Proceedings of the Sisyphian Society
Vol. I, No. 3. Talk Radio and Podcasts.
Summary: First Official Loyal Fan David joins to discuss talk radio and podcasts. Kyle rants about inferior podcatchers, show notes, and Spotify’s attempt to destroy podcasting, and calls upon listeners to boycott Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and especially Spotify.
N.B.: For greater convenience and more-functional controls, listeners are encouraged to subscribe to the Proceedings as a “podcast”.
N.B.: For disclaimers, rules, and prefaces, see Vol. I, No. 1.
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Minutes of the Meeting.
For corrections to this issue, see errata of future issues.
The meeting of the Sisyphian Society was held on Tuesday, 30 June 2020, remotely, the co-chairs pro tempore being in the chairs and the secretary being present.
Announced guest will be joining at this meeting.
Meeting called to order.
Noted this issue will be half “fun”.
Discussed experimenting with hosting a guest and with increasing length of meetings. Complained about those who complain about long podcast installments.
Granted indulgence to friends and family members. Called for correspondence. Invited listeners to pull hair and move heads.
Discussed experimenting with less-frequent publication.
Refreshments. Called for Dunkin’ Donuts to sponsor Proceedings.
Addressed ongoing audio problems. Kyle requested listeners publicly shame Matt.
Errata.
- Vol. I, No. 1. Introduction..
- “I’ll eat my own hat” should have been “I’ll eat my hat.” Thanks to Mr. A.
- Kyle called Proceedings a “show”.
- Vol. I, No. 2. Correspondence, Scooby-Doo, and Humor..
- Personal correspondence to Kyle from Tyler gave slight compliment, recommended elimination of errata section, and complimented Kyle’s microphone. Tyler made into token “average listener”. Mentioned avocado-only diet, which had been mentioned briefly in Vol. I, No. 1. Warned average people against listening. Reminded about timestamps. Adopted Tyler Compromise.
- Forgot to call meeting to order. Requested gavels.
- “I edit it way too much” should have been “I edited it way too much”.
- “lip smacking” should have been “tongue clicking”.
- Noted that throat clearing is intentional.
- Noted that overuse of “now” is intentional.
- “low stakes for myself” should have been “low expectations for myself”.
- Matt called issue an “episode”.
- Hysterical laughter. Kyle suggested releasing full laughter as benefit for patrons.
- First Official Loyal Fan David joined meeting at this point. Discussed slogan of Nebraska, Davidic longitudinal window, Matt’s unfounded mockery of Kyle’s international mindset, slogan of Ottawa. Kyle noted attempts to find meeting for Best Friend George to join, mentioning Reddit and 4chan. David corrected an error, noting “casual schizophrenia” should have been “casual schizophrenia”. Kyle corrected David’s correction, noting “casual schizophrenia” should have been “causal schizophrenia”, and “causal schizophrenia” should have been “casual schizophrenia”. Personal correspondence to Kyle from David complimented Proceedings and its hosts.
- Kyle apologized for possibly implying beardedness to be David’s defining character trait.
- Kyle apologized for distraction by agenda.
- “national code” should have been “country calling code” or “country dial-in code”. Noted that, from now on, will frequently intentionally omit that digit, for fear of confounding Americans.
- Kyle had said “we should make a couple quick announcements” but then made only one. Suggested this was possibly not an error.
- Kyle called Proceedings a “show”.
- Should have mentioned Chris is also musician. Called again for musicians to re-record theme song.
- Clarified that Scooby-Doo Fandom wiki is titled Scoobypedia.
- “interject quick” should have been “interject quickly”.
- With reference to Looney Tunes, “Emmys” should have been “Academy Awards”.
- “‘list of fun topics’” should have been “list of ‘fun’ topics”.
- “in all the . . . the early Western tradition” should have been “in all the . . . the good and correct parts of the Western tradition”.
- Listener corrected “that’ll learn ’em”, but Society noted that intentional errors not to be corrected.
- Kyle spent too long responding to George’s voicemail message. In future, will either respond to listener questions more briefly or add listener questions to list to be addressed at future meeting.
Minutes of the last meeting were approved.
Updates.
- The æ ligature is often called ay ee. Traditional name is ash.
- Listeners have not updated Scoobypedia, despite Kyle’s request in Vol. I, No. 2. Bodes ill for success of Society’s crowdsourcing aspirations.
- Kyle noted he can endorse one more Scooby-Doo-related thing.
- Asked whether Society’s website is still “invisible” to Google.
Announcements.
- Proceedings is now in Apple Podcasts directory.
- Received first rating and review in Apple Podcasts, from ninjavideo. Assumed this is the Ask a Ninja guy. Called for more ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts. (See Support for instructions.)
- Google invisibilization, cont. Search term sisyphian still invisibilized. Search term sisyphian society not invisibilized. Society’s website appears on third page of Google results for sisyphian society. Set goal of appearing first in search results.
- Tyler asked about inclusion in Google Podcasts directory. Proceedings is now in Google Podcasts.
- Proceedings is now in Spotify.
- Vol. I, No. 1 enjoys 92 unique downloads. No. 2 possesses an illuminating 63 downloads.
Treasurer’s report: Continuing to drown in debt and desperately need donations.
