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bufordsharkley

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Posts posted by bufordsharkley


  1. I'm disappointed in the responses by Adam of Midroll. This new system puts Earwolf in the position of being a technology company, which it very clearly is not (and should not be).

     

    Instead of engineering everything from the ground up, Howl should work on being a subscription service that integrates with already functional technology, and allows for consumers to obtain content as frictionless as possible, with all the expectations that come with listening to a podcast (listening offline, listening on any device).

     

    The objections to this (much simpler) system (which would almost certainly be a subscription RSS feed), namely that people will share files, strike me as paranoiac and impractical. You can't fear your paying audience-- bad actors will behave badly. But building a wall of subpar technology to keep them out is going to hurt you in the long run.

     

    Sorry for this rant. But these developments are bumming me out.

    • Like 6

  2. Paying Earwolf $60/year for its content is a bargain, and I'm happy to support all the wonderful people making great podcasts. And it's great that you're all concerned in keeping eps accessible to new folks at a free level, too. Cheers all around.

     

    THAT SAID:

     

    I don't use an iPhone-- I use gPodder on Ubuntu, and listen to podcasts on an iPod Classic (actually, I just switched over to the Fiio X1 (http://www.fiio.net/en/products/18) -- not nearly as good as the Classic, but it's nice that something is being made these days).

     

    That is to say, I am a non-smartphone user who consumes nearly everything offline. Fairly freakish in this day and age, but it goes to show-- RSS feeds just work. For everybody.

     

    A password-protected RSS feed would be completely platform-agnostic, and just seems the right choice, technology-wise. Forcing Earwolf to develop its own listening app (when there are so many other ways to listen, all of which carefully honed the user experience) seems like a burden on Earwolf, and giving a subpar product to the listeners.

     

    So that's basically it-- I want to give you money, but an iOS app (or even an Android app) is a non-starter for me.

    • Like 5
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