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Transcript

Buzzsprout Gets A Dark Side · Buzzcast

• 0:00
  Kevin: Jordan, I think you should open this episode with some spooky Halloween music.
• 0:04
  Jordan: Why?
• 0:06
  Kevin: Because Buzzsprout now has a dark side.
• 0:08
  Kevin: Yes, this is breaking news because we are gonna, I think we'll probably put something in the newsletter on Tuesday.
• 0:13
  Kevin: This episode drops Friday.
• 0:15
  Kevin: So if you are hearing this right now, you're gonna get a little early access to the new dark mode feature that we just rolled out.
• 0:23
  Alban: People have been writing in and asking for us to build dark mode for Buzzsprout for, I don't know, 10 years.
• 0:29
  Jordan: They've been complaining about like burned retinas and you know.
• 0:34
  Alban: I went through like 46 emails today and wrote back to everybody who's asked about dark mode really in like eight years.
• 0:42
  Alban: And I was writing all of them.
• 0:44
  Alban: And there are so many like, it's burning my retinas.
• 0:47
  Alban: I'm up late at night, I can't handle it.
• 0:49
  Kevin: And it's so extreme.
• 0:51
  Alban: They're so extreme.
• 0:53
  Alban: But you know what?
• 0:55
  Alban: It worked.
• 0:56
  Alban: Uh, you've got dark mode now.
• 0:58
  Alban: We're happy to give it to you.
• 1:00
  Alban: I hope that you know, I'll I'll feel sad if some people are like, I left.
• 1:04
  Alban: I had to go somewhere with dark mode.
• 1:07
  Kevin: I will tell you that since we have it now, I have it set for my profile and I do like it better.
• 1:12
  Alban: I'm a light mode guy.
• 1:14
  Alban: I think I like like mode across everything.
• 1:16
  Alban: I like screens really bright.
• 1:18
  Alban: It's just I don't want to use screens at night.
• 1:20
  Alban: But if I'm using a screen, I'm like, crank it up to full brightness.
• 1:24
  Jordan: That's the way I am too.
• 1:25
  Jordan: And then like halfway through the day, my like I have like an ocular migraine.
• 1:28
  Jordan: I'm like, what is going on?
• 1:30
  Jordan: There's just like this constant bright light in my eyes.
• 1:33
  Alban: There actually was a period where I got one of those like sad lights, seasonal affective disorder.
• 1:38
  Alban: And you put up the light in case you don't get much sunlight.
• 1:41
  Alban: And I put it up in my office for the mornings, but then some days I noticed like my head just started hurting around like two.
• 1:47
  Alban: And I went, oh, I've been like launching this light into my face all day.
• 1:51
  Alban: I forgot to turn it off.
• 1:52
  Alban: And basically been staring at like an artificial sun.
• 1:55
  Alban: This probably isn't good for my head.
• 1:59
  Kevin: I don't know if any of that light stuff works.
• 2:01
  Kevin: This has nothing to do with dark mode, but it just reminded me.
• 2:04
  Kevin: I had a uh, you know, those like you see them all over social media sites, the red lights and stuff, and they say they promote ear growth and they help with joint pain.
• 2:13
  Alban: These are different things.
• 2:14
  Kevin: Let me just tell you the truth.
• 2:15
  Kevin: I had a red light on this head for a long time.
• 2:18
  Kevin: Do you see any effects?
• 2:19
  Jordan: It looks nice.
• 2:22
  Kevin: I'm just I think going a turt a trip to Turkey is the only solution for this thing.
• 2:29
  Alban: There's a big difference between uh getting some sun exposure, very bright light exposure if you don't get sunlight exposure for sad, and getting a cap off a Chinese website that says it'll grow your hair.
• 2:43
  Jordan: All right.
• 2:43
  Jordan: Well, what do we have for uh dark mode?
• 2:46
  Jordan: What all went into this?
• 2:48
  Jordan: I will tell you if anybody's interested, raise a hand if you're interested.
• 2:52
  Kevin: I'll tell you why we never did it before.
• 2:54
  Kevin: And it's because years ago we switched to uh Tailwind to help us manage like the look and feel of the Buzzsprout web experience.
• 3:01
  Kevin: And there's a lot of benefits that come with that.
• 3:03
  Kevin: One of the downsides is that everything is like hard-coded in a million different places.
• 3:08
  Kevin: And so doing something as simple as like choosing uh what you would think would be like a pretty simple color theme to theme the whole site often bec like became super difficult.
• 3:19
  Kevin: And we didn't know that when we switched over to Tailwind.
• 3:22
  Kevin: And so it ended up being a much bigger project than we thought.
