James

[quote name='JCBaggee'][color=darkred][size=1]We've been recording our PodCast (we call it the StinkKast) for about a year now, and its a blast. Just wanted to chime in on the format mainly. 20-30 min. a month feels a little lax. We based ours on the format of most other sites, and that seems to be an 30-60 min. a week. Granted, those are mainly informal. If you're looking to do a serious, more formal podcast that may work, but if you get 2 or 3 people together who genuinely enjoy yukking it up with each other, you'll kill an hour a week in no time. --Chris[/color][/size][/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]I agree with the 20-30 minute timespan. In terms of regularity of updates... I guess I'm not sure if I want our podcast to include a lot of random conversation. I mean I'm sure that'll happen, but I like the idea of a podcast with some real meat to it - some real content that goes beyond listening to regular hosts chatting. Since this podcast is more of an experiment than anything else, I think we can play around with the format too. We can start monthly, but move to fortnightly (AKA every two weeks) where appropriate. My biggest concern is that there could be a lack of things to discuss, however, that really depends on whether or not we start including a review segment and so on. Also I'm trying to be careful to ensure that we can get a couple of great hosts involved. Doing a weekly update can be a big commitment for two hosts, especially as they need to be on at the same time to record their conversation and so on. So I think we need to find our feet. If we end up with a really great couple of podcasts, we can start looking further in terms of improvements and bigger promotion.[/font]

[quote name='Rick Hunter'] Anyway maybe my suggestions weren't welcomed, but that's my general insight. Best of luck. I personally like the idea of having guest "members" calling in and what not for the person who suggested it.[/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium][i]All[/i] suggestions are welcome! :catgirl: Actually I agree with you. However, the Anime Pulse podcast tends to focus on summaries of industry news and theOtaku news. I think what we'd have to do - were we to cover anime - is we'd have to get into doing an in-depth review or critique of a particular show or film in each episode. Maybe the reviewer would give a rating at the end. Also the Anime Pulse podcast really doesn't cover OB matters, so I think there's a lot we can draw upon with that too. Anyway, great suggestions. I have no idea if this will happen, but I'm certainly keen to give it a shot. Oh, and as for our linkage with theO's podcast... I doubt that'll change. We may present OB's podcast in a different way though. Perhaps it will have a dedicated page here or it will have its own forum.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]My thinking is that hosts can also discuss some of the subjects that OB relates to, as Boo mentioned (i.e. movies, games, etc). I guess at the moment I want to make sure that this is a bit streamlined and doesn't become too unwieldy. I'm going to work on a structure and post it up here shortly so you guys can tell me what you think. Once that's done we can always change it later down the track, too.[/font]

[center][size=5]OB Podcast[/size][/center] [font=franklin gothic medium] Okay, so, this idea has been floating around for a while (some might remember my desire to set up an "OB Radio" ages ago). In the event brainstorming thread though, the concept of an OB Podcast has gained a bit more life. At this point things are still very early. Boo and I have been discussing how the show could be formatted and what could be discussed or covered. We've also now done a physical test, where Boo made a quick recording and I did the various editing (addition of music, fading, formatting to the correct filetype, etc). Now there are really only two issues. The lesser of the two involves choosing the right software to record Skype conversations (I'm sure this will be the easy part). The tougher issue is all about choosing the final show format [i]and[/i] selecting either one or two regular hosts. At this point I don't think we're ready to choose hosts (actually this may involve an event in and of itself - I'm undecided on that), but I'd [i]love[/i] to know if anyone would be interested. Right now I'm thinking that we should stick to a monthly podcast. This keeps it light and simple and gives us time to pull things together. I guess we'd do a podcast at the end of every month and it would look back over the events of that month. As this thread progresses I will also edit this first post to reflect what we discuss/decide upon. So I guess, two questions first: [b]Are you interested in becoming one of OB Podcast's hosts?[/b] If yes, remember that you'd have to keep on top of what's happening around the site and you'd have to be able to put together a monthly show with another host. It's also critical that - if we have two hosts - they are able to work well together! [b]What format should the show take?