We are today announcing the closure of the Channel 4 forums. We’ve been running for the forums for a long time and they have been hugely popular, notwithstanding some grumbles about the moderation! However, we have recently made a significant investment in channel4.com to allow much more viewer interaction across the whole site – many of the pages already allow comments and we are planning to develop this further in the future. We have also invested in several community oriented websites, such as Sexperience (in support of the Sex Education Show), Embarrassing Bodies and E4.com, and blogs such as this one. This investment has co-incided with one of the most difficult economic periods in broadcast history and we are having to take some very difficult decisions, on top of the significant reduction in staff across Channel 4 that took place at the end of last year.
While our forums continue to be popular, the usage has declined over recent years while the costs of moderation are significant, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds. We have therefore taken the painful decision to close them at the end of the month. What’s been clear since I’ve been involved with the forums is that many of our users have used the space not only to discuss programmes, but to chat with new friends and to create some very close communities around some of our bigger shows. Although this won’t be possible on our forums any longer, I hope forum users will find many other places online to engage in discussion. Our community manager, posting today, has changed the forum policy to allow users to post links to other communities – enabling the conversations, the debates and the friendships to continue elsewhere. And Big Brother fans need not worry, I’m told there will be a new home for you this summer and that more details will available at channel4.com nearer the time.
As viewer’s editor I am, of course, always committed to hearing from viewers and making sure that any feedback is heard and acted upon within the channel. It’s encouraging to see people beginning to use comments across the site, and we have received hundreds of comments on the TV Show blog since we launched the new site last year. I very much hope that our forum users will continue to tell us what they think about our programmes via channel4.com, and also through the various other online spaces available. I can promise you that any conversations about our programmes on other sites will not go un-noticed – I already join Channel 4-related conversations on places like Digital Spy when I think I can add something useful to these debates.
There is never an easy way to announce a closure of this sort, but I hope that the explanation is clear, and I have no doubt that you will let me know below if it isn’t!
Paula
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I am disgusted the Big Brother feed and the forums have been axed!
Channel 4 as gone to the dogs and I really hope BB10 fails; C4 deserve it to fail after treating the fans so badly. You cannot just dump people then pick them up two months later?
People who wanted the feed, all the die hard fans, offered to pay for their feed online once more but you ignored them! You simply cannot treat fans this way or you WILL lose them, and already have lost a lot.
A program which has done so well for your channel for ten years now is being treated awfully along with it’s fans. Your bosses should hang their heads in shame and seriously consider trying to make amends somehow (perhaps an online subscription live feed you pay, say £10, for the summer?)
Hi Paula – we were sad to hear about the communities closing down. If it’s not too forward of me, can I also suggest the Unreality TV forum as a great place for your community members to consider joining?
We chat about a lot of the same topics, obviously and I know our members would be very welcoming to anyone from the C4 forums who decided to join up.
Best of luck with the new Channel 4 website and we’re all poised and waiting for the new BB to get started!
Would Lime Pictures consider bringing back their highly successful Hollyoaks Forum which sadly closed when it moved to Channel 4 Forums?
Wishing many returns, thanks you C4 – will being backs.
Nets
Such a shame about the forums. They will be really missed
xxx
Disgraceful
This site looks promising:
http://gagajoyjoy.com/eve
Although http://gagajoyjoy.com/eve isn’t an official replacement froum, quite a lot of C4 forumers have joined this new forum. You will find it similar, but with improvements.
The http://gagajoyjoy.com/eve forum is produced by the people who made the software behind the channel 4 forums.
It adds to what channel 4 provided us with.
The Big Brother Community has moved to http://gagajoyjoy.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/620102461 . It was devastating when it was announced that the forum was closing because it had become so much more…but it has been rebuilt
“moderation costs… running into hundreds of thousands of pounds”? wow congratulations C4, you know how to throw money away considering i know many substantially larger forums that are moderated at a total cost of nil by volunteers.
That was nice. Thank you for sharing this one.
New home for BB:
http://gagajoyjoy.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/620102461
I was surprised to find that there is no forum for the Paul o grady show as a big fan i love logging on to have a chat with other viewers. Is there anything now where we can have a gossip and give veiws on the show??????
I am gutted you have dropped the forums, for me at least ,half the fun of Big Brother was going onto the forums to see what everyone else thought of the contestants. So well done.. BB has just lost its appeal
I for one will miss the Big brother forums, however I found that going into the Deal or no deal forum was like going into a village where townies were not welcome. A forum is a place to express opinion good or bad on a programme. But the DOND Forum was more like an apperitiation socitiy then a discussion board, and any negative comments that were posted about the programme were disregarded by this do-gooder community. So for the likes of johnbristol, linda44 and the rest ha ha ha
I cannot believe this will work!
yeh right.. great post, Thank You
This site rocks!
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