u/TheTVDB

With the shutdown of TV Time, I thought some people might have questions about either product. I have good insight into both with regard to technology/development, history, legal, business decisions, and some financials (mostly on TheTVDB side). I did ask the mods if I could post this, and they graciously approved. I'm hoping maybe it'll stave off some of the repeat posts.

I am working today, so I'll answer when I can. There are a few things I won't be able to answer because of potential legal restrictions or company secrets (existing products). Ok...

I’m the original creator of TheTVDB, which is the metadata source for many apps and sites like TV Time and Plex. TheTVDB was acquired in 2018 by TV Time, which later became Whip Media after an acquisition of Mediamorph. While at Whip Media, I was the lead engineer for TheTVDB, managed the rewrite of TV Time’s website, and lead engineer for their enterprise data analytics platform. I remained at Whip Media through approximately 4 rounds of layoffs from 2022 to 2024 and then left in late 2024 for a more stable position.

Some points of interest:

1. TV Time had a team of around 30 working on it at its peak. TheTVDB had a team of 5, plus fractional staff, a few paid offshore moderators, and an awesome group of volunteer moderators. TV Time is down to maybe a couple of fractional resources (a developer, devops) as they wind it down.
2. Whip Media made a big play with its acquisition of Mediamorph, including aggressive hiring and taking on a lot of debt. The big play (a predictive "content rights marketplace") didn’t pan out, which factors in heavily to this shutdown of TV Time.
3. Whip Media’s CEO while I was there is the former CEO of MySpace and Demand Media. Super wealthy, super smart, and super charismatic. During layoffs, he did his best to help people find other jobs when he could. He lives up the hill from Dr Dre, and we had a few work parties at his house (his pool is AMAZING). He's also friends with Tom Brady, who lived next to him, and who joined one of our work meetings via teleconference to chat with us.
4. TheTVDB has averaged around 30 billion hits on its API every month for a decade, and at its peak exceeded 1PB of bandwidth usage. Kodi/XBMC was always the top API user, by far. Plex, Apple, and other commercial users effectively subsidized Kodi's use (which those companies were aware of and supported).
5. We had a VERY high level TV executive casually mention that he used TheTVDB/Kodi for his pirated content during a meeting with us. It was hilarious.
6. TheTVDB’s past commercial clients included Google, Apple, Plex, and many more. Apple was rad to work with.
7. TheTVDB was originally going to be shut down as well. After I told Plex, they stepped up in a huge way to try preventing it from happening. The efforts that Plex and I put in didn't pan out in the way we desired/expected, but Plex deserves a ton of praise for a purely benevolent move to support the community (go sign up for Plex Pass).
8. Petitions to keep TV Time running aren’t going to work, unfortunately. I've known about the shutdown for 6 months. This isn't a reactionary decision. There are a lot of smart businesspeople with a lot of financial and analytic information at their disposal that made the decision.
9. I don't know what the current status is, but even if TheTVDB is safe for right now, it may not be longer term. There was huge pushback on membership models for TheTVDB a few years ago, and those were intended to support TheTVDB and TV Time. If there hadn't been complaints about that with regard to TheTVDB, a paid model for TV Time might have been more likely. None of us like paying for stuff, but take this as an opportunity to consider your support of existing sites like TheTVDB and systems like Plex.
10. I think I could architect a more cost-effective version of TV Time and TheTVDB. I don't have time to build it, but I'm happy to talk through scalability and barriers.

Ok. Ask me whatever you'd like. Happy to try my best to answer them. Just as a note, though... some of you all get aggressive/demanding in your responses. Take a deep breath before you respond. :)

edit: Just as a very important note, I have no official relationship with TheTVDB, TV Time, or Whip Media anymore. Anything I say is entirely my opinion and not guaranteed to be accurate.

TLDR: Stop overthinking it. Belts aren't an absolute measure of anything. Trust your coach or find a different gym.

There are constantly new posts from brand new blue belts that ask whether you deserve that new belt or if your coach is getting it wrong. Here's a tip, though: almost all of us have had imposter syndrome at some point in our BJJ journey. There are things we're decent at and things we fail constantly at.

When I had just gotten my purple belt, I dropped in at another gym that doesn't allow new people to roll until they have their combatives belt (Gracie stuff). There were two guys that had just begun two weeks prior, and as such, they weren't allowed to roll. But they were super interested in what we were doing, so I asked their coach if I could just have them hold me in side control. He approved and I showed them the proper technique. Perhaps a bit too well, since I ended up having to tap from shoulder pressure into my neck for both (Ffion calls this the Von Fairy).

Now, they were both a bit larger than me despite me being 220lbs, both about 20 years younger, and both super athletic. But I was a purple belt... I shouldn't be tapping to a brand new white belt, right?

But then I realized it doesn't matter. I learned that I can't let those big athletic guys get that position, so in a roll I'd never allow it unless I wanted to work on my defense. And if I tap to them again, I'll just learn something else from it. I've tapped black belts as a blue and purple belt, and I've tapped plenty to white belts. It doesn't matter.

Belts are a relative measure against both the people we train with and our previous selves. They're not absolute. They're not a measure of anything except being better than when you started. Stop overthinking them. Stop worrying. Trust your coach. And focus on having fun and learning.

Was thinking about this in the shower today.

Assumptions:

1. All players are at their peak, but we're not adjusting based on era. So despite Don Hutson being the best receiver we've had, we'd likely be lining up Davante Adams and Sterling Sharp instead.
2. Modern coaching and remove Holmgren, so one team can be coached by MLF and the other by McCarthy. Assume both of them are at their peak as well, and will run an offense/defense suitable for the personnel on the field.
3. No special teams. No field goals or returns. Extra points are automatic. Desmond Howard is a cheat code that doesn't need to be considered.
4. Assume that the top offense faces off against the top defense. If they don't score, time is run off the clock and the ball is reset to the 20 for another attempt. Total time of possession is 30 minutes.
5. You have only one of each player and they play at their natural position. So no luck putting 11 Gilbert Browns on offense and chunking your way down the field.
6. Modern refs that call a fair game. If you somehow put Clay Matthews on your defense, there are two automatic roughing the passer calls that extend drives.

edit: I'm not sure my coach choices make sense. The defensive one should be a DC, probably Fritz Shurmur. So your choice on MLF, McCarthy, or Holmgren for offense.

We're in the process of buying a house and planning a move, which involves deciding which large furniture we want to take with. I have a floor plan export from Redfin which uses CubiCasa. But I'd like it in Floorplanner, so I can freely test furniture positioning and get some additional measurements.

I started creating this in Floorplanner and just don't have patience for it, give the odd layout of this house. It's essentially a 2 story in the front with a 2 story split in the back. Lots of steps, but surprisingly will work really well for us.

My question is this: has anyone used someone on Fivver to build a floorplan? There are a lot of them that seem a bit shady and of differing quality. Since I have a floorplan with measurements, I'm hoping this will be pretty cheap. What is reasonable for a 4 story floor plan like this?