Sidepodcast

Enhancing F1 Conversation in 2010

Just prior to the start of the new year, we discussed site performance improvements and plans for the future, specifically those related to the start of the 2010 F1 season. Today, with less than 12 days to go before action gets underway, we're adding significant enhancements to commenting functionality.

This morning we released updates to the site that make every single post across the whole of Sidepodcast "live enabled". That means whenever you read a post, or browse through comments relating to it, you'll be notified when anything new is added to the conversation. You no longer need to refresh the page to pick up new comments, the site does all the hard work for you.

Click to view pending.

Keeping It Real-time

In practice, whenever new information is posted, a pop-up notification will appear near the top of the window to let you know there are unread comments. Clicking on the notification will take you directly to the relevant information. Similarly, when contributing to the conversation, comments are added to the thread without the need for a page refresh. If you don't interact with the page for a period of time, updates will pause until you return.

In an ideal world, this is the system we would loved to have in place two or maybe more years ago, it's how the internet should work. Feel free to try out the process by leaving a comment below.

So Last Year

Ever since we started live blogging races back in March 2008, we've been looking for better and better means of commenting on events. Originally, we and many others, spent our days endlessly hitting the Refresh Page button, before the introduction of bespoke solutions such as the Live Commenting, Live... Thing and the Realtime Doohickey.

We now have the ideal means to further the F1 conversation. It is open, accessible and, most importantly, on by default to everyone who browses Sidepodcast. It just works.

Hover and click to share on Twitter.

One or Two More Things

In addition to the live updates, we've also made commenting easier and more social. Much like individual posts on the site, you can now share comments using Twitter. Hover over any comment and select the "share this" link to post to your microblog.

Not only that, we've added shortcut key combinations to speed things up. Shortcuts work in two modes. When you are typing a comment, the "Ctrl" modifier key provides the usual shortcuts you'd expect from a word processor. When the comment box is not in focus, single key presses perform various navigation actions.

Please note, that we're still working through the best use of key combinations and the above are subject to change. Finding memorable combinations of useful shortcuts that work across all browsers and operating systems can be tricky. Feedback in this area, is greatly appreciated.

More Than Words

It should be noted that, as with anything online, the more recent your browser the better your commenting experience will be. We're still testing, tweaking and improving as we go, and we're aware there are plenty of issues still to overcome. Mobile browser support can be, at best, considered experimental, and we're still working through various issues with older desktop browsers. It is also questionable whether the new functionality isn't an overkill on archived posts, again we'll adjust as we learn.

We are very pleased to have rolled out this new functionality before the F1 season begins. We're now able to create any number of threads for live events, sit back and join in the fun. Live commenting for every F1 session this year will begin in less than two weeks, just as it did in '08 and '09. This time around, though, joining in could not be easier and there is no excuse for not taking part.

We will see you in the comments.

People Who Listen to Sidepodcast, Also Listen To...

Not so long ago we discovered the online music recommendation site last.fm had introduced the ability to create "groups", or areas on the site for like minded individuals to share musical tastes and ideas.

Given that we're prone to signing up to anything with a login button, we created a Sidepodcast Music Group, admittedly with no real clue as to what use it might serve.

Quickly however, this proved to be something of a special idea. In essence, anyone with a last.fm account can join the group which allows you to take part in audio related discussions and to see what other Sidepodcast listeners are enjoying at any particular moment in time.

That's all well and good, but the really cool feature the group offers is that any songs you listen to get added to the weekly Sidepodchart - calculated every Sunday, as all good music charts should be. Having a chart gives us a good idea of what tracks people who listen and contribute to the show also consume, as well as highlighting those who actually have some taste when it comes to music.

There are currently 18 members in the group, including ourselves, and after about three weeks The Beatles top the chart which also features, Beck, Kings of Leon and The Ting Tings. Wonderful stuff but clearly none of those are our doing.

If you're interested in seeing what the F1 community listens to, check out last.fm/group/sidepodcast, and why not sign up while you're there?

New for 2009

A very, very long time ago, eons ago in fact, we introduced the idea of 'free F1 content for your website'. Essentially this was an embeddable audio player containing news in the form of F1 Minute. That generic player has done remarkably well for us, and we have seen it appear in the most unexpected of places and there have been many more downloads of the daily minute as result. Now we're taking the concept to the next level.

