Episode 254.5 - Minisode 254.5

[Cameron H. 23786]

A baby with no nickname, some Pacifica love, and much more on this week’s minisode! Paul offers up advice on the Help Line, goes through Corrections and Omissions from Love’s Labour’s Lost, and announces next week’s movie.
Get tix for upcoming live-streamed shows and listen to the Transformers For Charity episode over at https://www.hdtgminfo.com/
Check out Devon Bryant’s charity Bandcamp box set here: https://painkillerthepigeon.bandcamp.com/
For more Paul and Rob Huebel go to https://www.twitch.tv/paulscheer
Subscribe to Unspooled with Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson here: http://www.earwolf.com/show/unspooled/
Check out The Jane Club over at www.janeclub.com
Check out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepubli…wdidthisgetmade
Where to Find Jason, June & Paul:
@PaulScheer on Instagram & Twitter
@Junediane on IG and @MsJuneDiane on Twitter
Jason is Not on Twitter

[Cameron H. 23786]

Does anyone here use Discord? If so, what do you think of it? I can say with certainty I don't like Geneva at all. I downloaded the app when Unspooled started a group on it, and I haven't used it once. It just felt crowded, like a bunch of people screaming in a tiny room. There didn't really seem to be any rhyme or reason, and it felt impossible to follow a single conversation.

Personally, I don't like many social media platforms. I've never been on Facebook, and I'm certainly not going to get an account now. I'm on Twitter, but I kind of hate that too. For my money, the only place I really like to hang out online is the forums. I think the UI is pretty good. Maybe not as good as it was before their big face lift a couple of years ago, but not terrible.

[Koolwhip 3]

What's the secret message call? Its driving me crazy listening to it over and over...

 

 

(Also long time listener, first time forum person, no  idea why I haven’t but this call made me do it!)

[Cameron H. 23786]

4 minutes ago, Koolwhip said:

What's the secret message call? Its driving me crazy listening to it over and over

Took me a few listens but it’s...

Spoiler

”A lot of Moonlighting episodes are available on YouTube...”

 

[Koolwhip 3]

Oh man,  that makes a lot more sense than what I had, which was nothing at all. Thanks!!!

[Cameron H. 23786]

4 minutes ago, Koolwhip said:

Oh man,  that makes a lot more sense than what I had, which was nothing at all. Thanks!!!

No problem! I was about to ask the same thing. Somehow I made it out on my last try.  

[Koolwhip 3]

Just now, Cameron H. said:

No problem! I was about to ask the same thing. Somehow I made it out on my last try.  

I was sitting at my desk with my earphones in listening over and over. finally I realized I had 10 mins left of my work to do that suddenly was taking me 30. So I spent MORE time creating an account and asking, logically

[grudlian. 4725]

1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

Does anyone here use Discord? If so, what do you think of it? I can say with certainty I don't like Geneva at all. I downloaded the app when Unspooled started a group on it, and I haven't used it once. It just felt crowded, like a bunch of people screaming in a tiny room. There didn't really seem to be any rhyme or reason, and it felt impossible to follow a single conversation.

Personally, I don't like many social media platforms. I've never been on Facebook, and I'm certainly not going to get an account now. I'm on Twitter, but I kind of hate that too. For my money, the only place I really like to hang out online is the forums. I think the UI is pretty good. Maybe not as good as it was before their big face lift a couple of years ago, but not terrible.

I use Discord regularly but only one channel that is made up of people I've known for 10+ years. And they are all people I knew from a message board. The way we use it is functionally a group chat with different threads. It sits kind of between a message board and a group text. So, it's not what I assume Twitter is like.

It is also good for streaming content because, I think, it was made as a platform to watch game streamers. So, you can use it for voice chat, video chat like Zoom, or text based. It could work for HDTGM Classics except I've only streamed stuff and used voice chat; I'm sure a text chat can be done if kast ever stops working. 

I'm not sure I'd join an HDTGM discord because it could be thousands of people and, at that point, it may as well just be Twitter without character limits (except the mods on Discord can just boot problem people I believe). 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

2 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

Does anyone here use Discord?

Geneva was ok in the beginning, but I think was one of the testers for the Unspooled group and in the beginning it was cool. I haven't checked back in in awhile and it seemed to not have much discussion. There is an Unspooled Discord too, which seems to run a little better. But I reckon maybe there's lots of film groups all around and people haven't needed another one? I do think forums work for me for film pods.

