Comments and Cakes
Post categories: BBC Online, accountability, blogs
| 16:00 UK time, Friday, 23 November 2012
Hi, my name's Eliza and I'm the new content producer on the BBC Internet blog. It's my job to get people from around BBC Online to write about the work that they and their teams do.
I have been at the BBC for around five years, have worked across lots of different departments and consider it a big privilege to be able to highlight the innovative and cutting edge work carried out by my colleagues all across the organisation.
The events of the last few weeks have thrown a shadow over all of us, but I continue to believe in both the BBC and its values. We are impartial and honest and that means we should be transparent and open about what we do. This blog, like many BBC blogs, is a place to do that.
However, the Internet blog isn't just another forum for us to talk to you. It also gives us a chance to listen to what you have to say to us: to tell us what you think of our online products, to feedback on changes that have been made to them, to tell us about things you don't like or and maybe even occasionally to give some praise.
I hope the blog reflects the diverse array of work that's done by BBC Online and BBC Future Media. If it doesn't then let me know what you'd like to hear more about by leaving a comment.
iPlayer cupcake
Until then, my colleagues and I will continue to recover from Children In Need. If you work anywhere in the BBC this usually involves a 3 week semi-compulsory cake eating marathon, for the kids. It's Pudsey's fault but Mary Berry hasn't helped.
The BBC iPlayer cupcake you see above was made especially for CiN and was pretty good, but the chocolate and Guinness cake from the strategy team was the true winner.
Eliza Kessler is Content Producer, BBC Internet blog.
Comment number 1.
At 07:25 25th Nov 2012, Eponymous Cowherd wrote:It would be nice if the feedback people give on these blog pages was, actually, taken on board by the people concerned. The overriding impression that comes across when people complain about something here is "tough, Auntie knows best".
Take, for instance, the frightful Android iPlayer support. Currently there is a problem where iPlayer and media player will not deploy to Android 4.2 devices. This is purely an issue with the package manifest as the apps do work on devices that installed the apps before updating to 4.2. Despite people mentioning this issue in these blogs, in the Google Play comments, and via feedback forms, nothing seems to be done and there is only a grudging acknowledgement in the help pages that suggests that only "some" Android 4.2 users are affected.
There is also an issue where the apps are incompatible with Intel based devices, but can still be installed on them. This, too, is often mentioned in Play comments, but never seems to be acknowledged.
These are just mistakes in the way these apps are deployed, and are what can only be described as "schoolboy errors", yet are barely acknowledged, let alone actioned.
It is really depressing when BBC Future Media people make crowing blog posts about their latest and greatest, but fail to respond in any meaningful way to the complaints raised in the comments, usually deciding to "cherry pick" the easy and more sycophantic questions to respond to.
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Comment number 2.
At 14:01 25th Nov 2012, Sue_Aitch wrote:It would be lovely to have the correct Postal Address and email addresses for Red Button Digital Text published on the Help Page, and also brought up to date on https://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3990000/newsid_3995700/3995709.stm and all the other NewsWatch Contact pages for BBC News / Fuure Media's concerns; that way, those who haven't applied for a BBC ID would have better access to contacting the teams behind this blog.
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Comment number 3.
At 03:45 26th Nov 2012, Meftaul wrote:Good Article
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Comment number 4.
At 12:29 26th Nov 2012, Steven F wrote:Please stop posting about what's on the Red Button.
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Comment number 5.
At 13:06 26th Nov 2012, Russ wrote:Although I am not inconvenienced personally by the current Android problem, I have to strongly agree with the general thrust of EC's # 1 comment. The overriding experience I have from 4 years of the BBC Internet blog has been a continuous frustration at the lack of response and engagement from FMT bloggers, and I will be commenting to the Trust's current BBC Online review accordingly.
Russ
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Comment number 6.
At 15:59 26th Nov 2012, Eliza Kessler wrote:Hi thanks for the comments so far
Eponymous Cowherd, I have forwarded your comment to the iPlayer team.
