Open Thread

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This is where you can discuss any BBC-related issue that concerns you. Please use it sensibly, no abuse and no trolls! And it’s rant free.

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18 Responses to Open Thread

  1. robert says:
    May 13, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    Any chance of an update on the possible return to the haloscan comments system? You remember, when commenting was quick, easy and made for a snappy, fast-moving site that was updated several times per minute?
    It seems that comments are slowing down and drying up – lots of the old, incisive commenters have also disappeared…

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  2. GCooper says:
    May 13, 2009 at 8:25 pm

    I don’t understand the phobia about this comments system. It certainly doesn’t seem to intimidate commenters at Guido’s site!

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  3. David Vance says:
    May 13, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    robert,

    It is being worked on and hopefully will appear soon.

    GCooper,

    I agree. People get used to things though and it is the comments that seems to have caused most alarm so it will be reversed. That said, haloscan has a few bells and whistles that help me so I will be content. That said, if anybody complains AFTER haloscan returns about haloscan…I’m be round to have a word in their shell-like!!

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  4. pitcard says:
    May 13, 2009 at 9:10 pm

    am i wrong , or do i sense a mood of revolution in the air?

    just going by what i’ve seen in comments, threads, chat channels today.

    overwhelming view is – anyone BUT Lib Lab Con..

    then the cream on top of this – some unknown BBC News 24 teleprompt reader … 92 THOUSAND per year..

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8045414.stm

    Lord Foulkes clashed with Carrie Gracie on the BBC News Channel after she asked if MPs who had abused their expenses should pay the money back.

    He accused the media of ignoring the good work MPs did and demanded to know how much she was paid.

    Told it was £92,000 a year, he said she was being paid “nearly twice as much an MP – to come on and talk nonsense”.

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  5. pitcard says:
    May 13, 2009 at 9:12 pm

    GCooper: have you actually tried Guido’s comment system?

    no stupid captcha word for starters.

    haloscan did the job. robert is 100 per cent right – very suitable for quick fire comments in response to something you are watching on TV.

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  6. Francis says:
    May 13, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    Saw a trailer for newsnight a few minutes ago where apart from covering some evil dumping of toxic waste by europeans in Africa something was mentioned about an immigrant song competititon. I was intrigued as I had no idea what this could be so looked on the internet.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1180693/Newsnight-accused-dumbing-talent-contest-immigrants.html

    Silly, dumbing down, pc and anti-british all in one. I’m normally sceptical about suggestions of the BBC going too far on a given issue and its true colours being evident (it took me a long time to realise) but this time maybe so.

    Apologies if someone has already mentioned this.

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  7. Francis says:
    May 13, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    I’m not very opinionated on the web site design (apart from missing the pink slightly which had grown on me) but not being able to do links that could just be clicked on was handy.

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  8. Francis says:
    May 13, 2009 at 9:43 pm

    That “not” shouldn’t have been there.
    Also if you mess your grammar up and want to quickly correct something its a pain having to re-type your name and do the word confrimation I am discovering.

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  9. piggy kosher says:
    May 13, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    On the Beeboid entertainment page
    “Malta returns to Eurovision Final”
    Inter alia, the piece continues
    “Israel, who went through to the final with their peace song performed by Jewish and Arab duo Noa and Mira Awad, drew second position in saturdays’ main show”
    It concludes somberly (cue Al Bowen voice -over) “No song has won the contest from that starting position”
    Expect lurid reports of the use of white phospherous in the green room by the Israeli entrants on sundays entertainments page.

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  10. JohnA says:
    May 13, 2009 at 10:16 pm

    What distorted sense of news values makes the BBC put Obama’s decision on Abu Ghraib-type photos as TOP news item on Radio 4 ?And its second-top story on the website ? – above the Bank of England gloom on the economy, the Speaker facing a no-confidence motion, etc

    BBC’s Bush Derangement Syndrome, maybe ?

