The unofficial feeds will be shutting down July 31st
Hi!
TL;DR: The unofficial feeds will be shutting down on July 31st.
When the feeds were originally created for Howl, it felt like Earwolf and Midroll were a community. You saw hosts interact on the Earwolf forums, AMAs in this sub, and fan art showcased in Shannon's weekly newsletters. Since the acquisition by Scripps and shift into Stitcher Premium, it no longer has that atmosphere. The Earwolf forums are nearly dead, new Stitcher Premium content seems more geared towards general audiences than comedy, and newsletters sent out no longer have fan art. The feeds now feel like something Stitcher takes advantage of to keep thousands of users subscribed without having to develop anything.
Because of the above, I'm making the decision to shut down the feeds at the end of the month. I have had no contact from Stitcher, Scripps, or any other parties regarding this decision. I am making this choice independent of what Sirius may or may not allow.
EDIT: Since a few people have asked: donation link. I think I've spent $800 total, $500 out of pocket (excluding $300 from previous donations, thanks!) to host the feeds over the last four years.
EDIT 2: I've added a deprecated tag to each feed and episode title/description. This is intended to be slightly annoying to get users to take action (unsubscribe to the premium feed, subscribe to the free feed) so that when the feeds stop updating July 31st it won't be a suprise. It also allows users an easier time identifying subscribed feeds from unofficial feeds vs. official feeds from Stitcher/Earwolf.
EDIT 3: Looking for a replacement?
Posted Jul 7, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC · edited