Podcast #1: John the Tank
Well here it is guys, my newest experiment into Tank advice. It’s raw and unedited basically because it’s the pilot project. Let me know what ya think 
TankingTips.com
A guide to tanking as a warrior in world of warcraft
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March 11th, 2008 at 11:57 am
FIRST
And let me say that I’m glad that I’ll never ever be doing anything like that. Ever…
Sincerely,
Kekutikaesutumoto the Tank
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March 11th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
So, feedback.
1) Engineer your audio. Please. I beg of you. It really detracted from the podcast. You’ve got an awesome voice, the charisma travels extremely well, but the random distortions don’t help. Mabye turn your mic down a little while recording. You can always amp it up later.
2) Length, I personally felt it was a little short. There didn’t seem to be much content there. There was some, but not much. I was left wanting more.
3) This also ties into 2, get a second person who’s equally charaismatic. Seriously. It will make the cast much better. You’ll be able to discuss topical issues, which is something that I feel that most people would be interested in. I liked the answers to ‘Ask a Question’, but a second educated opinion, even if it’s only agreeing with you is never a bad thing.
Mabye try to get together 2-3 topical issues before each cast to discuss. I know the debate around Badge Gear has been quite furious at tankspot recently, being able to cover all the views quickly, consisely could be a major strength. Especially when you’ve got two people discussing them at the same time.
4) Set a shedule. If you’re going to put out a podcast every Tuesday, or whatever, it’ll get people comming back on that day. It’s also good to have a minimum level of content by a due date. So have a minimum time, where you have to fill it with topical goodness.
~End Feedback~
Anyway, major kudos on actually doing this. It’s always a push to start something like this.
Thumbs up!
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March 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Sounded fine to me Venny. Obviously, editing and smoothing the mic out would help, but I think it’ll be a great way to do Q & A segments.
/submits a question for next week
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March 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
It’s good, the advice is good.
I’m getting a lot of muffling on the mic, and you sound nervous. Get those fixed by the next podcast if possible (at least the muffling; take your time on the nervousness).
Also, I do still have my Dreadnaught guy floating around that I’ve had a hard time integrating into TankSpot. You’d be free to use that logo at any size, even just to play with and decide if you want. :p
Here’s the image. I can do some polishing if you want to use it, just let me know:
http://www.tankspot.com/photoplog/images/1/1_OfSteelImage.jpg
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March 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
As always, I appreciate your contributions to the community, but I might suggest that if you can spare the time, you might post a very rough (and quick) text outline of the podcast. I understand that you’re trying this format to save time, but I will often come back to your posts as a sort of reference, and it could be tough to search and find this info. As always, its just a bit tougher to skim audio for info and find what you’re looking for. It could even be something as simple as.
[Post Title]
[Your Message]
-Block rating vs. Block Value
-Moroes Pocket Watch vs. Ancient Aqir Articifact
-Bandaging for Threat?
-Upcoming Content
Anyways, thanks for the posts and keep up the great work!
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March 11th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
OMG now I can get my “Vene Fix” on Tanking tips….
/Stalkers Unite!
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March 11th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I read this mainly at work where I also do not have speakers, is there anyway you could do a transcript of these podcasts? I also occasionally check up on your site to give advice to fellow tanks when I’m in mid-game, and it’s easier to find the answers in text form then to scan through an audio file.
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March 11th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
http://www.wownova.com/tankingtips.jpg
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March 12th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Nice podcast, but as a non-english speaker, I can understand written english much better than spoken one
So I hope there will still be stuff to read on this excellent blog (plus the mouseover item links work better when written 
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March 12th, 2008 at 2:29 am
As it has been mentioned, recording quality is bit of an issue but I think using some sort of popshield to filter out those unwanted noises would help alot.
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March 12th, 2008 at 2:42 am
I enjoyed the podcast a lot. Agreed that the quality could do with improving yet it was still easy to understand everything you were saying
It’s also odd to hear your voice for the first time, but very fun.
Look forward to more of these in the future.
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March 12th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I’ll echo what Raddue said…
This is always one of the first sites I check when I come into work in the morning….but no computer speakers! Additionally, I often times source important posts from here to my guild’s forum, since I’m the warrior class captain.
But I do thank you for taking the time to make this podcast. Hopefully I can hear it once I get home this evening so I know what you covered!
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March 12th, 2008 at 7:18 am
I wouldn’t imagine a transcript is possible (even a short podcast like this one would be 10 pages easy), but it’s always possible for someone to quick write up an outline (”Moroes Watch gets the nod because of its on-use, etc etc”)
It was a pretty good podcast, there’s not much I can say that others haven’t already said. I don’t mind a lecture-type series without a second voice if that’s the angle you’re going for…if you want to discuss topical issues, that’s also cool (wow radio doesn’t have a tank-specific program as of yet, that I’m aware of).
If you had fun doing it, then keep doing it! If people don’t want to listen to it, then they don’t have to :-p
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March 12th, 2008 at 8:13 am
for the first go, that is pretty cool… grats
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March 12th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Great idea Vene and good execution.
Yes, the quality can be improved, although your voice came through fine to me on a laptop at work with earphones on.
I guess my main recommendation coincides with Whiteludafan’s. Namely that an outline of the podcast would greatly help in looking up this info in the future. This kinda fits in your idea of organizing the website to make it easier to search for posts.
