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Digital Spy is being downsized


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Old 17-11-2016, 16:56
hyperstarsponge
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https://mobile.twitter.com/markswene...30735857156096

@CosmopolitanUK publisher Hearst to make cuts incl shutting youth site Sugarscape + (link: http://Reveal.co.uk) Reveal.co.uk and downsizing @digitalspy 1/2
Not long now until the forums are gone then.
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Old 17-11-2016, 16:58
DanManF1
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Not long now until the forums are gone then.
Let's hope not. It'll be a sad day if/when the forums disappear.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:08
mossy2103
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So DigitalSpy is not being downsized then.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:10
James J
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If they shut the forums, I'll be so upset.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:15
Charnham
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I only come here for the forums anyways, the news page is a total joke, full of click bait headlines, and worthless graphics / gifs which in no way relate to the story.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:18
omnidirectional
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The news site has become awful, particularly since the last relaunch. I hope the forums survive though.

Maybe it could be a good thing if DS adopts a 'back to basics' approach instead of clickbait and "23 reasons we love..." Buzzfeed style articles.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:19
jrmich9
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+1 for only coming here for the forums these days. I'll be really, really disappointed to see them go if that happens.

I actually loved the main site back in the early/mid-2000s. Since Hearst have taken over (2011), the main site has regretfully declined into clickbait and sensationalism.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:23
JasonWatkins
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As I said on the thread in GD, it'll just come down to clicks and what generates the most ad revenue.

If that's the main site, then the forums will almost certainly go, especially if they're more trouble than they're worth and the ad revenue doesn't cover the cost of the staff needed to moderate it.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:27
Pencil
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The DS forums are probably responsible for a good 70% or more of Digital Spy's audience.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:27
James J
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If they actually had sense they'd realise they could move the forums to better software (more modern, with post up voting, notifications for replies etc) and integrate it tightly with the main site.

For example, when they post a new article, a new thread would automatically be created linking to that content in the appropriate subforum, and allow discussion. The highest-rated forum comments would appear under each article on the main site.

This would mean more engagement with the main site, more integration between the forums and website, and more revenue for the publishers.

The fact the forums are languishing on decades-old software says it all.

DS has such an opportunity to make a f*** load of money by modernising itself and maximising its community. But instead it wasted a load of money on a shocking redesign, removed comments from the main site and left the forums on aeons old backend software.

If they shut the forums without giving us time as a community to create a replacement, they're out of order. This forum and community is one of the largest on the internet (if not the largest?) and it would be such a great loss to see it go for people who live in the UK IMO.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:32
JasonWatkins
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If they actually had sense they'd realise they could move the forums to better software (more modern, with post up voting, notifications for replies etc) and integrate it tightly with the main site.

For example, when they post a new article, a new thread would automatically be created linking to that content, and allow discussion. The highest-rated forum comments would appear under each article.

This would mean more engagement with the main site, more integration between the forums and website, and more revenue for the publishers.

The fact the forums are languishing on decades-old software says it all.

DS has such an opportunity to make a f*** load of money by modernising itself and maximising its community. But instead it wasted a load of money on a shocking redesign, removed comments from the main site and left the forums on aeons old backend software.

If they shut the forums without giving us time as a community to create a replacement, they're out of order. This forum and community is one of the largest on the internet (if not the largest?) and it would be such a great loss to see it go for people who live in the UK IMO.
Completely agree with all of this.

I'm sure there are plenty of us who could, and would, come together to form a new forum should DS ever close.

There are plenty of logistical hurdles to overcome, obviously, but I would suggest that we could certainly apply a lot of what has been learnt from how the DS forums have been handled over the years to make something workable.

For starters, It would, of course, have to be able to generate money so ad usage would have to be done in such a way that would encourage people to turn off their adblockers.

I'm certainly up for a brainstorming session if anyone else wants to get involved.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:41
grassmarket
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Not long now until the forums are gone then.
Don't think that makes sense, the forums are basically free content for them.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:42
Toxteth O'Grady
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Don't think that makes sense, the forums are basically free content for them.
How many people do you think they have to employ to moderate them?
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:44
skp20040
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If they shut the forums, I'll be so upset.
If they shut the forums they basically lose Digital Spy as most people come for the forums and may use thee main pages to take a look, the main pages have suffered since they decided not to let people make comments any more

The rumour is not substantiated neither are the job losses he refers to elsewhere
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:45
James J
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How many people do you think they have to employ to moderate them?
If the software was any good it would have community moderation, with employees workload being reduced. Plenty of discussion websites use this up/down vote system like Reddit.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:45
timboy
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For starters, It would, of course, have to be able to generate money so ad usage would have to be done in such a way that would encourage people to turn off their adblockers.
Can only speak for myself but I'd rather have a service where I paid money not to have adverts in return for getting extra services over people who don't contribute financially.

This already happens with another forum I post on.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:49
grassmarket
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How many people do you think they have to employ to moderate them?
Fewer than they have writing content, I'd bet.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:50
RickLopez
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I only come for the forums. Sad day when they close.
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Old 17-11-2016, 17:59
snafu65
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I only come here for the forums anyways, the news page is a total joke, full of click bait headlines, and worthless graphics / gifs which in no way relate to the story.
Yeah same here, as you say the news pages are rubbish and I too only come here for the forums. They should never have disabled comments for features and reviews and such, that was a big mistake.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:02
PhilH36
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They can't shut down the forums until the Count To Two Million thread ends..................
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:08
omnidirectional
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If they actually had sense they'd realise they could move the forums to better software (more modern, with post up voting, notifications for replies etc) and integrate it tightly with the main site.
DigitalSpy use vBulletin which is very popular forum software, they should be able to introduce features like that if they wanted to.

I don't think they'd ever move this forum to another system, it would be a mammoth task given there is 16 years worth of content.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:11
JasonWatkins
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Can only speak for myself but I'd rather have a service where I paid money not to have adverts in return for getting extra services over people who don't contribute financially.

This already happens with another forum I post on.
I like that idea, although I think you'd have to come up with a solution that enabled you to make it a regular, recurring payment.

If you're going to cope with nearly quarter of a million page views per day, as DS gets on average, you're going to need to generate money to pay for bandwith.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:35
Hamlet77
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Ive been coming in here since 2003, I had a real a while back, but if the forums go, I'll have to consign DS to the past.

The main site has not catered for my tastes for a long time. It's all very well going on about ad revenue but when those advertisements are part of what makes the main site so unappealing, then something is really wrong, and the whole site needs to look at what it's trying to do and just how it's doing it.
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Old 17-11-2016, 18:52
adwarner
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Maybe they can downsize the adverts (on mobile) that stop people using the forums because it drops the page after you've clicked a link, gets stuck when scrolling, doesn't click the next page button because it's too small, brings up any thread except the one you want etc. Drives me up the wall. Not a regular poster but I am a regular reader in the UK TV forum as well as radio and broadcasting. Really annoying on threads that are hundreds of pages long (can't we have one thread per series rather than a Gogglebox or First Dates style one which has been going for years and is up to hundreds of pages, which is also slow to load especially if you go to the end and then back a page a time to find the last one you read). Moan over!
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Old 17-11-2016, 19:05
oathy
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Get ready its all the fault of Brexit. Corbyn and Trump
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