One of my favorite sayings about socialism is:
“When you give away something for free, there will always be infinite demand and never be enough supply”.
So welcome to the brave new world. I don’t want or need your money – but when people don’t “pay” for stuff they get, they don’t appreciate it – and when it is withdrawn, they can become resentful to loss of their entitlement.
The currency of the realm in the new StreamingRadioGuide is “points”. They still have no monetary value, but they now have a tangible value. Think of this as a case study in what the future of the United States will be like.
Perhaps other people will fill the void giving away free Cheeze. Perhaps someone will create something this useful and fund it by monetizing their click streams. Maybe only 20 people think this is worth “paying” for.
The first tangible sign of my new “paradigm” (I hate that word) is that streaming-radio.php – the page that lists all radio stations of a particular genre – now requires you to be logged in. If you want to “Sort by Show Name”, which seems to have been popular (and hammered the server), you now must have 1,000,000 volunteer points. That number might change in the future – but it’s a trial balloon.
If I wind up with only 5 people using the system, then so be it. Time will tell if America is really ready to undo socialism and start over.
Brilliant!
There are maybe a half dozen people who have run off and gone into the Free Cheeze business. They’re going to find out shortly their supply of Free Milk (the .csv files) will no longer be available. Pretty much anyone with minimal web skills can take those .csv files and slap up a web site in a day. The work is in maintaining the data. Probably 20 or 30 of those stations will change every day, and lists of affiliates constantly change.
Streaming companies, music rights owners and radio station owners can be expected to knock on their doors if they see a revenue stream…. and good luck getting visible in Google in the first year.
Enjoy!
I grabbed the .csv file for radio stations last week, so not sure if I’m one of the people to whom you’re referring. As I mentioned in my email, the station file was there , but the .csv (relational data) for ‘station/program/sched’ was not.
It was obvious a long time ago that the upkeep of the schedule table was the main issue… not to mention bandwidth, hosting fees, TIME, etc. Thus, I have no intention of offering ‘free cheeze’ of the quality that you have provided. 😉
I have a background in media marketing and the music industry, and your comments about ‘knocks on the door’ by people looking for $$$ is correct.
A few years ago, I developed an custom app for Radio/TV/Print ad-buying (local and national markets) which, of course, handled a very large data set.
That said, I’m still interested in a copy of the other tables (old or recent) to import into my desktop database (Visual FoxPro 9) and experiment with it.
Trust me, I don’t have the time to do anything like the SRG, but would like to work on a new prototype in my spare moments. The sched data would help.
I only know of one case so far on the “free milk and cheese” scenario, but it will be fun to watch. Having tested for SRG for quite some time, I know it’s more than a full time job for several people. Throwing up a csv file on a web site can’t and won’t work.
Fred….please forgive my lack of knowledge about what transactions are available whereby one may earn the points…i am uncertain as to how i can attain 1,000,000 volunteer points….is it via the “testing” process?…..are there a specific number of points earned for each task/test accomplished?….is that how it works?
Yes, testing is the main method. Setting topics for a show may also award points.
If I wanted to accumulate points, I would go to the “What’s on page”
http://johngalt.streamingradioguide.com/streaming-radio-stations.php
and look for things that say “Needs Test”, and click on that and complete the test.
It might be helpful to increase the number of stations per show to get more stations to show up (or go to the All Streams page for a show).
The # of points is based on a combination of how important the link is and how long it hasn’t been tested. Currently, it’s capped at 25,000 points – which means it could take 40 tests to reach 1 million. It is also skewed to give more points to people just starting to test.
The “down side” of going down this path is people could be motivated to click “Yes, it worked” when they didn’t actually listen. I have the ability to double check behind testing for new testers if they just want to game the system.
okay……thank you for the very clear instructions for a semi-newbie 🙂
Actually, my explanation is evolving as I make sure the doors of the cheeze factory aren’t wide open 🙂
Most people who have or ever cared about points were in the Volunteer program – that works as described above. The “anyone can do it” (testing using the Needs test” gave a fixed number of points (25,000). I’m modifying it to match the volunteer method, but I’m still working out the issues with doing that.
One of the risks (as I mentioned a few days ago) of doing this is I become the full time “points police”, which kind of defeats the whole idea – and quickly can end up pissing off people (including me).
sure…i understand your concerns about the whole “points police” thing…that would be no fun for you…(note: in the recent poll, i selected the answer along the lines of “normal guy with a hobby”)
i was actually realizing the explanation you provided to my earlier questions about protocol…was on a different thread from some other instructions you put forth….
and since, as you indicate above, your explanation is evolving….any thought to perhaps putting an “open thread”…or “instructions thread”…..and perhaps locking it in place on that black bar at the top…or somewhere at the top….so it would always be readily available as a reference for your participants as you modify/augment/evolve your preferences as you go along……
theses are just my thoughts as a “semi-newbie” as i called myself earlier…because, as you know, i was a reader of the blog before…yet, i had not volunteered my services before in the “testing” process….and therefore, i was unfamiliar with the points system….
thanks for your consideration Fred…
I don’t test for the points. I test when I have extra time, which is seldom. Usually, my time on weekends proves to be the best time for testing. The only thing that bothers me is when I try and test just as a commercial break starts and I wait until the break ends and the show returns; I hit the button which lets you know that I have heard the show. I get a ‘wait 20 or 40 seconds’ before saying I have heard the show. After having waited as long as 3 to 5 minutes, I lose patients and go to another station. Guess that is my being toooooo picky. 😛
Well, there is little to test on the weekends in the programming area. I personally usually spend most of the weekend testing the music stations. Since you only have to listen long enough to hear some of the music playing (after the ads, if any), they go pretty fast.
That should be patience. DUH!
In case anyone is wondering, should worldly events justify it, this is all reversible in about 5 seconds – to just turn off the cloaking device. Each hour today suggests that is more and more likely to happen.
Perhaps people will notice the blogs at some point.
there could be some semi-doofus people out there (the doofi ?)…..of which i was one a while back…..i acknowledge, it did take me a while to “happen upon” the blog as it did appear kind of hidden to me….even once i knew it was there…and i’m speaking of the old SRG…..so surely….the “new blog” in galtland…..might be reeeeaaaaaallllyy “unfindable”…..maybe more so than you want…if you still are embracing the idea of letting more people into atlantis….than are currently finding their way in…as per whatever your stats are….