The TV Room

I appreciate you might not know the answer, but do you mean "cost" as in the overheads of hosting a website, or costs as in, "my time is worth money"?

I'd have to refer to the technical directors of Metropol for exact figures, but our upload facility uses a phenomenal amount of space and bandwidth, and those costs are minimal, and defrayed in part by google ads and other (minor) revenue streams. We're not talking thousands, even hundreds of pounds.

So you can maybe understand that from an outsider's perspective, putting the "begging bowl" out every six months for the last couple of years does seem to point towards someone who wants to be paid for what he considers his effort. He could run a subscription scheme for content - and lots of people would pay; but instead, one could leap to the conclusion that he's actually being disingenuous about the "expense" of running the site, and his reasons for asking for donations.

I apologise for publicly drawing such conclusions, but this individual only ever seems to put his head above the parapet when its time to ask for money - and leaves you, Martin, to take the flack and make excuses on his behalf when he fails to reply to legitimate and well-meaning offers of help.

I simply can't express how much time and effort Pete and Sput (and others) have put into Metropol and its offshoot web services; so to be gifted an offer in the way they did to the TV Room, only to be IGNORED more than once is downright outrageous, and says a lot about his motivation.

Well I can not speak on Mike's behalf, but I know he is not one of TV Forum's best fans, which may be why he does not respond here. I am not even sure if he visits TV Forum that often.

No, I do realise you're not able to speak for him - it seems pretty unfair that you should be left to deal with the flack each time he dangles the Sword of Damocles over the site. Not updating the site is one thing; but removing it from the web (when there are other options available) comes across all wrong - especially when a lot of the material is contributed by the public.

Anyhoo, I've said my piece - which probably is counter-productive.

But to be honest, I've been really cross by the lack of courtesy when Pete has offered again and again to help - even financially - in efforts to stop this site going to the wall; and he's been rewarded by a total silence. Its a mark of contempt.

He doesn't deserve that, and it makes my blood boil.

To be fair I have had previous replies although it often was after someone else had came to the rescue. Nothing as of yet this time though. Ho hum.

Also worth noting there is silence on the FB page where said closure was annouced too.

Why doesn't Mike visit this forum? There are posts on this thread asking if the tv listings section was still in action, since he sent listings in and got no reply. Mike should have acknowledged that the contribution, and still no reply from him in this thread either. I contributed some tv3 content over a year ago, didn't even get a thank you. I always reply to any emails sent to skyidents, its just basic manners. So if he is not a fan of tvforum , a forum for the average tv presentation fan, if he doesn't like dealing with us, why beg for our money?

I know Mike has patchy internet access at the moment but I do hope he is able to reply to people who have emailed in soon.

Last email I had from him, I think he was decided not to continue with the site, but is considering what to do with the content already online. I know he is continuing his offline personal archive.

Personally on more than one occasion I had suggested he consider partnering with someone like Andrew Wood and his TIG site, but I believe there is some ill feeling there from the past.

I have also suggested placing Google adverts onto the site, and using YouTube videos for storing the video collections he has been digitizing, but it is Mike's decision in the end.

The current re-design came about when a company/group approached Mike wanting to support the site, and turn it into a sort of Showcase for branding agencies. And I had been working with Mike for over a year and presenting designs and prototypes to them. Mike attended conference calls and meetings, but we were given the run around. This was very disheartening for both of us, and I can understand why Mike has decided to just close the site.

I think after he has made the decision he may be wanting to sit back and take a break from it all, and sort out the "real life" things he has on his plate. I am sure he will get back to those who have emailed, once he has an internet connection and time on his hands. I myself have not heard from him over the past couple of weeks but he did say he would not be as available over the next month or so.

That's the first I've heard of this. There's never been any animosity from me, and indeed in the past I believe I've had a good e-mail relationship with Mike. However my last contact with him was back in February last year when I passed on my thanks and admiration for the site he'd created and my sorrow at it's (then) closing.

Definitely no ill-feeling from me.

I can't. No reason why closure would need to be the outcome, given the offers on the table.

I'll bet your designs were great. I'm seldom less than impressed by your work.

I'd like to think you've had some financial rewards with all the monies that have gone his way

Really appreciate your candour on the subject, and apologies for the mini-rant.

Oh is that who that Promax company were? I did wonder what their interest in the site was.

I shouldn't comment on any specifics, but in the past Promax has been supportive of The TV Room...

Should be TV Ark or even TV Live in my personal opinion who Promax supports.

EDIT : Thinking about it, I think TV Live would be better getting it as TV Ark seems to get everything automatically!

I did send a message to Mike about hosting content from his site when he announced he was shutting it down last year, but he never replied. I'm not really bothered either way though.