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Digital Spy to 'downsize'


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Old 17-11-2016, 18:37
Hildaonpluto
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Will they make an announcement if they did decide to shut the forums down or just take it off randomly one day without telling anybody? They better not get rid of these, just get rid of the crappy main site, nobody uses it any more now it's had its god awful revamp.
Hopefully the moderators will clarify soon.

It's sad in a way an end of an era although I won't deny I don't enjoy the forum's as much as I used too. But there's still some real lovely human jewels on here members wise.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:43
Barracute
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I would be very sad if the forums were to close, DS is the only forum i visit regularly (as in most days) and is far and away the biggest that i visit. A LOT of people would be very unhappy if this were to happen, DS isnt just a few forums, with the same people posting on them all, there are dozens of forums, hundreds of threads and thousands of fms posting on them - every day !
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:44
chinchin
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Such a loss if the well loved and used Forum was to be snuffed out after all these years.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:45
muggins14
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I would be very sad if the forums were to close, DS is the only forum i visit regularly (as in most days) and is far and away the biggest that i visit. A LOT of people would be very unhappy if this were to happen, DS isnt just a few forums, with the same people posting on them all, there are dozens of forums, hundreds of threads and thousands of fms posting on them - every day !
It's the only forum I use and I'd be very sad - it's my go-to place when I have free time, but I'm not going to worry until we know either way.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:47
chinchin
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They surely won't get rid of such an excellent forum.

Such a shame if the did TheEric.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:48
gilesb
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Seems people are getting a bit ahead of themselves at the moment, there has been no official mention or hints of closing the forums yet so no need to panic at this point.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:51
elliecat
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I don't post as much as I used to as I have moved offices and it isn't as easy to spend hours on here like I used to but I would miss it if it went. I've had some great advice and talked some bollocks and it's a nice way to spend free time.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:51
Hildaonpluto
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Seems people are getting a bit ahead of themselves at the moment, there has been no official mention or hints of closing the forums yet so no need to panic at this point.
It's a speculative thread so yes by definition people "get ahead of themselves"....
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:53
DUNDEEBOY
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Do think the click bait crap on the front pages may survive and a lot of forums may go sadly.

Would rather it was the other way round
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:00
Lafayette
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I know from my own experience that the up keep costs of running a forum aren't cheap. I can't imagine how much this one must cost to run. Its massive.
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:05
Isambard Brunel
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DigtalSpy was purchased by a magazine publisher, seeing it as a way to expand its portfolio with an online "publication" it could expand and profit from.

Given how much advertising has taken over the site since then, and the prolific use of ad blockers (based upon the shear number of forum posters who mention them), I'm assuming the site doesn't make as much money as they were hoping. So I'd assume 'downsizing' to be mainly about the 'online publication' side of the site. Fewer interviews, less content, axed sections. This will probably mean less staff too.

That leaves the forums, which I doubt make much money given the overheads for all those servers hosting the databases and scripts that generate the forum pages. So maybe we'll end up with slower and more broken forums over time, with all the old posts from years ago removed until someone finally pulls the plug. if money really gets tight, they might even ban the more frivolous threads like counting to a million or the last person to post is sexy, etc.

Still, downsizing is bound to lead to a new broom making their presence felt at some point... visibly in the form of yet another highly popular and problem-free forum make-over!
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:05
muggins14
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I don't post as much as I used to as I have moved offices and it isn't as easy to spend hours on here like I used to but I would miss it if it went. I've had some great advice and talked some bollocks and it's a nice way to spend free time.
Hello there!! I thought you'd not been around much.
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:07
muggins14
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DigtalSpy was purchased by a magazine publisher, seeing it as a way to expand its portfolio with an online "publication" it could expand and profit from.

Given how much advertising has taken over the site since then, and the prolific use of ad blockers (based upon the shear number of forum posters who mention them), I'm assuming the site doesn't make as much money as they were hoping. So I'd assume 'downsizing' to be mainly about the 'online publication' side of the site. Fewer interviews, less content, axed sections. This will probably mean less staff too.

