Is it too early to make a complaint thread

[Russell Nash]

I get the feeling that Steve is the founder of EscapePod/Escape Artists, but I'm not sure.  If so, Steve, please open the process up to people you trust.  if you need to take a break, do so, but open it up to people who are asking to help.

Escape Artists is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, from my understanding.  If the board of directors is reading this, or if someone can forward it to the board, or even if Steve is the president, I hope that the board considers the current status of EscapePod and seriously consider Steve's role with the organization and the podcast.  If this were a business he would be gone and people who wanted/could do the work would be there.

If Steve and EscapePod want to continue I hope that they can as a BARE MINIMUM do the following.  My requests are:
1) Post an update to the main site in light of growing worry of listeners.  Say something.
2) Allow potential volunteers to contribute in some manner, be it selecting stories, finding readers, contacting authors, editing, doing the intros, etc.

Missmeko,

Calm down.  First Steve is EA.  This is his baby, start to finish. 

Second, Steve stated in a succession of intros that EP is a for-profit corporation.  Steve is also the sole share holder.  The board answers to the share holders and that's him.

Third, EP is free.  It doesn't have contracts that it must fill with the exception of sponsorship deals.  EA is delivering 2 out of three podcasts right now.  These people are doing this out of their basements for essentially no money.  Whenever there is something left over after bandwidth fees and writers fees, it ends up going to new hardware or software to make these podcasts sound better for you.

We would all like to hear what's going on, but none of us have any right to make demands.  Steve has a life to live outside of EP.  When he has time for us again, he'll be back.

[missmeka]

I disagree with the moderator's response because it completely missed the point of my post.  I wasn't demanding anything, despite being a donor and despite promoting escape pod.  All my friends that started listening think this is another podcast that is fizzling out.  Well, the moderator might believe this is steve's baby from start to finish, but I don't think that is okay.  Go back and look at all the posts where people are worried, people saying they will help, people talking about giving money to support this.  It stopped being steve's baby when he started accepting donations.  There might not be contractual obligations, but there is a relationship between listeners, donors, and supporters, and that relationship is not being respected by steve and/or the other staff.

AThere has been no official word on the site or even the forums about EscapePod.  Going so far to look at Steve's twitter page, and taking his word, he has failed to do as he says twice in a row.  There was a promise of something on the 23rd.. then no explanation until the 28th only to say something would be coming.  Steve: "Our best marketing is and always will be word of mouth.  if you are enjoying Escape Pod tell people about it."

# Yes, Escape Pod is still alive. Yes, it's coming. I'd have had it up tonight, but I destroyed my voice screaming about something. Tomorrow. 7:49 PM Jan 28th from web

Sorry for EP being late. There's been stuff. It'll be up either today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, this week's Drabblecast is astonishing.  5:28 AM Jan 23rd from txt
Some information from EscapePod Metacast #2: http://escapepod.org/2006/05/09/ep-metacast-2/
Sole means of support: listener donations
$600 / month - average donation in may 2006
$300 / month - stories
$20 / week - paid staff

Goals for EscapePod:
want 20,000 subscribers in 2007
need $2000 / month in 2007

[Talia]

Why not just be patient? I dont get it. Can you REALLY not live without EP for a while? So he's got stuff going on. Be patient, find other podcasts to listen to (there are plenty of quality ones), and check back periodically.

Getting in a tizzy about it doesn't help anything or anyone.

[Ben Phillips]

For the record, we are all highly conscientious about our obligations to our donors, and none more so than our fearless leader.  I won't speak for him per se, but I'm on immensely safe ground saying that much.  I have been in communication with the man, and we are doing everything reasonable to get Escape Pod firing again, and reliably, as soon as possible.

[Russell Nash]

Missmeka,  Do not qualify my responses as coming from the "moderator".  You can ask around, but I'm quite capable of keeping my roles as moderator and poster separate.  There was no need to moderate your post.  As a poster I was refraining from telling you to grow up. 

Steve has the numbers in front of him and knows what happens to donations far better than any of us.  He also understands better than you what it takes to delegate work out to people he can't pay proper rates to. 

Sorry to the forums at large for this post, but all of the regulars know how I feel about people who show up just to tell everyone how they should do things.

[Poppydragon]

I really do hope that everything does get up and running again. However in the mean time I shall quite happily wait...after all, it's well worth waiting for.

