I second that. That is the trade off. I am now using my resources and energy to do nothing but benefit another internet startup. I think the least we can have is database access.
Do not agree with that at all.
Coming soon, Broadcastify.com
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I second that. That is the trade off. I am now using my resources and energy to do nothing but benefit another internet startup. I think the least we can have is database access.
Do not agree with that at all.
There will be no changes to how you listen to the feeds on your Squeezebox... it will continue to remain unlimited and free.
The premium features include access to the archives etc. please read through the initial announcement for the details.
Thanks!
w2xq
Mentor
Actually, I can't read it. The text needs to be in a larger font size and in a bright bilious pink and lime green to make sure one see it. Good grief, Charlie Brown. Lucy, do you have the football? :roll: You can't make this stuff up.
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So if cross pollinating is going to be messy, why not just leave the people with premium feeds on the RR side as Premium Membership? Seems the people actually providing your "service" are getting the bum deal.
You know, we're going to lose some feeds to disenchanted folks that feel like we are "screwing them" out of $2.50/month of benefit while giving them a free subscription on the new internet startup and grandfathering them in for 90 days on the old platform.
We estimate we'll lose around 5-7% of all providers with the changeover, but that is the sad trade-off of moving forward and innovating. Some folks just refuse change for the sake of refusal.Meanwhile we paid out over $10,000 in feed provider incentives and gave over 8,000 feed providers at one point a premium subscription on RadioReference.com over the past 2 years...
..and all the sudden, as someone suggested, we're "screwing you over." Exasperating! We've busted our *** to find the best methods to incentivize our feed providers, treat them with the utmost respect, provide technical support for thousands of providers who wished to get online, etc - and a small vocal minority has made a concentrated effort to crap on all that hard work as we take it to the next level.
Let me emphasize, that small vocal group is a minority
While I respect your decisions to move on and remove your feeds, I can tell you that you will be on the outside looking in on a business that will pay out thousands of dollars every year in feed provider incentives when a major incident occurs. Providers will have an audience that attracts over 30K listeners on weekend evenings.
In the mean time, we are moving forward - if you don't like it, don't participate. Otherwise, cheer us on and wish us the best!
Highpockets
Member
I don't provide a feed and I can count on one hand how many times I have listened to one, but I for one will wish you the best on the moves your going to make, this should be interesting.
So, you are switching one benefit (RR subscription) for another (Broadcastify Premium subscription). For the ones that wanted the RR subscription, the substitution of the Broadcastify Premium isn't much of a consolation.
For me, I wanted the free RR subscription, so I set up the feed. Now I have to decide if the new benefit is enough to continue to provide the feed. I don't know. The only thing I see as a benefit that I would use is the feed archives.
It does seem like this decision was made in the best interest of your company (which makes sense) with the best interests of the uses coming in second (maybe not making as much sense). A benefit was decided upon in exchange for providing a service that your business model needs. Unfortunately this whole thing only works if people provide the feeds. Some did so for a particular benefit which is now going away. The deal has been changed, without their input. Some will feel slighted by this. It's human nature. The questions is, "How many?"
For me, I wanted the free RR subscription, so I set up the feed. Now I have to decide if the new benefit is enough to continue to provide the feed. I don't know. The only thing I see as a benefit that I would use is the feed archives.
It does seem like this decision was made in the best interest of your company (which makes sense) with the best interests of the uses coming in second (maybe not making as much sense). A benefit was decided upon in exchange for providing a service that your business model needs. Unfortunately this whole thing only works if people provide the feeds. Some did so for a particular benefit which is now going away. The deal has been changed, without their input. Some will feel slighted by this. It's human nature. The questions is, "How many?"
Congrats on the new startup and good luck in the future but I am with the small minority that the Free Premium Subscription was a great benefit and one of the only reason I keep my feeds going. Now with the advent of scanner control software with bulit in streaming capablities I can set up a stream for myself and a few friends. The people that will loose out will be the general public.
I understand it's a business decision and it's really not that much money a month for people to pay for the database but after all the complaints and whining from the general public about our feeds not having the right channels or the audio not being loud enough, or we are endangering public safety, I have no use for the other features and that was the main reason I kept them up. Granted I'm not a big feed provider like some others but I have the number one feed for Erie County NY (largest county outside of NYC)
Good luck in the future.
