wasn't happening.  Segments that we didn't even look at were the descriptions of "Oxy" and "Ishtar" in "Reno Iz Drest in a Kostoom."  It was just... yeah.

Episodes I've personally editted have had 90 to 120 minutes of material, though over time we've become much better at predicting what's good and what isn't and having to cut less as a result.  Then comes a winnowing process to bring it down to about an hour's worth.  Sometimes the stuff is just awesomely fun to read, so some of it doesn't make it.  (ie: my reading of "watchinucking").
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: icarus on April 23, 2013, 06:51:13 pm
how many requests to be 'guest stars' do you get from random listeners per month, on average?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 23, 2013, 07:27:04 pm
Sometimes entire episodes have been scrapped for various reasons. Often it's due to technical problems that didn't become apparent until after the episode was recorded, but sometimes we all just decide that the episode wasn't that great and could be redone with better material. One example is the scrapped otakukin episode. It was my fault really, because I put it together and I was trying to use very, very old material from the dawn of the otakin movement. Thing is, most of the good stuff was long gone, and what I did dig up was okay, but not stellar. FUN FACT: The girl who claimed to be Ken Ichijouji from Digimon and felt SUPER ASHAMED OF HER SINS AS THE DIGIMON EMPEROR was still around! Anyway, the readings were all right, but the energy never ramped up and the commentary consisted more of uncomfortable "what"s than actual jokes. So we just tossed the whole thing and I promised myself that I'd come back to the topic some time. "Fictionkin" (as they now call themselves) are still around, but it seems most people who claim to be fictional characters now do so through "fictive headmates," so the multiples episode is kind of the spiritual successor to the trashed otakukin recording.

As for how much gets cut, it kind of varies. The classic literature episode is almost uncut because Boots stopped us after about an hour and said "I don't want to cut any of this, so let's quit now." By contrast, the Paula Deen episode was originally about 2 and 1/2 hours because we were really unfocused and rambly in our jokes, plus we read a bunch of extra shit too. On average I'd say these days, recordings are about an hour and a half, and we edit out about 30-40 minutes of them.

Also you all need to worship me because I'm the one who dug that 2+ hour long monstrosity out of the trash and edited it down into an episode after everyone forgot about it. WORSHIP ME, YOU HEAR?!
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: count_actuala on April 23, 2013, 08:05:23 pm
The girl who claimed to be Ken Ichijouji from Digimon and felt SUPER ASHAMED OF HER SINS AS THE DIGIMON EMPEROR
portaxx, April 23, 2013, 07:27:04 pm
What the FUCK is it with Digimon fans - especially fans of that character - and being irredeemable weirdos?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Isfahan on April 23, 2013, 10:27:54 pm
How much editing does the podcast actually see? Entire episodes left on the cutting room floor? Or just the occasional snip for length or quality?
PurpleXVI, April 23, 2013, 06:43:57 pm

These days we've got our recording lengths down pretty well. We used to record for almost two hours and then have to pare it down to one, but now our recordings are very lean, usually about 75 to 80 minutes raw. With this, we can now often leave in everything if we take out all of the grabass and the periods of quiet while this person or that person scrolls around trying to find the shit he or she must read. When I edit, I first cut out absolutely everything that listeners wouldn't want to hear (see previous sentence). Then, if it's still too long, I look for the segments which seem to fit in the least with the theme of the episode. This is often enough to get it under the length limit. A particularly large segment that we spend a lot of time on is usually prime for snipping, because it lets me keep in a lot of other shorter, more assorted segments. These large segments are good for editing out because they make great candidates for shorts down the line.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Navigator on April 24, 2013, 01:24:20 am
How does a typical recording session go? Do you all just sort of sit down at Skype, read stuff, and then go "ok that was cool see you later"? I mean, not that it sounds too complicated, but I'm curious.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: montrith on April 24, 2013, 02:19:28 am
Who fucked up the Second Life episode? My vengeance demands blood!

Alternatively, have you ever had an occasion when you've had too many readers wanting to be in an episode? How about a situation where Lemon has had to bribe some of you to take part?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 24, 2013, 03:43:45 am
How does a typical recording session go? Do you all just sort of sit down at Skype, read stuff, and then go "ok that was cool see you later"? I mean, not that it sounds too complicated, but I'm curious.
Navigator, April 24, 2013, 01:24:20 am

Pretty much. Usually there's about 10-15 minutes of us just screwing around on the internet beforehand. Sometimes we'll look through stupid DeviantArt searches, sometimes we just have boring old conversations, and sometimes Stog uses a smartphone app to determine what kind of dogs we are. During the recordings there might be little distractions, failed bits, and general chatter, but for the most part I'd say you all aren't missing much by not hearing the cut content. The few tangents that stand up on their own tend to make it onto the site as shorts (Otakin_Dude, Braking Bad: Allens Attack) and other random weirdness sometimes ends up in the stingers. Afterwards we might look at more weird internet shit, but usually a few people will then duck out to play video games or what-have-you. All in all it's not too terribly different from what ends up in the episodes. We just cut it down to the best bits.

