behindthepod: a microphone from up close, BTP written over it (Default)
BehindThePodMod ([personal profile] behindthepod) wrote in [community profile] bethepod2021-01-03 02:14 pm
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Series 3: Party Favour Rules

Liked the idea of Behind the Pod but didn’t feel up to the full timeline? Have an idea but didn’t get around to making it happen? Missed an episode check-in or deadline? Just want a low-commitment option? Party Favours might be for you!

There is no need to sign up - Party Favours will have no check-ins, and no mod interaction until submission, unless you want it. We’ll give you everything you need to make a Party Favour right here, a submission deadline, and then it’s all yours! The Resources & Templates folder (where you can find Audacity screenshots, metadata, cover images, intro & outro WAV files, and everything else) is here:
(GDRIVE LINK)

Submission of Party Favours closes on Sunday 30th May. (Please note that this date has been changed as of Mon 1st Feb.)
All Party Favours will be published after all episodes have been published.

Complete Party Favour rules and information below the cut:

Editing & file wrangling info:

In order to maintain a consistent listening experience across all our Party Favours, please follow these guidelines for editing and exporting your files. If you need help with anything at any point, please contact us! (These instructions are focused on Audacity users, but please get in touch if you aren’t an Audacity user and need any help.)

  • Include your name(s) and a brief summary of which topic(s) you intend to cover at the beginning of your audio.
  • Please add the party favour_intro.wav and party favour_outtro.wav files to your project before and after your own audio. No need to add silence at the start/end of your audio, we’ve put some in the intro and outro files already.
  • Please import the Volume_Guide.mp3 file into your audio editing software and then adjust your volume levels using your normal adjustment methods, if necessary. There are additional instructions in this mp3 file, so do give this method a try! If you have any difficulty, let us know!
    • You can also check the volume visually by comparing your zoomed-out audio wave to the volume_guide_screenshot.jpg.
    • In general, try to get any different voices in your audio as similar to each other in volume as possible, so that it’s easy for the listener to follow along. Also, as a rule, louder is better.
    • If you’d rather do it by numbers: aim to have your peak volume around 0.9 on the vertical scale at the side of Audacity window, or 0.9 of a full wave (this can also be achieved by inputting -1.0dB Peak Amplitude when using the Amplify tool in Audacity). Also aim to keep your average volume between 0.2 and 0.5 on the Audacity vertical side scale, estimating by eye.
  • Export your file in:
  • Add metadata to your files.
  • Or, add your metadata as below, changing the information which is in parentheses (like this):
    • Artist Name: (Name 1, Name 2, etc)
    • Track Title: [BtP] (Choose the name of your episode!)
    • Album Title: Behind the Pod, Series 3
    • Track Number: -
    • Year: 2021
    • Genre: Podmeta
    • Comments: Behind the Pod Series 3: Party Favour. (any additional info eg. links to things referred to, content warnings, etc)
    • Album Artist: Behind the Pod
  • Add one of the cover art images, found in the Posting subfolder (Gdrive link), to both of your files. You can do that using software such as Mp3tag (link to download site). You can also add/change metadata with Mp3tag.If you are unsure how to do this, please let us know. There are two cover options in that folder:
    • BtP pf cover_customise.png, which is a template for you to use if you’d like to add your own title and name(s) to create your own unique cover image.
    • BtP pf cover_generic.png, which you can use as a ready-made cover image without altering anything.
    • We are leaving the choice to you!
  • If you wish to make your own cover and match the cover font, then you can either use Arial, or install Liberation Sans font from the TrueType font file: LiberationSans-Regular.ttf.

Posting info:

  • Create an AO3 work using AO3_posting-1.jpg & AO3_posting-2.jpg, and AO3 posting template_HTML.txt.
    • The templates contain relevant tags, and the posting HTML. Please feel free to add more additional tags as you see fit to describe your discussion.
    • Choosing the summary and title are up to you.
    • It is also up to you to appropriately judge the rating and Major Archive Warnings applicable to your work. If you are unsure about this, please get in touch with us.
  • Add the Behind the Pod account as a co-creator: BehindThePod.
  • Add your AO3 work to the Behind the Pod - Series 3 collection: BtP_series3.
  • If you have your own hosting method(s), please use that, and we will mirror the files on our own hosting and add those links in afterwards. If you don’t have your own hosting method, mention that when you contact us, and we will host it for you.

Submitting:

Finally, send us an email with a link to the AO3 work so that we have your contact details and know which work is yours. Mention in your email anything you’d like mod help with, such as hosting!

Miscellaneous info:

  • If you would like to add a transcript to your work at any point, please add it as a second chapter.

  • We will be encouraging people to leave audio comments (aka talkback) as a way to contribute to the discussion, and some commenters may also be doing that on a dedicated Dreamwidth discussion post for your Party Favour, which will go live closer to the posting date, and will be linked on your AO3 post. You may wish to turn on alerts for this post to keep track of any discussion.

Important links: intro/rules post - FAQ/questions post - content moderation policy - sign-up & submission post - contact post