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Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.
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Old 17-11-2016, 23:06   #1
RichardCoulter
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Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

A friend who works in publishing has told me that Hearst are making cutbacks.

Nothing has been ruled out, including cutting or closing down Digital Spy.

Some magazines will close too.

Some cuts have already been made, with new moderators no longer being paid etc.

It is thought that the rise of social networking sites & ad blocking are two of the main problems.

I don't know how much it costs to run a forum of that size, am I right in believing that it doesn't cost that much to host a forum, it's the bandwidth needed when people click on and retrieve threads that uses up bandwidth?

IIRC didn't Cable Forum take on the members of a forum that closed?

I can't give a link as this was told to me over the phone, so will understand if people wish to take this with a pinch of salt.

Edit: Now been posted/leaked on Twitter by Mark Sweeney (whoever he is, journalist??).

https://mobile.twitter.com/markswene...30735857156096

For balance, Digital Spy Forum Support have denied that Digital Spy will be affected and are said to have closed a thread about this because it was off topic.

It's certainly less busy than when James owned it and the lack of investment is showing eg the search facility has been broken for months and there are no plans to repair it.

Last edited by RichardCoulter; 17-11-2016 at 23:23. Reason: Extra info.
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Old 18-11-2016, 04:16   #2
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

I stopped using DS many years ago.

The forums I always found were not particularly welcoming, the moderation system was just bizarre (the staff were totally anonymous) and then the main site became overrun with adverts, inc pop-ups, and that drove me away for good.

My login still works, and the search seems to work for me.
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Old 18-11-2016, 06:52   #3
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

Personally l used it a couple of times and was not impressed so alas sadly one has to put up with me on CF for a good deal longer.
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Old 18-11-2016, 13:15   #4
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

I used to use DS a lot but since the recent site change I have not bothered. It became less news like and focussed on click bait and reality TV nonsense.
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Old 18-11-2016, 14:53   #5
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

I browse their forums everyday, almost never look at the main site though.
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Old 18-11-2016, 16:49   #6
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

I use the Forums mostly September to December, because I have family who want to know the result of Strictly Saturday night. Never use it outside of Saturday night in those months, and never between December and September.
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Old 18-11-2016, 16:50   #7
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkC1984 View Post
I use the Forums mostly September to December, because I have family who want to know the result of Strictly Saturday night. Never use it outside of Saturday night in those months, and never between December and September.
Ha ... someone from DS contacted my missus when they found out she was going to be in the Strictly audience and asked her to be their "mole" ... she declined to answer them.
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Old 18-11-2016, 17:29   #8
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

I visit Digital Spy quite regularly, but it's not what it was.

I was never a massive user of the forums, although I did enjoy my few visits there.

I did used to like the main site though. What persuaded me to join the forums was that I was looking at the main site, and it had a (then) excellent mix of tech news, cable news, TV news and movie news, provided by a team who seemed to know their stuff.

Lately, maybe it's because I'm getting older, but the forums have lost what atmosphere they had. I also used to enjoy a good argument in the comments section on the main site, which has been removed, sadly.

Regarding content, I feel they are concentrating too much on the reality TV now (it was always present, but was a lot less prevalent previously).

I think, in general, it's gone from an excellent tech site with a little gossip on the side to a largely gossip site with a little technical news on the side. Something which is in line with Hearst's magazines, but has probably lost Digital Spy a lot of members.
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Old 20-11-2016, 18:08   #9
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

Well, it looks like the main problem is that the adverts became so intrusive that most users installed an ad blocker out of necessity.

Something is putting people off as the site gets 17.30m visitors a month, but they only stay on average for 1 minute 41 seconds.

69% of visitors bounce straight back off again, of those that stay, they only read 2.22 pages before leaving.

Some members are thinking of setting up their own forum, but I think that they think it to be a lot easier than it will be.

I'm sure there's more to running a forum that getting some free hosting and appointing a few mods as they appear to think!

If it's true that bandwidth is eaten up by people retrieving threads, I think that they should focus on cutting costs by closing pointless/childish threads such as the count to a million thread!!!

Last edited by RichardCoulter; 20-11-2016 at 18:14.
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Old 20-11-2016, 18:10   #10
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

Then it will quite rightly close. What's the point of keeping it open? It doesn't appeal to users any more.
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Old 20-11-2016, 18:38   #11
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

It was very successful when James owned it.

I know that factors like the increased use of social networking sites have played a part, but it does seem to have been badly run since being sold.

By this I mean intrusive ads, click bait, a focus on showbiz/celebrity rubbish, bizarre and inconsistent moderating decisions eg someone was suspended for using the term "blacklegs" to describe a group of people breaking a strike. Apparently, this was 'racist' because one of them was of mixed race!!!
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Old 20-11-2016, 18:42   #12
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter View Post
It was very successful when James owned it.

I know that factors like the increased use of social networking sites have played a part, but it does seem to have been badly run since being sold.

By this I mean intrusive ads, click bait, a focus on showbiz/celebrity rubbish, bizarre and inconsistent moderating decisions eg someone was suspended for using the term "blacklegs" to describe a group of people breaking a strike. Apparently, this was 'racist' because one of them was of mixed race!!!
I thought people on D/S loved celebrity based rubbish,judging by how many people post on the X -Factor,CBB,i am a celebrity,and scrictly come dancing, The Apprenctice et al tosh threads.

Celebrity seems heaven made for Hearst and D/S.
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Old 20-11-2016, 18:44   #13
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter View Post
It was very successful when James owned it.

I know that factors like the increased use of social networking sites have played a part, but it does seem to have been badly run since being sold.

By this I mean intrusive ads, click bait, a focus on showbiz/celebrity rubbish, bizarre and inconsistent moderating decisions eg someone was suspended for using the term "blacklegs" to describe a group of people breaking a strike. Apparently, this was 'racist' because one of them was of mixed race!!!
James doesn't own it any more though. It's now a carp site. Let it go!
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Old 20-11-2016, 21:55   #14
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

I believe that it is a subject worthy of discussion if others wish to do so.
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Old 20-11-2016, 21:59   #15
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Re: Digital Spy may be closed or downsized.

We'll see.

My view is that since James sold it it's gone downhill and is not even worth a mention now.
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