podcast content feedback

Paul, your podcast rocks. Good stuff there, even if the production quality is lacking. It has charm....

I would totally buy these two episodes if they were right up my alley. They are not. I would on the other hand do a donation thing if you had that option. Keep you out of the red and such. $5.00 would work, just saying.

Right now our finances are in the tank. (Insert hard luck story here)
Therefore I am only able to go the free route.
However I would happily go for transcribing the podcasts!

There was one podcast (podcast 111) where a guy liked it so much he just sent me something like $60 out of the blue. He went to my bio page (listed at the bottom of every page on permies and richsoil) found the paypal link and sent money. I said "well, that's the consulting link - did you want something like a half hour of consulting or something? On the phone?" He said it just really, really liked the podcast and wanted to chip in. I have to admit, that felt really cool. At the same time, it felt a bit odd. In the end I worked it out so that he picked a topic and I would make a podcast about that topic. That felt much better to me.

I have the tiptheweb stuff set up at my richsoil articles. I suppose I should set it up at the podcasts. But that stuff is so that people can throw in a nickel. Tiptheweb allows folks to throw in more. One guy put in ten bucks! I like the idea of the nickel. A nickel seems like a fair price for one person enjoying one article.

Matthew Nistico wrote: if and when I manage to complete this task, assuming that you're pleased with the results, would you make a post or some such directing peoples' attention to it so that perhaps others might be inspired to similarly take on other podcasts as their own projects??

Yes!

Quality: if we get enough cash flow, Tim has talked about re-working ALL of the podcasts, starting with the raw material, to write them back out with proper balancing, a proper intro (with music), higher quality, etc. And I have my eye on a $200 contraption that might help with some quality stuff too.

Maggie Oliver wrote:Right now our finances are in the tank. (Insert hard luck story here)
Therefore I am only able to go the free route.
However I would happily go for transcribing the podcasts!

Transcribing your favorite podcast would be a big help!

Sure...let me try to find a favorite. Might have to waut till the apple butter gets into jars.

I don't see descriptions for the Art Ludwig podcasts, what should we expect? What will be the deciding factors for which podcasts are free and which are for pay? I want $2.50 from you after listening to the Dell Artemis podcasts. Or, I'd be willing to pay you $2.50 to never talk to them again. Oh vay!

@Paul - Very interesting. I will be curious to see how these two pay-for-play podcasts work out. I do hope that you manage to raise enough funds in this way so that the podcast program in general can continue. I will certainly check these two out, though in general I'm glad you haven't yet decided to put all future podcasts on a monetized basis. That might be a workable way forward (probably at a lower price than $2.50/episode), or it might backfire terribly. One of the biggest problems I see (and I'm sure that you've thought of this too), even with just these two one-time monetized podcasts, is that the bitchers will have been legitimized. They will cease to be bitchers and become customers expressing dissatisfaction with a product they purchased.

BTW, to add my two-cents worth of opinion, since this is the thread in which to do so: if you're going to invest more time and/or money on podcast quality, I for one couldn't care less about intro music. Nor could I care less whether discussion takes place at the dinner table amidst sounds of clinking silverware; that has never kept me from getting something good out of a podcast. Audio balancing, on the other hand, is critically important to make sure that everything said can actually be heard. So is organization, which is to say sitting down with a bit of a plan on what is going to be discussed and how the discussion is going to be structured, and then staying on topic. Not to say that either balancing or organization have been consistent problems in the past, but if I were you that is what I would focus on going forwards.

I will also offer that if I were to be paying for a podcast in the future, I would be looking for a podcast full of "bricks" as you say. Some of your past podcasts are rich in amazingly useful bricks, while others have tended toward what I call "meta-info monologues." Which is to say that they were less about conveying permaculture knowledge and more reflections on what it feels like to be Paul Wheaton trying to convey permaculture knowledge and getting a lot of flack for your trouble. Both are totally legitimate because, hey, it's YOUR podcast. And right now I find both interesting on different levels. But if I were paying per podcast I would have to shop for the one and pass up the other.

