The Archers

[DracoM]

Well, we've been here before.................

BBC have just announced the closing of The Archers suite of messageboards.
The pain and grief being expressed is considerable.
The Beeb seem determined to drive those who wish to interact with the prog to Facebook and Twitter. Given the endemic notoriety of both forms and the consequences for participants on both, I wonder what the BBC thinks it is doing. Apart from saving itself money.

[french frank]

Apart from saving itself money.

I wonder whether it does?

The amount of, e.g. R3, staff time spent on Facebook and Twitter compared with the amount of genuine listener participation seems disproportionate. In R3's case they are largely the station and participants advertising their wares.

Are they dismantling the whole MB system now?

[jean]

The Archers was all that was left, wasn't it?

I can't imagine why they allowed it to outlive the others for so long!

[DracoM]

Well, the messageboard certainly.
I assume blogs / PR material might survive? Need far less maintenance?
Unclear at the mo.

[Bryn]

... The Beeb seem determined to drive those who wish to interact with the prog to Facebook and Twitter. Given the endemic notoriety of both forms and the consequences for participants on both, I wonder what the BBC thinks it is doing. ...

One should expect the Big Brother Corporation to be all for spyware systems such as Facebook and Twitter.

[ahinton]

One should expect the Big Brother Corporation to be all for spyware systems such as Facebook and Twitter.

You men in the sense and the context of The Archers "droning" on and on (mainly in BBC Brummerset), peut-être?...

[gurnemanz]

I don't read it that often but, the Archers message board is certainly more interesting than the programme itself.

[french frank]

One should expect the Big Brother Corporation to be all for spyware systems such as Facebook and Twitter.

Don't forget the R3 blog - that was relaunched on 29 January and so far no one has commented after almost a fortnight (but then, people mostly don't comment on the blog). Again, it's mostly puffing the forthcoming programme treats - it's only incidentally for listeners' 'interactivity'.

[Flosshilde]

I wonder if the Archers' fan club will follow the lead of FoR3 & start their own forum? (If they don't have one already)

[ahinton]

I don't read it that often but, the Archers message board is certainly more interesting than the programme itself.

I don't read it at all, but that wouldn't be difficult, surely?...

[french frank]

I don't read it at all, but that wouldn't be difficult, surely?...

It is one of the longest running programmes, with more listeners per week than the whole of Radio 3 gets - so it must have something. (In fact, it probably has more per day that R3 gets in a week...)

[Anna]

When the BBC were closing the other MBs, including the R3 one, I recall that some of the Archerites did set up an alternative one, just in case.
This is the message from the Archers website: The Archers is extremely popular on digital platforms. More than 120,000 users regularly visit the website every week, the podcast is three times more popular now than it was in 2008 with downloads in the millions - and more and more listeners are talking about the programme on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Amid that growth, 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.

The comment on the MB about this which I liked was: "First the Pope - and now this!"

[ahinton]

It is one of the longest running programmes, with more listeners per week than the whole of Radio 3 gets - so it must have something. (In fact, it probably has more per day that R3 gets in a week...)

The X Factor probably gets more than The Archers and the whole of Radio 3 put together, but that doesn't necessarily of itself make it interesting, does it?(!)...

[ahinton]

The comment on the MB about this which I liked was: "First the Pope - and now this!"

Indeed - and, in the light of the earlier post about the interest content, one might well question which has the more - a Papal Encyclical or someone having a baby by AI while falling off a roof?...

[french frank]

The X Factor probably gets more than The Archers and the whole of Radio 3 put together, but that doesn't necessarily of itself make it interesting, does it?(!)...

It means it's interesting enough to many people that they switch on and watch it (but it's not really valid to compare the ratings for a television prog with those of a radio one - as you know, of course ).

But, in any case, the Bull MB - the most popular of TA boards (?) - has as much to do with The Archers as Platform 3 has with Radio 3.