bethepod | Series 3: Intro & Rules

Welcome to Behind the Pod, a platform for podfic meta discussions!

Your mods are Annapods, Eafay and frecklebomb.

Behind the Pod is a podcast about the backstage processes of podfic, with audio essays, interviews, and other meta discussion by different podficcers each episode. You can find all previous episodes on our AO3 page.

Behind the Pod started because we wanted to highlight and archive the meta discussions about podfic that were already happening on twitter, discord, tumblr, at in-person meet-ups and in private chats. What better way to do that than through an audio challenge?

This series is shorter (and sweeter?), and has a brand new content moderation policy, and we're already excited for what everyone will be talking about!

Rules

Schedule:

Sun 10 Jan: Sign-ups open
Sun 31 Jan: Sign-ups close
Sun 28 Feb: Discussion post 1
Sun 21 Mar - Sat 27 Mar: Mandatory check-in (& discussion post 2)
Sun 18 Apr: Episode submission deadline
Sun 02 May: Weekly episode posting begins
Sun 30 May: Party Favour submission deadline (Please note that this has been changed as of Mon 1 Feb.)
(Party Favours will be posted the week after all episodes have been published.)

Deadlines until the 28th March (the mandatory check-in) will be at 23:59 Central European Time - link to convert to local time. Deadlines from the 29th March will be at 23:59 Central European Summer Time - link to convert to local time.

Signing up:

You can sign up as a group or as a solo project. There is no minimum or maximum audio length and no set topics of discussion or restrictions on the format you use - other than following the content moderation guidelines. Complete one signup form per group/person (link to google form here) - you can find more information on the sign-up and submission guidelines post.

Party favours do not require any sign-ups - just submit your episode by the deadline. You can find more information on the party favour info post.

Check-ins:

There will be one mandatory check-in for episode creators from the 21st to the 27th of March. This will be sent out by email, and all we’ll ask you to do is respond to that email to tell us that you’re still participating. There will also be a discussion post/informal optional check-in along the way, and we'll send you a reminder about that by email too, but it’s up to you if you want to make use of it. We will be here if you have any questions, need help, or just want to chat about your project. There will be no extensions for check-ins or submissions. Missing one will mean you are removed from the episode schedule, but will still be able to submit your project as a party favour.

If you sign up as a group, everybody will get an email at the mandatory check-in, but as long as at least one person responds, we will consider your group checked-in. The person who answered will be responsible for making sure the whole group is on track.

Party favour creators have no mandatory check-in. However, if you’re making a party favour, you are welcome to participate in either of the discussion posts and to keep us and other participants updated on your progress!

Submissions/posting:

After the episode submission deadline, we will be posting one episode a week. Submissions are via google form (link to google form here) and you can find more information on the sign-up and submission guidelines post. We will not be editing your audio, so do any editing you feel is necessary before you submit.

Party favours will all be revealed at the same time, after the episodes have all been posted. You can submit your party favour by making an AO3 draft and then sending us an email so we know who has created which work - see the party favour rules post for more info.

We will be posting on AO3, crossposting here on the DW comm, and shouting about every episode and party favour on twitter and the podfic discord. We are also considering using a podcast platform in the future, but you can opt in or out of that possibility when you submit.

Content Moderation

New for this series, along with the shorter schedule, is a content moderation policy - see the full content moderation rules here. As mods, it's important to us for as many people as possible to feel safe while participating in this challenge, and while listening to the series, especially those who are usually marginalised in fandom. Having rules on content moderation here is just one way of trying to expand the conversation on anti-racism in fandom, and we hope the resources we've linked to there might spark some conversations which might not have started otherwise.

You can subscribe to us on the Archive at behindthepod, and follow us on twitter at bethepod as the series comes out.