I knew about it before, but I later read an article in the NY Times weekly magazine about how it is frequented by TV execs who use it basically like an ongoing focus group to get feedback on their shows, and actually make changes to their shows based on what they read.
Do you frequent the site?
Any tricks or tips? For any given episode for a popular show (e.g., Buffy, Alias or 24 - which are the shows I would be most likely to post to) the number of posts are SO numerous (we’re talking well over 20 pages of posts for a single ep) that I don’t have the time to read them, so I would feel like a ninny posting, not knowing what was already covered…do you just have to be that hardcore, are basically not care whether you are stepping into the middle of a post?
I have no clue about that - I just read the article in the NY Times Weekly Magazine that was only about how big a deal the TWoP boards were to some studio execs and show producers and actors…They cited Aaron Sorkin posting to the board re: the West Wing, I think and maybe one or two others, too…
I wouldn’t go there on a salary. I used to like the recaps on TWoP but on the rare occasions I venture over there now, it just creeps me out. It’s like a microcosm of everything I despise about TV and fandom.
I usually lurk for a while on a large message board. If I have time, I’ll read several days or weeks back (sometimes the entire history if it’s not that long) before posting.
I used to love the TWOP reviews. They take almost as long to read and digest as it does to simply watch the show, but I guess that’s a wonderful thing if you’ve missed an episode. Still fun even if you’ve already seen the ep, as they pick up on little details you may have missed.
I don’t like how they throw about new acronyms or nicknames without a link to the explanation. It takes far too long to figure out strange references like “MDPD”, especially if the review is constantly referring to “MDPD” and you have no idea who this person is. (However, I did enjoy the clever use of “Arissulan” in the Real World reviews.)
I can take the snarky attitude or leave it. Sometimes the writers will spend copious amounts of text detailing how they are lounging about with a cabana boy while watching the show. Perhaps I am not “hip” enough to “get” what that has to do with anything.
If I were a TV exec and I wanted to have some fun surfing the boards, I’d certainly justify it as “research”
there’s no way to increase the number of posts per page and it gets tiresome clicking through 15 pages per thread,
I found out that threads get deleted or pruned of the earlier posts, sometimes after only a few days!! I gave up in disgust when the thread on that San Diego trial series (I’m blanking on the name) lost dozens of really interesting posts. (That thread seems no longer to exist; what a surprise.) From my time at the SDMB, I have come to think of deleting threads as something akin to sacrilege, to be done only in dire emergencies.
I love Fametracker, which is a site by the same people. It’s very snarky andfun. I don’t watch much prime-time type TV, so TWoP isn’t of much interest to me.
The following criticisms apply equally well to Fametracker, though:
I lurk there when I want to hear what others think about a show, especially if I can’t drum up discussion on the SDMB! An example was Push, Nevada. I couldn’t seem to get anyone to discuss it here, so I bopped over there to read what others had posted.
I remember it when it was Mighty Big TV–it seemed smaller and more intimate then. Now, it’s just so darn big–I remember thousands of posts in each thread when American Idol was on this summer, and I just don’t want to wade through those.
Also, because it’s so big, it takes a while to load and sometimes you get thrown back to the main page. Not the most fun thing in the world.
But I like the Amazing Race threads! Sometimes the racers will even come in and talk to you, so it’s come a long way from its Hissyfit/MBTV/Fametracker roots.
I just discovered that site and am gorging myself on the Smallville recaps. They’re freaking hilarious – I’ve cried from laughter while reading a number of them. The messageboard is pretty good too – it seems to be populated with literate adults with good senses of humor and who appreciate the high levels of cheese that run through the show. Plus, they refer to Lionel Luthor as the Magnificent Bastard! I love that! I just lurk, though.
