
Ask HN: Why don't podcasts have comments? - alphagrep12345
Why don&#x27;t podcast players and podcast ecosystem in general have comments? I listen to a podcast, and want to engage with people who listened to it and ask questions to authors. Why don&#x27;t we have it?
======
onion2k
Because podcasts aren't centralized..

Podcasts often made available on lots of platforms and apps. That would mean
the podcast owner would need to check _all_ of those places regularly to
respond to people - if they miss a platform they'd be accused of ignoring
their audience by people who listen there. That's a lot of effort. Rather than
doing that podcasters often have a website for their podcast that (sometimes)
lets listeners engage with them, or they use social media with a Twitter or
Insta account for the podcast.

~~~
bryanrasmussen
Or, also because podcasts aren't standardized, if podcasts had a standard
there would be a podcast standardization track, then there would probably end
up being specified the possibility of adding comments to the payload and a way
to specify endpoints for receiving comments. etc.

This would of course also open up for other things like perhaps including
resources at a particular point in the podcast that the user could respond to
- for example links to relevant demos of technique under discussion etc.

And probably a greater development of different podcast players.

~~~
tolien
> This would of course also open up for other things like perhaps including
> resources at a particular point in the podcast that the user could respond
> to - for example links to relevant demos of technique under discussion etc.

Minus the “that the user could respond to” but isn’t that just show notes
and/or chapters?

Those are already a thing as supported by, e.g., Overcast [1]. Overcast also
has a function to share short clips, which I guess is similar to being able to
link to specific points in a podcast. Podcasters don’t use the functionality
available, though.

1: [https://imgur.com/a/X99bPqX](https://imgur.com/a/X99bPqX)

~~~
bryanrasmussen
>Podcasters don’t use the functionality available, though.

As a general rule content providers of any sort do not make use of
functionality available in one content serving application, unless that
application has near monopoly control of the market. Overcast evidently does
not
[https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasts/comments/8ntp3x/podcast_ap...](https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasts/comments/8ntp3x/podcast_app_market_share/)
(unless stuff has changed drastically in last two years)

~~~
tolien
When it’s supported by the majority of clients though [1]…

> MP3 chapter markers are supported by most podcast clients, including Apple
> Podcasts on iOS (provided you're on iOS 12), Overcast, Pocket Casts,
> Antennapod Castro, Player FM and more.

1: [https://chaptersapp.com/faq/](https://chaptersapp.com/faq/)

~~~
bryanrasmussen
Thanks for the info!

------
tosterhaus
I couldn't agree more. For the last 2 years I've been building a podcast app
that solves this problem called Repod -> [https://repod.io](https://repod.io)

It's a full fledged social podcast app that enables people to comment +
tag/categorize episodes. Would be super curious to hear your thoughts on the
app.

~~~
135792468
This looks really well done. I don't think the messaging is strong enough to
get me to switch from PocketCasts so you might want to work on that. I suspect
podcast listening is a habit for most people and will just use what they
always have. Every few months, a friend will get tired of apple podcasts and
ask for an app recommendation, but people don't take switching lightly.

Can I import my subs? Who will see my comments? do my friends have to use
repod? etc

------
toyg
Podcasting is built over rss, which is largely a read-only technology from the
user side; the read/write variations never got traction, as people could not
agree on a protocol (DAV? RPC? REST? etc). There seems to be little appetite
to improve on the current standard, but I guess it could happen if developers
of the biggest podcast apps were to agree on such improvements.

Distributed tech, after it gets popular, becomes a lot like herding cats, and
when it comes to markup everyone has an opinion.

------
BlackLotus89
The podcasts I listen to all do. (I only listen to german podcasts thought)

[https://metaebene.me/podcasts/](https://metaebene.me/podcasts/)

Tim Pritloves podcasts not only have comments, but the freakshow is streamed
live with slack chat for interactions. All podcasts of the metaebene are
excellent btw and he is pioneering podcasting (over 12 years of high quality
content and he seems to be striving for perfection). He has transcripts,
chapter markers, live chat, comments, more than one codec, show-notes and
additional features like fast and slow play in the web-player.

He also experiments with different things like auto-transcribe. I guess if
somebody will be the first to actually offer a codec2 version of his/her
podcast it will be him (If someone wants to correct me I would be happy to
listen to a podcast that gets regularly released as codec2 :P)

Edit:

Afaik everything he does is open source as well and he shares
[https://podlove.org/about/](https://podlove.org/about/)
[https://github.com/timpritlove?tab=repositories](https://github.com/timpritlove?tab=repositories)
his work so others (like
[https://www.cleanelectric.de/](https://www.cleanelectric.de/)) can build on
what he worked on.

