Blog Azeroth

Game Dame said:


Okay, I'll start this show, and fire burns from my fingertips as I type up the way to go....

Oops, sorry. Better turn off the Charlie Daniels Band...

Okay, that's better.

Right, so the options we have to talk about are few. We can do this! Let's get started.

First, the subject of Air Schedule.

I would suggest a once a week format. This seems pretty reasonable, and wuold be frequent enough to be fun for people to listen to and look forward to. I would think that, for most people, getting together some time over the weekend would be easiest to coordinate, since most of us ahve secondary jobs that take us away from the home. However, it kind of depends on who is on the show, and what time zones work for them.

Post your thoughts on Air Schedule. To be honest, it might just turn out that more folks would be in favor of doing it on a weeknight just so the weekend didn't have a block of time taken out of it.

Second; Topics, Format.

Here is where I expect there to be lots of discussion. What the heck is the show about? What are we taling about?

I will make the first suggestion, by saying that I think, rather than a free-flowing rambling discussion, perhaps guided by a moderator or leader, that the show be formalized segments.

In this way, there could be a list of segments that are weekly regulars, or that the people running the show that week can choose from. It'll help give the podcasters a rope to hang on to... 'What are we suppsoed to do next? Oh yeah, Right."

Because we are bloggers for World of Warcraft, I think the podcast should focus on World of Warcraft, and those that blog about it.

To that end, I think the following is just the tuip of the iceberg on possible segments;

"New WoW Blog of the Week" - segment discussing a new blog that may come from recommendations via email account to a gmail specifically for the blog, or from this forum.

"Various WoW news". With the blogger spin on it. Patch changes, announcements, etc. Depends on whether something actually happened.

"Special Blogger Guest" if it turns out that a few bloggers run this show regularly, and most other bloggers are more interested in being on it only once in a while.

"Blogger favorite addon of the week" - self explanatory.

"Fan favorite blog post of the week" - again, using some means of getting feedback from listeners, highlighting a particular blog and post that week that readers really enjoyed and wrote in about.

"Blogger discussion on how to blog" - From talking about choosing a blogging host like Wordpress of Blogspot or self-hosting, to how to stay motivated to write, or how to find inspiration on topics, to why you start a blog in the first place, or how to encourage people to write a blog even if they think that they haven't got anyhting to say, if bloggers are making a podcast, they need to talk about the whys and wherefores of blogging.

That sould be enough to start you guys talking about your own ideas on segments.

I would love to see a segment on special guests from the WoW community, outside of blogging. interviews with the guys from FigurePrints, twebcomics like Looking For Group, creators of Addons like the Gatherer and Auctioneer development team, stuff like that. I don't know how feasible that is.

And third topic; Hosts and Guests.

As I said above, I expect there will be people taht would love to be on a regular weekly podcast, and will drive it forward... and those that would like to try one... maybe once. Or twice if it was fun. But wouldn't know quite where to start, and certainly wouldn't want to be on the first one, with other folks that are fumbling around in teh dark.

So I think it would be good NOW to get bloggers to chime in on who wants to do one or more of the following;

!) Be part of the weekly 'talking live' podcast crew.
2) Be part of, or the only, audio specialist/sound crew.
3) Be the DJ that comes up with neat intro music or mixes. If not the same as 2 above.
4) Be an occasional 'guest' blogger instead of a regular.
5) Whoever I'm not smart enough to have come up with.

Let's get going people!

I'll volunteer to be a regular on the show to get it started, maybe the first couple weeks, and then I would be perfectly fine with either moving to a occasional 'Guest' appearance, or even being replaced entirely if enough Bloggers are excited about being on the show.

I'd seriously like to see the show get started, and have lots of representation in the blogging community.

I would love to be a guest on this. I would volunteer to be a regular, but college tends to take up a bunch of time. I am working on an audio intro, I will email it to BBB soon.

-'Knock

i volunteer for this too, and i vote to do it on weekends... just easier to coordinate across timezones when you don't have to work the next day

I have some live radio experience, and it is fun as hell, so i look forward to this.

Obviously a regular host or two would be required in order to give a sense of stability. Add in a guest or three per week with some outlined discussion points. I don't think epic-length podcasts are what anyone is shooting for, so keeping it between 30-60 minutes would be optimal for webhosting purposes and still be able to put out whatever information that would be useful to the listener.

Now the question I have is What's the purpose? Is it for the bloggers and detailing how to increase readership (something this site does anyways)? Is it for the WoW players and discussing tactics/playstyle? Something else entirely?

I think the idea is to have a mix of those two, if i understand BBB correctly...

