I've been thinking about trying to do live streams again, and I suspect that might not be a good idea.
I used to do that sort of thing on something like a regular basis at one time. They were mostly real-time versions of the Coffee Time videos I sometimes do on YouTube these days, so that should tell you how good at it I was. Thing is, that was the better part of a decade ago now, if my guesstimate is anywhere near accurate, so I'm sure things have changed dramatically on that front.
Part of the reason I stopped doing live streams is that back when I did it more or less regularly, I used a platform called uStream, which switched to a paid model that was something like a hundred bucks a month or some shit, which pretty much priced the small-time half-assers like me off the service. I suspect something like that is why the dude who inspired me to do it, and start this blog, really, wound up giving it up around the same time, in like 2016, I think it was.
I know there are other platforms I could use if I want to have another go at that sort of thing. YouTube is an obvious choice, of course. There are several live channels there I'm subscribed to, most notably the Friends of Felines Rescue Center. Another platform that might be worth looking into is Twitch. From what I understand, it's primarily a gaming platform run by Amazon, I believe. I'm more sure of the gaming part of that because that's most of what I see and watch there, but Radio Dead Air also does a Tech Q&A show there on Saturdays, and I follow a few art and music channels as well.
As I was doing what passes for research for this post, I also came across a link to an audio-only streaming platform called Mixlr I used for awhile back in 2014. I suspect I gave up on that for pretty much the same reason I stopped using uStream, because I'd have to pay to stream there. It looks like that's still a thing, too, and better yet, I still seem to have a functional account of some sort there. The good news is that a basic streamer account there is only nine bucks a month, which is substantially more reasonable than uStream was, but I'm still not sure I want to pay to do that sort of thing because I'm not sure I'd have enough of an audience to do that.
Another barrier for me is that I'd almost certainly have to update all my equipment to a more modern standard. I don't think my PC is ten years old yet, but it's damn close. The webcam I use to do my videos on is probably closer to 15 years old at this point. So that's an issue, too.
If I'm going to be serious about that, I'm also going to need to be a little more serious about having a schedule again as well. I'm still kinda-sorta following the one I did back in April this year, but I'll need to redo that if I'm being serious. Even if I don't do the whole streaming thing again, I may want to rework the schedule idea anyway.
I've got some thinking to do on that front. I'll have a chance to talk to a few folks about all this in the near future, too, so I'll be doing that soon. The downside is that I'll be away from home for awhile when that happens.
I'll probably have updates on this at some point, maybe here, maybe on YouTube, maybe even both. I'm not sure yet.
At any rate, see you soon.
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