Who fucked up the Second Life episode? My vengeance demands blood!

That would be me. My Audacity crashed the moment the episode ended. Good work, me!

Alternatively, have you ever had an occasion when you've had too many readers wanting to be in an episode? How about a situation where Lemon has had to bribe some of you to take part?

I don't know of any times anyone had to be bribed to participate, but there were a couple of times where too many people wanted into an episode. Originally I was going to be in the City of Heroes recording, but later I found out Isfahan wanted in too so I figured eh, he has guns, I shouldn't make him upset. A strangely huge number of people wanted into the Bad Dragon episode too.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Calaveron on April 24, 2013, 07:30:44 am
I've always been curious, why do the episodes HAVE to be 1 hour long? Is this a limitation with your podcast distribution methods, bandwidth, or just you guys sticking to a particular format?

Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Boots Raingear on April 24, 2013, 08:03:20 am
I've always been curious, why do the episodes HAVE to be 1 hour long? Is this a limitation with your podcast distribution methods, bandwidth, or just you guys sticking to a particular format?
Calaveron, April 24, 2013, 07:30:44 am

It's a good length for a podcast. Episodes are allowed to be shorter, but it's good to have a consistent limit to it. Now that we have over 100 episodes, I gather most of our listeners have some sort of routine to how/when they listen to it. Additionally, it allows the editor of the episode to cut somebody's reading out with minimal guilt.

It also helps guide how we do the recordings. Lemon and I will basically keep the episode going until either we run out of content or we know there's a good hour of material in there. The extra 10 minutes accounts for music, bumpers, and the cold-open/stinger (if applicable). Occasionally we'll keep going because we're just having so much fun.

Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Lemon on April 24, 2013, 10:48:57 am
There was an attempt at a show on pedophilia.
Acierocolotl, April 23, 2013, 06:49:52 pm
That's not entirely accurate. We recorded the beginnings of an episode once on the topic of flashers. On the outset, the idea seemed sound: Hey, somewhere out there is a forum for flashers! It's a place where flashers gather and talk about flashing! What could go wrong! Fairly soon into the podcast where enthusiastic confessions about men "accidentally" exposing themselves to children and we abandoned ship.

how many requests to be 'guest stars'Icarus
Part of this is my fault. The "Submit Content" page still talks about guest readers, and I really need to edit that page, but then I forget and do other things instead.

I've always been curious, why do the episodes HAVE to be 1 hour long?
Calaveron, April 24, 2013, 07:30:44 am
In addendum to what Boots said, I personally don't like podcasts that blow past the hour mark. Whatever your subject is, if you dwell on it for too long I'm losing interest and getting fatigued by the whole thing. Ideally, when we're done, we want to listener wanting something more. Plus, we're funny, and we've gotten more funny as the podcast has gone on. But we're a lot less funny without editing.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Delcat on April 24, 2013, 06:22:56 pm
...sometimes Stog uses a smartphone app to determine what kind of dogs we are.portaxx, April 24, 2013, 03:43:45 am

So, what kind of dogs are you?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Calaveron on April 24, 2013, 09:34:06 pm
...sometimes Stog uses a smartphone app to determine what kind of dogs we are.portaxx, April 24, 2013, 03:43:45 am

So, what kind of dogs are you?
Delcat, April 24, 2013, 06:22:56 pm
I'm willing to bet at least one is a bichon frisé.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: STOG on April 25, 2013, 09:34:08 am
...sometimes Stog uses a smartphone app to determine what kind of dogs we are.portaxx, April 24, 2013, 03:43:45 am

So, what kind of dogs are you?
Delcat, April 24, 2013, 06:22:56 pm

I can answer that!

The app I am using is called Dog Divinator, and it is free from the App Store for iOS.

I am a Golden Retriever, and my "personality is cheerful forgiving people and fun. You will mutch a straight personality". My lucky item today is a 'blue color's cloth', and I would be good with collies and a 'surprise people' with a Siberian Husky.

