233: Schedule Changes To Support Take Up Code.

The Take Up Code podcast needs your support! Listen to this episode for upcoming changes or you can also read the full transcript below. Transcript There are some changes coming to the Take Up Code podcast schedule that I wanted to explain. These changes will allow more in-depth episodes and will eventually lead to video episodes. There’s so many topics where you really need to see the code in order to understand it and that means video. I’ve done a lot so far with just audio and intend to continue for quite a while yet. The podcast needs to adapt and change in order to get to that point. If you listen to some of the early episodes, you’ll notice two things. First, I used to put in short sponsor segments while I looked for a sponsor. I used these segments to promote live classes. You can still sign up for live classes and this is a great way to enhance your learning. But I never found a good sponsor. I get sponsor requests all the time that I’ve so far declined because they wouldn’t add value for you. You might find these promotions annoying and I eventually stopped putting them in every episode. The other thing is the initial schedule was five days a week with a Q&A session on Fridays. This was a lot of work that I couldn’t keep up with and I changed the schedule to just 2 days a week. Eventually, I removed the questions and answers on Fridays and concentrated on a weekly episode where I could devote more time and go into more depth. About six months ago, I found out about Patreon and setup a page to offer bonuses in exchange for supporting the podcast with regular financial contributions. I’ve been creating an extra podcast episode each month for Patrons who contribute one dollar per month. But these bonus episodes have suffered because they only come once a month. It’s also a lot of work to make each episode and I can’t keep this up forever. What I’ve decided is to change the schedule of both the regular Take Up Code podcast and the Take Up Code Patron edition so that they’ll alternate each week. This change means that this podcast you’re listening to now will change to have a new episode every other week instead of every week. And the patron edition will go from a single episode each month to also one episode every other week. This will allow more in-depth episodes for patrons and give you even more incentive to become a patron. It should be a good balance that will allow both podcasts to thrive. The first topic that I’m planning to discuss on the patron edition will be how to use databases in your code. If your application needs to work with a lot of information, then using a real database makes your job a lot easier. You just need to know how to do this. And that’s what I’ll be explaining first. If you want to learn about this, then visit TakeUpCode.com and click the link at the top to become a patron. It only takes a dollar a month to get the bonus episodes. I was on my way to work recently when I was stopped by a person asking if I wanted to support a worthy cause for just a dollar a day. It really was a worthy cause. But a dollar a day adds up fast. If that charity had instead provided a way for me to choose how much to contribute, then I’d have signed up. And that’s exactly what Patreon allows. I also encourage you to support other creators on Patreon. You can see exactly who I’m supporting and this will continue to grow. The cost starts at just a dollar a month and you can choose how much you want to pledge. In return, the site provides a way for me to return value back to you. It really is a good system. It’s a lot better than putting sponsor segments in each episode. I set a goal of producing video episodes once there are at least 200 patrons. Until then, I posted about 5 hours of video from some classes that I recorded a few years ago. The video episodes are yours for a contribution of 5 dollars