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8 Messages

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150 Points

Friday, January 7th, 2022 6:43 AM

Closed

Solved

Issue with review submissions etc.

A couple of days ago I submitted a review of West Side Story (2021) on IMDB. Often my reviews take only a few minutes to go live (why do they take longer than this?) but after about 12 hours with it still not being online, I replied to an old thread of mine here mentioning the reoccurrence of the problem. Since I didn't get a reply there, I made the decision to resubmit my review, very slightly shorter, on the assumption that maybe my review exceeded IMDB's word limit.

The problem? Both reviews came up online. That suggests a word limit transgression on my initial review was not the problem. Firstly, I've since deleted one of my reviews, so no action needs to be taken by IMDB on that front. Basically, the problem is that I don't think it should be possible for one reviewer to have two live reviews of the same film online. Well, to clarify, if the review is nearly identical, IMDB shouldn't allow near duplicates or duplicate reviews. Maybe a case can be made for a reviewer to have different reviews of the same film online, if they reflect a changed opinion of the film over time.

Lastly, with regard to Col_Needham's link to a user's contribution history (https://contribute.imdb.com/contributions/history), would that indicate whether excessive word length is the issue as to why a review hasn't gone live yet? I get the impression that it doesn't, so that the link's estimate of when the review will go online will keep changing.

Solution to the problem: Would it be possible to automatically allow established reviewers submissions to go live immediately?

I'm still not sure why the amount of time for a review to go live varies from a few minutes to days.

Employee

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17.5K Messages

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313.3K Points

3 years ago

Hi deeflee -

I can confirm that your User review for "West Side Story" is now live on the site.

Regarding your duplicate reviews, to clarify, while your first review submissions was still pending, you were able to submit a second review to the title, is that correct?

Concerning your Contribution History, this is where you can track the status of your User Review submission.  If the review is declined, you will see the Declined status with a reason, however, we will not specify in detail the exact guideline that is in violation.

Lastly, concerning the expedited processing of established reviewers, currently all submissions must go through the same review process, however, we are always seeking ways to improve editor handling time and processing times.

8 Messages

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150 Points

Hi @Michelle​ and thanks for that. At the moment my issue is with my edit not being implemented for days and the link which Col_Needham posted to check on your submission's progress [https://contribute.imdb.com/contributions/history] stating that "Thank you for your contribution - this item is awaiting processing by our data editors.
Estimated processing date 8 January 2022".

IMDB has my submission date as 7 January. What's going on here?

To answer your question, yes I submitted a second review whilst my first was still waiting approval, as I thought that maybe word length might be an issue. Is word length an issue on your site? I've seen reviews by users which are x1.5 my reviews length. This isn't also the first time that I've had two identical or near identical reviews online. It's happened at least once before, maybe twice. I can't remember whether IMDB or me deleted the duplicate. Maybe it's one each.

At its best, IMDB can approve reviews in a matter of minutes. At worst, it can takes days and might not even be approved unless an employee like you intervenes. According to my Contribution History, my edit should have been approved days ago but I'm still waiting. Ideally, each review and edit should go live in minutes. How come some reviews go live in minutes?

(edited)

Employee

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17.5K Messages

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313.3K Points

Hi @deeflee​ -

Can you post the 18-digit submission reference number associated with your User Review edit?  I can then investigate the status further.

Cheers!

8 Messages

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150 Points

Hi @Michelle​ The matter's been resolved. I'm guessing it was to do with #220107-061940-074004 but I do have a habit of thinking of things to add or edit in my reviews on subsequent days, so my revisions can pile up in the first few days after posting.

Is there an official word limit for film reviews? Some reviewers have lengths 1.5 times what I assume is your site's limit and my word processor's word count seems to differ to your sites.

If reviews went online in minutes like they can do, I wouldn't feel the need to resubmit my reviews because I'm assuming that maybe word length or something was a problem.

Do humans act as your site's gatekeepers for reviews or does AI do that? It's strange that the acceptance of reviews timeframe varies so much.