[/b] For a monthly show, I think that we should aim for maybe 20 - 30 minutes of content. This can change as time goes on. But the specific format is still undecided. There are some examples in the brainstorming thread, but I'd like to really focus on this and discuss it with members in a fresh new thread. Bear in mind also that while we would like to have one or two "full-time" hosts, the show would also have interviews and guest hosts at times. I'd like to give a lot of members the chance to be interviewed or to discuss topics as a guest host. I think that'd be a lot of fun. So yeah. I'm throwing this out there to see how much interest there really is. As mentioned, I'll update this first post as a structure starts to form.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]It's okay, Gavin, I'm going to create an entirely new thread from scratch related to this. So I'd ask the interested podcasters to hold off 'till then (I'll probably have it up later tonight). There are still a lot of things to iron out anyway. We can really focus on it in that thread. So to anyone else reading, please feel free to continue using this thread for general ideas as well.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]The "spread the wealth" thing essentially seems to relate to the prospect of increasing taxes on higher income earners and lowering taxes on the middle class. I must say though, I'm really not sure how this is socialist. The word "socialism" is the wrong term here. Australia, the USA and many other developed nations have progressive tax systems that essentially place people into different tax brackets based upon their annual earnings. So as you hit certain thresholds with annual income the percentage of income tax you pay per dollar increases. In this country, the previous Government both cut taxes and shifted tax brackets. It moved the brackets higher up, so that [i]most[/i] people ended up paying less tax. This also gave some incentive for people to earn more money, since it's now harder to hit that top tax bracket. The fact of the matter is, the wealth is [i]always[/i] spread. Whenever you pay taxes - even if it's just sales tax on an item - your money goes back into a collective pool of public funds where it's used to pay for Government programs and services. That includes everything from infrastructure to defence to the public postal system. So technically as long as we're paying tax, our money is always being "spread" - including to people who are receiving unemployment benefits, etc (i.e. people who aren't injecting money into the system via income tax). This is why I don't really understand the "spread the wealth" term being used for Obama. All he's proposing, as far as I know, is to make changes to the tax percentages for different groups. It's not as though he's got this idea of spreading people's money around in ways that aren't already being done, lol. And the idea of cutting tax for the middle class and increasing tax for high income earners makes some sense, anyway. The majority of workers would fit into that middle class group. Those workers are the ones that make up the bulk of the economy, in terms of production, services and as consumers. It makes sense to reduce their tax as much as possible, as a way of keeping the economy moving in general. So I don't think Obama has invented some horrible new socialist system that he wants to throw at everyone. All he's really doing is proposing changes to the income tax brackets (or some kind of refund - I'm not sure how he'd do it). He's very much working within the established system. The fact is, we have to pay taxes and for good reason. There will probably never be a perfect balance when it comes to income tax, but at least in America, you have to be earning pretty astronomical sums of money to hit that highest percentage I think. And at that point, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Yep. I'm glad you liked the sample I sent to you. That literally took a few minutes to put together, so you can imagine the potential. At this point I'm happy to continue using native stuff in GarageBand (music-wise), since there's plenty in there and there are no copyright issues (although that shouldn't be a worry for us, given that it's non-commercial). However we can really use whatever we want. The bigger issue now is finding regular hosts and getting something more solid put together. We will have to test some of this Skype recording stuff shortly, because I think that's another important piece of the puzzle.[/font]

[quote name='DeathKnight'][color=crimson] Haha, but, seriously, conservatives love of the "Obama has secretssssssssseseses" line will, hopefully, go away since the general election is over.[/color][/QUOTE] [font=franklin gothic medium]I'm not sure about the secrets thing, but I think there are legitimate questions about what Obama actually supports. He has, after all, had contradictory points of view on certain issues at different times. And due to the way he was carefully handled during his first Senate term (i.e. being kept away from controversial votes so as to deliberately avoid building up a record), it's reasonable for people to question his core positions on issues - or at least, the positions he intends to advance when in government. So that's all very legitimate, even for Democrats (and really for anyone who wants to make a sober assessment or analysis of an Administration). Having said that, the whole Muslim thing is obviously absurd, as are any number of other "cultural" swipes that go Obama's way. As for Proposition 8, I don't really think it's an Obama/McCain thing. I think that this issue is difficult for Americans in general and change is very slow here, as compared to other areas of civil rights. It doesn't surprise me that the proposition was defeated, but it's certainly disappointing. I don't know what it specifically contained, but I doubt that it infringed upon the rights of heterosexual couples.