• 3:26
  Kevin: So every time we thought about doing it, we're like, oh, it's gonna be like weeks and weeks of work from the design team and the development team.
• 3:32
  Kevin: And I don't know if enough people are asking for it.
• 3:34
  Kevin: Alban would tell you, I think 46 people like directly asked for it.
• 3:37
  Kevin: He emailed all of them today and said it's out.
• 3:39
  Kevin: But it was just one of those features that was like we it's kind of nice, but we don't know like how much of a like bang for your buck we're gonna get to spend all this time as opposed to building other stuff.
• 3:48
  Kevin: And then recently, now that we have access to models that can help us like scan the code base very quickly and make changes in mass very quickly and stuff like that, it became a much faster project for us.
• 3:58
  Kevin: So I took it on last week and it was still a lot of work, took like a full week of work to go through and find all the colors and create palettes and themes and all this kind of stuff.
• 4:06
  Kevin: But the payoff is here.
• 4:08
  Kevin: And like I said, I actually enjoy it quite a bit, a lot more than I thought I would.
• 4:11
  Kevin: I did not see myself running Buzzsprout in dark mode like after I built this.
• 4:14
  Kevin: And then through the process, I'm like, oh, it's actually looking really nice.
• 4:17
  Kevin: And it is, it's like it's a different experience, it's a little calmer.
• 4:20
  Kevin: I learned a lot about like colors and stuff while doing this.
• 4:24
  Kevin: I always thought like dark mode was just pretty much like a black background with white text, and it's not that at all.
• 4:29
  Kevin: You actually have to choose, you know, like there is some color in the dark background, and the text is not white, it's actually a shade of gray and why you choose the colors you do.
• 4:37
  Kevin: And like if the first version was just black with white text, and I was like, this is the worst looking dark mode site I've ever seen.
• 4:43
  Jordan: You were you were keeping us um up to date, like as you were building it and just kind of like letting us know what kind of things you were having to think about and run into.
• 4:52
  Jordan: And I was just like, whoa, this is way more complicated than I thought it was.
• 4:56
  Jordan: Like you were looking at how the charts and the stats would look, or how like the map um would look in the stats page, or also the um what was the other one?
• 5:08
  Jordan: But uh Buzzy the robot that like does the co-host AI thing.
• 5:12
  Jordan: Yeah.
• 5:12
  Jordan: Buzzbot.
• 5:13
  Jordan: Buzzbot.
• 5:14
  Jordan: It was so interesting.
• 5:17
  Jordan: You just throwing him on like a black background, it didn't look right.
• 5:21
  Jordan: And so you had to reconfigure all that stuff.
• 5:23
  Kevin: Yeah, there was a lot of graphics that we actually had white backgrounds built into the graphics.
• 5:28
  Kevin: So then all of a sudden you'd see a graphic with a white background on a dark mode screen, didn't look right.
• 5:33
  Kevin: So all those graphics had to be redone.
• 5:35
  Kevin: Anyway, I'm sure no one's as interested as we are in this because we like, you know, we build the software and stuff.
• 5:40
  Kevin: But it was a fun project.
• 5:42
  Kevin: It was it was much bigger than I thought.
• 5:43
  Kevin: What was funny is that one of our um developers, John, is the one who kicked this project off.
• 5:47
  Kevin: And he was like, Hey, I think we can actually take this on now, it'd be a lot quicker than it would have been in the past.
• 5:51
  Kevin: And he's like, I think I pretty much have it there if a designer can hop in and just push it over the finish line.
• 5:56
  Kevin: And I was like, I've got a couple hours.
• 5:57
  Kevin: This was a week ago, a week and a half ago.
• 5:59
  Kevin: Like, I got a couple hours.
• 6:01
  Kevin: I'll see if I can just, you know, tweak the colors and push it live.
• 6:03
  Kevin: And then, oh my goodness, a week later, I'm like so frustrated with John.
• 6:08
  Kevin: I'm like, You said this was almost ready.
• 6:09
  Kevin: It's not almost ready.
• 6:11
  Alban: Last Wednesday, we all met in the office and we're talking about all of these projects that we're working on.
• 6:16
  Alban: And Kevin had three or four rants about dark mode.
• 6:19
  Alban: You said it was 90%.
• 6:20
  Alban: It's not 90%.
• 6:21
  Alban: You know how long I've spent.
• 6:23
  Alban: John's like, all right, now I feel really bad about even bringing it up.
• 6:26
  Alban: It sounds like no one, no one wrote anything back.
• 6:29
  Alban: So I said, hey, it's pretty much done.
• 6:30
  Alban: If anyone likes it, here's what it could look like.
