Messageboard
Notes and Queries permalink
Backstage news archive
This discussion has been closed.
-
Message 1.Â
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Monday, 9th May 2011
Hi Tayler,
How do I get access to old Backstage news stories? The blog, which has replaced that section, only goes back to October last year, and I can't find any links to Backstage news.
This has come to my attention in relation to someone saying they didn't realise that you weren't a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú employee, and I was trying to find the article which introduced you, which I'm sure made this clear.
'Ö' -
Message 2
Posted by Tayler Cresswell (U14232848) on Tuesday, 10th May 2011
Hi Badge
I'm not sure if they're still available, although I have a vague recollection that someone posted a link to an article from Backstage news not so long ago. I'll see if I can find out.
Tayler -
Message 3
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Tuesday, 10th May 2011
I'm fairly sure that you used to be able access them via url www.bbc.co.uk/archers/backstage but now if you type any variation on that you get redirected to the blogs.
There used to be an index of sorts but it was incomplete and you could find "hidden" old backstage stories by following the chain of links (each one had a link to the previous backstage story).
There was a lot of interesting material in these items and I think it's a great pity that it is now inaccessible. -
Message 4
Posted by Seveek (U13636812) on Tuesday, 10th May 2011
‘There was a lot of interesting material in these items and I think it's a great pity that it is now inaccessible.’
Mike is, of course, correct; there was a good amount of interesting detail and the links that used to go to the backstage pages, which I had stored, now just go to something called a blog.
So something’s changed, again, and removed a useful feature. -
Message 5
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Tuesday, 17th May 2011
Any (backstage) news on this, Tayler?
'Ö' -
Message 6
Posted by Tayler Cresswell (U14232848) on Tuesday, 17th May 2011
Hi Badge - I'm afraid it looks like they''ve disappeared from the web.
If there's something in particular you're looking for in future, I can chase it up for you.
Tayler -
Message 7
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Tuesday, 17th May 2011
Hi Tayler,
As others have said, it seems a real shame and waste to ditch so many years of worthwhile material. Please could you ask if we could have a link to an archive? (It's the difference between an open-access library where all are welcome to browse, and a closed 'order' system where somebody has to make a special request.)
Thank you,
Elnora -
Message 8
Posted by Sallyruth (U14589711) on Wednesday, 18th May 2011
Thank you.
For a start
Brian Hewlett's Cider club
Self build info when Susan and Neil built their home
Answers to questions from
Ms Whitburn
Felicity Finch
Camilla Fisher
The video of Ed and Emma's actors, answering questions
Sound effects
would be good, please. -
Message 9
Posted by petal jam (U1466691) on Wednesday, 18th May 2011
video of Ed and Emma's actorsÂ
Oh.. was just mentally adding 'the video of Tom and Brenda's actors etc.' Not sure the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú could afford Felicity Jones' repeat fee these days. -
Message 10
Posted by Tayler Cresswell (U14232848) on Thursday, 19th May 2011
Hi all
I've spoken to Keri about this and he says that there's a slim possibility that some old backstage articles may be reused as archive pieces on the blog in future.
However, all of the ones which were an explanation of past storylines were reversioned as storylines on the timeline.
Sallyruth, unfortunately I can't see any from your list on the Timeline. I'll ask if any of them are easy to dig out and post here.
Tayler -
Message 11
Posted by Sallyruth (U14589711) on Thursday, 19th May 2011
Oh dear.
The timeline is so hopeless, and so limited, compared to the azande chronology!
And revitalized or not, the info is hopeless in that format. We need the capability to look up an article, find out, for example, that the Neil Carter actor has a real cider club in his village, or be interested enough by the Ambridge View story to have a look on the net to find out further information about self builds, surely?
What a waste of useful information! -
Message 12
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Friday, 20th May 2011
Thank you for the reply, Tayler, but need this be the final decision? The original format must be available intact on some disk or other.
I agree with Sallyruth. The backstage archive was the main feature that drew me to read the TA boards, years before I even thought of posting on the messages. The info was accessible, stable, easy to find and check. It was in a consistent format, even though the nature of the contents was interestingly diverse. (Good, firm structure, but something different in every 'room').
Blogs have the air of the ephemeral, the thoughts of the top of someone's head, the article plucked at random, and, now - bits recycled from the old archives, like pages torn out of an encylopaedia. If I remember the blog at all, I have to make myself look at it. I haven't felt drawn to the time-line in its new format: the other was simple and quick.
We wouldn't ask for updates, but just a link to the pages, even with 'ARCHIVE' stamped all over them (like 'DRAFT'), would be fine. -
Message 13
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Friday, 20th May 2011
Tayler, many thanks for your efforts finding out.
It's a real shame that all that such a useful archive has been jettisoned in the worship of blogs. I have to say, sadly, that this is just yet another poor decision on the part of those running the website new look website. Oh well. As others have said, it would cost nothing to upload the archive (if it has been removed from the server) and provide links to it.
I can't actually think of anything good about the new website, other than the removal of the mustard colour. Everything else seems to have been degraded in usefulness in one way or another.
Elnora, we've already been told that they think it's best to show people photos unless they specifically say they don't want to see them (having already seen them), and then still to load photos on each page and then to hide them after the page has finished loading. In spite of various requests to change how this is done, they still consider they know best, so I can't imagine they'll reconsider this one either.
