Make sure reviews are reviews again (minimum of 50 words instead of 50 characters)

Idea: Make sure reviews are reviews again.
Current situation: Recently, IMDb has decided that a user review should at least have 50 characters. I feel it is impossible to write a review in - let's say - 60 or 70 characters. However, because IMDb allows this, a lot of useful, insightful observations like "I like this movie a lot, it's brilliant. I think it's the best film ever!" (73 characters) surface.
How to fix this situation: IMDb should decide that a user review should at least have 50 words instead of 50 characters. (obviously, another number of words or characters could also be chosen, but the current number stated is just plain silly and doesn't show much respect for the real review writers, or the customers of the site for that matter)
How you can help getting this done?: By replying to this post and liking this thread and following this thread.

Responses

mark_l_levinson

17 Messages

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680 Points

7 years ago

Sometimes I had to think hard before I could meet the old ten-line minimum, but I think it made sense. A comment is not a review.

gromit82

Champion

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7.5K Messages

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276.5K Points

7 years ago

I don't know what the exact minimum limit of words or characters should be, but I agree with Marco that 50 characters is definitely too short to be considered a useful or worthwhile review.

Nobody is required to submit reviews to IMDb. If they can't think of 50 words to write, they don't have to submit a review.

Furthermore, I was under the impression that the 50-character limit was introduced, in part, to cater to people who prefer to use their smartphones for everything and don't use desktop computers if they can avoid it. But if someone prefers using their smartphone for writing, they ought to be willing to type an additional number of words using their smartphone.

brett_harrison

15 Messages

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824 Points

7 years ago

I agree. 50 characters makes a mockery of the whole reviewing system. Mind you, IMDb seem to have made a mess of things when it comes to reviews, making it impossible to filter them. They say they'll sort it out, but we'll see...

jon_vitas

44 Messages

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1.6K Points

7 years ago

I think it should go back to the 10 line minimum, it's better for everyone like that.

Marco

2.8K Messages

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83.5K Points

7 years ago

I think it's pretty petty that IMDb removed this thread from "Services: IMDb.com". User reviews are an issue that concerns both customers and contributors and I see no reason why it should be removed from the general "Services: IMDb.com" part of GetSat. User reviews is an area of interest for a lot of non-contributors mind you! (also note that the thread "Update to User Reviews" actually *is* attached to "Services: IMDb.com": https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/update-to-user-reviews)

I'd like a staffer to explain why this idea shouldn't be attached to Services: IMDb.com. I think it's of interest for a lot of non-contributing customers who might not visit the "Data issues & Policy Discussions" area of GetSat. If they can't explain, I want them to add it back there.

Also IMDb, you always say that we should put stuff in the Ideas section to see how many people agree so you can see how high up on the list of proposed changes it should go, so shouldn't you give us the possibility to show it to as many people as we see fit?

Marco

2.8K Messages

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83.5K Points

7 years ago

Bump.

Marco

2.8K Messages

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83.5K Points

7 years ago

Bump.
A response from a staffer explaining why this was removed (without asking or informing me) from the general "Services: IMDb.com" part of GetSat would be very welcome. The way it is now, it's almost as if you want me to think you try to keep this Idea under the radar, which, for the record, I don't think, but why leave so much room for doubt?
As I've said multiple times on the old Contributors Board, communication is key!

ElMaruecan82

5.2K Messages

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138.3K Points

7 years ago

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Ceci n'est pas une Review....

Here's a review I just found on IMDb, I guess it meets the new requirements... but seriously, how on Earth can be this considered a review? (with all due respect to the user who posted it)

Thanks for this movie because I love this movie and I like to show them

That's it. That's not even a comment. The craziest thing is that the user put a 'Warning Spoilers' and got 5 points of hopefulness.

To get it straight, it's not about this review in particular but I suppose there are now at least hundreds of "reviews" that look like this one. As a matter of fact, anyone can just take one sentence and copy-paste it in every possible film and become a prolific reviewer.

That's the problem if you want to make reviewing possible from mobile phones, you'll get this kind of reviews more often than the constructive albeit short ones.