Much as we did with Sidepodcast's Partner TV Player, we're offering a branded version, tailored with a custom image and audio introduction, to anyone who's interested in including it on their site. For the past month or so we've been trialling the idea in two places - Pitlane Fanatic and Racing Bulls. If you haven't already seen them in action we recommend you go check them out now, but here's a heads-up for the uninitiated.

Pitlane Fanatic

Jackie and Jolly from Pitlane Fanatic were on the show a couple of days ago, and you might've got the impression Jolly is something of a fan of Christine's daily minute. We're just as big fans of them too though, and we love the look and feel of the site. The F1 Minute player fits snugly into the silver design.

Check out pitlanefanatic.com for more information.

Racing Bulls

Ian from Racing Bulls is a familiar name around these parts and for the second time he signed up to be our beta tester. The branded F1 Minute player is situated above the ever popular message board and just like the previous example contains a custom logo and audio introduction.

Check out f1network.net for more information.

If you're interested in partnering with F1 Minute, please either email Christine or let us know in the comments. The audio is updated every weekday during the off-season and seven days a week once the racing gets underway. It's free to use, easy to install on most sites (we can help if you're struggling), and now you can integrate and brand it as your own. What's not to like?

All Your F1 Video are Belong to Us

As Christine pointed out already, yesterday was a bad day in the Sidepodcast office. In part because due to what can only be described as "some confusion" from the people at YouTube, we were served with a copyright infringement notice.

That kind of thing is never going to set your day off well, especially when it turns out to be completely false. Or at least we think it has, YouTube appear to have taken a vow of silence over the whole affair.

Just an Ordinary Day

The morning started pleasantly with some non-taxing file uploads planned for the latest video of Inside Track, when just after 11am, the following email arrived:

It was a copyright claim notice from YouTube's content identification team, and the important bits read (emphasis mine):

Motors TV has claimed some or all visual content in your video F1 Barcelona Race Preview 2008.

As long as Motors TV has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

That's pretty much all we had to go on. No further details were given as to which part of the video was the issue, nor if this was an automated or manual process. Neither did it tell us much about Motors TV, other than they'd probably be making some money out of this.

As a Matter of Principle

At Sidepodcast we've always been pretty careful to make sure we recognise content owners whenever possible. Be it photographs, audio or video content, and you'll often see a hefty list of credits at the end of our podcasts. We've never had any problem with previous shows, and this week's wasn't hugely different from the rest.

As a matter of course, YouTube do offer a 'disputes' process should we feel in the mood to disagree with such claims, but without knowing exactly which part of the video was the subject of the claim, defending yourself is quite difficult.

Long story short is we spent a great deal of time contacting all the relevant people and checking / rechecking to ensure we weren't in the wrong before submitting our complaint.

Thus far we've heard nothing back.

Nobody's Talking

Interestingly a copyright claim warning notice that had appeared on our account this morning, has now vanished, so presumably we're in the clear. But who knows for sure?

We've no idea what the problem was, nor can we be certain that it won't happen again. Couldn't YouTube have at least contacted us to acknowledge receipt of the dispute and / or to confirm that all is now well?

We've wasted a good many hours and are absolutely none the wiser. Ontop of this, we may now have to rethink our approach to content distribution, because after spending 20 - 30 hours working hard to put a show together, it's sure not nice being called a thief at the end of it.

Innocent until proven guilty? That's not the YouTube way.

Responding to Your Requests

As you may have noticed, we released a new video last weekend, and via the comments we received a couple of requests to enable better sharing of said new content.

We've become pretty adept at distributing audio with F1 Minute recently, so we have a pretty good idea of how to go about it, but we've been neglecting Sidepodcast on that front.

If you've been following the comments, you'll know that Lou suggested that F1 Rewind would make a fine Facebook application, while Shaun asked if there was a simple way of embedding the videos into his site.

We're always keen to receive input and feedback, and it seems only fair that when people make cool suggestions we act upon them, and we've done just that.

We have a shiny new Sidepodcast TV Facebook application ready and waiting to be added to your profile. We threw together a version during the weekend, and polished it up today. New episodes are added the moment we release them, so you're always up-to-date with the latest content.

For anyone still living outside the walled garden we've added embed codes to the information beneath each video on this site. The codes work just as you'd expect and allow you to copy a single episode onto another web page. Shaun has an example on his blog if you'd like to see it in action.

