Pointing Out Errors?

[paraka]

I was wondering how useful it is for podficers to have listeners point out when they've made a mistake?
I know with fic many author's are ok with having typos or spelling errors pointed out, but how useful is it for podficers? It's a lot easier to edit an LJ entry then it is to go back and edit a podfic then re-upload and all that.
I could see it being really useful if it's a mistake they're likely to repeat in the future, like mispronouncing a common word or fandom specific term. But what if it's just a one off mistake?

As a follow up question, will mistakes stop you from listening to a podfic? Either by making you stop or by stopping you from listening to it again.

Personally, in the last two days I've re-listened to podfics that had mispronunciation errors. In one fic it's of a fandom specific term. I haven't really examined if that has made me listen to the podfic less, although the word is used often and I haven't listened to the podfic as often as my love of the fic should cause. In the second case, it's a podfic I really love, but a podficer I love and it's a one off word unlikely to ever come up in her other podfics, however it bothers me so much that I started cringing 5 minutes before the mistake happened in anticipation, the mistake was memorable enough for me to be able to anticipate it 5 minutes in advance and it prompted me to make this post.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Huh. I think one-off mistakes I'll forgive, but it's a good question where the tipping point is. (Not that I have room to talk; as a non-native speaker, my reading is bound to sound, if not wrong-per-se, then at least odd, occasionally.)

[juice]

Speaking as a podficcer, I always want to know, no matter how small the error. As a listener, mistakes will make me stop listening to my own recordings but I am much more tolerant of other readers and will overlook their errors unless they're huge.

[aethel]

Pronunciation mistakes can't make me stop listening unless I absolutely can't understand the reader...and I've never encountered a podfic like that. (I did stop listening to a podfic where the reader sounded like she had too much saliva in her mouth. I kept thinking "swallow, goddammit!" and lost track of the story.)

A possible exception: mispronouncing a major character's name. I probably wouldn't mention it to the reader, but maybe they'd want to know?

The only type of mistake I'd really want to point out is an editing mistake--where the reader re-read a line and then forgot to remove the first take. It can be fixed without re-recording, unlike pronunciation errors.

[darkemeralds]

I'm having a tough time with this one. I recently listened to a long piece by a non-native speaker, and her particular accent affected her pronunciation of a major character's name. At first it was just kind of a "tomato, tomahto" difference, but after several hours it became a deal-breaker. To let the reader know about this particular error would seem to me to be a criticism of her accent, and that just seems too personal.

For myself, my podfic-making rate is so glacially slow that, while I would appreciate knowing that I mispronounced, say, an American place name, the likelihood that I'll ever podfic that specific word again is very small.

The correction would, however, make me much more careful to vet the next text for unfamiliar words BEFORE I come to them at at the end of an hourlong recording session.

[jesse_the_k]

One of the realities that comes along with English as lingua franca -- highest common denominator of our net-borne fandom -- is there are many varieties of English pronunciation. Scholars even speak of "Englishes."

A consistent mispronunciation is as jarring to me as a consistent misspelling. I don't have a known tipping point, but I would be thrilled to offer a pronunciation beta service.

I was able to use that service in the past when I narrated an African folk-tales book for a university. I scanned the text for proper names and other words I was unsure about and emailed the list to the prof. He read back the list on tape, and I practiced with those words so I was confident when I read them.

I'm happy to offer the same to anyone who's interested. (Of course, this depends on the podficcer knowing they need the support.)

The best way to improve spelling is by reading, reading, reading. I'd suggest that, in addition to sponging up canon, it can be very helpful to listen, listen, listen to internet radio local to the fandom. While there are quite a few Due South fans who grew up in Northern Canada, one can get some familiarity with the sounds of Inuktitut by tuning into CBC/North radio.

[pandarus]

God, it's probably me.

Yeah, I'd rather know, at least if it's something I can avoid in future stories. If it's something that I fucked up in a one-off way - well, I'm not likely to go back and edit the story for one pronunciation thing. (Although I flinch every time I listen to 'The Incestuous Courtship of the Antichrist's Bride' because I repeatedly pronounce "boomstick" as "broomstick" - fucking legacy of HP fandom hardwired my brain, or something, IDEK. It makes me headdesk miserably, but at this point I'm not going to go back and redo and reload.)

But, yeah - I guess I'd rather know.