Marathon Feed Question

Brian Boyko · Post by **Brian Boyko** » June 7th, 2010, 1:18 am

Roy Janik wrote:Sorry Brian. It definitely wasn't meant as a snub. The whole live feed came together super last minute, and I didn't think it was going to happen. But Neal managed to get it up and running, but by that point I was in the throws of the marathon.

Apology accepted. Now, go back and do the whole marathon again, and get it right this time!

Brian Boyko · Post by **Brian Boyko** » June 7th, 2010, 1:19 am

bradisntclever wrote:
Roy Janik wrote:Sorry Brian. It definitely wasn't meant as a snub. The whole live feed came together super last minute, and I didn't think it was going to happen. But Neal managed to get it up and running, but by that point I was in the throws of the marathon.
And, to be fair, mention of the livestream did go out on the Hideout's Tumblr page and Twitter as soon as it was live. Anyone following the Hideout through either of those sites had the potential to see the updates.

Where was it on Twitter?

Post by **bradisntclever** » June 7th, 2010, 8:23 am

Brian Boyko wrote:
bradisntclever wrote:
Roy Janik wrote:Sorry Brian. It definitely wasn't meant as a snub. The whole live feed came together super last minute, and I didn't think it was going to happen. But Neal managed to get it up and running, but by that point I was in the throws of the marathon.
And, to be fair, mention of the livestream did go out on the Hideout's Tumblr page and Twitter as soon as it was live. Anyone following the Hideout through either of those sites had the potential to see the updates.
Where was it on Twitter?

Right here. There were a few other tweets that mentioned it, but that's the one with the link.

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » June 7th, 2010, 7:07 pm

Brian Boyko wrote:I had nothing to do this weekend, I wanted to see this from New Zealand, but because you didn't promote the live stream anywhere... or e-mailed me directly, or twittered me, or god help me, facebooked me - and I KEEP getting facebook invites for live events in Austin that I can't attend, but THIS, which I CAN, I didn't get...

http://forum.austinimprov.com/viewtopic.php?t=9502

Brian Boyko · Post by **Brian Boyko** » June 7th, 2010, 9:46 pm

Before, it was annoying getting facebook invites to shows that I already knew about because I was living in Austin and talking to you guys and following to forums regularly.

Now it's annoying getting facebook invites to shows I can't attend because I'm not in the right geographic location.

This was one of the rare cases where I would have welcomed a facebook invite.

After giving it some thought and talking to people, I think it was just bad luck combined with the last-minute-ness of the whole thing. You did put it out on the @hideouttheatre twitter feed, but I didn't subscribe to that feed (mostly because while I'm interested in what's going on in individual improviser's lives, the hideouttheatre feed almost always lists shows I can't attend.

It was just rotten luck and rotten timing.

hujhax · Post by **hujhax** » June 9th, 2010, 10:50 am

I only heard about the plans to stream the marathon because Neal was working on the technical end of it, and he discussed it with me at one of the Dancy Street rehearsals. After that, I never heard anything further about it, so I assumed that the plans to live-stream the marathon had quietly fallen through. Then on Saturday afternoon I spotted the webcam at the Hideout, and figured, "Hmm, maybe they *are* streaming it." When I got home, I asked the hivemind on twitter, and Leann replied with the URL.

I see that y'all posted the stream URL to twitter and to the marathon tumblr feed at about 1am on Saturday morning, but I don't follow HideoutTheatre on twitter, and I never caught up on the late-Friday-night tumblr entries. The stream URL went up on the forums at about the same time (1am Saturday morning), but typically I only read the forums on weekdays.

Basically, this was a weekend where I was too busy to check the Internet much, so I never received that last-minute link.

Once I *had* the link, it was fun to watch the marathon online. I watched bits and pieces when I was briefly recuperating/grabbing food at home. I was surprised to find a few improvisors from other cities were watching with us -- they had stumbled on the feed randomly, and were curious about who the various local troupes were. There was also running commentary on the audience chatter between shows. (I personally didn't wind up skipping any shows "just because I can watch them online", but I can understand Kareem's concern about that.)

All in all, I just wish I'd gotten the URL sometime *before* the marathon. It was pretty much dumb luck (seeing the webcam and having talked to Neal about the stream earlier) that I found out about it at all. Plus, if I'd had the URL ahead of time, I could have forwarded it to my out-of-town friends and family. Many of these folks check their email only sporadically, and never on weekends.

~ hope this feedback is helpful ~

--
peter rogers @ work | http://hujhax.livejournal.com

If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills, and listening to repetitive music.
-- Marcus Brigstocke

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » June 9th, 2010, 11:26 am

Good feedback, Peter.

The truth is, we didn't know if we were going to be able to do it until Friday. We didn't even have our dedicated internet connection until Thursday night. And then after the first hour or two of the marathon, we determined that the streaming was crashing the booth computer.

So if we do it again, we'll definitely have everything set up and let everyone know way ahead of time.

jillybee72 · Post by **jillybee72** » June 9th, 2010, 12:10 pm

We have to follow the Twitter feed for Twittermergencies!!

hujhax · Post by **hujhax** » June 9th, 2010, 1:22 pm

jillybee72 wrote:We have to follow the Twitter feed for Twittermergencies!!

Mr. President, we must not allow a twitter gap!

--
peter rogers @ work | http://hujhax.livejournal.com

Our site is so cutting-edge you can't even USE it!
-- Kevin Miller, on Bad Web Design

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » June 9th, 2010, 2:53 pm

My 16yr old nephew, who was here for the marathon last year, watched a bunch of it on the feed from Washington DC. He had a great time chatting with other people watching and recognizing a bunch of you that he saw and remembered from last year. And, it was a bonus that the Maestro guest Sat. night was visiting from DC.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » June 9th, 2010, 3:31 pm

I think my nephew watched most of the Marathon via streaming.. and then continued to watch the stream after the Marathon was over.

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » June 9th, 2010, 3:33 pm

yeah...he was VERY active on the chat and REALLY wanted a shout out from you. Clearly, very proud of uncle Roy...very cool.

Roy Janik · Post by **Roy Janik** » June 9th, 2010, 3:39 pm

Nancy wrote:yeah...he was VERY active on the chat and REALLY wanted a shout out from you. Clearly, very proud of uncle Roy...very cool.

Hah, I totally would have given him one if I'd known.

valetoile · Post by **valetoile** » June 9th, 2010, 10:17 pm

next year we should have a show block where we interact with the people watching the stream. Maybe have the chat room up on the tv screen or something.

Brian Boyko · Post by **Brian Boyko** » June 10th, 2010, 10:18 am

valetoile wrote:next year we should have a show block where we interact with the people watching the stream. Maybe have the chat room up on the tv screen or something.

Chris Trew & I regularly talk about the possibility of doing some sort of Internet show via Skype.

I actually think The Nightmare Project would work well with this sort of setup... as latency over an internet connection can kill comedic timing. Additionally, if you're able to UStream shows in New Zealand, I might talk to WIT about uStreaming shows back at the Hideout.

Austin Improv

Marathon Feed Question

Did the live feed of the marathon affect how often you attended in person?