MITMVC Site changes!

Attention all MITM VC members,
I noticed that the site design looked different. there is no more picture of Malcolm and the family, and the "Watch and Download' Button is missing, and the 'Malcolm in the Middle' logo is not the one from before it looks different and kinda fake and sloppy, was it re-done in paint, because no offense, it looks awful!.:s :confused:
Why did all this happen? It doesn't make the site look as professional and there is an empty space that looks useless. I hope TJ can fix this soon! :(

I have P.M.ed him asking why. If you have opinions or comments, or theories of why these changes happened, feel free to post.
(My guess is that it had something to do with FOX)

deweyinthemiddle :(
 
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MITM_Fan

Member
Damn you FOX!

I don't understand them, they are so over-protective and still they don't care about releasing the DVDs.

Like I said if ABC pays the winner in Wipeout 50,000 dollars then why can't FOX do the same to the artists? do they think it's not worth it? :cursing:

By taking away that picture at the top the forum has lost some quality. But tjpeople can put the gallery at the top this way we still can see, screenshots / photos and stuff.

It won't fully restore but it will sure help alot putting the gallery at the top.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
This is something I had to do. A new image will be added some point in the future.

I welcome suggestions for a different logo font.
 
Crap! Stupid Fox! Why do they care about it now? It's been on there for a long time! The show ended 4 years ago and they might not ever release the DVDs and they just care about using the unofficial logo on a fan site? Seriously FOX? C'mon, let's be sensible. Oh, and I agree with what MITM_Fan said above. :(
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
I only noticed now, because I cleared my browser cache! Yes, it's a shame we had to do it, but I had seen it coming after we got word from Fox and discussed among our staff - I think we can spill some of the beans now.

Actually, given the reputation of the big shots for clamping down on lots of sites, even getting removed brief 'Malcolm' tribute or 'set piece' clips of less than a minute or so on YouTube or Megavideo, or lots of poor kids' Harry Potter websites because they reproduce stills and some audio or video, I've been uneasy about this ever since I started getting involved in this site.

It's bad enough as it is, but I wish we could work out a compromise and would at least expect them to see we're extremely serious about what we do and could be (in fact, are) doing them a great service promotionwise.

I mean, look at their own site: http://www.fox.com/malcolm/

It's terribly outdated, with only the journal being complete, and all the media links are as dead as a doornail. The '4 Emmy nominations' they report on their home page are actually from 2003; they didn't even bother to change one nomination to a win, for the great editing of the series by Mark Scheib and Steve Welch! In fact the entire series got 26 Emmy nominations and 7 Emmy awards!

The same with the official BBC site that doesn't go beyond Season 3!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/malcolm/welcome.shtml

But being humongous as they are, they're not even paying attention to the nitty-gritty and come down on every single MITM-related site with their indiscriminate web crawlers and standard statements of violation. Talking about destruction of fan communities!

Rich
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
This is something I had to do. A new image will be added some point in the future.

I welcome suggestions for a different logo font.

Perhaps we could ask Jason Holm (known for his free work as Kodiak and Jaleho) to do a professional logo and more. He's a really great cartoonist/designer/animator.

His favourite bands are They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Hanson and Green Day, so I guess there's some kind of kinship! :D

It actually took some time to track him down: http://www.inflatablestudios.com/

Rich
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
Yeah Richie, that's a good idea asking him, it's not my type of animation I like but sure he'll make me/us happy.:)

So, what would be yours? ;) It's just that I felt caricature characters in this MAD-like style would go well with a series like MITM, not dark fantasy, manga or hyperrealism for instance. I guess the great real MAD adaptations by Tom Richmond (see our Gallery) are a bit beyond our means?

Anyway, just out of interest.

Rich
 

MITM_Fan

Member
Richie, I said basically I prefer the Japanese animation rather than America's, France or whatever country, can't compare animation to anime because anime wins easily.

You know him, he'll do a nice job then it sure will do it.:)

Btw, I did not refer the country animation that I liked, but you understand what I mean.
 
Yes, i would like to see that too! Also, if he could re-design the logo, too, that would be awsome! I mean have you taken a close look.....not exactly the best, but ok for right now, but I expect it can be improved in the future.
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
Richie, I said basically I prefer the Japanese animation rather than America's, France or whatever country, can't compare animation to anime because anime wins easily.

You know him, he'll do a nice job then it sure will do it.:)

Btw, I did not refer the country animation that I liked, but you understand what I mean.

Actually, it is as if he's reading our minds - he can do a number of styles! This is his Taylor Hanson in Loony Tunes, Manga and Fantasy comic book styles!

:D

Well, I guess I'll take it up in a while!

Rich
 

AlexTheMartian

New member
usually entertainment companies do not take action on fan site's use of their images unless there is something specifically unique with the site that they don't like. However, from what I can find by googling to see if there is web pages companies post fan sites rules & regulations, I came across one from what I guess is a video game company (or could be comics, i don't know), and they seem to completely ban any fan sites that use Google Ads, as they say all fan sites of their materials must be non-profit, non-revenue generating. Does that have anything to do with why we can't use the images/logos? Here is the site i got that from, I'll see if FOX has anything similar http://www.white-wolf.com/fansites/fs_guidelines.php
 

AlexTheMartian

New member
Here is a good article about this very problems that were happening with The Simpsons fan sites a decade ago: http://animatedtv.about.com/od/foxnetwork/i/foxfans.htm

The article shows that some fan sites were able to survive, even with full episode guides and many pictures throughout the site, for example http://www.snpp.com/

Maybe we can learn lessons from what happened in the past. I highly suggest we do everything we can to keep the site legal and acceptable to FOX, or at least put it out of their radar
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
Thanks , Alex.

http://animatedtv.about.com/od/faqs/f/faqwebsite.htm

So what it boils down to is that the 'legal' Simpsons Archive (snpp) is fundamentally a text-only site, where scenes are described, and no images shown, except perhaps a few images offered by Fox for free distribution. I had suspected as much. This is for the die-hard buffs willing to read reams of notes and interpret them, not for those with a visual mind.

I can see why, but it is really odd because TV is all about visuals, and the so-called official sites (Fox, BBC, syndication) offer hardly any publicity stills or other appealing multimedia. None of them have a real interest in promoting MITM, because it's bygone business for the creators, and the syndicates do everything the cheapest way possible.

Also, yes, what apparently is very problematic is that we do make money off this site with Google Ads. If we'd just redistributed everything as a comic book collector would be showing off his hobby just for the heck of it (disinterestedly), there would be less of a hassle I reckon.

Rich
 

AlexTheMartian

New member
Well, as someone who also webmasters, I know, it is near impossible to run a site without making some kind of money in order to pay for hosting. That is the unfortunate thing :(

However, I do not think FOX mentioned anything about the site's revenue in their letter
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
Thanks, Rich. It's sad though, and BBC stopped showing the it after series/season 3!:( Fox took down all the links including http://songs.lifeisunfair.net/ which had all the songs They Might Be Giants contributed to the show.

At least it's there in archived form. I still use it sometimes, though all info is outdated and never got beyond Season 3:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050211092043/http://songs.lifeisunfair.net/

Again, we have to remember that the Web Archive aka Wayback Machine doesn't normally store multimedia, except for isolated cases with smallish pictures (that's how I could fill in a lot of the Gallery scans and descriptions); archiving multimedia takes up too much space and requires too much data mining.

Rich
 
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