LibriVox Podcasts Listening Responses

Comments about LibriVox? Suggestions to improve things? News?
bobgon55
Posts: 925
Joined: May 24th, 2011, 8:30 am
Location: Tampa, Florida USA
Contact:

Post by bobgon55 »

That's so true. I find that when people speak negatively about things I love, it unfortunately discolors my perception and interferes with my appreciation of the things. Sad, but true. I try not to let it affect me, and even fight it, but it does. Like when I read that Emerson (or somebody) called Poe "the jingle master." Now I have a hard time enjoying his poetry. (I hope I didn't spoil him for you by sharing that.) Still, I try to continue my appreciation despite the negative ideas, but it requires much work. Perhaps, however, by going through the work it takes to defend your loves, you discover a deeper, more abiding love than before, which might initially have been a naïve and superficial love.

Bob
Last edited by bobgon55 on February 28th, 2012, 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fongie
Posts: 206
Joined: April 22nd, 2011, 4:28 pm

Post by Fongie »

I listen. Keep going :thumbs:
bobgon55
Posts: 925
Joined: May 24th, 2011, 8:30 am
Location: Tampa, Florida USA
Contact:

Post by bobgon55 »

Fongie wrote:I listen. Keep going :thumbs:
Thank you, Fongie!
keri
Posts: 145
Joined: October 25th, 2007, 3:02 pm
Location: paekakariki, new zealand

Post by keri »

I started with Librivox in 2007 to record an audio book of John Cowper Powys. Since I did that I have occasionally done other recordings, having recently done William Morris, Walter Pater, Robert Browning as well as having done Rider Haggard, Malory & Laurence Sterne. I have also downloaded the odd thing, loved having William Blake's Milton an absolutely fantastic reading by Brian Russell Graham and kindly completed by Ernst Schnell.

I have spent a lot of time away from Librivox and it surprises me that I have been here for the majority of Librivox's life as i still consider myself a newbie and I hadn't really thought of librivox as a community. But in recent years I have had membership in a number of online communities and had some good engagement. Recently I had started looking through the forums and slowly starting to see a community and through here just the other day discovered the community podcasts and actually yesterday started listening to them, basically as a result of reading this thread.

I feel like Keats on first reading Chapman's Homer:

"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;"

I'm looking forward to explore some more.
bobgon55
Posts: 925
Joined: May 24th, 2011, 8:30 am
Location: Tampa, Florida USA
Contact:

Post by bobgon55 »

Thanks for this, keri.

I hope you have a chance to listen to all the past podcasts. There are great things in all of them. I found a great connection to the community in listening to the podcasts, even more so than the forums, because I love to hear the voices of our fellow volunteers speaking their own words, telling their stories, voicing their opinions.

I had never done a podcast before the ones I have done for LV. I'm so happy that I got the chance to make the community podcasts here. It was wonderful knowing the audience to which the podcasts are directed and not having to build one from scratch. It was very helpful having lots of leeway for structuring and filling the show with content, but yet have 116 models (from the previous podcast archives) to get an idea of what would be effective. And of course, I was triply blessed by having an angelic mentor in Cori, who really gave me lots of coaching and attention as I prepared to make my first podcast last November.

Your comments and suggestions about the podcasts are welcome here. Please feel free to share any ideas for making them more relevant, entertaining and informative for the community.

Bob
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

I thoroughly enjoyed podcast #127. Great podcast!

I have so many thoughts running through my head because of it - thoughts about burnout and MCing, about personality types and how that manifests in the whole LibriVox project, about audio quality and being reader-friendly as opposed to listener-friendly...

I've been active on LV since October 2008 (I registered on the forum in June, but didn't actually start until October). And I've been an MC since July 2009. As of today I have completed 1780 sections, including about 33 solos. At least, that's the number you get when you search for completed solos with me as reader. ;) When I complete 9 more sections, I'll be tied as the 3rd most prolific recorder (by number of sections) on LV.

Within a few months of starting as a reader, I was cranking out as many as 4 sections a day. I often posted two new chapters in my solo at a time. That did slow down when I became an MC, as my time was not all focused on recording and editing anymore.

On the MC side, I used to have a self-imposed limit of MC'ing 40 projects at any given time. I have since cut back; my limit is now 35. (Woo hoo - big cut back!) Besides the MC'ing itself, I've taken on a lot of the checking of test recordings, am involved with the new project manager and web developer that we just hired (I simply can't keep my opinions to myself - ha!), keep the Project Status Table up to date, and generally try to make myself useful.

I'm also a BC, and I have something like 6 group projects in process at the moment.

