bethepod | Series 4: 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? Want a low-commitment option? Party Favours might be for you!

There's 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 5th June.
All Party Favours will be published after all episodes have been published.

Complete Party Favour rules and information below the cut:

Editing & file wrangling

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 try to match the overall volume of your file to the volume of the intro and outro files. If you have more than one speaker in your episode, try to adjust any large differences in volume and bring their volume levels closer together, so that it’s easy for the listener to follow along.
Export your file as an mp3.
- Optionally, export this mp3 in mono and at 64kbps. If you’re not sure how to do this, take a look at this (link to Audacity manual), and export_audacity_mp3.jpg.
- Optionally, also export your file as either m4a OR m4b, also in mono and at 64kbps. If you are unsure how to do this, take a look at the Audacity manual (link to Audacity manual), and both export_audacity_m4a_1.jpg & export_audacity_m4a_2.jpg.
- If you have any trouble with exporting, let us know!
- If you use effects that need stereo (panning, etc), export your file(s) in stereo.
Add metadata to your file(s), including the names of performers, title of your episode and “Behind the Pod Series 4”.
- Please see the metadata_mp3tag.jpg screenshot for an example of how to input metadata in Mp3tag, see the metadata_audacity_export.jpg screenshot for an example of how to add your metadata while exporting from Audacity, or you can import the metadata_audacity_template.xml file as an Audacity tag template.
Optionally, 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 4
- Track Number: -
- Year: 2022
- Genre: Podmeta
- Comments: Behind the Pod Series 4: Party Favour. (any additional info eg. links to things referred to, content warnings, etc)
- Album Artist: Behind the Pod
Optionally, add one of the cover art images, found in the Posting subfolder (Gdrive link), to your file(s). (You can do that using software such as Mp3tag (link to download site)). If you have any problems with 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 you can add 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

Create an AO3 work using our templates: AO3_posting-1.jpg & AO3_posting-2.jpg, and AO3 posting template_HTML.txt.
- These 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 a 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 4 collection: BtP_series4.
If you have your own hosting method(s), please upload your episode there, and we will mirror the files on our own hosting (on the Internet Archive). If you don’t have your own hosting method, mention that when you contact us in the next step, 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

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

If you have difficulty with any part of the Party Favour process, let us know in the comments here, or get in touch with us directly by email: behindthepod@gmail.com

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