Portaxx is a Miniature Schnauzer. "can become outgoing and friendly with everyone. Sometimes I feel aggressive and strong, sometimes fragile and weak." Her lucky item today is a red color's binding, and she would be good friends with Afghan Hounds and a 'surprise people' with a Bulldog.

I have one entry in here named 'boners'. You can guess who it is! 'boners' is a Shiba Inu, and "The people you rely on your ally, your enemy is very scary." 'boners's lucky item is 'red color's drink'. Have fun!
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 25, 2013, 10:03:23 am
I can answer that!

The app I am using is called Dog Divinator, and it is free from the App Store for iOS.

I am a Golden Retriever, and my "personality is cheerful forgiving people and fun. You will mutch a straight personality". My lucky item today is a 'blue color's cloth', and I would be good with collies and a 'surprise people' with a Siberian Husky.

Portaxx is a Miniature Schnauzer. "can become outgoing and friendly with everyone. Sometimes I feel aggressive and strong, sometimes fragile and weak." Her lucky item today is a red color's binding, and she would be good friends with Afghan Hounds and a 'surprise people' with a Bulldog.

I have one entry in here named 'boners'. You can guess who it is! 'boners' is a Shiba Inu, and "The people you rely on your ally, your enemy is very scary." 'boners's lucky item is 'red color's drink'. Have fun!
STOG, April 25, 2013, 09:34:08 am

If I rightly recall, Boots was a Golden Retriever and Jack Chick was a Papillon. I can't remember what the hell Toast and Lemon were though.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: montrith on April 25, 2013, 11:21:43 am
Now I really, really want that app. It's a pity I don't have a smartphone.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Locclo on April 26, 2013, 03:02:10 am
Interesting thread! I've got a few here.

First off, whatever happened to the sports episode? I recall you guys talking about doing your first ever sports podcast, and then a few episodes later saying that it was a horrible mistake. What gives?

Also, what, precisely, went wrong with the script episode (the one from which "In the Family" was recorded)?

And finally (this is just an idea that's been kicking around for a while) have you guys ever considered doing a bunch of "revisit" episodes, where you go back and try to find more content from old concepts? Say, go back to the Gainer/Feeder forums from Weight, Weight, Don't Tell Me or the self-help people (God, that was a messed-up episode) from You've Got a Friend?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: transatlanticalien on April 26, 2013, 12:22:36 pm
Bit of a weird question but who's the youngest reader? :0

(I will take a guess that it's John)
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: count_actuala on April 26, 2013, 12:29:09 pm
My money's on Bunnybread. Puberty was kind to him back in the day.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Acierocolotl on April 26, 2013, 12:45:53 pm
Interesting thread! I've got a few here.

First off, whatever happened to the sports episode? I recall you guys talking about doing your first ever sports podcast, and then a few episodes later saying that it was a horrible mistake. What gives?

Also, what, precisely, went wrong with the script episode (the one from which "In the Family" was recorded)?

And finally (this is just an idea that's been kicking around for a while) have you guys ever considered doing a bunch of "revisit" episodes, where you go back and try to find more content from old concepts? Say, go back to the Gainer/Feeder forums from Weight, Weight, Don't Tell Me or the self-help people (God, that was a messed-up episode) from You've Got a Friend?
Locclo, April 26, 2013, 03:02:10 am

We were too radically into our sports for a sport episode to work out.  Bunnybread and I got into a heated argument over MMA and the others had to basically pull the plug because neither of us would listen to reason.  He's still wrong, by the way.

What did go wrong with the script episode?  I don't recall anything going wrong at all, other than whatever went wrong in the lives of the people who wrote the scripts we read.

As for revisitting, I know we've done it a little bit in the past but I'm not really keen on it myself, unless there's some notably different direction things could be taken.  That's no hard and fast rule, but it does seem a shame to me to go revisit old topics when we have so many new ones that need to be loved.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Boots Raingear on April 26, 2013, 01:08:35 pm
First off, whatever happened to the sports episode? I recall you guys talking about doing your first ever sports podcast, and then a few episodes later saying that it was a horrible mistake. What gives?
Locclo, April 26, 2013, 03:02:10 am

There's a problem that can easily arise when trying to put together an episode. One will say "Hey, I'm going to put together an episode on X, that'll be awesome" and everyone else says "Hell yeah it will!". Then after 3 hours of combing the internet and coming up with scraps, you start to find things and say "well, this isn't the best, but I'll bet it will work with a silly voice." Usually that results in a bit of a mess of an episode. It's happened to several of us. It may happen again, but it's probably less likely as we've gained a better understanding of what works and what doesn't. Also we're getting loads of amazing submissions from people like you, making it easier to judge without such personal involvement.

