We want your feedback!

[P.C. Haring]

Hello all you beautiful forum users, listeners, readers, sci-fi, fantasy, horror addicts, out there! 

I'm awfully quiet over here and if you don't recognize me, well I'm not surprised.  I'm P.C. Haring, the accounting money monkey for EA as well as the publisher.  I work a lot on that pesky business side of things in the proverbial front office. 

We're working on a few things on the background while the editors keep producing the content you've come to know and love.  But while we do that, we want to hear from you about our web sites.  We're looking at how the actual web sites present to you all and while we see some things... we don't see them all and there are some things that we can not see because we've just looked at it too many times to recognize it.

So, please tell us what you think of the .org websites!  What do you like?  What do you not like?  What's broken that we don't know about?  Is something not formatting properly in your web browser of choice?  Does it look freaking epic awesome and never be touched? 

Please let us know.  We want your constructive feedback.  Tell us the good and the bad!  Help us improve the sites for you all!

Thanks!

[Fenrix]

When I link to a story on facebook (or other social media of choice) I want an image to pop up with that podcast. The closest PseudoPod has is a PodDisc picture. Also probably not linking to PodDisc would be worthwhile.

Thanks for the money wrangling, P.C.!

[matweller]

When I link to a story on facebook (or other social media of choice) I want an image to pop up with that podcast. The closest PseudoPod has is a PodDisc picture. Also probably not linking to PodDisc would be worthwhile.

Thanks for the money wrangling, P.C.!

A good call and a perfect example of the kind of stuff PC's looking for! And in this case, a 1-minute fix that could make a lot of positive difference.

[lowky]

I will be honest, I don't recall the last time I went to any of the websites.  The podcasts show up in iTunes, and I listen to them.  Not saying there aren't reasons to hit up the websites, I just usually don't.  Not sure what "added value" could be included in the websites that I don't get either through the podcast feed or the forums.  Forums I am usually on a couple times per day.  Not sure if there is a way to better link the two of those to drive traffic or not.    I have been a lazy fan and should probably share more stories I like, again getting them in my iTunes feed, I don't think about it.

[lowky]

I looked at Pseudopod.org and I hade a thought, and I will go with someone we link to, to show my example. when you look at andersmanga's website there is a top banner of links (see linked screenshot below).  I don't know if something like this could be done, but I would think it might bring the donate, sister podcasts and the forums more front and center.  



edited to add:and looking at the other sites, it is already like that with Escape Pod.  I realize the sites are each their own division, but if the layout were standardized between the 3 it might make everyone's job easier, especially the code monkeys that maintain the sites, and would show a more unified front to the world at large.

[eytanz]

I don't like the way Escapepod's front page mixes content, with some entries being podcasts and some of them being, essentially, Josh Roseman's review blog. I actually really like Josh's reviews, but for me there is a real confusion of branding here. I really think the Escapepod.org site should be limited to the podcast - and maybe there should be a spinoff site for reviews and blog entries. As it is, I feel that this setup does a disservice the podcast (since it's harder to find old episodes), and it probably does a disservice to Josh, because I don't know that anyone has any reason to expect to find his material there.

[P.C. Haring]

All great comments so far and good points all around.  Please keep them coming, and please do not be offended if you don't recieve a direct reply from me or one of the staff.  I promise you that everything you say here is being read and forwarded to our new Web Maven.

I'm off to go swim through the money bin a la Scrooge McDuck!

[Fenrix]

I don't like the way Escapepod's front page mixes content, with some entries being podcasts and some of them being, essentially, Josh Roseman's review blog. I actually really like Josh's reviews, but for me there is a real confusion of branding here. I really think the Escapepod.org site should be limited to the podcast - and maybe there should be a spinoff site for reviews and blog entries. As it is, I feel that this setup does a disservice the podcast (since it's harder to find old episodes), and it probably does a disservice to Josh, because I don't know that anyone has any reason to expect to find his material there.

Maybe escapeartists.org combines the feeds of all three plus Josh's blog and maybe some other content? Shawn has some of the most fantastic book reviews, and anything horror relevant would be worth pushing out. Then have all the individual feeds just handle the stories?

All great comments so far and good points all around.  Please keep them coming, and please do not be offended if you don't recieve a direct reply from me or one of the staff.  I promise you that everything you say here is being read and forwarded to our new Web Maven.

I'm off to go swim through the money bin a la Scrooge McDuck!

