PLEASE have a summary-only of nonfiction on the EP main page

[Unblinking]

Is there a way to filter the main Escape Pod page so that I can only see fiction?  I hadn't even realized that episode 336 had been released, buried as it was in the midst of 4 GIGANTIC Buffy articles.

At the very least, could the nonfiction articles have a short summary blip and you can click on the article to see the full text?  When the WHOLE nonfiction article is on the main page it takes up SO much space.  For example, right now, I have to click PageDown 33 times to get from the top of the page to the bottom on the Escape Pod main page.  Only on THREE of those PageDown presses do I see any fiction.  The rest is nonfiction.  

This could be partly because I don't give a fig about Buffy, but not entirely.  

As an example for what I mean as a summary-only, you can check out my website:
http://www.diabolicalplots.com/
On the main page it shows only summaries, usually about a paragraph for each article, and with a picture if I have found a relevant picture.  Could you please do this for the Escape Pod page?  I would be your best friend.

[eytanz]

It would be great if there was an "episode" tag, so that the page could be searched for all episodes.

I have to say, I've been late for a couple of episode comment threads lately for the same reason - a non-story post came in and hid the new episode thread, and I didn't notice the new episode until I updated my podcasts the next morning.

[Max e^{i pi}]

A temporary (or not) user-end workaround is to use a slightly advanced RSS aggregator, one that knows what to do with mp3 files (the less advanced ones can only handle text). For example: I use Amarok. There might be a windows installer somewhere for you poor souls still stuck with that.

[Listener]

I'll see if I can get the <more> tag to work on future posts.

[Reed]

Actually, this is something that has been bothering me, too. It's fine that there's so much extra content on Escapepod now, but I mainly come for the audio stories. Maybe there could be some "Episodes only" link on top of the page?

[Ocicat]

On the other hand, I'm more in the camp of "Escape Pod has a website?  Oh ya, almost forgot about that".  I get the audio in my podcatcher, so don't really have a reason to visit the site.  Except I'd kind of like to read those reviews and such. 

So I find it odd that the non-audio content isn't re-posted in the forums, where reading and discussion threads are easily done.

[eytanz]

On the other hand, I'm more in the camp of "Escape Pod has a website?  Oh ya, almost forgot about that".  I get the audio in my podcatcher, so don't really have a reason to visit the site.  Except I'd kind of like to read those reviews and such. 

So I find it odd that the non-audio content isn't re-posted in the forums, where reading and discussion threads are easily done.

The non-audio contents have comment threads on the blog. I think it would be great if it were re-posted here, but I can't just copy people's writing willy-nilly - it's up to the blog writers to decide whether to cross-post. Most of them (Listener excepted) aren't members of the forum community, so I don't know how much interest they have in doing so.

If any of the blog writers want to post here on the forums, please do let me know - I could (quite easily) be persuaded to make a section of the forum for that purpose.

I'll see if I can get the <more> tag to work on future posts.

That'll be nice, but what's really necessary is the inverse - it's the episode posts that need to be marked for easy access.

[Unblinking]

That'll be nice, but what's really necessary is the inverse - it's the episode posts that need to be marked for easy access.

To me, compressing non-fiction to summary paragraphs on the main page would be the most useful.  It's not that I never want to see the nonfiction, I just don't want it to take up so much space compared to fiction.

[eytanz]

I think I misunderstood Listener - I thought he was suggesting adding a label to all the non-episode posts, but what he probably meant was adding a cut break to each post which is more in line with what you're asking for.

[Unblinking]

I think I misunderstood Listener - I thought he was suggesting adding a label to all the non-episode posts, but what he probably meant was adding a cut break to each post which is more in line with what you're asking for.

Ah, yeah that's how I interpreted it.  As in, having a <more> link that would expand the article to full size beyond the summary.

[Wilson Fowlie]

I'm a lot like Ocicat, except that in addition to getting all the audio via podcatcher, I see all the EP posts through an RSS aggregator (Google Reader), so I only go to the actual site when an article interests me (as the RSS feed only shows the first hundred words or so, as a cost-saving measure).

[SF.Fangirl]

At the very least, could the nonfiction articles have a short summary blip and you can click on the article to see the full text?  When the WHOLE nonfiction article is on the main page it takes up SO much space.  For example, right now, I have to click PageDown 33 times to get from the top of the page to the bottom on the Escape Pod main page.  Only on THREE of those PageDown presses do I see any fiction.  The rest is nonfiction.  

I've been thinking escape pod needs to use cuts and hide most of long posts below the cut for a long time now.  It's so annoying that I have given thought to complaining, but it never occurred to me to start a forum discussion.  I appreciate this action, Unblinking.  I actually do often read the reviews posted here, but they get in the way when I am here looking to download the new story.  Escape Pod has got to be the only blog I read where there's have screens and screens of a long posts on the main page with no cuts.

[Listener]

If any of the blog writers want to post here on the forums, please do let me know - I could (quite easily) be persuaded to make a section of the forum for that purpose.

I wouldn't mind posting links to EP blog posts here on the forums when they go live, so we could discuss in more detail here. It'd just be part of my workflow when a new post goes up. However...

The non-audio contents have comment threads on the blog.

...so there's that. I'm not sure what the editorial position would be on transferring that over to the forum -- I'm just a writer.

That'll be nice, but what's really necessary is the inverse - it's the episode posts that need to be marked for easy access.

http://escapepod.org/category/podcasts/

[Lab Tinnion]

I do a lot of work with WordPress--the blog engine that runs the Escape Pod site--and both categories and tags can can be brought up by themselves.  Unfortunately, the site doesn't make very good use of either.  Fiction is neither categorized nor tagged as such.  Still, as Listener mentioned, the podcast category can be brought up all by itself.  (http://escapepod.org/category/podcasts/)  I would add that any feed reader can be pointed to just the podcasts by adding the word "feed" to that URL.  (http://escapepod.org/category/podcasts/feed/)  The same thing can be done with any other category or tag link.  It's one of the perks of using WordPress.  One other one worth mentioning is that the site admin can change the WordPress front page settings under "Reading" to "Summary," and WordPress will automatically chop the homepage text without him or her having to do any other work.