BBC Mixital
BBC Mixital | |
URL | https://www.mixital.co.uk/ |
Status | Closing |
Archiving status | Not saved yet |
Archiving type | Unknown |
IRC channel | #archiveteam-bs (on hackint) |
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 are also unable to create an account. THe content will remain online until April 2020 when it "will no longer be publicly available".[1]
Discovery and API
In the shutdown announcement, the BBC stated that Mixital contains "more than one million ... creations".[2]
- 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
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".
Channels
Mixital is split into about 20 or so "channels" each with their own content-creation interface.
BBC Young Reporter - Video Reports
Available at https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/youngreporter
Description: "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"
Format:
A small page with an amateur video news report, a description, video uploader and view count.
Videos are publicly accessible both from the page they're posted on but also by direct URL:
https://www.mixital.co.uk/images-s3/{uploader-id}/57/DD-Mmm-YYYY/HH-MM-SS/media.mp4
ex. https://www.mixital.co.uk/images-s3/czgzvgbmlp/57/15-Mar-2019/14-23-40/media.mp4
BBC Young Reporter - Written Reports
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/write-with-youngreporter
BBC Young Reporter - Images
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/young-reporter-images
BBC The Social
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/the-social
BBC Introducing: Vizii
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/bbc-introducing-vizii
Ten Pieces: SuperConductor
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/ten-pieces-vizii
Doctor Who: FanFiction
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/doctor-who-fanfiction
Class: FanFiction
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/class-fanfiction
Jane Austen: Fan Fiction
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/jane-austen-fan-fiction
Magical Worlds With Harry Potter
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/magic-with-harry-potter
Writersroom:The Script Gym
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/writersroom
Contains: FLANEUR
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/contains-strong-language
BBC Three Top Ten Comedy Kit
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/top-ten-comedy-kit
EastEnders: Soap Factory
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/eastenders-soap-factory
Wolf Jenkins StoryTeller
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/wolf-jenkins
A.Dot's Trashbag Tuesday
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/trashbag-tuesday
Big Painting Challenge
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/big-painting-challenge-images
Fortysix: Bring Ideas to life
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/accelerate-your-idea
Gold Rush Game Maker
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/gold-rush-game-maker
Strictly: Robo-Dancers
https://www.mixital.co.uk/channel/strictly-robo-dancers