[Moritz]

When I downloaded the complete backcatalogues, with Escape Pod I had difficulties to spot that some of the months had two pages (the "next page" button is not that easy to spot). Also a sidebar with all past months a la Pseudopod and Podcastle makes navigating easier than the pop-up thing Escape Pod has, also it instantly shows how much is already out there.

[Sgarre1]

Al and I just thought up the fact that perhaps we could have a "Testimonials" page where we can gather (and add to) any nice quotes that people of note have made  regarding the EA casts - it would be a good resource for when we need pull quotes quickly for an ad or whatnot.

[Unblinking]

I'm awfully quiet over here and if you don't recognize me, well I'm not surprised.  I'm P.C. Haring, the accounting money monkey for EA as well as the publisher.  I work a lot on that pesky business side of things in the proverbial front office. 

Hi Paul!  I know who you are.  Admittedly, the fact that I've always been paid on time for EA sales is a plus.  And you've bought me a Guinness, which also helps. 

When I link to a story on facebook (or other social media of choice) I want an image to pop up with that podcast. The closest PseudoPod has is a PodDisc picture. Also probably not linking to PodDisc would be worthwhile.

Thanks for the money wrangling, P.C.!

I second this.  All it would take would be a small image of the magazine's logo in the sidebar.  Escape Pod already has a pretty decent one that works with Facebook.  But Pseudopod and Podcastle don't.  Podcastle actually has a nice perfect-sized logo of the OTHER TWO but not of itself.

I don't like the way Escapepod's front page mixes content, with some entries being podcasts and some of them being, essentially, Josh Roseman's review blog. I actually really like Josh's reviews, but for me there is a real confusion of branding here. I really think the Escapepod.org site should be limited to the podcast - and maybe there should be a spinoff site for reviews and blog entries. As it is, I feel that this setup does a disservice the podcast (since it's harder to find old episodes), and it probably does a disservice to Josh, because I don't know that anyone has any reason to expect to find his material there.

And I strongly second this as well.  It doesn't bother me that Escape Pod sponsor's josh's reviews, though I think they'd be more fitting on a blog or a nonfiction magazine.  But I don't like them on the main page, because (oh no, a numbered list, you all knew this was coming):
1.  The podcast episodes of the EA casts contain almost no audio nonfiction.  There is the occasional exception, with an interview, or the Podcastle spotlights, or the movie reviews that Alasdair used to do, and etc, but those are very occasional features.  The EA publications are audio publications primarily and having one of the sites heavily covered in text-only nonfiction just really doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the site's aesthetic.
2.  There have been times when, due to a particularly heavy flow of nonfiction, there wasn't even a single audio fiction episode on the front page of Escape Pod, which is the premier SF podcast.  I think this happened, if I recall correctly, when there was a big nonfiction series of Star Trek TNG.
3.  I don't know about anyone else, but personally I don't read the nonfiction.  I listen to podcasts so heavily because if I have the time to sit in place in front of a computer long enough to read a lengthy nonfiction article, I'd rather be writing.  Podcasts are great for playing in the background when I don't have free eyes for reading.



Other than that, I'm generally pretty happy with the sites.  A little more dynamic content wouldn't be amiss.  I like word clouds.  Having something that's different each time the page's loaded would be snazzy, like if each story had an author headshot with a link to their website and it would load one of them up at random each time the page is loaded.  But these are all little flashbang things that are far from vital but might be kind of neat.

[Fenrix]

Al and I just thought up the fact that perhaps we could have a "Testimonials" page where we can gather (and add to) any nice quotes that people of note have made  regarding the EA casts - it would be a good resource for when we need pull quotes quickly for an ad or whatnot.

Always have your Wil Wheaton quotes handy.

[Max e^{i pi}]

I'm P.C. Haring, the accounting money monkey for EA as well as the publisher.  I work a lot on that pesky business side of things in the proverbial front office. 

Hi! I know who you are! I listened to Cybrosis way-back-when, and therefore heard your voice in my head reading your posts (it was creepy).

Anyway, about the sites. This is mostly a backend issue, but I wanted to bulk download a whole bunch of EP episodes, and it's difficult.
First, there is the fact that it's a blog, so archives are ordered by month, not by content.
Second there's eytanz's issue where the site mixes content.
To solve those issues I tried writing a script that will go to the EP server and download audio files, but the directory structure is not sane.
So, the solution I thought of was to reorganize the database into directories for year>month, and to have them searchable from a single Archives page, with links to episodes audio files AND blog posts in numerical order. (You don't actually have to reorganize the server files, you can just make some clever queries to your database).
Basically: I want a single Archives page where I can browse through all the episodes, OR blog posts and search them for keywords. This way, those of us who didn't sell our soul to Apple and don't have iTunes can still access old episodes in a sane and orderly fashion.

