Points Of View on bbc.co.uk
Today we launched a new version of the BBC's Points Of View message board.
The BBC is in the process of migrating the heavily over-subscribed message boards on bbc.co.uk from our old bespoke howerd2 software to a new bespoke solution - the DNA platform the BBC acquired with the purchase of the h2g2 site back in 2001. Points of View is a pilot of the migration process, along with the boards for Radio 1Xtra and 6Music.
I was impressed with the speed with which the team on Points Of View have turned around the design, coding and training on this work. I'm now looking forward to watching how the samll but vocal community from the old boards adjust to their new surroundings. It is quite a testing community site as it has a very high rate of first-time posters who have been moved to comment or complain by what they have seen or heard, a hard-core of friendly locals, and an even harder-core of anti-BBC campaigners activists and agitators. It should be fun, and will hopefully go on to provide a comfortable place for the audience to initiate much more of a two-way dialogue with the BBC than they have at present.
Ee lad, Howerd2 giving you gyp? I remember when that were state-of-the-art like. We did NetAid on Howerd1 - now that's what I call excruciating...
Round here it were all fields I tell you!
Oh and I agree with Tom - Howerd 1 was pure evil. I had to do some work with it once. Urgh.
Nothing wrong with DNA. However, it does suffer from the typical problem of being released before it's ready - ie testing doesn't appear to be a responsibility that anyone 'owns' and so never gets done properly and then everyone clears off to the next project and ignores all the bugs that need fixing.
I'm feeling very bitter about the development of DNA, but hey, it won't be my problem anymore in two weeks time.
Points of View is very pretty, but they've still left the subscribe button off.
I've come out the other end of the messageboard experience now, and just break out in a cold sweat and a feeling of nausea anytime someone mentions a way in which the public can interact. :-)
I was wondering if I could make a Bookmarklet to make up for the lack of a subscribe button. I suspect it's doable but I haven't yet been bothered to do it! Okay, I have the option of throwing a flan, but it's not quite the same.
An option to see what time a post was made, not that it was made 22minutes ago would be even nicer than the flan.
Hey, where did my very first comment go? (confused)
To subscribe to the different boards, use the following links:
Radio: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbpointsofview/FSB1951568?cmd=subscribeforum
TV: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbpointsofview/FSB1951566?cmd=subscribeforum
Digital: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbpointsofview/FSB1951572?cmd=subscribeforum
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbpointsofview/FSB1951574?cmd=subscribeforum
To subscribe to a thread, use:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/FSB0?thread=XX&cmd=subscribethread (where XX = id of the thread).
To read the conversations you've subscribed to, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbpointsofview/MPXX (where XX is your userid number).
Thanks Frankie - I believe these are a classic example of "undocumented features" ;-)
Sorry Andrew, I accidentally deleted your first comment when I was removing about 300-or-so spam comments from the site
Thanks Frankie - I don't bother subscribing to the different sections - I just bookmark the relavent page and open them all up in tabs in Firefox. But I'll certainly be using subscribethread. I try to be more of a reader than a poster (and usually fail!)
Martin - I'll let you off :)
[wanders off to lovingly stroke and reassure Howerd 2]
I tried manipulating the URL and it wouldn't work. I'll try Frankie's.
The members are already asking for this facility, what idiot left it off?
Mina - I couldn't get it to work either :o( Boo!
well "some idiot" not too far from here signed it off as finished and was happy for it to go live, quirks'n'all....
Oh. Oops. ;-) I'd forgotten that! Sorry... but the developers should have known better.
Frankie's version just worked for me - although I changed Collective to the POV link.
No it didn't work. :(