[DigitalSid]

The end of C4 forums

We are today announcing the closure of the Channel 4 forums. We’ve been running for the forums for a long time and they have been hugely popular, notwithstanding some grumbles about the moderation! However, we have recently made a significant investment in channel4.com to allow much more viewer interaction across the whole site – many of the pages already allow comments and we are planning to develop this further in the future. We have also invested in several community oriented websites, such as Sexperience (in support of the Sex Education Show), Embarrassing Bodies and E4.com, and blogs such as this one. This investment has co-incided with one of the most difficult economic periods in broadcast history and we are having to take some very difficult decisions, on top of the significant reduction in staff across Channel 4 that took place at the end of last year. While our forums continue to be popular, the usage has declined over recent years while the costs of moderation are significant, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds. We have therefore taken the painful decision to close them at the end of the month. What’s been clear since I’ve been involved with the forums is that many of our users have used the space not only to discuss programmes, but to chat with new friends and to create some very close communities around some of our bigger shows. Although this won’t be possible on our forums any longer, I hope forum users will find many other places online to engage in discussion. Our community manager, posting today, has changed the forum policy to allow users to post links to other communities – enabling the conversations, the debates and the friendships to continue elsewhere. And Big Brother fans need not worry, I’m told there will be a new home for you this summer and that more details will available at channel4.com nearer the time. As viewer’s editor I am, of course, always committed to hearing from viewers and making sure that any feedback is heard and acted upon within the channel. It’s encouraging to see people beginning to use comments across the site, and we have received hundreds of comments on the TV Show blog since we launched the new site last year. I very much hope that our forum users will continue to tell us what they think about our programmes via channel4.com, and also through the various other online spaces available. I can promise you that any conversations about our programmes on other sites will not go un-noticed - I already join Channel 4-related conversations on places like Digital Spy when I think I can add something useful to these debates. There is never an easy way to announce a closure of this sort, but I hope that the explanation is clear, and I have no doubt that you will let me know below if it isn’t! Paula