From the Sorgatron Media Creators Newsletter List for August 18, 2016.  You can Subscribe to it here or read the archive

This week, I had a moment as I mini-ranted on AwesomeCast about Google+ Hangouts OnAir giving us 4 weeks before we pull the plug.  So I’ve had some time to calm down and start looking at some other options to help our shows such as the Mid Week War, who has used Hangouts OnAir to connect and record shows about pro wrestling shows to the point where they received the attention of Executive Producers of one of the hottest new shows.

Man.  It’s hard to find.

The immediate option, Blab.im, which I talked about extensively on this platform and Podcasts, just died DAYS ago.  There are PLENTY of video conferencing options out there, but not many of them record or allow a live broadcast.

In the end, as I got into in my tear on AwesomeCast, we have to be careful with the tool we choose to build our creative house of cards on.  Some are creating a Jenga tower for their show and Google Hangouts could be that lone brick that could bring it tumbling down.

We’ve cautioned for years not to just put your stuff on Facebook, Youtube, or some other platform you don’t have ownership over.  Bring people to your own whateverpodcast.com in the end.  Use those tools, but be ready for them to not be there tomorrow.  Can your community sustain it?

Over the years, I’ve seen our communities move from a CGI based self hosted message board to Myspace, to Plurk for a minute to Facebook Groups.  And they’ll move on for something after that too.

I have also had plenty of experience with these free promised land services like Google. I’ve seen a Podcast host get wiped out after 6 months of our fledgeling Wrestling Mayhem Show, find concern in our long time (and Pittsburgh local) Talkshoe not making moves and expecting my hobby shows to disappear any day before being bought out.  There’s a reason I pay for a Libsyn and SquareSpace host for my clients.  It’s also an insurance policy.