Pres Cafe Watch News and Information Board

[TVenthusiasm2]

So apparently there's now a 3-post limit per day on Pres Café... honestly the site is getting more restrictive as time goes on! I dunno, maybe this is a mistake, TVF and TVLF never had a post limit

[bilky asko]

Is that a three new threads limit (which seems entirely reasonable) or three new replies (which I have just tested, and doesn't seem to have occurred)? If the latter, perhaps you should reflect on the quality of your posts

[TVenthusiasm2]

Is that a three new threads limit (which seems entirely reasonable) or three new replies (which I have just tested, and doesn't seem to have occurred)? If the latter, perhaps you should reflect on the quality of your posts

No it's not a thread limit, it's a post limit of 3 - I tried to post on Pres Café this morning and it did not post, and said I've reached the 3 post limit. Nothing to do with the threads

[TVenthusiasm2]

Oh never mind it looks like I can post again. Must have been an error - there is no mention of the limit on the rules page at all

[Joe]

I was missing the pleasant discussion of years gone by about this latest rebrand, so again ventured into the ITV thread.

The font choices and ECP are (excuse my French) f**king awful.

Aside from that, there’s such negativity. I don’t want everyone to like everything, but I’m sure the tone and energy of the chat is miles away from where it used to be.

I find myself wanting to visit less and less.

Thought I’d check out some of the threads - the upcoming ITV and Channel 4 stuff being areas I’d have loved to contribute to in the past.

Found the discussion incredibly negative, and it ties in with my feeling of the past few years of these communities, unfortunately. I had to keep reminding myself that nothing has been seen on screen in the case of ITV, but you’d think that new idents had launched with Jeremy Clarkson defecating on the set of Millionaire.

I get that I couldn’t potentially add a more positive voice to the mix by posting, but actually it just put me off entirely.

[bilky asko]

Perhaps it's a case of rose-tinted spectacles to some degree - I don't think TV Forum was entirely free of hyperbole in people's reactions

[GhostFromTVF]

Perhaps it's a case of rose-tinted spectacles to some degree - I don't think TV Forum was entirely free of hyperbole in people's reactions

I think there’s always been some negativity of varying degrees over the years, I feel like most of the ITV discussion has been fairly rational, though a few comments, such as DeMarkay’s, are quite over the top.

[Joe]

Sure – but I wasn't talking about irrationality or hyperbole, rather the general vibe feels so unconstructive. And yeah, there were always those kind of comments – every time – but it seems so widespread now.

[all new Phil]

I know what you mean. Everything’s a disaster. I honestly think a lot of posters there genuinely struggle with things not following a strict pattern or following precedent. Look at the constant criticism of the name ITV Be, or the unhappiness about CBBC / CBeebies not updating their pres to match the rest of the BBC. Stuff that really doesn’t matter.

[Solari]

I know what you mean. Everything’s a disaster. I honestly think a lot of posters there genuinely struggle with things not following a strict pattern or following precedent. Look at the constant criticism of the name ITV Be, or the unhappiness about CBBC / CBeebies not updating their pres to match the rest of the BBC. Stuff that really doesn’t matter.

You make a really good point there, Phil. I tend to think we were all spoiled by the uniformness of the BBC's 1997 rebrand (and my God, what a rebrand that was!) - so much so that we forget that 'inconsistencies' in branding are actually overwhelmingly the norm. Though going back more to Joe's point, everything in general just seems so negative right now - so I don't think it's necessarily a suprise that such negativity would spill over to spaces like Pres Cafe.

[DTV]

I was missing the pleasant discussion of years gone by about this latest rebrand, so again ventured into the ITV thread.

Aside from that, there’s such negativity. I don’t want everyone to like everything, but I’m sure the tone and energy of the chat is miles away from where it used to be.

As bilky said, this really does seem to be a fairly rose-tinted view. I've had cause to go back and look through some of the old TVF archive recently and the commentary is arguably worse if anything than now. While we have lost some always fascinating insiders over the years (e.g. noggin), TVF 15 years ago was filled with just as much inanity, far more needlessly combatative posters and also quite a few inappropriate comments.

With any rebrand you're going to get some people who don't like it, some of which will veer into hyperbole. But you also always get a bunch of kids who are relentlessly positive about it (who will invariably be saying 'it's time for a change' in six months time). You'll also get some more measured, balanced and interesting critique from other members. That's part of being on a forum.

You say there's such negativity, but that's only the case with certain threads. Sure response to the ITV relaunch has been mixed (including a fair few positive comments), but that's because it's a fairly mediocre rebrand. By contrast, response to the BBC News studio rebrand from a few months back and its subsequent rollout has been overwhelmingly positive.