[Bdoomed]

I'm with you guys, Russell and Talia. (a little harsh tho Russell...)
patience is a virtue.  I miss my EP but it gives me time to catch up on ones i have not yet listened to, also to catch up on other podcasts.  I'm very worried for Steve but he has said on the forums recently that there have been problems with Wordpress.

We're all swearing at it too.  If I'm not mistaken: Libsyn is hosting the mp3s, and doing a fine job, while the web and forums server is a separate machine which keeps getting taken down by, we strongly suspect, a memory leak in Podpress, the plugin for WordPress -- both of which can be updated at this point and will be soon.  Steve's not optimistic that this is really a long-term fix, particularly seeing the perpetual security problems with WordPress (e.g., wonderful marvelous spam), but it's worth a shot.

Now, when your podcatcher doesn't update that's an unrelated issue, I believe, and we're looking into that as well.

Yep.  What Ben said.  We're going to try some Wordpress upgrades and see if that stems the tide; in the just slightly longer run, I'm flexing my Rails muscles working on building something better.

Sorry things have been sucking.  It's going to improve.

Apologies to missmeka for the ambiguity of everything, however you should know that we are a happy little community here and you can ask anything you want and (usually) you will get an answer promptly, or a link to another thread.  All the information we know is on the forums in one place or another, ya just gotta ask so the people who know the information and where it is can direct you to it.  Simply barging in and complaining isn't going to change much.  I'm sure Steve knows how everyone feels, no matter if they express it or not.  Dissenting feelings are to be expected, but come on, lighten up a bit
It'll all resolve itself sometime, probably sooner than later too

[missmeka]

Well thanks everyone for your er responses.  I don't mean to come in and tell anyone how to run things.  But as a listener, donor, supporter, someone who wants this thing to be successful, I had hoped that folks would have been a bit more welcoming.  That's no problem every internet forum has its clique and its trolls... I forgot where I was and didn't forsee that the people who had been on here would take issue with my audacity, given that I am new.

To be honest I've all but given up on it as it's become inconsistent twice now in recent months.  And that is okay.

The ONLY reason I've asked for official notification is because this is what I heard STEVE say several times in his metacasts and updates.  "This is professional," "I want this to succeed,"  "Second largest scifi ...,"  I think that's very cool, and I've supported with money and time and goodwill.

I haven't listened to an escape pod episode since november, none have appealed to me from the descriptions, so I read chomsky, listen to podcastle, watch tv, cook, or do other things with my time.  The only way I saw EP was in google reader when there are no updates. 

Part of the reason i took the time to post in the first place is because i have been through depression, overcommitting myself, death of loved ones, getting fired, not meeting deadlines...all of this in the last few months.  The things that Steve says he's dealing with.. could have been a mirror of my life.. and that was one of the reasons I kept listening.  So, if I come across as critical of steve as a person please know that I in no way intend to do so.  Escape Pod could shut down today and as long as this man and his family are okay that is what is important.

All I was asking for was some information... which has been communicated through twitter, to make it to the front page... out of respect to all the supporters.  If yall think that that is an unreasonable demand then I don't know what to say.

[Zathras]

missmeka,

This is not an exclusive forum.  Trust me.  You just came in pretty aggressive.  I speak from personal experience when I say that you will be welcome here.  I started off on the wrong foot, too.  I had actually deleted my account, but came back to read some other posts.  I realized that I over reacted.  I created a new account with the same name, and here I am.  This forum is probably the most troll free zone on the 'net.  Well, unless you head over to the Pseudopod section, then there's no telling what you'll find.

[izzardfan]

This forum is probably the most troll free zone on the 'net.  Well, unless you head over to the Pseudopod section, then there's no telling what you'll find.

Wasn't there a troll in one of the Podcastle stories?  Or am I disremembering?

[Zathras]

This forum is probably the most troll free zone on the 'net.  Well, unless you head over to the Pseudopod section, then there's no telling what you'll find.

Wasn't there a troll in one of the Podcastle stories?  Or am I disremembering?

Maybe, but they don't let them run around the forums.   

[DKT]

missmeka,

This is not an exclusive forum.  Trust me.  You just came in pretty aggressive.  I speak from personal experience when I say that you will be welcome here.  I started off on the wrong foot, too.  I had actually deleted my account, but came back to read some other posts.  I realized that I over reacted.  I created a new account with the same name, and here I am.  This forum is probably the most troll free zone on the 'net.  Well, unless you head over to the Pseudopod section, then there's no telling what you'll find.

