The TINAP Enigma

The previous post was about my appearance on TINAP, which was very enjoyable, although the final output was a let down. This post is about TINAP itself and things I've noticed since being on that episode.

So what is TINAP? It's an audiocast, the name "podcast" is like "Hoover" for the generic vacuum cleaner. Podcast is about an iPod. Audiocast is the exact same thing with a generic name. I prefer audiocast, but they are both interchangeable. Despite the brilliant name "this is not a podcast" it is exactly that, a podcast.

There are lots of audiocasts out there, what is the OSP (Original Selling Point) of TINAP? In other words, what is the TINAP hook? It's an audiocast about Identica. As far as I know, that's a one off, I've not seen any other audiocasts about Identi.ca anyway.

What is Identi.ca? It's a social network built within the idea of microblogging, very like Twitter. There are differences and while Twitter have the mainstream brand and user base, many people including myself prefer Identi.ca. It's almost real time chatting with others. It may take a few minutes for your comment to reach others, or for their comments to reach you so it's not quite real time, but for a client to sit open on your phone or PC all day as you do stuff, it's as near as. In short, it's socialisng. It's about conversation. People who sign up and use real time communication stuff like Identi.ca want to talk with people, to give and get ideas, to have a laugh and pass the time, as well as be informed about stuff.

Any real time activity is "current affairs". What happens now is current, real time is about the present. A news network covering stories is current affairs. Any current affairs show is time sensitive. The value of any sports event is in watching it unfold live. Within a day or two of the event finishing it becomes yesterdays news, as a new event is upcoming, so all of the attention focuses on the new event, and sometimes the aftermath of the previous event. That applies to all publishing mediums and all current affairs.

TINAP is a current affairs audiocast.

A football show focus on the world of football and the stories as they develop, to comment on. TINAP does the same, except their focus is on what happens on Identi.ca, more exactly, what they see from people they follow, groups they're in etc. Just like football shows, they pick and choose what stories catch their attention or that they have some opinion on.

By choosing a real time social network as their hook, TINAP is by definition a time sensitive show. The stories evolve and go stale very quickly. If they see an argument on one subject and decide the following day to record an episode, there's every chance the argument may still be running as they record, but if it takes weeks before the show is released, that argument has been long forgotten and replaced many times over with new conversations. It's old news.

Archives are perfectly valid. Every New Year, lots of mainstream shows have easy to produce compilations of the past year in X subject. This is done as a look back, it's not done as current affairs. By taking so long to go from recording to release TINAP have old news treated as current affairs.

As I have tried to help them with a faster and easier workflow, it was rejected. One of the retorts I got a few times was "we don't care what our listeners think". This does not match their actions. They have a feedback page informing people how to give feedback. You don't have a feedback page if you don't care what people think. From the TINAP feedback page: "Just post on identi.ca with the tag #tinap and we will respond or consult our lawyers as appropriate."

Giving instructions on how they want feedback hardly says "we don't want feedback" to me. If you don't care what your listeners think, you don't solicit feedback. So is this an afterthought? Go listen to previous shows, the one I appeared on they explained that they were doing a stereo version of the show because one listener said she found their accents too similar to distinguish in mono. They talk about some feedback on the show, as well as mention others in the show notes. They've also expressed gratitude for all the good will they've gotten in various forms including Identi.ca on the show. You don't do those things if you don't care what your listeners think.

The show is about Identi.ca which is a social network, it's a chat network, it's sole purpose is to provide a conversation medium. Why would anyone want to put a lot of effort into an audiocast about a social network, and stories that develop within the parts of it they see, and not want to take part in any conversations about their output? To make the "we don't care about what listeners think" sentiments true, they might wanna round that square, as it is, it doesn't add up.

Another retort I got was about "we aim to have no listeners" which again is false. There is one guaranteed way to do that; don't release anything. That doesn't mean you don't hang out in a Skype or Google+ audio chat and have a laugh, it doesn't even mean not to record it. If you take the time to edit and release, you want listeners.

Another retort I got was "we do our own thing". I agree, audiocasting is all about that. It allows anyone with the inclination to record a show about whatever they want, their own way. There's no reason why they shouldn't do their own thing.

They say they want feedback, good and bad. They are big boys, they can take it on the chin. Some of that feedback will be flames or trolling, while others will give ways to improve. Some will be taken on board to create a better show in the future, some will be ignored. The whole anti-social act on Identica seems to suggest they don't want negative feedback, even if it's aimed at helping them.

I don't treat those as serious statements, but as retorts in a heated discussion with me. We all respond with a little more gusto than we mean when calm, I played my part in that too. This grew out of the workflow problem that I've already laid out. When it takes weeks for a conference call to be recorded, to being released, it means that the rest of Identi.ca is oblivious to what happened on the show until it's released. This means that any in jokes are not known as jokes, which can very easily be misinterpreted.

Someone thought it'd be a cool idea to embrace their community by telling people who gave them feedback to randomly fuck off. The Identi.ca anti-social act in full effect. Of course this could be seen as funny, if you're aware of the joke. The result is a few people being oblivious to the context and finding a rather rude response to a comment. I have no issue with swearing, I swear myself. I have no problem with having a laugh, the key though is in laughing with people not at them. For that, they must be in on the joke. In this case it means after the show is released, not while it's in the editing phase.

That was the beginning of the end for me with TINAP, the whole anti-social "we don't care" "we do our own thing" act, when their actions don't match that attitude. They are nice guys. I enjoyed the episode I was on. I've listened up to episode 6. Given the spread out nature of the releases, I had thought it was episode 5, which illicited another round of comments, despite correcting it. I expected a geordie accent from Mo and was surprised that he doesn't have one.

I had advance warning of Fab's guitar feedback because of the conversation on Identi.ca so I knew to treat it special. With every other show I listen to, I can queue them up in any order and lie back and listen. I don't have to be near the volume or skip controls. I was not prepared to listen to 57 seconds of guitar feedback, so I had to be able to skip passed that part. From memory the Identi.ca discussion around that was that it was a couple of minutes, David corrected me that it was 57 seconds; I have no reason to doubt that. Whatever it was, it was long enough to ether endure, or make the effort to skip passed it.

Apparently episode 7 does not have any guitar feedback. Maybe the joke wore thin on them too. I don't know. Maybe they had more people like me who told them they didn't appreciate it. Whatever the reason, I'm sure there are plenty of people who appreciate the change.

The whole anti-social act on Identi.ca wore very thin, the huge delays in releasing making the time sensitive content stale, along with the guitar feedback and snarky replies I decided I'd had enough of TINAP. I haven't listened to anything beyond episode 6. I tried to help them, I wished them luck and still do, but I'm no longer a listener.