BBC Mixital
| BBC Mixital | |
| |
| |
| URL | https://www.mixital.co.uk/ |
| Status | Offline |
| Archiving status | Partially saved |
| Archiving type | Unknown |
| IRC channel | #archiveteam-bs (on hackint) (formerly #missitall (on hackint)) |
| Project lead | Orldow6 |
BBC Mixital was a site allowing users to create their own games, cartoons, music videos and stories. Often, but not always, these creations would be themed around a BBC television property (for example, the section for Dr Who fan-fiction).
In April 2019 the BBC announced that Mixital was to be closed, citing "We’ve learned a number of valuable lessons that we’ll share internally and with partners, but we feel the time is right to take these lessons and explore how we might apply them in other ways online."[1]
From April 2019 the ability to publish new creations on the website has been removed. New users were also unable to create an account. The content remained online until April 2020 when it "will no longer be publicly available".[1] It disappeared sometime between April 1 AM and April 2 AM (UTC+1 time).[2]
Discovery and API
In the shutdown announcement, the BBC stated that Mixital contains "more than one million ... creations".[3]
- Search: https://www.mixital.co.uk/api/search/results?term=&term=&sort=newest&channelId=0&perPage=12&yawfMod=1&over16=1&page=1
- Content: https://www.mixital.co.uk/dmk/digitalmake/play/731
- View count: https://www.mixital.co.uk/api/digitalmake/view/731
- Comments: https://www.mixital.co.uk/digitalmake/731/comments?page=1
- Member’s “makes”: https://www.mixital.co.uk/fetchdom/public-published-makes?member=29239&displayPublic=true&page=1&sort=desc
Please Note: digitalmake's seem to only be indexed by upload order, there is no guarantee that a specific upload will be for a particular app the Channels below provides a list of possible content you might come across.
Range of Content
The type of content on Mixital varies wildly. Some items, such as fanfiction will likely be fairly simple to archive. Other content, such as the dancing robots will likely require effort to reverse engineer the JavaScript and requests used to make the creation "work".
It should also be noted that most of these communities also contain blog-style articles, usually providing writing advice such as can be seen here.
Channels
Mixital is split into 26 "channels" (of which 20 were online at the time of shutdown) each with their own content-creation interface.
BBC Young Reporter - Video Reports
Available at https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/youngreporter
"Find your voice with BBC Young Reporter! If you're aged between 11-18 years old, make and share the stories that matter to you! Learn how to make your film and upload it here"
BBC Young Reporter - Written Reports
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/write-with-youngreporter
Written reports for the BBC Young Reporter program.
BBC Young Reporter - Images
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/young-reporter-images
JPEG images for the BBC Young Reporter program.
BBC The Social
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/the-social
Short scripts/scenarios for creative writing.
BBC Introducing: Vizii
Status: Unknown (Might have been saved under SuperConductor)
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/bbc-introducing-vizii
A fun tool for adding visuals (hence the name Vizii) to songs. Users can also edit the song they're currently listening to, although export or "remixing" are no longer possible as new accounts can't be opened. That being said it's possible to play around and screen-cap for anyone willing to document this.
Ten Pieces: SuperConductor
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/ten-pieces-vizii
An "expansion pack" for Vizii with different art assets to choose from. Other features appear to be more or less identical.
Doctor Who: FanFiction
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/doctor-who-fanfiction
Doctor Who fan fiction.
Class: FanFiction
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/class-fanfiction
Class (BBC, 2016 series) fan fiction.
Jane Austen: Fan Fiction
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/jane-austen-fan-fiction
Fan fiction based on the characters of 18th-19th century author Jane Austen.
Magical Worlds With Harry Potter
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/magic-with-harry-potter
Harry Potter fan fiction.
Writersroom:The Script Gym
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/writersroom
Short scripts/scenarios for creative writing, similar to The Social, except seemingly meant for older audiences.
Contains: FLANEUR
Status: Saved! Under the written items collectionAB ViewerWARC
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/contains-strong-language
FLANEUR or the Fabulous Literary Automated Numerical Engine for Unlimited Roaming generates a random sequence of instructions/directions to send the user off on a journey. The idea is to then write something based on emotions invoked by the sights the user has come across on this journey.
BBC Three Top Ten Comedy Kit
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/top-ten-comedy-kit
A drag-and-drop comic maker. Inspired by the aptly named BBC Three web-series "Top Ten" users can drag figures and dialogue boxes to create slide-show cartoons.
EastEnders: Soap Factory
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/eastenders-soap-factory
Make East-Enders stories similar to Episode. A drag-and-drop comic maker much like Top Ten Comedy Kit, users can drag figures and dialogue boxes to create slide-show cartoons.
Wolf Jenkins StoryTeller
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/wolf-jenkins
Another drag-and-drop comic maker. Inspired by the aptly named Wolf Jenkins web-series, users can drag figures and dialogue boxes to create slide-show cartoons.
A.Dot's Trashbag Tuesday
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/trashbag-tuesday
Amplify Dot's Trashbag Tuesday is yet another drag-and-drop comic maker much like the Top Ten Comedy Kit and in terms of features and layout appears to be the latest edition. Users can drag figures and dialogue boxes to create slide-show cartoons.
Big Painting Challenge
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/big-painting-challenge-images
Artwork. JPEG images for the Big Painting Challenge.
Fortysix: Bring Ideas to life
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/accelerate-your-idea
Prototype designs and mock-ups. JPEG images for "Accelerate Your Idea"
Gold Rush Game Maker
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/gold-rush-game-maker
An HTML5 game with a level editor. A top-down shooter where levels can have a number of objectives (i.e. collecting keys, reaching a score, defeating all enemies to win etc.).
Strictly: Robo-Dancers
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/strictly-robo-dancers
Pick a robot and give it a rag-doll dance. A rag-doll animator, inspired by the BBC's Strictly. Design rag-doll robots and animate them to dance.
Details of Retrieved Content
- Some of the JS content, text content for instance, although retrieved in full, don't render nicely. Someone might be interested in converting these using https://github.com/voxmedia/convert-rich-text or https://github.com/UmbraEngineering/quilljs-renderer.
- Further information on metadata can be found here: https://transfer.notkiska.pw/MWOVY/Mixital_Submissions.oneJsonObjectPerLine
https://transfer.notkiska.pw/inline/RHYRu/Mixital_Channel_Submission_Counts.txt
Gallery
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.mixital.co.uk/faqs[IA•Wcite•.today•MemWeb]
- ↑ #missitall: <@betamax> it was online in the AM of April 1st. Offline in the AM of April 2nd (those are GMT+1 times)
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/dbb0e8f3-818a-47cf-875f-75025a3721cb