Battlestar Wiki talk:Podcast Transcripts

I get back from university next week, and I plan on taping the marathon on December 20th and listening to ALL of the commentaries as I watch again (except, of course, "Fragged", frak it, as well as the first two episodes which I'll catch during the other rerun before the premiere). I assure you I'm quite obsessive and I'm going to get the entire thing (like many of you, I've already listened to them once to glean information, i.e. how I found out what some of the deleteed scenes for "Pegasus" were, but I'll go through them again; well, I'll watch the shows normally, THEN watch a second time for the podcast; this is what I do in my free time if I'm on vacation; just watch this show all the time. Anyway, I'll get in everything we need to know. Plus I'm iffy on whether this is fair use or not (on the one hand it's free on the site, on the other hand, TANSTAAFL, advertisers on Scifi.com pay to make ads we have to see to look at it, but then again maybe they don't care at Scifi because it makes word of mouth about the show. Hey, if they wanted us to stop they could just tell us not to. Regardless, I'll get it all in next week. May I once again bring to attention that I strongly object to the phrase "Citation Jihad", and would prefer the less objectionable term, "Citation Crusade". --Ricimer 20:36, 14 December 2005 (EST)

This sort of thing actually has very little to do with legality. Do I personally believe that typing up transcripts of freely available podcasts to aid in searching for citations constitues a copyright violation? No. Would my beliefs hold sway in a court of law if Universal wished to vigorously prosecute me? Probably not. Do I even have the resources to defend myself in such a case? No.

So in the end, Universal essentially gets to decide whether it's a copyright violation or not. That decision has very little to do with the letter of the law, and a lot to do with the comparative depth of our pockets. Essentially, if the copyright holders decide they don't like this, then there's nothing we can do to stop them from asking us to take it down, in which case we will do so graciously. Until then, it seems fairly harmless to continue. --Peter Farago 21:01, 14 December 2005 (EST)

Of course, Joe has ultimate jurisdiction over the wiki and any projects we decide to host. If he is uncomfortable with this for any reason, I will gladly take it off-site. --Peter Farago 21:07, 14 December 2005 (EST)

I just thought I'd point this site out. It has episode summaries that have podcast commentary transcribed below them. Unfortunately, the comments are broken off into paragraphs, and don't appear to be organized into acts like you guys are. May be useful as a double-check, though, if nothing else. --Steelviper 13:27, 27 December 2005 (EST)

Transcript Visibility

I was wondering if it might be a good idea to link to finished transcripts from the episode guide pages. If you don't know about this page it might be hard to stumble upon. Having easy access to both the podcasts themselves and the transcripts might be handy for somebody who is doing research, or catching up on older episodes. --Steelviper 09:42, 3 February 2006 (EST)

Catching up

It'd be awesome if during the gap between now and Season 3 we could manage to get "caught up" on the transcription backlog. That way, going forward there would only be one per week that we'd need to do, which would be a lot less overwhelming. Laineylain and Misco have made a lot of progress, but there are a LOT of episodes left to do. --Steelviper 12:07, 12 March 2006 (CST)

Any suggestions on priority order for working through the episodes? Chronological or reverse chronological? --Steelviper 10:51, 17 April 2006 (CDT)

I guess I'd prefer reverse chronological, but I don't see that it matters much. It should really be whatever the transcriber is interested in (I don't think anyone's going to shed any tears if "Sacrifice" goes untranscribed for a while). --Peter Farago 11:12, 17 April 2006 (CDT)

I've been doing the ones that interest me. I'm off for a trip to Vegas, but will get some LDYB2 transcription work done when I return next week. -- Laineylain 13:07, 17 April 2006 (CDT)

We've got something of a "backlog" of podcasts needing verification. I'd chip in, but I'm not eligible. As for my next target... I'll try to refrain from finishing the "in progress" ones for a little while, to see if the original transcribers will continue where they left off. I guess "Scar" would be next. (There's still a TON left to do on Season Two.) --Steelviper 12:40, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

