Podcasting Needs Better Standards [Episode 110]

At the risk of offending my libertarian-minded friends: Podcasting's lack of clear standards is hurting the growth of the medium. Not that I think we should make a standards board that reviews the quality of podcasts for inclusion in our secret club or anything draconian like that. No, I'm committed to podcasting being and weird and wild, or as bland and tame, as the creator(s) want their show to be. What I want -- nay, demand -- is that we establish standards for all the non-artistic, behind-the-scenes plumbing and duct work that make a podcast a podcast. Yes, I realize we have guidelines. But as you'll hear on this short episodes, guidelines lead to ignorant decisions and often stymie a would-be podcaster from getting started. There's no reason we can't declare *the right* encoding specs. There's no reason we can't declare *the right* ID3 specs. And it's 2019, and it's ludicrous that podcast hosting companies still let invalid RSS feeds publish. No one makes an artistic decision to have an invalid feed. Why does it happen? A lack of standards. Fair warning: This episode is a little rant-y. You're welcome. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy Support this podcast