|Absolute Value|

Goodbye all for a few days. I will be back in the jumpseat on the 3rd of January after a week in France. Merry Christmas all!

A great little article where the developers from the 3 main players, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have dinner together to discuss each other’s products.  A great read.

I was having a few problems redirecting users from a web form to the referrer that had taken them to this page.  The URL in Request.UrlReferrer was pointing to itself as I had already done a postback.  A little searching on Google brought up this little gem.  Thanks to Marco Bellinaso and Kevin Hoffman!


Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
‘ Save the referrer Url
ViewState(”ReferrerUrl”) = Request.UrlReferrer.ToString()
End If
End Sub

‘ redirect to the previous page
Response.Redirect(ViewState(”ReferrerUrl”).ToString())
End Sub


Thanks for all the comments and the emails I received from my previous post regarding iPodder.org. It seems a lot of people are missing the point slightly. I am not too concerned by the lack of communication, even less so now that Adam commented in my blog saying he would hand the communications over to someone with more time.

My main gripe is being trailed along by the Curry/Bloom promises on how the directory would be “given” to the node editors where they would make their own playground. Tools, abilities, anything to make the directory your own and this has never happened, nothing that makes life easier for the editors. Tools, Tools, Tools!

Secondly. If this is a business venture which I believe it is, then the role of the editors need to change. How many other companies have a backbone of employees in effect paying to work for them?¹ Name me 5. And I am not necessarily speaking about money at all. If you’re making money from the directory or leveraging the directory for commercial uses, put something back into the “directory”². This ties in with the request for tools, or better control over your node. Hey, I’ll gladly do this for free if I had some better support.

Adam completely missed the point in his comment. If you read this post, please can we have some word on the directory. Will anything change? Are you willing to provide us with the abilities to do the things you promised not so long ago?

I do not feel as if I stand for other editors, but the emails I have been receiving point in this direction.

Again I ask - Is this important anymore?

1. Even if the bandwidth cost is low, its still there.
2. I hesitate to use the word community because it just doesn’t fit in at all.

Warning: Rant Alert

iPodder.org. The starting point for all podcast lists. The “Ultimate” directory of all things podcast. Lists and lists all in pretty OPML files all nicely linked to editors’ servers to reduce load. Seems like a paradise for podcasters to make sure more listeners come their way. But there is trouble in paradise and I have had enough.

I currently manage 3 nodes. Hacking, Games and the mother of all nodes, Technology. Lets go through the steps that podcasters must take to get listed:

• The podcaster fills in the form on the iPodder.org site and submit it
• I then receive an email from the site stating the URL of the podcast (not neccesarily the RSS feed), a description and a contact email address
• I then take this email, validate the feed
• Check that it is a good enough podcast for the node
• Open up a copy of your OPML file
• Add the entry into the file
• Upload to your own server
• Rinse and Repeat

Thats right, you are the person paying for the bandwidth. iPodder.org takes the credit for a great directory when its your servers that are doing the grunt work. This I don’t mind as I feel part of a community keeping a great service up and running.

So, I start getting really busy at work. I can’t spend as much time on the directory as I would like and the requests are starting to pile up. I send out an email out to the Gaming nodes’ podcasters asking if anyone would like to take the job as editor. Once we setup the OPML file on the new editor’s server, we now have to change the original OPML file to reflect the change. Who controls this? Adam Curry. Does he answer emails requesting the change? No. Is there any other way of changing the URLs? No, not a single one.

I remember a great little podcast done by Adam saying how wonderful iPodder.org editors are. “Thanks for all your hard work” was what came out of the podcast. “Tools are coming” was another comment. Where are they? I have put HOURS into the directory keeping upset podcasters happy, modifying URLs for their RSS feeds, helping with validation and even CREATION of RSS feeds just so the directory works well. iTunes uses this directory for their podcasts to some degree. Winamp’s podcast support uses the iPodder.org directory greatly. A large amount of other directories are using the original OPML file. I even tried to find the podcast done by Adam regarding the directory and it’s editors as discussed above but the website that held the podcast (http://podshow.com/editors/) is down. Strange that. Do I feel like its not important anymore?

So this is where I am. Frustrated, feeling used and haven’t heard a single word in ages. This is the turning point and I give up. I can’t contact anyone to hand over my feeds and I feel that its pointless to be a slave to a money-making business. So as of today, the Technology, Gaming and Hacking nodes will no longer be updated. The Technology node, one of the most active nodes with submissions constantly coming in, is really going to hurt. I apologise in advance to anyone podcaster or listener affected by this change.

Being the editor of one of the larger nodes in the directory, I feel like this should have some effect. I hope anyone reading this can get behind me and force to issue forward. Please help me to bring the directory up in the priorities and give us, the editors the tools and support we need. Adam, if you are reading this, please put some word out. Answer my emails, let us know what is happening with the directory. I have no problem that this has turned into a business for Adam. That is life. However, I refuse, point blank, to work on this if there is no benefit for me and my fellow editors if this is no a commercial venture.

Is it important anymore?

***UPDATE****
I have the DSC from March 15 2003 where the editors are discussed a little. Does anyone still have the original and only podshow editor’s podcast?
Link

The server this domain is hosted on went down for a period of 24 hours. I only got access to mail and the site this morning and seem to have most of my mail. If anyone doesn’t get a reply by the end of today, could you please resend the mail. Apologies to all!

I am off to Skype tonight for a research group meeting. They are wanting some public opinion on some of their new features and require some testing to be done. I will be back at their offices on the 15th of December for feedback on these features. I am guessing that they want some testing done on their new Skype Video that was released today and hopefully some new interesting things!

This will be the second trip to Skype, the first being around 8 months ago. NDA’s are signed at the door before you even reach the main office and good food and drink is provided as well as SkypeIn and SkypeOut vouchers. All in all, a pretty good evening out to have a look at some exciting technology.