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Digital Spy is being downsized
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DVDfever
20-11-2016
Originally Posted by ChipDouglas82:
“If they do get rid of the forums then we'll have to all band together and create a new forum. It'll be easy just use DS as template, use a forum host such as invisionfree, get a relatively cheap host so we could get a domain name such as TheDigitalSpyForums.net or similar.. all depends on copyright etc with the Digital Spy name.

All we'd need is some reliable volunteers to be mods etc, and we'd be sorted. We could even create a feeder website and make it how DS was before they ruined it, for news etc

It would be a shit load of work, but worth it.”

I'd happily start something up on my forums which don't really get used at present as I was getting inundated with spam sign-ups, and rather than ditch the forum, until I figure out whether it's worth keeping, I've currently made it almost impossible to sign up by setting the sign-up question to (I think this is what I put) asking what my middle name is. It's put off the spammers, anyway. Wish I knew a way to get round that.

http://forum.dvd-fever.co.uk/index.php

According to the DS Downsized thread, forums get over 7m hits per month. Not sure I could recreate the whole thing. My monthly forum hits are slightly less

Originally Posted by skinj:
“I remember when DS used be the place referenced by other big organisations. There used to be actual journalism on the main site rather than cobbling together stories from other places and regurgitating it. Take this article from today It's just basic information that is available anywhere but obviously the primary source is the Evening Standard as they have had to say that's where the info has come from.”

Thanks for the link. Had a read and I can't understand (a) why it's on DS, and (b) why is it classed as "Tech". What is technology related about freezing fares on public transport?

Originally Posted by Hitstastic:
“Getting rid of the forums would be a massive step backwards.

Loads of people use different forums as they can be incredibly useful for finding out information.

Yes, you get trolls who make scrolling through threads a chore especially when they're an omnipresence that just needs to log out permanently. But that aside, these forums are also a way of people interacting with each other and discuss similar interests.

I'm probably one of the few people who go on Google and purposely type "Digital Spy forums" as I don't find the homepage that useful. I'm more likely to go on the forums first, and then click to go onto the homepage later rather than the other way round.”

Why do that? I just start typie 'di' in my browser, and the top-most (and most frequently used) link is http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/usercp.php
Projectionist
20-11-2016
Originally Posted by Marti S:
“Because most of those "discussing" it are in fact just whinging and flaming the BBC at every opportunity, with no constructive discussion.

The forums are not supposed to be a soap box for people to preach their message”

Really? there are plenty on here who preach their "soap box message" 24/7 - Not me, I have a life to lead.
So what are DS forums for? the truth is in my view, just about everything - provided other posters are treated with respect, the DS rules are followed reasonably & nothing libellous is posted.

As for the BBC, it dominates UK broadcasting, it does a hell of a lot - that means it may get some things wrong...... do nothing, & you do nothing wrong.
EG: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...sed-ten-years/
Storm in a teacup?
CappySpectrum
20-11-2016
Originally Posted by Projectionist:
“Really? there are plenty on here who preach their "soap box message" 24/7 - Not me, I have a life to lead.
So what are DS forums for? the truth is in my view, just about everything - provided other posters are treated with respect, the DS rules are followed reasonably & nothing libellous is posted.

As for the BBC, it dominates UK broadcasting, it does a hell of a lot - that means it may get some things wrong...... do nothing, & you do nothing wrong.
EG: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...sed-ten-years/
Storm in a teacup?”

Personally I wouldn't be surprised if most forums in 4 years time has went the way of newsgroups. The few rare that are left for the remaining years until eventually they have just about died with no activity. Since so many these days has their sites injected with Facebook and twitter.
skp20040
20-11-2016
Originally Posted by CappySpectrum:
“Personally I wouldn't be surprised if most forums in 4 years time has went the way of newsgroups. The few rare that are left for the remaining years until eventually they have just about died with no activity. Since so many these days has their sites injected with Facebook and twitter.”

The thing is you cannot have a discussion like the forums on Facebook or Twitter you would need dedicated pages for each subject and Twitter would be impossible to say more than a few words so no discussion at all.
CappySpectrum
20-11-2016
I know but people today prefer trending than discussion boards. I've always loved forums as you jump in and out whenever you feel like it. That and twitter makes you look like a 6 year old with 140 characters.

Facebook is an absolute mess with their timeline/discussion layout. I seriously detest it.
hyperstarsponge
20-11-2016
Originally Posted by CappySpectrum:
“I know but people today prefer trending than discussion boards. I've always loved forums as you jump in and out whenever you feel like it. That and twitter makes you look like a 6 year old with 140 characters.

Facebook is an absolute mess with their timeline/discussion layout. I seriously detest it.”

Twitter is quick reactions to something live at the moment, Blogs and message boards are for longer posts.
johnathome
21-11-2016
Oh dear, i only come here for the forums.

