change format for titles of serieses

[redacid]

Could you please change the format of the title of an episode that is part of a series and numbered. For example, "My Tokyo Travelblogue - Day 10" or "Monkey Business 2". The reason is, with the number at the end, if the title is long, the screen on my MP3 player doesn't have room for the number. So, when scrolling through the Japanesepod101.com tracks, I only see:
"My Tokyo Travelblogue..."
"My Tokyo Travelblogue..."
"My Tokyo Travelblogue..."
etc.
I don't know which day I am listening to until 5 seconds later when the title starts to scroll and I can see the number of the day at the end. I realize not everyone will have this problem, depending on their MP3 player, but with small MP3 players becoming more and more popular, screens are becoming smaller too.
My suggestions for fixing this are:
1. Put the number at the beginning, such as "Day XX - My Tokyo Travelblogue" or "2 Monkey Business"
or
2. shorten the titles. such as just "Day XX" or "Monkey 2"

AND

3. maybe, BEST OF ALL, so we don't even have to look at the screen when scrolling through our lessons, SAY the title FIRST THING in the podcast, before the "Japanesepod101 de gozaimasu *music* *music*..."
The third option would be great in conjunction with the first or second option.

This would save my patience and time. Thanks.

Dustin

[josiah]

...

[redacid]

Of course I can change the label myself, but I would rather not have to waste the time doing that.

[markystar]

honestly, we've been using this system for almost 3 years and are approaching the 700 lesson mark, so i doubt we'll be changing it any time soon.

but the situation is duly noted!

[ShiroiNeko]

Could you please change the format of the title of an episode that is part of a series and numbered. For example, "My Tokyo Travelblogue - Day 10" or "Monkey Business 2". The reason is, with the number at the end, if the title is long, the screen on my MP3 player doesn't have room for the number. So, when scrolling through the Japanesepod101.com tracks, I only see:
"My Tokyo Travelblogue..."

3. maybe, BEST OF ALL, so we don't even have to look at the screen when scrolling through our lessons, SAY the title FIRST THING in the podcast, before the "Japanesepod101 de gozaimasu *music* *music*..."

The third option would be great in conjunction with the first or second option.

This would save my patience and time. Thanks.

Dustin

I agree with you. I found I needed to add an 8 character prefix to each title

" B2-008-A "
This would mean to me ...

Beginner Lesson, Series 2
Lesson 8
Main lesson

The last letter changes according to the nature of the track
A - main lesson
R - review
D - dialog
B - bonus
C - combo
T - in(T)roduction

This keeps everything in order, makes lessons very easy to find, and can I instantly tell what lesson I am playing without having to scroll through a title

It takes a bit of work, but it really helps

[Javizy]

I have this problem too the Tokyo travelblog series was a particular nightmare Now that the titles begin with LI02, B3, etc, if the lesson numbers were added afterward like LI02-61, the problem would be solved

[josiah]

yes
even on an ipod
it is quite
difficult

[matchettc]

It might fix the sorting issues too.

When I download old content, large files arrive before smaller ones regardless of the desired order. Playlists that I create sort in the order of 'added' and so I have to manually reorder files into the correct sequence. This is not such a quick task because there are more than just one file per lesson.

This is also a problem for Premium subscribers because all the extra content downloads at different speeds too.

Putting a code at the beginning would enable a one-click sort by Name.

[markystar]

i'm not disagreeing with anything you guys have suggested. if anything, you're dead right, it would be easier. but the truth is, there was no system in place for us to copy or borrow before we started doing jp101. so nobody showed us the ropes and we sort of came up with a system that worked at the time. and as i just published our 731st lesson, going back and re-tagging everything would be a nightmare! (any volunteers?).

i'll say that it's not unthinkable that at some point in the near future we could archive old lessons and push on with a fresh agenda (a so-called clean slate).

assuming we were to do that, what info would you like to see in each which fields?

[ShiroiNeko]

I agree that to change the archive lessons would take some time, but perhaps simple changes could be introduced to make things easier.

Dustin's ideas were excellent.

Immediate lesson identification in audio tracks
... maybe, BEST OF ALL, so we don't even have to look at the screen when scrolling through our lessons, SAY the title FIRST THING in the podcast, before the "Japanesepod101 de gozaimasu *music* *music*..."
The third option would be great in conjunction with the first or second option

I have several lesson CDs for learning Japanese from various books I have bought, and tracks on all of them start with a lesson identifier
-- Unit 2 Lesson 4, Review
-- Lesson 6 - Word Power
( or whatever it might be )

Use unique titles, or lesson ID in the first part of the title - not at the end
It might not be the system I use, but anything to prevent confusion with similar title names, such as the Nihongo Dojo or Tokyo Travelblogue series, will help

-----------------------------

"Album" tag
I also retag all my lessons so that the album always starts with "JPOD...", as in
JPOD Beginner S1
JPOD Beginner S2
JPOD Audio Blog
JPOD Newbie S1
JPOD Lower Int
etc
... this "clumps" all my JPOD stuff together on my mp3 player, to make it easier to change lesson types quickly. It also keeps them away from my EPOD lessons

Fiercecat
ooO ( Grrrrrowl )

[kc8ufv]

i'm not disagreeing with anything you guys have suggested. if anything, you're dead right, it would be easier. but the truth is, there was no system in place for us to copy or borrow before we started doing jp101. so nobody showed us the ropes and we sort of came up with a system that worked at the time. and as i just published our 731st lesson, going back and re-tagging everything would be a nightmare! (any volunteers?).

Give me a few weeks. I may be able to bash something out in bash...


Just double checking what we want -
In the TITLE of the MP3, we want something like "A-74- Folk Remedies" "N1-66-SU11 - Nihongo Dojo - Style You" "UI-10-2 Cherry Blossom Showdown" as examples from the homepage, right?

[markystar]

kieth kim from koreanclass101 and i spent a good hour or so hashing out a new file naming system and i'm happy to say i think we figured out something that should work for everyone.

we can't put it into place for a while, but eventually it will be rolled out systematically for all the pod101 sites. thanks for all your suggestions and for always keeping us on our toes!!