You may have noticed a flood of new shows posting here today. That’s because we’ve decided to tear down the paywall.
All the shows previously available to Club members only will be available to everyone but in audio versions only. We’ll offer those audio-only versions both as RSS feeds and on YouTube.
This includes Hands on Windows, Hands on Mac, The Untitled Linux Show, Home Theater Geeks, and iOS Today.
For video versions you’ll still have to join the club. We’re hoping that, and the ad-free versions, will still encourage you to support TWiT by joining the Club.
But… HOM and HOW are very visual podcasts, I listened to them on my phone for a while, when commuting, but they didn’t make much sense, now I dip in and out of them, when I have time, on my Mac.
Hopefully people will find the need for video to be an incentive to sign up for Club TWiT after getting a taste via the audio version (which also has ads inserted).
Nice. I’m a club twit member and am really enjoying it. I only listen/watch to the Video podcasts myself and don’t care about the audio ones at all, but this will please many people I’m sure.
Gotta say I think this is the wrong decision. I only listened to a few episodes of HOW but I’ve been able to follow them without video so I’m unsure how much of an incentive this will be. Having these podcasts be exclusive for the club is, for me, one of the incentives for joining the club in the first place along with ad-free versions so if you don’t care about either having video or ads and don’t use Discord, you sort of have no incentive to join the club.
Right now, it seems like just a few episodes were imported. Is the entire back catalogue going to be published eventually? That’s what I expected with the announcement of
Yeah, it took quite a bit of time for Anthony and I to upload the 34 episodes between the six shows to both CacheFly AND YouTube and then tag them all for the dynamic ad insertion. We went back to January 1, 2024 and have no plans to do the entire back catalog. (That would be A LOT of ULS episodes going back to the start of Club TWiT!)
And HOM and HOW are shows that have a long shelf life, things like ULS and most of the other shows have a shelf life of a couple of weeks, at most, as they mostly cover topical stories, Security Now possibly being an exception, when Steve does deep dives.
I agree. I enjoyed having the exclusive access to these shows. I even chose to pay $14 monthly giving Twit 2 subs for the price of one to show my support. Tearing down the paywall to me means the only real benefit I have vs non subs is the access to the TWIT Discord. $7/month is fine for that but makes me feel like even the club isn’t valued anymore.
IMO this is the wrong way to go with programming. Especially with ad sales tanking.
I disagree. It’s not like all Club TWiT feeds and the Discord server are public now. The older episodes are still a club TWiT exclusive, along with the video versions of these five shows, ad-free feeds, the TWIT+ feed, the full live stream, etc.
I wouldn’t call the change “tearing down the paywall”. It’s more like moving some content in front of the paywall, which is fine. It brings more discoverability to TWiT, while keeping enough incentives of Club TWiT on top of supporting the network.
That’s where I disagree. Taking content we were supporting as Club TWIT members and moving it from behind the paywall to in front of the paywall makes me feel like I’m getting less bang for my buck. I understand that those are audio only. Even though I choose to sub them in video mode I usually listen more than actually watch. So for me personally content I was consuming and paying to consume has just become free. Which is why I said it’s hard for me to justify paying extra for Club Twit when the only exclusive to me is the discord.
I know @Leo will disagree with me. But I have my opinion. And it’s just that MY opinion. However I will vote with my wallet too.
I guess my hope is that people join the Club to support TWiT. We do want to give you some benefits, but the point of the club is to keep it all going.
It’s fine if you don’t want to join the club - honest - but no complaints if TWiT shutters its doors. That is, unfortunately, a very real possibility. It’s already happened with many beloved podcasts and networks.
I will keep supporting TWIT by being a member of the club even if you release all shows to the public video & audio. It’s my main tech news source and one of the communities I support.
I did not join the club for the exclusive shows, there were no exclusive shows at the beginning
Hopefully more people will join.
The same here. I joined Club TWiT to support the TWiT network, not for any benefits. The add free (and thus tracking free) feeds were nice, but the most important thing, for me, is that TWiT continues to be “on the air”
We’re under increasing pressure to put more ad tracking in our feeds. We just told a big agency “no” this week. That means they may no longer recommend our network to their clients.
Advertisers these days always want more more tracking. We’re trying to hold the line. Partly because it’s right, but also because we know we’ll lose your trust if we give in.
If you look at the raw feeds from many big networks they’re chock-a-block with tracking pixels (check out the raw RSS from NPR - see all those re-directs. Each of them is a marketing “pixel.”) They have decided to do that to survive.
We’re unwilling to. Which means we have to find other ways to survive. Which means we’re relying on your support. Thank you!
