-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 My reply below. I was also sent a very nice voice produced by espeak but unfortunately neither the license nor platform is not compatible with our current work flow.
Ken. - -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: Constructive criticism Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 13:48:24 +0100 From: Ken Fallon <[email protected]> To: ****************, [email protected] Hi ****************, First. You owe me a show. Second. This is currently been discussed on the mailinglist http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.network.syndication.podcast.hacker-public-radio/569 You can add this to the discussion by joining here http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org Or I can forward it with your permission and you can follow along here http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.network.syndication.podcast.hacker-public-radio But I'll give a summary for you below. Ken. On 2014-11-24 13:00, **************** wrote: > Hello, > > I have been listening to HPR for about 6 months now. When I first > started listening my immediate reaction was "This intro music is WAY too > long, especially when some of the shows are only a few minutes long." > Since then advertisements and an annoying synthesized voice have been > added to the front as well, in some cases lasting almost 2 minutes > before getting to the content. > > I'm not opposed to the synthesized voice idea (I think it's actually a > great idea to make the show more handicap accessible), but this voice > comes from the technology of the 1980s, and since this is a show for > techies there MUST be something available out there that was generated > in the past 20 years and sounds a little better! Half the time I can't > understand what the voice is trying to say! There are technologies out there used by apple and google that give excellent voices. In the FLOSS world we do not have those yet. I (personally - not as an admin) feel that the more people that get exposed to it, the more people will try and do something about it. This was brought up as a point by Jonathan Nadeau, of the Accessible Computing Foundation, but has received most complaints from blind listeners. http://accessiblecomputingfoundation.org/?page_id=8 > > I also know that advertisements are needed to generate revenue for the > show, but is it really necessary on shows that are only 2 or 3 minutes > long? It's not an advertisement. We thank the people who provide us with free hosting, so depending on where the files are served from you get the appropriate thank you message. I have not been asked to do that but we do as it's the right thing to do. We could put the thank you at the very end I suppose, but do people listen to the end ? > > If I were king of the world, I would either shorten the intro music, or > come up with a new intro all together that lasts about 10 seconds or > less. The cool thing about HPR is that you are a king as far as you're happy to share the role with all the other HPR members. So Join the maillist and let your opinion be heard. On your own shows you are free to include a very shortened intro if you like. The text to speech stays (....for now see below) > That's really all that is needed for the listeners to recognize > the show. I would also find another voice synthesizer out there, or > have the host create a short sound clip of the show title and content to > be submitted with the actual content. Please find another voice synthesizer, write up how to install it, and of course record a show about it, and I will implement it. Simple as that. > This would be MUCH less annoying to the listeners. Advertising would > be restricted to shows that have content greater than 5 minutes. If you are willing to pay the service we can remove the sponsor mention but I will still feel bad for not mentioning your generosity. > > I often collect a few weeks of HPR before listening, and it is extremely > frustrating to try to fast forward through the intro while I am driving > down the road. Then can I suggest that you use sox to truncate the first two minutes of the show. However you have no guarantee that the intro will always be 2 minutes. I do have the option to post a show without anything except what the host includes, sometimes that's with the intro/outro sometimes not. However asking someone to host another 70G of shows without branding is a big ask. > I would be much more inclined to listen to the entire > intro if it were shortened. Sometimes I will just skip the entire > episode if it only has 2 or 3 minutes of content. I'm sometimes tempted > to stop downloading the show entirely because the frustration usually > isn't worth the pay off. The whole point of the spoken intro is that it allows people to know what the show is about so they can choose to delete it, listen to it now, or later. It means that they can continue doing what ever task they are doing by just pressing delete, or next. It has been the most requested feature over the years. > > I hope this is helpful. If I continue listening in the future I may > contribute some episodes myself, but I'm right on the edge of dropping > the feed entirely. As I said HPR is yours and you have a way to change the direction if you wish. Don't let the fact that I personally disagree with you on some points stop you :). There have been many many occasions where I have been over ruled, and I am happy when that happens as I know that HPR is working as advertised. > > **************** I will have a think about it and see if there are other solutions to the issue. Feel free to think along as I'm very interested in better solutions. Ken. - -- Regards, Ken Fallon http://kenfallon.com http://hackerpublicradio.org/correspondents.php?hostid=30 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJUdLXvAAoJECO2jUN3MRFpb4UP/3b0MRbF+jHiCtTB7lUA+k9l MIAmKBr6VM7UaDYtgbfLlUzTgkfuod840jstT2CwsVzLOMjjVMCoBJxFyd8p14t1 1l8Q85K0Nu0GHzoE4vmE30BrrmfsYge4WmvPq3Z4+S26njskIbhdrxgmH3jqvt4W 3tY6ZrbFWXtJMAGSOdeXnDyk5yPJ+hhyryYXltW8q0lBUbldggtkd15TDlDUrPE9 xNn88hv3t4YprpVE/qTqB2SAXpU0V7WynTD7gibzBI9y0xZ6il2YNs79085zy2q0 iB311sFOzkxIoP6GBStX7JJyB7f5KIem+IBp92DaT7+0gYN5zxXgetmwr0KFHvEX AbpVPyfWb14LbHrmhPwo6mt2Q58Fn42OM7bT/2Gru7cnVV0huqkafoOk10rmLCut tgyGy70m5nzcwHJa/BvO4jYZ6hiyi+/9Jqohcs+DO+1IaP0OoDNESbQ/PDph7D/2 GrDGigdzv6+rjUdcpmtA9EUp3OcIIO65DyPkmBDKWI611CDRREANH0PO4GvU+zz/ Q+0kgiGKLFyE5tnSlh8Q1K2O0rPU0YgGF9NccKRcJ8pu/0Pat/aHqizr2T4aBazW DDcSMR4NM948dI2P93gA3YoU6fAQwE0BZJKCVk1ExpBqT/mSt45O3zaPmaynTo99 MWKOEipvRHJIVWsifI6r =/4bb -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Hpr mailing list [email protected] http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org
