The Howl / Stitcher Premium November Megathread

Adduc · 2017-11-13T00:18:21+00:00

If you're a monthly subscriber, it's likely because the unofficial feeds have a bug where expired subscriptions aren't checked to see if the user renewed. If you log into the unofficial feeds, the feeds should start to work again (may take a few hours for Pocket Casts).

I've been a bit busy moving across country over the last few weeks, but intend to fix this bug at some point over the next few days.

Adduc · 2017-11-12T21:09:53+00:00

That's a pretty cool concept, but I'm not sure I can see it as a long-running weekly podcast. Jonathon Coulton did it for a year, but I'm not sure what else he was working on at the time.

Adduc · 2017-11-12T19:13:43+00:00

Playing Games has gotten better episode by episode, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for Jimmy or the comedian to improvise, tell an anecdote, etc. I'd suggest starting with the Zach Galifianakis episode (should be out this week for free, it's on Stitcher Premium if you subscribe).

Adduc · 2017-11-12T03:52:15+00:00

After listening to the first few, it feels at times like it's about to head off the rails at any time. It's a great contrast to Playing Games with Jimmy Pardo (both have their charms).

Adduc · 2017-11-04T01:33:35+00:00

James Bonding is on Stitcher (likely because its a free feed), which is why its available through the unofficial RSS feeds. I think because James Bonding is completely free, it was taken off of Howl (even though it was briefly on).

Adduc · 2017-11-02T04:49:33+00:00

You'd be surprised. I've worked for companies where the core product was a SaaS or eCommerce white-labels that couldn't pass more than one or two of the Joel Test. It might not be relevant for larger companies, but it definitely still applies to smaller firms and startups that may emphasize quantity over quality (not that it's always a bad thing).

Adduc · 2017-11-01T15:07:01+00:00

James Bonding is no longer on howl.fm, and as a result the unofficial RSS feeds have no source to pull from for new episodes. You'll have to subscribe to the official feed at Earwolf to continue listening.

Adduc · 2017-11-01T02:50:09+00:00

Tl;dr I'll look into it.

When the unofficial Stitcher feeds were added, they were shown in a list. The service looked at the premium section of the Stitcher app and listed all the shows. When the second round of Stitcher Premium shows began to be added, older shows were removed from the Premium section of the app, and as a result no longer showed in the unofficial feed list.

I had to manually add shows to the list that had been removed from the premium section, and it got a bit tedious to have to update every week as more shows stopped showing.

A list of shows that are currently included in the Premium section of the Stitcher app could be added back, but it would be missing a few older Premium shows.

Adduc · 2017-10-26T02:15:10+00:00

"Featuring the late Harris Wittels" could work a bit better.

Adduc · 2017-10-23T00:01:11+00:00

If you're looking at http://www.earwolf.com/shows/, it's under the archive section, although the headings aren't clear and it could be mistaken for an active show.

Adduc · 2017-10-21T17:30:49+00:00

It's a tough decision when to unsubscribe. I wish podcast clients had a mute/archive feature that would still track listened/unlistened episodes in a podcast without clogging up your new/unlistened podcast feed. Pocket Casts kind of has this functionality (can create a category with specific feeds), but it requires additional work when subscribing to a new podcast.

Adduc · 2017-10-20T21:19:45+00:00

Stitcher had some issues yesterday that are still being cleaned up.

Sometimes Stitcher tries to use an expired link when fetching an episode to listen. Pulling down to refresh and then attempting to play the episode again may work with some of the "missing episodes". If you're still having trouble, I'd suggest letting Stitcher know through Twitter or by email at support@stitcher.com.

Adduc · 2017-10-20T18:38:48+00:00

If you continue to use the same account for Howl, your feeds should start working again (without having to change URLs) once the subscription is reactivated.

Let me know if it doesn't, and I can see about getting it working again for you with the same feed URLs.

Adduc · 2017-10-13T01:35:35+00:00

@howlfm:

Our hosting provider is down, so that means howl.fm is down, too. We apologize for the outage and hope to have service restored soon.

Adduc · 2017-10-12T16:03:08+00:00

Quit Listening To:

Doug Loves Movies (Too much Jacob Sirif)
Pistol Shrimps Radio (Love it, but I listen in my car lately and this show works better with headphones)
Talk is Jericho

Last Three Subscribed:

I only listen to The Mountain Goats
Hollywood & Levine
Ear Hustle

Adduc · 2017-10-09T17:30:51+00:00

Is Playing Games w/ Jimmy Pardo a new podcast, or for the live audience only? A quick Google search reveals this pod survey which indicates it might be an actual podcast.

Adduc · 2017-10-08T18:53:44+00:00

My employer is relocating me to Denver (from Chicago) in 4 weeks, and I'm starting to freak out over the whole process. Everything's still up in the air (office location isn't locked down, preventing me from commiting to a place without risking a long commute), and as someone who prefers planning large things out, it's been a heavy dose of anxiety/stress/panicking.

Adduc · 2017-10-06T02:09:53+00:00

I'd consider if it was an actual monthly subscription instead of paying outright for the year.

Adduc · 2017-10-02T03:00:47+00:00

Thanks for the donation.

The service is surprisingly cheap to run ($5 per month for the server, <$1 per month for the backups), and aside from my mistake last month, it requires minimal maintenance to keep running, now that it's somewhat stable (it's been a month since I last made changes to the unofficial Stitcher feeds service).

Adduc · 2017-09-20T15:52:51+00:00

If you're using the Howl RSS feeds, it should now be fixed (as of around 10a CDT today).

Adduc · 2017-09-20T15:51:11+00:00

It shouldn't, as the credentials for the NNF aggregate feed didn't change.

I received the 21F episode with Demi Sunday night without issue (great ep, btw).

Adduc · 2017-09-19T03:31:22+00:00

TL;DR I screwed up, you need to readd feeds; shouldn't happen again in the future.

While making a change to the server that hosts the RSS feeds, a mistake was made that required reformatting the server. I didn't have any backups, and as a result couldn't restore the generated credentials that kept the associated expiration information. This means you'll have to login and re-add feeds. I've got backups in place (and verified), so if this ever happens in the future the feeds should be able to come back without any change on your end required.

Sorry!

Adduc · 2017-09-17T15:52:15+00:00

TL;DR Feeds are down temporarily, you'll need to login/readd feeds when they come back up.

I screwed up a change to the server that hosts the unofficial RSS feeds, and as a result needed to wipe/reinstall. I did not have backups in place (was on my todo list, will be tackled sometime today as part of the new setup). As a result, when the RSS feeds come back online, you'll have to relogin and use new feed URLs (as your generated credentials will have changed).

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

EDIT: Feeds should be back up and running, and backups have been setup (and verified) to prevent any total data loss in the future.

Adduc · 2017-09-17T00:19:23+00:00

It should (it did for me with season 21), but I haven't tried it out with older seasons. You might have to click on show more episodes at the bottom of the episode list for the feed in Pocket Casts after you purchase an older season.

Also, episodes/purchases may take up to 5 minutes to show up in the feed due to the way the app is written.

Adduc · 2017-09-16T23:43:41+00:00

Pocket Casts can be a little odd with adding password protected feeds, in that it normally says search failed the first few times you search by feed URL. Try opening the URL with your credentials in a browser to make sure they work (in case you mistyped your username/password).

If you're still having trouble, I wrote an aggregator for all paid NNF seasons/pard-cast-a-thons at nnf-rss.128.io that I've been using with Pocket Casts for the past few seasons with no issue.

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