The TV Room

Actually the whole thread comes across as a little catty since you put a proposal forward and it wasn't met with the instant approval you wanted. There's nothing stopping you from implementing such a site anyway (it's similar to what I'm doing if I ever get the rebuild completed, but that's been a long time coming ), and nothing has been stopping you from talking to Mike way before he even decided to close the site. Except like many folks, the sudden interest only springs up when its announced the site is closing.

Personally I've never liked the vulturing that seems to go on whenever a site is closing down (compare this to the interest that was given to the earlier posts in this thread pre-anno). The same content will show up somewhere on the net, as someone else will inevitably have it on tape. The website and the angle from a particular person it took wont, and that's something that it'll be a shame to see go.

Shame to hear The TV Room is closing, it's such as great site and there was so much effort put in to maintaining it. I do hope the content will resurface elsewhere, but it will be very hard to replace such a great website.

I have had chats with mike in the past, regarding flash video, which at the time I was too busy to assist him with (new kitchen being fitted amonst other things iirc). Indeed that very factor is part of the reason the metro proposal is focussed on getting others to capture stuff and upload it because I appreciate that real life gets in the way of hobby things like this.



Do you not think that's in part due to bad news getting more reactions? I mean you don't write to tesco praising them for every yummy loaf of bread you buy, just the one that's mouldy. That's not to say effort isn't appreciated, just that it's easy to be taken for granted by others.

re: tv ark, until larry's post I didn't realise images opened in that popup, I must have always been opeing them in new tabs on the expectation the link led directly to the bare jpg and giving the site undeserved tsks. But I've never liked the video download system even though I can see the thinking behind it. Sorry.

I think webmasters are very protective of sites like The TV Room to the point where they'd rather the site go offline than fall into the hands of someone else who might take it in a different direction.

I have personal experience of this. At the start of the decade I took over a website called Crossover Television which was going to close as the webmaster didnt have enough time to maintain it. The website focussed on the various ITV franchise renewals. I went to great expense to source my own footage, some of which was from the broadcasters directly, others from enthusiasts, and put the footage online (the site in its original incarnation had very few videos if any)

I wanted to add a new element to the site which would focus on key television programmes broadcast during each of the franchise periods, and fill in the gaps between each crossover. Also I wanted to look at what other channels were doing at the same time of the franchise renewals, and look at how culture changed through the decades. It was all going very well until I received an email from the original webmaster telling me that I wasn't taking the site into the direction it should be going and he wanted to take the site back.

I kept my version going with a rebrand (as agreed) for a while until the hosting expired, and I'm not sure the original Crossover website ever returned.

I have to say I would never take on someone else's website after my experiences with that.

Oh yes I remember Crossover. Out of interest Matt, what were the main objections (if you don't mind mentioning)? I can see if you were to take a well deisgned site and turn it into a geocities lump or try and shove a random other topic in (ITV & Shakira) but given your tweaks were on topic it seems rather odd. Given that his "direction" prior to yourself was closure it seems slightly petty to ask for it back.

I design professional websites for a living, and had several other TV related websites at the time. The previous designer said he simply wanted to keep the site focussed on the 'crossovers' themselves. I thought that looking at how television and culture in general has changed over the years, with the crossovers being milestones was perfectly relevant.

That's the problem with taking on someone else's work, your vision will always be different to theirs. Of course if you're going to hand over your website you have to accept that it is no longer yours and if you don't think you can do that then you shouldn't. Which is why it is perfectly understandable that Mike doesn't want to let someone else keep the site going.

The whole scenario is terribly sad news really. It was such a marvellous compendium of clips.

I understand the idea that someone would be reluctant to pass the site on - but feel that would be more reasonable were all of the contribution clips provided by the webmaster.

But as they were sent in from various contributors, then those individuals may feel disappointed to know that their efforts will end up being seen by no one any more.

I'm still completely at a loss to see why the site can't be held frozen in perpetuity. Hosting isn't prohibitively expensive - even for unlimited packages of space and bandwidth.

So why would the site be removed from view completely?

Can anyone explain the reasons for this choice, as I simply don't understand.

Now Mike has updated the site, you can begin to be a little hopeful again. I tried to get Mike to change his mind, and until I felt I had exhausted all my powers of persuasion, I remained silent in public talking about the site closing, hoping we could come to a solution together. We received some news last week from an outside party which may save the site, but until the deal is sealed, I cant discuss it any further. But hopefully the site's future is looking bright...

That's fantastic news! I really hope the deal comes off and the site remains online. It would have left a huge void in TV Pres coverage on the web and it would have been so sad to see it go after all of the hard work Mike has put into the website over the years.

Amazing - fingers will be crossed, great to hear that there may be a reprieve yet for such a wonderful resource.

Brilliant news about the site staying online. I really would have missed the site if it had gone, so this is great news.