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Digital Spy is being downsized


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Old 17-12-2016, 17:04
CappySpectrum
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I think the problem Digital spy is having lately is most of its users are now over 30 and many way older. So they're giving the whole site a make over to make it more colourful, interactive, video clips in posts and more about social media. Blurring the lines between this and the youngsters fav social media platforms.

So the older folk will probably find it too hectic on their older eyes. But its the only way the site will survive as this ancient forum software is from the olden days and looks really dated now, so puts a lot of younger people off.
Over 30 is an old fart?
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Old 17-12-2016, 17:04
Hollie_Louise
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Poor me!

As others have said, I'm guessing that the forum will be linked more closely to DS articles. You've got to get the community reading and responding to the articles that journos are bieng paid to write!
I think the last thing the "journos" that write the dross filling the front page is comments on the terrible job they are doing.

Headline on mobile version: Mariah Carey didn't know about Nick Cannon's Baby

Headline on desktop version: Mariah Carey knew about Nick Cannon's third baby before he told her
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Old 17-12-2016, 17:08
Pencil
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Forums.digitalspy.com suggests software called Vanilla forums.
https://vanillaforums.org/discussions - Vanilla

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/foru...etin-5-connect - vBulletin
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Old 17-12-2016, 17:36
CappySpectrum
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I think the last thing the "journos" that write the dross filling the front page is comments on the terrible job they are doing.
I decided to look after not viewing it in a long long time but ouch!

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/new...in-six-months/
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Old 17-12-2016, 18:44
BenFranklin
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So are we on the new software now?
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Old 17-12-2016, 20:20
jonmorris
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So are we on the new software now?
No. They did a test migration, found some errors and intend to address those on the exported database, then suspend the forum again to do it again - but for real.

I think they'd be mad to do it before the new year though.
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Old 17-12-2016, 20:30
BenFranklin
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So the forum was down for 3 days for nothing... wow
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Old 17-12-2016, 21:20
jonmorris
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So the forum was down for 3 days for nothing... wow
I doubt they'd just do it once and hope it all worked!

They needed to stop anything being added to the database while doing an entire export (or maybe a few exports - and can you imagine the size of the data?) and then seeing if all the data was intact and able to be imported into the new software.

What they've done so far is logical as the copied database can now be played with, but I wouldn't expect anything to be risked over Christmas for blatantly obvious reasons.
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Old 17-12-2016, 21:45
DVDfever
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I decided to look after not viewing it in a long long time but ouch!

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/new...in-six-months/
And that article says "via Gamespot", so a big site has just copied someone else's work(!)
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Old 17-12-2016, 21:48
bumpandgrind
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This is exactly the problem with the dumbed down crap. I bet there's some really talented writer / journalist sat typing this fodder for 'challenged' 12 year olds and orange people, who wants to cry when thinking about the actual articles and genuine stories they used to write for DS.

I'm also not sure what the obsession is with Friends right now, it finished 12 years ago and is in no way relevant to the moronic teen audience which Hearst seem to be chasing.

After writing the piece above it's just gotten me thinking. Hearst are clearly chasing the teen audience with their Buzz Feed nonsense and as a commercial company that is their right. But do the teen audience actually have a lot of spending power? Outside of bugging their parents for the latest iPhone or 1 Direction record I can't imagine they have much spare money to be attractive to advertisers.
Even as a low paid worker I have disposable income and on a site that was aimed at technology and entertainment I'm surely a better bet to spend than a 13 year old Belieber who hasn't even got the money to buy a packet of Space Raiders.
The Friends obsession is just insane.

The main site is just awful. It's been downhill for some time now and I use it less and less. The worst I saw was "7 Celebrities Who Look Like Pokemon" about three months ago. That's not journalism.

The latest thing seems to be just quoting a selection of tweets and passing it off as news.

Awful.
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Old 17-12-2016, 22:38
fmradiotuner1
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the search is still broken for me but at least not much has changed.
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Old 17-12-2016, 22:51
Piipp
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I'm sure, based on the description of the new software, they'll be going over to Vanilla. Check out The Sims Forums for an idea of how it works. It's actually not too bad but certainly aimed at a younger audience (in the features at least) than those that tend to visit these forums.