Podcast Burnout

It seems like around 2 episode-equivalents seems to be the burnout point for podcast transcripts. Finishing LDYB1 will be my second. Hopefully I'll break that barrier, but we could probably use some new blood on this project as there are roughly 15 podcasts left (not counting the "in progress" LDYB's), which is about 7 and a half BattleWikians, apparently. I'm not sure where or who we'd recruit. Mostly I wanted to be on the record as having observed the pattern (so they'll name it Steelviper's law even though I have nothing to do with the phenomenon... kind of like Moore's law), as well as be on the record as trying to break that barrier (so I'll have extra motivation to do so). --Steelviper 14:55, 19 April 2006 (CDT)

I'd like to do one, if no one gives me too much flak if I frak up. Huh? 09:19, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

I might download the podcasts and transcibe a few acts maybe. I havnt heard a single podcast yet but have read almost all of the ones that have been transcribed by people and am very grateful to them for doing it. --Mercifull 09:26, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

Any help is appreciated! We won't give you flak, and I'll try to help if you have any questions. (Just drop a note here, or on my user talk.) It's a lot easier to make corrections during verification than doing the initial transcription process. Just pick one and go. It might help to listen to a couple and choose one that interests you. Also... it's a completely different experience listening to one while watching the show. I didn't do that until LDYB, and it's great! Hearing RDM explain things is fine, but seeing the context of what he's talking about makes a big difference. I highly encourage it if possible. It wouldn't be handy during transcription, but it might help to choose one. --Steelviper 09:39, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

grumbles I've deleted most of the episodes I recorded on my HDD recorder now, or at least the ones that needed transcribing lol. If I ever get round to doing one it'll be by ear only :( --Mercifull 10:11, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

Well... there's always the season 2 DVD's in August (at least for you region 2 folks). Don't worry. I did my first transcripts by ear only, and even the one that I'm working on I haven't heard before or watched it with the show. Just thought I'd mention my revelation, as I had already transcribed 2 eps (and verified a couple others) before realizing the "secret" of the podcasts. Which... really shouldn't have been a secret, but it had just never occured to me. --Steelviper 10:34, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

The Code

Is like.. well... it was very hard to find what I was looking for. Ideas for orginziation? --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 11:32, 8 May 2006 (CDT)

It'd be nice to edit the particular episode you're checking in, instead of "checkins", but the alternative is a really huge TOC, isn't it? --Steelviper 11:35, 8 May 2006 (CDT)

Shane, I do appreciate your suggestion vis a vis templates - I can see why our current system is sub-optimal. However, I'm not sure a template system is the best answer. SV, I don't think a "really huge TOC" would be necessarily horrible - this page is just for us to use to keep track of things. It doesn't have to look beautiful. --Peter Farago 22:20, 9 May 2006 (CDT)

Well, then I may experiment with making the next one I work on a "header" so that it would be able to be isolated in editing. I'm taking a short break from transcribing, though, as I've outpaced "verification" (and I want to avoid the dreaded podcast burnout). --Steelviper 07:35, 10 May 2006 (CDT)

So my experiments with headers have not fared to well, having been repeatedly replaced with the bullets. I'm all for uniformity... but it's a huge pain to scroll down through all the "Season 2 podcasts" to find the correct slot to add the four ~'s to. I was planning on switching back to the bullet after I was done with a given episode... --Steelviper 11:45, 30 May 2006 (CDT)

my fault. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 12:25, 30 May 2006 (CDT)

Transcribing Software

I just thought I'd share a discovery that Shane had shared with me. Express Scribe is a piece of free software (they give it away in the hopes that you buy the tie-in products) that allows you to playback the podcasts with hotkey controls (so you can edit in the Battlewiki window but still pause/rewind/play), as well as allowing for variable speed playback (so you can transcribe at a slower rate). I finished up the last part of Sacrifice's act 1 using it, and the rewind hotkey alone is invaluable. Hold it down for as long as you need, and it resumes playing on release. Great for figuring out tougher phrases or words, or catching back up if RDM has gotten ahead. I did a lot of the playback at 59% speed, which allowed me to keep up a lot more frequently. I'll do my double check (before I linkify) at normal speed, to make sure there weren't any errors induced by the slower speed. Just thought I'd pass the word. They do sell pedal controls for the software, but for $75 I think I'll use the hotkeys. I currently mapped rewind to F2, stop/pause to F3, and play to F4, but those might change as I use it more. The default key mappings are too spread out for my taste, but it's easily customizable. --Steelviper 10:38, 24 May 2006 (CDT)

100% done podcasts we should...

