Summary: The purpose of this article is to help people create more useful and effective podcast file names. Good file names are easy to read and understand, but they also help people sort and search for what they want. A podcast file naming convention is presented for consideration.
Overview
How often do you look for files on your computer or on the web? I do it all the time. I'm constantly trying to find files. Unfortunately, like many people, I am a file name slob. I don't create folders like I should, I don't put files in the folders that I do create, and I usually do a bad job creating file names.
I'm going to focus this article on podcasts. I've downloaded many podcast files and I'm really unhappy with how people have named them. My own file naming conventions are bad enough, but now I am dealing with files that other people have created. The names people are using for their files are really terrible. I don't mean to complain, but come on folks, some of these names are just plain silly. Here are some (very real) examples:
File Name Guidelines
A good file name is easy to read. That is, you can look at it and read it without too much hassle. It shouldn't take any real effort to read the file and understand what it says.
Reasonable: gasoline.mp3
Bad: BoopyFoop.mp3
Terrible: t4rthfl8g.mp3
A good file name also includes information that you care about. You don't want too little information but you don't want too much. Another way to think about this is that the file name should be long enough to get the point across but no longer.
Reasonable: thanksgiving-grandma.mp3
Bad: t35.mp3 (short and meaningless)
Also bad: thequickbrownfoxreallyjumpedandjumped.mp3 (long)
Terrible: flim-2222-flam-4-211-4-coolio-now-tl93.mp3
A good file name should probably only use lower case letters. Upper and lower cases fool some people and some systems. In many cases, you need to have exactly the right name and case sensitivity can ruin your day. If you have used upper and lower characters in your passwords, you know what I mean.
Also, you should avoid spaces and special characters. You should avoid spaces because operating systems and programs add their own special characters to eliminate the spaces. For example:
"dog food.mp3" will become "dog%20food.mp3" and you probably don't want that. It gets ugly and hard to use. Avoid blank spaces. And, you should avoid using underscores between words because they often get lost in links. For example:
"dog_food" when turned into a link becomes "dog_food" and it is damn hard to know that an underscore is there. This is more of a hassle than you might think. The link camouflages the underscore and it confuses people. Just avoid that from happening by not using underscores. Simple. No underscores.
If you need to separate words in a file name, it is fine to use dashes. Avoid spaces, special characters and underscores, but feel free to use dashes. They seem to work rather well and people don't seem to have any issues with them.
Avoid ALL CAPS, too. They are annoying and don't add any value.
Reasonable: webword-usability.mp3
Bad: Webword_Usability.mp3
Also Bad: WebWord Usability.mp3
Terrible: WEBWORD USABILITY.mp3
The summary is that you want these files to be easy to read and easy to understand, but you want to avoid using conventions that are inconsistent, hard to understand, and don't work well for humans and machines. Got it?
Podcast Files Need More Love
Podcasts are not are not really typical files. I think that podcasters (content producers) forget that other people are using their files. So, what makes sense to a podcaster might not make sense to a podcast listener. Producers need to think about their audience. What you want and what you like might not be what your listeners want.
There is also the problem of file management. Podcasts are large files and they don't stick around very long. Storing them, archiving them, deleting them, managing them, and so on, can turn into a chore. People don't want to chew up space on their computers and MP3 media players. To determine what to do with these files, you need to know what is in these files. A good file name goes a long way.
Finally, right now there is a terrible lack of metadata for MP3 files and podcasts. In another article I explain the purpose and value of metadata. Part of this metadata is the file name. In fact, the only real way to know what is in a podcast right now is to look at the file name, or listen to the file. Some people, such as Whole Wheat Radio, provide information on their web sites, but that is not typical. (What a shame!)
Podcast File Naming Suggestion
I don't expect everyone to follow my suggestions and I don't expect everyone to agree. However, at least I am taking a stand. Little things, such as date formatting, might not seem like a big deal, but in the long run they can have a huge impact.
Here are the basic guidelines:
1. site or host
2. main topic or keyword
3. date of publication, creation or posting
If we combine all of these ideas, we end up with files that look something like this:
Of course, this article isn't the final word on podcast file names, but it should point you in the right direction. Now you have an idea about how to do a better job for your listeners.
Selected Resources
Overview
How often do you look for files on your computer or on the web? I do it all the time. I'm constantly trying to find files. Unfortunately, like many people, I am a file name slob. I don't create folders like I should, I don't put files in the folders that I do create, and I usually do a bad job creating file names.
