BBC to close The Archers messageboard

[LondonMother]

Will there be an influx here? There seem to be quite a lot of TA listeners on Mumsnet.

[R4]

A case of 'shooting the messenger'?

[MrsCampbellBlack]

Really - my god why?

[MrsCampbellBlack]

Although many were quite mad - they'd be right at home in aibu and baby names

[Lilymaid]

Statement from the BBC. I shall miss it - and Fantasy Archers but never dared to post on the forum as I am not witty enough!

[R4]

"traffic to the message board has reduced greatly. While there are around 10,000 regular visitors to the message board, the number of people who contribute actively has dropped below a thousand."

First the message board. Next, the programme itself?

[LondonMother]

R4, you've given me palpitations! I don't care about the messageboard, which is a shadow of what it used to be, but I can't imagine life without my regular forays into Ambridge.

[frostfrond]

I can`t stand most people on the Archers but I do not want it to end.New Clarrie will take some getting used to though

[R4]

hahahahahahahaha

Monday: "Closure of the Archers message board: While there are around 10,000 regular visitors ... For some time, the BBC has been moving away from message boards"

Tuesday: The Woman's Hour PowerList is published. The joint Number 7 most powerful women in the UK are there becuse, erm, they run a message board.

[ppeatfruit]

If they're making cuts in staff etc. it's probably one of doing it; after all TA has been without an online message board for much longer than it has had one.

[ppeatfruit]

one 'way' of doing it.

[NetworkGuy]

They cited 'too busy' when they closed the Woman's Hour message board.

They cited 'cost cutting' when they closed the general R4 message boards {though not mentioning the fact that TA board was not going to suffer any cuts}.

They ignored the suggestions that they could co-opt volunteers as moderators, in favour of keeping everything 'in house' (but not being able to really afford it, 'cos they waste so much cash on 4 revamps {or more} of their whole damn awful website, brought in 'Blogs' {which is a one-way thing, and carefully censored moderated, unlike the MessageBoards where anyone could start a fresh topic}).

Sorry for the little rant but they have had daft experiments like using live video streaming for some R4 and R5 shows when the medium is RADIO, and played with silly changes to integrate iPlayer access (making 3 clicks to hear something about 5 or 6, if it works after all that).

I lost patience with the BBC and their 'messing about' from 2007 to 2010 (and later, perhaps) when they had some (self proclaimed) 'radio futurologist' who used to work in advertising for Virgin Radio and then set up his own radio, TV, newspaper index site, and then closed the forums from the general public, only allowing those employed in media jobs to view/post. Then he screwed the index up by making it tie into f^%$#g Twitter and Facebook. Anyway, I've no idea how much they paid him to 'consult' but bet some pet projects of his became BBC experiments, with little or no benefit to the TV Licence payer.

Anyway - the MessageBoards have always had a few problems, and excessively strict BBC staff as moderators was one of them. I think an overspend of 125 million one year on the BBC website is something that means not having voluntary moderators is a wasted opportunity to have redeployed those who had been moderating into more useful activities, such as checking the contributions on the BBC News pages in their 'Have your say' section, so it didn't take up to 15 hours for comments made by the public to be displayed.

[ppeatfruit]

From what you say, along with latest scandals, I have thought over the years that the Beeb really must overhaul its management systems properly and stop its worship of yoof in its management and programme making. (it's a guarantee that 'radio futurologist' was young.)

I'm not anti all youth just worried about the reasons why experience seems to be a dirty word in the Beeb. I hope they are learning the lesson now though.

[OldBeanbagz]

The BBC don't seem to like criticism, of which there's been rather a lot on the BBC message board.

I've just been on to have a quick skim and delete my account. Looks like MN all teh way for me now

[R4]

Welcome OBB

[NetworkGuy]

Well, having heard the latest Feedback where this matter got an airing, I find it laughable that the BBC closed

Woman's Hour Message Board - too many users

general R4 MBs - financial cut backs

Archer's MB - too few users (about 10,000 a week, if I heard correct).

If they had allowed volunteers (after a suitable period of monitoring to choose them) for the MBs they could all have continued to run.

After all, the BBC web site would generally be the most logical place to go to discuss output for UK viewers and listeners.