Current state of things
Hi Everyone,
I'm so amazed at this insane loyal userbase. It's so heartwarming to have built something that others continue to enjoy for years and years!
I would like to give everyone an update on the future of followmy.tv. In short, it's not going away, ever. This is my passion product and I will continue to keep it up in the air to the best of my capabilities.
As everyone knows by now, the current UI is very outdated and there haven't been any new features added in over 5 years. With the exception of the contribution system. The reason is that I have been working for the last 5 years on a new version. but due to the sheer size of this website and it's complex social business logic, it's a very big task to do as a single engineer.
To give you some history:
- The current live production version is running the CakePHP 1.3 framework.
- CakePHP 2.x was released and Jasper and I started an effort to migrate the website to 2.x.
- Jasper also started working on a brand new front-end UI which was going to be amazing.
- Then life happened, I started an immigration process to the United States and both Jasper and I kinda lost interest in TV Shows and generally building apps in our free time.
- We both were working full time and eventually CakePHP 3.x came around. Again a new version we had to migrate this huge application to. sigh..
- I finalized my move to the US and Jasper officially left the team. The core team went from 2 to 1.
- Several years went on where I started focussing on personal health and other life events that were more important.
During all these years when I had some downtime to work on followmy.tv, it was mostly dedicated to maintaining data request, fixing issues. There was no time left in building the new version and the efforts kinda fizzled out. The whole tvrage.com outage was a disaster that almost destroyed followmy.tv.
As for the future, the good news is that I started moving the entire codebase again to a more modern language with a better database engine. I've also started work on a brand new front-end that uses React.JS. I'm also developing the API side-by-side the web app.
In a new effort to get the new version out. I decided to from now on, to no longer add new features to the current live followmy.tv version. I will also be more strict in moderating the new show addition request, only tv shows that are from the major networks will be considered.
I'm doing this so I will have more free time to actually build a better version of the website you all love so much. I want this to be a success, I want to build new cool features for all of you, I want to have the API in place so we can finally move into the mobile app space.
I work full time, so the only thing I ask from this community is to have patience :-). I'm working on a new version. I don't know yet when it will be launched, but when it does, it will be fantastic!
This is the best thing I've built in my life. And I'm especially thankful to all the members that consistently provide feedback, submit show suggestions, and contribute to all the show, episode pages. Followmy.tv wouldn't be what it is today without all of you!
Best, Sarah (Lemon)
Comments
Thank you, this website is fantastic. Go on and rocks!
Thank you for the work. I really enjoy this website, i use it every day ! <3
@basmian Thank you so much for the feedback. It's super valuable to me! I will definitely keep a minimalistic design. I'm developing the API alongside the new front-end with the mobile app in mind :)
@Rajce06 I'm planning to expand that feature with allowing you to make many private lists including a default pinned list.
Keep up the good work for all the tv-show lovers, great job!
Thank you for this, this page is a must have for tv shows maniacs! :) And just one request for the new version...please keep pinned shows, I really like it. :)
Thank you for the update @Lemon, all your hard work on this wonderful site is much appreciated.
I use this site every day and If you want some help to speed things up, I would be more than happy to handle reviewing new show contribution requests.
please understand, the best part of the website is the simple layout and easy to use as compared to other websites. Fancy does not always mean easy! keep it simple! Its good at one thing keep it the same. I would rather focus on a mobile app of Followmy.tv
Good luck!
Thank you for your work. I'm software enginner in Brasil and i wish help you to develop the new version of site. Can we talk?
We are behind you, and if we can help, ask. I,to be honest, dont have problems with the old interface but i understand the need to update the site! Good luck! We will be here whenever you get around to changing it!
Keep on going Sarah. Been using the site for years. I've tried otherrs, but i'm always coming back for this site. I'll stay here for a long time if you permit me too ;)
Thank you!
Thank you! i'm always loyal for this website.
Thank you!!
i'm a programmer too and i know how hard is to manage work and personal projects. thank you
Thanks for the update, really nice to hear the site isn't going anywhere. I personally don't mind "the wait" since even in its current state Followmy.tv has all the features I want and need. :)
Although I am disappointed in the change to new show additions as even more obscure shows should be allowed. Only allowing shows from big networks seems much too American-userbase centric as the site surely has a more worldwide userbase that would like to see their shows added. Hopefully this will change in the future to better help complete the selection available.
Keep doing what you do. I'll be along for the ride, as I've been for the last 7ish years :)
Excuse me but WTF is in it for you that you cling on to it and refuse to open source it? It has been suggested in past threads like this. Not sure if I remember correctly but there are not even ads on here? I mean I use a adblocker anyway. And open sourcing would not give your userbase or this website away so instead of going on explaining how you restrict and lower down things how you are basically only one core person now you should do the opposite, you should invite people and grow bigger, get in new features in fast people will help you for free, the comments show that ... just by opening this up.
Like some of the previous commentators, I would suggest to publish this project as open source. I would definetly be willing to help. I have some experience with Webdevelopment (also ReactJS). Just open a repo on github, so even if someone just has time to take care of a little issue, this would be possible with github.
love this site! thanks!