BUTTPLUGS

[John Hoare]

I’ve just realised I haven’t plugged my new blog on here yet. So I thought I’d do it with a piece on, erm, idiot pluggers:

http://www.transistorized.org/2010/01/amplify-brand-thinking/

Have fun! Or, as ever, don’t.

Topic

[genericnerdyusername]

Noise to Signal closed? Why? I enjoyed that site. Admittedly I hardly went on it after the penultimate episode of the IT Crowd (so far) was reviewed, but I’m sure that’s not the reason.

[John Hoare]

Noise to Signal closed? Why?

http://www.noisetosignal.org/2009/12/closedown

“Just a simple lack of time, and perhaps a bit of desire to move onto other things, however sad it is.”

I enjoyed that site. Admittedly I hardly went on it after the penultimate episode of the IT Crowd (so far) was reviewed, but I?m sure that?s not the reason.

In a way… it’s a bit of a contributing factor, oddly.

As we lost interest/time… so did our audience. A vicious circle, really. The fact you only just found out about it, when we announced it on the 21st December, speaks for itself, really!

[genericnerdyusername]

Oh shittiness. I am genuinely sorry. I can’t remember why I stopped going on it, it might have been my stint in hospital and then being bed-ridden on my front after having pilonidal sinus last year… I didn’t have a laptop during that period so I replaced the internet with books for a while. After the hole in my back had healed up I sort of only went on two sites regularly; this one and that They Might Be Giant wiki (Anyone who doesn’t like them or hasn’t heard of them except for the theme tune to Malcolm in the Middle, you’re missing out on songs about bands in the mesopotamian age, being reincarnated as a bag of groceries and one about someone who isn’t in with his girlfriend’s parents because he’s got a fang. :) So yeah, it’s either a big loss for non-fans or a huge waste of time for me).

I know nothing about website building/maintaining, so please don’t laugh at me if this is a stupid question, but does how many hits a website gets affect it’s maintenance?

[Blisschick]

>They Might Be Giants

I know them from my son introducing me to Strongbad and Homestar Runner. They were on The Late Late Show a few weeks back plugging their new album. Great stuff.

[genericnerdyusername]

And I missed it?? Christ, I’m not as obsessive a fan as I thought I was…

I found out about Homestar/Strongbad via TMBG actually. That’s another site that I’ve neglected in recent times, though I have subscribed to their Strongbad podcasts. I think I stopped checking it regularly coz my sister (who was 9 when we discovered Homestar) gave up on there ever being a new Strongbad email.

[Blisschick]

Man, then you’re waaaaay behind! You’ll be there for hours, I guarantee it. I end up laughing so hard, my family thinks I’m crazy. It’s as mindless as Brak…and NO ONE in my house “got” Brak for ages. Cheat Commandos and Teen Girl Squad are my two fav spin-offs…CC’s remind me of the bad G.I. Joe cartoons of the 80’s, and TGS…well, I sorta live that currently…*sigh*

[genericnerdyusername]

Jeepers, I’m heading there right NOW!

Well obviously not RIGHT NOW, as I have to click “post comment” and then type in the website address, but I am pumped to see new stuff on the Chapman Bros’ site so I wanted my post to have an urgent tone to it…

I probably ruined it though. Why am I still typing?

[pfm]

> and then being bed-ridden on my front after having pilonidal sinus last year

Been there, done that. Took 3 operations to get rid of the fucking thing (funniest thing was when the surgeon told me some people have had 10 and still not shifted it. Great way to put my mind at rest…).

Btw I too didn’t know NTS had closed. I can’t believe I didn’t even go to it to check for a TEOT review. This forum is the reason. Probably a major factor in NTS’s downfall. Anything longer than a tweet or a forum post is too much for people to handle these days. We don’t want to read ‘articles’ whatever they may be. Can just about stretch to blog posts, as long as they’re not too long…lol

[genericnerdyusername]

Oh really? I have been worried that it’s come back, there’s a sort of… tiny growth on my back where it was but I just thought it was a mound of scar, however implausible that theory is.

Hmm, doctor’s appointment being made first thing Monday morning, I feel.

[Andrew]

> but does how many hits a website gets affect it?s maintenance?

There’s more pressure on you to create more content if you feel it’s been promised, that you’d be letting down the readership. If you start delaying, interest lessens, which in turn means you allow yourself to delay even longer next time because you’re disappointing fewer people. Eventually you realise you haven’t written anything for six months because you’ve been off doing other stuff…and somewhere along the line nobody’s too disappointed any more.

> Anything longer than a tweet or a forum post is too much for people to handle these days. We don?t want to read ?articles? whatever they may be.

Thing is, we were still getting a lot of interest in pieces when we did manage to get them up. People were still reading and engaging. (Ironically, in some cases they would read the pieces on NTS and then have the forum discussion elsewhere, on their own regular forums.) Substantial articles still have a valid place on the web.

It’s a shame, because we were still finding an audience when we put the effort in. Fans would link to articles, discussion ensured, and the hits would shoot up again – but without the fostered NTS community it once had. Good to know there was still a lot of interest – both from engaged viewers and, in several cases, from the creators of the content under discussion – but we just couldn’t match that interest with our own spare time.

[genericnerdyusername]

“…and somewhere along the line nobody?s too disappointed any more.”

It might be the lack of sleep, but for a while that seemed to be the saddest sentence I have ever read. It’s like when you feel nostalgia for an era you didn’t live in. Except obviously we’re talking about a website that I went on quite a lot until last year… Maybe the comparison doesn’t hold up…

[John Hoare]

Off The Telly – a huge inspiration for NTS – is closing down as well. A huge shame.

They’re dropping like flies…

[John Hoare]

New piece I’ve just published, about, erm, BBC Micro porn, which I thought a few people here might be interested in. Massively NSFW:

http://www.transistorized.org/2010/09/yeah-but-what-pixels-nsfw/

[John Hoare]

Hopefully a few of you will find this interesting: an I’m Alan Partridge soundtrack album what I did do done:

http://www.transistorized.org/2010/09/now-thats-what-i-call-alan-partridge/

[Ben Paddon]

FASKY NETTING.

[Phil]

I’m only 10 seconds into this soundtrack, John, and already I hurt myself laughing.

Planning a Vol. 2 as well?

[John Hoare]

I’m only 10 seconds into this soundtrack, John, and already I hurt myself laughing.

Hooray! Although it may have peaked in those first 10 seconds…

Planning a Vol. 2 as well?

I’m pondering this myself. There’s loads of radio stuff I want to include (can’t believe I missed out “…and he thinks after death, THERE IS NOTHING”), and enough songs too (Tainted Love, Eve of the War). But I may have run out of vaguely clever transitions, and I’ve used most of the jingles up too.

I’ll probably have a crack at some point, though!

[Author]

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