City of Buffalo Police & Fire Feed
Southern Erie County Fire Feed
Hamburg Police and Fire Feed
I understand it's a business decision and it's really not that much money a month for people to pay for the database but after all the complaints and whining from the general public about our feeds not having the right channels or the audio not being loud enough, or we are endangering public safety, I have no use for the other features and that was the main reason I kept them up. Granted I'm not a big feed provider like some others but I have the number one feed for Erie County NY (largest county outside of NYC)
Good luck in the future.
City of Buffalo Police & Fire Feed
Southern Erie County Fire Feed
Hamburg Police and Fire Feed
"You know, we're going to lose some feeds to disenchanted folks that feel like we are "screwing them" out of $2.50/month of benefit "
To some people who live on Vets pensions or other very limited incomes, $2.50 a month is a lot of money.
To some people who live on Vets pensions or other very limited incomes, $2.50 a month is a lot of money.
I already archive all my own comms for the past 2 years. I would rather the premium on rr.com then the new site which I will not have any use for a premium subscription.
It will be a seamless transition that probably occurs early morning on October 15th. We will implement redirects on RadioReference to Broadcastify, then after a few weeks we'll have informational pages in place on RadioReference to point folks to Broadcastify, then we'll slowly deprecate Live Audio components from RadioReference.com.
Broadcasts and listeners will not be affected by the transition.
Again, you are an enormous minority case. I applaud your technical dexterity that allows you to accomplish that, but the vast majority of our feed providers don't have that capability and cherish the fact that we can provide that to them for free. In addition to providing the largest public audience in the world for their efforts.
I mean, if we're not a fit for you, then don't use us. It is really that simple. Otherwise, we'll bust our tails to make sure we meet your expectations for delivery and service.
I am the same way. I have been a long time subscriber to RR and have provided my feed previously to other sites. I am amazed that so many people are whining about this as if it is an great burden. My feed went live because most people I know cannot afford a digital scanner for the new systems in my area.
I will continue to provide a feed and will start paying again for my subscription. I am grateful for the services provided and believe they are worth the miniscule price. Good riddance to the rest.
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EC-7
Member
Will the Alerts still be similar?
I currently have 2200+ followers on Twitter ( Live Scanner Alerts (ScannerAlerts) on Twitter ) that get automated Tweets from the live audio alerts & provides a link to the feed. I would really love to keep providing this service. Although I don't know the actual click-thru numbers, I would bet that a large portion of listeners on the feeds with alerts come from my @ScannerAlerts account.
Would I still be able to provide this service?
I dont mind trying to spend some time to rewrite some code to scrap the site, but an API would be really handy.
I currently have 2200+ followers on Twitter ( Live Scanner Alerts (ScannerAlerts) on Twitter ) that get automated Tweets from the live audio alerts & provides a link to the feed. I would really love to keep providing this service. Although I don't know the actual click-thru numbers, I would bet that a large portion of listeners on the feeds with alerts come from my @ScannerAlerts account.
Would I still be able to provide this service?
I dont mind trying to spend some time to rewrite some code to scrap the site, but an API would be really handy.
..and a couple other things, just to toot our horn for those that are feed providers that value our services.
We have the infrastructure to service hundreds of thousands of listeners.
When a major incident occurs, the following happens on RadioReference (and upcoming on Broadcastify.com)
It is very easy for someone to self host a feed. For those that do, they are getting the satisfaction that they are providing for their community and friends, but they don't participate in any of the incentive programs that we offer.. And that's fine, but when something "big" happens, and all the sudden you need 250/mb of bandwidth to support 10K+ listeners, what are you going to do then?
Don't forget that we provide that level of capability to every feed provider. For free.
We have the infrastructure to service hundreds of thousands of listeners.
When a major incident occurs, the following happens on RadioReference (and upcoming on Broadcastify.com)
- We pay out significant amounts of money to feed providers who experience major incidents via gift certificates to Scanner Master. You can see the incentive schedule here: Feed Provider Incentives - The RadioReference Wiki
- We scale our infrastructure to support tens of thousands of listeners for any one given feed when required.
- We promote your feed to the overall community, via the use of social media tools, which further increases your chances of qualifying for a feed provider incentive. (this year we've issued (3) $300 gift certificates to feed providers, in addition to numerous $50/75/150 certificates).