Also, perhaps you were on to something when you described the past encounter with the spontaneous donor whom you later allowed to choose a podcast topic. Perhaps you could set up a more structured system encouraging such donations in exchange for X number of podcast minutes focusing in detail on whatever topic or specific question the donor provides? Just a thought, but maybe it has some potential.

As always, just trying to be constructive. And keep up the good work! : )

Frolf Lundgren wrote:I don't see descriptions for the Art Ludwig podcasts, what should we expect? What will be the deciding factors for which podcasts are free and which are for pay? I want $2.50 from you after listening to the Dell Artemis podcasts. Or, I'd be willing to pay you $2.50 to never talk to them again. Oh vay!

@Frolf - Descriptions, albeit brief ones, are available at the podcast pages here on permies: https://permies.com/t/18297 for #217 and https://permies.com/t/18298 for #218. I'm with you in that, if we are going to be paying per podcast in the future, much more descriptive info would be needed so we have some basis on which to shop for the podcasts we want to hear. But as I understand it this won't necessarily be the case in the future, so for just these two I am more than happy to take Paul's recommendation that these are top shelf podcasts. I'll be buying both.

@Paul - I am assuming that Frolf was referring, above, to podcast #209 at the Dell Artemis farm (?) If so, then I want to say that I had exactly the opposite reaction. I loved that podcast! There were definitely a few useful bricks in that one, but even more importantly some very frank and candid discussion from 1st hand experience that implementing permaculture and establishing a homestead and increasing one's own self-sufficiency is A LOT OF WORK and should be approached with caution, planning, and circumspection. This sounded 100% realistic to me. It sounded very much like my own experiences, as a matter of fact, as well as the experiences of every other permaculturalist I've ever actually met in person. People need to hear this stuff, too; they need to hear about the pitfalls, they need to hear that interns and volunteers often make a negative net contribution, they need to know that things won't unfold in reality like the pretty drawings and diagrams in a permaculture book or a green-building book, and they need to be prepared with a metric-boatload of patience and time and reserve funds if they're going to tackle such a project.

Yes, true, Robert and especially Marina got a little heated and a little self-indulgent in venting their own frustrations. Perhaps, then, they came across at some points as argumentative rather than objective. But I still thought that everything they were saying was right on the money. (Maybe or maybe not including the disagreement about training a piglet to an electric wire in a small space; I don't have any 1st hand swine experience to have an opinion on that topic one way or another). If Frolf wants to pay you to never interview them again, let me say that I will pay you the same amount to go back and get a detailed, practical, 1st hand update on their progress in 12 months, and another 12 months after that. Those would be podcasts worth listening to!

I really like all the articles you have posted. I am currently using a cast iron skillet on all my cooking (no teflon in my diet) and the key is ditching that Lodge-whatever pan and getting a machined skillet and the FLAT metal flipper. I also had a discussion with an American (in Niagara Falls) who works for Sylvania about lightbulbs. Lastly, keep up the good work. I try to plug your website and permies whenever I can.

Oh, and I donated $5.00 to your Empire. Long live the United States of Pocahontas.

BTW, how does everyone like my unit of measure for effort expended by a wannabe homesteader? I just made that up, LOL!

"the metric-boatload: (n) 1) an excessively large quantity of something. 2) metaphorically, any unachievable large amount. 3) equivalent to 2.2 shit-tons in the English system of measures."

The thing that stands out is that you Paul are overworked and overstressed with all the webby thing. And that paying someone or two would (a) make the webby thing sustainable over time and (b) enable you to grow the empire without adding to your workload and (c) improve the quality of the project.

To that end, I think using kickstarter to fund a year's worth of assistance might be the go. You get a chunk of cash upfront, and then part of the assistant's job is to organise the funding for subsequent years: finding sponsors, organising a pay vs free scheme (pay per pod vs subscriber) etc. (could be a shared job depending on who applies and what skills they have). It does mean initial work in setting that up (kickstarter and hiring), but once that work is done, the project should become more self-sustaining (kind of like a garden).

Sorry if that's a redundant suggestion and you have moved onto other things.

