Captain's Log - December 2024

Hello shipmates - This is your Captain Carlin taking a break from my worm farm to give you an end-of-year update on Official Office Hours Business™.

First order of business, THANK YOU for your ongoing support here on the Patreon. The ship would sink without you and we are sincerely grateful. Now onto other business:

Holiday/Tim Tour Schedule  

The 5th Annual Holiday Extravaganza is this Wednesday 12/18 5pm - 8pm PT and will be FREE for all - tell your deadbeat friends who aren't on the Patreon! Lots of fun surprises in store as usual.

Then we take a holiday break until Thursday, 1/9.

And then I have to be honest with you, the schedule gets a bit screwy during Tim's big tour from the end of January into mid-February. There will be some days switching, a few with Tim remote from the road, maybe an unplugged (pre-taped) ep. BUT the show will go on and will remain full of fun and laughter, I can personally guarantee.

Now Playing: "I'm Hungry"

The hit song "I'm Hungry" from our recent Music Night with the Lemon Twigs is on all the music streamers. Let's turn it into a novelty hit on TikTok! Here it is on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp with very cool artwork from our new friend Melissa Mendes and a very cool video from our old friend Chris Robison.

You may not make it all the way through these next sections, so thanks again! If you have any other questions, comments or complaints, drop 'em in the comments below and I'll respond accordingly. 

Full archives

I'm slowly working my way through all the old episodes to make the Patreon Full Episodes Collection as complete as possible. There's a chunk in the early 100s that are still missing video episode posts, there's still some "After Hours" era that has After Hours but not the "main show," and then there's all the stuff from before we started the Patreon on episode 100.

For completists in a hurry, there's always the very thorough Compendium document that's got everything and then some.

Hey speaking of compendiums - why can't we get a stinking Wikipedia page?! Is there anybody here who can make that happen? It's been sticking in my craw for years, and when I tried to make one a while back it got rejected. If you can help with that, we'll throw you some free swag.

Live Stream/Patreon Embed/YouTube Chat

(Sorry this is really long and complicated and a bit inside baseball. But some of you may be interested, and some people have run into issues or had questions because of this semi-technical stuff.)

As you may have noticed, we've changed how the Youtube stream/Patreon embed works. In the past, we had the live 2+ hour "full show" streaming free for all, then switched it to an unlisted URL, keeping it embedded here on Patreon hypothetically for members only. We always knew this wasn't the sturdiest paywall, but it seemed like a decent honor system. However, in recent months, that unlisted URL seemed to be getting picked up by the YT algorithm (and/or freeloaders were finding the various simple ways around it) to the point that the paywalled "full" show (Office Hours+) was getting almost as many views as the free-for-all "first half" (regular Office Hours). Which just seemed a bit unfair to you, our paying supporters.

So we made the decision to tighten up the paywall. The show still streams free for all, but then we edit down that live stream so the URL stays the same for the "free half," continues to spread via that YT algorithm, and a new embed goes up on Patreon right after the show (usually about 15 minutes or so after the stream ends).

If you're not watching live, and you don't start watching in that little 15 minute window, you won't really notice anything different in the Patreon embed. You will notice the live chat now disappears, which is a bit of a bummer. But we felt the sacrifice was worth it to be more fair to paying customers, and it allows us to spread the good word and better monetize the "free half" with more views. It's already doubled our public views fairly consistently, which we are pretty stoked about.

Troubleshooting/pro tips:
I've seen one or two comments about the Patreon embed being the one hour show. Try refreshing, or maybe it's a cache thing where you started during the live stream (or that little window) and then came back. If you see Office Hours+ in the title (vs. Office Hours) you know you've got the correct one.

If you like to watch the full show in the YT app or a tv connected device, once the new embed is up, click/tap the YT logo to "watch on YouTube" the episode, then save the URL to a playlist on YouTube so you can access it that way.

Hey congratulations you made it to the end! Drop your full home address and social security number in the comments and I'll send you a free worm in the mail!

xoxo,
Producer Matt