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Okay so, about the podcast for anyone interested, Boo has sent me a recording sample that I'll be playing around with shortly. I've also downloaded Skype (and it looks great - I haven't used it in years, and never on Mac). My username on there is [b]blue_pikmin[/b]. Feel free to add me if you like. I think I will soon create a new thread for podcast development. That way it'll be a bit less confusing and we'll have a bit more space to work on this without interrupting other ideas as well.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think it's very disappointing that these propositions did not last. As someone (I think Ellen) said, it's amazing that a country can take such a big step forward on one day and then take such a big step backward the next. Having said that, I do think it's more a matter of time than anything else. As far as Obama goes, I think it's good that he's moving so quickly to appoint his team. Hopefully the full team is announced before too long. He will face a number of immediate challenges, the largest of which ironically being the Democrat-controlled Congress. History demonstrates that when one party controls the Congress and the White House, the Administration tends to get wrapped up in uncontrolled spending and porkbarrelling. This is largely due to the absence of a strong opposition to provide appropriate checks and balances. Also Obama will have to be careful to avoid the more extreme elements of his party who have some seniority in the Congress. These people will propose and expect riskier/quicker and larger movements on certain issues, some of which could be highly detrimental to the economy. If Obama can resist these people and remain steady and if he can reign in control on over-spending as a result of the lack of opposition, then that will be a major achievement on his part. And it will really demonstrate his authority. It will also be interesting to see where Obama settles on some issues. There are a couple of areas where he's held contrary positions at different points in time (like the missile defence shield) - I will be interested to see whether he sticks to the campaign platform or deviates to earlier positions. I don't mean to say that in a critical way though - I actually think it's possible for a candidate to change their mind when they become more informed or receive more thorough advice. This seems to have happened with the defence shield, Iraq and a number of other issues. And I think it's a good thing, because there's nothing worse than a leader who clings to one position no matter what the evidence to the contrary. Leaders have to lead, but they also have to be flexible.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Which underscores the idea that people can be anti-war when Bush is in power, but that this stance becomes more difficult when a Democrat makes necessary decisions relating to military intervention. The same will be true with Obama. I mean, ideology aside for a moment, there are just certain physical realities in the world that have to be dealt with - I'm sure Obama will understand this just as Clinton and Bush did. I just hope he's able to explain his reasoning better than Bush (and I'm sure he probably will be).[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Ah, you got in just after me, TimeChaser! :catgirl: For anyone confused about the thread closure, please refer to my last post. If you guys want to continue the discussion related to Obama, you're most welcome to do so in the other Obama thread. I'm very pleased that most of you actually took a trolling post and turned it into a real discussion. ~_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I'm kind of amazed that this thread has lasted as long as it has! Haha. The premise of this is utterly ridiculous. Kaimaster, you may not like/agree with/support Obama, but to suggest that his election is some kind of religious message of the end of the world? Seriously, check your meds. Having said that, we've already got a thread about Obama here. And we've had a ton of election threads anyway. I don't really see that we need to have a thread that is [i]entirely[/i] designed to bash Obama on some weird spiritual basis. That's just utterly pointless. And as far as being like the ACLU (lol), all I can tell you is that OB's members have a wide range of views. I've even sat here and defended Sarah Palin for god's sake (which is certainly no easy feat!) So it's pretty obvious that we're trying to make sure all sides are heard. But that [i]doesn't[/i] mean people can go around creating threads that are entirely designed to bash a particular person for no apparent reason. Totally lame. So yeah. If you have something constructive to say regarding Obama (positive or negative), please use the existing thread. But please [i]don't[/i] be a troll. We don't like trolls.