Hi Paul and every1. I'm new to this site and hugelkultur. I found this site while searching for ideas to make raised beds for gardening since I am unable to get down on the ground and getting back up is next to impossible. Actually kind of funny to watch to! I refuse to give up gardening I just have to change the way Im working it. I have a small plot of land in Central Wisconsin, 11 acres, bought and paid for. Since 2002 I became disabled and have since, been trying to live off my land not only due to lower income purpose, I have become green as well. I had to learn how to can food, butcher my own rabbits and chickens, and basically grow my own foods. We're going to raise sheep and goats next spring.The internet has helped open my eyes as to how our foods are commercially grown and processed. Well no wonder I acquired a strange disease the doctors don't even know about! I am starting to build my first mound for my hugelkultur garden. Last summer was again drought stricken here and my biggest fear is that I'm going to run our well dry by watering my garden and part of a small field. I did not even grow flowers around my place in fear of wasting water, where food priorities come first. BTW if you're going to cry because of my story, please cry over a plant! Don't waist a drop of that precious liquid! If my hugelkultur garden can save me from water usage and save the water in my well, its well worth $100 bucks a year. But because my disability pays monthly, Id have to arrange to make installments on a monthly basis. I enjoy the podcasts, videos and reading the forums. I've really learned a lot here. Paul for your information and the hard work you put into this, this is valuable and you should be able to collect over head costs and some extra revenue for all that you do. You are saving people a bundle of money! We owe you! You are my God! Seriously though, the swearing is just a little over powering. Just a little. I like how you presented the podcasr for Women Urinating outside. I know you could have really pulled a lot of punches with that one, but you held restraint very well. My husband and I have always been the DIY type and we managed to build our 3800 square foot home mostly out of recycling lumber, total cost under $10.000, by tearing down other homes and garages. We look for homes to recycle in order to build what we need rather than supporting the lumber companies whose lumber is in worse condition than used lumber. This dates back to the late 70's and early 80's even when we both had substantial incomes and money to burn. We saved even more by learning how to sew, make our own furniture, recycle lumber and other building materials and basically how to live for as cheap as possible. My youngest son is 25 going to college for electrical mechanical engineering. Soon our place will be off the power grid by way of solar power. We use an outdoor wood furnace to heat both house and hot water for now. And we never take a living tree from the forest. We only burn what is down already and never gather too much from one single area as the forest needs its own eco system we don't dare rob much from it. Now back to the point of my post. While I think your information is valuable and I would contribute monthly, people are always looking to live as cheap as possible and will get their information from other places on the internet for free. A lot of people want to be the big kahuna and are egar to post information to other folks just for asking or to prove a point. Well that's all for now. I look forward to learning all I can in what time I have left.

Brenda

Hello. New listener and watcher and podcaster and youtuber and article reader. BUT, I'm kickin ass and taking names on all fronts. Here is what I think.
Its all incredible, worth money and needs to keep happening.
I never pay for any stuff like this but I will be making an exception for permies.com and/or podcasting. This is no small feat or B.S.
I like many people that may be being turned on to you only use hard currency. I will be getting a pre-pay credit card for your site to donate / buy podcasts. That being said, podcasts free with very easy donating ability and proper pimping of such action would be best for me. If you feel the need to charge, a dollar seems more reasonable. Especially if donations come more freely. No pun intended.
I will watch for any responses to this to see what you and others think.

My addition to world domination via lazyness.

I have never been able to go through all a podcast.... for the American accent I guess!
Sometimes noises, or translation from Sepp does not sound clear...
All the reading is great for me!
Just to let you know it is not easy for all foreigners.

I've listened to exactly none of the podcasts. I do however plan on it in the near future. I agree whoever said (Matthew perhaps) that intro music is lame, that ambient sounds are acceptable and that proper audio recording along with either having a (preferably) basic script or to edit it to remain on topic.

So without knowlage... or say 'bias' may I suggest sticking to a traditional sales model, such as $.99 and aim to make all podcasts charged. Then sell them say 100 for $29 or some other form of bulk discount.

