The Strictly Spoiler

Well here we are again, it’s the end of the series at least as far as spoilers are concerned with just one more spoiler to come in later today. The Strictly Spoiler has had another huge year and I’d like to say a few words. I’m not going to do an 8 minute long video this year that 5 of you will watch and only 2 of you will watch in full though so instead here’s a post that hopefully you will all take the time to read.

I really didn’t think anything would top off 2014. That was a huge year when The Strictly Spoiler that I’d been posting to my personal blog since 2012 as a bit of fun suddenly got what I considered then to be massive interest. So massive that my previous web host couldn’t cope with the traffic. It took me by surprise just how much interest it was starting to get and I was blown away by the traffic my site was getting all of a sudden. However 2015 has just completely blown that out the water.

The Strictly Spoiler has received more views in 2015 alone than my blog has since 2007. Last year there was about 250,000 views attributed to The Strictly Spoiler. This year there will have been over a million after this weekend. I am completely blown away by how much this site has grown. When I first started to do this I did it purely as a bit of fun. I got a few hundred and occasionally a thousand or so views over a Strictly Weekend and I was pleased with that. I was also pleased (not to mention very surprised) when in 2014 I started getting about 30-40,000 views over a Strictly Weekend. At it’s peak in 2015 the Strictly Spoiler received over 180,000 views which to me is a mind boggling number. I never expected for this to become as popular as it has and I still can’t believe that so many of you come to a website I produce to read the content I produce.

Despite the success we’ve had a few dark times. Week 2 for the 1st Elimination was the first time The Strictly Spoiler got it partially wrong. I’ve spoken in depth about how and why that happened and what I’ve done to increase transparency about where each week’s spoiler has come from so you know if it is likely to be right. An overwhelming number of you supported me through that on here, Twitter and on Facebook.

Also with this site’s growth has come the attention of the BBC who in November launched an attack on The Strictly Spoiler resulting in the removal of the Facebook page I’d launched this year. This annoyed me to no end not least because I’d spent nearly £100 of my own money advertising the page to grow it into the community it had become and it also gave people somewhere on social media where they could discuss the spoiler without risking spoiling it for people who didn’t want to be spoiled. Also the BBC, as a publicly funded broadcaster, have no right to be curtailing my right to Freedom of Speech. I get that the BBC aren’t happy that the results leak out however this is purely of their own doing and they could put a stop to it in a heartbeat by simply reverting to a live results show. Instead they would rather use their corporate clout to bully an individual and have their content removed purely because they don’t approve of it. Quite a few of you, including a lot of names I recognised from Facebook, here and Twitter signed the petition I launched demanding this be reversed and it was reversed this week. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition and supported me and this site during this dispute with the BBC!

Moving on, there’s quite a few more people I would like to thank starting with the people who are actually reading this far into the post. You are the people who actually read and engage with the content I produce rather than reading the 2nd paragraph of the spoiler post and moving on as the majority do. This year we’ve had a record number of comments on here, on Facebook and on Twitter with people engaging with and discussing things with each other as well as me. I do read each and every comment I get and whilst I might not reply to them all I do take note of everything you guys say in the comments. This has become one of the nicer places to discuss Strictly with only a small minority making inappropriate comments about contestants or other users. I have taken a largely hands off policy with the moderation on here and you can count the comments that have been moderated on one hand so thanks to everyone who has commented but done so in a nice way despite differences of opinion. Given this site’s growth I may be looking into ways of improving the comments system for 2016 as the current one is pretty basic in terms of implementation and social features.

I also take note of the results of the polls (most of which have been won by Jay and Aliona this year) and often use stats from them when tweeting and facebooking along to the live shows. I ran a competition this year too which was my way of giving something back to the people that take the time to read the content and consequently actually noticed that there was a competition. The lucky winner will be enjoying their £50 amazon voucher in the next few days once entry has closed and the draw taken place! Hopefully if this site continues to grow I can offer bigger, better and more frequent competitions in 2016 and beyond.

I’d like to thank all of you who take the time to like and share the posts using the social networking buttons. I ask people to do this every week and a lot of you do. It is really important as it helps spread the word about the site and also helps out with a few behind the scenes things that I won’t bore you with. It is people like you who take the time to help spread the word who have contributed to this site’s continued growth and I am really grateful for all your clicks on the social buttons!

