No, I don't mean these Crickets. Sadly, one's voice has been silenced forever, but the memories of their great sounds are still heard on many radio stations,not to mention your favorite 8-track player,in the Midwest.



Perhaps I mean these crickets? While many don't understand the procedures of these crickets, they are, nonetheless, often surrounded by cheering crowds and screaming fans.



Hmm. Not quite sure about this one. It seems fairly quiet, but I understand from experts that it can be surrounded by activity, especially as the holidays come closer.



No, the crickets of which I speak are filling the noiseless, inactive, white voids that have overtaken most of TV.com. They are the absence of life, the dearth of chatter, the unmoving lack of discussions on this site which used to be full of raucous conversation and lively debate. Sure, some of the threads would be active even if we were in the midst of nuclear winter or the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Some people can talk about nothing all day long, can't you? Admit it – you know who you are. But even some of the more popular features of this site have been abandoned by their most devoted fans.

Ask a Star: Seriously. I thought the staff was going to start submitting presidential debate questions to the people they've listed. Just imagine: "So, Selma Blair, what are your plans for jump-starting the economy?"

Popular Shows: Okay, maybe some of these forums are rightly abandoned as the shows have become less appealing to viewers. Or perhaps the editors have been a bit heavy-handed with the personal comments and the boards just aren't a place where show fans feel that actual intelligent discussion is welcome. Don't make me name names...

Genre Boards: Sci-fi geeks are a universal constant, and yet, the genre boards on the main forums page have been largely empty of new comments.

Extraterrestrial interference? The economy? Gas prices? What is the explanation?

My theory: large scale abandonment of the site since the so-called Redesign. Changes are glacially slow in coming, if they are actually coming (as earnestly promised in most recent days). The look of the site has not changed one iota since the blizzard of whiteness began. Editors still cannot control their forums. Adding information is no easier.

Even the most fervent users are running out of patience. People aren't trying to help anymore - I know I'm not after the most recent "your problem doesn't exist AND you're not posting about it in the right place anyway, so there" message I received. And why should we? Why should the users be bending over backward to do the designers' jobs for them? Beats me.

Hey, most companies or organizations would be trying desperately to attract users and to staunch the lemming-like hemorrhaging from this site. Go figure.

So, yes, these are the little critters of which I speak.



It's getting pretty loud in here, isn't it?

1. Redesign the look of pages. The tiny grey letters on the huge stark white background is very difficult to read, and the glare causes headaches and eye-strain. I spend perhaps 1/10th of the time here that I used to. The giant ad skins that surround the site pages are oddly cut off and nonsensical.

2. Return moderating tools to show editors. Editors must be able to lock and pin topic threads within their forums. This has made participating on busy forums almost impossible as current Episode Discussion threads are booted to the second page.

3. Add additional "Tracked Blogs" to the profile page. It is hard enough keeping up with Friends via this new system, having only four show up in the right panel on one's profile page is not NEARLY enough.

4. Fix the Add/Edit Cast/Crew so that importing or adding people to episodes is not a nightmare. Do you really want these guides to be complete?

5. Scroll bars, scroll bars, scroll bars! Long comments or blog entries have no scroll bars on the sides - what the heck???

Right now, these are my top five gripes. Do not think for a moment that this is an exhaustive list because I could have easily gone on for days.

I'm usually the last to join any effort like this. Besides a big honking serving of independence in my make-up, I also tend to shy away from anything that has that "jump on the bandwagon" feel to it, mostly because I always seem to end up on the tuba somehow. So my first reaction to this idea of communicating our collective displeasure in the TV.com Redesign via a one-day disappearance originally left me cold.

So, why did I decide to take Tuesday, September 30th off? Is it because I think it will immediately change the minds of CNET executives about using the volunteers who edit content on this site in order to make it the most complete and comprehensive listing of television related events on the internet as their Test Group? No. Is it because I believe that CNET will come begging us to forgive them and return the site to its previous look and functionality? Um, nope. Is it because a few users leaving for one 24-hours period will make such an impact in sales and contributions that TV.com will be reeling from the impact for years to come? I very much doubt it. Maybe it's because I think the new avatar is just so utterly cool. Yeah...so, no.

There's really only one reason: I would not want any user, any viewer of my profile, any person who's ever read one of my blogs or even one of my posts, to think I in any way support the site Redesign. If those who don't vote shouldn't get the chance to complain about an administration, then those who don't speak shouldn't have the right to whine, complain, or criticize the site designers. And, since I plan to complain, whine, whinge, criticize, gripe, and otherwise point out some of the horrendous, glaring problems with this site, I'm speaking up. Or, er, not speaking up. Oh for crying out loud, you know what I mean.