Prankcast

Hi folks, anyone with Yahoo associated email addresses may not receive a notification from Prankcast. Yahoo is currently limiting email notifications from Prankcast as spam. I don't have an ETA on when this will change, but according to Yahoo it's temporary.

If this impacts you and you do use Yahoo and want to receive notifications, I suggest updating your email in your notifications preferences, or using an alternative method (discord or SMS) until it is resolved.

Some more fun updates that make the listening, editing and participation experience more enjoyable for broadcasters and users a like…

I can't tell you how many times I'm listening to an old clip and hear myself answering a question in chat, but I forgot to say the question out loud, so I have no clue what question I'm answering. Well, wonder no longer:

Introducing Chat Replays!

Now you can play chat back in real time as you listen to showreels.

• Every chat message is shown alongside a timestamp, so you can get the right context from the broadcast.

• There's a slider, so you can speed scrub through the chat and broadcast.

• To try it out, just scroll down to the Chat Replay tab on the Post page and click the Start / Open button:

• This only applies to broadcasts that have saved the audio to Prankcast. Hosts can view it even if your content is in draft form and not published.

• Privacy control over chat replay:

• As a host: You can disable individual replay on certain chats, if you want. You can also disable this globally for your account in your Settings > Content > Post Settings, if you never want your chats to be replayable along with your broadcast.
  https://preview.prankcast.com/milkbox/settings/content?panel=postsettings

• As a user: If you don't want your name appearing in past chats that are replayed, you can hide your username and avatar. This setting is available in the Settings > Personal > Advanced menu.
  https://prankcast.com/app/settings/personal?panel=useradvanced

Playback Speed Control was added to the Showreel and Uploads player.

• This is super useful if you're doing editing and trying to find a particular call.

Timestamp Updates

I added the ability to add tags to timestamp for ease of filtering in the future.

Easy Mode:
Click the Save Timestamps button in the chat menu and use the GUI. There's a dropdown menu that lets you choose one preexisting tag or specify your own.

Advanced Mode:
To tag a word via chat message, just add - in front of an alpha_numeric word of your choosing (no spaces). You can use an _ (underscore) to hyphenate two words into a single tag. You can add multiple tags per timestamp in this mode.

Example usage: /t 00:15:32 -offensive Recipient uses racist language.

The output would be:

timestamp: 00:15:32
tags: offensive
notes: Recipient uses racist language.

Example usage: /t 01:25:31 -credit -doglettuce Towing the wrong car.

The output would be:

timestamp: 01:25:31
tags: credit, doglettuce
notes: Towing the wrong car.

You can see the updated full list of chat timestamp commands in the previous post: https://prankcast.com/prankcast/posts/3770-prankcast-v0-9-5-7-capture-timestamps-in-chat-during-live-broadcasts

Misc Fixes

• The homepage will no longer auto-play a broadcast when you are the current active host and click on your own name to get to chat.
• Usernames can now only be changed every 14 days. Your old username url will automatically redirect to your new name.
• The tabs on individual post pages now fit on mobile screens.
• The chat box on mobile screens should now stay visible when typing in it on mobile screens.
• Show titles are now linked to the originating posts in the player when an upload or showreel plays.
• Flair in chat should now be more readable on Firefox.
• Upload thumbnails are restored
• And more!

Thanks to @icecat for this awesome idea! You can now preserve timestamps, along with a note as you listen to a live broadcast.

Use Cases

• Marking a funny moment or soundbyte for clipping later
• Noting when someone has shared a private number or business name you want to remove during editing.
• Annotating guest names as they do individual calls (useful if you have an open mic segment).

There are 2 ways to save a timestamp and anyone allowed in your chatroom can do it:

1. Typing in Chat:

Here's the full list of methods to create a timestamp via chat:

• /t = preserve a timestamp at the current time with no notes)
• /t HH:MM:SS = preserve an optional timestamp at the specified broadcast timer moment (customize HH:MM:SS appropriately).
• /t -optional_tag = Uses the current time, and lets you add an optional tag.
• /t Optional notes = Uses the current time, and lets you add optional notes.
• /t -optional_tag Optional notes = lets you specify the tag and notes at the current time.
• /t HH:MM:SS -optional_tag = lets you specify the time, and tag to add to the timestamp.
• /t HH:MM:SS Optional notes = lets you specify the time, and notes to add to the timestamp.
• /t HH:MM:SS -optional_tag Optional notes = lets you specify the time, tag and notes to add to the timestamp.

2. Simple Button

Click the Save timestamp button that appears in the bottom left of the chatroom, when the chat options menu is expanded and a broadcast is active. It will then give you a simple modal where you can edit the timestamp, and add an optional note.

