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01 October 2014

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:31 pm
by Rakuen Growlithe
Well I've created this section so for each episode we can have a thread where we can have further discussion of the topics that come up. I'll repost my comment from the announcement thread as a potential starting point.

With regards to the discussion on fursonas and what is and isn't furry I must say you guys misrepresented the position and failed to distinguish between people and their fursonas.

I've previously defined a furry character as a character who is possessed of a combination of animal and human characteristics in such a way that the new character is significantly different from the character's real or canon form. This was based on trying to best capture what the way furry is used in the furry fandom and following from its original roots.
A furry fan is obviously just someone who likes furry characters.

So now lets take someone using an anthro toaster as a fursona. The toaster is not an animal, something that has been required in all the furry definitions I've seen. So the toaster fursona is not furry. That doesn't prevent someone from using it as a fursona though. A fursona is equivalent to an avatar outside of the fandom, it's just something you use to represent yourself online. If you play on the Wii it's called a mii, if you're in the furry fandom it's called a fursona.

However a fursona (furry or not) is not required to be a furry fan, you just need to like furry characters. So I don't see a contradiction with saying "Joe Soap is a furry fan who uses an anthro toaster as a fursona" and "Anthro toasters are not furry." Anthro toasters would certainly fall in the furry-related category, just like I would say Saphira from Eragon is not furry but is furry related.

So that's the distinction between the furry fan and the fursona which I think got missed. Just because a fursona is tied to a specific person who is a furry doesn't, by extension, make it furry. Just like "Avatar is a science-fiction movie, James Cameron is therefore a science-fiction director" doesn't lead to "Titanic is a science-fiction movie."

The other part that fits in here is that not everything anthropomorphic is furry. Furry is a subset of anthropomorphism dealing with animals. It may eventually come to be broader but I don't think it's anywhere near that. If you try broaden it you're also going to come into conflict with general anthropomorphism fans. There's an anthro group on DeviantArt who are very clear that they are not furry and are fans of anthropomorphism in general. Although, judging by the group content, they're just trying to distance themselves from any negative furry reputation.

In conclusion, saying a certain thing is not furry is not the same as saying that a person that likes it or uses it to represent themself is not furry.

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:53 pm
by Fluke
Related to the podcast.

I would like to see better quality audio. It is extremely jarring to listen to, let's be honest, headset-microphones of varying quality. The differences in quality, volume is very apparent, and annoying - especially the noise-levels. Also the other things are the dead-air spots, it's kinda a huge no-no to have dead-air in radio, so it should just be a thing to keep an eye on.

Also something like some BG music on loop might work very well. (PLEASE nothing with a kickdrum, just think jazz or lounge music really... elevator music :p )

Some other pet-peeves are the clicking noises of someone's mouse or other peripherals, if you want to go through topics I suggest a touch-pad or tablet. Scrolling document on a tablet is really amazing for going through stuff on a podcast.

Also maybe an introduction of who you are in the begging on each episode, ie; "Hi, I am xxxx" or something.

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:09 pm
by Ivic_Wulfe
You make some good points however for now this is the set up that we have and with guests we don't necessarily know what kind of equipment we'd need, nor the funding to get the stuff. Please just bear with it for now.

It is a digital call/voip so the streaming is gonna be difficult. The Youtube uploads are generally of better quality.

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:35 pm
by Fluke
Ivic-Wulfe wrote:You make some good points however for now this is the set up that we have and with guests we don't necessarily know what kind of equipment we'd need, nor the funding to get the stuff. Please just bear with it for now.

It is a digital call/voip so the streaming is gonna be difficult. The Youtube uploads are generally of better quality.
Yeah, that makes sense.

I noticed the quality pick up after the initial start of the podcast though :)

Also I got mentioned lol...

I wasn't serious about that anime thing :D

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:14 pm
by Franky
Fluke wrote:Related to the podcast.

I would like to see better quality audio. It is extremely jarring to listen to, let's be honest, headset-microphones of varying quality. The differences in quality, volume is very apparent, and annoying - especially the noise-levels. Also the other things are the dead-air spots, it's kinda a huge no-no to have dead-air in radio, so it should just be a thing to keep an eye on.

Also something like some BG music on loop might work very well. (PLEASE nothing with a kickdrum, just think jazz or lounge music really... elevator music :p )

Some other pet-peeves are the clicking noises of someone's mouse or other peripherals, if you want to go through topics I suggest a touch-pad or tablet. Scrolling document on a tablet is really amazing for going through stuff on a podcast.

Also maybe an introduction of who you are in the begging on each episode, ie; "Hi, I am xxxx" or something.

Yeah, the audio is messed up a little. At the moment the best mic quality is from the person streaming as the other channels are already reduced in quality via voip. We're thinking about methods in bettering the quality including live multiband compression because my voice tend to stick to the extreme low ends that makes it sound louder but get's lost here and there due to the condenser mic.

Music we've though about, I'll have a look at some stuff or maybe even try to score something we have royalties over. No bassy kick or really far in the background will be what we're looking for.

The introduction is a good idea, but just to mess with fluke I'm literally gonna say "xxxx".

Anywho. Thanks Rakuen for the extra section. I think all three of us can honestly say we didn't think it'll gain the amount of attention as it does already just yet. I'm really impressed with the amount of live viewers even though the topics and method are kinda mediocre and the stream itself is in its infancy. Love the idea that you guys think we're somewhat informative or even funny though. :3

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 8:40 am
by Rakuen Growlithe
Accretion wrote:Anywho. Thanks Rakuen for the extra section. I think all three of us can honestly say we didn't think it'll gain the amount of attention as it does already just yet. I'm really impressed with the amount of live viewers even though the topics and method are kinda mediocre and the stream itself is in its infancy. Love the idea that you guys think we're somewhat informative or even funny though. :3
Well you've got an hour of talking about things and I'm really hoping that will stimulate some proper discussions that can feed back to the forum. I think giving it it's own section with a thread for each episode is the best way to encourage that.

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 9:36 am
by Ryall
Listened to the podcast today. It was pretty entertaining. Pity about the technical issues. I agree with Fluke that some background elevator music might be nice.

I also like references to and discussion around the ZAFur forum. It would be great to hear more conversation along those lines.

Unfortunately I missed last night's podcast though. I didn't realize it was Wednesday. :(

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:53 am
by Leeward
Can they be listened to post-facto?

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:59 am
by Rakuen Growlithe
Leeward wrote:Can they be listened to post-facto?
Yeah, they're on a Youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooEdo ... LvUUWnPE2g
Should probably link to the podcast before each discussion thread.

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 12:44 pm
by Leeward
Rakuen Growlithe wrote:
Leeward wrote:Can they be listened to post-facto?
Yeah, they're on a Youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooEdo ... LvUUWnPE2g
Should probably link to the podcast before each discussion thread.
Oh good, from the comments it sounded like you had to hear it live.
Didn't make much sense but worth checking.
Thanks.

Re: 01 October 2014

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:03 pm
by Ivic_Wulfe
Above and beyond that the mixlr site also keeps our podcasts on record. http://mixlr.com/south-afrifur/