Ahhh... Welcome back Frankie - good to see you posting again...

The site definitely has changed and evolved since the early days... But that was Chris's vision when he was Editor, I guess, and as subsequent people have come and gone, they of course want to put their own stamp on things... And that's not necessarily a bad thing... (There'll be a new Editor again soon - so things may change again)...

These new WOOs for example have presented some fantastic opportunities that weren't here before - JesusKid for example had a day with Ric Michael and Graham Duff, and Allyn Lawson is getting a full day of screening slots at the Leicester Festival... So things like that (and this latest E4 comp that should get 4Laughs work in front of a much wider audience) are extremely positive... The opportunities will only get better, as the site grows - and I'm sure it won't be long before we're seeing an Op to have a sketch filmed and featured on BBC3 or something equivalent...

Definitely a shame about the Caption Comps, though - but I think the submission form broke, so that went out the window... It may make a comeback one day... As will all the other regular script and audio/video comps, I'm sure - particularly once this new Editor arrives and there's more hands to moderate and judge...

There's life in the old dog yet... and still time to teach her some new tricks...

Hi Seth and thanks.

I like the newer comps but they don't draw me to the site. It was the spirit of community that drew me to the site and the daily caption comp and comedy ladder (with the associated fun competitive element) added to that immensely.

I hope the new Editor brings them back and then I shall look forward to logging on every day as before.

I agree wholely with frankie (is he ever wrong?)

I also agree with the Slagg brothers.

I would like a writing comp that is judged and critiqued by a professional writer/producer. Ideally Stephen Merchant.


P.S. Fay - I didn't reply to your email, sorry I am a git face. I Haven't read P Merton's book yet. Please forgive me

Ahem... I shouldn't mention this here probably, but the chaps on the other channel begining with B, have the ultimate WOO coming up shortly. Keep your eyes peeled.



Benkins

Oooh... Sounds intriguing...

I like to think, though, we've kept the community spirit of the site going here on The Forum all these months - we've had some great laughs and debates, and hopefully there'll be many more...

Of all the glowing embers Seth.. you've glowed mostest!!!

quote:

Originally posted by mousevale:
There are some great ideas being banded about, I personally am only interested in writing, so any thing to do with sketch or script writing would be fantastic.

On another question all together, can anything be done to make the test bed of more use.
i.e. a sketch of the month or something. A lot of people's work gets aired on there with hope and expectation, but comes to nothing, with several people looking but few people comment. It is basically a great idea but seems to lack direction from someone in the know....

I agree wholeheartedly with this. It is sketch and script writing that I am interested in, and anything that can be done to revitalise the Test Bed would be welcome. Sketch of the month could be good, but perhaps also constructive criticism of the month?
The best ever prize would be to work with professional script writers. (Please!)

Yep... They were going to be doing 'Script Analysis Of The Month' at one time - whether it was one pulled from The Test Bed or the comps... But I'm not sure what happened to it...

Ric Michael did one article - about a script by RubyMae (Glamourous Snowdrop)... Which was wonderful - and it would've been really nice to see more... He's the sort of guy who's absolutely ideal for the gig because he is, of course, head of development at Baby Cow and used to spotting new talent and critiquing etc... I guess it's the time involved, though - but hopefully he'll be back to do more at some point (or someone like him)...

quote:

Originally posted by Frankie Rage:
Of all the glowing embers Seth.. you've glowed mostest!!!

Well I hope it wasn't me who burned down the 'Smoking Room', sitting in my high-back chair glowing like that...

Oh well...

Hello everyone - what made this site great in the past was:

a) The community
b) The audio/video/sketch comps and the ladder
c) Getting a mention on the front page because of a post you'd made on The Test Bed

MC

I liked 'User of the Week' as it encouraged us to check out other profiles and for me it also encouraged networking. I made some great 4laughs friends that way.

There are a lot of posts here that refer to things in the past that made the site great.

Most of it is valid but to be honest the site should be encouraged forward not backward.

How about using modern web techniques to build up the community and interaction aspects. Once the members feel part of it, everything else will follow. Numbers will increase and opportunities will be more frequent due to the higher profile of the site and its higher quality of content.
So what are these modern techniques:

User based Ratings system for Test bed.

Remove the 4laughs forum from the main C4 forum rules which act like a straitjacket and bring it into one 4laughs site. Moderation of this forum should give allowances for parody and satire.

'4 laughs a day' should be 'created' by the users who can submit links (like Fark).

the editors blog becomes more communicative about the site itself, showing progress and results and picking out highlights. An RSS feed would be handy here as well as a comments section.

I have a few more ideas but it is beginning to sound like a manifesto..so sorry. Basically we are tweaking round the edges of a site that is no longer fit for purpose. It should be re-designed entirely.

The Ultimate WOO's you desire, will be delivered on a plate if there is a solid community to work on them. Production companies would fall over themselves to get to all that fresh talent.

quote:

Originally posted by ScottTheDot:
'4 laughs a day' should be 'created' by the users who can submit links (like Fark).

the editors blog becomes more communicative about the site itself, showing progress and results and picking out highlights. An RSS feed would be handy here as well as a comments section...

There did used to be two Blogs a day, and it was full of exactly the info you describe there - highlights from the Forum, all the new comps, comps to enter on other sites, news of 4Laughers progress and who'd won what... But again, I'm not sure what happened - I think the old Blog system broke, and since then it's been harder to update and archive...

I've been a big fan of the '4 Laughs A Day' - it's a nice idea, and will be great once there's more 4Laughs work being submitted to promote in it, as the old 'Pick Of The Day' used to do... 'User Of The Week' was another great feature - and I'm sure that'll be back, too, once the site's up and running again properly...

once the site's up and running again properly... [/QUOTE]

The site has not worked 'properly' in all my time here. It was kind of my point. The lack of investment in the technology is driving away visitors, reducing the community numbers and we end up in a downward spiral.

