h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To be perfectly honest I have never had many real problems with Hotmail. I have had my personal hotmail account for about 5-6 years now and although I get intermittant spam it really is not that bad.

However I do agree that hotmail was better before Microsoft took over.... (or mayby that is just rose tinted specs).

Only a week to go to the 22nd now so we will soon find out if we should in fact be panicking!

Another deviation from the topic.

Oh no, not again !

I now blame the Tories - after all, they were the ones who wanted to get rid of the BBC News site

I don't remember that but the BBC do still seem to have a news site. So, if the Tories tried to get rid of one (assuming it existed since I don't remember looking for it that far back), then they obviously weren't very successful. Can you instead blame them for starting a trend to try and get rid of BBC things or does that honour go to someone else?

BBC news site is HUGE, easily the most popular in the UK, and increasingly so abroad. It gets millions of hits and has won every award its been nominated for...

There aren't many things they can't buy round to their point of view, can you blame them wanting to get rid of it... Trouble is for them that they've got to do it in an underhand way so that the General public don't realise their motives......

Cynical.... Me?..... Never!

Mel

[jr]

The idea of the BBC (a publically funded organisation) does not sit very well with "New Right" ideology, in terms of Economics. However in terms of the conservative view of traditionalism the BBC being a respected part of "Britishness" will probably be secure for some time.

The problem for the BBC is that it is becoming less and less popular in terms of the affection with which the general public have for it. In the past any idea of abolishing the BBC would have been met with fierce resistance, even now it probably would. However as the Beeb becomes less popular (coupled with the anti beeb campaing run by the rather partizan Murdoch press) that outrage will be diminished and the Beeb might face a real threat to its existance. I for one would think that that would be a very bad thing .

Ditto, I rather appreciate having impartial press, shame they can't get some better programs rather than falling for all this pop idol rubbish though.



Mel

I don't read the press. So my opinion of the BBC is based purely on its visibly falling standards.

I don't think that is the fault of any government but of successive instances of mismanagement within the BBC coupled with an increasing tendency to shallowness all round and inappropriate competition for ratings with the lowest common denominator channels. The BBC doesn't have to get money from advertising and shouldn't have to waste so much on advertising itself. It should have maintained higher standards to retain viewers, attract new ones and be something to which other channels could aspire. Unfortunately C4's documentaries overtook the BBC's for quality of content quite some time ago, largely but not wholly because the BBC's quality went down. Only a decade ago (unsure because time keeps on passing) any comparison would have been laughable - in the other direction.

Out of interest SEF would you advocate a situation where we do not have a publically funded broadcaster; or do you just want the BBC to get better?

I thought it was obvious that I wanted the BBC to get better. I didn't want it to get bad in the first place. It was pretty neat 30 to 40 years ago (NB no competition at all for part of that or earlier). Increasing competition seems to have brought out the worst in the BBC instead of the best.

I just wanted some clarification. Being a young whippersnapper I do not remember the Beeb of 30-40 years ago so my only comparison is against commercial broadcasters; there is no competition in my eyes.

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SEF do you think perchance that we could be in the minority here? I'm sure there is a reason the BBC is churning out all these reality tv programs rather than documentries and the odd good comedy. Unfortunately I believe that reason to be public viewing figures.

I'm with you, I miss the very good BBC programs that were around only 10 year ago when I was a kid, (CBBC was the *only* option, now it's showing much the same rubbish as the others )

What worries me is whether this trend can be reversed when it seems that a large proportion of our population actually enjoy the rubbish that is being broadcast.

As for the ads, they are nothing but annoying and time consuming, I do not watch the BBC to be told time and time again about the new digital channels.

Mel

Reality Telly is ruining ALL television... Not just the Beeb, not just in Britain. It's even ruining my BBCAmerica here in the states (A commercial enterprise which WAS doing a good job of mixing fairly new series with reruns of some of the old classics, especially the comedies). Now it's all 'Faking It', 'Changing Rooms', 'Ground Force', 'What Not to Wear' and several other very similar programmes. Almost every evening they show nothing but someone 'remaking' somebody or something. And when I'm not watching BBCAmerica, the American broadcasters are showing American versions of Pop Idol, or Big Brother! To quote the guy from 'Network': "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!!!"

The upside to all this is, it's freed me up from my telly-addiction, so I'm able to spend more time down at the pub .


Count Zero, desperate for somethin' good to watch... or a pint, whichever.

From the current moderation, it looks as though we *are* in the minority or perhaps in the officially unacceptable majority.

hmmm I really hat it when posts are hidden for moderation, I get so damn curious about what they said !