1. Add a line to {{Episode Data}} with a link to the podcast page.

   Simple podcast=Y.

2. Remove them from this page or create a full listing of completed podcast transcripts.
3. Add a commented blocked out section in the Podcast itself on the details that this page gives so we can keep track of the important vales.) <!-- Block of show checked in, verfied -->

That's about it. Comments? Suggestions? Action? --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 12:54, 3 June 2006 (CDT)

Good thoughts. --Peter Farago 13:03, 3 June 2006 (CDT)

I like the episode data idea, in that it would give the completed podcasts a lot more visibility. The only downside is having to update all the TOS and 1980 eps to add it as well, as well as any other future series that might not have podcasts either. Would it be worthwhile to split off an "RDM Episode Data" template (kind of a subclass of "episode data")? Removing the completed podcasts would clean up this page a LOT, and make navigation easier. Good point on creating a listing of completed ones though, or otherwise providing access. Maybe add some fields to the podcast template that aren't displayed for the checkin/verify times? The commented block would be easier, though. --Steelviper 07:23, 5 June 2006 (CDT)

I don't like the template. We could, however, replace the list of checkins with a single link to the completed podcast. --Peter Farago 11:28, 5 June 2006 (CDT)

I think that's reasonable. The transcriber(s) is(/are) still listed in the podcast text/top template, and the checkin and validation times could always be retrieved from history (not that they're terribly important pieces of info). I might wait a day to see if anybody else has any strong feelings about it and then trim out those lines for the completed ones. Maybe even move the completed podcasts to a "Completed Podcasts" heading, separate from the "Checkins"? --Steelviper 12:32, 5 June 2006 (CDT)

As the link to finished transcript was already on Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down, I tried filling in the other finished ones: Most work, however, "The Hand of God" and "Pegasus" do not have working links, because the episode's wiki name is different from it's regular name, that is, we suffix them "RDM" and "Pegasus (episode)". This needs fixing so they link right. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 20:23, 18 July 2006 (CDT)

Fixed. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 22:32, 18 July 2006 (CDT)

Podcast Summaries

What does everyone think of creating "podcast summaries" for completed podcasts? Basically, a short overview of the major topics covered in that podcast. Even having transcribed a couple of the podcasts, I would have to search around a bit if I was going to look for the particular podcast in order to cite something. A concise breakdown might help aid in using the podcast transcripts as sources. The downside would be that it would take up room on an already "scrolly" page. --Steelviper 08:51, 27 June 2006 (CDT)

Sounds like a good idea to me --Mercifull ^{(Talk/Contribs)} 09:02, 27 June 2006 (CDT)

Backlog Strategy

Season 3 rapidly approaches, and it looks like barring an uncharacteristic frenzy of transcription, the "backlog" will sadly survive to the new season. Should the focus be on getting the new podcasts done as they come in, with backlog addressed whenever the opportunity presents? My only concern is that we don't even really average a podcast a week, and it seems like a season 3 backlog will begin to develop. --Steelviper 10:43, 1 August 2006 (CDT)

Myself and Steel are working for some other solutions also. I looking into automatic translation programs. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 10:52, 1 August 2006 (CDT)

Automated transcribing can't replace a human, but it could speed up the process by doing the bulk of the heavy lifting, allowing the human to only correct, format, and linkify. --Steelviper 11:17, 1 August 2006 (CDT)

Note to self: Ask RDM for a sample of his voice following the Dragon script so the system can reconzie his voice. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 11:30, 3 August 2006 (CDT)

That would be awesome! --Steelviper 11:38, 3 August 2006 (CDT)

I have been thinking about attempting one. Any advice? --FrankieG 11:52, 3 August 2006 (CDT)

Do one of the "solo" ones (without any "guest" speakers). People talking over each other can be difficult to sort out. Other than that, I just use the ExpressScribe software. I dial the "speed" back to 60% while I'm transcribing, as that helps me keep up some. I've remapped the play, stop, and rewind buttons to make it easy to navigate. Once I'm done with a section/act, I listen over again at 100%. I find that the 60% can distort things, so double checking at 100% eliminates that. After that I linkify everything, then move on to the next. Don't worry about being slow. I did, at first, but found that any progress at all is better than none. I save a little section at a time. Some people do the whole thing offline, then paste it in at once. Whatever works best, I guess. Don't sweat too much about getting something wrong. You'll have people checking over it and making fixes as needed. --Steelviper 12:08, 3 August 2006 (CDT)

Frank, try the Koboal Last Gleaming, Part II. Can be a combined effort of me and you. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 12:31, 3 August 2006 (CDT)

Will start work sometime this weekend. --FrankieG 10:24, 11 August 2006 (CDT)

Top of Podcasts

To give the podcasts some "feel" I had this idea for each of the top of the podcast or the first time they talk..

