podfic feedback: how (when, why) do you do it?

[lomedet]

Amplirecathon is making me think about podfic, feedback, and me. Or, more accurately, about how much I love podfic and how that love is in no way represented by the amount of feedback (read: very, very little) I have left for podfic readers or the authors of stories I have discovered through podfic.

My process for listening to podfic goes something like this: I download a story from the archive or from a link on a podfic community. I close the download tab. I load the story on to my ipod. Then, hours or days later, I listen to the story as I'm riding on or waiting for a bus. Or maybe doing dishes or folding laundry. In any event, I listen to the story when I am far away from my computer, and even if I'm not physically so far away from my computer, I've already clicked away from or closed the page which tells me where I can leave feedback for the author or the reader. And I am lazy, so I don't usually think about going back to look for it when I have the opportunity.

I am contrasting this process with that of reading fanfic, where if I am moved by a story when I finish it, I can click a button and let the author know how I feel right then and there.

So, I want to know: what do y'all do? Have you come up with a successful strategy for leaving feedback that doesn't feel unduly labor-intensive? Have you given up on direct feedback in favor of recs? If you do go back and leave podfic feedback, does it feel strange to do so at a remove from your immediate response? Am I missing something totally obvious that will make my feedback-leaving life ten times easier?

Comments

[anatsuno]

I do NOT want this comment to come across as scolding in any way, because, god knows I'm not very good at this myself. BUT! I have at least an idea for a process: if we make a special set of bookmarks (in your delicious account if you have one, with the firefox extension Read it Later if you use it, in your local bookmarks in the browser - any way that makes sens to you!) for 'podfic I'm downloading and haven't commented on yet', then we'd have an easy list to go back to, search through for the podfic we cant to leave feedback for, and comment on. This bookmarking for the future commenting can easily be done at the very same time we download a podfic -it's just a matter of creating new habits, right?

so far I tend to download + say thank you when I do, and then later, gush in my journal or in comments or in recs. I have rarely gone back to specifically comment on a podfic, though I did do it in a couple of instances - but I am not happy about that. I think my bookmarking idea is something I will implement soon.

[inalasahl]

For me it's not the labor intensivity, it's the lack of knowing how to feedback podfic. I don't know the technical side well-enough to comment on that aspect of it, so what am I supposed to say? "I really liked your voice"?

I'm curious as to what kind of feedback are readers interested in?

[luzula]

I actually often go back to leave feedback, especially on stories in my fandom (due South). I think it's partly a factor of not listening to huge amounts of podfic, since I'm not into any of the large podfic fandoms like SGA, J2, or SPN. If I listen to fewer stories, it's easier to remember to go back and leave feedback. I also have more of an incentive to leave feedback within my own fandom, because then it's within my local fannish community, where I might already know the person who did the recording. And if I don't know them and they're just starting out, I want to encourage them to do more. Also, it might be easier for me to leave feedback since I'm a podficcer and I know what I'd want to hear feedback about.

[dodificus]

I'm always a couple of months behind on listening to podfic, although I'm catching up!

My process is as follows:

1. See a post in one of the podfic coms.
2. If it's something I want to listen to then I bookmark it in my browser under 'download'
3. When I've finished with my current podfic I go to my bookmarks and a) d/l a new podfic that's at the top of my list and b) open up the d/l page for the podfic I just listened to.
4. If I didn't hate the thing I just listened to then I'll leave feedback, which is usually just parts that I found especially funny/scary/exciting and anything that jumped to me about their reading.

This isn't a chore or difficult to me it's just something that evolved naturally and it's what I do, I don't even think about it. The upside is that most podfic I listen to gets feedback from me *after* I've listened to it and not just a generic 'downloaded!' comment.

And of course if I adored it I'll rec the shit out of it as well:)

[darkemeralds]

Great thoughtful post. And I have that same problem. Podfic IS more labor intensive than fanfic--there's more technology involved, more steps (for the podfic reader as well as the listener), more intermediaries (like an archive or a filesharing site)--it's harder work.

So I guess my thinking about it is that that one more step of going back and leaving a comment somewhere is part of the extra work, and I really try to do it.

As to what kind of feedback? I've gotten a little on my small podfic contributions, and it's a joy just to hear that I read a story well, or did it justice, or had a nice voice, or was clear in my pronunciation, or I made it easy for you to tell which character was speaking.

Bonus gravy points for "Nothing in your recording bothered me" or "your edits were inaudible--I didn't notice any big clicks or breaks" or "thank you for dividing that giant file up into four logical pieces (or zipping it all into one, or whatever)".

If you liked the reader's use of music--or appreciated there being no music; if you liked her inclusion or exclusion of things like author's notes; if you thought she used a good pace for the story; if her voice is just the right type for the story she chose...

There are lots of ways to think about podfic that aren't technical.

Oh, and if you think her particular voice would be fantastic for thus-and-such fandom or particular story, that would be a great piece of feedback.

Heh. As you can see, I have some thoughts on this!

[winkingstar]

As a listener, I fall into the same bad habits as everyone else. Since podfic is portable, we tend to listen to it away from the computer, so it can take a bit of a while to get back to leaving a comment, if ever.

As a reader, I know that feedback is much rarer for podfic than it is for almost any other fannish endeavor. When I try to con more people into becoming readers, I warn them that it's not something one should do for the amount of comments.

That said, I find that any comment I receive that is not a "Downloading, thanks!" type of comment (not to belittle those!) is that much more valuable. I know it takes several extra steps for a listener to come back and leave feedback. So even if it's just a simple "hey, I enjoyed listening to this" I treasure it because they took the time to find the post again. On the other end of the spectrum, I've also received a handful of very detailed comments that made me all warm and squishy inside, and even if I only get one of those in a year, it makes it all worthwhile for me.

So, no matter what you say, returning to a post to leave a comment after listening is sure to make the reader smile, even if it's quite a while later. :)

[brimtoast]

I don't have a system, really, but for me it tends to take several days to listen to a (longish) story, and finishing one is sort of a big event. And if it's good, I *want* to talk about it, anyway. So it's just a matter of redirecting that energy from telling a friend about how great it was to following the audiofic "comment to the reader" link and putting my response there.

For a long time, I wasn't responding just because it didn't occur to me to go back and follow that feedback link, but now that there has been so much talk about the dearth of podfic feedback, it *is* on my mind, and I have been much better about it. Which feels great, by the way.

[were_duck]

My style of leaving feedback is just to reference my ipod every so often to see which ones I had listened to recently out of the batch I have on there (I am also one of those who downloads several stories at once). Then I just look 'em up in the audiofic archive, click the comment to reader link, and leave a comment. I don't comment on everything I listen to (though I am trying to do better at that), but I can usually remember enough of what I thought of the podfic I'd listened to recently to leave a relevant comment. Then I take those stories off my ipod and add some new ones!

[lydiabell]

The person producing the podfic could put a feedback address in the ID3 tags, say under "Info" or "Lyrics". Lyrics might be better because I don't know if the comments under the "Info" tag show up on the iPod, but the lyrics do.