I also want to thank my sources. Most of you visiting this site won’t know this but a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to provide you all with a spoiler. I put a lot of work into maintaining this site and producing and promoting the content I produce however there are many more people at the forum where I usually obtain the spoiler from who put in much more work to source moles and provide the spoiler than I do and who are perfectly ok with me taking the spoiler from there to provide on this site. They appreciate my honesty as many other sources just take it without acknowledging it, or take it from here without acknowledging it. They also appreciate that I go to lengths to prevent the accidental spoiling of people who don’t want to be spoiled by not posting the result publicly to social networks and only posting it in the form of a clearly labelled link.

Without these people there wouldn’t be a spoiler here or indeed anywhere else on the internet. In particular a user called “Abigailsmum” puts in a lot of work organising the spoiler thread and finding audience moles and I, like everyone else on that forum, am truly grateful for the efforts she goes to in order to obtain and provide the spoiler.

Given how big 2015 has been for the Strictly Spoiler and how much it continues to grow I’m fully expecting to be blown away for 2016.  I have some future plans for this site obviously and I will also be looking at improving the comment feature for this site as a lot of discussion is now taking place on here.

Despite the BBC’s failed attempt at censorship, The Strictly Spoiler is going nowhere and it will be back bigger and better than ever in 2016 assuming the BBC doesn’t do something radical like a live results show. I will see you all then!

Complaints to the BBC!

I have what is kind of good news! The Strictly Spoiler is back on Facebook! If you weren’t already aware of why The Strictly Spoiler vanished from Facebook you can check out this post which details exactly what happened!

The BBC actually responded to my email I sent them after the Facebook page got taken down and agreed to reinstate the page. I’m not going to publicise their response in full  but there is a few things I have to report on from their response.

1. As suspected this was not remotely about Trademark but about the activities of this site and the associated social network pages. My email to the BBC spent several paragraphs addressing their supposed trademark issues and detailing numerous reasons why I was not in breach of their trademarks. The BBC’s response spent two short paragraphs discussing trademark before moving on to, and spending far more time discussing, what the crux of this matter is about: the fact the page was posting the results before the results show
2. The BBC spent a significant amount of their response talking about something this site said about where the spoiler comes from which was previously quoted as being through a network of audience moles with audience tickets to the show. The BBC (correctly) claim that audience members are requested not to disclose the results during the recording of the show in order to preserve “the dramatic experience” of the announcement of the results as though it were live
3. The BBC have requested that I refrain from posting the results either here or on any social network accounts under my control with a thinly veiled threat that they may revisit this issue in the future should they consider it necessary to do so.

So what is my position now? Well it is as follows

The fact that the BBC spent so little of their response addressing what was supposedly a trademark dispute has confirmed what I already knew. The BBC have no issue with the use of “Strictly” or “Strictly Come Dancing” but have an issue with the results leaking. Indeed the BBC state that they “encourage discussion about the show” including on various Facebook pages or groups which goes some way to explaining why other groups/pages that do infringe on BBC trademarks remained after my page was removed.

I need to make a couple of things perfectly clear from the offset. Firstly with regards where the spoiler comes from each week. I source the spoiler from other websites, discussion forums or social networking. The vast majority of the time the spoiler comes from a spoiler thread on a forum I visit. This has been discussed before both here and on the forum in question and I make no secret of this although I have now clarified this further in the about page of this site. As such the spoiler is already in the public domain prior to my posting it here and I am merely disseminating information that is already readily available elsewhere online if you know where to look. Furthermore whilst audience members are “requested” not to divulge the results prior to the results show this is merely a request and there is no obligation to honour this request. Audience members are not required to sign a non disclosure agreement nor is secrecy demanded as a term of entry.

Putting aside the thinly veiled threat which basically boils down to the BBC saying you can have your page back but if you continue to post results before the results show we may take it off you again, there is not even a question of me stopping doing this. When I first started to do this it was purely a bit of fun as I found it ridiculous that the BBC would think it would be a good idea to record results in front of an audience a full day before broadcasting them and then expecting them to stay secret in a day and age when information can be transmitted globally in the blink of an eye. This hasn’t changed and the fact that this issue with Facebook occurred means I now have the BBC’s attention which could lead to what I (and many visitors to this site) want to happen which is a live results show. The fact remains that the BBC could stop the results leaking out in a heartbeat by simply reverting to a live results show. And despite the fact that I would suffer a drop in traffic to this site as a result and therefore a drop in income this would still make me very happy.

