Breaking! HUGE news concerning the forums, future, and you
Apr 1, 2014 11:36:36 GMT -5
gamedude2330, MarioGS, and 2 more like this
Post by Prizes on Apr 1, 2014 11:36:36 GMT -5
Hey, everyone. We have some big news to share...VERY big news...And no, we’re not trying to spoil another million dollar win or reveal a new wedge...yet.
For the past week or so, CU, Mario and I have been in talks with some very important people via numerous Emails and phone calls regarding what will likely be one of the greatest business propositions of our lives. In fact, this is so important that we needed to be given the OK by these people to make this announcement.
Who have we been in talks with, you ask? That would be none other than Sony Pictures Entertainment, owner of Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and other big TV shows. It all started when each of us received an envelope in the mail addressed from Wheel of Fortune. I was ecstatic thinking that it was a delayed letter of acceptance into the show’s contestant pool. However, the letter was not regarding that, but after reading it, I wasn’t disappointed...at all. The letter informed me that Wheel’s staff has been keeping a close eye on the site for a while now (they were especially aware that Emil DeLeon was a member and would likely become an Internet star for his amazing solve a la Caitlin Burke, which could only mean great things for our site, of course) and they see the potential in the site becoming the definitive place for Wheel Watchers after the drop in traffic and interest in their official message boards, which Sony recently gave up on and dropped altogether. See for yourself: boards.sonypictures.com is now a dead link. In the wake of this deletion, Wheel is in the process of partnering with ProBoards to brand Buy a Vowel Boards as the official Wheel of Fortune forum. ProBoards was approached with the idea even before we were, and it’s really safe to say that this will benefit them just as much as it does us. You’ll see what I mean by this in a bit.
The days after receiving our letters were filled with Email conversations between us three and Wheel, plus ProBoards when necessary. There are going to be a LOT of new features with this site upgrade. One that we’re really excited about is that Pat Sajak, Vanna White, Jim Thornton, Bob Cisneros (the show’s current director), John Lauderdale (the show’s stage manager who has worked with the series since its “Shopper’s Bazaar” beginnings), and Harry Friedman (the executive producer, as I’m sure you all know by now) will all have special forum accounts where they will be able to post threads about what's going on at Wheel, threads looking for feedback, or just stuff going on in their lives in general. However, due to obvious legal reasons, their posting abilities will be limited. For one, they can only post replies on threads they created, so you won't see Pat or Harry replying to any questions or comments in recap threads, for example. Plus, they cannot accept any private messages, though ProBoards is planning to disable the PM feature altogether for these accounts when the time comes.
We haven’t even reached the best part about all this yet. Sometime hopefully next season (they're currently aiming for May sweeps 2015 at the earliest), Wheel will be having a "World Wide Web" theme week, sponsored in part by ProBoards. For this week, they will be the sponsor of the $1,000 Gift Tag on the Wheel, plus the show will feature at least one promo showing the ease and benefits of creating a message board with ProBoards. Not only that, but ProBoards is also sponsoring a “Tweetstakes” for the week. For those who don’t know or remember, a Tweetstakes is a type of sweepstakes Wheel has done a couple of times in the past where a partially-filled puzzle appears on the screen and Twitter users may tweet the solution to the show's official Twitter account, along with the appropriate hashtag in order to be eligible to win $500.
The week’s Friday episode, for the first time in years for Wheel, will not feature typical, all-new contestants. To celebrate and announce the start of a new means of communication among Wheel Watchers, us three (CU, Mario and I) will be the contestants, playing for charity, and as noted by Wheel staff, for what would otherwise be an obvious conflict of interest. Since Wheel hopes to have the week air in May 2015, we will probably be flying out to LA to film the episode sometime in February or March of that year. We have been told that if the week is a success, they will do it again in subsequent years and may consider selecting at least some of the week's contestants through a contest to be held on the forum when the time comes.
Words can’t express how excited we are about this. It shows how much the show truly does care about its fans even as it continually reigns supreme in the ratings. It’s so nice to see all of our efforts in improving the site and increasing its popularity in the game show community pay off, not just for us three, but for the rest of the staff and other quality members of BAV as well, from our humble beginnings in 2009, to where we are now, prominent, and show-affiliated, in 2014. We’ve come such a long way, and we couldn’t have done it without the continuing support from everybody here. We’re living the dream right now and we can’t thank you guys enough for helping shape a community devoted to an American icon, Wheel of Fortune. Merv Griffin would be proud.
