TWOP3 - Television Without Pity

[boxofrocks]

NYT runs an op ed on TWOP's demise.

TWoP’s closure proves, most directly, that it is difficult to monetize niche sites. TWoP also demonstrated that many people hankered for running commentary on the shows they loved — or loved to hate — which nudged larger media outlets to expand their television coverage. Suddenly writers everywhere were analyzing shows with a respect for detail usually reserved for religious texts. TWoP created intense competition, and then succumbed to it.

[lea1977]

Can I also say that I loved the way they snarked the Duggars. That was an pretty epic forum. Sad to see this site go but it had run its course I suppose.

[tabby]

One I would have liked to hear from was Deborah, who recapped Trading Spaces and Joan of Arcadia. I always like her recaps and wondered where she went after TWoP.

Deborah had her own site, Chicklit, which she closed several years ago after she decided to go back to school and her offline life took over. Thanks to a forum member who has vowed to keep them running as long as there are people who want to be there, the Chicklit forums are still alive. They are very quiet, though, only a few of us are still there. Deborah herself hasn't been on the forums since she closed the main site. As far as I know, she no longer has an online presence.

[jvegg]

I see a little more snippy responses to posts over there. I'm thinking people are really going to let others have it.
It should get interesting.

[margojata]

Maybe Howard lapsed into a coma because I see "boards!" popping up all over the place. People are edgy and talking about what other people are talking about instead of the shows. Get the popcorn ready! I'm already excited.

[jvegg]

Apr 7, 2014 9:59:37 GMT -4 margojata said:

Maybe Howard lapsed into a coma because I see "boards!" popping up all over the place. People are edgy and talking about what other people are talking about instead of the shows. Get the popcorn ready! I'm already excited.

Yeah it might get real over there. I was reading about a cooking show,a simple cooking show and a poster said other posters were being judgmental.
I thought, welp here we go.
Getting popcorn ready! It will be bumpy. Most posters seem to have already registered at other places, so being banned isn't that a big deal.

[Neurochick]

Whoa. Someone posted this gem on one of the "commercials" threads:

OSM Mom
Fanatic
Posted Today, 10:31 AM
If it's Texas, she probably can't get a job because she doesn't speak Spanish well enough. Yet they hire someone who doesn't speak English at all and claim they're *bilingual*. Not that I have any experience with that. No. Not at all.

And it looks like it got taken down like BOOM.

[famvir]

Someone wrote about Dr. $hill which lead to discussion on if they can call him Dr $hill, then board on boards about that. I think the rats have left the ship and with the exceptions of deleting outright, it's going to be a freeforall until the closing.

[eclair]

Is it possible to create new threads? If so, I have high expectations. It's been too long since we talked about Jesus and also about Your Mom.

[eclair]

Bump! So, RuPaul's Drag Race is facing repercussions for having a mini contest where the contestents guessed whether someone was a bio woman or a trans woman based on photos of body parts. Which is a good thing, I think, I thought it was offensive. Although right now the whole episode has been pulled from Logo and it contained a really good musical put on by the cast. They're also going to get rid of the cast getting She-Mail messages, which probably started out as a term mocking Tyra mail on ANTM, but is also offensive to the trans community, and their supporters. Yes, RuPaul has long been a supporter of trans people, and yes drag has been outside the gay mainstream, which allowed for more forbidden types of humor, but we all know better at this point then to use these terms.

Anyway, a pretty good discussion about all this was going on in the TWOP thread. A couple of posters who are themselves trans women were contributing, and the tone overall was respectful of all points of view. RuPaul also talks about Courage, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent, and someone remarked that they found that offensive too. It was a good conversation with depth, and of course Howard swept through with "Boards on Boards" and deleted a lot of posts. People weren't fighting, this is an issue that is happening on the show now, and it was a good discussion. I thought maybe they weren't moderating with the usual gusto at this point, but Howards own stupid AA meeting rule is more important than this useful discussion in what are the last days of TWOP.

Let's see how long this post lasts, from the RuPaul Drag Race thread:

"wavefinger, Channel Surfer: This site used to be great when people could actually express their opinions about the show and issues arising from it without completely over zealous moderating.

I know I'm going to get blocked for saying this but TWOP Howard is on a complete ego trip. So condescending and bossy and trying to control all discussion so we only talk about what he/she wants. The patronising tone is just very grating after a while I guess ...

I guess this is goodbye to the site , I've enjoyed it while it's lasted, always interesting discussion ( until it gets shut down for being "boards on boards")"

And the post was gone this morning. I wonder if Howard is just going to ban people until the site closes. No need to close the site if Howard has banned all the posters.