@BBCRD Please put an official BBC World feed. if you wish to see engagement. I get an automated/robot feed for BBC News so your trial wouldn't see any engagement in your statistics.

cc @gbhnews

@BBCRD@social.bbc Congrats!!! 🎉

@BBCRD This is a good summary of your progress and I’m happy you’re sticking around (for at least another six months) 👏👏👏

@BBCRD get 6 Music on here! (please!)

@BBCRD

i like the idea still but would very much like it if there was an official bbc news feed over mastodon

there are unofficial feeds but they could be on servers more likely blocked by other servers and one official feed would make it easier to find comments

@BBCRD Thank you, interesting. I'd be very happy if some BBC journalists with social media profiles on other platforms, for example Steve Rosenberg in Moscow, were present here as well. I very much enjoy his posts, but I do not enjoy having to use X to see them.

Topical news updates would be nice too, of course, but on the other hand we can already get them here through RSS-bots if necessary. I'm more interested in accounts I can interact with than simple news feeds.

@BBCRD that's really promising news. Can't wait to hear more from you, and please get #6music on here!

@BBCRD @fediversereport Great to hear that! I'm excited to learn more about what you have in store. Thanks for the update...

@BBCRD I just wish the stations with accounts actually used them for engagement with the studio. Its still really weird the BBC radio stations only take comments from twitter/X now

@BBCRD
the Beeb is dead to me

@BBCRD Thanks for the update and glad you’re sticking around. I would love to see BBC News join in.

@BBCRD This is a very encouraging post.

Your commitment to transparency and carefully explaining what's going on is also admirable.

Hope to see you here for many years to come!

@BBCRD I'd also like 6music on here. People are asking.

@BBCRD
amazing! "So far in the trial we’ve amassed around 60,000 followers across our six trial accounts, and we have had to do very little moderation of replies associated with our content. Reassuringly, most of the comments and feedback have been positive, welcoming both our interest and the way we have set things up.We’ve had really encouraging levels of engagement(i.e. replies, re-posts and likes) on Mastodon."

@BBCRD This is heartening news, thanks for all the work that's gone into this.

Would love to see 6Music and Radio 3 here.

@BBCRD

good job people:

@BBCRD I had a brief panic upon reading "Mastodon trial" and fearing someone had been sued.

@BBCRD
Great to have #BBC on #Mastodon.
The @BBCNews feed is fine but a separate feed for #sport would be ideal.

@BBCRD
Please - get #6Music on here! 🤞🏻

@BBCRD 404?

@BBCRD A mirror / archive for those who didn't see it before it 404d: https://web.archive.org/web/20240213154653/https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2024-02-extending-our-mastodon-social-media-trial

@BBCRD Something broke - it takes a while, and even the URL that's indexed by search engines now gives 404.

@BBCRD You rock!

@BBCRD A few small typos :)

"up.We’ve"
"onnews"

@BBCRD I love what you are doing here, and your transparency in documenting your work.

Really hoping that one of the outcomes of this will be some resources that other organizations (broadcast, print, etc.) can use to jumpstart or improve their own fediverse presence.

@BBCRD "n. For some equivalent posts we’ve seen significantly larger engagement numbers for Mastodon compared to X/Twitter, particularly given the relative sizes of different platforms" Interesting

@BBCRD Hey, why aren't you over at Bluesky? :)

@BBCRD Very glad to see the extension, and it's good to see some of the thinking behind how you've approached this.

I would not have though that something like a bot that shares news stories as they get published on the main site would have caused issues, but I guess there's internal pressures due to how the BBC is managed.

Looking forward to seeing whatever is next.

@BBCRD super interesting ! Thank you for the follow up & keep going !

@BBCRD That's something I actually had an idea for which may be interesting, would be the ability to follow shows on iPlayer, getting updates when new series and episodes for them become available... 👀

@BBCRD
Thanks for extending. :D
Maybe if you could get some #TV stations on here as well? I was trying to get in touch with some more #DeathInParadise viewers last Sunday like in the old times over on the former Birdsite and was really disappointed.
Cheers!

@BBCRD

In truth, it has been pretty disappointing to see rather limited engagement by the BBC accounts. There was quite a lot of excitement when BBC joined Mastodon but the accounts do not post regularly, and there isn't an official BBC News or BBC World account which are the main areas of interest for most audiences that access BBC services. There are other official media outlets that are much more integrated on Mastodon.