I'm not sure which murchant you are using, but often they hit you with a transaction fee so high that it makes the whole thing kinda silly. Which leads me into another suggestion, perhaps you should consider a yearly subscription service.

I'm a big fan of Brooks Jensen's "Lenswork" publishing, he's been publishing photography books/magazines focused (ha, pun) on the creativity and expression instead of every other publisher which focuses (not as funny the second time) on technique and equipment. He has been making a living out of it for awhile, I suggest looking at his services/products and see if you can't glean some useful ideas from it.

BTW I'm one of those cheap füçkérš you mentioned, but I'll shell out a lot when I find approate value in something. And I like to think I keep with company, so it's realistic to expect to be paid for doing something good.

Matthew Nistico wrote:
@Paul - I am assuming that Frolf was referring, above, to podcast #209 at the Dell Artemis farm (?) If so, then I want to say that I had exactly the opposite reaction. I loved that podcast! There were definitely a few useful bricks in that one...

Maybe this should go in the thread for that podcast but I got some unusual bricks from that one too. I'm finally using electric fence after many failures. I understood the woman's frustration but my mind was whirling with ideas to make it work in her scenario. I'm trying to look at my current rough areas with the same mindset.

Congratulations on your generous contributions to permaculture education. I've listened to quite a few podcsts. Whenever I recommend permies forums to others newer to permaculture, I feel compelled to warn them that the podcasts ramble a lot.
As someone with some experience in education I'd like to suggest a lesson plan to be made and kept to for each podcast. It is important to deliver detailed information on the topic.
I'd happily pay $2.50 for an hours lesson, step by step.
The richer the information the more relevant to the topic the more It would be worth paying.
It is good to know that the money could help your new project in Montana. Best of luck, keep up the good work and thank you for your efforts. PS I thought the Alpha to Omega talk with O'brien was a great introduction to Permaculture the editing made it flow well.

Cj Verde wrote:

Matthew Nistico wrote:
@Paul - I am assuming that Frolf was referring, above, to podcast #209 at the Dell Artemis farm (?) If so, then I want to say that I had exactly the opposite reaction. I loved that podcast! There were definitely a few useful bricks in that one...

Maybe this should go in the thread for that podcast but I got some unusual bricks from that one too. I'm finally using electric fence after many failures. I understood the woman's frustration but my mind was whirling with ideas to make it work in her scenario. I'm trying to look at my current rough areas with the same mindset.

I loved the Dell Artemis podcasts, too. I like hearing frank but respectful and engaged discussions about real, concrete issues.

@Paul,

You mentioned that you record in AMR format- would you mind me asking if that format is a firm requirement of your recording workflow?

I had never heard of AMR before today, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that it is a compression format for speech, used in mobile telephony. And I thought "OF COURSE, THAT's why Paul's podcasts always sound like I'm hearing him through a telephone line." Because all his podcasts are being encoded in the same format as a cellphone call.

And if the original recording is done in AMR format, there is very little you can do to improve the quality- because AMR is a lossy compression format, you've already thrown away all the texture and depth of the original sounds.

SO:
Is AMR format a fixed requirement of your recording setup?
Do you use AMR because of bandwidth concerns?
Is your recording device restricted to AMR?
What is your target bitrate?

If you listen to the mp3 audio samples here, a 32k mp3 sounds just fine, and would put you at about 15MB/hr, which seems pretty close to what you are getting now using AMR to MP3 conversion. Jack Spirko's podcasts are at 32k, thus his latest ran at 16.8MB for a 1:14 show, and his audio quality is plenty high. I think you can achieve similar results.

If you have no other option but to record in AMR, maybe you can solicit donations from audio snobs like me to get yourself a device that records in MP3. I've paypal'd you $20. Anybody else? I think we could raise that money in a day or so.

Please excuse my extensive re-editing of this message.

nathan luedtke wrote:@Paul,

You mentioned that you record in AMR format- would you mind me asking if that format is a firm requirement of your recording workflow?

I had never heard of AMR before today, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that it is a compression format for speech, used in mobile telephony. And I thought "OF COURSE, THAT's why Paul's podcasts always sound like I'm hearing him through a telephone line." Because all his podcasts are being encoded in the same format as a cellphone call.

