How long is too long?

[Opabinia]

Oh, heck, that was me - Rachel. Signed into my husband's account.

[H. Bergeron]

1:30 to 2:00 sounds alright to me - personally, I don't mind not having chapter markers, since I generally will listen to ANY story (seriously, of any length) all in one go, or just that one story until I'm finished with it.

My MP3 player (Zune), at least, remembers my playback position on podcasts, though, even when I play other stuff, so... that probably makes a hell of a difference.

But I really wouldn't mind the occasional Podcastle Giant 2 Hour Spectacular.  Does the blanket "NO SERIALIZATION" ban apply to doing what some people have suggested - that is, splitting the story at a convenient break point and releasing two audio files on the same day as part one and part two of the story?  Because I think that might be a good call.  I'm not sure where I stand on double-releasing the files in multiple formats, though.  It seems like that might get a little bit needlessly complex.

[MacArthurBug]

So long as it's worth it I'm willing to "sacrifice" the time. IF anything ever gets over 2 hours we should defiantly be warned. Also- an intermission point would be helpful in anything over 2 hours. I use these (the escape artists) stories during my commute, during my quiet morning time, or to distract myself (like at "womens check" and doctor appointments, dental visits, and our twice a year visit to the noisy child friendly pizza joint that I hate but my girls still love)

[Paranatural]

Actually it's always been kinda a pet peeve of mine that Steve was always so concerned about 'How Long a Show was running'. Who gives a damn? I never knew how long each episode was 'supposed' to be. It's not like it's on the air and has to fit neatly into some sort of special time slot. Just let things be as long as they are. To answer your question, Rachel, my opinion is that length should only really be of a concern as far as how long it actually takes to produce the episode. I mean, obviously doing a 30 min reading is a different beast from doing an 8 hour one, but I don't 'get' the artificial time constraints thing. Why would any episode 'need' to be of any set length? 30 mins, 2 hours, what's the difference? Of course I just don't get the whole idea of having to listen to the whole episode at once thing either, so maybe it's just one of my own eccentricities.

[kibitzer]

I say go for it. I often listen to stuff part-way and pick it up later.