 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

5 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

I'm not sure I'd join an HDTGM discord because it could be thousands of people and, at that point, it may as well just be Twitter without character limits (except the mods on Discord can just boot problem people I believe). 

Yea, this. Though I could see it being fun for Musical Mondays or like an unofficial group and using to stay connected a little closer/talk about other things. But if there were an official one with thousands, I wouldn't bother either

[Cameron H. 23786]

13 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Yea, this. Though I could see it being fun for Musical Mondays or like an unofficial group and using to stay connected a little closer/talk about other things. But if there were an official one with thousands, I wouldn't bother either

That's kind of my feeling. I've always liked the forums. For me, they're easy to navigate and read the content you're looking for without wading through a sea of disparate threads.

I also like the fact that it's a bit of a, I don't want to say, challenge to get here. You've kind of have to want to be here to be here. Which is why I think it's always been (relatively) drama free. I think the biggest drama we ever had here was for the Can't Stop the Music episode when a bunch of people created accounts just to bitch. But, other than that, it's always been pretty chill. I wish Earwolf would go back to promoting their forums a little more to get a *little* more traffic in here (It used to be quite robust for all shows), but I guess it's cheaper to outsource that kind of thing. Plus, I don't think a lot of shows are quite as open as HDTGM to listener participation. 

[grudlian. 4725]

50 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

That's kind of my feeling. I've always liked the forums. For me, they're easy to navigate and read the content you're looking for without wading through a sea of disparate threads.

I also like the fact that it's a bit of a, I don't want to say, challenge to get here. You've kind of have to want to be here to be here. Which is why I think it's always been (relatively) drama free. I think the biggest drama we ever had here was for the Can't Stop the Music episode when a bunch of people created accounts just to bitch. But, other than that, it's always been pretty chill. I wish Earwolf would go back to promoting their forums a little more to get a *little* more traffic in here (It used to be quite robust for all shows), but I guess it's cheaper to outsource that kind of thing. Plus, I don't think a lot of shows are quite as open as HDTGM to listener participation. 

All this. More traffic would be nice but not a huge jump in traffic.

I think message boards are largely just old fashioned or seen that way to a lot of people. My guess is hosting one is more expensive than a Discord server and I'm not sure how many other earwolf shows get any message board traffic. As soon as Paul started incorporating phone calls into the minis, I thought that was an indicator, intentional or not, that the days are numbered on some level.

[Cameron H. 23786]

57 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

All this. More traffic would be nice but not a huge jump in traffic.

I think message boards are largely just old fashioned or seen that way to a lot of people. My guess is hosting one is more expensive than a Discord server and I'm not sure how many other earwolf shows get any message board traffic. As soon as Paul started incorporating phone calls into the minis, I thought that was an indicator, intentional or not, that the days are numbered on some level.

Yeah, I think that was the beginning of the end. Or at least, a beginning of an end -- if that makes sense.  I understand how that makes it more accessible to your average listener, but I feel like the overall effect has been detrimental to the boards as an ecosystem. ("Why create an account when I can just call in?"). It encouraged more participation from listeners, but at the expense of the community that was already established. I feel like something like Discord would be okay, but that's why I asked what it was like. I don't really like the idea of an overcrowded arena where we lose the personal touch. (ETA: I know quite a few people who left the boards soon after phone calls were introduced. It wasn't the only reason, but it was a cited reason.) 

As far as other shows, honestly, I haven't had the time to listen to more than a couple of podcasts a week. But back in the day, The Hollywood Handbook (~RIP) and CBB threads used to give HDTGM a run for their money in terms of participation. I Was There Too (RIP), The Canon (RIP) Spontaneanation (RIP) and Nerd Poker (~RIP) used to get quite a bit of traffic as well. It helped because the hosts of a lot of those shows would interact with people on the boards -- and not just in a 260 character Tweet or something. Like, you could regularly have a conversation with Dan Telfer or PFT which was fun.

What also sucks about the boards getting neglected is I used to find new shows through the boards. Suddenly, there would be a new thread created and it would pique my curiosity. There have been a bunch of new Earwolf shows released that I had no idea about. It's like, Earwolf expects people to visit their homepage, and I don't know a single person who does that -- lol.   

[grudlian. 4725]

The phone calls would have been welcome if they hadn't clearly stolen board comments. I don't know if the same person who pulls board comments pulls phone calls but some were very clearly verbatim. That isn't just parallel thinking.

