# DBS



## jameskelly (Feb 16, 2008)

Don't mean to offend anyone, but what happened to this site? Hasn't updated since Aug 18th, and mostly every news item is about Dish! What's going on?


:bang


----------



## RBA (Apr 14, 2013)

No news is good news?


----------



## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

There are a couple threads about this already. 

First, this site is very active. What you're talking about is the News pages that haven't updated in a bit, and those updates are mostly DISH related. I don't know about the Dish updates, but since AT&T took over, the RSS feeds that the news aggregater uses is almost all at&t related.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

As noted, there have been discussions about this in multiple threads... Dish has an automated news feed that makes updates to the headlines page easier. DirecTV (AT&T) has no similar feed. Meanwhile, there haven't been a lot of newsworthy headlines. Check other sites, not too many headlines there either. Sometimes a site might have a headline that we don't... it happens... but there hasn't been a lot of activity in general recently.

But that's just the headlines... lots of activity inside of the forums.


----------



## KyL416 (Nov 11, 2005)

There's actually been multiple newsworthy headlines and releases in the past two weeks involving DirecTV, but the funny thing, NONE of them were posted to AT&T's press release website since they were issued by the channel or their parent company and not AT&T. So even if AT&T had a DirecTV specific RSS feed, it wouldn't have been picked up. (In one case there was no full blown release, it was just mentioned as part of an article on Variety about it being one of the conditions for Lionsgate's purchase of Starz)

There were threads about most of them though in the DirecTV specific forums here. (The launch of Mobile DVR earlier this month and the numerous renewals in the past few weeks involving HBO, NBC Universal, Discovery, Starz, Scripps and Turner)

To the TS, depending on what kind of "News" you're looking for, pay attention to the DirecTV General Discussion and Programming forums, if you want to know about upcoming channel launches pay attention to the Transponder maps thread in the Tips & Tricks forum. If you want to know about app/mobile related stuff pay attention to the Connected Home Forum. If there's something you found out about and don't see a thread here, create it yourself to start the discussion.


----------



## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

The site isn't nearly as active as it was a few years ago. I think a lot of that has to do with a mature technology, hardware, software that frankly hasn't changed much in the last several years and there just isn't much to talk about.

Probably also has to do with some of the more active members leaving to play in their own sandbox, which did nothing but split an already fairly small user base. However, lest anyone thinks this place is quiet, go over there and check out the tumbleweeds.

With that said, there are still several active members here. Anytime I've asked a question or for help, someone has always jumped in to help.



trh said:


> There are a couple threads about this already.
> 
> First, this site is very active. What you're talking about is the News pages that haven't updated in a bit, and those updates are mostly DISH related. I don't know about the Dish updates, but since AT&T took over, the RSS feeds that the news aggregater uses is almost all at&t related.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Yeah... AT&T isn't doing us or themselves any favor with non-announcing news items! IF people who start threads in the forum would poke a moderator, we could add news items for those threads... the thing is, if you don't do it pretty quickly, then it isn't "news" anymore and there isn't a lot of point in making it a retroactive headline.

It's a lot easier when companies issue press releases that are easy to find. I'm subscribed to Dish PRs... and we have the auto-poster feed here to help too... so it's much easier to stay on top of Dish releases. That doesn't mean there is substantially more Dish news items either, though, these days with relatively stable technology and only things like a dispute that causes loss of channels or CES trade show stuff making the big splash.


----------



## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Dusting off my cattle prod so I can "poke" a moderator. :sure:


----------



## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

MysteryMan said:


> Dusting off my cattle prod so I can "poke" a moderator. :sure:


Cattle prod?!?! Is that what they call those nowadays? Be careful where you prod
the mods -- they can be a tad sensitive in some areas.

The last time I suggested a relevant news item that I thought would be of interest to
the forum, it was rejected with a snarky comment as if I were a newbie to the board
and didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Because of that slap down, I will no
longer contribute news items. Why should I bother?

So, here we are with no _new_ news for over a month, our front page showing only
a dusty old story from August 18. I could be embarrassed if I gave a damn. Let me
remind those who should be responsible for posting news stories that the 'd b and s'
in DBSTalk no longer stands for just "direct broadcast satellite", but rather the all-
inclusive "digital bit stream". In this exciting and ever-changing tech world in which
we live, certainly there must be at least one story in the news each week that would
be of interest to readers.

I see such stories all the time but maybe that's just because I'm paying attention, not
that I care all that much anymore.


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Nick said:


> The last time I suggested a relevant news item that I thought would be of interest to
> the forum, it was rejected with a snarky comment as if I were a newbie to the board
> and didn't know what the hell I was talking about.


Hopefully not me ... but there can be differences of opinion about what is "news"worthy. I do not like press releases about senior notes and obscure financial filings being "news" ... but that is all I get from my email subscription to AT&T's press release feeds.

When there is an actual press release it gives us more to work with than plagiarizing some other site's work. We can only republish a couple of paragraphs from an entertainment news site - so if you are posting news from some other site please make your choice of paragraphs count. Don't post just the link (forcing our members to go somewhere else just to see what you're linking to) but don't post full articles. Post enough that the conversation can continue in the thread without visiting some other site (especially a subscription site) but not so much that your post needs to be removed or redacted.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

There are sites that post headlines just to be posting headlines. I don't see value in that. And no, I'm not throwing shade on any particular Web site with that comment. In fact, for anyone who thinks I might be prodding a friendly rival... I'll note that they happen to be a site with only a few more recent headlines than we have had in the last month... and several of their headlines were specific to their own site, which obviously would be headlines that we wouldn't run here. My point is, the sites like ours covering this stuff are having the same issues as we are in finding newsworthy items to post on the main page. It's a slow news cycle with regards to DBS.


----------



## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Stewart Vernon said:


> ...It's a slow news cycle with regards to DBS.


Exactly my point. There surely must be other tech-related news of interest to
our members than just DBS news. I'm done trying to report any news and will
leave it up to the moderators and others to get out there and dig up the stories
rather than sit around waiting for Dish and Directv to pump out press releases.

I am also done on this topic.

:alterhase


----------



## jameskelly (Feb 16, 2008)

*Makes sense about changing technology. Thanx to all for the insight.*


----------