And finally (this is just an idea that's been kicking around for a while) have you guys ever considered doing a bunch of "revisit" episodes, where you go back and try to find more content from old concepts? Say, go back to the Gainer/Feeder forums from Weight, Weight, Don't Tell Me or the self-help people (God, that was a messed-up episode) from You've Got a Friend?
Locclo, April 26, 2013, 03:02:10 am

Absolutely. I'd really like to go back to Daily Strength, OK Cupid, WikiHow again (or at least do ehow or instructables), and probably several others that aren't popping into my mind right now. If there's another episode to milk out of allrecipes, it will probably happen, as those were two of my favourite ones to record.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Boots Raingear on April 26, 2013, 01:09:23 pm
Bit of a weird question but who's the youngest reader? :0

(I will take a guess that it's John)
transatlanticalien, April 26, 2013, 12:22:36 pm

Probably Nutshell's cat.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Ansemaru on April 26, 2013, 03:30:34 pm
For those of you who aren't founding members, how did you come to be a ridiculist?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Acierocolotl on April 26, 2013, 03:37:43 pm
For those of you who aren't founding members, how did you come to be a ridiculist?
Ansemaru, April 26, 2013, 03:30:34 pm

All the ridiculists are founders, yo.  The non-founders have found themselves as guest readers.  We're all runnin F+ deephere, fo' lyfe.

(Also the youngest reader is Lemon.  He's eight years old.  He likes fried chicken.)
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Ansemaru on April 26, 2013, 03:39:38 pm
All the ridiculists are founders, yo.  The non-founders have found themselves as guest readers.  We're all runnin F+ deephere, fo' lyfe.

(Also the youngest reader is Lemon.  He's eight years old.  He likes fried chicken.)
Acierocolotl, April 26, 2013, 03:37:43 pm

Ah, okay! I was assuming some people joined a few episodes in because some regulars weren't in like... the first ten or so. My mistake!
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Adept on April 26, 2013, 03:47:51 pm
On that note, how did the F Plus get started? What is your superteam origin, Ridiculists?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 26, 2013, 03:59:28 pm
All the ridiculists are founders, yo.  The non-founders have found themselves as guest readers.  We're all runnin F+ deephere, fo' lyfe.

(Also the youngest reader is Lemon.  He's eight years old.  He likes fried chicken.)
Acierocolotl, April 26, 2013, 03:37:43 pm

Ah, okay! I was assuming some people joined a few episodes in because some regulars weren't in like... the first ten or so. My mistake!
Ansemaru, April 26, 2013, 03:39:38 pm

Well there's kind of more to it than that. Acier's just goofy. There are the people who started it up, and then people who came into it later.

Personally, I'd been around PoE and played TF2 with everyone for a while. Boots and Toast asked me about reading early on, but I didn't do it. Then one night, Boots messaged me on Steam with nothing but "WE'RE READING ABOUT OTHERKIN. GET IN HERE!!" and thus I made my Ridiculist debut. I didn't start consistently participating until I starting mining content, the animation episode being the first I put together.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 26, 2013, 04:04:34 pm
On that note, how did the F Plus get started? What is your superteam origin, Ridiculists?
Adept Omega, April 26, 2013, 03:47:51 pm

F+ has been called "the Portal of Evil podcast" a few times, and that's pretty accurate. We were all pretty interested in stupid internet stuff for a while, and that site is how we knew about each other. When Team Fortress 2 came out, a PoE TF2 server was set up and we all played it at least every weekend. Expectedly, we tended to play awfully, had sprays made of terrible DeviantArt drawings, and read horrible internet posts out loud. Honestly I don't know where it went from there, though I'm sure Lemon or Toast could explain further, though I'm sure the rest of the story is just "hey, wanna make a podcast of awful internet shit?" "yeah" "cool"
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Isfahan on April 26, 2013, 04:23:41 pm
The original casting call went out on PoE in 2009. This was around the time people were actually playing TF2 with some regularity, though the main reason was to have something in which to fuck around while people read stupid shit from the Internet and otherwise said fun things into alltalk. (http://cabalcast.s3.amazonaws.com/rss.xml) The "Cabalcast" consists mostly of simple unedited audio dumps of these sessions. Most of us came through a joint connection to both Portal of Evil/PoE News and the "TF2 Cabal" who played on Boots's server whenever the hell.