I also use an adblocker so i guess they make 0 money out of me...
Declan_McGrath1
21-11-2016
I've been on here now for 2 years, and I hope the forums don,t close down, If they want to downsize it they could close some of the other forum sites, but keep the broadcasting forums, radio forums and the other forums threads that get used regularly. And if they do decide to close it down I've had a blast on here.
scoobiesnacks
21-11-2016
They'll close the forums if they don't make enough money. We don't know how much the ads make on here (but it will probably be much less than you think).
technoguy
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by scoobiesnacks:
“They'll close the forums if they don't make enough money. We don't know how much the ads make on here (but it will probably be much less than you think).”

Also you see alot who post on here bragging they use Adblock.

So digital spy get no money from those visitors. Which now seems to be most people. So no wonder digital spy is going to close. The server costs of running the site are high and the money coming in from ads is getting blocked.
FusionFury
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by technoguy:
“Also you see alot who post on here bragging they use Adblock.

So digital spy get no money from those visitors. Which now seems to be most people. So no wonder digital spy is going to close. The server costs of running the site are high and the money coming in from ads is getting blocked.”

Can't they just keep the forum open and delete most of the old topics after like a week or so? to keep it functional.. that way the costs are low.

I mean you even get free forum space nowadays.

There's a middle-ground solution here, but the members of DS need to be involved with.
aurichie
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by technoguy:
“Also you see alot who post on here bragging they use Adblock.

So digital spy get no money from those visitors. Which now seems to be most people. So no wonder digital spy is going to close. The server costs of running the site are high and the money coming in from ads is getting blocked.”

I had this argument in the computer section months ago regarding ad blocking. If everyone just blocks all the advertising then the ad supported web will go away eventually.

It's not cheap running a large forum. You also have all the legal headaches of operating in the UK too. If you don't react to the removal of libellous/slanderous content quickly, then you can be held accountable for the actions of your forum members. I would never run a forum in the UK with our laws.
BenFranklin
21-11-2016
Lets not forget that ads containing malware have appeared on these forums before, if Digital Spy can't be bothered to provide a safe environment for us they can't complain about people using Adblockers.
Straker
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by technoguy:
“Also you see alot who post on here bragging they use Adblock.

So digital spy get no money from those visitors. Which now seems to be most people. So no wonder digital spy is going to close. The server costs of running the site are high and the money coming in from ads is getting blocked.”

As irritating as they are (sometimes, not all the time) I've never run an ad-blocker for that very reason.
DVDfever
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by FusionFury:
“Can't they just keep the forum open and delete most of the old topics after like a week or so? to keep it functional.. that way the costs are low.”

Some topics go on for years. If people know that topics will get auto-deleted, they won't bother posting in the first place, and the forum will die.

However, if they don't get much ad revenue anyway, then they won't be started up.

I'm still tempted to set up an alternative forum to this if it goes down, but the problems include the spam bots signing up, and the moderation involved.If people with mod experience wanted to join in with that (and for previously zero pounds in return) then it's worth a shot.
Zeropoint1
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by technoguy:
“Also you see alot who post on here bragging they use Adblock.

So digital spy get no money from those visitors. Which now seems to be most people. So no wonder digital spy is going to close. The server costs of running the site are high and the money coming in from ads is getting blocked.”

Sorry, but the only reason the vast majority of people now block the ads is entirely self inflicted by Digital Spy and no one else. I was quite happy not using one for 15 years, but thanks to the way they load forcing the page to bounce around for a long time, several video and audio ads running simultaneously and slowing the entire experience down to 56 K dial up, then who can blame people who've had enough.

As I've mentioned before the problem affected my computer so much I thought it was riddled with viruses** or about to fail entirely. I installed Ad Block Plus and the issue instantly vanished.

The entire problem is one created by Hearst and Hearst only, they could go back to the old system of advertising which was unobtrusive and didn't take up huge amounts of screen space.

**Remember those who were infected with malware several years ago thanks to dodgy ads.
Steve9214
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by Zeropoint1:
“Sorry, but the only reason the vast majority of people now block the ads is entirely self inflicted by Digital Spy and no one else. I was quite happy not using one for 15 years, but thanks to the way they load forcing the page to bounce around for a long time, several video and audio ads running simultaneously and slowing the entire experience down to 56 K dial up, then who can blame people who've had enough.

As I've mentioned before the problem affected my computer so much I thought it was riddled with viruses** or about to fail entirely. I installed Ad Block Plus and the issue instantly vanished.

The entire problem is one created by Hearst and Hearst only, they could go back to the old system of advertising which was unobtrusive and didn't take up huge amounts of screen space.

**Remember those who were infected with malware several years ago thanks to dodgy ads.”

Exactly this.

My computer became impossible to use - had to keep rebooting.
When I got the adblock it was interesting that every page of DS that I opened up, the ad counter went up to double digits - despite there only being 4 spaces for ads on the page.
This was the cause of the meltdown - and I still see the ad counters rocketing up when on DS, so they have done nothing to fix the problem.
Zeropoint1
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by Steve9214:
“Exactly this.

