What we're thinking of proposing is this:
In PowerPress golobal settings, there would be an option to "Use Category Podcasting Exclusively".
This would:
- Disable the default podcast feed
- Require that you you do not cross categorize your podcasts
- Allow you to select a specific podcast category as the primary podcast
The primary podcast category would be what is used if 2 or more categories were selected for an episode for example. If you cross categories we would not know which one should be used for the podcast show/program.
As a negative result, PowerPress would no longer register the podcast only feed (example.com/feed/podcast/) and the mapping of the example.com/podcats/ page would no longer be handled by PowerPress. For those category podcasters who rely on PowerPress allowing for a root category page, this will be a negative. WordPress by default puts category landing pages in example.com/category/category-slug/ (category-slug being the web friendly name of your category) If you want a category to have a root level landing page URL, you will need to use some other sort of plugin or logic in your theme as this is not default WordPress behavior and looking back we should have never offered it as an option in PowerPress as it's now made a lot of category podcasting users assume this is supposed to be available or happen. This is a bad practice anyway because it can harm your SEO if the same age is available in two different URLs (e.g. example.com/category-slug/ and example.com/category/category-slug/)
If you do not rely on your category landing page being at the root of your site, then the proposed changes will not negatively effect you.
elembemedia, I think the proposed solution would solve your problem having 3 categories, so as long as you never cross categorize.