And I'm afraid of burning out.

I've definitely found myself slowing down on recording. Now it seems like I'm doing well if I get 2-3 sections out per WEEK. (I know, that's still a pretty good output - but it's not like I was doing before.) I find I'm getting more picky about what MC projects I take on, and I'm slowing down on BC'ing as well.

I don't want to burn out totally and just disappear; if I were to do so, I'd leave over 30 projects for other MC's to pick up and finish off, and that's not fair to them. So I'm trying a little bit of the "slow down; don't put so much pressure on yourself" route and seeing how that goes. I don't think I'm going to take on more BC projects when these finish off, unless I find something I really, REALLY want to coordinate. I'm not claiming as many sections in group projects anymore, and will try to finish my solos (I have two running right now) in a reasonable time frame. Hopefully that will help alleviate this feeling of being too stretched out.

--- And that's just the thoughts I've put down about burnout! I also have thoughts about other things inspired by the podcast, as I mentioned above! :roll:

Oy.

Oh, darn, look at the time. What's for supper? :hmm:
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
bobgon55
Posts: 925
Joined: May 24th, 2011, 8:30 am
Location: Tampa, Florida USA
Contact:

Post by bobgon55 »

Tricia!

I love all of your reflections triggered by the conversation with Sean in the podcast. Your record as reader, BC, and MC is phenomenal! I couldn't ever even imagine doing so much at one time or in the almost 4 years you have been active on LibriVox. I think Kara's advice from the last podcast is the best for avoiding burnout. When it stops being fun, stop doing it. But I think your sense of fairness in not overburdening the other MC's with abandoned projects is noble. I feel the same way about abandoning projects. I've only abandoned three out of the almost 150 I've done here, even though it's clearly understood that you can do so when real life intervenes. But it still makes more work for the BC and MC.

I'm sure you will tie and then surpass that record you are close to.

I'd like to know the rest of your thoughts inspired by the podcast, besides the ones on burnout. Do you think you might have the time to post them here whenever you get a chance?

Thanks so much for listening and for posting this response. I was concerned that listening to one conversation for a half hour might be too one-note for people,, but so far both you and Piotrek have found it interesting.

Thank you for your support in this and all the other ways. You really are wonderful! :D

Bob
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

One way I'm able to do all this on LV is that I don't have a job. :lol: I spend HOURS on here each day.

Ooo, Hubby's home! Gotta go.
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
JohanLiebert
Posts: 1635
Joined: February 15th, 2012, 1:27 am
Location: Cavite, Philippines
Contact:

Post by JohanLiebert »

Hello!

I just finished listening to the latest podcast... and I must say it's the most enjoyable so far :D
I've listened to around 20 LV podcasts and since I joined and this has been one of my favorites :)
April Gonzales :D
blog

Marie Antoinette & the Downfall of Royalty

I will not be around the forums for quite a time but I'll log-in whenever there's time. Please PM me if you need to talk with me. Thanks!

Animo La Salle!
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Good podcast (part 1 with Gesine)!

I never did get back to you on those other reflections, did I? I guess I'm usually not one for a lot of introspection, and it's even more rare for me to write down my thoughts when I AM introspective. LOL! :roll:

I can relate to Gesine's grabbing chapters from different projects to get them finished. There was a while there where I was constantly picking up orphaned sections and orphaned projects. That's how I got to record Introduction to Metaphysics by Henri Bergson - there's NO way I would've recorded that one on my own! (By the way, that's the project for which I got my first really negative review on Archive. Since then I've gotten positive ones in the project to counteract the negative one, but it DID throw me off kilter for at least a few hours when I first read it.) I had even recorded a little bit about picking up orphans for someone for a podcast, but I don't think it ever got used. From there I went to BC'ing abandoned projects (which I sometimes still do). But the recording of orphaned chapters dropped off after that, and I went to a new phase of LibriVoxing - I don't recall what that was, though. :)

I've got some free time here. Let me try to remember some of my thoughts on the other podcast.

Personality types and how that manifests in the whole LibriVox project: I don't know if you're familiar with (or if you consider valid) the Myers-Briggs personality types. Well, I'm a very strong J, which manifests in being happier when things are completed rather than left hanging and open-ended. So this translates to wanting to see projects on LV FINISHED. It drives me crazy to see projects hang on for years due to one or two little things not getting done. That's one reason I think I recorded orphaned chapters, as well as why I took on the dramatic reading of Ozma of Oz and Faust I to finish them, and why I prodded Scarlet Pimpernel to the finish, etc. - it just feels good to see things like that done instead of hanging around due to lack of...prodding. ;) I look at the Project Status Table and cringe when I see that there are so many projects 100% recorded, yet stalled out either due to final edits to be made or whatever. I compare that to some MC's who have projects stall out for months and years, and they don't seem to bat an eyelash. :shock: How do they DO that?!? It also manifests in my BC'ing - I'm quick to orphan sections that were claimed exactly 2 months ago (sometimes I orphan them in less time if the reader hasn't posted or even logged in since making the claim) because I want to see the projects move forward and FINISH.