Marco

2.8K Messages

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83.5K Points

Thanks for this example Sdk. I'm afraid you're right, there are hundreds and probably thousands of these junk texts posing as user reviews out there.

7 years ago

jon_vitas

44 Messages

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1.6K Points

7 years ago

I've made quite a few reviews from my mobile phone which you can do if you go down to the bottom of any media page and press on "show on IMDb.com". But you can't do it directly from the app, something I have been suggesting ever since the app came out originally, I had it on my very first iPhone about nine years ago.

But for most of those years they had a ten line minimum for reviews which they should go back to- it forces most people to be honest when they make a review , it did me and I remember there was no lower limit when they first put up the reviews section , back when IMDb started

david_chester

11 Messages

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594 Points

6 years ago

It doesn't matter. I've seen reviews saying things like, "IMDB requires me to have 50 words/10 lines/a minimum of xxxx. So, this is my review." Then they write "boring," copy and paste it 50 times and then that's their "review."

From a recent comment I got from IMDB's "help desk," it is quite clear that they don't care about this and that they must think they are offering us a great "opportunity" by "allowing us" to post our reviews.

I love IMDB for what it offers, as it's a wealth of info, but I am encouraged to consider starting my own movie review website, because I would know this: 1) the reviews would be intelligent; 2) the reviews would be proofread; 3) the reviews would stay on point; 4) the reviews would not repeat one word over and over again; 5) the reviews would capitalize the word "I" instead of allowing it to become part of some bizarre "stylization" of the English language where the "reviewer" is too lazy to use the Caps lock key for a nano-second.

I may not have the "worldwide audience" that IMDB has, but at least it wouldn't take five days to approve a review, nor would it take another five days to approve an edited version of that review.

ACT_1

8.6K Messages

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176.8K Points

5 years ago

? ?

Pukeonthestreet
IMDb member since February 10 2020
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur113529171/
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur113529171/reviews - 213 Reviews

Holmes & Watson (2018)
Why did people forget that stupid movies are supposed to be stupid?
11 February 2020
The entire point of this movie is to be illogical.
It succeeds wonderfully and is hilarious.
People have seem to forgotten what comedies are like

Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule (2010)
Hilarious
11 February 2020
His character was already a highlight of tim and eric so for him to get his own show was obvious.

Tom Goes to the Mayor (2004)
Where it all started
11 February 2020
Honestly this might be better than tim and eric soley for the fact that it doesn't get as dark and creepy.

Ice Age (2002)
A really great children's movie
11 February 2020
Adults will love it just as much as kids.
The a list cast lifts it up.

The Babadook (2014)
More reasons we need more women to make more movies
11 February 2020
Easily one of the creepiest films ever made.
It's so well done I can't wait to see what she does next.

The Conjuring (2013)
One of the best horror movies
11 February 2020
I wish the sequels lived up to this. But at least we have this.

Hocus Pocus (1993)
One of the best made for tv movies
11 February 2020
It's not just nostalgia. This movie is well crafted. Funny and endearing.

Bumblebee (2018)
A great throwback
11 February 2020
It's so old school there's barely a kiss in it.
Harkens back to a time when movies were more wholesome and you'll love it for that.

The Road (2009)
Post apocalyptic
11 February 2020
For a story without character names, it's crazy how great this movie is. Viggo carefully chooses his films and it shows.

Kick-Ass (2010)
Really great
11 February 2020
In a world chock full of way too many super hero movies this one stands out.
.

ACT_1

8.6K Messages

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176.8K Points

5 years ago

😮=[ DELETED ]=😮

(edited)

ACT_1

8.6K Messages

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176.8K Points

4 years ago

jon_vitas

44 Messages

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1.6K Points

4 years ago

I apologize, this started out as a short response to those review links, but it turned into a TOME. Sorry!

I’m familiar with that Hitchcoc guy, they’ve reviewed a few of the same things I have, I frequently “run into them” as a matter of fact.

