Sound recording on "Facing The Giants".

• 13Sep 09

  Submitters: Do not submit new episodes before they are aired!

  I've had a long standing policy of not taking submissions for new episodes of shows until after they air. I only have a couple of current shows anyway but networks tend to bump schedules so often that it makes a lot more work for me to go back and "fix" everything afterward, using up time I'd be spending on other guides. Or it opens up the door to gaming by the submitter, who after the fact, goes in and submits changes for the incorrect information they submitted before and gets double points for it.
  
  For one particular show, which gets changed by it's network all the time, I don't take submissions ahead of the air date. If I did, I WOULD FILL THEM IN MYSELF! So if I, who have the same information everyone else does, won't pre-fill in the episodes until they air, I'm not going to take your submissions before they air.
  
  So to all the submitters, the rule is, wait until it airs. If I beat you to it, well, I am the editor of the guide. Remember, the form says: "Date airED"!
  
  I'd like to know what other senior editor's policies are concerning premature submissions.
  • Posted Sep 13, 2009 9:28 am PT
  • Category: TV
  • 3 Comments
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• 5Aug 09

  Submitters: Read The Tv.com TOS and Guidelines...PLEASE!!

  I guess there has recently been an influx of new Tv.com members. The reason I think this is because of the rash of submissions I've gotten in the last month or two from those who are Level 1 through Level 10 or so.
  
  What this is causing is a load of rejected submissions because of violations of the Tv.com TOS and/or the guidelines. Here's a sample of the things the newbies are doing:
  
  *) Cut and paste
  
  I've gotten more summaries recently that are directly cut and pasted from other sites. That right away tells you that they haven't read the TOS or guidelines. Copyrighted material from another site can not be used without permission at Tv.com. But just today, I got a word for word summary from an old Tv Guide. If you aren't doing a Google search for the summaries folks are submitting, you should. As editor, you are responsible for what goes in your guides.
  
  *) Notes and Trivia
  
  This is the main issue I'm having. I have one fairly new submitter who is a great writer and is passionate about a show. Only he can't seem to get the definition of what a Note is and what Trivia is. I've sent him the definitions quoted right from the guidelines but he still insists on writing books on theories behind the parallels between this show and some other thing that goes on forever. That's not what a note is. That goes in an episode review. Why people are reluctant to write episode reviews but want to write ten page notes, I don't know. With the "new" focus of Tv.com on opinion and reviews, you would think that would be where most of the activity would be now.
  
  *) Spelling
  
  I am really concerned for the future of this country just based on the number of spelling errors in EVERY submission I get. As is the practice of most senior editors, I reject the submission if there is more than one or two because it means they aren't checking it themselves. And on top of that, the sentence structure and usage is pretty sad. I tell them nicely what they need to do and then ask them to make corrections and to resubmit. Most rarely do.
  
  There are other issues but those are the most consuming my time right now. What is consuming yours?
  • Posted Aug 5, 2009 3:03 pm PT
  • Category: Writing
  • 2 Comments
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• 9Apr 09

  My Opinion On TV.com's New Design, It's Evolution, and Future.

  Well, I guess I should chime in here as another old timer from the TvTome days.
  
  
  
  First, to Jaxie, I thought YOUR "tome" in the forum was well written and informative. Yes, this is a business venture where TvTome was just a fun website run by a TV enthusiast for TV enthusiasts. Obviously, that is no more. This is about money. So the site must evolve and become competitive with other sites that are doing similar things.
  
  Does this mean that the database will eventually go away? I think, IMHO, that it eventually will. I only hope that before that part of the site goes dark, that someone will archive it, and sell it back to the fans, those of us who would like to see it go back to just a fun database, for tv fans, by tv fans. I'd love to see it become TvTome again, as MovieTome has. All of this gathered data is just too valuable to television fans to one day go away. I would hope that a site like EPguides or EpisodeWorld would start copying the information to a hard drive, instead of just linking to Tv.com's episodes. To lose this information would be a crime.
  
  
  
  That may not happen right away, but what is happening right away is the site page design. While the overall appearance of the guide pages looks okay at first glance, the tab/link idea is horrible. I personally like it when everything is on one page and scrollable. The design we had before this was pretty good, even though it did not show all of the actors and crew on one page, you still had to click to see all. But this design is the worse that Tv.com has had since it's inception. Jaxie said in her forum post that they're hearing us loud and clear? I asked if this was LOUD ENOUGH? And what about some lines? Even this page I'm writing on now has soft, light lines around everything. I really can't stand a page that has NO lines on it. Content needs to be separated and just the soft light gray lines like are on this page are all we need. The episode pages have a few horizontal lines, but no vertical lines and it looks very messy just having print floating all over the page, stopping and starting for what appears like no reason.
  
  Having the episode page split into three general sections is okay, Tv Buzz on the left, the Summary in the middle, and the Tv Listing, Also on, and the Contributors on the right. But with a typical short summary in the middle section, now all by itself, looks terribly awkward and very unattractive. When the cast, crew, trivia and notes were there, it gave each page a nice balanced and full look. The page today looks unfinished and downright unprofessional.
  
  So if Jaxie does have the designers ears, they need to tell the owners that the previous design was much better. And to bring back some boxes or at least some vertical gray lines.
  
  I don't mind evolution of design and even purpose, as long as the original purpose is not lost. If that is going to happen, let us have the original site back, and Tv.com can go on with it's evolution and commerce, without me, without us, who just like TV.
  
  
  ...by you, for you - about the TV shows YOU love!
  • Posted Apr 9, 2009 1:06 pm PT
  • Category: Opinion
  • 5 Comments
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