Farewell...

[Rob]

It is with sadness that I must inform you all that TV Live Forum is to close down on Sunday at 12pm UK time.

I created this forum purely to continue the conversation from TV Forum, and I'm proud that I did it. However, I have felt more and more miserable as time has gone on, and my mental health has suffered as a result.

I knew I had big shoes to fill, TV Forum was a great website, and I was proud to be a part of it. I took the responsibility of running this site seriously, and every decision I made was, in my view, the right one. I made a few mistakes, and did things that were unpopular, but at the end of the day, I learned from the experience.

However, sadly, the continuing abuse that I've been receiving from certain people has resulted in my general mental health plummeting to the floor. I took a couple of weeks away from the forum recently to refresh my head, and seek counselling to address my mental health issues. The only way that I'm going to resolve my issues is to cut the forum out of my life, and that is what I intend to do.

The forum will close on July 31st at 12pm. This will give somebody enough time to set up a replacement forum if they so wish. I will support any legitimate effort at creating a new forum. If any new forum wishes to take on the posts and topics from here, they're more than welcome to, however I am willing to keep this site online as an archive.

I want to thank my moderators: David, Ben, Matt and James have been fantastic with keeping the forum going over its short life. I want to thank Pete from Metropol for being a "consultant" on all things forum related. His help has been very useful, and I'm grateful for his support.

Also, a big thank you to every single current member of the site for being a part of the community. I'm desperately sorry that it has had to end so soon, but I know in my heart that I'm doing the right thing.

The main TV Live website will continue, as will my new site On The Telly, and I will be focusing much more on my radio show as well as my work. I'm not going anywhere...

To those of you who have continued to criticise me, I simply want to say this... you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves. Because of your words, you are depriving people of a place to discuss television presentation, and robbing me of a site that I've been really proud to work on. Karma is a wonderful thing, and I just hope that one day you look back on what you've said about me and feel really bad about what you've done.

Thank you, and don't forget to switch off your sets...

[Josh]

I'm sorry to hear that Rob and whilst our time on this site has been short, it has been very sweet and you've done a great job trying to fill in the blue place's very big shoes. You've made a good decision and I think anyone else in your position would be doing the same, so well done for putting your mental health first.

So does this make us the pink place or the purple place? ;)

[JAS84]

Sigh. What a shame. But you're right, your health is what's important. Nobody wants you to be ill just because of a message board. 

Good luck to anyone who wants to try and set up a successor. I think there was a couple of others which planned to set up after TV Forum closed but ended up going nowhere.

[London Lite]

First of all, I've had to absorb the news that the forum is closing, but I really don't blame Rob at all. As he's figured out, it's a hard place to run and operate even if the vast majority of members are respectful and debate topics in a decent manner.

For the last 21 years over two forums, we've been able to discuss presentation in a manner you won't see on DS or anywhere else in a technical, but accessible manner and I think for some people, they've taken that for granted and expect everything on a plate.

It's been great to be part of a community where I can post a random cap of presentation and not feel weird about discussing it with fellow minded people and having broadcasting professionals being part of it makes TVLF the community it has been after taking over the mantle from TVF.

Rob, your contribution to our community is commendable and I thank you and the mods for letting us discuss a niche subject for as long as you have.

[Internationalman]

This really hurts.

 All of this quite hurts. As a guy who was in this so that I could foresee the graphic design and changing faces of television, it really hurts to see this forum go. But I do not blame Rob for this. Mental health is quite important, which makes it all the more important we need to say something about this. To those abusing Rob, let me just ask: You happy now? You must be so happy knowing that you suckers RUINED IT for all of us! And in the words of the John Oliver-voiced BBC America ad I always see before the beginning of Top Gear "... pause for a moment... to think about what you've done."

Goodbye Rob, and I hope you find a solution to your troubles soon. Thanks for everything.

[JamesWorldNews]

As an old tv commercial once said, “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”.

Best wishes always, Rob. And thanks for all you did for us.

[justhere991]

While this is sad I totally understand why you are doing this and I thank you so much for everything you've done across TV Live and the forum. You are clearly dedicated to and passionate about television (as most of us are) but clearly, this was not fully understood or appreciated by some.
You did the best you could here and that's all you could've hoped for.
Take care, Rob

[Gary Baldy]

Will this site stay as a read only archive like the old place?

[G12forTVLIVE]

Aw man, where are we gonna go now if this thing's finished?

[The TV-Fan On TV-Live]

I don't think I will ever see you guys again once TV Live Forum closes. A shame it will never have the long lifespan as TV Forum had, and I may miss you guys.

But if someone creates a replacement for TV Live Forum, when the latter does close, inform me.

[welnat06]

It’s a shame to hear, but a respectable decision give the circumstances. You certainly worked hard on this forum so for that I can only thank you. I hope things get better in the future.

[Larry the Loafer]

I had no idea people were attacking Rob, not least where from or why. Nevertheless, I wish you the best in your recovery and my sincere thanks for giving us weird TV folk another place to feel normal.

[Michael Power]

Rob, So sorry to hear that you keep getting abuse, you have done a great job with this site and it is appreciated that you’ve kept the torch going on with TVLF.


If need be, I can expand my Media-based forum (The Media Yarn) to include UK-TV topics, so if anyone is interested, please let me know.

[Lyric W.]

well, shoot.

Rob, thanks for providing all of this for as long as you did - i had a good time.

i hope to see as many of you as i can on the other side.

this may sound mean, but i hope we can get some more details in about Project Chameleon before closing time...

[Adam Till]

Sad to see this place go but you are right to put your health first. This place has been a successor to TV Forum. Thank you for all your hard work.