Ironhidensh wrote:
1) a longer "listeners questions" segment. Maybe if more questions were to get adressed, more would be submitted. Maybe even make the submit thread a sticky in all forums for better visibility. Transformers General discussion does not get a ton of traffic compared to others.
I would like to add to this. What I find important is that the question is understood and espressed clearly to the panel. The last 2 questions I submitted that were discussed were not well understood by everyone. I feel the person guiding the podcast understood them but not the panel. I would encourage the podcasters to read the question in advance and ask the showrunner for clarity if they dont get it.
As for more interations, there are 2 things working against it:
1. A lot of time is based on a topic that only a subset of the TF community cares about: the comics.
2. only the latest issues are discussed
Now of course, that makes sense, but there are many fans who dont read the comics, or wait for a trade or simply dont listen to the podcast when it comes out. So technically, to be able to interact with the podcast members, one has to listen the week the podcast is out AND have bought the latest comics. that reduces the target audience to just a fraction of people.
A way to counter that is to shorten the comic segment and instead introduce topics that arent time sensitive. So maybe a throw back segment where you spotlight a toy or era.
What I would suggest is that every week, you take 15 mins to discuss your favourite TF toy in regards to:
an alt mode
a character
an era
a piece of fiction (show or movie)
So lets say when megatron was being such a badass at the end of last Light, you could have had a segment looking back on the toys you like best for Megs, the ones that look most bad ass. Or you could have asked the panel which megs toy they use to represent Megatron in their Lost Light crew.
Or when you have a trailer for the last knight, you could look back and ask which movie optimus toy you likd best, or whch movie BB toy you liked best (in theme with the new Bee just revealed). or in theme with the newly revealed Optimus toy that turns out to just be a redeco, you could ask when was the last time you were also dissapointed by a reveal.
these are all little tips and tricks to make the podcast episodes more timeless like that when people listen to it a week or more later, they are still compelled to share their point of view. it also helps for those who listen to the podcast but arent caught up on things. Odds are they at least have an opinion on the past and can interact based on that.
I hope that helped!