That is one of the reasons for my suggestionsm it needs a bit of a change up. Is there anyone else that could step in to assist?
I think the topics of the last few have been harder for people to get involved as well. they have been interesting enough but not all have been easy to contribute to. there are some I meant to but time hasn't been on my side recently. you should definitle do a horror themed one for halloween though.

The horror suggestion is a good idea, that would be a fun one for halloween. :] And hopefully that's enough time to find some good horror comics to mention.

I think just some suggestions for interesting topics that we haven't done already would be useful too, since lately we've felt like we're running out of more general-interest ones.

Please do suggest changes, or tell us if there's something you don't like. Zero feedback is harder to deal with then negative! Changes in format or focus can be difficult because they might involve extra work (being demotivated about the qcs/DD already anyway, so trying to find more time for it is hard). But if it's a change or suggestion I can get excited about then no problem… but we've done QCs before which involved lots of research and that's hard for me and oz to keep up week after week. Having guests makes some topics simpler, but then we have the trouble of finding the guest, getting times set up, etc. which is sometimes a little difficult.

Originally we imagined this would just be a brief 20-minute ‘drunk duck news’ type of podcast, so it's definitely grown from there, but I'm not sure where it's going. :]

Anyway I can post up some topics here over the weekend and maybe if people are interested we could put together a rough schedule, topics, etc? Perhaps for the guest ones you guys would be able to suggest people? Or we'd be more than happy to take longer submissions if the submitters are able to talk well about a subject (not that oz and I always do that well). And we're happy to take submissions for non-topic areas as well. Clever ads for people's comics, things like the radio play, different kinds of things…

Reviews, tie it in with the review forum somehow… maybe.
Ghosts of features past, check in on old featured comics. How have they progressed, if they progressed and so on and so forth. perhaps get creators of featured comics to make recordings or scripts.
Longevity, perhaps get some long lasting comic creators to talk about how they have managed to stay focused and the changes they and the comic have been through.

Clever ads for people's comics, things like the radio play, different kinds of things…

That could work people love self promotion.

I like the idea of comic advertisements; the only problem is, everyone with a web comic wants to have it read, so there'll be like a jillion ads!

A radical idea, how about some non-webcomic segments? You know, have a little world news commentary. Something to break the mold. Yes, I know it then becomes less QC and more NPR, but it changes things up a bit. Y'know, give your 2-cents about world issues and let people send in recordings for theirs. The debate and discussion forum seems consistently active enough, so people do care about those things.

And nowsome regular-QC topic ideas…
-Humor: best served clean, or with a side of naughty? Give shout-outs to some DD comics that are legitimately funny with/out swears and raunchiness.
-Sprite comics: there's an infinite number of them out on the internet, but are any of them worth looking at? Can you or other DD'ers think of sprite comics that aren't a waste of time?
-Offline advertising: how do you advertise outside of the internet? Would you use business cards? Viral marketing? Word of mouth?
-Halloween: yes, it's here. Got any scary stories you share among family and friends?

And I think I would be down for a guestcast. Problem is I don't think I have a straight hour or so of free time to do a QC at the moment. Not to mention that I'm a stick-figure drawing, non-artist over-opinionatedlayman; so my knowledge of most of these topics are limited :P

Maybe a Quackcast segment that visits old forum threads? Just in General Discussion there's gems like:

How does your brain “say” peoples usernames?

Does your state/country have any werid Alien/UFO stories?

What isnt there a day for?

Announce 2 or 3 weeks ahead of time which thread will be resurrected and have a guest host who handles just that thread portion of that quackcast. The guest host could send PQs to those who posted (anything to add or retract?), or just randomly PQ other DDers collect quotes/recordings from say 3 - 5 people, adding up to maybe 15? 20? mins?

minimal scripting

I have no FRICKIN' clue how you guys even plan the quackcasts anyway =D if it's something spontaneous most of the time then surely i can participate!
i'd love to be a guest presenter. I'm a spontaneous guy and i USUALLY know how to ramble for extended periods of time.
but i'd kinda need to know what it is you guys do to prepare for one and how you record them (hopefully i won't be the one recording cuz my computer's a bitch about that) and i wouldn't be able to do an actual one until like november.
either way i'm all for it, maybe you guys can switch out, make a randomized system to get random sets of people talking to eachother, or at least set various duos of users for these things and switch ‘em around for each one that has a good topic of discussion, I call harkovast! (lol, but i’ll take anyone, you guys rock)

I…got nothing…

Good luck with finding ideas. Ho hum.

