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[Toady One]

So, in the forum thread for the last audio interview and in a few emails, some of us discussed a bit what people were interested in seeing as far as a periodic B12 recorded call/podcast/etc., whatever we might name it.  The current basic idea for the format was somebody talking with me about DF development and answering questions that people have, and perhaps some forum-related discussion, though that's completely open for discussion.  If there's a sufficient number of people that care, I wouldn't mind talking about whatever for a while in whatever format and with whatever people end up being decided upon.

I don't think doing something like this would be a significant drain on my time provided it isn't that frequent, and I think that if there is in fact a level of interest significant enough to justify such a thing, it would probably be a good use of my time overall for the project, in terms of building support, spreading information, answering questions, getting people involved and whatever else.

In this way, I think "no!  program instead!" replies are counterproductive, although I welcome any reply that furthers the discussion and contributes in a meaningful fashion even if it ends up being contrary to something actually being done.  It's probably important, for example, to establish how this is different from the current dev list Q&A thread for example, since the Q&A thread is easier to prepare.  So if you would like to listen to something like this, I'd like to hear why in particular, and what in particular, so we can plan it out according to what people actually want.

Several people (three I can remember off the top of my head) have expressed an interest in being involved in terms of actually being on and hosting/asking their own questions and questions from other people or whatever it might end up being like.  On account of that, I don't know if we'd revolve those responsibilities or have more than one person on at once, or what.  Again, this is all very preliminary.  I'd like to accommodate anybody that wants to be involved, and how well we can do that depends both on participation in this thread and the numbers.

Technically, I've found Skype works well enough, though I've never recorded a call myself and have no idea how to do so myself and what software is involved.  I don't think the number of downloads will be a problem in terms of bandwidth, though I have no concrete figures on that.  I think it would be best to be able to distribute the audio files from the site, or from some place reliable and ad-free, at least.

Anyway, this is an informal discussion.  Feel free to bring up whatever ideas you'd like in terms of format and so on.  If something comes together out of this and it's feasible, we can go ahead with it.  If not, at least we can consider it well-discussed and let it fizzle out.

[SHAD0Wdump]

The previous interview certainly came as interesting to me.I would love to hear another one.

In fact,some time soon I'm thinking about listening to the interview again,I still have it on my hard drive.

[AtomicPaperclip]

All news is good news to us

I think most of us would like to hear more detailed explanations on future releases from time to time.

[Broose]

Sounds good to me. That is, if we get some people who are good at this sort of thing. I could hardly listen to the MSPA interview, with all the background noise and interrupting.

[Angellus]

My recommended way would be as followed:
Once a month a podcast by a member who was voted by the community to talk to you (by poll off course! )
With him/her (I noticed there are girls around too!) you could discuss what you have done this month, what problems came by and what you have planned to do later, I personally would be very interested in this kind of news, as would I be in a monthly update on Scamps.
Together with some music (which will then be chosen by the chosen one) it would easily change into a very nice spoken update on how Dwarf Fortress in general is doing

Possible extra's:
- Scamp's life
- Chosen mod/tweak/program
- Music intermezzo's (later implantable, music chosen by the chosen one)
- Next month's chosen one (or should we wait with that? )
- DF: News (Has DF gotten attention from media lately? Has something horrible/great happened? All goes here!)

[Capntastic]

I'd be willing to give it a shot.

[Rysith]

I think that I agree that a podcast-type thing would be good. Once a month, or once every two months, seems like a reasonable frequency.

It's probably important, for example, to establish how this is different from the current dev list Q&A thread for example, since the Q&A thread is easier to prepare.  So if you would like to listen to something like this, I'd like to hear why in particular, and what in particular, so we can plan it out according to what people actually want.

