Request for New Forum Topic - Podcasting

[David_M]

I've recently gotten into podcasting and think it would be great to share what I've learned, and also get advice from others here.

[brakthepoet]

I think Brett's current rule for creating new forums is 100 threads on the subject. At least that's the number I saw in this recent thread [webmasterworld.com] (post # 15).

A quick search of WW shows up only about 20 or so on podcasts or podcasting, and most of those in the RSS forum [webmasterworld.com]. If you want to get a forum dedicated to podcasting, get some quality threads going in the RSS forum and it might happen. But the topic may fit best in RSS and stay there. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't podcasting mostly an RSS feed with audio files? If so, it will probably remain in the RSS Forum.)

As a bit of Webmasterworld history, the rule for new forums in 2000 [webmasterworld.com] was 10 thread and the rule in 2003 [webmasterworld.com] was 50. How quickly times change!

[ScottM]

isn't podcasting mostly an RSS feed with audio files?

That is somewhat true. However it's sort of like saying, "Isn't television just radio with pictures?"

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it may be a little too simplistic.

[David_M]

Ok, I'll post my questions to the RSS forum, and hopefully hit the magic # to get it its own subforum :)

BTW, does this now count as an additional 4 posts? ;)

[brakthepoet]

"Isn't television just radio with pictures?"

Given the low quality of most programming: Yes. I believe Joss Whedon calls it "radio with faces."

But, your point is taken. I realize that there is more to podcasting than mp3 + RSS, and I was hoping to get a different response with my oversimplification. I'm not a podcaster, but, here is what I suspect is the "more to it" of podcasting.

Listener base - Forum Community Building
Tech issues - Perl Server Side CGI Scripting, PHP Server Side Scripting, Webmaster General, Website Technology Issues

Post-production & sound quality issues - Site Graphics and Multimedia Design, Webmaster Hardware, Website Technology Issues(?)

Show content & topics - Content, Writing and Copyright (it's not just for text anymore)

Monetization - Professional Webmaster Business Issues

And I'm sure there is more, but that's just a little bit off the top of my head. Not that podcasting won't ever deserve its own forum, but I suspect most of the issues will probably fit into other forums right now. And, as always, it's ultimately up to Brett.

[ScottM]

Excellent analysis!

(ScottM sulks that he can't do that kind of dissection.)

[David_M]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown Brak- I hadn't thought of it that thoroughly!

I agree with your breakdown as far as the need to use outside forums to deal with problems like technologies, copywriting and monetization- but I think some of the issues are pretty specific to podcasting.
Examples: in an international/bilingual environment, itunes uses a different alphabetization scheme than a generic directory may.
(ans:in itms English is before the local language, so i would assume the same is true in the podcast category)
How many characters should be used in the title tags? How many keywords can be placed in the keyword tag? (I'm gonna put this question in my RSS post)