Edit: Oh okay fine, say what I was going to say, Portaxx, see if I care
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 26, 2013, 04:32:26 pm
Edit: Oh okay fine, say what I was going to say, Portaxx, see if I care
Isfahan, April 26, 2013, 04:23:41 pm

Ok!

GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Locclo on April 26, 2013, 06:53:12 pm
Another question I've been meaning to ask, WHERE IS F PLUS LIVE 3?!!?!?!?

(Seriously, I got all excited when October rolled around, then Lemon said on the FB page that they weren't doing it in the fall)
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Isfahan on April 26, 2013, 07:03:30 pm
Ok!

GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS
portaxx, April 26, 2013, 04:32:26 pm

There's more to me than that! :(
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes on April 26, 2013, 07:17:02 pm
There's more to me than that! :(
Isfahan, April 26, 2013, 07:03:30 pm

There's more to you than what?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Acierocolotl on April 26, 2013, 08:37:25 pm
On that note, how did the F Plus get started? What is your superteam origin, Ridiculists?
Adept Omega, April 26, 2013, 03:47:51 pm

Every participant will have a different explanation.  It's like one of those early-eighties mystery scenes where each participant tells their own variation of the truth.

I read all of "My Immortal" on a TF2 server, while completely boozed to the gills.

Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: STOG on April 26, 2013, 09:29:01 pm
On that note, how did the F Plus get started? What is your superteam origin, Ridiculists?
Adept Omega, April 26, 2013, 03:47:51 pm

My origin story is that I like repeating text back to people in chat in funny voices and watching them get angry about it. Some of them get really irritated and some of them find it fucking hilarious. I wandered onto the POE TF2 server one night doing this and some people found it hilarious, plus I liked the cut of their jibs (as well as the various cuts of jib I saw reading the forums). The rest is lurking history.

Some people ask me if I'm using a text-to-voice chat program! The answer is no.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: transatlanticalien on April 27, 2013, 09:15:34 am
So Lemon is 8, Bunny's 12... ok it all checks out

To expand a bit I was curious about ages because the general perspective of the podcast seems to be from people who are a) at least a good few years older than the subjects/OPs in quite a lot of episodes (especially the ones based around tumblr/livejournal/etc where the average age is late teens/early 20s) and b) are aware at least in the peripheral of how the internet and internet culture has evolved over the last decade or so (which, again, comes out most in the episodes featuring newer/younger userbases), which I find really interesting!

e: okay maybe 'evolved' wasn't the right word
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: count_actuala on April 27, 2013, 10:24:42 am
I also appreciate having a podcast full of people who've been around to see the internet mutate. Loved PoE back in the day.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Delcat on April 27, 2013, 08:54:29 pm
I know you didn't used to get as many submissions, but it looks like that's spiking now that the Pit is filling up.  Do you guys have an order for how you deal with the material?  Do you cherry-pick the most interesting topics first, or use viable topics in the order they come in?

How do you decide whether a submitted topic is viable?  Do you tell the submitter if their doc is denied, or if it needs work?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: STOG on April 28, 2013, 03:58:47 am
I know you didn't used to get as many submissions, but it looks like that's spiking now that the Pit is filling up.  Do you guys have an order for how you deal with the material?  Do you cherry-pick the most interesting topics first, or use viable topics in the order they come in?

How do you decide whether a submitted topic is viable?  Do you tell the submitter if their doc is denied, or if it needs work?
Delcat, April 27, 2013, 08:54:29 pm

It's not really so much of an order as it is a bag of material. We've got plenty of submissions (and thanks again to everyone who has submitted content, your submissions are making for some great episodes!) that we go through and vote on. I try not to read too much of the document when I'm voting, as I like to keep myself open to surprise if and when it comes to doing the episode, but first impressions definitely count for me. I try to keep an open mind as to what the other readers will find funny, but I'm likely to vote for silly shit that's fun to read. Once the votes are tallied, Lemon either keeps the episodes for consideration or sends an e-mail to the submitter if the content is rejected.

I am not sure how the episodes are picked. I think it's at the whim of whoever's editing the episode, but we just get together and do the thing without much forewarning to the topic at hand.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Delcat on April 28, 2013, 04:13:37 am
Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to know.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Locclo on April 28, 2013, 04:48:33 pm
So, how is it you decide who edits what episode, then? Just go in order, or what?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Calaveron on April 29, 2013, 10:22:07 am
So, how is it you decide who edits what episode, then? Just go in order, or what?
Locclo, April 28, 2013, 04:48:33 pm

The one constant I've been finding in the last couple of episodes is that if it's a completely vile, disgusting topic that the readers can barely handle, give it to Acier.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Acierocolotl on April 29, 2013, 10:23:03 am
How do you decide whether a submitted topic is viable?  Do you tell the submitter if their doc is denied, or if it needs work?
Delcat, April 27, 2013, 08:54:29 pm

Some guidelines that may be of value here:
Like Stog, I generally skim documents.  I don't want to be spoiled because I want to be surprised when we do record that stuff, but I do need to come to grips with the content so I'll quickly pick through it, paying less attention to specifics over time.

