Starting this as a forum thread as I would like some feedback before filing a ticket.
In recent times, I noticed that my way of using AP for newly added podcasts runs against the default inbox settings.
Typically, when adding a new podcast, I would do either of these two:
Download + add to queue all episodes (or: the first few episodes if it is a long list)
Do not download/add anything to queue and keep the podcast for later listening.
(I’m not considering podcasts that I’m only trying out, as I would typically not subscribe to them until I’m sure I want to listen to them.)
In neither case, it is useful for me to automatically add the latest episode of the podcast to the inbox and the first thing I’d do is remove it from there.
Even if adding a podcast I don’t want to listen to chronologically, I would most often pick and choose from the back catalogue, and therefore the latest episode would not necessarily be the most relevant to examine.
TL;DR: IMO, only new episodes coming from the host server, and not those deriving from user actions on the app, should be added to the inbox.
I am speculating that the idea of this new third option is to be able to curate a list of podcasts without any automatic action on the podcast’s episodes. This would allow the user to be able to go back to podcasts that look potentially interesting (but not interesting enough to subscribe to) without having to search for them again. Is that correct?
If yes, then this third option would never add any (current or future) episode to the inbox. Is that correct?
If yes to those, then this option is very interesting to me, as long as the user can add any episode from the podcast to the queue.
When I add a new podcast, my typical workflow is not well served by having the latest episode of this podcast appear in the inbox automatically.
As I have initiated the action of adding the podcast, I know there are unlistened episodes, I don’t need AP to tell me by adding the latest episode to the inbox. (On the contrary, this works very well when refreshing existing subscriptions.)
I think we have expressed the same thing (just differently).
I understand it as adding a podcast to the list of subscribed podcasts, but not actually subscribing to the podcast (no episodes are downloaded or added to the inbox, automatically).
I like the idea.
Although, I do like how the existing Inbox feature works. For some podcasts, that I only listen to some episodes, I do not want to download every one, only having to delete many (sometimes most) of them, being uninterested in the episode subject. However, I do like being notified, by the Inbox, that there is a new episode that I might, maybe, want to listen to.
For me, I see three options that would suit me (the first two existing):
subscribe and auto download all new episodes
subscribe and Inbox all new episodes (with option to manually download from the Inbox)
“subscribe” and not download or Inbox any episode.
I should add that, the third option (“subscribed” to podcast, but not really subscribed to) would only be useful to me if, and only if, manually downloading an episode from the podcast, added the episode to the queue.
Great idea. Helps us keep the issue tracker clean Thanks!
I didn’t really understand at first, until I read the title again. It’s really about when you add a new subscription.
I agree with you: when adding a podcast I would say one is ideed likely to review it’s (recent) episodes anyway, probably directly from the podcast screen. This no need to add the most recent one to the Inbox.
In fact, another manual action – refreshing an individual podcast – also doesn’t add the newly discovered episodes to the Inbox. So in that sense it would be more aligned.
I think this behaviour was inherited from the New screen/label, which has been around for a very long time.
TL;DR You have my blessing for a GitHub issue
This seems a slightly different thing to me:
@loucasal is asking to not add the most recent episode to the Inbox when you just subscribed (it’s a one-off thing)
@mpardo is asking to have a new ‘type’ or category of subscriptions, whose episodes are never added to the queue (it’s a semi-permanent thing)
For the latter scenario I would say we already have the option to disable inclusion in the automatic refresh processes (called ‘Keep updated’). Turn it off, and episodes won’t end up in your inbox
Ah. I am mistaken (it happens often). I guess I just do not listen to podcast that way. In most cases, I would want the latest episode (of a subscribed to podcast) downloaded or inboxed. But I do like the option as suggested.
Yes. I am mistaken again (it happens often). Although, this can only be done after the latest episode has already been auto inboxed or downloaded (at the time of subscription). Which brings us back to the original suggestion by louasal.
Thanks!