I know this may seem heretical, but I'm not entirely convinced that there IS a problem here, except in the area of running out of shows (which is always a danger). I mean, what exactly IS a community podcast? To my way of mind, it's a show where listeners are free to contribute, with no (or few) restrictions. That describes HPR right now.
The issue I believe we're really talking about is how to get more voices on the show. That's a very worthy discussion to have, but I don't think it represents a crisis. It's similar discussions we've had in the past about how to get more women or girls to contribute; how to get more minorities involved; how to get "non-techie" people to make shows; etc. In other ords, how to be more inclusive. We reexamine these issues, and return to them time and again, the way a dynamic community of people should. I don't believe we have a different problem here than we've ever have. Yes, there have been a lot of eps from just a few voices lately -- but has the show seen a loss of subscribers because of it? If not, then the silent majority does not mind. Why, I remember years past when Klaatu had at least one show up per week -- he was podcasting demon -- but no one complained, because everyone loves his content. If anything, that kind of stability gained us subscribers. So long as people feel they CAN participate in this great community, then we're doing what we should. This means we always encourage them to participate IF THEY WANT TO. They don't have to, and should never feel pressured to. They owe us nothing. They listen to us. They give us their time and attention. Those are NOT small things -- really, they're the most important things in the world, and they give them up for free. So long as HPR's listeners continue to know that they are always welcome, a few of them here and there will inevitably feel the crazy urge to record their thoughts and add them to the queue. And when it happens, no matter how seldom, we know that the system we've built is working. In my opinion that's the very definition of a community podcast, and HPR is walking the walk. -LnB _______________________________________________ Hpr mailing list [email protected] http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org