------
nikivi
I think Twitter can be used for it. Also podcasts use RSS for distribution so
whatever comment system is going to be centralized to some service and
everyone has to decide to use it.

~~~
jherdman
> I think Twitter can be used for it...

I'd argue that though this is an avenue your listeners MAY use, it's not one
the author ought to encourage. It's far more valuable to try and drive traffic
to a site you own and control.

------
edent
They do. Lots of the podcasts I listen to ask users to leave comments on their
website. Some even read out the comments in subsequent episodes.

But moderating comments - even on a niche post - is a chore. Wading through
spam, trolls, arguments, etc isn't fun. It's much easier to ask commenters to
email in - and that's what the majority seem to do.

------
AnonHP
I don’t have direct experience using this app called Breaker [1], but it’s
designed to have _some_ social features for podcasts so you can connect with
friends or check other recommendations.

The fact that podcasts are distributed as RSS feeds to the podcast
directories, such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc., means that some centralized
platform would be required for comments and other interactions. Many podcast
authors have their own podcast websites where they may allow comments, but
other listeners may not know of those sites or care to comment there when they
have a ready interface to comment on Apple or Google or Spotify from their
favorite podcast player.

[1]: [https://www.breaker.audio/](https://www.breaker.audio/)

------
AlchemistCamp
A lot do, including mine: [https://reactor.am](https://reactor.am)

Just like blogs, it's up to the author. Feeds will have whatever links the
author puts into them, regardless of whether they're for all-text blogs or for
podcasts.

------
DoctorOW
Most podcasts have some sort of subreddit or similar web presence. If you're
ever looking for a community never underestimate typing "reddit.com/r/(thing)"
or "(thing) forum" in Google.

------
jimkleiber
I agree with the comments about the technology and I also wonder if it has to
do with how many people listen to podcasts—in the car, exercising, mowing the
lawn—and not being active on a screen to comment. Maybe I'm wrong on this but
I imagine many people listen this way. For example, I listened to one today
while shooting hoops outside.

------
afarrell
Because many podcast listeners don't share your preferences

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ghaff
Many podcasts do have a post with show notes/transcriptions/etc. for each
episode. And those will often be open for comments. But someone listening to
the podcast (probably from a phone) would then have to go to that page.

Given that a lot of blogs/pubs that aren't about contentious topics don't get
a lot of comments/engagement anyway, you probably just don't get a lot of
comments even if there's a place for them.

------
pwinnski
A podcast is an audio file supplied by an RSS feed. Nothing about that
supports nor precludes comments.

Many podcasts have a corresponding website, and some of those support
comments, but there's nothing about the design of podcasts that requires it.

If you have a particular podcast in mind, perhaps direct your question to the
publishers of that podcast, either via twitter or any website they have.

~~~
rhn_mk1
I'm going to nitpick here, but RSS is a technology built on the Web, so it
requires some sort of website control. So RSS podcasts require websites.

That they don't require separate websites is perhaps what you mean.

~~~
pwinnski
I mean, if we're going to nitpick... For podcasts, the RSS file itself is
served via HTTP, and it contains HTTP links to audio files, but there is no
actual requirement for any HTTP server involved in either to serve up any HTML
files for humans.

It might be hard to find and subscribe to a podcast without an HTTP server for
humans, but it should be _technically_ possible. For many people, the HTTP
server for humans they use is
[https://podcasts.apple.com](https://podcasts.apple.com), or maybe their
podcast client, which hides all of those details away and might as well be
interacting with a JSON API via gopher behind the scenes. Except, of course,
it almost certainly isn't.

------
jimmyspice
Soundcloud is quite good at associating comments with timestamps. I don't
think it has threads, but it's a relatively popular platform.

As others are saying, it's not really something that is standardised (or
strictly necessary), which is why you don't see it much.

------
lmedinas
To answer directly to your question, it depends on the platforms, some
podcasts choose certain platforms to allow comments i.e. Joe Rogan is on
Youtube so viewers/listeners can submit their comments.

------
alexmingoia
[https://www.listennotes.com](https://www.listennotes.com) has comments and
recommendations. It's a podcast search engine and aggregator.

------
the_arun
Good question! If SoundCloud hosts/shares all the podcasts in the planet, then
it will become Audio version of YouTube & people could listen/comment.

------
smitty1e
I'll share a podcast on Twitter from Spotify and @ the host, which is far less
than actual comment systems.

BabylonBee podcasts support comments on their site.

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davesmylie
depending on the podcast - there will often be (unofficial) comments
somewhere.

try looking on reddit - eg reddit.com/r/dancarlin

------
Kednicma
When people post podcasts here, as in [0] recently, then we have discussions.
However, consider that podcasters _don 't want_ your questions, typically; the
folks that do want questions will publish a phone number or email address
allowing for engagement.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24336756](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24336756)

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tessellated
There are subreddits for many podcasts and youtube channels that I follow.

------
kristianpaul
Some services offer reviews where you can still provide feedback both written
and in quantity

------
Barrin92
Some podcast players do, castbox for example.