If you have any questions about this, please ask and we’ll answer what we can. This is all still in pretty early stages so there’s still a lot more to discuss, so we can’t answer everything just yet.
For the past week or so, CU, Mario and I have been in talks with some very important people via numerous Emails and phone calls regarding what will likely be one of the greatest business propositions of our lives. In fact, this is so important that we needed to be given the OK by these people to make this announcement.
Who have we been in talks with, you ask? That would be none other than Sony Pictures Entertainment, owner of Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and other big TV shows. It all started when each of us received an envelope in the mail addressed from Wheel of Fortune. I was ecstatic thinking that it was a delayed letter of acceptance into the show’s contestant pool. However, the letter was not regarding that, but after reading it, I wasn’t disappointed...at all. The letter informed me that Wheel’s staff has been keeping a close eye on the site for a while now (they were especially aware that Emil DeLeon was a member and would likely become an Internet star for his amazing solve a la Caitlin Burke, which could only mean great things for our site, of course) and they see the potential in the site becoming the definitive place for Wheel Watchers after the drop in traffic and interest in their official message boards, which Sony recently gave up on and dropped altogether. See for yourself: boards.sonypictures.com is now a dead link. In the wake of this deletion, Wheel is in the process of partnering with ProBoards to brand Buy a Vowel Boards as the official Wheel of Fortune forum. ProBoards was approached with the idea even before we were, and it’s really safe to say that this will benefit them just as much as it does us. You’ll see what I mean by this in a bit.
The days after receiving our letters were filled with Email conversations between us three and Wheel, plus ProBoards when necessary. There are going to be a LOT of new features with this site upgrade. One that we’re really excited about is that Pat Sajak, Vanna White, Jim Thornton, Bob Cisneros (the show’s current director), John Lauderdale (the show’s stage manager who has worked with the series since its “Shopper’s Bazaar” beginnings), and Harry Friedman (the executive producer, as I’m sure you all know by now) will all have special forum accounts where they will be able to post threads about what's going on at Wheel, threads looking for feedback, or just stuff going on in their lives in general. However, due to obvious legal reasons, their posting abilities will be limited. For one, they can only post replies on threads they created, so you won't see Pat or Harry replying to any questions or comments in recap threads, for example. Plus, they cannot accept any private messages, though ProBoards is planning to disable the PM feature altogether for these accounts when the time comes.
We haven’t even reached the best part about all this yet. Sometime hopefully next season (they're currently aiming for May sweeps 2015 at the earliest), Wheel will be having a "World Wide Web" theme week, sponsored in part by ProBoards. For this week, they will be the sponsor of the $1,000 Gift Tag on the Wheel, plus the show will feature at least one promo showing the ease and benefits of creating a message board with ProBoards. Not only that, but ProBoards is also sponsoring a “Tweetstakes” for the week. For those who don’t know or remember, a Tweetstakes is a type of sweepstakes Wheel has done a couple of times in the past where a partially-filled puzzle appears on the screen and Twitter users may tweet the solution to the show's official Twitter account, along with the appropriate hashtag in order to be eligible to win $500.
The week’s Friday episode, for the first time in years for Wheel, will not feature typical, all-new contestants. To celebrate and announce the start of a new means of communication among Wheel Watchers, us three (CU, Mario and I) will be the contestants, playing for charity, and as noted by Wheel staff, for what would otherwise be an obvious conflict of interest. Since Wheel hopes to have the week air in May 2015, we will probably be flying out to LA to film the episode sometime in February or March of that year. We have been told that if the week is a success, they will do it again in subsequent years and may consider selecting at least some of the week's contestants through a contest to be held on the forum when the time comes.
Words can’t express how excited we are about this. It shows how much the show truly does care about its fans even as it continually reigns supreme in the ratings. It’s so nice to see all of our efforts in improving the site and increasing its popularity in the game show community pay off, not just for us three, but for the rest of the staff and other quality members of BAV as well, from our humble beginnings in 2009, to where we are now, prominent, and show-affiliated, in 2014. We’ve come such a long way, and we couldn’t have done it without the continuing support from everybody here. We’re living the dream right now and we can’t thank you guys enough for helping shape a community devoted to an American icon, Wheel of Fortune. Merv Griffin would be proud.
If you have any questions about this, please ask and we’ll answer what we can. This is all still in pretty early stages so there’s still a lot more to discuss, so we can’t answer everything just yet.
.