Accessing timestamps

You can find your saved timestamps listed under the individual post associated with that broadcast after it ends. Clicking the individual timestamp will immediately start playing the audio. If you have transcripts turned on, you can switch to that tab after to see associated text at that timestamp.

TODO

• Adding these for audio posts and saved showreels as well
• Adding ways to delete and edit these later, or set them to be approved only (similar to post comments).

• Following up on the introduction of automated transcripts earlier this week, you can now add timestamps to your audio post / showreel description directly!

• Use clock formatting to get it to work: Just format them exactly like a HH:MM:SS clock: 00:00:00 with leading zeros for it to work. For example: 01:02:43 will work. 1:02:43 will not. Note that this will only work in audio posts.

• Current timestamps for files are also now linkable. When listening to audio you can now share the current timestamp you are listening to by clicking the 3 dots menu and choosing "Current timestamp" from the list.

• Known bug: This will only work on published posts, not drafts. Unfortunately it's a bit of work to address this, so I may not do so.

• Alternatively you can append ?t=XXX to the URL, where XXX is the number of seconds into the audio. For example: https://prankcast.com/milkbox/posts/3689-breakfast-sandwiches?t=116

• Kindly let me know if you run into any issues! Next up is letting users preserve timestamps during chat. I wanted to include that in this release but ran out of time.

Broadcast Stats

• Stats batch catch up. I'm currently running a batch process that is calculating past listens. It will probably be complete tomorrow, so until then some older shows may show 0 listens.

• Pagination Individual broadcast stats are now paginated, so you can go back in time to past broadcasts.

• And lots of additional tweaks to make things better, including some bug fixes for user blocks. Good times!

Now you can get all broadcasts and audio uploads transcribed, so they are easily searchable. This is also automatically integrated with the search box on the homepage, so you can find that exact call your looking for right from the home page. To see an example visit: https://prankcast.com/milkbox/posts/3670-speed-notary-prank-call?show=transcript

• Transcriptions have clickable time stamps - you can jump right to the correct call.
• As your call plays, you will see the active sentence highlight against the audio.
• To access transcripts, go to the transcription tab on the individual post page (when applicable). You can also find it in the 3 dots menu by each post (if applicable).

Transcript Caveats

• Only active contributors' files are eligible for transcription.
• Only public files will be transcribed.
• Transcriptions are currently manually triggered, to make sure everything scales correctly. But once we have processed the full backlog, transcriptions will be automatic.
• After being transcribed, your file will immediately show up in search.
• I'm in the process of batch transcribing older public files which will take a while, so your stuff may not be in here just yet.
• Todo: Have the search results show the relevant part of the transcript to make it easier to jump to the right moment in the audio.

Misc Fixes

• I've streamlined down responses (likes and comments) on posts into a single list. One less list to click through.
• I've also swapped out the temporary hearts for the custom chat emojis now that there's less visual noise for new users to figure out.

Next up: simple audio clipping and better timestamp control.

In your content settings you can now see a barebones stats visualization of your listener performance over time. I'll add some additional stats to this as well. Thank you to @mrbiggs for the suggestion.

To access it please visit the Content Tab in your settings:
https://prankcast.com/app/settings/content?panel=broadcaststats#broadcaststats

then open the Broadcast Stats section

It is limited to the the most recent broadcasts for now, but I'll add pagination in the next incremental update to let you go further back in time.

I have replaced the underlying component that we used to play live broadcasts with a new streamlined one. There is no visual indication of changes, but the new one has allowed the following updates:

• Active listener numbers and listening members list update in real time during broadcasts. They are now using websockets instead of database calls, similar to how web chat works. On that note, the listening tab during live broadcasts is now restored.

• There should no longer be conflicts on Android devices when other device audio plays while you're listening to a stream. This is not thoroughly tested across all devices, so please let me know if you run into issues.
  EDIT: I had to roll back this part of this update due to some other issues popping up with Android devices.

Misc fixes

• Added a timer to the chat screen, even when the broadcast isn't being played.
• fixed test mode bug in web broadcaster app (thanks @mrbiggs).
• updated site to use latest version of react and node for better security.
• some other minor bugs…

• Temporarily disabling the listening tab list
  This is the tab that shows up in the chatroom during active broadcasts.
  It's showing cached member information instead of realtime information. It will temporarily just show the list of current chatters when you click on it.

• Listener counts are displaying lower than actual numbers
  Some browsers aren't pinging the server to update that they are still connected (even though they are). For now assume the number of listeners is at least the number in chat, plus 10-30% on average.