I WANT SUBMISSIONS TO SUCCEED!  I want this desperately.  You've gone to all this trouble to gather up shit (and having put together a number of episodes myself, I know it's a hassle), so I want that work to come to fruition.  Permit me to give you a few tips that hopefully will be of interest to everyone:

GRAB MY ATTENTION.  Put your best (or maybe your second-best) info right at the top.  Make it the first entry I read.  If I'm all like, "Oh shit!" right off the bat, you got a winner right there.  Punch me right in the fucking face with something wicked-awesome.

EFFICIENCY:  The material should speak for itself.  A tiny intro for context isn't amiss, but don't bold bits of the text or add your own snarky commentary, it's kind of bewildering sometimes when I'm skimming.  Additionally, there really is a different sort of humour that comes through when something is read aloud (and reacted to by others) as opposed to what you see with plain text.  Seriously, try it for yourself sometime.*

LENGTH, OR EFFICIENCY PART II:  We tend to favour things which can be read in five minutes, ten in exceptional cases if it's of unsurpassed quality.  Straight-up prose will get read at a rate of about 100 words a minute, possibly slower--so a good snippet length is about 500 to 1000 words max.  Forum posts will take longer, but those are easier to skip through.  Really long essays generally don't work out, as what's funny on screen may not be when read aloud, or vice versa.

THE TAPOUT LINE:  Some topics are non-starters.  Overt racism and other forms of hate speech, and exceptionally gross or vile things won't make it.   Lou Reads goes down and dirtier than we do; we're more into idiots and insanity than just gross.  Also actually published material is under copyright, so that can't be read at all.  Sorry 'bout that.

THE SPOOR OF A GOOD TOPIC:  Typos are an easy one.  I personally love typo-laden text, reading it is a specialty, but it's like cake icing.  It's tasty but it's an adjunct to the actual cake itself, not something you want to eat on its own.  What's really good?  Sheer stupidity, broken logic, frikkin' weirdness or outright insanity.   Did you read it and felt yourself scratching your head and wondering what the hell you just read?  Fantastic!  SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT IT!  Some of us have our own preferences.

FINALLY, PROVIDE SOURCES:  Provide URLs whenever possible.  I put up some static over a recent submission because it was like, oh god, it was gonna be fantastic, but we really needed the supporting forum posts behind it.

Note that these are guidelines and not hard-and-fast rules.  Some episodes I thought were relatively weak in terms of content became some of the best because we had brilliant interaction and riffing.


* The reading test:   Stuff I used to write for public presentation would get a "verbal edit":  after a couple edit passes, I'd put on some music at conversational volume and then read my text to be heard over that music.  Speaking at volume changes how things get read, and correspondingly how you'd edit it.  S'true!  It reveals different stresses and, uhh, stuff.  Very technical.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Acierocolotl on April 29, 2013, 10:32:16 am
So, how is it you decide who edits what episode, then? Just go in order, or what?
Locclo, April 28, 2013, 04:48:33 pm

Some people just magically want to edit things.  In the case of the insect episode, I originally fetched up editing because my Blue snowball mic had a loose connection and kept cutting out, so I had four separate audio files I had to splice back into the episode.  It was easier for me to do that at least, since I had the four files on my own computer.

Otherwise, if you're looking for rhyme or reason, there isn't any!  Ha ha!
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Turtle on May 08, 2013, 10:40:12 pm
The original casting call went out on PoE in 2009. This was around the time people were actually playing TF2 with some regularity, though the main reason was to have something in which to fuck around while people read stupid shit from the Internet and otherwise said fun things into alltalk. (http://cabalcast.s3.amazonaws.com/rss.xml) The "Cabalcast" consists mostly of simple unedited audio dumps of these sessions. Most of us came through a joint connection to both Portal of Evil/PoE News and the "TF2 Cabal" who played on Boots's server whenever the hell.

Edit: Oh okay fine, say what I was going to say, Portaxx, see if I care
Isfahan, April 26, 2013, 04:23:41 pm
I resent that it is uneditted! It is TECHNICALLY editted, in that I opened up the files and clipped out SOME of the nonsense.

