Idea: U2U Podcasting

It just occured to me that this could be pretty cool when you want a more personalized message to another member or staff. Delivered direct to their U2U inbox, with all the other features intact, and maybe a couple of the obvious options on that such as "reply with podcast."

Making this as a post rather than a U2U to an admin because I just wanted to see what not only the mods think but the membership too. But of course this may well depend upon how difficult (or impossible) it may be. SkepticO? Springer? Anyone?

Not bashing the idea.. However I must request that if this project is given a go.. Please exclude moderators from this. It is bad enough getting gripes and being cursed at in text form, I don't think we need to "hear" it!

U2 Can U2U In AU

It's a neat idea! Some of my off-the-top thoughts:

Pros

1. I love podcasting, so hey.

2. Cool feature in itself.

3. Would help resolve flame wars (people rarely "get in each other's faces" when they can hear each other)

Cons

1. Resource intensive.

2. Lots of "one-shot" MP3's on the server. Could be managed, though.

3. Not all members can make podcasts, so sending or replying in kind might be assymetrical.

That Said

It may or may not be feasible from the admin standpoint yet, but I would love to see an expansion of audio services on ATS, and this could be among them.

Bear in mind, however, that none of this stuff comes free, and audio service bandwidth requirements are orders of magnitude higher than for text services.

The owners of ATS are doing their best to strike a balance between paying the bills and becoming over-commercialized, and it's a tricky business.

I'll willing to bet, however, that SkepticOverlord is way ahead of us on all this, like usual.

awe, cmon Gazz, I was so looking forward to sending you a U2U podacst asking you about all those cool effects you used on your voice.

It sounds like a great idea, however I can imagine it would probably cost us another server. If we would get around the resource problem it would be a brilliant idea.

Up until the point in which I am yelled into submission by RANT or someone. I'm scared enough to read a U2U from a mod, I'd be scared out of my pants if they could verbily yell at me for my incompetence.

This would be pretty cool... I haven't been able to do any regular PODcasts lately due to "real life" crap... Interesting idea though!

Seems like a neat idea on the surface, but the root behind the PODcasts is of course the "cast" bit, as in broadcast. If you want to send personal voice messages to a particular member, then just get their email and mail the mp3 to them. Or better yet, take the next step and talk to them over VOIP in real time.