In the last week, the BBC have announced that their community website Get Writing will be closing after April 2005. Predictably, there has been a massive backlash from the users of the site, who use it to publish their works and comment on each others’ writings. Their efforts to keep the site open have so far included a petition and an iCan campaign (ironically using another of the BBC’s websites).
Presumably, the site is being closed due to failing a “sufficient public value” test. Why this is, I have no idea. If you ask me (or the users of the site), it has been providing a much-needed educational community service helping aspiring writers to develop their skills and style. The site has attracted lots of under-25s, as well as older people, many of whom are unlikely to ever ‘get published’ but surely benefit educationally, and get a lot out of it in the way of ‘personal development’.
I joined a similar writing crit-club when I was 16, as part of AOL. It was run by a volunteer (unpaid but getting free subscription) on behalf of AOL, and, like Get Writing, was eventually shelved by AOL. The group did manage to continue without AOL’s support, not needed many resources as it ran on e-mail distribution lists, but the setback was a real blow to the members.
If you ask me, community sites like Get Writing are exactly what the BBC should be doing. They are enormously rewarding for the users, and provide the BBC with a pool of creative talent they can use when trying to develop new programming ideas (through competitions, members of Get Writing have helped to write scripts that the BBC have recorded).
Whilst sites like Get Writing can take considerable resources to run, the amount of effort that goes into setting them up is even greater, and it seems a shame to waste all the work that has already gone into the site. Emily and the team of editors have done a great job with the site, and I’m sure that they’re as gutted as most of the users.
Whilst the likelihood of the site being saved is small, I hope that the user-led campaign is successful.
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