My computer became impossible to use - had to keep rebooting.
When I got the adblock it was interesting that every page of DS that I opened up, the ad counter went up to double digits - despite there only being 4 spaces for ads on the page.
This was the cause of the meltdown - and I still see the ad counters rocketing up when on DS, so they have done nothing to fix the problem.”

I do believe I've seen it block as many as 50 adverts in seconds, beaten only by the Mail Online with a staggering 94 in seconds!
Steve9214
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by Zeropoint1:
“I do believe I've seen it block as many as 50 adverts in seconds, beaten only by the Mail Online with a staggering 94 in seconds!”

And when you think a DS web page has slots for only 4 ads - they must all be fighting to load themselves - thus making the whole thing crash
Zeropoint1
21-11-2016
Originally Posted by Steve9214:
“And when you think a DS web page has slots for only 4 ads - they must all be fighting to load themselves - thus making the whole thing crash”

Exactly, my admittedly under powered old computer basically gives up because it can't cope with everything trying to launch together, an issue only on DS without an ad blocker.
Yet the same system with only 3GB RAM will still (just about) play a few seconds of UHD video before buffering then stopping (but certainly not crashing or becoming unusable until rebooted!!!)
popeye13
22-11-2016
Currently, blocking 11 ads if i enable adblocker!
Running without, takes the page 40 seconds (There abouts) to load and stop jumping around and for everything to load!
And my BB isn't slow nor is the machine. So yes, entirely self-inflicted and id gladly go back to white-listing DSF if this wasn't the case.
I have no issue with ads that don't become obtrusive. Those that takeover half the bloody page like IMDb does get blocked!
CappySpectrum
22-11-2016
Originally Posted by DVDfever:
“Some topics go on for years. If people know that topics will get auto-deleted, they won't bother posting in the first place, and the forum will die.

However, if they don't get much ad revenue anyway, then they won't be started up.

I'm still tempted to set up an alternative forum to this if it goes down, but the problems include the spam bots signing up, and the moderation involved.If people with mod experience wanted to join in with that (and for previously zero pounds in return) then it's worth a shot.”

I've found lots of valuable information from this forum from googling Sky in past years from threads as old as 2010/08.
Zeropoint1
22-11-2016
Okay, in the interests of fairness I've turned off Ad Block Plus and the page didn't bounce around as before. It still jumps but loads in a mere 15 seconds...

However with Ad Block Plus turned off I'm now getting the message from McAfee WebAdvisor on the page forums.digitalspy.co.uk which says

"We tested this page and blocked content that comes from potentially dangerous or suspicious sites. Allow this content only if you're sure it comes from safe sites"
snafu65
22-11-2016
Originally Posted by Zeropoint1:
“Sorry, but the only reason the vast majority of people now block the ads is entirely self inflicted by Digital Spy and no one else. I was quite happy not using one for 15 years, but thanks to the way they load forcing the page to bounce around for a long time, several video and audio ads running simultaneously and slowing the entire experience down to 56 K dial up, then who can blame people who've had enough.

As I've mentioned before the problem affected my computer so much I thought it was riddled with viruses** or about to fail entirely. I installed Ad Block Plus and the issue instantly vanished.

The entire problem is one created by Hearst and Hearst only, they could go back to the old system of advertising which was unobtrusive and didn't take up huge amounts of screen space.

**Remember those who were infected with malware several years ago thanks to dodgy ads.”


That's why I use Ad Block Plus, and nobody will persuade me not to use it or make me feel guilty. If DS closes so be it, I'll just use another site. In fact I've already signed up to AV Formus, which is more to my liking than DS anyway.
Yoshi Fan
22-11-2016
Originally Posted by Zeropoint1:
“Sorry, but the only reason the vast majority of people now block the ads is entirely self inflicted by Digital Spy and no one else. I was quite happy not using one for 15 years, but thanks to the way they load forcing the page to bounce around for a long time, several video and audio ads running simultaneously and slowing the entire experience down to 56 K dial up, then who can blame people who've had enough.

As I've mentioned before the problem affected my computer so much I thought it was riddled with viruses** or about to fail entirely. I installed Ad Block Plus and the issue instantly vanished.

The entire problem is one created by Hearst and Hearst only, they could go back to the old system of advertising which was unobtrusive and didn't take up huge amounts of screen space.

**Remember those who were infected with malware several years ago thanks to dodgy ads.”

This. Until Digital Spy became such an ad-infested site, I'd never even heard of Adblock until somebody mentioned it in a thread complaining about the adverts. Since then I've never looked back.

I don't like doing it given the ads support the site, but given DS/Hearst still let problematic ads run riot (as evidenced by regular threads in GD complaining about them) then I'm afraid I have no choice.
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