Farewell...

[Ash101]

If we do go down the traditional forum route, I'm wondering if it be better having a small group of people come together to run the new forum instead of having one person bear all the responsibility?

I do agree with this, it would be good to set something up under a small committee. Maybe for the technical side & for the admin side of it. I know someone this morning mentioned they'd be happy to contribute to the finance side of things.

Could people remain anonymous too? That may help if a new forum become the target of similar sorts of abuse.

I've never used Reddit but that maybe sounds like a good option too? I know someone said they'd even nabbed the '/tvforum' section/room/site/whatever it's called.

[Liam]

About 2 years ago I started a sub Reddit called UKTVPres that I’ve never used… I think Reddit would be a good route to go down? Especially if someone’s already got the other name! And will mean it can be continuously handed down through modding and no formatting the websites. But will lose the subject continuous threads? But you can add flairs… I think it’s best we move away from one person who runs, owns and mods the forum

I’m sorry you’ve had such a tough time Rob

[telebox2001]

Rob, to be honest with you; you could just leave the forum in the hands of the mods.

It's sad that this forum's closing so soon.

To be fair to Rob, it's somewhat more nuanced than that, and he's set his stall out already.

[Inspector Sands]

If we do go down the traditional forum route, I'm wondering if it be better having a small group of people come together to run the new forum instead of having one person bear all the responsibility?

I do agree with this, it would be good to set something up under a small committee. Maybe for the technical side & for the admin side of it. I know someone this morning mentioned they'd be happy to contribute to the finance side of things.

Could people remain anonymous too? That may help if a new forum become the target of similar sorts of abuse.

I've never used Reddit but that maybe sounds like a good option too? I know someone said they'd even nabbed the '/tvforum' section/room/site/whatever it's called.

Yes there seems to be a r/tvforum subreddit already, registered a year ago by a user called wonkey_donkey: https://www.reddit.com/r/tvforum/

I think Reddit would be a good way to go, and the other advantage is that the site already has plenty of outlets for political views and a lot of subreddits successfully ban all political posts. There are plenty of moderation tools

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Rob, I'm so sorry you feel the need to do this, because of the awful behaviour of some people who use your wonderful site. No one should have to put up with that.
I was with many others on TV Forum for years until it closed - coincidently on the same day I left the industry - so I enjoyed your venture into the same topic of TV.
I'll miss the wide ranging questions (and answers) and of course the contribitors, so all that remains is stay healthy and safe all.
All the very best, and thanks once again Rob.

[Neil Jones]

Reddit's actually not that bad an idea. Within each subreddits the threads and posts are structured similarly, but the way that threads are displayed and are ordered is a bit different. I don't think you'd get long term threads such as Breakdown Appreciation etc. as they don't rise to the top when someone posts in it, the ordering is 'New, Best, Hot, controversial'. That's not a problem really it's just a new way of working to get used to

It would save a lot of work as all the hard work is done

Reddit's only slightly less toxic than Twitter (it is after all just Twitter on steroids) but with the concept of downvoting and its never appealed.
If you get into the right subreddits you can find some decent communities on there but I would question whether Reddit as a whole fits our style of discussion.

To be honest the whole of social media is varying degrees of toxicity; that's what happens when Joe Public can write any old crap on it and the only "punishment" is to get your account suspended/stopped. In an ideal world the whole lot would just cave in and destroy itself with its own toxicity and maybe something good could come out of that like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

[Torpido]

Please if possible please links to all the possible new and existing other forums on the title screen thanks as it will be very helpful thanks in advance

[Inspector Sands]

Reddit's only slightly less toxic than Twitter (it is after all just Twitter on steroids) but with the concept of downvoting and its never appealed.
If you get into the right subreddits you can find some decent communities on there but I would question whether Reddit as a whole fits our style of discussion.

It's only as toxic as the subreddits you subscribe to, if you sign up and only want to see subreddits about a certain subject then that's all you get.

It's different to Twitter as you follow subjects not people. So if you're only following subreddits about, for example, football you only get posts from the groups about football. What you you don't is get other content appearing in your feed that your friends have interacted with 

As I say there are some very well restricted and moderated subreddits out there, I've had posts rejected for having square rather than round brackets, or for posting articles from certain sites

[Larry the Loafer]

I'll probably feel bad about asking this tomorrow morning, but my inner sense of "you wouldn't let it lie" is getting the better of me. Whilst I understand nobody wants to "stoop" and name and shame the people who have hurt Rob, isn't there a sense of injustice here, where these assholes got what they wanted, reduced poor Rob to giving up on TVLF, and they sit smugly proud of their actions without anyone calling them out for it?

