I might have already noted this morning that traffic is down on this site at present, but I also think I might have identified many of the reasons, and that this is common across the whole of the political-economic commentsphere right now. What is likely to be a long, hot summer has distracted attention, but once it is over, I expect people to return.
In that context, we have had conversations here on how to improve the blog.
Discussions about a redesign are on hold because we are not sure that changing something that already works is of great advantage.
That said, we do think that we should try to highlight the categories into which blogs are posted more by making some changes to their presentation, because it seems that very few people understand that the categories box on the right-hand side of this post (or below it on mobile devices) does analyse every single post into relevant categories, so that others of similar type to it can also be readily found.
However, the biggest idea we are playing with at present is adding audio to most posts, so you can listen to a narration of what is written. We would obviously not need to do this for the videos, but we are aware that many people prefer to listen to content rather than read it, and that it is now technically feasible.
The question is not, though, technical viability, but whether this is useful, and whether the cost involved would be a worthwhile use of our resources. The content would be AI-generated, possibly using a voice clone of me, but alternatively in another voice with a similar style. We currently think it will cost at least £100, and maybe more, a month to do this, so we are wondering whether there is much interest before we commit to something at that level of cost.
Comments would be appreciated. I've also added a poll below. Thank you if you can assist.
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If the audio is simple to add, then yes please, I do use it when I want to do something mindless while taking in your blog.
I do use the search facility to find older articles at times, but would reiterate that one day choosing some seminal ‘starter’ articles and videos might help people new to your very interesting, educational and prodigious output.
This is where the series I am working on will really work
I responded no, but probably it should have been maybe, especially if there was a facility to speed it up. I always listen to the videos on YouTube at 1.5X speed, which is quicker for me than reading the text. However, I seem to have a mental block about listening to things when there is nothing to look at, which is why I rarely listen to the radio even though I was brought up in an era of Journey into Space which I followed avidly.
To explain why I’ve voted no. I am deaf and use hearing aids. Direct play into the aids via Bluetooth works well but battery life is then very much shortened. Also, many blogs, for me, actually need careful re-reading in some parts, particularly when I decide to comment. So some may welcome it, and I understand why, but I wouldn’t use it.
Understood
While I wouldn’t use it, I prefer reading on a computer, adding it would be a good idea, especially for people who use their mobile phones.
Thanks
I wont use it – true, I only read the Blog BUT it isnt to say that some users – ideally new ones wont
Thanks
This seems to be a debate between people who consume your comment via personal computer (like me) who voted “No”
and
people who consume your content on their smart phone who probably voted “Yes”.
If you consume content in your car while commuting, I could see a value of having audio for threads on the blog.
True
I’ve never tried it before as I’m not really interested in using it. However, using the Chrome browser on my mobile phone, there’s a “listen to this page” option in the Chrome menu. Prompted by this post, I just “listened to” this page on my phone. Instead of it being a straight narration, it is in fact a ghastly conversation between two voices in which they summarise the content of the page. One of them speculates that having a voice recording of the page wouldn’t be cheap, and the other says that that’s right and that’s why your asking people if it’s a good idea. Quite hideous…
How about instead, you try recording what you want to say and getting a transcript of that to use as the post, after which you’ve still got the audio source of the transcript to post as well? As someone who participates in a lot of online meetings, the transcription of e.g a Microsoft Teams meeting is ridiculously accurate even with multiple participants.
Tht is an option we are thinking about. But it needs hosting…
Could you not just host the audio as an audio file that people download? That could then be hosted directly on this site in the same way you host your PDFs and everything else? Or is it because you’d want the audio to be streamable directly from the site with pause/rewind etc?
Far too complicated….but thanks
I can absorb things better by reading, and prefer reading the blog but do occasionally view the videos on YouTube.
The videos are useful to view with others for discussing.
Thanks
I’ve voted no because as regular listeners to talking books my wife and I can easily tell the human from the machine reader. The machine clearly has no understanding of context when choosing tone of voice, timing, emphasis or pronunciation (Is it “bass” or “bass” ?). Your own live performance are filled with energy and expression that an AI clone could not match. I appreciate why you would consider doing this but AI content is getting a lot of bad press at the moment on YouTube and other platforms and it would not help to risk even the slightest possibility of giving critics the opportunity to describe your audio content as ‘AI slop’.
