The podcast feeds are missed

Just Arrived Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 2

For starters, I have to say that I've found The Infidel Guy to be one of the most enjoyable and enlightening audio programs around in either broadcast or podcast space. It's turned me on to so many insightful (and frightful) personalities and illuminating ideas.

So, I'm really bummed that I've been missing out on most shows for the past few months because the podcast feed hasn't been updated. Like so many others these days, I enjoy my favorite shows via podcast feeds to my MP3 player, and well, there haven't been many IG shows appearing on my iPod lately. As someone who has donated in the past, the lack of podcast updates is the only reason I haven't donated again. I'm sure that I'm not alone here.

I know there's the Gold Membership as an alternative to donation that would insure access to shows, but frankly the membership fees are more than lots of folks can afford. That's why I really like the donation model-- folks can freely contribute as their means allow. Perhaps bumper 'commercials' could be included in the podcasts to encourage donation? And still with gold membership, there isn't an RSS feed to automatically publish podcasts, is there?

So to wrap it up, I think the lack of regular podcast updates really limits the audience of this brilliant show which deserves to be and could be a wildly popular podcast. And limiting the audience reduces the introcudtion of new listeners who very well may donate or subscribe to Gold Membership.

Reggie: Thanks for your labor of love! You do deserve financial and intellectual reward for what you do here.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:28 am

We tried your model didn't work. I'll update the podcast as I deem fit. And it hasn't the been months. The last podcast I added was on March 12th. The Myth of Nazareth show. There are over 100 shows on the podcast feed.

Just Arrived Joined: Jun 22, 2006 Posts: 2

Sorry, I didn't express myself clearly-- I meant to say that the podcast has only seen a few new shows in recent months, not to imply it hasn't been updated at all.

Another idea for your consideration:
Have a podcast feed each week with only the latest show available. To access older shows, a listener must either buy them al la carte or subscribe. This is similar to the model used by NPR's This American Life.

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 5:20 am

This isn't a new idea. It already was implemented. Not again.

Just Arrived Joined: May 26, 2007 Posts: 3

While I certainly can't speak for anyone but myself, the Gold Membership is more than worth it's weight in....well you know.

Reggie has made it IMHO more than affordable. For far less than I pay every single month for a telephone line, I get an ENTIRE YEAR of membership fee's paid for, which gets me unlimited access to all the downloads, and the peace of mind that I'm (at least in a small way) supporting something fantastic.

I'd say dig deep, even if you have to skip starbucks (or your brand of money-wasting goodness) 12 times a year, and go ahead for the gold. It's really worth it and then some.

Just Arrived Joined: Apr 11, 2008 Posts: 1

I'm sorry but I just had to register exclusively for the purpose of piping in here.

I was also a regular listener to the podcast and am quite disappointed that you have decided to go to a pay to listen model Reggie.

I was however quite willing to part with the podcast if there were to be a fee for several reasons, not the least of which is that I don't think Reggie's show is worth paying for. The production isn't professional, the guests are often weak and Reggie, you are no Christopher Hitchens when it comes to a good debate my friend.

But that's not at all why I registered for the forum and have decided to speak up.

Here you have in the OP a fan, loyal listener and previous financial contributor (when it wasn't required) who simply wanted to let his feelings be known and share with you some alternatives to your "gold" model, and all you can say is basically too bad?

"I'll update the podcast as I see fit" WTH kind of response is this? I've always thought you were a bit to cocky to be a talk show host and quite frankly think there are several hosts that do almost the same thing you do only much better (DJ Grothe for instance).

Listening to them I don't have to hear "Ohhhh, see now that's interesting" about 50 times a show. I'm also likely to hear better arguments for atheism and secularism than you are able to muster, but I listened none the less. I was able to occasionally glean a bit of wisdom out of some of your shows. In fact, most of the reason I subscribed to the feed had more to do with the other podcasts that shared the triad of reason with you.