And if the original recording is done in AMR format, there is very little you can do to improve the quality- because AMR is a lossy compression format, you've already thrown away all the texture and depth of the original sounds.

SO:
Is AMR format a fixed requirement of your recording setup?
Do you use AMR because of bandwidth concerns?
Is your recording device restricted to AMR?
What is your target bitrate?

If you listen to the mp3 audio samples here, a 32k mp3 sounds just fine, and would put you at about 15MB/hr, which seems pretty close to what you are getting now using AMR to MP3 conversion. Jack Spirko's podcasts are at 32k, thus his latest ran at 16.8MB for a 1:14 show, and his audio quality is plenty high. I think you can achieve similar results.

If you have no other option but to record in AMR, maybe you can solicit donations from audio snobs like me to get yourself a device that records in MP3. I've paypal'd you $20. Anybody else? I think we could raise that money in a day or so.

Please excuse my extensive re-editing of this message.

Hell I'd donate my PCM recorder to Paul, that way he can record in WAV losslessly (44.1/16 bit is good for spoken word) and then compress it to whichever format needed. They're like $100 plus another $25 for a decent lavalier (the kind you pin on your shirt) microphone.

I'm a photographer/video/audio dork, feel free to contact me if assistance is needed.

Jeremy Ryan wrote:
I'd like to suggest a lesson plan to be made and kept to for each podcast. It is important to deliver detailed information on the topic.

I tend to disagree. I think that the spontaneous aspect of Paul sometimes going off topic is something that makes the podcast interesting and not too academic. However, I can also see lots of value into something more structured. Perhaps a few very structured "how-to" podcast could become the corner stone of a membership program. Just a thought.

I wouldn't mind paying for podcasts. It would be nice to get a short description of the ‘pay for podcast’ content. Then complainers would have less basis to complain if they didn't like the 'paid for' content.

Thank you for all of the free information - I have found it very useful. Having paid nothing the value received is infinite - regardless of dividing by zero in the economic analysis. Cheers.

I might have listened to 217 if it were free but the subject is of little interest to me so I skipped it. 218 was ok but much of it is above my eco level. I've never even heard of Art Ludwig until today. If I can get some time I'll check out his stuff. In this life you either have money or time but you almost never have both. Right now I have money but time is limited. I was glad to get the collection of podcasts while I was at the download site. 25 bucks is pretty reasonable.

Hello again. After reading through rest of this including my post again and the linked similar thread (how do you do that) I realized 2 things.
One is that my post sounds like I was hoping others would donate so I wouldn't be inconvenienced. To make it clearer. I wanted to get a prepay card anyway (huge freaky step for me) to donate money to the likes of Paul's Domination or SustenanceNCovering or the very rare internet purchase without having to hassle friends or family. Also because of self-employment and word-of-mouth only my income ranges from 200-3000 dollars a month. Due to this when a big job comes in, I throw money around where I see fit to help others. My version of charity. So 20 here and 20 there much easier for me than any amount every time.

The other thing is that someone made a very valid point of using casts like business cards. Its easy, free and gets new people in the arena. Turning that 7000 into 50000 faster.

I still think donation only can get done what is needed and probably more. And with the people jumping offering help you might get this thing back to near-zero burden. Free, raw and stressless is the only way to do this.

Last bit is "DO NOT CHANGE YOUR STYLE OR PLANNING OR WORRY ABOUT ANY OF THAT UNLESS IT IS YOUR NATURAL INCLINATION" ... fuck all that. Please be you, have fun and share often.

P.S. my $200 months are still bliss compared to any amount of stability from my previous daily grinds. I fix things, make people happy and I'm happy. Sometimes with a lot of time for me. Sorry for length hope it seems worth it to everybody and especially you Paul.

Most podcasts seem to get downloaded about 4000 times in the first week. So, I thought maybe 1000 people would pony up a few bucks for the podcasts with art ludwig in the first week. Then I would have enough money to pay folks to make sure this whole thing is on rails.

47 people bought one or both podcasts.

Hmmmm ....