I’ve read some of the recaps for other shows (CSI, Law & Order, etc.), and what I’ve seen is uniformly entertaining and intelligent. Legomancer: there was a discussion on the Smallville board that complained about the producers of the show making decisions that demonstrated how out of touch with their audience they are (e.g., killing off a character that they thought no one liked – this was revealed in an interview – but who actually was liked, and quite a bit, at that). One of the producers has admitted to reading the TWoP recaps, too. Granted, Smallville is hardly a visionary work of art like Twin Peaks or Homicide…
But you assume that “audience” = “fans” = “vocal fans on message boards”. My experience with the latter group is that they aren’t concerned with the well-being of the show so much as maintaining their own little pet priorities. That is, if they all like the character of “Joe”, their interest is maximum screen time for Joe and more emphasis on Joe, regardless of whether or not the plot warrants it.
In fact, other experience with this group indicates that they prefer for the show to not get too ‘popular’ and ‘mainstream’ because then it may be corrupted by those who don’t “get it”.
Both of these groups are the types that you would find on such a message board, and yet both of them, I would argue, do not necessarily have the show’s best interest at heart, but instead wish to only pursue their own agenda. In thier defense, they may believe in their hearts that they are looking out for what’s best, but really they just want to see more Joe.
In addition, I have seen online communites devoted to a show in which it was pretty much enforced that you constantly loved everything the show did, or else your input wasn’t welcome. I know this certainly isn’t the case with the TWoP shows, but it was in the case of a certain show I won’t name at the moment. In such an environment, where the outspoken (i.e., positive) members are rewarded with little nods to them on the show, are you really getting unbiased feedback?
I just think, having spent a lot of time in the fan community, that the uberfans are the worst people to go to when deciding what to do with a show. I’m in the process of writing a long schpiel about it, and when I get my thoughts put together a little better, I will solicit feedback on this site.
I find that TWoP is not as funny or as smart as it thinks it is (in fact, more often than not, it isn’t funny at all). And given that, far too nasty.
Barbed, pointed, harsh but funny comments - great. Barbed, pointed, harsh, but clever coments, also wonderful. Everything I’ve seen on TWoP is just a bunch of people being nasty and priding themselves on how mean they can be. Not worth staying at.
I hate how some people take up an entire post to just say
“Bwah” or
“You owe me a new keyboard”
There’s at least one variation on every page and they are so lame. Plus, they talk to each other on the board when they can just IM each other and let people talk about the shows.
Sometimes I lurk at TWoP, but I prefer Fametracker. I don’t have the time or the inclination to read the specific show boards at TWoP; they’re too big with too few posts a page. Old posts get deleted because the forums just take too long to load and they don’t have enough server space or something.
I used to spend more time there when this board was slow, just to have something else to read while at work. IMO, since the NY Times article came out, the tone of the recaps and the attitude of the moderators and those who run it has become on the whole more smug, cocky, and hypercritical. Apart from some people who have a gift for sarcasm, wit, and intelligent, entertaining analysis (primarily the guy who does a lot of recaps of Six Feet Under and The Sopranos), it’s sort of a lurking diversion for me.
Legomancer, I’d be quite interested in reading that schpiel when you finish it, since it corresponds to some things I’ve been thinking about recently myself. I tend to agree with you that there’s a tendency (not just at TWoP, but a lot of places) to assume that the subset of fans who post regularly on message boards is representative of the audience as a whole, although there is limited evidence of this.
Of course, the principle of consulting audience opinion really isn’t new. Movie studios have been giving “sneak previews” for decades, and often re-edit or even reshoot scenes based on the reaction of the preview audience. But it seems to me that something a little different is happening when you consider the “fan community,” if you want to use that term.
It strikes me that there’s a tendency among some fans to develop a feeling of “ownership” about their favorite shows. “It’s our show, those are our characters.” And especially, “The show owes its success to us, the fans.” From there, it’s probably only a short step to feeling like you should have some say in what happens on the show. I don’t mean to stereotype anybody (I’ve been known to post to a Buffy thread myself), but that’s the impression I get from some elements of the online fan community.
As for TWoP (to get back to the topic), I’ve lurked there since it was Mighty Big TV, and read the message boards, but never posted. It feels a bit over-moderated to me (although that’s partly because they have bandwith issues), and I agree the tone has gotten a lot more biting lately.