Noted. Thanks.
Good point. I tried the audio on an article someone had linked in a comment, and it was like listening to my satnav but worse… I realise I have been listening to the audio from Richard’s videos, which is good listening.
I see that if you want to listen walking, or while driving, audio is necessary. I will likely listen just to audio tracks from the videos.
They are all linked, every day. We publish them on most podcast platforms.
I like to read. Especially at work where it would not be polite or correct to have the sound on. Sound on the blog is overkill in my personal opinion.
If I want verbal content, I head over to your YouTube channel and watch the latest video.
YouTube is a snack and the blog is a full 5-course meal served leisurely for the pleasure of the diner.
Also, this is the most important point; I do NOT want some AI generated dude or dudette “doing” voice work Richard or Dame Jacqueline.
Noted!
I think this one is a non-starter.
“Also, this is the most important point; I do NOT want some AI generated dude or dudette “doing” voice work Richard or Dame Jacqueline.”
Should be “doing voice work for Richard or Dame Jacqueline.”
If you can get Liev Schreiber to the do the “Yank” voice and Hugh Bonneville to do the “Brit” voice, I might change my vote! LOL! LOL!
I much prefer to read as I can return to various sentences or etc more easily. I can, for clarity, re-read the bits I want to which I doubt I could do as easily with ‘sound’ although I admit that others may disagree as there are probably ways of doing this with ‘sound’ – at my age I can be challenged by technology!. I can read at my pace and as @BayTampaBay – I can read at my leisure.
Thank you
I listen when walking or driving and would use it maybe 10 %
Thanks
I prefer to listen whilst doing something else. I find it difficult to find time to read. But would also like a written version available if I do want to go back to something
There would be both, as with the videos.
I missed out the year for learning to read so I was taught by my grandmother. I actually recognise the whole word. I addition I do not say the word under my breath, both of these significantly speed up my reading. Generally I can read 100 pages an hour. There is a down size in that my spelling is terrible because my brain is rather economical with the word recognition. By the way this also really messes up my spelling but that is what spell checkers are for.
So I am afraid that I find listening very tedious.
I am nit a listener either
But this is about reaching those who are
The poll may never have reached them
You could start by adding the audio from your youtube videos as an option for people to listen to as a trial. You can also look at making podcasts from your youtube audio, and they can be available on the website or through podcast apps. I think you should looked into making shorts & ticktoc from your videos You should also consider cloning your blog to tumblr, and making pins (for pinterest) of your ideas/tweets. People love bite size content and you can mention you books in every short form content. Check out Knitting Cult Lady on youtube. She made me realise that Neoliberalism behaves like a cult of an idea, along with the Atlas Network, operating a lot like a cult.
If you can enable viewing of the non-mobile version of the website on mobile devices that would be awesome, as some people use devices landscape like a pc screen. I think there is room to have a search or link at the top, rather than have to use the burger bar, also I didn’t know that tapping on a menu item displayed more drop down menu. There should be an indicator like ‘>’ or accent colour.
We do this, now.
And noted
Thanks
Gosh!
Who knew there ever was a right hand side to these pages, let alone a “Categories” box?
Audio suits me as I am on the move a lot and being able to listen in my car or on the tram/Ubahn via bluetooth on my phone would be very useful
Thanks.
Noted.
We might try it.
Forgive me if you’ve dealt with this – but isn’t there an accessibility issue for those with sight problems that might be enhanced with audio? Or does screen technology already deal with this in ways beyond my ken?
Do you mean does this improve accessibility?
Yes, it does. I take that seriously.
[…] people commented after yesterday's post about adding audio to this blog that I could post audio versions of the YouTube videos that we […]
The sound version would help me because I can do other activities while listening to all the posts, and reading forced me to choose because I need to stop working
Do youn use the audio version of the YouTube
Remember not every one can read so adding audio, even if AI would benefit more especially in this modern era of EQUALITY.
Perhaps upgrading your blog/POST page to allow a person to search by day and month not just pages would help. I am sick and tired of trying to search through pages for a particular article.
Make an easy search facility where a topic can be searched for from a particular post.
Thanks. Noted.
There is google advance search:
https://www.google.com/advanced_search
for example enter site domain https://www.taxresearch.org.uk
Then say what you are looking for. It works. You only get results from this site.