Keep up the good work!

[matweller]

There's the wiki page...

[Max e^{i pi}]

What wiki page?

There's another thing to fix: if there's a wiki, link to it in an obvious way.

[eytanz]

What wiki page?

There's another thing to fix: if there's a wiki, link to it in an obvious way.

Escape Pod doesn't have a wiki; Mat was referring to the wikipedia page for EP which has a list of all the episodes in order:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Escape_Pod_episodes

[Max e^{i pi}]

Well, that's a nice list. But not really useful for downloading episodes from.
Steps:
1. Learn that EA has a wiki.
2. Find the wiki.
3. Locate the list of episodes in the wiki.
4. Click a link to an episode post.
5. Look for the teeny tiny download button in the episode post and click it.
6. Download.

That's a lot of steps.
Also, step 5 is difficult because the links are not always in the same place in the post. The Download link is at the end of the line, and depending on the length of the episode title, it may be at the beginning of a new line, or somewhere else. Compare for episodes 404, 405 and 406.

To summarize, I think we need two improvements:
1. A sane Archives page with direct downloads of audio files, as well as links to the episode posts.
2. A consistent layout for all buttons, specifically the Download link, that makes them more visible (read: larger) and easier to find.

[Max e^{i pi}]

Um... sorry if I came off a bit cross and whinny in my last post, that was totally not my intent.
My intent is to give honest feedback that includes a good description of the problem and a possible solution.

[matweller]

The wiki is linked in the post for every episode (at least for 2013, since I've been making the site updates) and mentioned in 2 or more forum posts for anyone that wants to search (that's how I initially found out about it, actually). I can put the link in the ID3 tags of the MP3 files too, I guess.

[Fenrix]

When I link to a story on facebook (or other social media of choice) I want an image to pop up with that podcast. The closest PseudoPod has is a PodDisc picture. Also probably not linking to PodDisc would be worthwhile.

I like the cleaner look for the pages, but there's still no PP logo for linking. However, the parsec finalist one is a really nice upgrade, so we're better off than we were before.

[Kaa]

if each story had an author headshot with a link to their website and it would load one of them up at random each time the page is loaded.  But these are all little flashbang things that are far from vital but might be kind of neat.

Oh, this. It would be nice to have, but not a must have.

I like all the suggestions about making the back catalog easily accessible. I haven't had the issue because I've been a subscriber from the very beginning...of all three podcasts...but it does make it easier for newcomers.

One thing that is a bit off-putting about Pseudopod...the very first text you see on the site when you load it is this:

Welcome to Pseudopod!
October 23rd, 2006 12:30 am

When I load a site and the "most recent post" (which those top positions are usually reserved for) is more than seven years out of date, it makes me think no one is updating anymore. EscapePod and PodCastle both have the most recent episode in that coveted, top position.

And this is just an aesthetic thing, but...EscapePod and PodCastle are both much "cleaner-looking" than PseudoPod because the background image (with the swirly, cloudy pattern) is a bit busy.

And this is my biggest pet issuer: I want to contribute -- and in fact, used to contribute $5/month per podcast -- but I loathe PayPal after some shenanigans they have pulled. I'd still love to give you money, however, but I can't do that easily without using PayPal. If there were just some other way in addition to PayPal? (Amazon leaps to mind.)

[flintknapper]

I guess I differ from what has been said here so far. I like the reviews on escapepod, but I agree it does make older episodes harder to find. Also it is hard in the sense that Escapepod does it and pseudopod and podcastle really don't (I think they did in the past, but I could be wrong).

Something I enjoy immensely in the information on the week's author. One of the primary reasons I listen to the podcasts is to discover authors I do not know about. If I dig a story, the first thing I do is go to your website and hit the link for the author if one is provided. Now obviously that is not a suggestion, you guys do that already, but it is a feature which makes my experience more enjoyable. So please do not get rid of it.

[Kaa]

Oh, man. Sometimes stuff just falls into place.

https://subbable.com/faq

It uses Amazon, not PayPal. Take a look!

[DKT]

Oh, man. Sometimes stuff just falls into place.

https://subbable.com/faq

It uses Amazon, not PayPal. Take a look!

Sweet! Thanks, Kaa!

[Kaa]

It's still in beta, but I think Escape Artists fits all their criteria.