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/
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Old 17-12-2016, 23:46
Caxton
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So the forum was down for 3 days for nothing... wow
It was NOT down for three days for me and it was not down for nothing it was down to prepare for a later complete update of the forums, I thought that had been made clear
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Old 17-12-2016, 23:51
CappySpectrum
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No it wasn't down, it was in read only mode. Nobody had posted since the 14th.
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Old 18-12-2016, 00:23
Mark.
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I'm sure, based on the description of the new software, they'll be going over to Vanilla. Check out The Sims Forums for an idea of how it works. It's actually not too bad but certainly aimed at a younger audience (in the features at least) than those that tend to visit these forums.

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/
IPS is another option. That seems to have become quite popular recently with forums that want to move closer to the social media model.

In any case, I can understand the move from vBulletin. 4 is fine, but 5 is an utter abomination. And one would presume there will come a time when 4 is no longer supported...
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Old 18-12-2016, 00:27
skp20040
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So the forum was down for 3 days for nothing... wow
No the Forums were read only whilst they started doing some things in the background that we cannot see yet as it has not been completed.
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Old 18-12-2016, 06:29
JAS84
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Despite there being millions of posts, it's not that difficult to migrate to other software, so I think it'll be (fairly) smooth though the whole "no spaces in usernames" thing may be problematic. I can't figure out why this is happening, or pin point software that forces this (I think Discourse does but I really can't see DS using it, as good as it is).

Interesting times anyway.
The no spaces in usernames thing is because one of the new features is to address people using @ (i.e., if you put @JAS84 in a post, I think I'd be notified that I was mentioned?). In your case, it would link to James, not James J. I would guess they'd use underscores instead, though DS Forum Support has said that anyone with a space in their current name will be offered a full name change if you want one.
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Old 18-12-2016, 06:57
Cryolemon
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The no spaces in usernames thing is because one of the new features is to address people using @ (i.e., if you put @JAS84 in a post, I think I'd be notified that I was mentioned?). In your case, it would link to James, not James J. I would guess they'd use underscores instead, though DS Forum Support has said that anyone with a space in their current name will be offered a full name change if you want one.
Alternatehistory.com allows spaces in usernames and the @ thing still works. Im called "Lemon flavoured" there and it works fine. When you start typing say "@Lem" it then gives ypu a drop down of usernames that start like that.
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Old 18-12-2016, 07:36
mossy2103
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the search is still broken for me but at least not much has changed.
That's because nothing has changed, we are still on the old forum software (see previous posts).
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Old 18-12-2016, 12:00
Kargo
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Forums.digitalspy.com suggests software called Vanilla forums.
I'm guessing as part of the cost savings that were mentioned, they are doing away with paying for a vBulletin license and going with the open source self-hosted version of Vanilla which is free. To be honest, if that is the case then it's a good move as Vanilla is already a lot more modern than the current version of VB that they are using. Why pay to upgrade VB at a cost when you can get the same functionality elsewhere for free? If it means we don't have to deal with those ghastly adverts on the mobile version, I'm all for it!
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Old 18-12-2016, 12:06
jonmorris
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Do you honestly think they're going to launch a new forum without advertising on every platform you can view it on?

It's precisely the reason they didn't allow support of Tapatalk, which would have made this forum far easier to use - but had no ads.

Of course people use Ad Blockers, so that has been a big problem too.

All we can hope is the ads are less intrusive and we no longer get any malware, or nasty mobile pop-ups/slide-ups and so on.
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Old 18-12-2016, 14:41
DVDfever
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I think the last thing the "journos" that write the dross filling the front page is comments on the terrible job they are doing.

Headline on mobile version: Mariah Carey didn't know about Nick Cannon's Baby

Headline on desktop version: Mariah Carey knew about Nick Cannon's third baby before he told her
Nick who?
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Old 18-12-2016, 16:17
Caxton
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Nick Cannon it says so. Cannon and Ball?
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Old 18-12-2016, 17:21
DVDfever
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Nick Cannon it says so. Cannon and Ball?
Rock on!
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Old 19-12-2016, 08:20
chandlerp
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But people did use to respond to articles but DS removed that facility and made them read only.
There needs to be actual content instead of clickbait for a comments system to work.
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