At the recent workshop, two of the guys that paid for podcasts were there. They each wanted to buy an older mug. I said "ten bucks" and they both insisted on paying $20. "For the awesome podcasts". I won't be able to live on the extra $20 or anything like that, but I am really grooving on this extra $20. One of the two (Adrien) bought me dinner that night too.

Later, after most folks left, somebody was telling me how I should have been embarrassed that people were gushing over me. He even said that one woman "would have thrown her panties at you if she were wearing any." I didn't feel embarrassed. In fact, I was thinking about it and thinking how the appreciation is a strong counter to all the hate and nasty I get.

Hmmmm .... 47 ....

------

addressing some of the things in this thread:

quality; audio leveling; eating noises; music: The two mug guys said that too. Lead in music and stuff is just skipped over anyway. Audio balancing - if it is ever missing, please speak up in this forum and we'll see if we can get it mended.

dell artimus: I think it is a great example of how things are not always rosy for my work. These are good people that are having legit challenges, and are openly honest about how they like my stuff and have mixed feelings about me.

$5 to the empire: It is amazing how this sort of thing really fuels me. In the past I would do big things for a community and then realize "they give the pizza guy five bucks, or a waitress $10, but I was given $0.00 for my contribution." So when money just pops up once in a while, it does feel good.

overworked and overstressed: Yes. I need an assistant. It would be great to have an assistant working for me full time that can then manage 20 volunteers that want to help. right now, I feel like I put a huge amount of time into stuff, but very little is coming out.

To that end, I think using kickstarter to fund a year's worth of assistance might be the go.

Wow. That is a great idea. I like it. Will kickstarter allow that sort of thing? Maybe we should start a thread for this idea.

---

AMR format: that is what my blackberry records with. I think the quality is really good and that silly blackberry has seriously earned its keep in the last few years. A sort of all-in-one tiny contraption. For skype stuff, things get recorded to a huge mp3 file.

Jack Spirko has a super fancy microphone. Far fancier than anything else I've seen.

About a week ago I was trying to record voice over on a new video and my microphones were adding a buzz/hum. So I bought something like what Matt Walker suggested I get. I hope to start fiddling with it today.

I'm a photographer/video/audio dork, feel free to contact me if assistance is needed.

Usually I post questions to this forum. So please keep watch here. In fact, I think you can get notified every time there is a new thread in this forum.

Please be you, have fun and share often.

The first two - for sure. Somebody would have to pay me a lot of money to this stuff their way instead of my way. Hmmmm .... maybe that should be a way to make money on podcasts. I will charge people a thousand dollars to make a podcast the way they want it made.

As for "share often": it seems that the pipeline is currently gummed up. I cannot record new podcasts until the old podcasts go out.

Paul, I'm glad to hear you made the step forward in gear. If you need any help with sorting it out I'm happy to help. One technical note on voice overs for an existing video. I think it's much simpler to just watch the video and voice over into the recorder with it unplugged from the computer, then bring the audio file into the video program after the fact. The timing is pretty easy to get right by sliding the audio track around a bit. That way is so much simpler than trying to configure your computer's audio in/video program audio in/ record audio but not video/ etc. which is what it takes to record the v/o on the video program. You may find another work flow that works for you, but that typically is the easiest way for me.

I was thinking the same thing. i was thinking that the innards of the contraption would be all about the quality, while any software would be all about getting it done on the cheap.

It seems that it requires a weird USB cable that didn't come with it. Will any USB cable that fits work with this or do I have to buy the one that they sell separately?

Hmmm, strange that it didn't come with one. In my experience any usb cable with the right end should work. Mine uses a small type connection on the device side that is the same as I have on some small external drives. That said, I've never plugged mine in, I just use a card reader to get the files off of the card. That may be an option for you as well.

paul wheaton wrote:
Hmmmm .... 47 ....

I just bought podcasts 1-159 + the 2 art ludwig podcasts. I was a little reluctant on the Ludwig ones because I don't know who he is and the topics don't seem to apply to me. But for you... done.

BTW, I'm finding many USB products don't come with cables anymore because they assume you have lots floating around.