Finally, we've added one more piece to the puzzle, and that's the ability to add an entire playlist to another site. In short this means that you only have to copy the video player once, and you'll be sure that new content will appear as and when it's available (we're hoping weekly). If you have a blog with space to spare, stop by our video sharing page and check out the details.

There's one last thing to add. It's always been possible to embed episodes of Sidepodcast TV, using sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion. We've been uploading shows to them since the day we started and we're not going to stop now. We're simply offering additional options for anyone who wants them.

Many thanks to everyone for their suggestions and if you have any more requests / ideas for things we should be doing, please let us know via the usual methods.

WordPress Widget for F1 Minute

Near the end of last year we mentioned that we were busy learning the finer details about WordPress installations. We were doing this mostly so that we could build the theme Christine could only find in her head, but also because we wanted to extend the platform a bit further.

Today, we can announce the first of those extensions, the F1 Minute Player.

Sharing

You may remember a while back that we made F1 Minute available to any website wishing to use it.

Embedding "bytesize Formula 1 news", involved copying and pasting a small block of code, which wasn't particularly onerous, but now we've made it even more straightforward.

If you have WordPress installed it's just a case of copying some files, before dragging the player into position on your page.

Plugging In

More information can be found in the the plugin directory, including detailed installation instructions, various configuration options and a couple of screenshots. There's also further information on the F1 Minute site too.

If you have a web site that's running a recent version of WordPress, and your Theme is relatively modern (e.g. it supports widgets), then you have all you need to get started. Feel free to give it a try and let us know what you think.

Feedback

This initial release is just the first step, a stable platform to build upon. We're already running the widget on the sidebar of this site and there's much more to come in the future.

As always, your thoughts / ideas / comments / criticisms are most welcome.

Flying the Coop

As Formula 1 heads into it's 'winter break' and the daily influx of gossip and rumour fades to a quiet whisper, we figured it would an ideal time to launch a news site!

They don't pay us the big bucks for nothing, let me tell ya.

Actually, it's not really a news site per se, we're just giving F1 Minute a home of it's own. The recent addition to our podcasting stable, has grown so rapidly and consistently that it's ready to leave the tender bosom of Sidepodcast, and venture out into the big, bad world on it's own.

You can view the new site at: http://www.f1minute.com/. It's still a little wet behind the ears, but basically fit for purpose. Feel free to have a poke around and let us know what you think.

So What's New?

From a listerner's perspective, nothing changes. The feed is still in the same place as it always was, so if you've subscribed to the podcast, you'll not miss a moment's news. iTunes and various other podcast directories are already pointing to the new location and we've moved all posts and comments across to the new domain.

Additionally Christine has created a Twitter thingy, to keep you bang up-to-date with the latest in news and gossip. Just in case the idea of 'F1 news every single weekday', is simply not enough information for you.

So Why Change?

We've created a new home for F1 minute, because it was getting a little bit swamped by all the action on this site. Many search engines struggled to pick up the latest posts and because it didn't get a look-in on the homepage, not everybody spotted it.

Additionally we've picked a pretty solid hosting company (that I believe is the same as Ollie's), which should give us an extra layer of stability after some of the hosting problems we've had here. Ideally we'd like to move to Amazon's EC2 cloud, but the technology is too immature to make the jump right now. Media Temple offer a good compromise, which is less flexible, but not so cutting-edge.

What About Embedded Content?

If you've jumped on board and added the embeddable F1 Minute player to your site / blog / forum, we've not forgotten you. The good news is you don't have to change a single line of code. You've probably noticed that today's episode is still happily running on your site and it will continue to do so.

However, if you've got five minutes to spare, we do recommend that you take a look at the new sharing page. The code listed there has been tweaked in order to point to the new domain. Upgrading code on your site will enable you to benefit from the increased reliability that the new host's offer us, and we'll also be adding new players and customised embed options to that page soon.

Just to re-iterate, you don't have to change anything, we know you're busy people and we don't like to impose.

In Conclusion

So, there you have it. New domain, new host, better stability and a web site dedicated solely to the vocals of Ms. Blachford.

Oh, I almost forgot. The new site is entirely at the disposal of the gravelly-voiced damsel, there'll not be an anti-McLaren post in sight (although I might stop by with some inflammatory comments). If you thought she had a lot on her plate before, you've not seen nothing yet!

Please stop by and say "howdy", leave a comment or peruse at your leisure. As always, thoughts, ideas and criticism are readily welcomed.

Go there NOW!