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A New Replacement for TV Tome

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the community-collaboration-at-its-best dept.

Randall311 writes to tell us about, what the creators hope will be, a new replacement for the old TV Tome website, the TV IV Wiki. The once popular TV Tome website was absorbed by CNET in April of this year and most of the content was added to their TV.com website. Many users dislike the new format with vast amounts of flash, obnoxious ads, and missing content. So, if you liked the old TV Tome website perhaps this will allow the community to rebuild what it has lost.

10 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Mirroring TV.com? by rteunissen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What would be the legal status of mirroring most of the tv.com content to the new wiki? Considering that the content on tvtome.com was submitted by people from all over the world, could a former tvtome editor place his own text (now part of tv.com) on the wiki? Or can we just outright copy everything over and get a major headstart, the info on tv.com comes (mostly) from tv network's websites/public communication.

  2. MythTV Integration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The MythVideo plugin for MythTV has an integrated search of IMDB to look up information on movies. It'd be great if TV IV could provide easy to parse episode guide information for third party apps like MythVideo.

  3. Wiki mostly US-based? by rklrkl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm wondering if we're going to get coverage of non-US TV shows (TV Tome used to do so and tv.com doesn't seem to [or if it does, it's barely any])? For example, on the home page of the Wiki it says "Catch every episode of the longest-running sci-fi show on television on Sci-Fi". Nope, we're not talking about Doctor Who (which is the world record holder), but apparently Stargate SG-1!

    1. Re:Wiki mostly US-based? by CygnusTM · · Score: 2, Interesting

      We would love it if the site became a multi-national resource. We just need multi-national editors.

  4. Wow, thought it was just me! by N8F8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I used TVTome to regularly is was downright painfull when TV.com bought them out. Things that used to take three or four clicks were taking thirty clicks. Especially annoying is that their listings are alphabetic and paginated. So if you eant to find say, "lost" you have to page through a ton of pages to find it. Not to mention the cooler TVTome consent is gone - Bloopers and highlights.

    --
    "God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
    1. Re:Wow, thought it was just me! by FlopEJoe · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Look, it's not that big a deal is it?

      I think it is. To me, TVTome was like Google... simple, clean, very few images. Now it's flash, bubbly tabbed buttons, and what was once simple lists are now tables. The Episode List has less info and (I personally think) wastes two columns on user reviews. I can't remember the TVTome layout but I think a quarter to a third of the right column was NOT flash, ratings, and (so called) "shows like this."

      I cringe everytime I have to look something up on the new TVTome. It is straight to IMDB first for cast lists and anything else I can get before I drink the TV.com koolaid.

      Simple is better. Don't use images when text will do. A TV episode does not need tons of space for user ratings.

  5. Why Creative Commons? by deminisma · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously, could they have at least considered dual-licensing with the GFDL, so text could be borrowed from Wikipedia and vice-versa? This is a seriously counter-productive move considering that Wikipedia already has a wealth of information on television shows (see their pages on South Park for an excellent example).

  6. Still features neither have... by Tatarize · · Score: 2, Interesting

    TV.com is going to fall, they don't provide proper functionality. I miss my great list new shows on tonight. Without that function (which wikis do a sorry job at automatically creating) I don't see any sight holding my interest.

    TV.com has a what's on tonight thing, but it doesn't tell what is new and what's just on.

    --

    It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
  7. Re:Poor resource by rudy_wayne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "TV.com is free to use, and you can edit most of the information as if it was a wiki."

    Not entirely true. All editing has to be approved by moderators who seem to reject everything. I've submitted numerous things to correct articles that are poorly written and/or just plain wrong, and they've all been rejected.

  8. Waiting for IMDB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    TVIV might be a good short term solution, but I'm assuming that eventually the IMDB will redesign their television programming layout and as a result make TVIV obsolete. Most of the info is already in their database (episode lists, writers & directors of individual episodes, airdates, etc.), they just have to implement it in a more accessible way, for example give each individual episode it's own page so that they can be summarized, reviewed, rated, etc. -- something more akin to the old tvtome design. I don't know for a fact that they're going to redesign it, but they already have an IMDB TV section among their links so I have to believe that this is probably on their radar.