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

[Pete]

So, according to my calculations, TVF will be ten years old on Tuesday, and, as one of the types who has been there since almost the start (I joined in April iirc) I am shocked and indeed appalled by the current state of the forum.

What I essentially want to do with this thread is come up with the answers to three deceptively simple questions.

1 - what are the current main problems with the forum, that are not just us being old fogies
2 - what could be done to solve the problems (that Asa would agree to)
3 - how much of it is due to telly not changing as much at the moment / us being old fogies.


In a rant a few days back, which iirc has been made to vanish off the other place along with the cretin member it was aimed at, I offered to pay for a domain and set up a forum entirely based around rotas. It would even include some sort of wiki where they could note down who was presenting at the time, therefore saving themselves form having to purchase notebooks all the time.

This offer still stands, although of course I suspect those most infuriating regarding this issue, who are unable to even keep in their own dedicated rota threads, would be the ones least likely to be willing to be hived off onto a new site.


And yes, I recognise that the forum's hayday was in 1924 but still. It would be nice to have a bit of the non hideousness back for the birthday donchathink?

[Critique]

I think the superiority of some members, the newer ones particularly, is incredibly infuriating. The attitude of, 'I speak to some uninterested bloke about Library Music that I shouldn't have and don't particularly need or want, and you don't, but I'll PM you to let you know this anyway' really grates on me.

The bizarre ideas and 'issues' that circulate on TVF about how the change of a sofa could create a new programme altogether, or how someone doesn't get the listings for B1 for more than a day on his Freeview box or indeed the imaginary coding of calling channels 'B1', 'B2', etc all irritate.

As for the rota solution, whilst the separate forum sounds like a good idea, some of the rota cretins do post in other topics, and the idea of having to flick between the two would probably cause them not to go and discuss Rota's elsewhere.

I think Asa would implement a forum for Rotas, at the most to solve this issue. However, I can't see even that ever happening - it'll get mentioned a lot for a while, then disappear.

[Philip]

And yes, I recognise that the forum's hayday was in 1924 but still.

The thing that makes that is the quip about Martin. Classic.

[bilky asko]

I offered to pay for a domain and set up a forum entirely based around rotas. It would even include some sort of wiki where they could note down who was presenting at the time, therefore saving themselves form having to purchase notebooks all the time.

This offer still stands, although of course I suspect those most infuriating regarding this issue, who are unable to even keep in their own dedicated rota threads, would be the ones least likely to be willing to be hived off onto a new site.

If you do, the domain would have to be http://rotacon.co.uk/

[cwathen]

The main issue I see is that TV presentation just isn't as interesting as it once was. Both in terms of the longevity of things (e.g. the ITV channels have now had basically the same presentation for over 5 years) and the general drabness of much of it as the iron grip of brand consultants needing to apply 'meaning' and 'coherence' to everything on screen continues.

Also, the internet has matured quite a bit over the last 10 years - in 2001 there was no Facebook, no Youtube and no Wikipedia. Specialist interests like this can now be accomodated within mainstream online tools such as those rather than needing to be closetted off into their own specialist websites as they did back then. Whilst resources like TV Ark, TV Forum and their ilk have continued, they are no longer the only places to experience and discuss TV presentation as they once were and unfortunately in that environment the Tumble Towers of this world (for they always existed even back in the glory days) suddenly become much more prominent thus dragging things down even further.......

.......either that, or it could be that when Asa switched over to his new software you could no longer search back more than a year and he STILL hasn't fixed this!

[WillPS]

• Ban topics regarding Rotas unless justified against the production of a notable programme (e.g. the Panel People programme).
• Come up with some sort of rule that prevents utterly banal threads like the Daybreak one from being so.
• Step up moderation. Get in an extra moderator, two if needs be. The current lot are busy, that's fine - but it's stupid leaving the team as it is for the sake of it.
• Sort of part of the above, sort out duplicate threads. For a while in February there were 3 threads on the first page of TV Home Forum discussing the same thing; one about the demise of VMTV, one about Sky branding, and one about Challenge alone. A moderator should have sorted through, locked and clarified as necessary to prevent the same conversation happening 3 times.
• Again related to moderation, delete posts that repeat old information that DJGM has posted in because he can't be arsed to read a page back. Warn, and then ban persistent offenders.

[Pete]

• Again related to moderation, delete posts that repeat old information that DJGM has posted in because he can't be arsed to read a page back. Warn, and then ban persistent offenders.

also, can someone please go into his house and prise the return key from his keyboard? ta

[Philip]

An idea may be to set up another TV Forum and only allow "trusted" members to register for it (by the admins/mods of Metro)

[WillPS]

An idea may be to set up another TV Forum and only allow "trusted" members to register for it (by the admins/mods of Metro)

My experience of such boards is that they're very popular for up to about 6 months, after which they completely die.

[Pete]

An idea may be to set up another TV Forum and only allow "trusted" members to register for it (by the admins/mods of Metro)

Secession is a very poor idea imo. Aside from the general poorness of giving up on over the road, we would be unlikely to convince the high quality non-metropollers (noggin etc) to come over to our side and would also lose the prestige of the existing brand.

No I think coming up with a solution that removes the drivvel from TVF and lets it return to its proper topics is far better.

[Jake]

I'd just say the moderation just needs to be a bit stricter, perhaps making it clear to new users what is and isn't acceptable on the board.