by Doc

Editor’s Note:

“Thank you” to everyone in the gaming community for supporting this effort. Late last night, iTunes restored their subcategory podcast listings. This post is being left up for archiving purposes, however, at this time, no further action or emails are necessary. (Unless you want to thank Apple for addressing this issue so quickly)

Sarcastic Gamer, and countless other podcasters, need YOUR help.

In what appears to be a rather RANDOM decision, Apple has decided to eliminate the subcategory pages on iTunes. Instead of seeing new and interesting podcasts, when you click on “Games and Hobbies”, or “Video Games”, you get an incomplete laundry list of random podcasts. Many of those shows are defunct, abandoned, or unlistenable. This leaves podcasts, like Sarcastic Gamer, in a very scary no man’s land, where noone can discover the show. We’re not the only ones. Our entire GCN Family seems to have been left off of the list.

It’s not fair to the shows that consistently provide iTunes content, enriching the iTunes experience for its users, to abandon these pages, in the manner that Apple has done. Now, most of the shows that you can discover are those produced by large networks and “Featured Content Providers.”

On behalf of all podcasters, including your GCN family of providers, we would like you to consider writing a brief note to Apple, asking them to please bring back the subcategory featured listings in iTunes. Should you (a) agree with our position, and (b) decide to contribute 2 minutes of your time to this effort, we ask that you be brief, specific, and courteous in your message to Apple. Simply ask them to bring back the subcategory pages on iTunes so that independent podcasts can continue to find new audiences, thus enriching their iTunes experiences. The email form is at the bottom of the following page.

Under category, be sure to choose OTHER PODCAST QUESTION.

Here’s the link.

On behalf of every independent podcaster, like Sarcastic Gamer, thank you for your time and assistance. We truly appreciate your help.

Take a moment and join the Sarcastic Gamer forums.
Already a member? Discuss this topic now.

by Jeromy “Doc” Adams

iTunes is driving me to an early grave. After weeks of DO_NOT_REPLY confirmation emails and empty assurances that the podcast would appear “within hours”, our Podcast is finally showing up…. sorta. Nobody can really search for it, but if you use the link below, you can officially subscribe to our show without jumping through any flaming hoops or workarounds. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE to the Sarcastic Gamer Podcast in iTunes. This will also send you to the page that you need to visit in order to leave your GLOWING review of the show.

If you use another piece of software, the orange link on the main page should continue to work just fine for you.

Hopefully this headache is waning. I do not know how long it will be before we will be listed in the podcast directory. I think we need to achieve a certain degree of notoriety. Or maybe Apple are just butt heads.

Today, our podcast subscribers will be the first to download the now-infamous “Sarcastic Gamer News” segments, heard in the last episode. Additionally, we’ll be posting more of those stories to the Podcast as a way of saying “thanks for subscribing”.

So get iTunes, or another Podcatcher, and get subscribed.

What kind of Podcatcher do you use? Are you still having any difficulty subscribing? Please use our FORUMS to let us know!

by Jeromy “Doc” Adams

Several of you have asked why you couldn’t find the podcast in iTunes. Apparently there were some technical difficulties on their end. I just read an email that assured me our iTunes availablity will begin this evening. Thank you for your patience.