Jump to content

What Happened with TVNewsTalk?

Weeters
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Popular Post
Weeters Station Group CEO

Weeters 1969

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

Hello everyone,

 

I'm sure many of you are wondering what's been going on with the site for the last couple weeks. While I don't even have all the answers, I figured it'd be useful to explain a bit about what happened and where we're going from here.

 

First, a little history. I have never been in control of the tvnewstalk.net domain. Many years ago (we're talking like, at least 10 years back,) I ultimately inherited the responsibility of operating the site while a former administrator owned the domain. This, generally, was uneventful, except for a few instances where the domain registration lapsed and I had to poke them to get it renewed. This just kind of became the way things were, ownership of the domain never really came up, and slowly they stopped coming around the community.

 

Fast forward to 2024, when in late February/early March, anyone trying to visit the site via tvnewstalk.net was greeted with a page reading "Account Suspended". As far as I know, this was the "old" server (that was still operational, serving only to redirect visits to tvnewstalk.net to forums.tvnewstalk.net) going unpaid. Since the DNS for the domain still pointed forums.tvnewstalk.net to the server I control, the site stayed online and accessible. This issue had happened before, and to my recollection, resolved itself without me having to alert anybody. I was also getting quite busy with work, so I chose to just let it go. Since everything had forever been at forums.tvnewstalk.net, impacts on traffic from the redirect not working were extremely minor.

 

At the end of March, another problem arose. TVNewsTalk.net dropped off the Domain Name System. My assumption is this is related to the earlier "Account Suspended" issue, I guess the domain was registered through the host, and they removed it from their DNS when the bill (presumably) went unpaid. For most users, access to TVNT was cut off. This, however, happened slowly, as DNS servers took some time to update to process the removal. At least until a few days ago, we were still seeing people using the site via T-Mobile.

 

When the domain dropped off DNS, I reached out to another one of our former administrators, who I had gone through the last time I had to contact the domain owner. They attempted to make contact, and got no response. There was beginning to be a lot of noise in the community wondering what happened to the site, and there was even some sort of unauthorized crowdfunding campaign spun up. It was at this point I decided to take matters into my own hands, registered LocalNewsTalk.net, and began the process of moving the forum over. 

 

That's where we're at now. The site has been transferred over. There are still a few loose ends to tie up, but otherwise we're back in action. I do not know what will become of the TVNewsTalk.net domain that we've called home for almost 20 years. Perhaps it will return, some day, but for the foreseeable future, we're going to be here at localnewstalk.net.

 

Things still being worked on:

Email (Registration, Password Resets): Email has been changed over to the localnewstalk.net domain and should be working as intended. Check spam folder if you don't see an expected message.

Google Login: Changes submitted for review by Google Trust and Safety. Might be working.

Facebook Login: In Progress. Need to complete extra steps to re-enable this.

Discord Login: Should be working.

Forum Theme: There are a small handful of broken things due to an update I ran while the site was unavailable. 

 

 

Please feel free to leave any questions or concerns you may have below.

 

-Weeters

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 20
Megatron81 News Director

Megatron81 278

Posted
Posted

Glad you are back I thought it was just me getting the problems seem like everyone was having problems. Glad their fix now and back online.

  • Like 1
Vlad Station Group CEO

Vlad 330

Posted
Posted

Thank you Weeters for in a way bringing us back to our roots. (Early 2000s) If we all remember correctly this forum was originally born from an AOL or Yahoo Geocites page haha. if I vaguely remember and it was called Local News Discussion lol. So in away the new name, Local News Talk brings us back to our roots! Glad to be back!

  • Like 4
bmasters1 News Director

bmasters1 410

Posted
Posted
On 4/14/2024 at 7:06 PM, Weeters said:

Forum Theme: There are a small handful of broken things due to an update I ran while the site was unavailable.

 

Is one of them that the dark theme reverts back to light whenever I load up another part of the site?

SFTV News Director

SFTV 529

Posted
Posted

THIS!!!

 

I remember randomly

discovering this site and it felt like a safe space and knowing that there are so many people around the country and world who geek and nerd out on TV news. 😆

This site continues to Thrive and Grow!

 

On 4/18/2024 at 10:33 AM, Vlad said:

Thank you Weeters for in a way bringing us back to our roots. (Early 2000s) If we all remember correctly this forum was originally born from an AOL or Yahoo Geocites page haha. if I vaguely remember and it was called Local News Discussion lol. So in away the new name, Local News Talk brings us back to our roots! Glad to be back!

 

  • Like 3
Weeters Station Group CEO

Weeters 1969

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 4/18/2024 at 10:33 AM, Vlad said:

Thank you Weeters for in a way bringing us back to our roots. (Early 2000s) If we all remember correctly this forum was originally born from an AOL or Yahoo Geocites page haha. if I vaguely remember and it was called Local News Discussion lol. So in away the new name, Local News Talk brings us back to our roots! Glad to be back!

Even though this was kind of an "emergency" rebranding, that was a purposeful little nod to the site's history. That, and the fact that the media we talk about is growing beyond "TV" in the traditional sense.

 

19 hours ago, bmasters1 said:

 

Is one of them that the dark theme reverts back to light whenever I load up another part of the site?

I think there's something wonky going on with the caching (we're behind Cloudflare now, something else I've wanted to do for a while) that is causing this, I'm going to look into it further. 

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
nathannah Station Group CEO

nathannah 2493

Posted
Posted

I can confirm that logging in via Google worked just fine (along with my TVNT 2FA credentials, which I crossed my fingers would still work).

mre29 Station Group CEO

mre29 1552

Posted
Posted

Good to see the site's back, even if it's undergone a few changes in the process. Definitely not the first online community I've been a part of that's undergone changes over the years, and unlikely to be the last.

 

(I'd have chimed in sooner, but I moved from NH to CT and am cheerfully buried in things that need to be done.)

 

Nick Health Reporter

Nick 94

Posted
Posted

Everything looks great and thanks for keeping the faith and going the extra length to keep the forum going. There isn't anything like it elsewhere.

  • Like 4
  • 1 month later...
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using Local News Talk you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.