• 6:32
  Alban: And I moved on.
• 6:33
  Alban: Kevin's like, you can't just move on.
• 6:35
  Alban: You threw it over at me.
• 6:38
  Kevin: Just for clarity, I wasn't really mad.
• 6:40
  Kevin: I was joking with them, but it was it was pretty fun.
• 6:43
  Kevin: It was like a it was like a buzzcast rant.
• 6:45
  Alban: Yeah, acting for comedic effect.
• 6:47
  Kevin: Yeah.
• 6:48
  Jordan: Yeah.
• 6:48
  Jordan: Well, if anyone wants to check out the dark mode, where do they go to turn that on?
• 6:54
  Alban: So you go to settings and then go down to my profile.
• 6:57
  Alban: It is nice.
• 6:58
  Alban: The way it's set up is it's by user.
• 7:00
  Alban: So if you set it for yourself, all of your podcasts will show up in dark mode, but everybody else on your podcast can set it separately.
• 7:08
  Alban: So if somebody else prefers light mode, Kevin and I don't have to get the same experience on Buzzcast.
• 7:13
  Jordan: It's like Sleeping Beauty, where the like fairies are saying, like, the dress is blue, the dress is pink, dress is blue.
• 7:18
  Jordan: Like it would just be changing all the time for real.
• 7:22
  Alban: Yeah.
• 7:22
  Alban: Did you include the Easter egg last week in our last episode?
• 7:26
  Jordan: No, I actually did not include it in last week's episode, but I thought maybe we would clip in here because this is uh how we started last week's episode, and it didn't quite make the cut.
• 7:36
  Alban: So I also put this in the Facebook group and I told people there is an Easter egg in there that Kevin built in.
• 7:44
  Alban: All right, Jordan.
• 7:46
  Alban: Yes.
• 7:47
  Kevin: There's have you ever seen this little problem where the (censored) bumps into the (censored)?
• 7:51
  Jordan: Yes.
• 7:52
  Jordan: I have.
• 7:53
  Jordan: Yeah, because I usually like I'll do the thing where I cram as many like (censored) onto my (censored) as humanly possible.
• 7:58
  Jordan: And so I'll get that.
• 8:00
  Kevin: So now when you move (censored) to (censored) -table.
• 8:10
  Alban: I love that sound.
• 8:11
  Alban: And then watch so stupid.
• 8:18
  Jordan: That is the stupidest thing I've ever seen, and that's like the best thing I've ever seen.
• 8:24
  Alban: See, when other people say this is stupid, what they mean is this is childish and it shouldn't be out in the world.
• 8:30
  Alban: And when I say this is so stupid, it is a like I love this so much.
• 8:35
  Alban: It's so dumb, but I love it.
• 8:38
  Jordan: We need more stupid.
• 8:39
  Jordan: Like just more stupid in life.
• 8:41
  Jordan: It's silly.
• 8:42
  Jordan: Yes, it's so whimsical.
• 8:45
  Alban: There's something in Buzzsprout that has bothered me personally for years.
• 8:52
  Alban: And I've brought it up and I've proposed changes, and nobody cared.
• 8:57
  Alban: And then Kevin sent me and said, Hey, go cause that issue again.
• 9:04
  Alban: And I could not stop laughing.
• 9:07
  Alban: It was so stupid, it's so fun.
• 9:09
  Alban: I love it.
• 9:10
  Alban: And I've now showed it to multiple people and have gotten genuine, like laugh out loud laughs multiple times.
• 9:17
  Alban: I don't want to oversell it, but there's an Easter egg and bus brought.
• 9:22
  Alban: If you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about.
• 9:25
  Alban: So go.
• 9:26
  Alban: And if you find it, I put so I don't know.
• 9:28
  Alban: I put in Facebook the first person to post about it.
• 9:31
  Alban: I will find some sort of some sort of giveaway, something special we can send you.
• 9:36
  Alban: But we'll do something special for the first person to find it.
• 9:39
  Jordan: Well, what kind of special?
• 9:40
  Jordan: Like, is it gonna be like a five dollar Starbucks gift card special, or is it gonna be something a little extra?
• 9:46
  Jordan: What are what are we talking here?
• 9:47
  Jordan: Kind of prizes, what kind of goodies are we competing for?
• 9:50
  Alban: What kind of prize do you think we should should be?
• 9:53
  Kevin: Well, are you is is it like are you gonna do it from Buzzsprout?
• 9:56
  Kevin: Or are you saying you're putting your it's not a personal?
• 9:59
  Kevin: I'm not you're gonna do a personal buying you reward for them.
