How does the future for followmy.tv look like?
FMTV at the moment
Followmy.tv has been around since January 2010, created out of love for Television and desperately in need of a decent agenda to keep track of our favourite episodes. Our main goal was to create a platform to get people to follow, share and talk about their favorite TV Shows. Fast forward 5 years later: we've created a community of 52 342 members, over 6000 of them using followmy.tv on a daily base. We could not have dreamed a greater gift. Thank you!
People who've been around since our start already know we hardly make any statements about followmy.tv. In fact: we only make statements if we feel we need to. This is because our platform is very powerful: It can survive without any moderation. That's all because a lot of people have the same feeling as we do; A lot of people love their TV shows and have a need for a platform to keep track of them, talk about them and to introduce them to friends. This is also the reason why we’re creating this blog; because we still believe in this. Even more: We’re taking the Followmy.tv experience to the next level.
New Updates
The site was originally built on top of the CakePHP 1.3 framework. We started moving to the 2.x version of that framework a couple of years ago. Recently 3.0 came out and we ended up deciding to rebuild the entire site from the ground up. With that in mind, we do have several new features planned and here are a couple of them:
- OAuth2 API: A fully open API that developers can use to create cool things
- Native mobile apps: Planning on ios and android
- Lists: A cool new way to discover tv shows in a unique way
- Groups: Form groups to discuss and share your favorite tv shows with your closest friends.
- Discussions: A better way to communicate with fans.
The entire new website will use its own OAuth2 API to communicate with the back-end. Which means that you as a developer will have full creative freedom and making cool things to integrate with followmy.tv!
Our goal is to get all of this done by the end of the year.
Kenny
Since the early beginning we have received tons of mails, tweets, Facebook messages,.. so we decided to introduce Kenny Leys (SilentAlarm) on board of our team to manage our social media platforms. He'll be responsible for keeping our instagram, facebook and twitter up-to-date with the latest news, throwbacks, behind the scene footage and much more. Make sure to follow every single one of them!
Jasper
Jasper and I founded followmy.tv almost 5 years ago. We had this grand idea and we made it reality. Everything you see on your screen was designed by Jasper and he did an amazing job. Due to other work & life responsibilities, Jasper is stepping down from the team. Thanks you for all your hard work Jasper, you will be missed!
UI Designer
At the moment we’re back a 2-man operation but we’re hoping to expand soon! If you are a software developer with plenty experience in CakePHP (or PHP in general) or if you are an awesome UI designer, please drop us an email on info@followmy.tv.
Thanks
We've said it before; Followmy.tv will keep going on as long as we’re existing. All of this thanks to every awesome user out there. We’d like to end this post with a special thanks to all of the users that have donated, without you guys/girls Followmy.tv would not be have been possible to maintain.
Keep track of our social media, we’ll be back soon.
Comments
@walterbishop A watchlist is a great call, I've thought that too. I've had to bookmark save titles to I remember I want to see them.
Also Like they mentioned Lists. I though this side would be good for Creating list where you can rank your favorite shows, and favorite in different genres and therefore other can get recommendations basted on similar taste to you.
Awesome blogpost! Thank you guys for everything!
I'd love to have a watchlist (my shows-i-have-to-watch-list is indredibly long and it's hard to remember all of them :P), that would be really awesome.
Besides that I'm really happy with this site! Great Job!
I love followmy.tv and there are only 3 things i am missing:
- Multi-Language Support (I sometimes watch a Show in english AND german)
- Rewatch episodes (i've watched for example Fringe or Heroes Season 1 a couple of times)
- Native IOS/Android App
Otherwise: Great Job!
Thanks guys! I can't wait for new version on yours site :)
You could look at this site: https://www.tvshowtime.com and see some solutions :D
The only tv-tracking website that works for me. I use it more than daily!
But indeed, the possibility to watch episodes more than 1 time, would be helpful to see how much time I'm actually wasting :')
The two things I need:
- Possibility of rewatch episodes/shows.
- A wathchlist.
Loves API! i want to integrate followmy with Kodi, Popcorntime etc..
The app would be so great, excited to once again hear from you guys. All the love!
Thanks for your hard work!
Great website! Very helpful!
Some ideas:
- For some series (Stargate SG1 for example) run in the same universe as other series (Stargate Atlantis). But some episodes must be seen in a very specific order, so allowing custom fan-made lists would be awesome!
-Allowing to start a series (south-park for example) while ignoring the previous seasons.
Cool, especially looking forward to the android app, would be really neat! Keep it up, guys :)
Glad your back on track, after downtime and DB loss was thinking about all the time FMTV helped me with episode lists.
Some ideas:
1. Let community to edit episode info, actors and etc. That data is coming from users, like IMDb is user base database.
2. Add VIP support status, as developer, it's hart to see you struggle with updates.
Can't wait for API :)
Looking forward to the changes and congrats on your continued success. This is one of my favorite TV show tracking sites.
Awesome, I'm really excited about the app and other new functions coming. I love this site, it is the only way I'm able to keep track of everything I watch. No other one compares.
I had tried tons of TV tracking sites, and out of all of them, this was the one that works best for me. I love this site so much and can't wait for these new updates! If I could make a suggestion, however, I wish there was some way to have the community submit synopses and screenshots for the many episodes that do not have them. This way it would be easier to maintain the massive amount of shows on this site. I also have noticed that on certain shows, the episode title will be correct, but the episode synopsis will be wrong and/or mismatched with another episode. The community maintained system would also help with this. Please and thank you
YES! I've been hoping to get an Android app. Thank you!
I agree with most of the previous comments. In my opinion, the site's strong points are:
1. The very clear, accessible and easy-view dashboard;
2. Its user-friendliness;
3. The TVRage integration.
I may not be in any position to ask this, but please don't change the dashboard too much. I've tried multiple similar sites to yours and pretty much all of them use huge pictures, sometimes even without the title of the series on them, making for a very chaotic view. On FMTV all you need is one quick glance and you know what's up.
I also like how other people describe the site as 'simple'. I prefer to call it user-friendly. Calling it simple doesn't convey enough respect towards what's under the hood. On the other hand, people calling it 'simple' also proves how effective the current UI is. Again, please, don't change the UI too much. Like another user said before me - this site doesn't need any drastic overhauls of any kind.
The TVRage integration also works pretty well. It isn't perfect, though. I often see duplicate episodes, wrong scheduled episode times and occasionally no episodes at all.
My next point appears to be something you're already planning. Discussion, community, etc. It would, indeed, be a nice welcome to have a more accessible way to communicate with other users on the site itself - not talking about social media.
Tying in to something you said in the post: "This is because our platform is very powerful: It can survive without any moderation."
This is indeed a feat not to be underestimated. However, because there isn't really anything like a forum or chatroom, your blog isn't updated on a regular basis and a lot of series don't have pictures and summaries, I have to admit that I thought this site was 'dead'. Simply running on its framework and the TVRage database. I'm glad to read it isn't.
I could say plenty more, but I'm out of characters, so I'll conclude with a thank you.
Thank you very much for making it easier for us to track our series!
Good news!
I hope that you remains the best tv-tracking-calendar site online. I love it simple as it is. :))))
Great work guys !!! awesome news
That sounds really great. If you want to help with development of iOS app just let me know ;)