Oh, and I must protest at 'reversioned'. Eek! - 'revised', possibly?
'Ö' -
Message 14
Posted by Sallyruth (U14589711) on Friday, 20th May 2011
Oh, and I must protest at 'reversioned'. Eek! - 'revised', possibly?
'Ö' Â
I didn't like to mention that, but I was shocked at that bastardisation of a proper word. -
Message 15
Posted by Tayler Cresswell (U14232848) on Friday, 20th May 2011
We wouldn't ask for updates, but just a link to the pages, even with 'ARCHIVE' stamped all over them (like 'DRAFT'), would be fine. Â
I've asked whether it's possible to access these but not sure how simple a task it is to dig them out as it's possible that the versions that were online were deleted. I'm waiting on news from Keri on this.
Tayler -
Message 16
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Friday, 20th May 2011
Thank you, Tayler. You're a star (as ever). I hope your efforts are rewarded.
I wonder whether the British Library or other net archive captured it?! (A treat for some researcher down the years....) -
Message 17
Posted by petal jam (U1466691) on Friday, 20th May 2011
The info was accessible, stable, easy to find and check. It was in a consistent format, even though the nature of the contents was interestingly diverse.Â
I agree, Elnora. My principal beef is with the new Timeline feature, which simply does not function on my pc. The previous simple tabular format was just the thing.
The upshot of so many perfectly sound features which have been rendered useless by over-ambitious improvements is that I never, ever go to any of the other pages of the website, including the Blog. This is not the only Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú page I, sadly, no longer visit. I'm all for keeping abreast of Information Technology, so long as it's still Information and not technology for technology's sake. -
Message 18
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Friday, 20th May 2011
Another point is that the timeline simply doesn't replace the backstage news section. Backstage news - and the clue is in the name - covered a lot of things about the making of the programme, the people behind it, and the issues behind some of the stories they covered in the programme. The timeline simply lists events in the programme over the years (and, on the ones I've clicked on, gives nothing more than the bare bones, eg 'Emma Carter was borm prematurely', 'Mike and Betty Tucker moved back into Willow Farm', 'Joyriding Jazzer and Ed Grundy injured Alice Aldridge's pony'. No background or details. It's a completely different animal from the backstage news.
It may look very flashy but, as Petal Jam says, it's lost a lot in information terms.
'Ö' -
Message 19
Posted by Elnora Cornstalk (U5646495) on Friday, 20th May 2011
so long as it's still Information and not technology for technology's sake.Â
petal jam, this should be inscribed at the top of every IT developer's screen. -
Message 20
Posted by Sallyruth (U14589711) on Friday, 20th May 2011
Rather like the Lower Loxley info being on the MAP, but the place not being mapped...
-
Message 21
Posted by Tayler Cresswell (U14232848) on Tuesday, 24th May 2011
Another point is that the timeline simply doesn't replace the backstage news section. Â
Hi Badge
The blog replaced Backstage News - I mentioned the Timeline as some of the old news items had been used in the Timeline where relevant - so yes, these only cover events in the storyline. Some are longer than others (for example, there's quite a long post about Alistair's gambling
Tayler -
Message 22
Posted by Sallyruth (U14589711) on Tuesday, 24th May 2011
**The Blog replaces Backstage News"
Well, no, it doesn't.
And not having access to the formerly wonderful articles, set out in a reader-friendly way, is so sad. -
Message 23
Posted by Tayler Cresswell (U14232848) on Tuesday, 31st May 2011
Hi again
Unfortunately Keri's copies of the original articles died along with his machine last year. He's not sure where any other copies might be stored.
He doesn't remember a video of 'Ed and Emma' but wondered of if you were think thinking of this one of 'Tom and Brenda', which was republished when the blog started:
Tayler -
Message 24
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Tuesday, 31st May 2011
My experience of websites that get modified is that (when they are updated) most of the old files stay there but the links simply disappear. If you look at the files on the site using FTP (or similar website tool) all those old files could still be there ...
-
Message 25
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Tuesday, 31st May 2011
It depends, Mike: if you're updating a few pages, you'll only upload the new pages to the server; if you've rebuilt the entire site, especially if it has a new structure, it's easier (and makes more sense, because it reduces the likelihood of dead links and orphaned pages) to upload the root directory, which means everything will be over-written with the new site, and pages not included in the new site will be erased from the server. That's what I'd guess will have happened in this case.
I think it was a bad mistake not to include the Backstage news articles in the new site, and the fact that they apparently got lost when Keri had computer problems baffles me - why were they not backed up, if they were part of a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú website? It all sounds very piecemeal and ill-though-out to me. The Backstage news section was one of the most useful and interesting parts of the website - really the only part I'd bother to look at other than the message board. Although, Tayler, you say that the blog replaces the backstage news, it doesn't. It may be what is on the new website in place of backstage news, but it in no way replaces it. Thanks for finding out what you have done, though. I realise (like Mousie) none of this is your fault.
'Ö'
About this Board
Welcome to the Archers Messageboard.
or  to take part in a discussion.
The message board is currently closed for posting.
This messageboard is now closed.
This messageboard is .
Find out more about this board's
Search this Board
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú navigation
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú links
Copyright © 2015 Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú. The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.