RDM: Hello and welcome to the podcast for episode 20 of epi- of season two. I'm Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and developer of the new "Battlestar Galactica".

Eick: And I'm David Eick, court jester.

That's about it. :) --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 12:45, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

{{eick}} becomes David Eick: ? --Mercifull ^{(Talk/Contribs)} 12:52, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

Not a bad idea. {{rdm}} -> Ronald D. Moore also :-) --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 03:20, 6 September 2006 (CDT)

Obviously I'm a bit neutral to the idea. While I'm generally very pro-picture, the transcripts are generally stark areas of text, and I've grown used to that. I'd love to hear input from actual "users" of the transcripts, but I'm not sure if such creatures exist (judging from the hit counts). I'd lean towards "going for it", and if it's horribly awful and offensive to the senses it'd be a snap to wipe them out. There's not that many finished podcasts that'd need to be done. --Steelviper 10:36, 28 September 2006 (CDT)

I'd rather keep things spartan. --Peter Farago 16:57, 28 September 2006 (CDT)

I'm going to agree. Let's keep things spartan as possible. -- Joe Beaudoin ^{So say we all - Donate} 19:42, 28 September 2006 (CDT)

Behind the 8-ball

Of course we had to start the season with 2 eps back to back. Which means there will be 2 podcasts worth of material to cover. If we follow the reverse-chrono order that we've generally been doing, the season 3 eps will get priority over those season 2 eps that remain. Hopefully we'll gain some more hands in the coming days, and if that's the case then I'll volunteer to work on the backlog if somebody else ever is taking on the latest ones. --Steelviper 08:36, 6 October 2006 (CDT)

Occupation Strategy

I've got the "full" mp3 of occupation/precipice, but I don't think the individual act mp3's are up yet. Should I go ahead and start transcribing against it (all 80+ minutes), or should we wait for the act mp3's and do them piece by piece? --Steelviper 08:29, 9 October 2006 (CDT)

I say the quicker the better. Then there is no backlog later. --Shane ^{(T - C - E)} 09:18, 9 October 2006 (CDT)

I guess I'll dig into it, and try to use timestamps, etc. to mark progress (as usual). Hopefully they get everything straightened out and posted like normal eventually. --Steelviper 09:26, 9 October 2006 (CDT)

Writer's Meeting

As the verification backlog begins to finally outweigh the remaining episode podcasts (an excellent "problem" to have), I wonder if we should also add the "Writer's Meeting" podcasts to the todo list. I haven't listened to it at all, and I imagine it'll be a bear (as transcribing is considerably more difficult in a multiple-speaker environment). I was just wondering if anybody thought it'd be worthwhile and within the scope of this project. Maybe something to do once we have all episode podcasts done and will only have to deal with the new ones as they come in? --Steelviper 10:45, 13 October 2006 (CDT)

I think it absolutely needs to be done. I agree that it's lower priority. Aside from the multiple speakers, another difficult aspect is the lack of any breaks. Maybe timecodes at certain intervals? --PrePressChris 20:21, 14 October 2006 (CDT)

Episode Numbers

I added the episode numbers to the season two podcasts awaiting transcription. The idea is to make it easy to find the appropriate podcast, which is listed by number. I'll just leave it with those two, to make it easy to revert if that's a stupid idea. --PrePressChris 17:14, 16 October 2006 (CDT)

Re-imagined Series definition: all-purpose vulgarism; Colonial version of "fuck" (see: frak)

Re-imagined Series definition: visual indicator used in a battlestar's Instrument Landing System during a hands-on approach ^{(TRS: "Miniseries", "Act of Contrition", "Final Cut", "Black Market")}