Well, it seems to me we aren't looking at doing a 'blogging' podcast, as much as a 'wow and blogging' podcast.

I think the intended audience would be people who love reading wow blogs and love palying wow... and might be interested in behind the scenes of how blogs are done, and how they might start their own.

So opinions from bloggers on events in WoW, as well as on blogging would be the thing to focus on.

Ok, just wanted to make sure it doesn't turn into one of those closed-clique backslapping fests that I've sadly been privy to in the past. You know the ones where (putting it into context here) all the WoW bloggers get together and say "You're the best." "No, you're the best." "No, you're the best," and nothing worthwhile comes from it.

This is why you rock, BBB. You're the man with the master plan.

I'm in. More as a guest blogger than host. I just don't think I'd have the time to commit to being one of the "regulars." Let me know what you need.

I would vote for a sunday afternoon/morning schedule, with 3-6 bloggers each time. Do we want to do this prerecorded or live? We should get a list of people who are more than interested, that can really spare the time and are serious about it, not just like "hey, that would be cool, I think ill just sign up for everything and than i'll have the option to do it if I feel like it..."

I am going to make a topic to sign.

-Fumbleknock

I would think, based purely on my lack of understanding, that prerecorded would be easier the first few times, since I have no idea how to put one out streaming live.

On the other hand, there are a ton of podcasts on www.wc-radio.com, so maybe they have some kind of noobie FAQ I can check out.

Pre-recorded would let us fix errors or make edits based on slips, bad language, etc. Also let us add in fun sound bites/intros etc. Tweak it.

Live, on the other hand, offers one thing pre-recorded can't... live feedback from the audience, question and answer, and shout outs to the loyal and faithful listener.

We would need a place where we could GET that feedback live, though. mIRC, email, live forums posting, I don't know.

Thoughts?

i think we should go prerecorded at first, and them, when we get "loyal and faithful listeners" worry about going live and feedback

I was thinking that prerecorded would make more sense, but if we could get on wcradio.com, that would be sweet.

I think, like those above me, that pre-recorded would be the way to go until a firm listener-base is established. We could very easily set up a free e-mail account and advertise the crap out of it for listeners to send in questions for discussion or even show ideas (for those moments when, like blogging, ideas are hard to come by).

I would be up for both regular or guest, depending on what you need. However, I don't know if I can be regularly interesting! D: That would be bad, no?

Maybe we should tailor the guests and hosts to our topics of the week? Like, not asking a priest blogger to comment on hunter blogs, or a raging pvper to do a segment on RP?

I definitely agree with Arrens that we need a couple of regular hosts for continuity. And like Bellwether stated, I think the guests should be related to the topics of the week, or offer an opposing side to the topic.

I would be more than happy to participate as a guest speaker and provide any help I can.

Also, I agree with the pre-tape. First let’s get the format down then we can think about taking it live.

I'd be in as a guest.

I'm going to set up and run a test podcast for my site in the next couple weeks - I'm thinking a nice, short, 10 minute cast with a wrap up of cool stuff that happened in the week, a bit of WoW talk, and close it out with a "song of the week" - as pre-determined by yours truly.

Needless to say, although I will be chopping things up a bit, I'll retain the flow, dynamic, and cuss words.

For the most part, I would love to be part of this, I just want to get a feel for how I'd do things first, and then bring that to the table!

I'm down as a regular and/or host and/or guest. I've had to keynote my Campaign Creations podcasts. May as well continue the trend into WoW.

Pre recorded is the best to go, I'm thinking. Good way to help clean up any thing that goes wrong. Second chances are always good.

BBB

As I said in my e-mail, I'd love to participate as a regular, semi-regular, or every-now-and-then host/guest. Whatever works best.

I also have a vent server lying around that no one really uses. I know someone said it's not as good fro quality but it's there for brainstorming/planing or just to introduce ourselves to each other. Let me know if you would like to use it!

I think that we (interested parties) should have a meeting on VoIP sometime soon. next weekend perhaps?

I think this would be best organized by e-mail, I really don't mind using my server for this purpose but I don't want the entire free world using it too. BBB or whoever is going to organize this collect e-mail addresses of all involved parties for this planning session and I'll give you the server address and whatnot.

I think it might be a good idea to keep this first session down to <10 people. Too many cooks ruins the soup. Some of you might disagree with me on that one, and that's absolutely fine, just my opinion on the matter.

Next weekend is fine with me!

I haven't been involved in podcasting before, but if you want an extra foreign voice, I'd be keen to participate.

(So I would vote for pre-recorded, since I'm on Aus time, and therefore not necessarily likely to be awake when you're all talking. )