The Drabblecast

Saint Tom of the Drabblecastus doth hoard the sacred files of yore at

http://gardenstreet.org/drabblecastarchive/

I'm republishing overnight tonight, to try and get a better php-based sidebar going. I've got episodes up through 70 going, but the rest will be up soon.

Which lead into the next question - What are your favorite episodes? I want to put up some podcasts (5, 10 eps?) which are the favorites of the top personalities around here. For examples, Mr. Tweedy's Top 5 list would be something like:

Rush Limbaugh on Government
Webdesigners Talk Back!
Feminists Weekly
Chicken Pot Pie Instructables
Drabblecast Episode 40 - Marbles


I'm thinking it would be nice to have some "best of" drabblecasts to get people started. Quickly approaching 100 episodes, starting in is not an easy task for a new listener.

Ha! I'm caught up, at episode 100!

For new listeners, we've added top 10's from Mr. Tweedy and myself. If anyone else would like their top 10 on the archive site, list 'em, fool.

Norm's Top 10 fav's:

1: Ep 109: Babel Probe by David D. Levine
2: Ep 43: Jelly Park by Aliya Whiteley
3: Ep 115: Clown Eggs by Jay Lake*
4: Ep 83: Floating Over Time by Robert Reed
5: Ep 91: Gifting Bliss by Josh Rountree
6: Ep 66: Creatures in Disguise by James Shackell
7: Ep 105: The Blueberry Pie & The Pie Hunters by Mur Lafferty
8: EP 39: The Beekeepers by J Alan Pierce
9: Ep 53: Sing by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
10:Ep 29: Code Brown by Dermot Glennon

Honorable Mention: Black an White Animals II: Vengeful Hearts


*Had to edit this. I love Sam Henderson but Clown Eggs rocked my world.

And now find Norm's official Top Ten list at:
http://www.gardenstreet.org/drabblecastarchive/

Not as timely as David Letterman, but funnier!

Hi!

Sorry to be a bother. I'm new to the Drabblecast, having been referred by the good folks at EscapePod, so I'm looking forward to enjoying them. But when I went to the archive to try and get the back issues, I'm having some serious difficulties.

The nutshell version is that the names on the links, and the files they point to don't match up. This is happening in both Firefox and IE.

In the 50-episode chunks, when trying to pull down the mp3 versions of the shows, I hover over a link and the name of the link pops up as the episode described in the header. However, the file referenced in the status bar at the bottom is a different file. Choosing 'Save Link As' confirms this.

That makes me sad.

Saint Tom will save you!

Heh, yea I ran into some big problem with the links. I've republished everything as of late last night/early today, try it out now. The RSS feed should also be working for podcasting each block.

Please let me know if you still have troubles after refreshing!

Thanks and welcome to the Drabblecast!

As it turns out, I think the whole thing was my fault. I was only looking at the file names, not actually listening to them, and therein lay the source of my confusion.

For example, the file 'podcast_84.mp3' that contains Episode 115 when played is not the same file as the 'podcast_84.mp3' that contains Episode 95.

Boy is my face red. Fortunately I've got a renamer program that'll change the file names when I pull em down onto my ipod. Thanks for the time and effort that you've put into hosting and maintaining these files. Without fans like you, fans like me'd be out of luck when it comes to back-issues.

Thanks again!

Keith

Well, it actually wasn't working, also.
But, it you want the properly named files, grab them from the MP3 warehouse.

Enjoy the listen!
Tom

I was updating the archive website last night:

http://www.gardenstreet.org/drabblecastarchive/

And I looked up some of the stats. For those who are interested:
In the month of August, 5,997 mp3 files were downloaded. 4,530 m4a files were downloaded, totaling 10,526 episodes downloaded.

In the current month to date (Sept 1- 18), 5,461 mp3's and 3,680 m4a's were downloaded, totaling 9,141 episodes downloaded.

That's just the archive, right? That doesn't' count automatic downloads from subscribers?

That is correct, it doesn't count who downloads from drabblecast.org, iTunes, or anything. Just people who come to the fan archive site.

That's quite impressive, in that case. Quite.

sweet. confusing, but sweet.

I can't fathom using the podcast architecture in any other way than I do. Downloading...like...having to actually go somewhere and push a button....UGH. I wonder if we just have a lot of fans who don't know how subscriptions to feeds work, or that that's just a small, standard demographic % and we just have an ass-load of listeners?

Well, also remember that these aren't numbers of people, but numbers of downloaded episodes. Each new listener has 130 episodes to catch up on.

Google Analytics shows from Aug 21- Sept 20

550 Visits
323 Absolute Unique Visitors
1,797 Pageviews
Which is not completely out of line with 10k/month downloads. That would be 31 downloads per person per month.


Which does NOT include anybody using the "podcast" feature of the archive. Because the industry has messed up, it's really, really hard/impossible to track how many episodes are downloaded via podcasting. That's why I posted the spec about total number of episodes downloaded. (Which of course is just a log of the number of attempted downloads, not finished downloads.) The archive is moving between 1-2 GB/day.

If I were to take a guesstimate, I'd guess that you have between several thousand and 10k+ listeners.
Anybody else better at statistics than I am want to chime in?

Yes. I an "expert" and I say that there are 100,000,000 subscribers. Source? Why, myself: I'm a source. It says "expert" on my nametag, don't it?

Woo. I am Drabble-Drenched. As a fairly new listener I was thrilled to find the archive and to catch up on Drabble from its original Dribble. Kinda fun to hear some of those early black and white TV episodes with the snow on the screen and the bunny ears on top of the tube and track its evolution into the full Techni-Color Disney World of present day glory.

If I had to list my top 10s (in no particular order):

1. DC #7 Rutabaga
2. DC #43 Jelly Park - but I have to say, the goofy/jolly singing probably tickled me even more than the story
3. DC #79 Low Carb Cheesecake - the secret ingredient wouldn't stop me
4. DC #92 Synesthesia - cool concept
5. DC #76 Apologies All Around
6. DC #49 Heart to Heart - love the banter!
7. DC #80 Waiting in Line
8. DC #33 Dessert Storm
9. DC #89 Starry NIght
10. DC #136 The Great Old Pumpkin (okay, so it's not an OLD episode, but I laughed out LOUD in the car).

And of course, the random bizarre little things, like Norm's integrating his corrected understanding of the term "Drabble," the funny little falsetto "drabble!" when the story is announced, and the non-sequitur one-liners thrown in here and there. I giggled for at least a week over "A magician was driving down the street. Then he turned into a driveway." Love all the Drabble News (still can't shake cautionary item about the hazards of snorting pig brains).

Just one problem with going on such a massive Drabble-binge and finally catching up to the current episode. Now I have to wait an entire WEEK before the next one!!

Fiddler59 wrote:Just one problem with going on such a massive Drabble-binge and finally catching up to the current episode. Now I have to wait an entire WEEK before the next one!!

Yup, you come crashing back down to earth, and earth, earth is boring. Glad to have another student of series versed in Drabbles past.

PS: Rutabaga is on Norm's CD, along with other witty bits that haven't had their air-time.

Fiddler59 wrote:Just one problem with going on such a massive Drabble-binge and finally catching up to the current episode. Now I have to wait an entire WEEK before the next one!!

I had withdrawal symptoms, too, when I listened to the entire archive in less than two weeks! It's kind of a relief to be back to just once a week, though, because for about a month after I was having trouble going to sleep because I constantly heard aliens landing on the lawn, mass murderers hiding in my closet, and freaky parasites trying to crawl into my ears.