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Introducing The Paracast+


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Gene Steinberg

Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
On the afternoon of November 7, 2014, I got an email from John Haarmann, fearless program director for GCN, "Consider this as a notice of agreeing to allow you to have both free (with ads) podcasts, and a subscription podcast section, without ads."

This means the regular version of The Paracast will still be posted online every Sunday morning, as before, on our site and iTunes. It'll also be picked up via Stitcher, TuneIn, and even for Android OS gear. But forum members who subscribe to The Paracast+ will get admission to a special area (a Paracast+ tab will appear in the forum's Nav bar below the logo at the top of the forum page):

Screen Shot 2014-11-07 at 7.45.25 PM.png

The first exclusive content to appear there, starting with our November 9th episode, featuring author Larry Holcombe, will be ad-free versions of The Paracast. So you'll get all the content, but each segment will go right into the next one without four minutes of ad breaks. Waiting for round of applause!

Over time, we'll be adding chat rooms, special forums, exclusive interviews and other stuff. We're still working over the list.

A subscription is just $5 per month and $50 per year. I'm keeping it simple.

You can subscribe by upgrading your forum membership. Here's a direct link:

https://www.theparacast.com/forum/account/upgrades

This is very much a work in progress, and I invite advice and some web code to provide buttons and other quick links to the subscription area. Paracast+ uses XenForo's Resource Manager, and we welcome your advice on fine-tuning.

Some of you have asked if we'll always be requesting donations. If The Paracast+, and the efforts of our new salesperson, Andy Shopick, succeed, we might be phasing them out in a few months.

But not yet!
 
Stop the presses! I've posted our November 2nd episode with Micah Hanks and Goggs Mackay for your listening pleasure. So you'll see what the ad-free version, which will be a higher resolution file cut direct from our master recording, is like.
 
We're cleaning up a few glitches. So when you subscribe, you should automatically be upgraded within a moment or so, and see a tab labeled The Paracast+. A few of our early subscribers weren't properly upgraded, so we have done it manually. Please write directly or open a conversation if there's a problem getting your subscription activated. We'll get past this shortly.
 
We had a few already, but the interface is still glitchy and will be updated through the day till we have everything operating.
 
Afternoon update. When you subscribe, you are automatically given access to our premium area, and will see a premium forum on our home page for discussions about The Paracast+.

We had some early launch glitches, but you should see the new content now. It only takes a moment or two after your subscription is processed. If you have any problems, drop us a note via Contact Us below, or open a private conversation with me.
 
Thanks Gene, Chris & Goggs Mackay. I have subscribed to the + ad free version of the podcast as of five minutes ago. Hopefully this will encourage me to listen religiously to your show. Since working full-time this year I've done very little podcast listening. I've subscribed to some plus versions of UFO and paranormal podcasts. I have so much to catch up on. I'll try to listen for a couple of hours a day to your back catalogue to catch up.

- Digital_Archivist
 
Thanks of joining.

As of now, I've also added a rudimentary shoutbox, or chat feature. For those who are subscribers, you'll see a Chat Room item in the forum's nav bar. For now, it's just to talk amongst yourselves, but we'll try to add more powerful features, such as scheduled chats, as time goes by.
 
Well, it's reassuring to know that the ad free version still has Teddy Bear (?) and the paracast promos with Don Ecker et al.
 
One more thing:

If you want to upgrade or downgrade your Paracast+ membership, it's not automatic. You would first go to your PayPal account and cancel the subscription to stop the regular billing, and sign up again here using the option you prefer.

I wished there's a more seamless way to do this, but it's partly due to the PayPal integration scheme, and we have to live without unless a better way is devised.

Once everything is fleshed out, I'll do a new FAQ to cover the process.
 
I have no expectations. It's just too early in the game. The word has just gone out, and we need to push it on the show so people who don't generally visit the forum know it's available. From a practical matter, it should work. If it doesn't, we have to do better.
 
Hope I'm not sounding stupid, but does the Paracast + just apply to live streaming and downloads? I've actually been listening lately through Stitcher because of a couple particular features they offer (keeps your place, has a sleep timer, etc) It'll be great to just download a straight 2.5 hrs or so podcast from the Paracast....
I'll be putting in for my year scrip by the end of the week....
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Stop the presses! I've posted our November 2nd episode with Micah Hanks and Goggs Mackay for your listening pleasure. So you'll see what the ad-free version, which will be a higher resolution file cut direct from our master recording, is like.
Click to expand...

Is the Paracast+ podcast feed available in iTunes or can one only download from the website/forum?
 
Right now, it's just here. In theory there's a way to place a link to premium content in an iTunes feed, and we're looking into it. Anyone with a workable solution is welcome to contact us.
 
I hope it works. Getting people to pay for things these days is like pulling teeth. Apparently many people think just because its on the internet it must be free.
 
True. But a lot of people continue to complain about the number of ads. This is the only workable way to remove the ads, which is to take the HBO approach and charge listeners for essentially ad-free versions of the show. We'll see how it works.
 
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