The only time I go to the front page of earwolf is to listen in browser if I have issues with Stitcher. It's something any business in 2020 needs to have but I'm not discovering new podcasts through it. Honestly, the ads in podcasts are about the only way I get new info on earwolf podcasts.

[DannytheWall 196]

Haven't felt too passionate about the movies chosen for the HDTGM treatment recently, but I still go immeditately to the boards after an episode for the discussion. Discord would be a no for me. I've been on and off Discord (mostly for rpgs and things) but it's never been without effort. Discord is so strict about log ins that it feels better served (as it was probably designed to be) for those with desktop computers who don't move around much. Living overseas and juggling devices and locations makes me always have to do 2 to 3 steps more just to log in that it just becomes more frustrating and I don't want to even try sometimes. 

One of the nicer things about Discord is that, once you're in, it's more one-stop shop so just switch through your servers rather than opening new tabs or sites or whatever. One of the bad things is that Discord will lend for more off-the-cuff responses, and I appreciate being able to compose or edit my thoughts like on a message board. Maybe they want more responses like that caller in this episode who rambled for five minutes about a shakespeare class she took once, but I don't think it really contributed to any correction or ommission or really anything. 

 

[DannytheWall 196]

4 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

Yeah, I think that was the beginning of the end. Or at least, a beginning of an end -- if that makes sense.

Oh it for sure makes sense. In the early (?) days of podcasting, wasn't Earwolf one of the first conglomerates of various casts? Back in the day podcasting was more hobby-ish, and people were either amateur casters presenting their personal passions, or professionals of various media who used it as another way to be visable and promote other things. At some point HDTGM and a lot of these kinds of podcasts became the Thing Itself, and while that's good (higher production values, for one thing) it makes them tip from something casual into full-on business that demands chasing the clicks, or ears, or whatever.  There's gotta be some kind of captialism lecture in here somewhere.

 

[DannytheWall 196]

59 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

The phone calls would have been welcome if they hadn't clearly stolen board comments. I don't know if the same person who pulls board comments pulls phone calls but some were very clearly verbatim. That isn't just parallel thinking.

I don't know. I'd give the benefit of the doubt on that. Heck, I've read message posts that echoed earlier parts *of the boards,* so more often parellel thinking than not. So I'm either too pessimistic to believe people actually read things, or I'm too naiive about people's theft habits.

[Cameron H. 23786]

25 minutes ago, DannytheWall said:

One of the bad things is that Discord will lend for more off-the-cuff responses, and I appreciate being able to compose or edit my thoughts like on a message board.

That’s what I like about the boards, too. I’m not against off-the-cuff comments, but one of the things I hate about Twitter is how you hear the same variation of the same joke run into the ground a million times. I like the boards as they allow everyone to have their own “voice.”

 

14 minutes ago, DannytheWall said:

I don't know. I'd give the benefit of the doubt on that. Heck, I've read message posts that echoed earlier parts *of the boards,* so more often parellel thinking than not. So I'm either too pessimistic to believe people actually read things, or I'm too naiive about people's theft habits. 

To be fair, it hasn’t been done in a while, but there have been times were they would be literally verbatim. I remember one time we came back here and asked someone (I can’t remember who now) if it was actually them calling in their own C&O and they said no.

Parallel thinking is one thing, but parallel composition is another.

Another thing I like the boards, is just this, having a dialogue. I like people fleshing out each other’s ideas and theories. Like, for The Quest there was a whole discussion about navigation or something that was pretty hilarious. You miss out on the that kind of thing when you phone something in. 

[grudlian. 4725]

18 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

To be fair, it hasn’t been done in a while, but there have been times were they would be literally verbatim. I remember one time we came back here and asked someone (I can’t remember who now) if it was actually them calling in their own C&O and they said no.

Found it. Syncasey definitely had his read word for word by someone.

https://forum.earwolf.com/topic/61005-episode-213-minisode-213/

 

[grudlian. 4725]

Also, they confirmed Jessica St. Clair is part of the group playing Among Us. Seeing her try to figure out the game is going to be amazing.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

I watched the livestream tonight and I am very excited to hear Jessica’s take on the KFC Recipe for Seduction “mini-movie.”