About audio quality and being reader-friendly as opposed to listener-friendly: Your podcast this time touched on this a little bit as well. It's a fine line nowadays. Especially with the good noise cleaning and other tools in Audacity, I think the standard for sound quality has gotten higher. If some of the readers from older projects came back and posted their recordings as a test recording, I can't imagine passing many of them as-is. And I think this conflicts a bit with the reader-friendly philosophy. If a reader simply cannot get that medium-volume, annoying background hum out of his/her recording, do we reject them as a reader? Do we find a way to clean it, then give them a step-by-step instruction on how to do it? And if they don't follow the instructions, do we THEN reject the recording? How does this fit in with that "we're more focused on the reader; the listener is secondary" philosophy? How low do we set the quality standard so that it's reader friendly, yet not so low that people all over the Internet say, "Oh, don't bother with LibriVox; their recordings are junk" (which can also turn off potential new readers)?

So, something like all that is what was running through my brain during the previous (and in some cases, the current) podcast.
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
JohanLiebert
Posts: 1635
Joined: February 15th, 2012, 1:27 am
Location: Cavite, Philippines
Contact:

Post by JohanLiebert »

Very well done Bob.. great pdcast! :clap:

I never knew that MCs and BCs before have a very tedious job on keeping things accurate... the Magic Window sure is godsend to LV!

...and for those volunteers like me who never knew/talked the other admins and MCs, this podcast has been a great channel to know them. I've never seen Gesine MC/BC a project in my short stay here. She's a wonderful person really... she never made the convo between you two boring whatsoever!

:thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:
TriciaG wrote: Personality types and how that manifests in the whole LibriVox project: I don't know if you're familiar with (or if you consider valid) the Myers-Briggs personality types. Well, I'm a very strong J, which manifests in being happier when things are completed rather than left hanging and open-ended. So this translates to wanting to see projects on LV FINISHED. It drives me crazy to see projects hang on for years due to one or two little things not getting done. That's one reason I think I recorded orphaned chapters, as well as why I took on the dramatic reading of Ozma of Oz and Faust I to finish them, and why I prodded Scarlet Pimpernel to the finish, etc. - it just feels good to see things like that done instead of hanging around due to lack of...prodding. ;)
Well having that test as a lesson in my major subject right now, I must say it's valid, only if you answered it truthfully. What are the other 3 letters you got btw? :D


I joined LV in its mature form, with all the established standards and technologies that lightens the readers/BC/MC's burden. Congratulations to those who came before me. It's you guys who made LV what it is now :thumbs:
April Gonzales :D
blog

Marie Antoinette & the Downfall of Royalty

I will not be around the forums for quite a time but I'll log-in whenever there's time. Please PM me if you need to talk with me. Thanks!

Animo La Salle!
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

I've taken the test twice. The first time I was ISTJ; the second... I think I was INTJ - strong in the IJ, not as strong on the others, IIRC. It has been years. :lol:
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
neckertb
Posts: 12799
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:47 am
Location: French in Denmark

Post by neckertb »

Very nice podcast indeed :D

Where can I take that test? (although I tend to think I would be just like Tricia :lol:)
Nadine

Les enfants du capitaine Grant

Live in a death + 70 country? Have a look at Legamus
JohanLiebert
Posts: 1635
Joined: February 15th, 2012, 1:27 am
Location: Cavite, Philippines
Contact:

Post by JohanLiebert »

neckertb wrote:Very nice podcast indeed :D

Where can I take that test? (although I tend to think I would be just like Tricia :lol:)
I think there are free Myers-Briggs Type Indicator tests online.... :)
It would show you your personality type according to 4 dichotomies: Extraversion (E), Sensing (S), Thinking (T), Judgment (J) and Introversion (I), Intuition (N), Feeling (F), Perception (P) :wink:
April Gonzales :D
blog

Marie Antoinette & the Downfall of Royalty

I will not be around the forums for quite a time but I'll log-in whenever there's time. Please PM me if you need to talk with me. Thanks!

Animo La Salle!
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Post Reply