OK guys, we've got topics for the next 3 or so, which will be recorded on the next 3 saturdays probably:


1. website/design (not technical, more about design elements, things you need, logos, etc.)
2. horror (for halloween! could do with a guest)
3. fans/fandoms (probably need a big guest) or comiclongevity (also probably need a guest)

So how do y'all want to participate here? Should I make separate threads for these? We'd love to get the usual types of contributions, but also examples and so on are good. And we'll surely need some horror comics, maybe some sort of discussion about horror as a genre? Suggestions for guests for the fandoms/longevity ones? (We could also have a guest for the horror one, no expertise required, just someone to join us!)

The only one I could really do anything for would be horror. Would I be up for being a guest? Maybe. Am I free, maybe not. Would I be any good… I have doubts. i should at least be able to get something together… I hope. Moving huse makes timr limited but I can try.

I think it might be an interesting Quackcast if a team of DDers wrote a new comic live on the air. Take experts in the fields of fantasy, horror, love and such stuff and show how easy it can be to come up with new ideas. Throw in some theories about how people should brainstorm and end up with a brand new comic. And then take a team of people and actually create the first issue.

Actually, now that you moved recordings to Saturday, it is much more feasible for me to help out with something around Award time. I haven't been commital because I thought you were still doing it on Thursdays.

Kroatz wrote:
I think it might be an interesting Quackcast if a team of DDers wrote a new comic live on the air. Take experts in the fields of fantasy, horror, love and such stuff and show how easy it can be to come up with new ideas. Throw in some theories about how people should brainstorm and end up with a brand new comic. And then take a team of people and actually create the first issue.

This is an awesome idea; it's kind of like the Radio Play comic. Have a bunch of ducks together, let them come up with a feasible idea within the timeframe of the QC, and then maybe see it happen! I like it.

It has some merit, would require some serious commitment.

Niccea- usually when we have a guest on we do it Saturdays anyway (most of them have been in the US). So you didn't have to worry about that.

The collaborative comic thing is interesting- it would take some planning but if someone is willing to head up organization I think it's doable, and a neat idea. (Aside from any issues getting people to draw the pages)

NickyP wrote:
Kroatz wrote:
I think it might be an interesting Quackcast if a team of DDers wrote a new comic live on the air. Take experts in the fields of fantasy, horror, love and such stuff and show how easy it can be to come up with new ideas. Throw in some theories about how people should brainstorm and end up with a brand new comic. And then take a team of people and actually create the first issue.


This is an awesome idea; it's kind of like the Radio Play comic. Have a bunch of ducks together, let them come up with a feasible idea within the timeframe of the QC, and then maybe see it happen! I like it.

i'd like to participate in something like this.

I would be interested in being involved but not sure that 'd be able to head it up, at least not for a few weeks.

If you ever need like a nerdy anime/manga type of person on the quackcast i might actually be a decent choice to choose as a guest (unless someone else claims to have read over 200 manga series and watched at least 100 anime series).
Cuz it seemed you lacked a bit of anime insight in the last quackcast XD of course im up for being a guest whenever i think i have time and i think im an ‘expert’ on the subject..
But i doubt any of these quackcasts will be about liquor or things like that… Maybe mundanity… Thats really what i know most about… Mundanity in drawing.. God im boring…

RPGgrenade wrote:
I have no FRICKIN' clue how you guys even plan the quackcasts anyway =D if it's something spontaneous most of the time then surely i can participate!
i'd love to be a guest presenter. I'm a spontaneous guy and i USUALLY know how to ramble for extended periods of time.
but i'd kinda need to know what it is you guys do to prepare for one and how you record them (hopefully i won't be the one recording cuz my computer's a bitch about that) and i wouldn't be able to do an actual one until like november.
either way i'm all for it, maybe you guys can switch out, make a randomized system to get random sets of people talking to eachother, or at least set various duos of users for these things and switch ‘em around for each one that has a good topic of discussion, I call harkovast! (lol, but i’ll take anyone, you guys rock)

The randomization thing is interesting! Hopefully something like that would work out OK with the timezones involved and so on. We'd have to figure out a pool of interested people first.

As far as planning the QC goes…. well, we generally decide on a topic (hopefully with at least a week's lead-time), then we have a google docs area where we make a document and throw a general outline together. Depending on the topic it goes a little differently. The more informational ones we put some notes in (depending how much research we think we need to do or feel like doing). If it's more conversational then we'll just write down some general topics we could talk about and might be an interesting subject. If it's an interview, we do the interesting topics thing and also try to write some specific questions to ask. We used to be more rigorous about this but as we got more comfortable doing the QCs (and more lazy about them) they've been more informal.

