Ok so I honestly don't know enough to comment much although I have some feedback in a bit, but I do want to raise a bunch of style issues.
Hey Electric Monk,
Thanks for your comments-they're welcome.
"I assume you're writing this MS Word and copy/pasting it, hence
Code:
[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3](8)[/SIZE][/FONT] [/FONT][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]
that stuff cluttering up the text when I go to quote it (which is overlarge for me personally) and possibly results in a number of missing paragraph breaks that you also have. I don't know if you have a Mac or Windows machine but there a number of nice Mac writing programs (free, even) that I could point you to and I'm sure there are some Windows one as well. MS Word always screws up the formatting.
Furthermore the lack of bolding or italics or double paragraph breaks makes it too easy to jump into the next segment without realizing it's the next segment."
You're write-I was using MS Word. I have a windows machine and I'll look in to the possibility of using another programme for writing my updates (I did think of doing notes in word and then updating on the site, though the trouble is my Laptop times out when I've been writing a post for a while.
"Now please don't take that personally, it's just style critiques much of which is subjective
and I rather like this timeline despite jumping to wikipedia every minute."
Glad you're enjoying it!
"Ok, comments:
Although I absolutely need the footnotes to follow along they threaten to overwhelm the rest of the timeline. Some of them can probably be cut (anything mentioning the future) or trimmed down (alternate careers can have a wiki link to their original one) but I understand that most of the audience needs them and its a fine balancing act."
I like the idea of using wiki links, though I considered posting the notes sepeerately from the rest of the TL.
"Any chance you'll be able to find some samples of this kind of thing online? I know the BBC online archives suck out loud, but there are decent fan collections of specific programs (oh Just A Minute, how I love you) and it'd be cool—especially for a radio timeline—if we could listen to some stuff."
I can provide a few links. I did try and attach the clip of Simon Bates saying he was fired directly on to the site, burt it wouldn't let me.
Instead, here's a link on Simon Bates's time at radio 1:
http://radiorewind.co.uk/radio1/simon_bates_page.htm
Problem is, there are loads of audio links-the one's you'll be looking for (from the last show) will be near the bottom of the page.
You'll also need to register with them in order to download the audio files, but they hardly ever sendany emails.
"Ouch for the BBC, at least in the beginning. So they keep some viewers but draw out their modernization program… at what cost I suppose is the question."
The cost will be huge-it was IOTL after all.
They keep their viewers for a very limited amount of time. Beerling isn't completely aposed to making changes, but he's far from singing from the same hymn sheet as his higher-ups (or his most famous presentation staff). He's caught slap bang in the middle of it, makingmore gradual changes (with a lot more reluctance than Bannister OTL). Had he been either on-side with the modernisers or on-side fully with the traditionalists, things wouldn't be as bad. Trevor Dan being appointed as Deputy under Beerling only exasibates things further, he'll be taking over from Beerling when he steps down too, bringing about a drastic change at a time when things are even more unsettled than OTL (which is saying quite something).
As said before, he's been at radio 1 since the launch and therefore knows (and is extremely loyal) to many of the people John Burt wants to get rid of, a problem Bannister obviously lacked as a new arrival.
"I did enjoy it (Kermode!), but I had to cover my eyes screaming "Spoilers!!!". I don't think I'm used to timelines jumping that far into the future
.