Even if the BBC didn’t revert to a live results I still feel that there is room to simply accept the situation and tolerate what I do. The BBC raised a concern that by posting the results this prevents license fee payers from enjoying the results show as though it were live. However there are several license fee payers that don’t want to wait for the results show, myself included. However I accept this is a minority. Last weekend this website received visits from approximately 60,000 individual visitors. The results show receives close to 11,000,000 viewers. This site really isn’t impacting on license fee payers enjoying the results show. Indeed many of this site’s visitors, myself included, still watch the results show despite already knowing the results. The BBC in their response stated that they could clearly see that I am an avid fan of Strictly Come Dancing and that is true. I enjoy the show, I look forward to the winter months when it is on the air and long may the series continue. And as someone who loves the show, if I thought that what I was doing was damaging the show in any way for one minute then I would stop doing it.

Additionally I am extremely considerate towards people who don’t want to view the spoiler allowing those who want to wait for the results to enjoy the results show as though it is live. Despite being very active on social media it is very hard for someone seeing my posts who doesn’t want to be spoiled to be spoiled by me directly. All my social media posts take the form of a link to this site which people can make a choice whether to click on or not. This policy is very similar to my source’s policy where they repeatedly ask people not to discuss the spoiler outside the specific spoiler thread on the forum in question. Yes you are always going to get one or two idiots posting the spoiler publicly on official pages/hashtags like the person operating on twitter using the same name as this site but these are a minority and I do my hardest to ensure that despite posting a spoiler on social networking, it isn’t viewed by anyone who doesn’t want to see it. There is no reason why two groups of Strictly fans, those who want to wait and those who don’t can’t exist at the same time without causing issues for each other. I would also submit that it is the people posting the results publicly to social media such as the person referred to earlier on Twitter that the BBC should be targeting and not someone who is considerate of all Strictly viewers and only posts the spoiler in the form of a clearly labelled link.

Which leads me on to the next thing. Once the spoiler comes in, one thing that people invariably want to do is talk about it. Now that talk can be publicly on Facebook or Twitter which causes problems for all. Or there can be a dedicated place for people to discuss the spoiler. Both this site and the Facebook page are clear places where people can discuss the spoiler without worrying about spoiling it for someone who doesn’t want to be spoiled. Anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled who visits a Facebook page or website called The Strictly Spoiler obviously knows (or should know) what they are getting into. And isn’t it far better that those Strictly fans who don’t want to wait for the results have somewhere dedicated to discuss the spoiler rather than discussing it openly for all to see.

Let’s not also forget the TV spoilers are hardly a new thing. It’s hard to go a week without some newspaper reporting on spoilers for shows like Game of Thrones such as people who are dead but actually aren’t! Or upcoming soap plot lines including Eastenders. What this site does is little different. And again this comes to the whole two groups of viewers thing. Those who like to read spoilers so they have some idea of what to expect from an episode and those who go in blind. As long as the people who view the spoilers are considerate and don’t go around telling everyone what they have read then no harm is done and both groups of people still get to enjoy the show.

It’s my hope that the BBC will see that this site and its social media channels aren’t actually doing any harm to them or indeed the Strictly Come Dancing brand. They’re providing a service to those who want to read spoilers allowing them to enjoy the results show in the way they want to whilst still keeping the results away from those who want to wait and go in blind. They’re also giving people who have read the spoilers somewhere where they are free to discuss them without upsetting anyone. Maintaining the status quo satisfies both types of viewer all of whom pay the license fee to fund the BBC and all of whom have the right to enjoy the content the BBC produces in whatever way they prefer.

I really want to continue to do this for as long as the BBC chooses to pre record the results show. Among other things it’s my way of protesting a decision which I find ludicrous in this day and age. However I also don’t want to be constantly looking over my shoulder worrying the BBC are going to take action against me or the content I put on social media. I have enough to worry about at the moment as it is and I have also made my feelings on the BBC taking action against me quite clear and have made it clear that I feel it amounts to censorship from a public body. Many visitors to this site agree. I can, and I will, make waves should the BBC consider it necessary to censor me again, after all I have a large enough audience to do so, however I hope this does not become the case. See I can do thinly veiled threats too!

Apologies for the length of this post which has turned into an open letter to the BBC. I’m sure there’s about 10 of you reading this far anyway 4 of whom work for the BBC!

No complaints to the BBC. I’m extending an olive branch here. Now let’s hope they take it!