Posts tagged: Views

Making Conversation

Published

By Mr. C.

We've had a complaint about the noise. Not the volume you understand, just the occasional noise in the daily threads.

Essentially a couple of people have mentioned that F1 discussion is in danger of being railroaded by chat about pandas, gadgets and food. Now we love conversation on all of those topics and more, so we wouldn't want to do anything to discourage such talk. However, we ought to enable those who come to Sidepodcast for the Formula One discussion to be able to do so too.

Something planned for the mythical SPC 3.0 redesign, which right now is rivaling Brigadoon and the unicorn in terms of visibility, was the idea of providing "breakout" threads of discussion when important news occurs. Essentially these threads will be a way of categorising conversation so that talk of Fisichella heading to Ferrari goes in one place, while chat about Piquet spinning in Singapore goes in another.

Conceptually speaking, breakout threads are extensions of the daily conversation, and not posts in their own right. You won't gain much insight from the post content beyond whatever facts are available, and that may simply be a tweet from a driver. The discussion will be where it's at.

Due to feedback received, we'd like to roll this out as soon as possible. Which means things might look a little odd in the existing design. You may just have to trust us that it'll all be okay in the end. Sidepodcast daily threads introduced back in November, offered a brilliant way to enable general F1 discussion as well as plenty of off-topic fun. Hopefully this new idea will take it to the next level.

Behind the scenes, we're also working on a new authentication system that will allow those who sign up to moderate and move comments as required. In theory we can also allow those same people to create new conversation categories as and when required.

That's for the future though and this is now. Christine has started us off with a thread for Force India discussion and we'll move existing comments over there now. Please let us know what you think of the plan and also yell in the daily thread if breaking news should be spun off into it's own category. As ever we'll learn and tweek on the run.

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Episode 94 - Not So Much Flying, More Drinking

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By Christine Blachford

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There's more KERS talk, but this is much less geeky than the last Debrief. We also discuss the good, bad and ugly of paint jobs (mostly ugly), and what to expect over the next few weeks from Sidepodcast.

Intro

Just one month to go now, how exciting is that? The off season seems to have been just the right length.

Good Week / Bad Week

Good week for USF1 with their official announcement, although what the future holds is uncertain. Also a good week for Red Bull and their super-secret test. Bad week for Williams, and the BBC, as both lose integral parts of their organisation.

News and Views

Some new paint jobs to look at - not so fond of the bright blue Williams, but prefer the non-gold Force India to it's predecessor. We also rip into the Bridgestone tyres because green just shouldn't be seen, not in this context anyway. Finally, we cover the main points from the KERS lecture in London this past week (thanks to Alex for summarising).

Fantasy Racers

Another roll call, we have surpassed last year's total by an awesome amount, and are looking forward to the last roll call in two week's time. If you haven't set up your team yet, do it now otherwise you will miss out on being included on the list. You can still play, though, of course.

Feedback

Your Call is no longer, but Feedback is, well, back. We've got some thoughts on Formula 1 in HD, plus whether the BBC are providing us with what we want yet. There's also a stunning email from a certain Mr Tremayne.

Housekeeping

It's all about fun and games in Sidepodcast Towers at the moment. We're enjoying the Pitlane Fanatic quiz, Gavin wants to beat us at Mario Kart, and Batracer is about to kick off again.

Linkage

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Episode 93 - KERS For 5 Year Olds

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By Christine Blachford

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We delve into the murky depths of the new KERS technology, geeking out with talk of capacitors, electro-mechanics, and six degrees of separation. Oh, and Bourdais gets a mention (or two) as well.

Intro

We couldn't bring you a show last week, as we were at a secret location, and we can't tell you that much this week, because it was a secret location!

Good Week / Bad Week

Good week for Bourdais, Stepney and Coughlan as they can all return to Formula 1 in 2009, but it's a bad week for the superlicence debate, and testing in the European climate.

News and Views

We take a whistlestop tour through the many things Max mentioned over his journalists only lunch, including cost cutting, standing for president again, and the future of the British GP. We also discuss the merits of USF1 and try and work out what is fact and what is rumour.

Sidepodtour

We were invited to a talk about KERS by listener Bob, and we learnt an awful lot, although the exact details should be kept hush hush. We take a look at the basics of KERS with the help of Vettel, talk about the different types available, and those we might see developed in the future, and we look at which circuits the device will suit best.

Fantasy Racers

We now have as many people joined up to the league as we finished the season with last year, and the racing hasn't even got going yet. Another roll call, and another plea for all to join up, as we will be discussing it a lot this year.

