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ThatguyPhil

What happened to Sean on Idle Thumbs?

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As one of those longtime hardcore listeners readers, I'll say that the loose structure of Idle Thumbs is one of the things that endears it to me.  It feels more like a conversation among friends than a "show" which in a way makes me feel more included, as though I were sitting in the same room but not saying much.  I enjoyed the expanding and rotating cast as it made things feel fresh but still maintained what I loved about the podcast.

I don't think the structure of the cast itself has changed really. Most of the show's existence has had a pretty consistent host lineup, there was just one significant period of exception.

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I don't think the structure of the cast itself has changed really. Most of the show's existence has had a pretty consistent host lineup, there was just one

significant period of exception.

 

I meant the structure of the podcast is loose in comparison to most other podcasts that have "segments" or something of an order in which they talk about things.  That's vaguely present in Idle Thumbs but much less pronounced, apart from reader mail being the finisher for most episodes.  The internal consistency of Idle Thumbs has been pretty steady.

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Is the section where listener counter dropped one where the episodes were reliably coming out at the same time each week, or did it vary? Is it after Danielle left? Before?
I know that I have a fairly set podcast roster I use for my commute and if something is late or skipped I sometimes just won't ever get back to it, as something else steps up to take that slot.

I think things like listener counts are super interesting, and almost no podcast hosts can/will talk about it, so even a little explanation is intoxicating to me.

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I don't think the structure of the cast itself has changed really. Most of the show's existence has had a pretty consistent host lineup, there was just one significant period of exception.

 

The structure hasn't changed much, but the dynamic has shifted back and forth dramatically over the years. I feel like there are about 8 "eras" of Idle Thumbs so far, depending on who's hosting and who's available to join. Always felt the constantly changing theme songs were appropriate on that front.

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I'm not a regular on these forums, but i'm a very regular listener to the podcast. Is this really the first time this has come up? I honestly found it maddening when Sean wasn't on for ages and no-one on the cast mentioned it. I really wanted to know wtf was going on. Anyway, now I know...I understand the reasoning there, but it feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Sean is an excellent podcaster, and he should be on the show at least sometimes.

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Whenever Sean's not on the podcast, all the other hosts should be saying "Where's Sean?"

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I mean, I, and I'm sure others, have tweeted at Sean before now, but this is the first time someone created a whole thread dedicated to the conversation.

 

I also just assume that every question/comment I've thought about asking to even a semi-visible figure has been asked by a dozen people before and will be by a dozen after to me, and unless it's really important or any of my business, I won't bother them with it. I try to be cognizant of other people's time and every person assuming they're the only one doing something is how you get people bombarded & leads to email & twitter being a source of anxiety for people. Frankly, it's none of my business why or why not someone is on the show, which is why this thread & conversation mostly grosses me out. The best thing I can do is to be sure to tell the people that I enjoy that I enjoy them, and that I like the stuff they make.

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Thanks, Chris. I don't listen to every episode so I was wondering how I managed to miss Sean. Then I figured out it was because he was somehow more taxed with Firewatch. So now I'd been waiting for him to turn up.

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Man. Y'all can do what you want but I must admit I'm not wild about the reasoning. That period of many and variable hosts felt like one of the most vital and exciting stages the cast has been in, and it's disappointing to hear that any casts like that are being explicitly avoided in the future.

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Whenever Sean's not on the podcast, all the other hosts should be saying "Where's Sean?"

 

Ha ha; that's basically what they did for Nick for a few months.

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Honestly I hadn't really noticed, but I guess it's true that in recent times the cast has been pretty consistent in terms of who's on it.  Perhaps going back to listen to old episodes recently has skewed my perception a bit.

 

Anyways, I'm sure it won't be that hard to get used to more infrequent vanaman appearances, just like it feels like Steve is a regular part of the cast even though he's not been on more often than not.

 

Hopefully Thumbs will be going for many more years, and if this decision is part of what prolongs it, i think that's cool.

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I mean, I, and I'm sure others, have tweeted at Sean before now, but this is the first time someone created a whole thread dedicated to the conversation.

 

I also just assume that every question/comment I've thought about asking to even a semi-visible figure has been asked by a dozen people before and will be by a dozen after to me, and unless it's really important or any of my business, I won't bother them with it. I try to be cognizant of other people's time and every person assuming they're the only one doing something is how you get people bombarded & leads to email & twitter being a source of anxiety for people. Frankly, it's none of my business why or why not someone is on the show, which is why this thread & conversation mostly grosses me out. The best thing I can do is to be sure to tell the people that I enjoy that I enjoy them, and that I like the stuff they make.

 

I get that, but as someone who's not on Twitter, it felt really upsetting at times for Sean to have disappeared from the podcast about a year ago and for there to be absolutely no discussion of it. Like, I get being busy and far be it from me to be throwing shade because of a personal decision, but there were episode where Sean could clearly be heard yelling things from the other room and it just... I don't know, I don't think silence about it's been the best decision.

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Man. Y'all can do what you want but I must admit I'm not wild about the reasoning. That period of many and variable hosts felt like one of the most vital and exciting stages the cast has been in, and it's disappointing to hear that any casts like that are being explicitly avoided in the future.

I've avoided posting here until now because it's not really my business how other people operate their podcasts, but I do agree with this. The ~6 month period where every episode had different hosts was I think the strongest ~6 months of the podcast.

 

If it's an issue of scheduling, then yeah, fair enough. Scheduling is hard and you're not even getting paid for this. But if you are genuinely worried that the quality of the podcast suffered due to the number of hosts, I wanted to say that I, at least, enjoyed it.

 

 

 

Anyway, cast is great, do whatever.

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I liked musical chairs best because it gave me a huge variety of games and views on everything, and I liked all the hosts so getting to here from everyone like once a month was really nice.

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Sean left the band for a solo career and I have to tearfully tear down my posters/sharpie his face out now.

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Well this news actually makes me sad; I don't know if I could pick a favorite host more than a favorite child but Sean is up there. I totally can understand the logistical nightmares of having a rotating cast of hosts and I definitely have missed having Danielle on the show (I started listening to Thumbs when she came on) but still makes me a little sad. You guys are one of the few game podcasts I still listen to because you're some of the only men I can tolerate talking about video games for an hour every week. 

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I mean, I, and I'm sure others, have tweeted at Sean before now, but this is the first time someone created a whole thread dedicated to the conversation.

 

I also just assume that every question/comment I've thought about asking to even a semi-visible figure has been asked by a dozen people before and will be by a dozen after to me, and unless it's really important or any of my business, I won't bother them with it. I try to be cognizant of other people's time and every person assuming they're the only one doing something is how you get people bombarded & leads to email & twitter being a source of anxiety for people. Frankly, it's none of my business why or why not someone is on the show, which is why this thread & conversation mostly grosses me out. The best thing I can do is to be sure to tell the people that I enjoy that I enjoy them, and that I like the stuff they make.

 

Yeah, we should lock this thread.

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That makes a lot of sense Chris, I definitely noticed they extra chaos with more people, three is perfect. 

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Well this news actually makes me sad

Agreed. Knowing I'm not going to hear Sean regularly again as a result of a decision rather than just being busy or something like that makes me actually resent his absence a lot more than the vague sense of anticipation I had before :(

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