Thanks for the good tips. Keep it up please!
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March 12th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I dug it! … Maybe with these type of podcasts you can answer the more typical type questions (block vs rating) more regularly
Audio sounded fine to me! and i really enjoyed it … hope you do it more often
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March 12th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Sadly, I don’t really understand english when someone speak it. My native language is French and I had to learn to read english longtime ago to be able to read programming book. But when it’s to listen it… I’m lost.
But I understand the majority have priority over the minority, so GL with that, I hope it work well.
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March 12th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I like the Q&A part a lot-anything that gets people more involved is great for the website.
The whole block value vs rating thing is pretty nice to hear; I hadn’t heart that value was better overall, so that was pretty cool.
If you want to go above and beyond, try using a webcam, or a program that displays your screen. If you want a reference point for a good podcast, I’d consider listening to a podcast off themagicsock.com. Maybe try some music for an opener if you get bored.
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March 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Very good idea! As many others pointed out, there are some things to work on regarding recording quality, but overall it’s great information and also a way to avoid answering the same questions over and over again to your visitors - I’m sure you get that “shield block rating vs. shield block value” 10 times a day!
I don’t know if adding a full transcript is possible or not, but I’d definitely like to see a sort of “on this episode of the TankingTips Podcast…” just to get an idea of what is in the audio file, i.e. only the questions, without the answers…
Another reason to visit this everyday. Damn!
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March 13th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Did I hear an “aboot” in there? Canadians…
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March 14th, 2008 at 4:09 am
Short but okay.
I would listen to your 2nd podcast
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March 14th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Great pilot episode…
I have been following your site for quiet some time now, and I like this new initiativ.
But just think Vene and Cider, experts discussing tank issues etc.
As many say sound quality and a short summary of the podcast are great ideas.
I also like the one with you and a second voice. But that may get it to be eve more time consuming than write..
Great work, keep it up.
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March 14th, 2008 at 6:09 am
First of all very nice idea, it can work pretty good however the distortion can distract for some parts.
The biggest suggestion I have however would be to have the items such as the Aqir Artifact linked in the post so that the listeners dont have to get wowhead or something open to fully understand what you are telling us.
Damn good initiative, keep up the very good work!
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March 14th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I’ll definitely be doing my best to take the majority of your suggestions into account for the next one.
…and yes I’m Canadian
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March 14th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Second idea.
You said that you are trying to only post things that wont outdate, now that we know that hasn’t worked out as intended (the game changes more often then that I eat), wouldn’t it be an idea to allways take the new ideas shortly in the next podcast? By doing a weekly podcast (would be the best frequenct in my opinion, the news wont be outdated the day you release it however it still is new enough) with the newer stuff and posting the more advanced stuff that prefers reading you might create a newer format that attracts more visitors to return here, glad my fellow tank Psysica is still reading this btw.
The idea of a second voice is a good one, although it will be hard to find someone that is just as knowledgeable and charismatic. I saw the name of Ciderhelm drop earlier in the comments but it’s not up to us to demand who would be the sidekick.
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March 14th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Haha if Cider did it with me, I’m afraid I’d likely be considered the sidekick
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March 14th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Thanks,
Great work and as I loved the info. I do agree that it was too short and might recommend hitting some points from your old Blogs. Either way keep it coming bud..
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March 15th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Canadian tanks are for the win man
I enjoyed the podcast it’s a great idea keep it up
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March 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Kudos.
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March 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
This is great for those of us who are to A.D.D. to actually read through long discussions on various topics! I can spend a couple of minutes listening to something that, due to lack of focus, would take much longer to read and understand.
As EBS2002 says, it would be a long transcription of a short verbal discussion. For anyone interested, you may want to check into speech-to-text software like Dragon Naturally Speaking.
Also, Slashcyrus mentioned including screen captures. I have been using Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/) for doing short flash videos for tech support for family and friends. May be helpful to you as well to cover things like specs, calculators, etc.
Great move forward for this site.
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March 16th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Can you say “aboot in the hoose”?
All kidding aside, prolly can take the edge off on the voice a bit (it catches too much “breath”) and the volume level trails off at times (are you trying to adjust the levels on the fly?) but other than that, sounds good.
I’ll leave my name as hao (my in game name is “Haomaru” from samurai shodown.) pronounced “how”.
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March 17th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Maybe you could include a transcript on the site (if that doesnt defeat the object of the exercise). For those who read this site without access to audio
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March 17th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I think you have content worth delivering and there are a lot of podcasts already for wow. For many of them the #1 complaint is inconsistency on how often they come out, and i fear yours getting caught in that trap.
If you feel you wouldn’t be able to do a podcast on a regular basis - perhaps a segment (1-2 minute “tanking tips”) for one of the other podcasts - like “the instance” would be more fitting for time?
It would also be more easily transcribed - which is a must for all us blog junkies!
Keep up the good work.
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March 17th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Good Job Vene
Sexy voice.. like the idea….
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March 27th, 2008 at 1:45 am
shoot boss+bloodrage+bandage
threat, rage, and full health going into a fight is good stuff
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October 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
fairly well. great way to answer the questions. Great tool i was listening to it while playing wow and looking something up, which is pretty useful. looking forward to hearing more
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