It was August 2005 and I bunch of us had gathered on someone’s Relto in Until Uru. The topic of the night was how we should go about starting a podcast for the Myst/Uru Community. Back then, the idea of a podcast was a little more foreign than today, and plenty of time was spent arguing about what the hand-crafted RSS feed should contain.

Fast forward almost 5 years and The Cavern Today, spurred on by the return of Myst:Online Uru Live (again), has decided to “reboot” and start at Episode #1 again after months of non-production. Have a listen to our latest episode entitled, Something Old, Something New.

My role since the beginning has been to looking after the servers, forum software, and website. this February, I began a major redesign of the website using Wordpress.

Initially, I was sceptical of Wordpress’ applicability to podcasting, but I was soon proven wrong. With the addition of a couple of simple plugins and a good theme, Wordpress can be a podcasting powerhouse!

A couple of tips for using Wordpress to podcast:

• Create and use categories from the beginning. In this way you’ll be able to publish multiple feeds, and therefore, multiple shows.
• Choose/Build a simple theme which shows off your content, gives the visitor easy access to an MP3 download, and offers an iTunes Subscribe button.
• Get a plugin to take away the audio-file management headaches. We use Blubrry PowerPress.
• Choose one of the many Twitter plugins for Wordpress to auto-tweet when you publish a new episode.
• Allow comments! The whole point of podcasting is to build and serve a community. Allowing comments means instant two-way communication with your community.

Happy podcasting!

It’s an exciting day for Myst fans. The iPhone and iPod Touch version of the game was approved today and is available in the App Store.

Welcome back to Myst. Wherever you are

The original Myst sights and sounds have been meticulously re-assembled for a remarkable experience on the iPhone and iPod touch. Everything that you remember from the original Myst in a format where a simple touch or swipe moves you through the world.

That is, if you live in a first-world nation.

It is not currently available in the South African App Store, and thus I cannot bring you a real review at this time. I’ve emailed the Lead Developer and am hoping that he’ll be able to get it into my local App Store.