#ActivityPub #BBC #Journalism #Mastodon #Media #News #SocialMedia

@BBCRD Great stuff, guys.

Really thoughtful approach. BBC at its best when it's innovating.

@BBCRD@social.bbc It was great to read six months ago that the BBC were looking at joining the Fediverse. We learn today that the trial is extending to a year. Really? What can possibly be done on a trial of a Mastodon server for a year?! It's not like the BBC is new to social media.

It demonstrates how inflexible large corporates are to a changing society.

I look forward to the BBC actually embracing the Fediverse and not posting on sites which support billionaires and companies allowing hate speech

@BBCRD Good news you'll be continuing. Any chance of getting Radio 3 in? They invite engagement during the day but only on the usual suspect social media channels.

@BBCRD „This Mastodon trial which has been running for the last 6 months…“ - first, I thought this is about a trial against #Mastodon in court. Dangerous, when the same word has different meanings… ;-)

@BBCRD
I’m sure not having your toots “unlisted” would help with reach. Using hashtags in unlisted toots means your bots aren’t getting picked up by people following those hashtags. This seems a wasted opportunity 🧐

@BBCRD I, for one, would love to see #BBCRadio3 on here, particularly #EssentialClassics .

@BBCRD not bad, specially considering half of the fediverse has your instance blocked because of being the biggest promoter of institutional transphobia in your island (and part of Europe too, since our continental TERFs mostly parrot your propaganda).

@BBCRD That's nice to hear.

Definitely post more, engage more.

There's a lot of sci-fi and genre fiction people on Mastodon, I'm sure they'd be receptive to more info on upcoming BBC content. They also tend to be omnivorous timeline consumers and boosters... which will get you in front of more eyes!

Good luck!

@BBCRD Kindly please add #DoctorWho news and updates.

@BBCRD This is excellent news. Others will have said this but I’m sure you can make a huge difference to how open social… stuff… develops. It’s great you’re carrying on for another 6 months

@BBCRD go for it 🙂👍 "isle be with you" 🤓

@BBCRD You really need to post more.

@BBCRD 👍

@BBCRD Good news! Please consider upgrading to Mastodon v4.2+ soon. This will enable your accounts to opt-in to full-text indexing making your content easier to find/stumble upon.

@BBCRD Yay! Glad you’re sticking around!

@BBCRD I found so many cool Channel 4 offers during that time, totally stanning Michael Rosen's show at the moment.

@BBCRD Thanks for the update. This is fantastic news!

Getting more mainstream media such as the #BBC to use the Fediverse platforms will help with wider uptake, and is therefore to be encouraged. I personally would love to see and follow more BBC content, including news (maybe start with breaking news, as that wouldn’t need much if any monitoring). It would also be great to see event or show-specific content here… #Wimbledon, #Strictly or #TheApprentice?

@BBCRD @Gargron Just start using #mastodon already! Why the crazy length of trialling? It works. Has done for years. People are waiting for your content. Have been for years.

@BBCRD 💪💪💪

@BBCRD this is welcome, but I can see the difficulty with BBC News, given its leadership has very close ties to the Tories, and Tory bigotry would not be welcome on the fedi. Tricky one to manage.

@BBCRD Great news! I would love to know what results would have meant *not* continuing the trial?

@BBCRD
This is finally getting interesting

Would be great to have your journalists engaging as well. Maybe that is phase 3

From @BBCRD
"of replies associated with our content. Reassuringly, most of the comments and feedback have been positive, welcoming both our interest and the way we have set things up.We’ve had really encouraging levels of engagement (i.e. replies, re-posts and likes) on Mastodon. For some equivalent posts we’ve seen significantly larger engagement numbers for Mastodon compared to X/Twitter, particularly given the relative sizes of different platforms. "

@BBCRD Thanks for sticking around for longer!

"We’ve had really encouraging levels of engagement (i.e. replies, re-posts and likes) on Mastodon. For some equivalent posts we’ve seen significantly larger engagement numbers for #Mastodon compared to X/Twitter, particularly given the relative sizes of different platforms. We think this is partly due to the culture of Mastodon, and partly because of some of the topics we’ve posted about"

@BBCRD please ask Greg James to repost on mastodon. 😀

@BBCRD "We have been asked by a number of people on Mastodon to include BBC News social accounts in the trial."

holy shit can you imagine how well that would go down

@BBCRD Great idea. Every news outlet should have their own instance on @Mastodon > it's the future.