Some of those people have been on this site for over 20 years, I am amazed that some of those people have pushed out 24,000 reviews. I have barely hit 900, and most of those when I was more active on the site. I just don’t have the enthusiasm that I had when I originally joined, after being inundated by fake accounts that are virtually posting the same review of a show or movie up to 100 times, sometimes even before that item is released. They did it to the second episode of “Picard“, claiming that everybody who gave it a positive review were fake (rather than themselves). I’m not sure if that review is still there, I reported it as inappropriate and duplicate. I wrote a refuting review shortly after that one appeared to refute what the guy said and also pointing out that the comments section is not supposed to be a podium to pound on for politics or religion and that person’s review was both. I also made sure to state that nobody should write reviews of things that have not been seen, The only place where that show has been seen before release was in Germany where they showed the first three episodes in a theater, and none of those people who were there wrote reviews of those three episodes, that’s just one thing I don’t do, And I don’t even like putting spoilers in mine, although sometimes I have to explain some thing that they did with the storytelling and it is sometimes perceived as a spoiler, so I have had to go back in and make slight alterations. I used to write all kinds of spoilers because I would review something using a point by point or review of the movie or episode. But I try to not do that anymore

Looking through the reviews from some of those people that were linked, it was refreshing to see reviews that specifically dealt with the shows at hand and didn’t go off on any tangential political/religious rants. Those rants, I would never see things like that until maybe about I think we can go back five years when they started in earnest? because we have evangelicals telling their congregations to review everything negatively regardless of if they have seen it or not. I have actually seen encouragement of this in Reddit.

That is what they are trying to do, they are trying to turn IMDb into Reddit. And the one thing that empowers them is that “not helpful“ button. This is why I have always hated reddit because it empowers trolls and robots to bury statements that they don’t like with hundreds and sometimes thousands of “down votes“/“Unhelpful votes“... I have long encouraged IMDb to remove a feature that has been being abused, I don’t even think they have a “non-helpful“ button on Amazon reviews, when you go into prime and look at the reviews for films in there. I will have to check again but I don’t think they have it.

In the first years of this site “not helpful” was a useful feature because nobody was hammering on it, but now it is just another avenue which trolls and fake accounts use to bury what they don’t like. The least IMDb could do would be to remove any weighting system that Unhelpful votes add to a review so that it has the same chance of being seen as a review that has hundreds or thousands of helpful votes. When you think about it, all that is needed on any review site is a like button, I mean what purpose really does a “not like/not helpful” button serve? Other than to add a competitive and antagonistic atmosphere. If there were only a like button, then the people who like something will “like” it and the trolls will have to figure something else out.

ACT_1

8.6K Messages

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176.8K Points

4 years ago

Some that write Short reviews

bevo-13678
May 2017
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur76062573/
https://www.imdb.com/user/ur76062573/reviews - 2,227

The A-Team (TV Series)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084967/reference/

Every episode??
I like the bit where the car flips over.

Mexican Slayride (1983)

10/10
Awesome
bevo-136782

9 March 2020
One of my all time favourite episodes.
I like the bit where the car flips over.
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5589752/

- - -

The A-Team (TV Series)
Where Is the Monster When You Need Him? (1985)

10/10
No
bevo-136781
4 October 2021
The 150 characters minimum really makes it difficult for me to come up with a concise review.
Instead I gave to waffle on for quite a bit and still come up short.
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw7442790/

- - -

Yay
bevo-136781
4 October 2021
One of my favourite episodes. I like it when the car flipped over.
I don't see why you need 150 characters to review this show.
Cars flip over that's about it.
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw7442789/

- - -

The A-Team (TV Series)
Without Reservations (1987)

10/10
Yayyyyy
bevo-13678

7 December 2020
Great way to finish on a high. Lots of cars flipping over
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6343869/

= = =

(edited)

Marco

Make sure reviews are reviews again (minimum of 50 words instead of 50 characters)

mark_l_levinson

gromit82

brett_harrison

jon_vitas

Marco

Marco

Marco

ElMaruecan82

Marco

jon_vitas

david_chester

ACT_1

ACT_1

ACT_1

jon_vitas

ACT_1

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