Help us fix Universe Box

Michael Lucero It's sad to hear that people aren't getting excited about this podcast. I think it's only grown stronger as it's gone on. I was really sad to read today that you're considering not doing it anymore. If I might ask, is it a matter of not enough people subscribing/downloading, or not enough people participating in the live show (chat, live watching, etc.), or not enough people donating? Or all of these things? The only suggestion I might have is that I think a lot of people discovered y'all through podcasting, as opposed to video podcasting. I think the video format is great, and probably appeals to a lot of people, and I think it definitely helps build that sense of community, but I wonder if maybe it's turning off some of the audio only listeners, since parts of the show are y'all talking and joking about things that those who don't watch the video aren't experiencing. Again, I would assume (thought I may well be wrong) that most of your audience is made of audio listeners. I'm not suggesting that you get rid of the video format at all, since I think it's a unique part of UB that would be lost without it, and again, the community interaction would probably suffer. But I would maybe suggest one of three things: either 1) try to build the moments in the video show so that it's still clear to audio listeners what's going on (perhaps with more narration), or 2) maybe edit out these parts from the podcast version of the show and leave them in the video. Please disregard this advice if you don't find it helpful. Personally, these video only moments don't bother me at all, since I have a pretty good imagination and can fill in the blanks with an approximate idea of what must be happening to fit your dialogue. I even like listening to the commentaries without necessarily watching the episode along with it. So this suggestion isn't necessarily what I feel myself, but only what I can guess others may be feeling when they don't choose to subscribe or stay subscribed to the show. If you find the advice helpful, then take it, but if not, then ignore it. Good luck with the show, as always! I for one would be very sad to see it go.

July 22, 2015 00:08:23 · Reply

Universe Box We are giving it 20 more episode so don't be scared. The audio focused points are good ones I think. We are going to be putting out a video podcast version soon which I think might help. To be clear we're mainly concerned with downloads. Not trying to push people to donate more or anything. Right now UB compromises probably 50% of our podcasting time every week but only accounts for maybe 1% of our downloads. We expected the numbers on this one to be low to start, but we were hoping it would find it's audience by now. Just figured we'd solicit feedback now so we can fix it before we get to the point where we'd feel like cutting it. Thanks for all the feedback, Michael. Will take it into account.

July 22, 2015 02:49:11 · Reply