Hopefully this will be fixed this weekend. I'm looking into adapting a completely new player that should have way more control on my end.

• chat panels should no longer open by default when the homepage avatar is clicked on mobile
• Live player will not show "Loading" when playing.
• links in chat to prankcast.com will not trigger the "visiting a link outside of Prankcast alert" (thanks @synthead)
• cleaned up 404 error / missing profile pages a bit
• fixed podcast links (thanks @synthead)
• directory page is now pageless.
• staff activity in settings is now pageless.
• chat emoji size is a little bigger
• updated site favicons with the new logo
  
• updated discord with the new logo
• added joineversary posts to profiles so empty profiles have at least one (removable) post as a default state.
• other minor changes

That is all. I'll prettify them this weekend so they match the new chat layout.

I think that was the last major bug from the transition to the new site.

edit: lol spoke too soon. I see that short posts sometimes display an "expand" button unnecessarily

HUGE update representing months of work. This update has taken major steps to simplify the site and provide a better experience for all, listeners and hosts alike.

Before diving into the update, I owe a huge thanks to:

• @Criefaux for going above and beyond in testing the new features and giving feedback.
• @Riddle for helping with some of the security testing, performance testing and some of the chat regexp!
• everyone else who tested the new prankcast chat and site the last couple of weeks!

Posts are now ready

• Posts are a combination of showreels, uploaded audio clips, text updates, images, and anything else you want to share with your followers or let you promote yourself to new audiences.
• You can even use them to update your listeners if there's a change made to your show schedule.
• You can control if they are public on the homepage (useful for promotion) or private on your profile (useful for updating your followers).
• Users can comment on and like them.
• Audio files be downloaded in a simpler way.
• Search is integrated with Post content as well (no transcriptions yet).
• You can follow all post authors directly from Posts.

New Homepage

• Combined upcoming schedules and live shows into one single view.
• This live show view is sticky as you scroll on desktop.
• Posts are now front and center. You can also search for specific posts.
• You can see Hot (this is currently based on currently featured broadcasters, but will be changing to be algorithmic soon), All (everyone sorted by recency), and For Me (broadcasters I follow).
• There's also an Audio only view, so you can get directly to the good soundwave stuff with less clutter.
• The list of featured broadcasters has been moved to the Directory page.

New User Profile Pages

• Like the homepage, this page has also been changed to emphasize Posts.
• There's also an Audio only view, so you can get directly to the good stuff with less clutter.
• Podcasts will now incorporate all audio posts, including Showreels and any uploaded clips.
• If you use a feedreader, there's now an RSS view for all posts as well, separate from the podcast rss feed.
• User schedule pages and Youtube Clips pages have been removed. The schedule is now incorporated into the sidebar. I might make it import YouTube videos and turn them into posts, but am undecided on this.
• Broadcasters: Upload some audio clips to your profile page to show people who follow you what you're all about so they are more likely to subscribe to your notifications.
• Follower management (eg. requests for private profiles) has been moved to Profile Settings. You can also now assign mods to help you manage Follow requests.

Chat v4 is live

• Completely overhauled for the fourth and hopefully final time.
• The layout is way more intuitive and more responsive on both desktop and mobile. Open the panels to see the chat options
• I fixed a bunch of issues that caused lag and battery drain on slower devices.
• You can now reply to all messages directly, and maintain a link to those messages.
• While I was at it, I built this in such a way that we can add direct messages between users next.
• You can see a list of active listeners during broadcasts. [Note this list may be buggy]
• new test-only feature - if you send a video live stream to YouTube, you can embed the video in chat (desktop only). If you want to use this feature, let me know.
• Name your bot in the chat settings. It now appears in the chat list (when activated).
• You can toggle different image types in chat (eg. allow gifs, but disallow drawings).

RIP Light mode

• The site is now all Dark mode all the time. There's no more dark mode toggle either. This means so much less design work to support and test. I should have done this last year.

Directory

• This is now infinitely scrollable instead of paged.
• The default view is by last broadcast.

Contributor-only features

• some features are now gated as contributor only. All of this is subject to change as I try out some things and see how it feels.
• Now that posts are finally live, my next major focus will be nailing down the final business model for BoredKatz in general (not just Prankcast) and migrating away from Patreon.
• if there is a contributor-only feature you currently need and you cannot afford to become a contributor, dm @milkbox on Discord or email support@prankcast.com privately.

Misc Fixes

• literally 100+ other line items. This was getting long, so I'm just going to leave out the tiny fixes.
• Thanks for reading. If you made it this far, post "parcheezi" in the comments below so I can give you a high five.

Canaries hatched since the last update: 0