Sue_Aitch, you can contact the Red Button team via the postal address listed on the BBC FAQ page.
Hope that helps
Eliza Kessler
Content producer
BBC Internet blog
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Comment number 7.
At 17:36 26th Nov 2012, Sue_Aitch wrote:Eliza. Thank you for that: I will post to Darlington, but using the correct postcode.
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Comment number 8.
At 12:18 27th Nov 2012, James Aslett wrote:@Sue_Aitch: We hope to have the contact details updated on the Red Button text pages changed shortly. Reference the NewsWatch contact page, this is managed by the News Online team and not by ourselves. I have been told that they are aware of the incorrect information on the page and it will updated 'in due course'.
@Steven F: At the moment the blog is the only place possible where we can update users what is on the Red Button at any given time. We realise the blog isn't perhaps the best place to post these updates and are hoping for our own page soon.
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Comment number 9.
At 19:32 28th Nov 2012, Sue_Aitch wrote:Many thanks, James. It is very good to have this news.
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Comment number 10.
At 20:03 28th Nov 2012, usernamefood wrote:You did have your own blog page for the BBC Red button here:
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pressred/
Just rename it to the red button and use that
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Comment number 11.
At 20:05 28th Nov 2012, Sue_Aitch wrote:... with all the content of https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/red_button/ included as archive?
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Comment number 12.
At 10:13 29th Nov 2012, Sue_Aitch wrote:I notice that the Text on 3 and Text on 4 service is ending on Monday 7th January 2013: I am so grateful that we have Red Button and thank you to the team that produces the Digital Text service.
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Comment number 13.
At 14:48 29th Nov 2012, James Aslett wrote:@Sue_Aitch Reference your first post, the postal and email addresses for Red Button Digital Text on page 9990 within the 'Contact Us' page are correct. Are you seeing the incorrect information elsewhere?
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Comment number 14.
At 19:09 29th Nov 2012, usernamefood wrote:Reply to Sue_Aitch:
They would also have to take the banner off and change press red to red button
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Comment number 15.
At 11:53 30th Nov 2012, Nick Reynolds wrote:Hi - the Press Red blog was closed in 2010 because it wasn't getting enough traffic to justify the time spent on running it. At that point I agreed with the Red Button team that their weekly summaries could appear on the Internet blog as these seemed to be a useful source of information.
At the moment there are no plans to bring back the Press Red blog. It may be that the weekly summaries appear somewhere easier to find in the future.
Watch the Internet blog for more details - but probably not until after Xmas.
Thanks
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Comment number 16.
At 08:19 2nd Dec 2012, Sue_Aitch wrote:@James Aslett. Re 13. The correct postal address for BBC Audience Services according to the www Royal Mail Dot Com's Postcode Finder is
BBC Audience Services
PO Box 1922
DARLINGTON
DL1 9JS
and always has been: there are no PO Box addresses in DL3 because the Royal Mail has no Deliverry Office.
This postcode is unique to PO. Box 1922
DL3 0UR is the correct postcode for Capita and four other businesses on Roundhouse Road, that is, it belongs to five Street Addresses and not a Single User.
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Comment number 17.
At 10:02 4th Dec 2012, James Aslett wrote:@Sue_Aitch: I have checked this with Capita and they have confirmed their postcode is DL3 0UR, as listed here https://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/questions/contact/contact_postaladdress and here https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/complaints.
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Comment number 18.
At 14:10 4th Dec 2012, Faceless_Man wrote:Will the newly-migrated blogs regain their RSS feeds at some point?
For example:
OLD:
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/davidbond/
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/
NEW:
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/correspondents/davidbond/
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/correspondents/andrewbenson/
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/correspondents/philmcnulty/
I know the first wave of migrations (a very long time ago) retained their RSS feeds throughout:
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/robertpeston/
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/stephanieflanders/
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/nickrobinson/
I subscribe to 20 BBC feeds, and I'm hoping RSS is not a feature you are turning your back on.
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