So, Podshow Plus launched today (a few hours ago). Other than the fact that the launch is a few days late, it’s slower than a Win98 machine on dialup and the site is buggier than three-week old sushi, things seem to be going “well” in the Blogosphere.

From Todd Cochrane:

I am sitting here beyond pissed, not because they have my site automatically listed on their site that is fine because they are a directory, but in the way they have done it, this makes people assume that my podcast is part of Podshow, and diminishes my brand. They have made it near impossible to get to my home page from their site unless your really digg it’s 100% unacceptable.

From Dave Winer:

I’m not happy that they’re taking over my content, putting their copyright notice on it, creating their own version of my RSS feed, adding their crap, and taking out my copyright. They’re really asking for trouble. On a massive scale.

And if it were just the usual band of complaining suspects, I’d chill. But Michael “Jimmy Stewart” Geoghegan had the following to say:

When you get to the page you can subscribe to the RSS feed by hitting an orange XML button. Easy right? Sure as a user it is no big deal. As a content producer you will find something disturbing. PodShow builds its own RSS feed for your podcast with all your content, using the information your RSS feed provides and removes much of your info in the process including all the copyright details.

I’d confirm or something, but I can’t seem to get logged into the site, despite signing up early. Geoghegan’s post has screenshots - so I have to trust what’s there.

A few things to ponder / think about:

Adam’s Mom died days before this launch. I can imagine nothing worse. Give him some time to mourn.

If the only thing wrong with the site was the RSS “hijacking,” I’d say we have reason to complain. It should be obvious to anyone here that launch went really really bad and they got some things to fix before we even look at it seriously. Look around, NOTHING IS WORKING RIGHT AT THE SITE RIGHT NOW. Launch went really poorly people - give them a chance to clean up the mess first.

As to complaints of “stripping out copyright,” it’s a freaking line of code that they obviously missed and that’s it. Copyright is “NA” (at least in Geoghegan’s screenshots) - not Podshow. This is the same hysteria that charges Microsoft with wanting to take over the planet when a 30 month production cycle for that Borg results in delay after delay after delay.

It’s a mess, and I don’t think anyone would disagree, but it needs to be at least usable before anyone can complain about how evil it is.

Yes, I realize the new RSS feed model isn’t a bug - it’s something they put in there - and it’s pretty lame. But I’m just not sure if it is worth the hysterics right now as it is completely unusable.

Update: After a night’s sleep, I think I have an answer that makes a lot more sense.

Tags: Podshow, Dave Winer, Adam Curry, Todd Cochrane, Michael Geoghegan, Podshow Plus