• 10:02
  Jordan: You know what this reminds me of is uh ready player one, how holiday had like the Easter eggs and like all the players had to find it, and the first person to find it won like the estate.
• 10:13
  Alban: So I'm not writing people into my will based on finding this Easter egg.
• 10:19
  Alban: Also, Ready Player One, those Easter eggs were really hard to find.
• 10:23
  Alban: Yeah, and I've actually been surprised nobody has found it yet.
• 10:27
  Alban: I know.
• 10:28
  Alban: Oh really?
• 10:28
  Alban: I think this is actually really hard to find.
• 10:31
  Alban: So here's what I think Do we do hands?
• 10:34
  Alban: Like here's a big hint.
• 10:35
  Alban: You don't find it a big hint.
• 10:38
  Alban: Are you giving a big hint to Buzz uh Buzzcast listeners?
• 10:41
  Alban: Yes.
• 10:42
  Alban: Also, we have to come up with the prize too.
• 10:44
  Alban: The big hint is you don't find it by clicking around in Buzzsprout, which is probably what you would do.
• 10:50
  Alban: You find it don't tell them how to find it.
• 10:53
  Alban: I'm no, I'm not I don't know how to how to give the hint, but like the way that I use a computer, I trigger this all the time.
• 11:00
  Jordan: I trigger this as well, all the time.
• 11:02
  Alban: Yeah, that's not a good hint.
• 11:04
  Alban: Well, oh I was giving a bigger hint, and then you go, don't give a hint, don't give it too big of a hint.
• 11:09
  Jordan: I mean, that's kind of like a bigger hint, is that it's not on mobile, it's only on web.
• 11:13
  Jordan: Like that's kind of a hint, right?
• 11:15
  Kevin: Yeah, you do need to be like on a laptop or a desktop computer to see it.
• 11:18
  Kevin: It's not in the mobile app.
• 11:20
  Kevin: It rolled out with dark mode, but it really has nothing to do with dark mode.
• 11:22
  Kevin: It works in light mode and dark mode.
• 11:24
  Kevin: And I would maybe say that Buzzsprout is protective of its brand.
• 11:30
  Kevin: I would say that.
• 11:32
  Kevin: Ooh.
• 11:32
  Kevin: So I think I think that's about as much as I can say about that.
• 11:37
  Kevin: Is that we're protective of our brand.
• 11:40
  Jordan: I feel like you remember when Taylor Swift was on the uh New Heights podcast and everyone was like looking for the Easter eggs like in the bookshelf behind them.
• 11:49
  Alban: And nope, there's no there's in the bookshelf behind us.
• 11:53
  Alban: Don't just don't waste your time.
• 11:55
  Jordan: I feel like Kevin's like dropping like the cryptic things and everyone's gonna be like, what does he mean?
• 12:00
  Kevin: All right.
• 12:00
  Kevin: Well, I can't wait for someone to find it and then send Alban a screenshot or something, and then it sounds like what are you gonna get him?
• 12:06
  Kevin: The new Tesla Roadster or something as the prize.
• 12:10
  Alban: I like, see, I like when Jordan says the $5 gift card, and then I'm like, oh no, we're gonna put $50 in your bus brought wallet.
• 12:18
  Alban: You know, we're gonna send you some swag.
• 12:20
  Alban: Then I'm like generous, and it's like, wow, that's so awesome.
• 12:23
  Alban: I get a few months of busprout for free.
• 12:25
  Alban: But then Kevin's like, new roadster?
• 12:27
  Alban: You're writing them into your will.
• 12:28
  Alban: Like, no, that now, no matter what I do, sounds bad.
• 12:32
  Alban: You gotta manage expectations.
• 12:35
  Kevin: It'll be worth it.
• 12:35
  Kevin: The Easter egg itself is is worth the joy of finding it.
• 12:38
  Kevin: I think it's true.
• 12:39
  Kevin: It's all the rewards you need.
• 12:40
  Kevin: Your award is the likes that you get on the Facebook group when you post it.
• 12:44
  Jordan: It's actually true.
• 12:45
  Jordan: I think it's gonna it'll go big.
• 12:48
  Jordan: All right.
• 12:49
  Jordan: Well, if you find that, go ahead and send it in.
• 12:52
  Jordan: You can tap the send us fama link in the show notes or post it to our Facebook group or I don't know, does Twitter count, Alban?
• 12:58
  Jordan: If they post it to Twitter or Insta, just wherever.
• 13:02
  Alban: Whenever we find it first.
• 13:02
  Alban: If you're buying everywhere for sure.
• 13:06
  Jordan: Just plaster it all over the internet.
• 13:08
  Jordan: All right, and until next time, thanks for listening and keep podcasting.