Any place to get the timestamps for TWIT and Sec Now? Thx.
Also curious if anyone else would like to get the timestamps for these shows?
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I canât imagine that it would be in TWiTâs best interests to produce timestamps, so they probably never will⌠at least not fully accurate ones. This would make it too easy to skip the ads, and as that is what pays for the content, that would be a disservice to their business model. YouTube (and others) get around this (when they do) by making the ads unskippable, but podcasts donât work that way.
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Count me as one who would appreciate timestamps. In view of @PHolder comments about interfering with advertisers, maybe it could be a Club TWiT perk for that feed only.
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Arenât the transcripts posted?
For some of the shows, yes. But theyâre AI generated with human review, as I understand it. They take time and effort, and so donât show up until as much as nearly a week later.
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Timestamps with ad-supported podcasts are definitely possible. Some ad-supported podcasts include the ad in the timestamp, so you still get to hear a large part of the ad even when you use the timestamp to skip part of the podcast.
Also, people might just use the âskip forwardâ button in their podcast app that skips a pre-determined amount, such as 15 seconds, and skip the ad that way already.
Regarding the TWiT podcasts, It seems like at least Tech News Weekly had time stamps at some point, which skipped past the ads. Example: Google is a Small Country
It would be interesting to hear if they stopped including the timestamps to make skipping ads more difficult, or if they were too expensive for the staff to create.
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I would definitely pay for Club Twit if it would include timestamps for Twit and Sec Now. You listening @Leo ? A compelling perk to pull in more paying customers for Club Twit. I bet if @Leo advertised timestamps/chapters for Club Twit it would attract more paying customers. And I can imagine there are tools to simplify and partially automate the task of creating timestamps/chapters.
Twit has a strong community so I could imagine a Twit volunteer would step up to note the segment timestamps and offer it to Twit staff.
More and more podcasts include timestamps and theyâre really helpful. I can skip the parts Iâm not interested in.
@PHolder Those podcasts with timestamps usually donât put the ads in a separate chapter so youâre still presented with the ad just as in a podcast with no timestamps/chapters. (as was mentioned by @listener )
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Thus the reason why I said:
Iâm all for it BTW, but I am even more for TWiT surviving the upcoming bad economic situation.
I would find timestamps useful. I am often out and about, when I am listening to podcasts and want to comment on something, when I am back on the computer and want to re-listen to the point. That currently mean going back and forth, until I find the right part.
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Yep, TWIT has so many great programs. Hope they do well for a long time.
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@big_D Yep, Thereâs quite a few podcasts with good content that I donât listen to cuz no chapters/timestamps. I make a point of financially supporting good podcasts that have timestamps.
Letâs start a new hashtag: #TWITArmy4Timestamps
The AI transcription we use for The Tech Guy puts in time codes. Iâll ask Steve if Elaine can do that for Security Now.
As for the other shows, transcriptions are relatively expensive and weâre just breaking even these days. I suspect thatâs the reason we donât do it. I know some shows used to have transcripts. Not sure which do at this point. Iâll enquire and encourage adding them if we can afford it.
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One YouTuber/Podcaster I watch has an avid fan, who goes through his videos and posts a comment with all the deffierent sections of the podcast. That is one dedicated fan and he does it for the benefit of other fans. He has been called out by the Podcaster for the work he does, but he doesnât get paid for it.
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Are you volunteering Big_D?
I would, if I had the time, the problem is, I listen to them whilst walking the dog or driving to and from work, so not really practical, otherwise, Iâd do some.
But this is something the community could give back to the network, for each show, someone who regularly watches on YouTube could enter the time codes as they watch. If I get the time, I will give it a try.
3 cheers for Elaine! She does a great job. I often check the SN transcripts to more deeply understand some sections.
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@Leo If my understanding is correct, transcripts arenât needed to get the timestamps. On some podcasts I support they just list the timestamps as plain text in the bundled show notes* without using the chapter functionality. Thatâs all I need. (Although I do like it when they use the full âchapterâ functionality, a nice bonus.)
- *Referring to the show notes that are bundled and downloaded with the podcast file.
Example:
1:30. Segment 1.
6:28. Segment 2.
etc.
Then I just fast forward to the segments I want to hear. I think the large audience for TWIT and SN would be the low hanging fruit for simple, plain text timestamps. For example, Iâm a Linux guy so I would skip sections about Windows.
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I looked at the timestamps aka time codes for The Tech Guy. It requires going to a website and scrolling thru a long transcript. And itâs not clear which time code corresponds to which audio segment listed in the bundled show notes.
Just went to look at TWiG for this week, to do a test run of entering the time codes in a comment⌠Only comments are disabled on TWIT videos on YT. 
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ty leo for your podcast
sometimes will just look for shorter clips of a podcast, this is a time factor more me mostly
see short highlights posted on (u tube) all the time of shows
my easy chair more comfortable than computer chair so watch a lot of on stream device
times stamps or chapters would be great so one could return full broadcast, but ads could be place in a 10 & 15 clip also