Why don't podcast players and podcast ecosystem in general have comments? I listen to a podcast, and want to engage with people who listened to it and ask questions to authors. Why don't we have it?
Because podcasts aren't centralized..<p>Podcasts often made available on lots of platforms and apps. That would mean the podcast owner would need to check <i>all</i> of those places regularly to respond to people - if they miss a platform they'd be accused of ignoring their audience by people who listen there. That's a lot of effort. Rather than doing that podcasters often have a website for their podcast that (sometimes) lets listeners engage with them, or they use social media with a Twitter or Insta account for the podcast.
I couldn't agree more. For the last 2 years I've been building a podcast app that solves this problem called Repod -> <a href="https://repod.io" rel="nofollow">https://repod.io</a><p>It's a full fledged social podcast app that enables people to comment + tag/categorize episodes. Would be super curious to hear your thoughts on the app.
Podcasting is built over rss, which is largely a read-only technology from the user side; the read/write variations never got traction, as people could not agree on a protocol (DAV? RPC? REST? etc). There seems to be little appetite to improve on the current standard, but I guess it could happen if developers of the biggest podcast apps were to agree on such improvements.<p>Distributed tech, after it gets popular, becomes a lot like herding cats, and when it comes to markup everyone has an opinion.
The podcasts I listen to all do. (I only listen to german podcasts thought)<p><a href="https://metaebene.me/podcasts/" rel="nofollow">https://metaebene.me/podcasts/</a><p>Tim Pritloves podcasts not only have comments, but the freakshow is streamed live with slack chat for interactions.
All podcasts of the metaebene are excellent btw and he is pioneering podcasting (over 12 years of high quality content and he seems to be striving for perfection). He has transcripts, chapter markers, live chat, comments, more than one codec, show-notes and additional features like fast and slow play in the web-player.<p>He also experiments with different things like auto-transcribe. I guess if somebody will be the first to actually offer a codec2 version of his/her podcast it will be him (If someone wants to correct me I would be happy to listen to a podcast that gets regularly released as codec2 :P)<p>Edit:<p>Afaik everything he does is open source as well and he shares <a href="https://podlove.org/about/" rel="nofollow">https://podlove.org/about/</a> <a href="https://github.com/timpritlove?tab=repositories" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/timpritlove?tab=repositories</a> his work so others (like <a href="https://www.cleanelectric.de/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cleanelectric.de/</a>) can build on what he worked on.
I think Twitter can be used for it. Also podcasts use RSS for distribution so whatever comment system is going to be centralized to some service and everyone has to decide to use it.
They do. Lots of the podcasts I listen to ask users to leave comments on their website. Some even read out the comments in subsequent episodes.<p>But moderating comments - even on a niche post - is a chore. Wading through spam, trolls, arguments, etc isn't fun. It's much easier to ask commenters to email in - and that's what the majority seem to do.
I don’t have direct experience using this app called Breaker [1], but it’s designed to have <i>some</i> social features for podcasts so you can connect with friends or check other recommendations.<p>The fact that podcasts are distributed as RSS feeds to the podcast directories, such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc., means that some centralized platform would be required for comments and other interactions. Many podcast authors have their own podcast websites where they may allow comments, but other listeners may not know of those sites or care to comment there when they have a ready interface to comment on Apple or Google or Spotify from their favorite podcast player.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.breaker.audio/" rel="nofollow">https://www.breaker.audio/</a>
A lot do, including mine: <a href="https://reactor.am" rel="nofollow">https://reactor.am</a><p>Just like blogs, it's up to the author. Feeds will have whatever links the author puts into them, regardless of whether they're for all-text blogs or for podcasts.
Most podcasts have some sort of subreddit or similar web presence. If you're ever looking for a community never underestimate typing "reddit.com/r/(thing)" or "(thing) forum" in Google.
I agree with the comments about the technology and I also wonder if it has to do with how many people listen to podcasts—in the car, exercising, mowing the lawn—and not being active on a screen to comment. Maybe I'm wrong on this but I imagine many people listen this way. For example, I listened to one today while shooting hoops outside.
Many podcasts do have a post with show notes/transcriptions/etc. for each episode. And those will often be open for comments. But someone listening to the podcast (probably from a phone) would then have to go to that page.<p>Given that a lot of blogs/pubs that aren't about contentious topics don't get a lot of comments/engagement anyway, you probably just don't get a lot of comments even if there's a place for them.
A podcast is an audio file supplied by an RSS feed. Nothing about that supports nor precludes comments.<p>Many podcasts have a corresponding website, and some of those support comments, but there's nothing about the design of podcasts that requires it.<p>If you have a particular podcast in mind, perhaps direct your question to the publishers of that podcast, either via twitter or any website they have.
Soundcloud is quite good at associating comments with timestamps. I don't think it has threads, but it's a relatively popular platform.<p>As others are saying, it's not really something that is standardised (or strictly necessary), which is why you don't see it much.
To answer directly to your question, it depends on the platforms, some podcasts choose certain platforms to allow comments i.e. Joe Rogan is on Youtube so viewers/listeners can submit their comments.
<a href="https://www.listennotes.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.listennotes.com</a> has comments and recommendations. It's a podcast search engine and aggregator.
Good question! If SoundCloud hosts/shares all the podcasts in the planet, then it will become Audio version of YouTube & people could listen/comment.
I'll share a podcast on Twitter from Spotify and @ the host, which is far less than actual comment systems.<p>BabylonBee podcasts support comments on their site.
When people post podcasts here, as in [0] recently, then we have discussions. However, consider that podcasters <i>don't want</i> your questions, typically; the folks that do want questions will publish a phone number or email address allowing for engagement.<p>[0] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24336756" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24336756</a>