"I wanted to touch base quickly regarding the state of our podcast. I know you guys are bearing with us and haven't raised complaints, but it's hard on us not to be putting out regular content without an explanation. ..." Continue reading transcript here...
I wanted to touch base quickly regarding the state of our podcast. I know you guys are bearing with us and haven't raised complaints, but it's hard on us not to be putting out regular content without an explanation.
Podcasts have become a semi-necessary function of the website. They began around the same time that we started to need individual donations to run our webserver, and they were in part created to solve that issue by providing a service that went above and beyond. It's become clear that when we have an exceptionally well done podcast that helps people out, particularly when they're tank related or guild related, people are more likely to give back.
So on the one hand, the podcasts are an integral part of the site, and with thousands of listeners, they reach an audience that we don't always reach with articles.
On the other hand, the success of this site has been driven by the fact that hardcore gamers are running it. We're not here because we want to make money, or because we're professional forum admins, we're here because we know what the heck we're talking about and we like to help people.
The downside to being hardcore gamers, of course, is that we're hardcore gamers. We push what we do very hard. With Age of Conan just releasing, both Lore and I have invested enormous amounts of time into leveling there. This is how we'll be approaching Wrath of the Liche King as well. In Lore's case, this time spent leveling is in addition to raiding Sunwell -- his guild is currently on M'uru. In my case, this is in addition to maintaining the servers -- and as you may have seen last week, that gets to be extremely time consuming. For those who aren't aware, TankSpot is the primary site on the server, but we also host other fansites and blogs that are not part of TankSpot -- you might have seen other sites you visit go down when we do. This immediately pulls all of my attention off anything else I'm doing.
There is another major project that is sapping time we might otherwise be spending on podcasts -- a full Protection guide that will be implemented sitewide into TankSpot. Though it may not have it at launch, this, too, will have a lot of audio recordings to help people quickly learn what they need to know.
What does this all mean for our listeners?
Basically, bear with us. We're going to be busy for at least 1-2 more weeks. We'll try to get podcasts out during this time, but we can't guarantee they'll be terribly on subject or terribly in-depth. You can help us with these by submitting questions, because those offer such an easy way to jump into detail on subejcts we might not think of.
The Guild Relations podcast will continue as normal. That is the only format that I feel we nailed from day one, because the questions I'm getting are so solid and allow so much depth to them. Guild subjects are also much easier to work with, since they deal with universal and broad principles of people and how they interact. It's much easier to have an interesting podcast about people than it is to have an interesting podcast about, say, tanking rotations.
Anyway, thanks for putting up with the delay. We'll be back and running once our time clears up. You'll see a skeleton schedule until that point.
Admittedly, I haven't followed the podcasts too closely, but last I recall you were doing them 3 times a week.
Would it make more sense to drop down to weekly for the time being? This would allow you to keep content going, and if you come up with more ideas for content, keep them for a later date - when you go back to 2-3 times per week.
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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. -Seneca
Everyone marvels at a square egg, but only the chicken understands the PAIN.
Yes, I agree. Three times a week may just be too much. Rather than spreading yourself too thin, mabye one or two podcasts a week. To be honest, I dont have the time to listen to Three podcasts a week. I usually do because I dont want to miss anything, but it definately isnt neccisary for you to put out that many. It also seems that you have been a bit general in your podcasts. Trying to cover as much material as you can in one hour. Mabye a more narrowly focused approach, like a whole podcast about multi-mob tanking. Another about ways to prepare for the world of level 70 tanking, and paths to take as far as gearing up for raids. And yet another one about proper threat rotation, and where how and why you would deviate from that rotation. How the attack table works including how 490 defense eleminates crits, and how avoidance + block + shield block/holy shield pushes crushes off the table. I know most of these examples are Tanking 101. Things that most of us already know. But the beauty of podcasts are that people can chose exactly what they need or dont need to listen to. I have referred a couple newer tanks to the site and they are a bit overwhelmed by the content of the podcasts. Mabye a back to basics "Tanking 101" type format once a week covering a narrowly focused aspect of tanking? I think the newer tanks would really appreciate and enjoy that.
BTW I do love the podcasts as they are. Just throwing out a few ideas.
with videos being made, Cider/Lore and others are basically swamped for their time, I'm sure once all of the videos including possibly some hardmode videos are made/released, they'll have time to record one if they decide on a topic, but I don't foresee one in the near future.
Yeah, I've got a mountain of video footage I need to get through at the moment, any time I have to devote to Tankspot at the moment is sucked up by that.
We haven't forgotten about the podcasts though, so just bear with us =)
