As an "insider", it was a bit of a different experience, with the biggest frustration being when I knew things that I wasn't able to publicly say while reading pages of speculation (though of course with the things I didn't know anything about, I was probably joining in with the speculation!). This place was also not a bad barometer for finding out how many people might or might not have just noticed a breakdown...
I have looked through my sent items to see how many times I've sent an email with "as someone on TV Forum has spotted" in it, a surprisingly large number of times. Some of my favourite moments on here have been when someone's mentioned something, and then they come back an hour or so later saying "This has suddenly just changed!", unaware it's because they've mentioned it. I won't say how often I've gone "oh, it had to be *that* bloody poster spotting it".
I'm not going to send emails with "as someone on DigitalSpy has spotted", so it really is the end of an era.
I stumbled across TV Forum in 2004. Someone on a Usenet group had provided a link to here with photos of Meridian's then new facility at Whiteley.
Very sorry to see it go. It's made train journeys shorter, and stopped me turning into Alan Partridge in hotel rooms while alone on business trips, although there have also been occasions when my wife has threatened to drop my phone into a glass of water, or insert it somewhere painful.
I've had the pleasure of engaging privately with a few members, and having a real life beer with a couple more.
Thanks to Asa, and everyone in here for the last 17 years. I'm sure we'll still be bumping into each other for years to come....
I was quite shocked to see this appear last night, not because I think Asa owes it to any of us but TVF has always been kind of there since I properly started using the internet as a young tweenager and here I am not far off 30 with the prospect of losing the only site I've visited almost daily since then.
There's not much I can say that hasn't been said in the last dozen or so pages already, but as with many other people I can fully empathise with the Asa and the mod team for doing the often thankless task of keeping this place going and putting so much time into it over the many, many years. As has been mentioned, it's a shame we seem to be at a point of no return, which seems to be in some part thanks to behaviour of a loud minority of users, which unfortunately seems to be the way of the world at the moment.
One thing which I don't think has been mentioned in this thread, but I feel deserves particular mention, is Asa's coding wizardry in giving us such a well considered and heavily customised piece of software in which to share our passion - above and beyond what many other forum admins would ever do.
Speaking of other forums, I am a long term member of another which serves a fairly niche crowd which is unfortunately on its last legs now thanks to the majority of the userbase drifting away from the hobby or moving the discussion to social media and elsewhere. Whilst TVF is maybe currently not what it once was, it would be an even bigger shame to see it go the same way as that forum and be a complete shadow of its former self. As with many of the great things in TV, it's always best to go out on a relative high than have people think "is that still limping on?".
I hope whatever comes along next is able to recreate some of the best aspects of TVF over the years and be an equally valued (if not sometimes derided) part of the TV landscape. I won't repeat all of what I said in the recent nostalgia thread, but it's safe to say TVF will always hold a special place in my heart and if the next incumbent can capture just some of that, it will be onto a winner.
I feel like Mike Morris did, gutted. I have visited TV Forum nearly every day since I first found it. Admittedly it became more of a routine and I haven't really been massively active for a very long time. But I will miss the site and I hope someone plugs the void.
Asa, thank you so much for everything you have done to build this site into what it became. I always wondered how much of your time must have been devoted to it down the years.
I've been a lurker around here for a while, but this is my first post (and possibly my last as well). This is probably the nicest internet forum I've visited, and from an outside perspective there is definitely a strong sense of community spirit, which is nice in this day and age.
I will repeat other members' thanks to Asa and the moderators for keeping the forum up and running for so long. It has given me great pleasure to read some of the vast amount of threads posted here over the years, and long may it continue on the successor forum.
I'm glad to learn I wasn't the only one who would go to this site everyday to have a snoop at what's going on in the world of TV.
It has been a fantastic site to read opinions, insight and discussion on presentation and output.
I contacted Asa last year to reveal I'd been here for years under a different name having been banned many years ago. It was a risk because generally if you're banned, you're banned. He was however kind enough to allow me to change my name and continue.
This site will be a great online television archive. A resource for many a TV or broadcast journalist in years to come.
As an "insider", it was a bit of a different experience, with the biggest frustration being when I knew things that I wasn't able to publicly say while reading pages of speculation (though of course with the things I didn't know anything about, I was probably joining in with the speculation!).
Same here, although there's been quite a few times I've speculated about what happened and then found out later that I was spot on. It is frustrating when you know exactly what happened, but can't say anything (although the words 'I assume', 'I think' and 'apparently' can get round this a lot of the time)
Quote:
This place was also not a bad barometer for finding out how many people might or might not have just noticed a breakdown...
I find it's both nice, but also a bit annoying when there's breakdown that you're involved in and no-one here had spotted it.
Nice that you got away with it, annoying that you can't read the reaction!
I stumbled across TV Forum in 2004. Someone on a Usenet group had provided a link to here with photos of Meridian's then new facility at Whiteley.
Very sorry to see it go. It's made train journeys shorter, and stopped me turning into Alan Partridge in hotel rooms while alone on business trips, although there have also been occasions when my wife has threatened to drop my phone into water, or insert it somewhere painful
She doesn't share your passion for the Hannington transmitter site then?
As an "insider", it was a bit of a different experience, with the biggest frustration being when I knew things that I wasn't able to publicly say while reading pages of speculation (though of course with the things I didn't know anything about, I was probably joining in with the speculation!).
Same here, although there's been quite a few times I've speculated about what happened and then found out later that I was spot on. It is frustrating when you know exactly what happened, but can't say anything (although the words 'I assume', 'I think' and 'apparently' can get round this a lot of the time)
Quote:
This place was also not a bad barometer for finding out how many people might or might not have just noticed a breakdown...
I find it's both nice, but also a bit annoying when there's breakdown that you're involved in and no-one here had spotted it.
Nice that you got away with it, annoying that you can't read the reaction!
Agreed, it is difficult to talk about current issues without getting into problems with customers in ways that 20 years ago wouldn't have been quite as much of a problem.
It's why I am happy to discuss things from many years ago about things that no longer exist - when the building is demolished, facilities no longer current nor the programmes made any more, there is less of an issue.
Today you have to consider commercial sensitivities, non disclosure agreements, and that there are contracts at stake with peoples jobs and livelihoods at risk.
It does mean what I and many others on the inside post is done very carefully indeed.
Pages of speculation on here we could sometimes answer so easily - but choose not to, and I hope eveyone has been able to understand why that is.
I was so shocked and stunned by this announcement that I couldn't post until now. Asa, I'm sorry that running this site has been such a chore in recent times, clearly more than I realised. I appreciate running a forum like this for 20 years is quite a feat, given the complaints you have had to deal with. But I kindly ask you to reconsider shutting the forum down completely, and not allowing someone else to take over the running of the site.
As this thread has shown, this forum still has a vibrant, active community, and to let it suddenly disappear would be such a shame. For the last year this place has been a refuge during uncertain times. I am genuinely gutted if this is to be the end.