Your Call

An email arrived from Nigel celebrating the return of Bourdais if only because it makes a certain podcaster particularly happy. We hear from Scott, Alex, Gavin, R.G and Steven about varying subjects from KERS, to USF1, to FOM's on-screen graphics, troubles at Croft Circuit, and carbon fibre.

Housekeeping

We trialled the new F1 Big Picture over on F1 Minute and think it has been a reasonable success, so it will continue. We plug the Mark Webber Forum, encourage you guys to vote in the Character Cup, and visit the wiki to sign up on the Listener Map.

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Episode 84 - What We Need to do is Get in the Cockpit

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By Christine Blachford

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A catchup with all that's happened since the Brazilian showdown, this episode of the Debrief takes in yet more Red Bull misfortune, that Toro Rosso shoot-out and what is going on in France.

Intro

We got a bit carried away with Sidepodpanel, but F1 Debrief is back!

Good Week / Bad Week

Good week for Martin Brundle who has a job, and Sebastien Loeb who thinks he could have had one if he wanted. Bad week for the Red Bulletin and the current points system.

News and Views

We look at Red Bull news which features the constant bad luck of Mark Webber. Now with a broken leg, he's going to miss out on some serious winter testing, but how much will that harm him? We also cover Force India news and ponder their McLaren B team status. Then it's time to think about what we saw in Barcelona testing, and finally take a look at what havoc Bernie is creating on the calendar now.

Feedback

One full voicemail with some end of season round ups to follow, and a half a voicemail as it's actually led on to a much better idea. There's also a couple of Facebook messages and a few emails as well.

Housekeeping

There's a new commenting feature to test out for us, some daily posts to try and create some order, and as ever, we want your feedback.

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Live: Marginally More Exciting than I Spy

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By Christine Blachford

F1 Debrief has been resting on it's laurels while we came to terms with the season just gone. Also because we couldn't fit it in with that Top Gear show returning. Anyway, it's back, and we're starting earlier so that everything can go to plan. Just like it always does.

Today we're catching up with all the news we have missed over the past couple of weeks, and of course getting some feedback as well. Sidepodpanel is scheduled for straight afterwards, although that may change depending on how the time goes and who is around. It's all very flexible, as always. We're set to go live at 4pm(ish) GMT. Sorry if it's a bit later than expected, but we got a little bit busy playing I Spy.

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Want to Be on our Podpanel?

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By Christine Blachford

It's that time of the week again, time to strap yourselves in and get ready for another fun filled couple of hours as you watch the Sidepodcast crew murder another podcast. Perhaps it makes the finished article look that much better, or perhaps it just makes us seem that much more useless, but either way it's great fun.

Today also sees the introduction of yet another podcast in the Sidepodcast stable, as once we have wrapped up F1 Debrief, we'll be attempting the Sidepodpanel. More information is available here, if you're curious and want to join in.

We should give you a heads up and say our website hosts have been very flakey over the weekend, so if it all goes pear shaped, we will call proceedings to a halt and see what's going on. The video should keep working, assuming there's no refreshing going on, and you can always find us on Justin.tv. The errors seem to be shortlived, so hopefully it won't cause too much of a problem.

We'll be going live at 7pm BST, but as ever, you can expect us to be late. See you shortly.

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Episode 66 - The Cars are Gonna be a Little Bit Faster than the People

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By Christine Blachford

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The world of Formula 1 took a back seat this weekend as Le Mans took over, but Sidepodcast keeps it F1 related... for the most part.

Intro

Oh, wait, this bit is about Le Mans.

Good Week / Bad Week

Albert Park appears to have a bright future, but we're curious on the compromise, Force India are struggling with a former driver, Toro Rosso may have a new investor - but are they ready, and the track in Montreal is set for a change.

News and Views

If it wasn't for testing this week, the news would literally be just about tyre compounds. Thankfully, there were three days in Barcelona to give us something to discuss - Davidson at Honda, the Toro Rosso still being slow, Heidfeld getting some extra track time, and Ferrari's running out of fuel.

Feedback

Jordan leaves us a voicemail plugging his favourite F1 news source, and SidepodcastFan emails his in. Call us with your F1 site suggestions. We run down some Facebook stats, discussions and photos. Lou saw a Renault close up, F1 Wolf has some great photos, and we have some unclaimed ones on drop.io.

Housekeeping

Okay, yea, this bit is about Le Mans as well.

Linkage

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