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There are some important changes taking place to the Today messageboard from November 16 2006.

We want to make the message boards more relevant to the Today audience. We want to involve listeners more in the programme and we believe the best way of doing that is through the message boards. In order to do this more effectively, we have decided to make some alterations to the boards.

We will be closing the five topics that currently exist on this board, and introducing two new ones in their place. These will be:

• Today’s Debate – a topic to discuss the major debates on that day’s Today Programme
• Coming Up… – a topic to discuss issues forthcoming on the programme that you can help us with by sharing your thoughts and opinions

Only messageboard hosts – a mix of producers and journalists - will start new threads inside the topics to help focus discussions around the subjects that we will be featuring on the programme. Each host will monitor their discussions, with the best possibly featuring on air.

On the homepage of the new messageboard there will be a suggestion form so members of the community can suggest future subjects for discussion to the hosts.

We believe these changes will allow the Today programme to better reflect the thoughts and opinions of its listeners, making it more relevant to its audience.

We believe these changes will allow the Today programme to better reflect the thoughts and opinions of its listeners, making it more relevant to its audience.

Quoted from this message

No you don't. You believe that it will enable you to control what people talk about and will also enable you to avoid talking about "sensitive" issues.

"Your thoughts, your views, your space"

What a joke.


AH

Please note: Your Postings are being pre-moderated and will only appear after they have been approved by a Moderator.

Just like the BBC, it has one of the most successful messageboards around and it wants to kill it.

I think the BBC have lost sight that they are here to serve the audience not for us to listen to them.

It would be better to keep the 3 most popular of the existing and substitute the 2 least popular (parliament and economy) with the 2 new fancy boards.

The idea of the new boards seems to copy that of the Guardian Comment is Free site where the journalists and invited writers only are allowed to start discussions.

But since the existing format on these boards is popular why can't you have both?

To scrap all the existing boards does seem an attempt to curb free speech and creativity.

I can see it now.

"How can people be forced to appreciate the benefits of multiculturalism?"

"George Bush. Evil dictator or sexual pervert?"

"Are YOU a victim of homophobia?"

"Diversity. Fantastic or amazing?"

"How can we unite to defeat the right?"

Etc etc.

We PAY for the BBC. We PAY for this service. We generally don't LIKE the political and ideological agendas of the BBC. So they shut the boards.

Only messageboard hosts – a mix of producers and journalists

Quoted from this message

They may have well said only labour party stooges will be telling us what to discuss.

Why don't they just go the whole hog and have the complete discussion themselves!

In some ways this is a welcome development. These boards have often been a mix of too many obsessive subjects ranging from anti-govt propaganda to Muslim-bashing. Time for a change folks

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:54:04 GMT, replying to Alice_mc in message 1

Only messageboard hosts – a mix of producers and journalists - will start new threads

Quoted from this message

Several major points spring immediately to mind:

1. We'll be needing some new Hosts. Hosts who will be engaged with the boards and those who post to them. So far -- several years -- we've only had Hosts who might as well have been hosting the Teletubbies board for all the interest they took in their Guests on Today.

2. The Today boards need to be open while the Today Programme is on the air. This is so obvious that I shouldn't have to say it.

3. The "moderation" system will have to be scrapped and redesigned. I could write a book about this, but don't have the time right now.

4. The primitive software infrastructure should be either drastically improved or, preferably, replaced by something befitting the 21st century. The way it is, it's way back in the early 1980s, to be kind.

5. Guests should be able to communicate offline with Hosts and other Guests. This, along with several other obvious and venerable industry-standard messageboard features, was promised a couple of years ago, by Jeremy (the Host). But nothing came of the promise, and it was never mentioned again by any Host.

Only Daryl will now be able to start new topics then ???

Quoted from this message

...along with EMCtoo, Ivan, and one or two other 'independents'!

I thought the message board hosts were "very busy" currently, one of the reasons it takes so long to go through moderation.

How are these extremely busy hosts going to come up with topics, moderate, and engage in the debate with other posters if they are too busy to moderate the few messages that are held up for 24 hours.

I want to discuss what i and others want to discuss, i do not wish to discuss topics brought up by producers and journalists who should be more concerned with getting their own jobs right.

Looks like November 16th will be the last time i post here.