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Submitted by mauzenne on
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The older podcasts are not in the RSS feed; why is that?

Unfortunately, there is a practical limit on the size of the RSS feed for the podcast. Essentially, the RSS feed is downloaded from our website THOUSANDS of times a day (even on an hourly basis). If the size of the RSS file is too large, it starts to have negative impacts on the performance of the site. And the size of the file is directly related to the number of podcasts contained within. Although it may change, the the size of the standard RSS feed is currently limited to 60.

 

On the other hand, Registered Members (free) get access to the Members-Only feed which contains ALL the podcasts.  You can find out more about that on our RSS Feeds page.

coombes's picture

Is it possible to select which podcasts appear in the RSS feed, or is the selection process entirely automatic?

There seem to be a number of your podcasts which act as a foundation to much of what you say: namely your discussions on the feedback model, one-on-ones and the coaching model. As a service to new subscribers would it be possible to always have these podcasts appear in the feed?

mauzenne's picture
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Yes, it's possible to select those podcasts in the RSS feed. It would however require a little customization of Wordpress, as by default it simply selects the last X number of podcasts.

I agree with you though. There are some foundational podcasts that are almost required listening because 1) we make reference to them in subsequent podcasts, and 2) they're just that good ;-)

I'm thinking perhaps of just building another RSS feed that is simply a "Best of Manager Tools" feed.

regards,
Mike

P.S. And Lionel, I haven't forgotten about the "Archives" RSS feed either! ;-)

indiana's picture

I understand that I can't access old podcasts anymore via itunes, that's ok I can still download them as MP3 files and play them on my computer. My issues is loading them to my ipod.

Downloading as mp3 files (ie a right-click 'save target as' download) means you lose the extra info that you get from itunes- title, the description, the summary of the podcast, genre etc.

As a result these orphan mp3 files don't have any genre- ie not music or podcast and I can't get itunes to sync them (unless I do a 'recently added' playlist).

I have tried to edit properties but that only renames the file. How can I edit the properties of the archive podcast MP3 files so I can see the descriptions in my ipod?

Any help would be gratefully accepted. :P

juliahhavener's picture
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Mine show up under 'Music>Artist>Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman'.

The titles are the file names, which use a dated naming convention, so not quite as pretty as ones received via the RSS feed, but it works.

aspiringceo's picture

[quote="indiana"]Any help would be gratefully accepted. :P[/quote]

In Itunes right click on the "orphan" file and select [i]get info [/i]you can then rename that file with a meaningful description e.g Single most effective management tool P1. From that tab you can also change the [i]genre[/i] to podcast or whatever you want and if you want add comments. Repeat this for all the MT files not stored as a podcast.
You might want to think about creating a [i]smart playlist [/i]instead of a standard playlist and check the [i]live updating [/i]box.
Finally plug your ipod into your pc and again when in Itunes click on your ipod under [i]devices[/i] , then on the main screen click on [i]music[/i] and then check your selected smart playlist and this will allow automatic syncing.

Hope this is of some help
Ed

mauzenne's picture
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Ok, everyone (at least everyone interested enough in this particular topic), I'm putting out a call for beta-testers.

We now have a feed for Registered Members Only that not only contains ALL the weekly podcasts, but also the Registered Members Only Monthly show ... all in ONE CONVENIENT FEED. Adding the feed to iTunes or your podcast aggregator of choice will require you enter your Manager Tools userid and password; other than that, it *should* (and hence the "beta" part of this) work as usual.

It's been tested on iTunes and Lemon; however, I highly suspect there will be some aggregators that *won't* work. We'll see; protected RSS feeds is an area that still requires some standards work.

Any takers, please send me a private message and I'll forward you the details.

regards,
Mike

aspiringceo's picture

If you want some more testing using itunes & ipod I'll volunteer

indiana's picture

[quote="aspiringceo"] In Itunes right click on the "orphan" file and select [i]get info [/i]you can then rename that file with a meaningful description
[/quote]
Thanks, will try that Ed.
[quote="aspiringceo"]
You might want to think about creating a [i]smart playlist [/i]instead of a standard playlist and check the [i]live updating [/i]box. [/quote]

Is a smart playlist when you create your own mixes eg gym music, party mix etc? If so then I do that.. Based on Juliahdoyle's helpful tip below I found my old mp3 files and added them to a playlist.

[quote="juliahdoyle"]
Mine show up under 'Music>Artist>Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman'. [/quote]

aspiringceo's picture

[quote="indiana"]Is a smart playlist when you create your own mixes eg gym music, party mix etc? If so then I do that..[/quote]

With an ordinary playlist you just drag and drop from your library to the playlist. A smart playlist (the icon for it has a little cog)is a song /cast/file list which is updated automatically depending a set of rules.

To create a smart playlist:

Choose “New Smart Playlist” from the File Menu.

Then, choose the criteria for iTunes to build your smart playlist.

Eg Artist is Michael Auzenne
Genre is podacst
and so on. You can add as much criteria as you want

Make sure that you check the "match all the following rules" box

To have iTunes continually modify your Smart Playlist as files are added to or removed from your library, make sure "Live updating" is selected.

To finish your Smart Playlist, click OK, then name the playlist in the Source list.

Any files / casts in your library that match the settings you chose are added to the playlist.

Hope this helps
Edmund

indiana's picture

Many thanks aspiringceo, will try that.

lou's picture

Mike, are you optionally gzipping and setting the eDate on your RSS feed? That could reduce your volume by more than 80%.

mauzenne's picture
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No. Unfortunately, one of the Wordpress plugins I'm using won't allow for that. Thanks though! :-)

desharri's picture

I look forward to listening to the members only podcasts I've been missing. The link to itunes easy. Thanks for announcing on the regular podcasts that this new feed was available after a couple times hearing it I remebered to go do it.