Annotated version
Hey there. It’s me. Remember me? Yeah, relax. I be in the studio this Saturday, so quit you whining.
I’ve got another idea that I’ve decided to put forth to you, the Rabid Fans, rather than presenting the idea to Mike and the crew. Par for the course, no?
After listening to some back episodes (I’m behind), I noticed that we don’t always do a good job of ’splaining who certain people are and what their association to the show might be. All the Rabid Fans get the references, but nubes most certainly do not. My idea is simple — but the execution will not be: take the audio file and add in some “annotations” when we make any and all references which need some additional information. Don’t go overboard, but add in, in your voice, the data which we missed so that a new person will enjoy the show.
If this works, I’d entertain the idea of creating two different show links, or making some sort of announcement up front that nubes should grab a different file, or at least refer to the reference file if they get lost. Then again, this may be a lark and suck major wind. If so, it dies.
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Not sure I follow. Kinda like you reference Spherical Tomi, then go in and insert a tone and a voice saying, “Spherical Tomi is a podiobook written and produced by Jack Mangan, a Phoenix resident and frequent guest on the show. http://www.jackmangan.com for more info.”???
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:17 pm
or,
*bong*
“Jeremy from Seattle called in while having sex, thereby becoming slightly infamous and spawning (heh) the idea for ‘Get Your Geek Off: Sex Advice for Geeks’”
*bong*
??
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:50 pm
I had to read this like.. three times to get it.
you have to do it in a really quiet voice… and definately do the
*bong*
thing…
itll be all like
*bong*
the word is…
persnickety…
*bong*
lol
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
*bong*
The password is…
rhubarb…
*bong*
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Either or. Both work.
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:23 pm
huh?
Well Im not sure about this… it seems like that commentary could get quite annoying… I dont think I would like to hear all that extra crap. It would ruin the flow of the show.
Maybe offer more complete show notes with all said info that the “nubes” or “virgins” can access and state that at the beginning… just an idea… just my 2 cents…
buh-bye
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Wiki Wiki
What should the noobs know? I think the Wikipedia article would be a good place to add these things. Just let me know (that goes for hosts and listeners) what needs to be added. We’ve started a vocabulary section and a history section and both could stand to be expanded.
I must confess, having been listening for nearly a year now, I just take the show vocabulary in stride and have a tough time now trying to look at it from a noob perspective to figure out what doens’t make sense to the new listener.
August 4th, 2006 at 4:57 am
I vote to put the information about the people, things, and events in as show notes with links to wiki references if they exist. Mention the fact occasionally in the show. Otherwise, I think it is a lot more work and would disrupt the flow of the show.
August 4th, 2006 at 6:14 am
I think, that perhaps you take one in every three or four shows and do this… perhaps the first show every month. It would allow for good jumping on points, and would keep the work for either the person writing show notes or the person editing the audio file to a minimum.
I like the idea of doing audio inserts, but agree that for a first time listener it could be distracting and confuse the flow of the show. Then again, some folks would rather just sit back and have it all ’splained to them instead of going through all the ‘work’ of looking at the show notes.
I say go for it, and if I can make some time, I’ll even try to give it a go on an episode to see how it it might sound.
August 4th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
If you supported the .m4p format you could put jpegs in there and links to explainations and stuff…but that would take some time to work on.
August 4th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
I find it rather interesting that the objections are negative rather than positive. I for one, would love to shephard some “Newbie” through the convoluted skein of events that are Michael and Evo.
Perhaps what we need is a link to to the Dragonpage Forum that is just for a newbie to view… with nice fanboys to guide them to utter bliss with M and E.
After all, I started listening in August of 05.. and missed out on some very funny episodes. An Easy Guide to the Dragonpage… or to Winging It… gee, we could actually make these people feel at home. Gosh… what a concept.
So if anyone else has comments.. please let me know. I am ready to begin.
August 5th, 2006 at 7:13 am
I like the idea of ocassionally, and I stress ocassionally, having a MST3K style show. We have our show, and have some people through in lines. Evo talks: Everyone yells, “Bastard!” Evo insults Mike: “Arrogant Bastard!” We could have lines for Keanu referrences, different people in the studio, etc.
August 5th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Karen, in my case at least, the objections are motivated by the desire to maintain an entertaining show. Consider the situation if you and a bunch of your friends got together, but a visitor was along. Would you stop to explain every inside joke?
I really see Evo’s suggestion as a solution to that question. I approve of His desire to help along the newbies. When I started listening, there were a lot of things that went over my head. There are still a lot of things that go over my head, such as “Spoilergate.” But I live with them.
I suppose I could just download the non-newbie feed. I’d like to hear Mike’s opinion on how much work a second newbie feed would be.
August 6th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
The objections are negative? Hmm I didnt think so. I think I explained that the audio version with comments wouldn’t work, but a more informative show notes would.
Or I was thinking as I read through the new replies… Why dont you just make a FAQ page? Instead of doing things that need to be redone everyweek, start a FAQ that can just be added to. As new references appear on an episode, add a new FAQ entry.
August 7th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
I think we could merge a couple of these ideas into one large database.
Rather than building an entire new part of the site, why not host it on the Forums and link it via the site. Build an FAQ Database like Andrea says and run it from there. People can post suggestions up and then they can be posted into the M&E FAQ Section
Thoughts on this?
August 8th, 2006 at 11:02 am
If there were a database built to explain to new fans the inside jokes of the show, that would be helpful. I’ve listened for a while now and still I miss some things….
It might work to have said database and reference it early in the show. Part of the intro maybe.
I do know some Star Trek books do heavily annotated notes on-line about references….is that a possiblity?
Of course, the big thing with that is having someone who’d want to do it and would be able to do it…
August 8th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
We would have more than enough people around here helping out, most likely if we could get one person to one thing of relevance to them or something they know about then if everyone done that, we would be a very good start.
We would be able to work out a system of operation but we need to get some kind of agreement before we start with more details about how we build it, but we need to agree where we are going to host it and what kind of system we will build.
An FAQ Database or Audio Clips?
On a separate site or on the Forums?