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]And I think the age thing just needs to stop. Judging based on age is often similar to judging based on race or other factors - there's no sudden expiry date for when someone can or can't have a certain job. What matters is their ability to do that job and to take that responsibility. If they feel they have the stamina for it, good for them. After all, a younger man could die tomorrow from a heart attack or god knows what else. Ageism is not a nice thing and shouldn't play a part in this, I think (either saying someone is too old... or too young).[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]There are plenty of policy areas where I disagree with Obama, but also several where I agree. That aside, Obama has achieved a historic victory today. No question there. Congratulations to him - he's an honorable man and he does deserve this victory. I'm sure Martin Lurther King would feel like his dream had been fulfilled, if he could see this election. That can't possibly be understated. I think even if you disagree with Obama politically, you'd at least have to acknowledge the enormity of his victory and what it says about American society at this point in time. As for McCain...he's also a highly honorable man. He's been terribly misrepresented by many on the left, but he's also made his own poor choices during the campaign. And I think the times just do not suit him at the moment. Still, he's been a strong candidate and a skilled politician. As I said in another thread, America was very lucky this time. There were two great candidates. It was really about who was better, rather than who was the lesser of two evils. That's really a great thing. [/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Merged threads. It's now official![/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]It looks like McCain is now beyond the point of no return in terms of being able to claw back enough numbers to beat Obama. Several news organizations are already calling it for Obama, despite how early it is. I think it's a pretty safe bet anyway. [/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Yeah, I figure we can just throw a chat link up on the left nav menu there. Integration - if it's possible - is something we can discuss for OB Revo I think.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think Sephiroth is the resident expert on all things Left 4 Dead. All I can say is that this game really interests me, except that my currently unreliable internet service means that I may not be able to play it as it was intended. So I might have to get a different internet service before I can seriously consider this game. Still, I'm very interested and I'm keen to see what the reviews say. This is the kind of game I've wanted to see for ages. I think there was some Resident Evil Online game that was sort of similar in concept to this...but not nearly as good. Left 4 Dead seems to do it right, by all accounts. [/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]At this stage the only chat system we offer is here: [url]http://www.theotaku.com/chat/[/url] That chat is our official chat, for both theOtaku and OtakuBoards. It's a bit cumbersome to go to a different page, admittedly, but it's really a great chat system and many OB members also have accounts at theO. Maybe we can integrate that chat into OB in future, I'm not sure. If it's possible though it might be something we can do. Short of that, it might be a good idea for us to link to the chat system from OB. I'll see what we can do. Thanks for the suggestion though! Hope you're enjoying OB. :catgirl:[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I will try to jump in before the auditions end, but admittedly I'm having trouble thinking of a suitable character for this one. And I really don't like joining RPGs without being able to commit to them and such. In any case, whether I join or not, I'm really pleased with this one. I think I'll be putting this one up as our next Thread of the Week on OB World. You might get some more views that way, Vicky. I definitely think it's worth the mention anyway.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Not sure if this has already been done, but I liked it. It made me laugh uncontrollably for some reason when I first saw it... maybe I'm just evil... >_>;[/font] [img]http://wwsd.biz/pics/mccainbite.jpg[/img]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Ahh, great post! Yes, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. :catgirl: I'm glad that the hints and background info was enough to piece it together. There are a couple of minor details still to be revealed, but these are very minor. My only comment for now is that the ship didn't go off course deliberately (at least, it wasn't meant to crash on Artenas...but it WAS meant to crash on the alien homeworld). Samantha's mission was to ensure that the contents of the sealed deck would find their way to the alien homeworld. She did not plan for the ship to malfunction early on, causing a premature crash on a different planet (Artenas is colonized by the aliens, but it is not their homeworld - I guess you could say it's in the same solar system though).