I am just a very poor judge of what editing means and left far, far too much. I try to justify it to myself as motivation for what is clearly better work being done on F+.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Cyberventurer on May 10, 2013, 06:58:15 am
How do you set up your bumpers?  Do you just try to wing it from start to finish or do you try to put together a script ahead of time?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Isfahan on May 10, 2013, 07:29:42 am
How do you set up your bumpers?  Do you just try to wing it from start to finish or do you try to put together a script ahead of time?Cyberventurer, May 10, 2013, 06:58:15 am

It falls in between those two. We spend like 90 seconds spitballing skit ideas like "What if I was into Sherlock fanfiction but not the show itself?" and then improv it out and keep it whether it's retarded or not because who cares about bumpers anyway. For the end bumper, we cover the points we definitely want to make and then structure an improv conversation around them. That's about it.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Sherlockian on May 26, 2013, 09:41:51 am
How many ready-for-reading docs do you generally have at any time, and how do you pick what y'all are going to read?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Lemon on May 29, 2013, 09:48:05 am
I'm planning on working something tonite that'll answer the "how do you pick" question, but to answer the first part, we currently have 83 documents in the hopper.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: chai tea latte on May 29, 2013, 09:56:17 am
Oh wow. That is...more than I thought there were.


Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: montrith on May 29, 2013, 11:26:36 am
Around half of them are probably from me. I'm trying to take a break and give Lemon some breathing room.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Boots Raingear on May 29, 2013, 11:34:34 am
Around half of them are probably from me. I'm trying to take a break and give Lemon some breathing room.
montrith, May 29, 2013, 11:26:36 am
Only 1/5 of them are from you.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Lemon on May 29, 2013, 11:55:24 am
My friend Boots Raingear is mistaken. It isn't like a full fifth of the potential material is from Montrith.

It's actually slightly higher.  I have 21.6%.

If you include the stuff that's recorded and awaiting edit, it's nearly 24%.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on May 29, 2013, 01:28:36 pm
If you include the stuff that's recorded and awaiting edit, it's nearly 24%.
Lemon, May 29, 2013, 11:55:24 am
So how many are in the queue at any given time and can Montrith have her own custom title instead of "Paid"?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Sherlockian on May 29, 2013, 02:06:40 pm
So how many are in the queue at any given time and can Montrith have her own custom title instead of "Paid"?
Cuddlesquid, May 29, 2013, 01:28:36 pm

"Cursed Be Your Name" would make a decent title, I think.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: montrith on May 29, 2013, 02:09:08 pm
If you include the stuff that's recorded and awaiting edit, it's nearly 24%.
Lemon, May 29, 2013, 11:55:24 am
So how many are in the queue at any given time and can Montrith have her own custom title instead of "Paid"?
Cuddlesquid, May 29, 2013, 01:28:36 pm

Here's a little riddle for you. There is a huge lie in this sentence, and it's entirely Lemon's fault.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Boots Raingear on May 29, 2013, 02:51:55 pm
Here's a little riddle for you. There is a huge lie in this sentence, and it's entirely Lemon's fault.
montrith, May 29, 2013, 02:09:08 pm

It's true. For the last several months, Montrith has been outsourcing all of her F+ research to China.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Alpha Starsquatch on May 29, 2013, 03:46:01 pm
So. A question that's been sitting at the back of my head for a while. Those of you who have or plan to have kids— is this podcast going to be your dirty secret to keep from them?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Lemon on May 30, 2013, 04:19:39 pm
Those of you who have or plan to have kids— is this podcast going to be your dirty secret to keep from them?
Al, May 29, 2013, 03:46:01 pm

Well, my kid's young enough that it's really not gonna be a factor for a number of years, but once it is? I doubt it'll ever be a concern. Think of your own parents: How much did you really know about them growing up? I feel like teenagers are usually too mired in their own bullshit to really care that much about what their parents do, and most kids who have parents in show business (I know this correlation is a huge stretch, but I'm making a point here) have kids that are completely uninterested in their parents own body of work, regardless of how popular that body of work might be.

So I suspect we'll have an unspoken Don't Ask/Don't Tell policy.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Acierocolotl on May 30, 2013, 07:59:20 pm
No.

"Now be good, or daddy's gonna read your diary on his podcast."
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: gee golly gosh on June 17, 2013, 02:06:40 am
No.

"Now be good, or daddy's gonna read your diary on his podcast."
Acierocolotl, May 30, 2013, 07:59:20 pm

Best parent.

