Podcast not listed in directory

Question

Yesterday I received an email notification that my podcast has been approved. The link they sent does take me to the podcast. However, it does NOT show up in the directory itself. Any ideas why?
Just to avoid any confusion: I have an old podcast listed by the same name ("CrossWay Church Sermon Podcast"), but it's not the right one. I can't remove it because the feed no longer exists, and no one from iTunes will remove it for me--I've been trying for weeks. You'll know it's the old feed if it lists the artist as "Nathan Hyde." The correct and active feed lists the artist as "Pastor Nathan Hyde."
My feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/CrossWay
Thanks!

Answer 1

Are you trying to find it by browsing? If so, as explained below, you will not see it in Browse because the Christianity category no longer will display any new podcasts.
The problem is that many new podcast listings will NOT appear in the iTunes Browse function. For example my podcast of BOOK HOBBY will not appear in Literature, just as certainly hundreds and possibly thousands of other podcasts will disappointingly not appear in their proper Browse categories. The problem is in the way that iTunes displays browse categories. It will only display 1,000 titles in each category maximum. Anything beyond the 1,000 titles is simply not at all displayed in that browse category. So, for example, in the Literature category I can easily and quickly find dozens and dozens of podcasts that have not been updated in more than a year, which have bad descriptions, which duplicate themselves over and over, whose rss files result in errors, but my podcast which I frequently update and which follows all the rules cannot be found by browsing in the main catgeory of Literature I want it to be found in because, well, 1,000 displayed is it. It does not matter how long you wait.
I wrote to Apple about this a few months ago (late February). I had to write more than ten emails before I finally got to someone who had any concept of what I was talking about. They wrote back that they were aware of this problem and that it would be fixed "in a few weeks."
So what I have had to do was to choose two other categories that have less than 1,000 displayed to appear in and that sort of works. It only sort of works because the whole point of catgorization should be to put thing in the BEST categories. I did, for reasons of a proper power-search, keep the main category Literature.
I have to say that I am amazed that with all the FAQs from Apple that are dead wrong about this, with so many people having their podcasts not shown as they should be, with the resulting problems to users, that the whole podcast community is not talking about this on every Forum in every venue that supports podcasting. This is not just a small problem. This cuts to the heart of people starting new podcasts.
After writing the above I decided to see how widespread this iTunes bug is -- are there just a few categories affected? I was astonished at how many Browse categories now have 1,000 listings and will not, for reasons of the display bug or problem or design show any further new ones. If you are doing a new podcast in the following areas, well they already display 1,000 listings and your podcast will not appear in the Browse there. Here are the affected categories:
Arts:
Literature
Performing Arts
Design has 900, soon to be filled.
Business:
Business News
Investing
Management & Marketing
Careers has 977, soon to be filled.
Comedy
Education:
Higher Education
Training
Games & Hobbies:
Video Games
Health:
Fitness
Self-Help
Kids & Family (has 996, very soon to be filled)
Music
News & Politics
Religion & Spirituality:
Christianity
Spirituality
Society & Culture:
Personal Journals
Places & Travel
Sports & Recreation:
Professional
Outdoor (has 919, soon to be filled)
This is a serious problem. Certainly all podcasts can be found by power search. But the point of Browse categories is to allow people to discover new things, to allow them to explore all the wonderful podcasts being offered.
I am NOT an Apple basher. People who know me, know that. I founded and ran all of the Apple-related and Macintosh areas on CompuServe (the MAUG Forums) for almost 20 years. I was the founding Editor-in-Chief of MACUSER Magazine and ran that publication for some years. I love Apple, absolutely.
But I do not understand why they have not addressed this problem with the Browse categories in the iTunes store as to how iTunes displays them. I trust they will but I hope it will be sooner rather than later.
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