Well it is a real shame, definitely... Things have been in a kind of limbo for getting on for eight months now - and it's true we've lost a lot of the 'big names' on the site... I haven't seen them submitting anything for ages on the site or the Forum (3GirlsInABoat and Muira for example, just from the Top Ten)...

I'm really not sure what's gone wrong... There's been some lovely comps in the interim, but I think it must be the sheer volume of entries and the judging of it all that was becoming too much to take on... I'm hopeful things can still take an upward swing again, though...

quote:

Originally posted by ScottTheDot:
There are a lot of posts here that refer to things in the past that made the site great.

Most of it is valid but to be honest the site should be encouraged forward not backward.

That's a fair point Scott but I think we are in a dead end at the moment, so going back is the only option.

It needs a pragmatic look without increasing costs.

The old mechanisms for the Caption Comp and Comedy Ladder are still there - nothing new needs to be added! Get using them for crying out loud 4laughs!

Not enough judges at Conker Media/Baby Cow? - be pragmatic then - recruit willing helpers from the site, e.g. Seth Gecko.

I think what this site needs is some different talent in the editorial seat, frankly.

Someone has fixed something that wasn't in fact broken and he/she/them deserve(s) no credit for that.

Sorry it has to be said, the King has no clothes on!

quote:

Originally posted by Frankie Rage:
Not enough judges at Conker Media/Baby Cow? - be pragmatic then - recruit willing helpers from the site, e.g. Seth Gecko.

I think what this site needs is some different talent in the editorial seat, frankly...

Well I said on one of the other threads, as soon as I saw that Editor's post open I was VERY keen to get an application in - but it required moving to Liverpool so was no good for me...

But it did kind of give me another idea - which was that perhaps it would be an excellent idea to let some of us edit it each month and run the comps, provide content etc... (Paid, of course, as it would involve a lot of time to do right)... Yes!... Let the lunatics take over the asylum...

I think it'd work pretty well myself - and wouldn't be hard to do remotely via email... So you'd have one month run by TheJunkMales for example, and they'd do whatever comps they wanted to do and judge... I'd certainly be willing to do a stint - and whoever else wanted to have a go could do so as well... It would definitely get things cooking again...

Hey guys,

We've been reading your comments with great interest...

It's a shame that some of you feel that although 4Laughs has been moving forward, it hasn't been moving in the right direction.

It appears that the main things people want are:
- Work to be published professionally by big names
- The chance to collaborate and produce material together
- Feedback from top comedy profesionals

Which is effectively what we have been trying to offer.

However, 4Laughs is and always has been about creating a community, encouraging collaboration and giving the community opportinities to make openings in the comedy world - and several users have been successful in doing this.

Whilst opportunities like FNP and SPB are brillient, we obviously can't provide these every month. In the meantime, we'll strive to create as good opportunies as possible - so far we'e offered C4 and Leicester Comedy Festival - certainly not small names in the comedy year. We are working on bigger and better options, but these will only come off the back of content created for other WOO's.

We must stress that tis is not a project that has massive commercial backing, it's more about grassroots community development. Whilst we'd love to bring in Ricky Gervaise or Stephen Merchant to produce a weekly 4Laughs sketch show, we obviously can't. The reality is that we can continue to work hard to create a real world opportunities with tangible publishing points for people, but expectations have to be realistic.

Technical difficulties have not helped, but we have done our upmost to ensure things run smoothly. Caption comps for instance is one piece of technology which no matter how hard we have tried, cannot be fixed.

We have taken some of your requests on board and when there is a new 4Laugh's person we will hopefully bring back some of the good stuff.

It's been great that we've been able to create such an enthusiastic community, it would be a shame for people to lose faith now!

If you want to ask me something, just give me a shout 4laughs@channel4.com

Fay

Great response Fay and many thanks.

It is difficult to post ideas about the future of the site, without it sounding like a criticism of the present and I hope that it didn't sound like whining.

I really want to see this place blossom and constructive and creative criticism is the way to do it.

I am behind it 100% and look forward to seeing what is in store.

I have been on this site a few times and in a way it frustrates me how chummy/ cliché everyone is, for example everything that’s on the test bed gets comments like, great work, well done, nice one, LOL etc. Now this is good in a way but I truly don't believe everything on there is funny. Now I’m not saying that stuff doesn’t deserve to get posted or we should slag each other off or make enemies but when I put things on there it’s because I want feedback from people who have an idea of comedy and may have some critical points of view I can use to develop my work. For example if you don’t find it funny say so and say why.

I think the way this site will grow is if people who join know they are going to get something out of it rather then just a thumbs up, well done, pat on the back. Otherwise we’re all going to turn into “that” person who goes on the x factor auditions, get humiliated and says “but all my friends say I can sing!!!!!”

I’m not that worried about the WOOs myself but I would be more interested in putting work on the site if I felt it would be productive for me, it would be nice to know someone from the industry, including the 4laughs team had seen it and given an opinion

I hope this hasn’t made me sound like a tw*t

No, you don't sound like one of those Goddard. But, Im afraid I can't control how people react in the Test Bed.

However, please remember, 4Laughs is not a talent scout for Channel 4 - we are here to encourage, develop and give opportunities to everyone to get your work published with the biggest names we can.

But, to give people an outlet for your creativeness which is a bit more regular, we are handing the keys over to the lunatics (Seth Geko)...

I will be back with more news shortly...

Check out the 2 new posts...

I really hope you like them.