[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]There only problem there, Katakidoushi, is that you're ignoring a whole lot of stuff. It's not really fair to suggest that his entire campaign has resorted to name-calling when that ignores a lot of the fundamental policy difference between himself and Obama. As far as not going with Lieberman due to his religion...I honestly don't know. I'd like to see some evidence for that claim. Nothing I've read or watched about McCain has indicated this at all. And I wouldn't like to assume it of him. I think you'll find that most candidates (including Obama himself) tend to re-align themselves very slightly when it comes to an election campaign. Most candidates who sit in the center have to move further right or left on some issues and those who sit on the fringes have to move closer to the center. This is not about "selling out" or anything of the sort; it's about party politics. Both McCain and Obama have to identify where they are weaker and then try to build up ground in those areas. For McCain, it's the conservatives. He's [i]always[/i] been more centerist, even to the extent that he at one point entirely dismissed people on the far right (including Falwell and others). This is his honest view. He then made up with Falwell and several other prominent conservatives later, primarily because he knew he had to. This doesn't mean his core view has changed, but it means he has to acknowledge that a president must govern for all - not just one group. Obama is in a similar situation. He had a couple of issues prior to the campaign, one being that he couldn't establish strong support with working-class black people - many (especially in Chicago) were suspicious of him. Some thought he wasn't "black enough". Others thought he was living in a rarified world and that he couldn't possibly understand what it was like to live with few means. And then he also had issues appealing to working-class white voters, because he had to position himself as someone who didn't just care about poor black people, but who could also understand the needs of the average white voter. So Obama - like McCain - had to reposition himself in a number of ways in order to achieve this. This repositioning is far less obvious with Obama, because his experience and strategy is different from McCain. McCain has an extremely long public career with a lot of voting history. So we already really know all about the areas where he's disagreed with conservatives in the past. Obama has not been a Senator for long and when he became a U.S. Senator, his advisors carefully kept him away from controversial issues. The less history he built up, the less he'd be attacked for his past voting record. This would allow him to quickly and easily change position or to move one way or the other based on what was needed for the campaign. So yeah, again I would just say that it's important to recognize the core strengths of both candidates here. I personally believe either one is qualified to be president and each carries their own pros and cons. As for Sarah Palin...that's a whole other issue. I have concerns about her, but I also think she's been managed poorly during the campaign. I think Palin was a good choice [i]in theory[/i], because she initially helped to bring over the Bush supporters. However, I'd say she's now starting to become a liability. I'm not really sure who McCain should have gone with as his VP pick, though. I suppose there are a few potentials out there.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Regarding the podcast, Boo, I have a couple of thoughts to add. One, perhaps we should make the podcast development a community-wide thing. At least as far as possible anyway. For instance, a structure could be developed and then we'll hold some auditions. Members who want to host their own segments or contribute can record a little sample and attach it. Then we can either vote (or just discuss) who we think would be most suitable. I think I could probably put together a podcast with lots of separate recordings. I have the software to do it (GarageBand), so I doubt it's too difficult. We'll see anyway. All I'd really need are the recorded segments. I can put the music in and sync it all together I think. This way each segment can be made individually and then it can all be put together. We'd just upload it and put together a news post about it too. Thoughts? Comments? And Lrb, I like your idea...I am just not sure if there is enough will/time with a lot of OBers to do something that involved. Plus it'd need a [i]very[/i] committed person to run it and keep it going. I think right now with so many people being committed to RPGs and stuff, it's unlikely. We're better off to focus on short-term, "light" events. And the best way to find out if it'll be a success is to test it. Remember, now all members can make their own events. Gavin's role will be to assist/support you where he can.[/font]