It is very easy for someone to self host a feed. For those that do, they are getting the satisfaction that they are providing for their community and friends, but they don't participate in any of the incentive programs that we offer.. And that's fine, but when something "big" happens, and all the sudden you need 250/mb of bandwidth to support 10K+ listeners, what are you going to do then?
Don't forget that we provide that level of capability to every feed provider. For free.
Absolutely. We have on the roadmap to extend alerts to the current API so you could retrieve feed alerts programmatically. I'll make sure we keep this high on the roadmap, because yes, your Twitter feed does drive traffic to our live audio feeds.
IredellMon
Member
Reading this thread a few things become obvious.
1. Feed providers think that they are supply content that cannot be obtained any other way and that RR.com is profiting and benefiting from that. Meanwhile RR.com thinks that they are the ones providing the service to the feed providers, and rewarding them in addition. Both are right of course.
2. The things that bring people to RR.com (and/or its subsidiaries past and future) are:
A. The ability to listen to the action in areas outside their immediate geographic region.
B. A database that makes it much more efficient to program their scanners than searching the FCC database and doing a lot of trial and error with trunking systems.
C. A forum to discuss all things scanner related.
As to point “A”, there is a critical mass of feeds needed to maximize and maintain the interest of the users. When someone wants to hear the live action related to “breaking news” on Fox News the feed needs to be there (and I have found it usually is). In some cases people have an interest in what’s going on at home when they are away, or in the town their family lives in, they grew up in, etc. If users keep finding the feeds are not available for places they are interested in then they will give up on the site. A successful site will acknowledge this and attract feed providers. There are some perks to using Broadcastify.com but it remains to be seen if it will maintain this critical mass of feeds as it is now, or if it will need some modifications to be successful. Still I think this was a decision suggested by accountants based on the relative profitability of both sides of the business and that will be the final determination.
RR.com does make it easy to broadcast a feed, the only question is, "is the motivation for me to provide the feed (whatever it is) sufficient" because if it is not then it does not matter how easy it is.
I’ll give it a shot at least (and keep my feed going, just hit 26 listeners! WooHoo!-- wheres my check! - just kiddin).
1. Feed providers think that they are supply content that cannot be obtained any other way and that RR.com is profiting and benefiting from that. Meanwhile RR.com thinks that they are the ones providing the service to the feed providers, and rewarding them in addition. Both are right of course.
2. The things that bring people to RR.com (and/or its subsidiaries past and future) are:
A. The ability to listen to the action in areas outside their immediate geographic region.
B. A database that makes it much more efficient to program their scanners than searching the FCC database and doing a lot of trial and error with trunking systems.
C. A forum to discuss all things scanner related.
As to point “A”, there is a critical mass of feeds needed to maximize and maintain the interest of the users. When someone wants to hear the live action related to “breaking news” on Fox News the feed needs to be there (and I have found it usually is). In some cases people have an interest in what’s going on at home when they are away, or in the town their family lives in, they grew up in, etc. If users keep finding the feeds are not available for places they are interested in then they will give up on the site. A successful site will acknowledge this and attract feed providers. There are some perks to using Broadcastify.com but it remains to be seen if it will maintain this critical mass of feeds as it is now, or if it will need some modifications to be successful. Still I think this was a decision suggested by accountants based on the relative profitability of both sides of the business and that will be the final determination.
RR.com does make it easy to broadcast a feed, the only question is, "is the motivation for me to provide the feed (whatever it is) sufficient" because if it is not then it does not matter how easy it is.
I’ll give it a shot at least (and keep my feed going, just hit 26 listeners! WooHoo!-- wheres my check! - just kiddin).
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I am a little disappointed in this decision. One of the main reasons why I host a feed on RadioReference is for the premium membership so that I can reprogram my scanner by downloading the frequencies from RR. Sure you can spout all day long about giving away X number of dollars in premium memberships, and I can spout all day long about how much money I'm spending per day/month/year on electricity, internet, computer, scanner, etc. But really it doesn't matter, what matters is what I (we) feel is a fair deal. It's not going to matter how many memberships to your site that you give away if you start making the people who actually provide the service that you are making money from feel that they are getting the short end of the short stick.
I think it would be fair to include access to the RR Database so that we can log in and program our scanners easily. I mean, it is in YOUR best interest that OUR scanners are programmed correctly.
I think it would be fair to include access to the RR Database so that we can log in and program our scanners easily. I mean, it is in YOUR best interest that OUR scanners are programmed correctly.
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