After coming to your website to find out why my feed wasn't being updated and seeing your snide comments to this loyal listener I now know you are a jerk and absolutely will be deleting your feed from my list.

As far as charging for podcasts goes, look around you Reggie, no one else is doing it. No one. Get a clue, pay per listen and gold memberships is a failed business model for podcasting. Getting a sponsor or two is the only way to go. You can't compete with free and that's exactly what 99.9999% of pod-casters charge for their shows.

The fee may be a pittance, but it's not about the fee for just your show. I listen to about 20 different podcasts a week. If I let them, they could nickel and dime me to death. It's also about giving my credit card info out to 20 different pod-casters when I have no idea how good your privacy and security controls are.

Get over yourself bud.

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:19 am

I was one of the first to sign up and donate money monthly to get the shows out of the podcast feed. Why when I could already get the shows as a gold member, two reasons:

1) Podcasts are easier, I don't listen live due to where I live and remembering to go check if there are any good shows becomes more and more a chore. As such I found I often forgot about Reggie for months at the time. Not a desirable outcome for me nor for Reggie.

2) Me paying Reggie means other people might get a taster, it's in my best interest to see more people at least give the show a chance for so many reasons.

I was hoping that we would see the model grow to a point where at least most of the shows would get added, or every new one with an encouragement to the listeners to donate monthly for access to the backlog of nearly a decade of good shows.

Sadly the model failed.

I give money on a monthly basis to several causes, many of them athiest and skeptic related, even though I am a student. I feel Reggie has done important things for our community such as going on Wife Swap well knowing that they would portray him in a bad light to millions of viewers. As such I do feel a degree of guilt when I cancelled my monthly donations after the podcast feed grinded to a halt, after a brief period of thinking I decided to become a gold member again on trial basis.

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:37 am

Yeah lovechild.. it failed miserably. I lost $15,000 because of the podcast. I am almost completely broke now because of the podcast model. Why subscribe when the shows are free? right?

Struggling to find a second job now but I don't have any skills cept' security. (Who can't do that?) Everything else I must have a 4 year degree.

It's a struggle.. I just hope I can keep moving on. I don't want The Infidel Guy to go extinct. But if I work in Security, I probably will not be able to do a consistent LIVE show again.

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 3:11 am

infidelguy wrote:

Yeah lovechild.. it failed miserably. I lost $15,000 because of the podcast. I am almost completely broke now because of the podcast model. Why subscribe when the shows are free? right?

Struggling to find a second job now but I don't have any skills cept' security. (Who can't do that?) Everything else I must have a 4 year degree.

It's a struggle.. I just hope I can keep moving on. I don't want The Infidel Guy to go extinct. But if I work in Security, I probably will not be able to do a consistent LIVE show again.

It was a valiant attempt at expanding the audience, I was sad to see the extend to which has failed especially given the recent good fortune people have had with similar models.

Good luck in your struggles, all I can do is throw you my spare change right now.

Just Arrived Joined: Apr 08, 2008 Posts: 1

Podcasts are much more convenient than checking in with the site every week and downloading the most recent shows, so an idea for the future is to make available a podcast feed that is only available to gold members with their username and passwords.

As an example, ScreenCastsOnline is a video podcast which managed to make a living when I was a subscriber (I'm not one anymore because I couldn't afford the time to concentrate on watching the regular videos, which isn't as much a problem for audio shows since I can goof off a bit when I'm listening). It had a separate feed for free episodes and subscriber-only episodes (the latter also had HD video available). I'm not sure what the current status of the podcast is, though.

This could be more trouble than it's worth to implement, but I think it's an idea that could be kept in mind for the future. But do keep the current free podcast feed, since it can entice new members (it's the reason I bought a subscription here Smile

).

The Learned Joined: Nov 30, 2004 Posts: 122

Yea it's tough but Reggie knows what he's doing. While other internet models have come and gone, crashed and burned, Reggie is still here and has been since the ground floor of internet media.

