"Merlin" News
Why did I post news items: I started to watch Merlin last year in summer on Hulu. I was impressed with Colin Morgan's acting and loved the show in general. Previously I have watched British tv shows like Doctor Who so it was a pleasant thing for me to find another new show. To find out more about the show I started to search internet and the first thing I saw was IMDb message board. I was shocked to see that more or less the whole message board was filled with hate threads on the character Gwen or the actress Angel Coulby portraying the part. I am not good with writing(I am sure you all have figured it out) so it was not possible for me to write something in response to them or write something interesting creating a new thread. So I started to post news items over there such as reviews, interviews, promo, ratings etc. More new fans started to visit the site as Series 2 started and it was a better message board which covered a lot of interesting Merlin topics. In my search for news item I came across live journal. I loved the discussion among A/G fans even on a simple topic of a promo pic and enjoyed how spoilers are discussed extensively:D If I remember correctly I first posted Emilia's interview from SFX magazine before the broadcast of S2E8. Since then I have tried to post on a continuous basis on camelot_love and subsequently on onceandfutures .
Why Do I Stop Now: Well next year will be a new year and among other things my twins are turning "Terrible Two"! It may not be possible for me to spend time on news gathering. Its better if I step aside now:)
Sources of News item on Merlin
gealach_ros's LJ
gealach_ros LJ does cover more or less most of the Merlin related news item. If I found a news item on her LJ first I made sure I made a note something along the line"Thanks to gealach_ros for the heads up". I pm'ed her a few times and notified her that I was also posting on onceandfutures (since she is not a member of this community). For someone who has spent a small fraction of time and effort on news gathering as she does, I really appreciate the devotion and hard work she puts &hearts
Google email alert
This is how my google email alert looks. note that for Angel Coulby I have news"everything". It ensures that any news on Angel gets notified(sometimes even Lj, tumblr news will show up). I chose this as we already have other Lj users who track news items on Colin, Bradley, Katie it made sure we didn't miss any news item on Angel:D
TWITTER, TWITTER, TWITTER
This is the best tool for news gathering. If you search Merlin, cast names on twitter you will get most of the news. But this can be time consuming so I followed a few people so i can keep track of things;D. I did not have a twitter account before and only opened one for Merlin news purpose a few months back. I believe some of you know my account, anyway its DrMer(Dr Who Merlin ;D) here is a list of the accounts I follow for news:
http://twitter.com/following
digitalspytv: For ten teasers, interviews, articles
ThetorchOnline: Facebook recap
TVbythenumbers: For US shows, SyFy News, Ratings(US)
Angelcoulbynet: Angel's news
MerlinFantasy: Amazon action figure
ACthe2ndAC: Crew of Merlin show. She is very nice in answering twitter questions on Merlin. She occasionaly posts pics from set.
CiaraMoyna: Reviewer for Merlin episode
Camelotcast: podcast
BFi: BFI news on Premiere screening
bbcpress: For weekly press release
Danowen79: He got advance screeners for earlier S3 eps and answered some of my simple inquires about the eps. Also writes review for the episodes.
PaulDjCripps: Crew of Merlin show. Sometimes posts pics from sets, filming pics and the process that goes for designing various elements.
JJSingh: he was in charge of promotion of SyFy Merlin S2 not sure if he still in charge.
SFXMagazine: SFX articles, interviews
Travisanan: He posts ratings network and cable regularly. for SyFy Friday night broadcast you can get the ratings on the following Monday.
Dalemccready: Crew Of Merlin. Posts pictures on his website.
Girlslovescifi: Does man/woman of the month. Does interviews of scifi show casts.
GeekSyndicate: Interviews, articles.
Blucanary: He has access to 10 day consolidated rating for Uk shows
TIPS
Routine: Many news item are posted on a fixed time of the week Try to figure it out and that helps a lot. For instance BARB ratings show up ever Monday at 8;30 to 9:00 am EST(US) or BBC press release comes out on Thursday around 9 am EST.
Take Initiative: If there is something bothering you or you are curious about something its best if you ask the persons/organizations. twitter is a very effective means of communication. If you ask nicely to the appropriate people most of the time you will get your answer:)
where it worked:
- When the SyFy description of Gwen came up we collectively sent emails to SyFy and they did take out the inaccurate parts of it.
- When Ep 13 press release came out and ep 12 was missing I and another fan twitted bbcpress and they put it up soon after and tweeted back that it was included.
- When the coronation pic first came out they were some confusion whether its Morgana or Gwen. I asked yavannuak who was on set at that day and she confirmed more or less about the dress-cast.
- When there was confusion whether Merlin casts will show up on MCMExpo I went to their chat and asked them and got the answer.
I twitted BFi about the spelling Angela Coulby on their site for the premiere. They thanked for informing and said they will look into it but it was not fixed. but hey at least they got the message;)
Thanks/Apology/clarification:
If you have left a comment meant me on my news related posts and I did not get back to you I am really sorry.
I didn't read all the comments on each post(300 comments on some posts!) but was pretty much aware of what was said, sentiments of the members of the communities. Sometimes the comments did affect my posting. For instance after posting Facebook recap regularly for the first few eps I stopped doing so after seeing that those posts generated rift among members. But sometimes I didn't bother such instances: when there would be zero comment or some negative comments on Bradley's interviews, I kept posting his interviews, appearance pictures as I believed for A/G communtites both Angel and Bradley's news, interviews should be included.
Finally,
I thank you all for leaving a note "thanking" me for posting news item. It meant a lot.
Also special thanks for my lovely friends starry_laa , hmsharmony ,threemeows ,crazy4dw who have inspired me to keep posting news:)
If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me anytime by contacting through pm. My Lj account will remain as it is and hope to be back among you when time permits.
Love you all.
Winwin