My question for the ridiculists: have you guys ever dreamt that you were recording / editing a podcast and woke up to the realisation that none of that happened? Was the episode nightmarish, really really good or average?

I mainly ask because I've had two dreams now that I was listening to a new f plus episode and got really confused when I went to iTunes and it wasn't there anymore.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Boots Raingear on June 17, 2013, 07:47:28 am
I've been haunted by Stog's anime girl voice in a dream. Does that count?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: gee golly gosh on June 17, 2013, 08:26:45 am
I've been haunted by Stog's anime girl voice in a dream. Does that count?
Boots Raingear, June 17, 2013, 07:47:28 am

That definitely counts.

Wow.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Isfahan on June 17, 2013, 03:09:53 pm
I've been haunted by Stog's anime girl voice in a dream. Does that count?
Boots Raingear, June 17, 2013, 07:47:28 am

"Hi, Boots! So how is your dream going tonight?"
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: NutshellGulag on June 17, 2013, 07:00:22 pm
Bulbed because I can totally imagine that.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Delcat on June 24, 2013, 01:36:19 pm
Would you guys ever consider a Chris-chan episode, or is he just too overdone?
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: montrith on June 24, 2013, 01:51:34 pm
Just a personal opinion, but I think Chris-chan is a bad idea. He's been done so many times it's just not anything any more, plus there's the whole creepiness factor of his trolls going way out of line and ending up just as bad as he is. It's a train-wreck that stopped being funny when people started hacking his emails and stalking him in real life, instead of just reporting on the stuff he posted himself. Making fun of CWC is not even shooting fish in a barrel, it's like shooting a barrel in a barrel. Fuck, the CWC wiki probably rivals real Wikipedia in the amount of information it contains.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Delcat on June 24, 2013, 02:54:34 pm
Just a personal opinion, but I think Chris-chan is a bad idea. He's been done so many times it's just not anything any more, plus there's the whole creepiness factor of his trolls going way out of line and ending up just as bad as he is. It's a train-wreck that stopped being funny when people started hacking his emails and stalking him in real life, instead of just reporting on the stuff he posted himself. Making fun of CWC is not even shooting fish in a barrel, it's like shooting a barrel in a barrel. Fuck, the CWC wiki probably rivals real Wikipedia in the amount of information it contains.
montrith, June 24, 2013, 01:51:34 pm

That's pretty much what I figured, I was just curious.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Emperor Jack Chick on June 24, 2013, 04:26:47 pm
Just a personal opinion, but I think Chris-chan is a bad idea. He's been done so many times it's just not anything any more, plus there's the whole creepiness factor of his trolls going way out of line and ending up just as bad as he is. It's a train-wreck that stopped being funny when people started hacking his emails and stalking him in real life, instead of just reporting on the stuff he posted himself. Making fun of CWC is not even shooting fish in a barrel, it's like shooting a barrel in a barrel. Fuck, the CWC wiki probably rivals real Wikipedia in the amount of information it contains.
montrith, June 24, 2013, 01:51:34 pm

It stopped being funny after like, 2 days. Then it got really, REALLY disgusting.

There's maybe an episode to be made from the CWC trolls, but I haven't bothered to look into it because the whole thing is super gross.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: STOG on June 24, 2013, 06:27:24 pm
I have to agree. Chris-chan, while as sad as he is, is nothing compared to the weirdo fucks who document his life. They are THE REAL MONSTERS (SPOILER!!! TWIST!!!). Even though, I don't see an episode coming out of either camp. I'd just rather force Chris-chan to see a recruiter and to light the trolls on fire.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Lemon on June 25, 2013, 08:57:57 am
What STOG said.

The saga is gross. Okay, yes I did laugh when I saw a video of him sitting on his bed meditating about boobs, but that was a matter of early exposure and now anytime I see someone posting or talking about Chris Chan, I assume they're bad people, cause anyone who fuels this cycle of abuse is an asshole.


Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Locclo on July 07, 2013, 02:15:14 am
Since I only saw two posts on the names thread, how did all of you come up with your various internet names? I only saw Boots and Isfahan on the other thread, and I've always wondered how some of the other names came to be.
Title: General Podcast Questions Thread
Post by: Emperor Jack Chick on July 07, 2013, 05:10:02 pm
Since I only saw two posts on the names thread, how did all of you come up with your various internet names? I only saw Boots and Isfahan on the other thread, and I've always wondered how some of the other names came to be.
Locclo, July 07, 2013, 02:15:14 am

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0042/0042_01.asp (http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0042/0042_01.asp)