Ten Years of TV Forum (and how to fix it)

WillPS · Thu 24 Mar, 2011 14.25

Why did TV Forum leave phpBB behind, again?

dosxuk · Thu 24 Mar, 2011 17.49

This post caught my eye earlier today:

I was watching BBC Breakfast today (24/3/2010) at about 8am when the lighting went off and sound was lost..
The logo on the screen behind did stay on though :/ and although there was a loss of presenter mics, you could very clearly hear someone running around?!

Normally they would say sorry after something like that (not that I think they should) but nothing was said - like they didn't realise!

Any ideas what happened?

Shame it was on a forum which has nothing to do with TV.

Gavin Scott · Thu 24 Mar, 2011 17.52

dosxuk wrote:
Gavin Scott wrote:Speaking of "fixing it", does anyone else have a problem with tvf not remembering viewed topics between different computers? I thought thats what cookies did?
No, cookies are to allow your computer to remeber things between visits - hence when on a different computer your cookies are different. What TVF needs is for the server to remember viewed topics between visits. Just needs a simple table in the DB with user id, topic id and last viewed columns. When rendering the topic list, just check if the current user viewed the topic since the last post, if yes, mark it as read, otherwise unread.

Easy

But this problem is relatively new. It always used to remember which topics I had read.

How queer.

dosxuk · Thu 24 Mar, 2011 17.57

It wouldn't be the first time one of Asa's* fixes broke another unreleated function!

* or mine, or Microsoft, or Apple, or virtually every other software developer

Pete · Thu 24 Mar, 2011 20.16

WillPS wrote:Why did TV Forum leave phpBB behind, again?

Basically phpBB got a bit stuck at version 2. It lacked numerous features (RTPs being a major one) which meant that what Asa was running was a very hacked version of the thing. Given the poorness of the 2 codebase and the glacial manner in which 3 seemed to be being developed I think he decided to write his own software that would do the job.

Course in the time it too to do this, phpBB3 *did* appear and included 80% of the features required. Whether he should have then stopped and just built upon phpBB3 is another matter however it would depend on how hacked the database was compared to a vanilla install. Even on here it was hardly simple going from one version to another with various breakages occurring.

I suppose when you've spend several years perfecting your own software you're not just going to give up because a new one comes out from elsewhere.

dosxuk · Fri 25 Mar, 2011 13.26

dosxuk wrote:This post caught my eye earlier today:

I was watching BBC Breakfast today (24/3/2010) at about 8am when the lighting went off and sound was lost..
The logo on the screen behind did stay on though :/ and although there was a loss of presenter mics, you could very clearly hear someone running around?!

Normally they would say sorry after something like that (not that I think they should) but nothing was said - like they didn't realise!

Any ideas what happened?

Shame it was on a forum which has nothing to do with TV.

And things go full circle... Reply from the same thread:

I assume you're talking about this; it looks like a regional opt issue, basically someone in that area pressed a button at the wrong time and switched to their (empty) studio, it would have only affected people in Tunbridge Wells, anyone watching elsewhere, or watching the BBC News Channel in that area rather than BBC One wouldn't have seen it. They didn't realise because it didn't affect them, although I guess the local presenters might have apologised during their next opt.

Still can't quite believe there's more discussion about this on a non-TV based forum than on TVF.

lester · Fri 25 Mar, 2011 23.25

Remove the generic threads.... I don't post much but have read everyday for years and years. Also, allowing people that have no intention of typing with basic grammar and punctuation to post for weeks and weeks before doing anything hasn't helped matters either.

Pete · Mon 28 Mar, 2011 18.24

What I have rather liked about this thread is the more considered analysis of why TVF is in the state it is, and how instead of just resorting to "ban rotas" the majority of comments seem to be suggesting that generic threads are the true scurge of the site.

The other suggestion, an increase in moderation, does seem to have been apparent in recent days which is nice. Course given you're dealing with people such as "Live with Jeremy" and his "I'll post what I like" attitude so it might need to be a tad more vicious than the current reminders, but I suspect most people just play along.

So yes, do we think that killing off the generic thread will help - if not solve - at least give a boost to the quality issues on TVF? My thinking is that if the chat about graphics tweaks and what not increases due to increased visibility of changes then the rota bores will at least not appear to have complete run on the forum and can be left to be freaks amongst themselves.

Like the mocktards.

Ebeneezer Scrooge · Mon 28 Mar, 2011 18.54

General threads are one of the things that stopped me posting - not because I'm dead against them, it's just that I can't see what's happening on the forum at a glance. I really don't want to read through pages and pages of itv discussion to see if I can shine any light on what people are discussing.
Back in the earlier days, it was quite easy to contribute to that sort of thing because a thread was created when we had major problems. I quite enjoyed watching out for how long it would take for on air faults to be reported over there!

Pete · Mon 28 Mar, 2011 19.28

I genuinely, do not know what has changed on News 24 graphics wise since the latest full revamp. The only thing I do know of, the near permanent red ticker, would have had its own thread in the olden days yet it is buried somewhere inside that thread-o-drivel.

If I were in charge, (which I should be of course, but am not) I'd go in, and close this lot:

I can see things like the royal wedding and eurovision having thread in the run up to them (so long as each semi and the final get a new one). The only iffy point is regional threads, I mean they were the start but are they more justified?

Certainly removing the generic threads would encourage people to actually think about what they are posting is interesting enough to warrant its own thread, thus also reducing the more tiresome posts.

Ebeneezer Scrooge · Mon 28 Mar, 2011 19.33

Do you not think that massive generic threads (even regional ones) fuel the rota talk? As I see it, there isn't a massive requirement for ongoing discussion about local news - it's not a story that develops in any way, so people start to talk about who is presenting to keep the thread going... which snowballs into the kind of threads I used to be interested in!