How come Giant Bomb doesn't put timestamps on their bombcast?

Obviously, as you can see I am not a subscriber, so me 'complaining' may seem weak and not worth taking note of, but I was just curious. I came onto Giant Bomb the day it started because I like listening to what the crew has to say about games especially, but I generally don't listen to their podcasts and a large reason (and yes, it may seem petty) is that the videos don't have timestamps. I know a lot of people probably like listening to everything that has to be said, but if I ever watch the bombcast I skip around to a discussion about something I'm interested in and then move on. Timestamps would make it a lot easier to do this.

You don't need to be a subscriber to speak :P.
They've noted times before for navigating around spoiler talk, but timestamps could be useful.
The only issue i'd have with timestamps is people potentially skipping funny moments, i like hearing the staff's opinions but i also like hearing about their lives, their dumb stories, how many people might have missed Ghost Cup this week if they could skip around?

I concur. They don't even list the topics they talk about in order on the description. I just don't have time to listen to the whole thing nowadays. Time stamps would be helpful.

@cikame: No, you don't need to be, but I feel I don't have as much of a say in what we all would like to see for the site considering I don't support them with the subscription. That's fine if so, but I just wanted to ask the question because it would be nice to see. Also, I wouldn't say I don't care about the crew, but I'd honestly rather spend my time doing other things than listen to them talk about buying a bed or buying a car: their day to day lives.

Sometimes they can get into that, and that's great for those that want to listen to them talk about everything, but I'd more often than not rather just skip to specific discussions that interest me at the time. That sounds insensitive, a little arrogant maybe and uncaring, so sorry to anyone that is offended by that. I do care, just not... in that way I guess. I don't know how to make it sound like I'm not an ass about it.

@dudeglove: At first, I wasn't sure what you meant until I checked if that was a username. So, I'm not sure if that was him/her (I guess it was), but I have seen it posted on two bombcasts that I've visited, but it wasn't a consistent thing. It's cool that he/she did that, but I'd like the actual site to implement it if possible.

I agree - it would be good to have this. And @ntm you make a good point well.

It might not be too much busy-work, if it can be part of the recording process. And the potential gains are huge for new listeners, via the published metadata.

It is a bit more work but I think the gain, for the community as a whole, would be pretty significant. At the end of the day it depends on how much effort you want to put into your product. The Bombcast as a whole has been a hit record and then stop type of affair for a while now. They cut out bathroom breaks and slap on the bookeneds and that has been it - if there is a ton more editing involved then I'm not aware of it. That said, it has worked well and that is what the community is used to - but there is nothing wrong with trying to up the game on that. Instead of doing a video version of the Bombcast, which I'm still not quite sure why they do, they could allot the time used for that production to put in timestamps regarding significant conversation points. I mean what IS the point of the video Bombcast? They don't add in anything that makes use of that format, and it must take time from their schedule to edit that and render it out, so why exactly do it? Not to mention that the conversation has now splintered between the Bombcast Premium comments page, Bombcast regular and now Video Bombcast. It's a weird choice on their part.

@dudeglove: I know production is hard, and I thought about the fact that they might not have enough time/people to do that every time. I'm not going to argue whether they should or shouldn't do it, it's simply something that I would like to see. As for that link, I'll check that out. Thanks.

@humanity: Actually, though I can see your point in that it doesn't utilize video in any special way other than showing them on the screen, I much prefer watching podcasts to simply listening to them. I don't know why. I guess I like to see them express themselves not just with voice but with facial expressions and the way they might move their hands. Their individual mannerisms maybe.

The creator of the Overcast podcast app recently released Forecast, a Podcast MP3 encoder with chapters. It's free and might be worth checking out to see if it makes sense to use it.

@humanity: The worst aspect of the video podcast is how it has destroyed discussion of the podcast for people who don't catch it live. Discussion was already split between regular/premium and now also live and archive video.

a lot of podcasts i listen to have timestamps purely because community members volunteer to do the work. maybe that's the answer, since this isn't the first time this issue has been raised (and i seem to recall staff saying they're not interested in doing the work, but i can't quote you an episode number).

the whole live-to-tape setup of the podcast seems like a conscious effort to reduce post-production to near zero- so i doubt this is something the crew is willing to take on.

@jesus_phish: Like I mentioned above, I just don't really see the point of it unless it's purely to push it out onto YouTube and get more eyeballs on it. I know for a long time I didn't really listen to Podcasts and didn't see the point, but I'll waste hours just going from video to video on YouTube. But yah I agree that discussion has become very disjointed now.

Timestamps are something I've wanted for a looong time. I usually just randomly skip ahead when they start talking about a game I don't want spoiled. GB tries their best, but they drop the ball often enough with spoilers that I just don't risk it anymore. It'd be great to know exactly what part of the podcast to skip so that I don't miss anything.

Wouldn't timestamps make it so that hardly anyone listens to the ads anymore? If i was sponsoring a podcast and see them post timestamps to circumvent the ads, i would probably not work with them again.

It's not so much a lack of timestamps, but for me timestamps would be good to avoid the mundane conversations that are irrelevant to me. Nothing worse than starting up a podcast and they blabber for 20mins on local Mexican food joints when all I want to do is listen to them talk about "x" game.

@onemanarmyy: I suppose that's true. I know it'd be intrusive to the community, but maybe make it so if you do choose to click to skip further with a timestamp, just add in an ad at the beginning. That sounds terrible, but it's the only way I can think of to fix that issue.

@rebel_scum: Exactly.

The only reason I would like them is so I can check them to see what game they are talking about. I frequently miss the name of a game and then have no idea what they are talking about and have to scrub around yo find it.

I don't know that the podcast is really structured enough to be worth timestamps besides the occasional spoiler or whatever. Just seems like a lot of work with little in the way of return.

Maybe a recurring thread, like the "waiting room" thread that provides community driven timestamps could be useful?

I only care about time stamps when I typically play games later than they do and I want to go back and listen to what they said (if I don't remember). They tag the podcast to the particular game mentioned on the site, but I gave up trying to fast forward 3 hours of content to get to the 10 minutes in which they are talking about said game.

I stopped bothering years ago because, like other things I stopped asking about, I realized GB was/is just not that site.

I noticed 8-4 Play has time stamps now, though...

They do. Gold starts at 00:00:00 and continues through the end of each podcast.

@rebel_scum: Everyone has their tastes, but I miss that they do less of this these days. I think the random conversations are the strongest content.

The only time stamp you need. also sometimes gold starts before 00:00:00

@rigas: Haven’t caught a live bombcast, but I’ve managed an unholy number of hours between Arrow Pointing Down, the Bombcast, the Beastcast...Scoops and the Wolf. Not sure I’ve missed an episode...somehow.