@BBCRD I suspect over at X interaction numbers can be misleading because of all the trolls and fake accounts there. You may end up with smaller numbers here, but I think you're far more likely to have real people behind those interactions. The interactions here may actually mean more.

@BBCRD right on! I'm glad to see the trial extended. Hopefully in 6 months it becomes a permanent part of the BBC social media.

@BBCRD Here's a data point for you:

I unfollowed because of two very simple usability issues which you don't seem to want to fix. One is the poor resolution of pictures, so that it's sometimes hard to work out what they areThe other is the way you run sentences into each other with no space between them.

@BBCRD My general problem with the BBC is that as a state sponsored media provider, the propaganda and bias are too often visible. This is why my dad upon the end of the free TV license for over 85s packed the TV away into a box in a spare room and renewed his library card instead.

@BBCRD 👏👏🙏🙏

@BBCRD these are excellent news! Plus the ones from @Flipboard today, this got very interesting and rich in content.

@BBCRD
Brilliant news!

@BBCRD Thank you for posting here! It's great to see more broadcasting networks grow here.

@BBCRD Take your propaganda somewhere else MI7, if we wanted to hear your nonsense we’d be on Twitter or paying to watch your iPropaganda service. 😒

@BBCRD I am quite happy to read your very positive intermediate evaluation.

@BBCRD
Great news guys! Look forward to seeing more BBC stuff on Mastodon!

@BBCRD
Expanding your content coverage here sounds good. I see and appreciate a lot of eg @fulelo posts but it's rather absurd she has to boost @BBCWorld rather than an official feed to get those news here.

I don't quite understand what the careful consideration regarding moderation would be, when BBC content is written by BBC staff and partners, published on many channels, available over RSS feeds and already federated here via third parties. Owning those feeds should be a win-win.

@BBCRD I’m embarrassed to say that while I’m a big fan, I somehow never got to following you when this was announced, so I’m very pleased you’re continuing! Glad to hear things have been working out well for you.

@BBCRD Please bring BBC News to Mastodon, I don't really understand what the problem is with ‘editorial’. Isn’t that handled by the News team?

@BBCRD great news! i would love to see radio 3 here!

@BBCRD

@BBCRD this sounds rather like preaching to win over converts.

@BBCRD lovely to see this work going on!

@BBCRD 👏👏 Such a thoughtful and interesting post. Maybe the UCL bods could have a read and try a similar experiment.

@BBCRD 19 hrs. Close to a hundred responses. I'll give it some more hours, but if BBC doesn't reply in 24, then I'd say their trial is not going well.

@BBCRD Good News that you keep up here! Very good news how you describe the different cultures, here, built on communication and not so much numbers. My wishlist:
- more journalist accounts on your instance
- more interesting content. Your posts come so rarely that I nearly never see them in my timeline. (Since you use hashtags, the reach is better)
- an official bot for world news. We have "BBC" bots but they are rubbish. Independent journalism outside of fascist platforms ist so important!

@BBCRD Glad to hear it! Somehow I missed the fact that y’all were here in the first place, but I saw this article on @memeorandum today, so gave you a follow.

@BBCRD its way too hard to follow & add-to-list on Mastodon. BBC please push for this. Its the most glaring weakness IMHO.

@BBCRD I would expect the BBC to have an innovative/pioneering involvement with the fediverse when the true current and future benefits of the protocols and paradigm are realised. The value systems of the BBC and fediverse should align well. I just hope the BBC's exploration isn't curtailed by the need to see short term results, which are defined somewhat arbitarily e.g. engagement by X numbers. The Beeb has a solid history of early adoption of technology so I am optimistic.

@BBCRD Glad you are staying for awhile.

@BBCRD

For a bit of fun you might want to let the people who put Top of the Pops on Friday nights know about the #totp hashtag.

Can be a little brutal at times but always fun.

Regularly a trending hashtag on the Fediverse.

BTW, this hashtag is shared with a bunch of people talking about time-limited one time passwords, but come Friday night....

@BBCRD Maybe you want to include Mastodon in your tv broadcast when you show the other social media sites on which BBC reports are posted.

Also, leave fascist X already. WTF

@BBCRD please stick around. The world needs the fediverse to succeed, and big orgs add weight.

@BBCRD that sounds promising. Is there likely to be any Radio 3 content at any point?