I know it's been said that the pricks will hopefully feel bad about what they have done but... Really? If they had a mindset capable of that, they wouldn't have done this in the first place. If someone in school gets bullied to the point where it has a detrimental effect on them, nobody sits silently and let's the bully off with it.

I'm not calling for a lynch mob here, but the thought of these cunts (just seeing if it's still uncensored) riding on the benefit of not being named and shamed is doing my head in.

[iloveTV1]

Very sorry to hear that the forum is closing, however Rob has done so much for the community by providing a space for us to all come to and largely continue our discussions so smoothy, and therefore I completely respect his decision and wish him all the best with his recovery.

In terms of the community, I just hope that we can find somewhere where the majority of us can move to.

Other than that, if unfortunately we can’t find that place, then I wish every member of the community the very best for the future, and hope to interact with you somewhere else across the net.

[James2001]

There's no way any of them will feel bad about it, unfortunately. If anything, they'll be smugly feeling that they've "won".

Even without being able to name them though, I'm sure the vast majority of people on here are fully aware of who the main culprit is anyway.

Sadly the way these people are, I can see it continuing over to any successor forum, regardless of whether they're banned from the outset or not, they're as likely to lash out from not being allowed on the forum from the start as they did over getting banned from here and TVF. I can't help but think it's going to be very hard to get a successor forum going in the long term as these handful of people are such a stain on our community.

[CATV]

Well..... I am f***ing pissed off.

When I joined TV Forum and later TV Live Forum is because I wanted to be in a place with people like me. People who get excited over tv press and new graphics and branding. Yes my family and friends tried to understand and be enthusiastic but they never got it like I did. Discovering a place where there is people like me made me feel like I wasn't alone, I wasn't mad or silly. I just had a niche interest and that's ok because there is a community of press lovers like me. But what has sadden me is how events of the last 2 years or so have turned out. Not just here but at the blue place to. I don't give a s**t about your politics, I don't give a s**t if the forum is not looking like you wanted, I don't give a s**t if you think the licence fee should be scrapped, I don't give a s**t if you think there should be a radio section, I don't give a f**k if you hate GB News. What I care about is what TV Forum and TV Live Forum was set up for in the first place, TV PRESENTATION!!! What has become of some of you. This is petty behaviour. I have three year olds in my family that behaves better than some of the people on this forum. WHERE IS YOUR F***ING RESPECT! It f***ing pisses me off because we've now lost a community, A place where we were with people who are just like us. We had so much to be excited by; The BBC finishing it's rebrand, Launch of ITVX and maybe a new look for ITV channels, new look GB NEWS, new look BBC News just to name a few. And now we don't have a place for all of us to join in and talk about this stuff. So far I have counted four new forums. There is no way we will all keep an eye on them and no way they can keep up and keep going on so few members. The single place where the community of press loves talk is now come to an end. What and sad and pathetic end to this era. Such a shame, Such a waste!

Thanks you to those who have made here and TV Forum a great place. It was a great while it lasted.

Bye all.

[Orry Verducci]

Reddit's only slightly less toxic than Twitter (it is after all just Twitter on steroids) but with the concept of downvoting and its never appealed.
If you get into the right subreddits you can find some decent communities on there but I would question whether Reddit as a whole fits our style of discussion.

It's only as toxic as the subreddits you subscribe to, if you sign up and only want to see subreddits about a certain subject then that's all you get.

It's different to Twitter as you follow subjects not people. So if you're only following subreddits about, for example, football you only get posts from the groups about football. What you you don't is get other content appearing in your feed that your friends have interacted with 

As I say there are some very well restricted and moderated subreddits out there, I've had posts rejected for having square rather than round brackets, or for posting articles from certain sites

I second Inspector's comments. Yes there's some toxic subreddits, but there's also many excellent ones, and generally speaking I find the ones focused on more specialist subjects (like ours) to be quite good. It all comes down to rules of that subreddit and how well its run by its mods.

If we did go down that route, as much as I like the idea of using r/tvforum as a homage to the blue site, I worry that the general populus will think it's a place to talk about last nights episode of whatever reality show the networks are airing. Something like r/uktvpres makes it much clearer what it's about.

[Scrotnig]

Reddit doesn’t do it for me I’m afraid, I won’t be joining in anything there.

[Rob]

Although I can understand the level of frustration about the situation we find ourselves, could I please politely ask members to calm down a bit and tone down the language a little bit?

Yes, it's not the best of situations at the moment, but I wouldn't want the forum to end on a sour note. Let's try and keep things positive please.

Thanks.