Just bought 1-200 + 217&218. The $27 was easy to part with and now I have something to listen to for the 23 hour drive from Kansas City to Missoula for the conference.

After the last few posts, I'm convinced that a high profile easy to use "Donate 4 Domination" or "Minions Who Must Give" or "Domination Donation" or "Don't Dawdle... Donate & Dominate" button will help immensely.

Btw. Been listening to more podcasts and am loving the rambling and tangents and bobcats and people that don't matter rants and sound quality issues and road noise. To me kinda sounds like ... hmmm ... oh yeah, Real.

Matt Walker wrote:Hmmm, strange that it didn't come with one. In my experience any usb cable with the right end should work. Mine uses a small type connection on the device side that is the same as I have on some small external drives. That said, I've never plugged mine in, I just use a card reader to get the files off of the card. That may be an option for you as well.

I found one - it didn't work.

I did the thing with pulling the card out and copying from the card. Slow and klunky - but the quality was really good!

After the last few posts, I'm convinced that a high profile easy to use "Donate 4 Domination" or "Minions Who Must Give" or "Domination Donation" or "Don't Dawdle... Donate & Dominate" button will help immensely.

Super awesome! I kinda feel like I need to make a web page for something like this!

Glad you liked it. When you meet the guy this weekend who is blatantly blathering bonafied botched bunches of alliterative nonsense having something or other to do with donating as a theme... just remember it will be all your fault. It's the kind of thing that is want to happen while driving 23 hours to a conference and having only 218ish of your podcasts to keep me company. Ain't tcha glad I bought em all!

Jason Lindsay wrote:After the last few posts, I'm convinced that a high profile easy to use "Donate 4 Domination" or "Minions Who Must Give" or "Domination Donation" or "Don't Dawdle... Donate & Dominate" button will help immensely.

Sounds like a good idea. Any more ideas?

I just started a thread about generating income, perhaps you could join in the brainstorming session.

Probably. Kinda new to this forum and scene. But, when I'm passionate about something and I am about permaculture the ideas will start flowing generally to the point of absurd annoyance. So between now and annoyance there ought to be a lot of good stuff percolating out of my brain stem. Of course we will have to sift through the detritus as well. As an aside. I've never been able to stand a salesman but anything that's caught my fancy makes me the consumate salesman that everybody mentions to me. So I Hope we can use this to our advantage here. Useless skill #382 finally pays off. Proving once again that no useless skills are useless given enough time.

paul wheaton wrote:...and thinking how the appreciation is a strong counter to all the hate and nasty I get. ....

Que va.... Me quedo boca abierta...

What? Hate and nasty? I did not even imagine... I am so far away and do not at all get the feeling of exactly what work is being done, except that something is going on with a land purchase. And my unfair understanding of spoken English + work = not listening to podcasts.

I just feel all this as a sort of bee hive with a big bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, so, "what will come out, stings or honey?" and it can be frightening to some.

Paul, one thing is enough for me to like you (by knowing you I would certainly dislike some things you do, just the normal details about the way to look at life):
You prefer responsibility than finding an exterior culprit to anything.

The "let's eliminate 'this' and everything will go better" is just fooling everybody including oneself.

A bunch of people mentioned transcriptions or transcribing the podcasts in this thread. As I replied in the are there podcast transcripts? thread:

Hi Cait,

Lots of people have asked for transcripts! I imagine your transciptions would be most welcome!

In general, if we have transcripts, I think they are posted within the thread for each podcast in the paul wheaton's permaculture podcast forum. I did a quick search in that forum for the word 'transcript' and found these:

podcast 001 transcript - listener questions on saving energy
podcast 007 transcript - discussion with larry korn about masanobu fukuoka
podcast 008 transcript - beyond organic innovation
podcast 140 transcript - suburban permaculture in great fall, mt
podcast 162 transcript - berms and cherry tree intervention

It's a start!

Thanks for the offer to help!

If I may be so bold to suggest: it might help to keep more specifics about transcripts over in the are there podcast transcripts? thread and reserve this thread for more general feedback discussions.