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:07 pm

I have to agree with Reggie. Hoping people will donate is OK if the show isn't your day job. I would like Reg to continue with the show if possible - that means he has to get people to pay for it. Giving it away is inconsistent with that goal.

Graduate Thinker Joined: Apr 21, 2004 Posts: 621

I actually just visited this site to explore this exact issue: I want to see why Reggie isn't (or apparently he is/was) turning his show into a podcast -- especially an audio podcast, since video podcasts limit viewership considerably and it wouldn't seem to make much sense for this format.

With a podcast registered on iTunes as well as the Zune marketplace, would this not generate a ton of new viewers, who might then become gold members to access extra content?

Being around at 5pm (Pacific time) to catch the live feed of the show just isn't feasible, and I'm not going to remember to manually check back and download shows that I missed. I can, however, be expected to sync my podcasts every day and listen to them.

I certainly hope that I can expect my comments not to be taken as hostile, considering I've been a gold member for years now because I believe in the cause. I might be the 100th person to make this exact same suggestion, but I shouldn't be chastised for that.

Edit: How funny would that be if Reggie got a religion-related sponsor?

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:00 am

infidelguy wrote:

We tried your model didn't work. I'll update the podcast as I deem fit. And it hasn't the been months. The last podcast I added was on March 12th. The Myth of Nazareth show. There are over 100 shows on the podcast feed.

I hate to agree with "Guester" since your podcast is probably my absolute favorite one out there (even above The Skeptics Guide), but he does have a point, Reg. Saying you'll "update the podcast as [YOU] deem fit" makes you sound like a complete ass who discounts out-of-hand any input from the very people who make your show possible. NOT KEWL. You should be updating the podcasts as WE see fit - not the other way around. Yes, we hear all your justifications about "we tried this and it failed" etc, etc... but the bottom line is this:

You arent releasing podcasts feeds NEARLY enough. One or two every couple months is NOT cutting it. Its SO infrequent, in fact, that even though your show is my favorite one out there, I may choose to stop listening all together - ESPECIALLY when I see attitude in your responses like I did just now.

Sure, you're doing an invaluable service to the critical thinking community by producing this show, but that's not justification for you to have a huge chip on your shoulder and be a complete ass in your listener feedback - OR to skimp on releasing podcasts feeds....

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:22 am

It's a shame you took it that way. I don't have any chips on my shoulder, seems like you and your friend are the ones with chips on their shoulders.

It's a statement of fact.. I'll release podcast when I can, when I deem fit. I think the attitude you believe is there, is coming from you. Classic projection maybe? We are currently trying to think of a new system in which I can still earn some revenue while allowing all of my podcasts to be free. Less time for me then. It's takes me a lot of time to update many databases about the recent additions.

However.. when I get messages and emails such as this.. some days.. I just feel like shutting the whole thing down. Not much appreciation anyway.

If it's so valuable, why don't people support it more? Once I start working another full-time job.. it will get worse.

The community hasn't supported me as much lately, as a result.. things have slowed down. This economy has been the major problem. I know, because the most common thing I hear is, "I lost my job" "Gas prices are too high."

I am under a lot of stress and have been ill quite a bit.. mostly as a result of trying to even keep this thing together. I swear, I'd get yelled at if I died.

The biggest complainers are the ones that don't support the site at all and / or have no idea the difficulty it takes to run as many services I do for the freethought community. 10 different sites!

I'm seriously thinking about bowing out altogether.. less stress, and I'll be healthier and happier.

Also, there are over a hundred podcasts in the free feed. Most complainers haven't even heard those yet.

The podcast is free.. if it isn't updated often.. so what? I didn't have to post those at all. Initially, I was going to only have 30 promotion shows anyway. I had no plans on frequently updating the feed. But I was pressured by many of my younger non-paying listeners to add a few every now and again.

If you want to hear more.. go gold and/or donate.. the more people donate.. the more apt I am to release all of my programs for free. Over 800 hours.

Wow 10 years, and this is what I get. Amazing.


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