Wait a minute! That asshole was you! Man, you think you know somebody...

[Zathras]

Wait a minute! That asshole was you! Man, you think you know somebody...

Depends.  Darwinist was Zathras before I was Zathras.  10 of us there are, slight pronunciation difference.

[Swamp]

But as a listener, donor, supporter, someone who wants this thing to be successful, I had hoped that folks would have been a bit more welcoming.  That's no problem every internet forum has its clique and its trolls...

First, let me say "Welcome."

I think what you are experiencing is that since many of us have been here for years now (some from Day One), before there was a PsuedoPod or a PodCastle , is that we are a little protective of Escape Artists, a.k.a. Steve Eley.  We are worried about him, too.  For what it's worth, I also think it would be helpful to have a brief message on the website, but I'm willing to wait for Steve to announce his next move, or simply say "Hello, and welcome to EscapePod..." again.

I hope you stick with us here in the forum.  From personal experience, I'd say there is no such thing as an EP clique.  Well, I guess there is that Church of N_SH cult.

[FamilyGuy]

I believe Steve said somewhere that he has gotten a challenging (in a good way) job that is eating up a lot of his time.  I'm sure this is a bump in the road and will resolve itself.  I'm willing to go on a little faith.

That and I'm down to a mere 5 day podcast backlog now.

[SFEley]

Hi all,

Escape Pod 187 will be up later on today.  For real.  It's a Ken Scholes story.  It's alternate history.  It'll spin your head.

Thank you for all the concern.  I am alive.  Escape Pod will continue.  Escape Artists will continue.  EA is bigger than me.  Steps have been taken in light of that.  I will talk a bit about that in the outro.

Be excellent to each other, sirs and madams.  The partying on shall resume.

[Ocicat]

There is that one positive side effect - I now have no podcast backlog for the first time since - well, since Podcastle launched.  Escape Pod and Podcastle always go on first on the listen queue, and the other things I listen to get pushed down to "when there's time" and tend to build up there a bit.  But now I've finished off everything else AND the Escape Pod Archive!

Which is kind of nice.  Not as nice as new Escape Pod episodes, granted...

[Zathras]

Looks like I caught up on all the old episodes I missed just in time!  Finished Squonk The Apprentice last night.

Thanks for the update, Steve.

[Talia]

Yay!

[Raving_Lunatic]

Hi all,

Escape Pod 187 will be up later on today.  For real.  It's a Ken Scholes story.  It's alternate history.  It'll spin your head.

Thank you for all the concern.  I am alive.  Escape Pod will continue.  Escape Artists will continue.  EA is bigger than me.  Steps have been taken in light of that.  I will talk a bit about that in the outro.

Be excellent to each other, sirs and madams.  The partying on shall resume.

Thanks Steve for addressing the concerns.

[Raving_Lunatic]

This forum is probably the most troll free zone on the 'net.  Well, unless you head over to the Pseudopod section, then there's no telling what you'll find.

Arguable. I've been trolling Radiohead in virtually every single one of my posts, although I did originally come here for my love of Escape Pod.


Mod: fixed quoting

[alllie]

You know how they claim that people you see on TV, you feel like they are family, at least some of them. I never felt like that, never felt I knew them or they knew me or I had any right to know about them. But with Steve and Escape Pod, I do feel like Steve is family, like he is a valued but distantly related part of my family, one I hear about but have never met. So when Steve and Escape Pod disappear I worry, like worrying about that great cousin who lives a thousand miles away but that the family says is having a hard time.

I’m sorry if that is an imposition. But I’m glad that Escape Pod will be back, not so much for the podcast, but because it means that Steve is okay. Or I hope it means that.

[SFEley]

I’m sorry if that is an imposition. But I’m glad that Escape Pod will be back, not so much for the podcast, but because it means that Steve is okay. Or I hope it means that.

It does.  I'm okay.  Thank you.

[eytanz]

I’m sorry if that is an imposition. But I’m glad that Escape Pod will be back, not so much for the podcast, but because it means that Steve is okay. Or I hope it means that.

It does.  I'm okay.  Thank you.

Now that is really good to hear.

[DKT]

Thanks, Steve. Good to hear from you.