And in response to your other post, I'm sure we'll need a nerdy anime/manga type person. :] Maybe there's a quackcast we could do about web-manga as a genre… And heck there's always just ‘general co-host’ because it's not like oz and I are experts on everything either, sometimes we just have to talk our best.

The randomization thing is a fun plan, but i think it's better we have a group of people, the next several topics and ideas, and the dates, and people can say which one they want to be in if they have the time for it.
That'd probably be the msot organized version it could have.
but there's also my other idea of there being several groups of people that are always the ones commenting together like you and Oz, but that's probably harder.
also as web-mangas go… i'm usually not a big fan since most of them strike me as visually boring… but i you want me to read one I'll read it, and i know a bit too much about manga and anime for my own good, because i've read ones from every single genre ever.

I think RPGgrenade wants to be on the quackcast a lot. :P
My ideas for future quackcasts:

- Live create a comic. (Already mentioned that one.)
- Analysing famous superheroes. (What makes a hero, why do people read certain heroes and not others?)
- Comics as a medium. (How does it compare to other media, is it literature?)
- Future uses of comics. (How can WE help comics evolve, what possible uses are there for comics that haven't been discovered yet?)
- Protecting your rights. (What can you do to protect your rights as an autor in this digital wasteland?)
- Inspiration. (How to get inspired, clothing, landscapes and cities.)

Kroatz. Being a regular on the quackcast is just my second step in my takeover plan. Soon i will control you all with my strange way of being nice muahahahahaa!!!!

Who said that?

I think the Quackcast that ties into the DD Awards should be the one recorded on the 12th after the awards are wrapping up. That way I don't accidently drop spoilers. (I'm terrible at keeping secrets).

Yep, ok, It's a plan!

Anyway, PQs currently suck, I've no idea when I have one and they freeze my brozer for about 10 seconds trying to load, so I hate even checking them.
If you want to coordinate QC stuff with me, messages through Facebook work really great, so if you've got an FB account and want to talk about Quackcast stuff, add me: http://www.facebook.com/ozoneocean

OK, the one we're recording this weekend is about Fans and Fandoms! If anyone has anything to send about that, then please do so before Sunday! :]

skoolmunkee wrote:
OK, the one we're recording this weekend is about Fans and Fandoms! If anyone has anything to send about that, then please do so before Sunday! :]

what do you mean by ‘fandom’ anyways? I'm probably way too late to be able to send in anything. But I'd at least like to know what I could've sent in, the title alone kinda gets vague and confusing for me.

Yeah you're too late unfortunately. If oz posts his upcoming topics though, contribute something to those!

A fandom is basically a fan community, so like a bunch of Doctor Who fans all get together and talk about doctor who and do doctor who things like fan art or projects or something, and basically just feed off themselves, so being in a fandom might become just as important to a person as the source material.

Ok well I hope that the future topics are actually written in a way that i could actually know what it is you want me to say so i don't speak completely out of context or something. It's been so long since I've been able to contribute to the quackcast… i don't even remember what the last thing i sent in was…. world building?
Well that's not important. just a light explanation of what you'll be tlaking about within the topic is more than enough for me to come up with something… unless like a lot of the recent ones i have no idea what to say.

I'm sorry, I guess I thought it was self-explanitory. :I

You might do well to send a PQ if the next topic hasn't been announced yet, as a reminder to post it early enough for people to have time to send something. I kind of feel like that's prompting you guys to bug oz though, because I don't think I'll be doing any more quackcasts after my vacation. I'm pretty burned out on them and the admin stuff is just taking so much time now.

skoolmunkee wrote:
I'm sorry, I guess I thought it was self-explanitory. :I

You might do well to send a PQ if the next topic hasn't been announced yet, as a reminder to post it early enough for people to have time to send something. I kind of feel like that's prompting you guys to bug oz though, because I don't think I'll be doing any more quackcasts after my vacation. I'm pretty burned out on them and the admin stuff is just taking so much time now.

then you guys might want to think of a quick little topic to post to recruit a certain number of willing quackcast people to join Oz or plain do the quackcast themselves, the fact the quackcast is also a community thing also might be reinforced by this possible way of doing things… I'd sign up right away… now for when i could actually do them that's a different story.