I think that one of the important differences between a podcast and the Q&A thread is that the podcast creates a single thing that we, the members, can pass around to those who might be interested in dwarf fortress. Pointing potential inductees at the download site, the forums, or even the new play-along tutorials doesn't do a great job of explaining to them why Dwarf Fortress is worthy of their time and donation. A podcast that was a mixture of current developments on Dwarf Fortress and your hopes for the future of Dwarf Fortress, with a friendly bump towards the download page, forums, and tutorials would, and I think that that would be the significant difference from the Q&A thread. The podcast would also be in a much more condensed and structured form than that Q&A thread, which means that listeners would only have to listen to the "important" questions that came up.

Technically, it shouldn't be that hard to set up a reasonable recording space, skype call, and edit the final product into a distributable format. Distribution doesn't seem that hard either, and if bandwidth is a problem then distributing it through bittorrent seems possible. I'm sure that there are plenty of bay12ers who would be happy to donate their bandwidth to keeping it available.

Angellus's extras seem like they would be nice, but the music would make it require more technical skill to put together. It might also make it seem more approachable to new people, though, so if there was a bay12er who was willing to donate their skill (and The Great One approved), it might be worthwhile.

[Ampersand]

I'd love to be involved.

[Im_Sparks]

I'd love to be involved.

+1 For the love of involvement. I actually have some experience hosting interviews, as my school newspapers' reporter.

Anyway, I'd like to know anything and everything I can about the new version.

[Rainseeker]

I would like to volunteer my services to Toady One and the community.

I've done some work with NPR and have audio editing training.  I'd be happy to do it, and I've been bugging Toady about this since we met at the Seattle meetup.  (Sorry for those who missed it!) Technically I'd need some help with Skype, since I've never used it before, but once the interview is done I could send it to Toady or whoever to post.  I'm pretty sure I can use Adobe Audition to record the interview.  As far as music goes, I could use some musical fillers, much like "This American Life," but I can make no editing promises until we see how the actual first interview goes.

As far as the actual questions from the forum, I think it would be great to collaborate on what the community wants to know.  Maybe we could have a separate forum section for that?

[TheDJ17]

I think a monthly update is good enough with the current rate that new (big) questions come up.

[bhelyer]

Yes please.

[Aqizzar]

I was thinking about this a bit when it came up originally.  I thought two or three people an interview would make sense, for some interplay and conversation (which was the really fun part of the interviews), and so it's not just dead air in between responses.

Also, questions should probably be pre-submitted in some form, at least to prove someone actually has enough questions to ask and Toady would be willing to answer them.  Not necessarily rigid though, otherwise it would just be another Q&A thread but with sound.

[Veroule]

I would love to hear more podcasts as well.  Monthly to bi-monthly seems like a good time frame.  I would suggest getting together a group of at least 10 people that are interested in being interviewers.  Toady then choses one randomly when he has the time for a new podcast.  If the timings work out then they do it, otherwise Toady could piick another interviewer.

Format wise I think a goal of 2 hours is good.  The interviewer should have 20-30 questions based on any number of current things in the forums or devlog.  The questions would just be conversation starters, and the interview should be informal.  Perhaps as little as 5 of the planned questions would get asked.

Having a volunteer maintaining a list of questions might be a good idea, but it likely would get very crowded as questions should be marked for what podcast talked about them.  That could also be beneficial, by allowing an interviewer to look back and ask things like, "6 months ago you thought X might be interesting.  It seem like Y now covers all that and more..."

[Zai]

I'd definitely be interested in having these interviews. As everyone else seems to have said already, do it monthly or bi-monthly. I'd suggest doing it at the end of each month, as a sort of wrap-up for the month as a whole; discuss what major things were done that month, ask submitted questions, talk about Scamps, etc.

I think the interviewers should preferably be native English speakers, mainly so that heavy accents don't get in the way of understanding what is being said. Multiple (2-3) interviewers would be nice, as Aqizzar said, to avoid blank spaces and keep the discussion pretty lively. However, they should try not to talk over each other too much. Anywhere from 1 to 2 hours would be an ideal length for the interviews. Consider separating it into 2 (or more) parts, especially if it goes over 2 hours. A problem I've had in the past is not having enough time to listen to an interview all at once, and then having trouble getting to where I left off when I listen to it again.