Change
In the past, Pinecast allowed podcasters to set custom episode numbers on episodes for podcasts set to Serial episode ordering (versus Episodic episode ordering). Serial ordering causes a podcast to show episodes in episode order rather than reverse chronological order. This option was initially added by Apple Podcasts some time ago, but is used by fewer than 10% of podcasts on Pinecast.
The trouble with Serial ordering is that it is not a default feature of podcasts. That is, because it was added many years after podcasts were invented, support in the podcast ecosystem is mixed (but improving).
Rather than simply ordering a show chronologically, Serial ordering displays your show in episode order. For apps that support serial ordering, episodes are shown in the order which their episode numbers appear in, generally ignoring their publish date. Consider these episodes:
- Episode 1, published June 1
- Episode 2, published January 1
- Episode 3, published December 1
A "default" ordered episodic podcast will show these episodes as 3, 1, 2 (reverse chronological order). A "serially" ordered podcast will appear as 1, 2, 3 in an app that supports serial ordering. However, in apps that do not support serial ordering, the same serially ordered podcast will still appear as 3, 1, 2.
This causes a couple of painful problems:
- Many people are confused why their episodes appear in an unexpected order when they set an episode number.
- Podcasters commonly publish episodes in unusual orders, which leads to many podcast apps appearing "wrong".
- Some apps implement serial ordering, but use different behavior than Apple Podcasts for choosing how to order episodes that lack numbers.
Moreover, the "Podcasting 2.0" specification defines similar-but-incompatible RSS tags to Apple's season and episode RSS tags, but does not define a mechanism for changing the ordering of the episodes. There's no universal way to solve this problem that works with every app and covers every use case.
Our solution is "automatic episode numbering" for serial podcasts. With automatic numbering, episodes receive an episode number based on their reverse chronological ordering. The first full episode that was published becomes episode 1, the second becomes episode 2, etc. For shows that already have episode numbers set, the previously-defined episode numbers will persist. New episodes will be numbered based on their publish timestamp after previously-numbered episodes.
The original intention for serial ordering is documented by Apple:
Serial shows are designed to be listened to in sequential order — from the first episode to the last. These include documentaries, investigative reports, scripted dramas, and fictionalized narratives. When you set your show type to serial, episodes are presented in sequential order with the first episode at the top of the show page and the final episode at the bottom.
In the spirit of this, we do just that: the first episode published becomes episode 1, the second becomes episode 2, and so on. We do not believe that this is perfect, but it has a number of compelling benefits:
- There's no undefined behavior. You can reason about where an episode will appear in your feed for every listener on every podcast app.
- Backdating an episode changes the episode number as you might expect. It would be very unusual for episode 1 to be published after episode 2.
- Serial podcasts are "correct by default" in this way. It shouldn't ever take extra effort to make your show appear as you intend.
If you have a show that uses out-of-order episode numbers intentionally or skips episode numbers, we recommend switching from Serial to Episodic ordering. Episodic ordering will continue supporting custom episode numbers indefinitely.
If your show has had incorrect episode numbers set in the past, you can edit them in bulk on a desktop computer by visiting Episodes > Tools > Episode Renumbering.
This is a disruptive change, and we understand that it may change your workflow. If you have questions or concerns, or need help adjusting the order of your episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're glad to help.