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  11. GCooper says:
    May 13, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    pitcard wonders: “GCooper: have you actually tried Guido’s comment system? “

    I have. Along with something like 800 or more commenters on just about every single thread a couple of weeks ago.

    None of us seemed to suffer any ill after effects.

    I don’t like Blogger’s system but I hate haloscan’s regular inability to stay upright.

    Mr Vance – fair enough. But I retain the right to kvetch and moan the next time haloscan starts eating comments.

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  12. Roger C says:
    May 14, 2009 at 5:49 am

    Does anyone else note the distinct lack of info from the BBC when talking about labour minsters with their snouts in the trough? The tody programe at 7.30 this morning had the whole comment about Elliot Morley & his dishonist 16 grand without once mentioning that he is labour.

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  13. North Northwester says:
    May 14, 2009 at 6:24 am

    Has anyone read what the BBC website has done to dishonour and smear the brave Allied airmen who risked their lives to lift the Berlin Blockade by Stalin?

    Pure evil, West-hating genius by the BBC: a masterpiece of innuendo and half-lies.

    http://theyrejokingarentthey.blogspot.com/2009/05/goebbels-goering-victorious-at-last.html

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  14. Craig says:
    May 14, 2009 at 6:27 am

    Looking at this morning’s running order for the Today programme, I note this little pearl coming up at 8.44:

    “Russian authorities have refused to give permission to the country’s first Gay Pride march. Moscow correspondent Richard Galpin reports on the history of discrimination from right-wing and religious groups.”

    No discrimination then by the left-wing, anti-religious Soviet regime then?

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  15. jeffD says:
    May 14, 2009 at 7:05 am

    Headline on the bbc news website this morning…….

    ‘MP admits mortgage expense error’

    ‘Ex-minister Elliot Morley says he has repaid some of the £16,000 expenses he mistakenly claimed for a mortgage that did not exist.’

    Can you imagine a Tory getting the same easy run?

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  16. The Count of Monte Cristo in a Bubble Car says:
    May 14, 2009 at 7:15 am

    LATEST:
    The US national who swam across a late [sic] to Suu Kyi’s house is charged, reports say
    • Stop
    • Previous item
    • Next item

    I’ve just copied and pasted the above from the ticker tape running across the BBC’s website. Childish and ungenerous of me, I know; but “swimming across a late [sic]”! Do they mean he wasn’t on time?

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  17. Peter says:
    May 14, 2009 at 7:56 am

    Francis 10.37pmWell they could hardly have imagined they were going to be lauded for elevating the gravitas of one of the few political news programmes… or the cause of integration much, really. Could they?

    ps: As one who never had much problem with the old Haloscan bar a few crashes I have to say any return is welcome to me. Beyond the greater number of insightful comments, I really miss the hyperlinked supports to see a fact borne out in an instant.

    And while there are a few who seem unable or unwilling to get beyond ‘Anon’ who are genuine, it’s hard to reconcile sensibly, no abuse and no trolls! And it’s rant free with most posts out up and allowed to remain under that handle.

    Frankly two liners with ‘You lot…’ and ‘don’t see anything here’ and nothing else add little of value.

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  18. Frank P says:
    May 14, 2009 at 10:52 am

    See: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Two-Peers-To-Be-Suspended-For-Cash-For-Influence-Case-Say-Sky-News-Sources/Article/200905215281731

    Apparently if you are a Lord of the Realm and get caught in the throes of official corruption, then a little holiday from attendance is in order before continuing with the same old scams. No embarrassing court appearances; no prison involved, just don’t turn up for ‘work’ for a year, M’Luds.

    I’m wondering just how far this will have to go before the non-parliamentary subjects of this country take to the streets and bedeck the lamp posts of Whitehall and near environs with the rotting corpses of “Honourable Members” of both the Lower and Upper Houses. Or are we all perhaps now reduced to such a bleating, ovine state that make an uprising is impossible?

    I note also that your spell-checker (great idea btw) objects to ‘ovine’ – why? It’s in my Universal English Dictionary compiled by Henry Cecil Wyld. Perhaps he was Welsh?

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