That leaves the forums, which I doubt make much money given the overheads for all those servers hosting the databases and scripts that generate the forum pages. So maybe we'll end up with slower and more broken forums over time until someone finally pulls the plug.

Still, downsizing is bound to lead to a new broom making their presence felt... visibly in the form of yet another highly popular and problem-free forum make-over!
I admit I use an ad-blocker. Do the ads only pay if people see/click on them then rather than the advertisers paying to place the ads on the site no matter whether people click on them? I don't know how it works.

Hope that makes sense - apparently I don't write very good posts
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:13
cobaye22
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Alexa traffic rank

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/digitalspy.co.uk
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:16
HenryGarten
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Interestingly this is happening at a time when more and more sites are objecting to adblockers! Very much so in the last six months.

As people say the signs have been there for a considerable time.

At the end of the day if something does not pay its way it closes.
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:16
Isambard Brunel
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Well there's your answer then! Just in this year alone, the site appears to be dying. That can't be good to show prospective advertisers.

I wonder what a graph going back ten years would look like.

I admit I use an ad-blocker. Do the ads only pay if people see/click on them then rather than the advertisers paying to place the ads on the site no matter whether people click on them? I don't know how it works.

Hope that makes sense - apparently I don't write very good posts
It all depends on the contract negotiated between DS and the advertisers. They'll certainly make something if you click ads. Perhaps more if they can trace a sale to a click. They may charge a blanket fee for showing the ad in the first place. So as a revenue stream it's probably all very complicated depending on the kind of advert, where it is shown, who's showing it, whether it's clicked on, etc.

Either way, you need a hell of a lot of clicks to make any real money from advertising on a site like this. That graph linked to above doesn't suggest they're getting them, which is probably why they're downsizing.
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:20
Hildaonpluto
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Oh my that's a dramatic drop. What do we think caused that in the space of a year?
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:21
muggins14
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Oh my that's a dramatic drop. What do we think caused that in the space of a year?
I don't think we can blame Brexit for this one
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:21
JasonWatkins
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Oh my that's a dramatic drop. What do we think caused that in the space of a year?
Scroll down the page even further and you see some rather dramatic figures ..

Visitors to the forums - 98.17% - Visitors to the main site - 1.74%

So, i suppose you could argue that the only 'downsizing' that would take place would be the main site because nobody visits it ..
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:23
Hildaonpluto
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I don't think we can blame Brexit for this one
Neither do I!!!
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:24
Hildaonpluto
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Scroll down the page even further and you see some rather dramatic figures ..

Visitors to the forums - 98.17% - Visitors to the main site - 1.74%

So, i suppose you could argue that the only 'downsizing' that would take place would be the main site because nobody visits it ..
Perhaps a membership fee for forum members to counteract what they lose to ad blockers?
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:25
sodavlac
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Oh my that's a dramatic drop. What do we think caused that in the space of a year?
I noticed a similar thing once. Another poster who was more observant than me told me that the site had split into digitalspy.com for all the showbiz news and digitalspy.co.uk for the forum at some point and that was the cause.

Here's the .com graph - http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/digitalspy.com
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:35
omnidirectional
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Oh my that's a dramatic drop. What do we think caused that in the space of a year?
The change to Buzzfeed style articles, the overload of "17 reasons why.." list features, and the loss of popular features like the TV ratings will all have contributed.
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:35
BanglaRoad
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I would be very sad if the forums were to close, DS is the only forum i visit regularly (as in most days) and is far and away the biggest that i visit. A LOT of people would be very unhappy if this were to happen, DS isnt just a few forums, with the same people posting on them all, there are dozens of forums, hundreds of threads and thousands of fms posting on them - every day !
You were a regular on the old AOL BB forum weren't you Barra?
That was fun til it got closed, are we a jinx on any forums we use?
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:36
muggins14
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Perhaps a membership fee for forum members to counteract what they lose to ad blockers?
I'm sure I recall paying £5 to join originally!
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