[DrGuts1003 462]

If anyone is interested, Lifetime is airing A Very Nutty Christmas at noon Eastern, this Wednesday, 12/16.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

16 hours ago, DrGuts1003 said:

If anyone is interested, Lifetime is airing A Very Nutty Christmas at noon Eastern, this Wednesday, 12/16.

I did not enjoy this one. It made me angry. I don’t know if it’s my residual 7th Heaven hate or what. But it made me miss Mario Lopez. .

[Cam Bert 8145]

As someone who has Discord I will say I don't think it's a great idea, but maybe I'm just old. Admittedly there are some things on it that are appealing and make sense. You can create channels in it, so each mini and episode will have it's own dedicated channel for people to go into and comment. That's good. It's very mobile friendly. That's also good. It's easy to join and use for the most part which is good and bad. So I have a discord and use it with my friends for gaming together along with some texting back and forth with them. After getting on it I noticed that there was a YouTuber who's channel I was a fan of that was promoting his discord so I decided to join it. It was a nightmare that put me off joining others. First, anybody could join which meant just lots and lots of spam and just unwanted replies. This made me feel bad for the moderators because this was not their full time job but they had to spend a lot of time on this stuff. As a mobile user I had to turn notifications off because I was just getting lots of notifications that somebody had said "kk cool." It was hard to actually talk to others. With  a lot of people on at the same time it encourages short replies and not long thought out ones. This has its benefits and disadvantages I suppose. I know if I wanted to type something that was more than three or four sentences it was better to use the desktop version than mobile. Then I would also look mad as it was a block of text in a sea of short sentences. To me one of the advantages of the forums is a lot of the people do serious thinking and research on things. Those post tend to be long of complicated. Discord doesn't seem like a fit for those kind of posts. If you want to point something small out or ask a general question yes. It might be better for a bit more back and forth but I think we'd lose a lot of the researched posts. The other thing is it is a nightmare to find things and navigate. It's just a wall of text. If you want to find something somebody said earlier and everybody is being active it is just lots of scrolling and skimming. Given how even on the forums people sometimes repeat other people (heck, I've been guilty of this) expect that to happen a lot more.

I think though the end of the forums is more of a when than an if at this point. I know we've lost lots of great regular posters for various reasons. As some who has been around for a long time and made good friends here it will sad to see it go. I just hope whatever the future holds there will be place for us to enjoy the show and still share our insane theories, needless research, and hard worked out math.

[Cameron H. 23786]

16 minutes ago, Cam Bert said:

As someone who has Discord I will say I don't think it's a great idea, but maybe I'm just old. Admittedly there are some things on it that are appealing and make sense. You can create channels in it, so each mini and episode will have it's own dedicated channel for people to go into and comment. That's good. It's very mobile friendly. That's also good. It's easy to join and use for the most part which is good and bad. So I have a discord and use it with my friends for gaming together along with some texting back and forth with them. After getting on it I noticed that there was a YouTuber who's channel I was a fan of that was promoting his discord so I decided to join it. It was a nightmare that put me off joining others. First, anybody could join which meant just lots and lots of spam and just unwanted replies. This made me feel bad for the moderators because this was not their full time job but they had to spend a lot of time on this stuff. As a mobile user I had to turn notifications off because I was just getting lots of notifications that somebody had said "kk cool." It was hard to actually talk to others. With  a lot of people on at the same time it encourages short replies and not long thought out ones. This has its benefits and disadvantages I suppose. I know if I wanted to type something that was more than three or four sentences it was better to use the desktop version than mobile. Then I would also look mad as it was a block of text in a sea of short sentences. To me one of the advantages of the forums is a lot of the people do serious thinking and research on things. Those post tend to be long of complicated. Discord doesn't seem like a fit for those kind of posts. If you want to point something small out or ask a general question yes. It might be better for a bit more back and forth but I think we'd lose a lot of the researched posts. The other thing is it is a nightmare to find things and navigate. It's just a wall of text. If you want to find something somebody said earlier and everybody is being active it is just lots of scrolling and skimming. Given how even on the forums people sometimes repeat other people (heck, I've been guilty of this) expect that to happen a lot more.

I think though the end of the forums is more of a when than an if at this point. I know we've lost lots of great regular posters for various reasons. As some who has been around for a long time and made good friends here it will sad to see it go. I just hope whatever the future holds there will be place for us to enjoy the show and still share our insane theories, needless research, and hard worked out math.

Exactly! I don't want to just read a group text or a Twitter feed. I feel like the forums are a good place for a conversation.