General Correspondence.
- Kyle thanked those who left unofficial personal correspondence via Facebook.
- Listener sent in clip. Time constraints required it be postponed.
- Due to time constraints, passed over email message, text message, and telephone call from listeners, hopefully to be addressed at future meeting.
- Voicemail message from Sugar Bear’s grandma issued retort to Matt for willing participation in exposing her ignorance of computers and of podcast titles in Vol. I, No. 1. Related email message from Kyle’s mom expressed jealousy at mentions of grandma.
- Text message from Kyle’s grandma complained about lack of chocolate-related discussion in Vol. I, No. 2.
- Voicemail message from Matt inquired into Kyle’s MIDI-keyboard playing. One kudo granted to Matt.
- Called for correspondence.
Main discussion, on talk radio and podcasts.
- Discussed talk radio. Mentioned NPR (National Public Radio), This American Life, The Moth Radio Hour. David regaled Society with story about man [Herman Pitcock] hoarding earthly treasure and meeting demise. Mentioned RadioLab, Adventures in Odyssey, Coast to Coast AM, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- Discussed podcasts. Mentioned Parable of the Prodigal Son, ἐκβάλλω, iPod, PlayStation 2, iTunes Store, LimeWire, BearShare, peer-to-peer file-sharing software, technical definition of podcasts, “CNN for GEICO interns” podcast, RSS, RSS feed readers, playing Proceedings on Society’s website, podcatchers, podcast directories.
- Kyle ranted about how podcast directories and applications handle “show notes”. Discussed benefits of show notes, criteria of good show notes, transcripts, Security Now and its transcripts, The Changelog and its collaboratively written transcripts. Requested listeners inform Society of the collaboratively written transcripts of Proceedings doubtless underway. Discussed further benefits of show notes, regarding podcast discovery and search-engine optimization, Kyle’s problem with podcast/MP3 chapters, podcasts confusingly utilizing both show notes and chapters. [Secretary unable to locate David’s show-note-related campaign.] Complained about those who complain about long show notes. Discussed developing a system to pass arbitrary condiments (see Vol. I, No. 1), personal correspondence to Kyle complimenting minutes, link to lifehacking video in Vol. I, No. 1, links to Scooby-Doo-related videos in Vol. I, No. 2, “No good deed goes unpunished”, Apple Podcasts website, Apple Podcasts’s 4,000-character limit on show notes, RSS Advisory Board’s statement that there is no length limit for RSS elements, article whose author studied lengths of show notes, show notes for Vol. I, No. 1 and for No. 2. Called out Apple. Discussed Apple Podcasts application’s “really stupid” and problematic treatment of show notes and its display of more than 4,000 characters, <br> line breaks, various important functions of italicization, Apple Podcasts application’s inability to utilize timestamps, Apple Podcasts’s “summary” field, Google Podcasts (directory, website, and application), Google Podcasts’s problematic treatment of show notes, Google Podcasts application’s inability to utilize timestamps, Spotify, Spotify’s problematic treatment of show notes, Spotify’s lack of fitness for podcasts, The Verge video on Spotify taking over the podcasting world, Richard Stallman on problems with Spotify, Parks and Recreation on privacy-invading technology companies, Accidental Tech Podcast on Spotify’s potential to wreck podcasting, complaints about YouTube’s control over online video. Called on 43 listeners to boycott Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and especially Spotify. Mentioned other reasons to boycott Spotify; other reasons to boycott Apple, including also Apple’s recent complicity in Chinese censorship and Stallman’s reasons; and other reasons to boycott Google, including Stallman’s reasons. Kyle recommended AntennaPod podcatcher for Android and gPodder podcatcher for desktop and laptop computers. Kyle could not find open-source podcatcher for iOS, so recommended, with caveats, Overcast as perhaps lesser of available evils. Noted new Subscription page added to Society’s website to guide listeners in subscribing to podcast.
- Kyle briefly ranted about why there ought to be a definitive guide to various applications’ and directories’ rendering of show notes. Mentioned article with spreadsheet on this topic. Ranted that applications and directories should agree to standard concerning show notes.
- Discussed podcast-listening habits and recommendations. Matt listens to only Proceedings. David enjoys only Proceedings. Kyle listens to legions of podcasts and listens daily, but time constraints prohibited him from sharing recommendations. [Rather than note them here in minutes, Kyle will attempt to make those recommendations at future meeting.] [Secretary did not receive anything from Matt about crocheting-miniature-Greek-gods-underwater podcasts.] Mentioned Serial and “audioblogging”.
- Time constraints required discussion of audio books be postponed.
- Discussed benefits and detriments of podcasts, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle [buy on Amazon], “how it feels to listen to podcasts” “meme”, constantly consuming media to avoid facing devil dogs inside oneself.
Next meeting’s topic will be “how to find the best x”. Called for correspondence regarding how listeners find the best products or best ways of doing things. Mentioned Consumer Reports and Wirecutter as examples (for products).
Kyle moved “to thank our guest David”. The motion was adopted.
Meeting adjourned.
Called for correspondence about length of issues and publication frequency.
Respectfully submitted,
Kyle, secretary
“I’m hurt, but I understand.”