I'm going to focus this article on podcasts. I've downloaded many podcast files and I'm really unhappy with how people have named them. My own file naming conventions are bad enough, but now I am dealing with files that other people have created. The names people are using for their files are really terrible. I don't mean to complain, but come on folks, some of these names are just plain silly. Here are some (very real) examples:
- cnOct18.mp3
- egc-10-10-2004.mp3
- geeks36.MP3
- KFIAdamCurry.mp3
- PodcastVOPromos.mp3
- mycorner-20041018.mp3
- SDR19OCT.mp3
- WoT_01_20041012.mp3
- TrojanHorses6of7.mp3
- DNDS-2004-10-19.mp3
- RANT_04-10-19.mp3
File Name Guidelines
A good file name is easy to read. That is, you can look at it and read it without too much hassle. It shouldn't take any real effort to read the file and understand what it says.
Reasonable: gasoline.mp3
Bad: BoopyFoop.mp3
Terrible: t4rthfl8g.mp3
A good file name also includes information that you care about. You don't want too little information but you don't want too much. Another way to think about this is that the file name should be long enough to get the point across but no longer.
Reasonable: thanksgiving-grandma.mp3
Bad: t35.mp3 (short and meaningless)
Also bad: thequickbrownfoxreallyjumpedandjumped.mp3 (long)
Terrible: flim-2222-flam-4-211-4-coolio-now-tl93.mp3
A good file name should probably only use lower case letters. Upper and lower cases fool some people and some systems. In many cases, you need to have exactly the right name and case sensitivity can ruin your day. If you have used upper and lower characters in your passwords, you know what I mean.
Also, you should avoid spaces and special characters. You should avoid spaces because operating systems and programs add their own special characters to eliminate the spaces. For example:
"dog food.mp3" will become "dog%20food.mp3" and you probably don't want that. It gets ugly and hard to use. Avoid blank spaces. And, you should avoid using underscores between words because they often get lost in links. For example:
"dog_food" when turned into a link becomes "dog_food" and it is damn hard to know that an underscore is there. This is more of a hassle than you might think. The link camouflages the underscore and it confuses people. Just avoid that from happening by not using underscores. Simple. No underscores.
If you need to separate words in a file name, it is fine to use dashes. Avoid spaces, special characters and underscores, but feel free to use dashes. They seem to work rather well and people don't seem to have any issues with them.
Avoid ALL CAPS, too. They are annoying and don't add any value.
Reasonable: webword-usability.mp3
Bad: Webword_Usability.mp3
Also Bad: WebWord Usability.mp3
Terrible: WEBWORD USABILITY.mp3
The summary is that you want these files to be easy to read and easy to understand, but you want to avoid using conventions that are inconsistent, hard to understand, and don't work well for humans and machines. Got it?
Podcast Files Need More Love
Podcasts are not are not really typical files. I think that podcasters (content producers) forget that other people are using their files. So, what makes sense to a podcaster might not make sense to a podcast listener. Producers need to think about their audience. What you want and what you like might not be what your listeners want.
There is also the problem of file management. Podcasts are large files and they don't stick around very long. Storing them, archiving them, deleting them, managing them, and so on, can turn into a chore. People don't want to chew up space on their computers and MP3 media players. To determine what to do with these files, you need to know what is in these files. A good file name goes a long way.
Finally, right now there is a terrible lack of metadata for MP3 files and podcasts. In another article I explain the purpose and value of metadata. Part of this metadata is the file name. In fact, the only real way to know what is in a podcast right now is to look at the file name, or listen to the file. Some people, such as Whole Wheat Radio, provide information on their web sites, but that is not typical. (What a shame!)
Podcast File Naming Suggestion
I don't expect everyone to follow my suggestions and I don't expect everyone to agree. However, at least I am taking a stand. Little things, such as date formatting, might not seem like a big deal, but in the long run they can have a huge impact.
Here are the basic guidelines:
- use full words when possible; don't abbreviate
- consider adding host name (web site name or person name)
- use dashes to separate words
- add the date
- keep file names as short as possible, but still useful
- include a keyword or topic
1. site or host
2. main topic or keyword
3. date of publication, creation or posting
If we combine all of these ideas, we end up with files that look something like this:
- webword-usability-20oct2004.mp3
- wholewheatradio-bigbubbles-18sept2004.mp3
- currynet-ipodder-05july2003.mp3
Of course, this article isn't the final word on podcast file names, but it should point you in the right direction. Now you have an idea about how to do a better job for your listeners.
Author: John S. Rhodes
Selected Resources
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