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cris
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10 Messages

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202 Points

Friday, January 20th, 2023

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3

Reduce the minimum size for IMDb user reviews

Please remove the required characters of 600 from the review function.  Or limit to much lower.  I may have a short review.  Include a sort feature which allows us to filter by this is you must.

Idea

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Updated 

1 year ago

 • Edited

3.1K

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3

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NJS36

5 Messages

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102 Points

2 years ago

I completely agree with you. At one point they had shortened the amount of characters and then upped it substantially after that. It's ridiculous to have to use 600 characters!!!!

0

NJS36

5 Messages

 • 

102 Points

2 years ago

I respectfully disagree with some of the IMDB employees posting here. Six hundred characters are not of any more value than a shorter review. What is of no value is no review at all, which is what this policy is causing.

3

Marco

3.2K Messages

 • 

91.2K Points

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2 years ago

0

jeorj_euler

10.7K Messages

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226.1K Points

The consequence of no reviews at all seems like it would apply mainly to short movies and children's shows' episodes. Which is why I cannot approve of the minimum limit being applied unilaterally. 

— Jeorj Euler, an IMDb regular registrant

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2 years ago

0

ericnm

17 Messages

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242 Points

I spoke with a producer and director recently. We had this same conversation almost 1 year ago, and they confirmed their position again. They used to put their productions on IMDB, but now they put them on another competitive site that is very popular with young people in the film industry here (in Canada), because this site gives as much importance to short films as to big productions, and allows short reviews, and people are fond of that. There's no lesser consideration for short films (or youth programs), because for a young filmmaker, or a young actor, it's often his or her first significant experience, (George Lucas, Denis Villeneuve started with shorts...). IMDB should think long term, because these young filmmakers and actors are becoming more and more important in the industry, and will keep their habit of staying on a site that has accepted them. I can see the impact of this closure here, because in my conversations with these young creators, IMDB is less and less part of their vocabulary. It's a pity, because IMDB has an incredible inventory of archives, back when everyone was talking about it. I even remember a time when professors at the University of Cinema taught how to put films on IMDB (10 years ago). 

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2 years ago

0

ACT_1

8.8K Messages

 • 

179.5K Points

2 years ago

9,026,600 Reviews Mon May 1 2013
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9026600/

9,093,000 Reviews Thu June 1 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9093000/

9,159,000 Reviews Sat July 1 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9159000/

9,230,750 Reviews Tue Aug 1 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9230750/

9,245,900  Reviews Mon Aug 7 2023

https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9245900/

9,260,000 Reviews  Mon Aug 14 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9260000/

9,273,000 Reviews Mon Aug 21 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9273000/

9,288,600 Reviews Mon Aug 28 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9288600/

9,296,000 Reviews Mon Sep  4 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9296000/

9,317,500 Reviews Mon Sep 11 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9317500/

9,330,000 Reviews Mon Sep 18 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9330000/

9,342,000 Reviews Mon Sep 25 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9342000/

9,350,000 Reviews Mon Oct  2 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9350000/

9,368,000 Reviews Mon Oct  6 2023 
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9368000/

9,380,000 Reviews Mon Oct 16 2023 
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9380000/

9,393,000 Reviews Mon Oct 23 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9393000/

9,404,700 Reviews Mon Oct 30 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9404700/

9,420,400 Reviews Mon Nov  6 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9420400/

9,431,500 Reviews Mon Nov 13 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9431500/

9,445,800 Reviews Mon Nov 20 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9445800/

9,460,000 Reviews Mon Nov 27 2023
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9460000/

  

10,107,000 Reviews Mon Nov 4 2024
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw10107000/

.

(edited)

1

jeorj_euler

10.7K Messages

 • 

226.1K Points

Interestingly, the content of rw9026600 (by kawecx for Alaska Daily) somewhat strays off-topic in the context of the mission of IMDb movie reviews. Without the aid of volunteer "snitches", there is no way to truly improve quality control. Well, at least the content rw9230750 (by jordondave-28085 for No End) comes off very well for a review that just barely meets the minimum limit, but certainly it does contain a minuscule amount of fluff toward the beginning. As for rw9245900, I say, "TL;DR".

— Jeorj Euler, an IMDb regular registrant

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2 years ago

0

crazyhelmetdude

2 Messages

 • 

70 Points

2 years ago

when writing a review it asks for 600 characters minimum, thats way too much, half the time what i have to say in a review is not that long, it really needs to be shortened. i see other reviews where they are not that long which is very frustrating

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled writing a review

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0

quartz

2 Messages

 • 

90 Points

2 years ago

means a lot of useful information won't be posted? and you can't get a much shorter review than "6 stars". but I'm sure the film producers would want to know (as concisely as possible, they are probably busy and dont have time to read 600 characters when it could be 300) why you rated it 6 stars

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled minimum review length 600 characters

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0

dustin_452985

12 Messages

 • 

222 Points

2 years ago

I’m just curious why my reviews must always be 600 characters but I’ve seen many reviews that definitely aren’t this long?

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Review length

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0

RECB3

13 Messages

 • 

270 Points

2 years ago

Whenever I write up a review, it says that it has to be six hundred characters long but the other reviews that I see are shorter, why is that?

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled IMDB Reviews

1

0

gromit82

Champion

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7.8K Messages

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280.6K Points

RECB3: They used to have only a 50-character minimum, but eventually IMDb realized that 50 characters was too short to be a proper review.

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2 years ago

Bartanna

2 Messages

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70 Points

2 years ago

Hello,

Yesterday, after having been a passive but committed user for like a year now,

I felt complied to make my first comment on something.

 I started writing, and when I was finished, you guys said I had to write 300 characters more…

Then I ask myself, ( and apparently also you ) :

what’s the point of this?

If you write a comment, and it takes you 300 characters to do so, shouldn’t that be a good thing?

Hope to hear from you,

Regards,

Bart Naessens

Belgium

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Comments

1

0

roger_6767090

8 Messages

 • 

190 Points

2 years ago

Just tried to post a review of Blue Ridge (TV) with about 250 characters and it says 600 minimum. But I was looking at (background) two reviews that were shorter than mine. So what's going on?

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled What's with the 600 character review minimum?

1

0

Marco

3.2K Messages

 • 

91.2K Points

@roger_6767090​ There was a time when the character limit was (much) lower than it is now. However, the reviews that were submitted during that time and would not be allowed nowadays if someone submitted them won't be deleted by IMDb, even if they are explicitly pointed out to IMDb. The reasoning behind this isn't clear to me. Logically, this can cause confusion for customers.

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2 years ago

0

strawfoot

1 Message

 • 

64 Points

2 years ago

I agree, 600 characters is too long for what many will want to say, for the most part it either deters a review being written in the first place, or encourages filler. Neither is good.  Often I just want to make some comments which others may find useful, but the 600 char thing forces me to add bits that I wouldn't normally add.  A good review is one that is the right length for what needs to be said. I do understand IMDB may want to discourage flippant one-liners but these can often be the best bit of the review page.  How about 300 characters for a happy compromise?

0

0

picgoer

5 Messages

 • 

100 Points

1 year ago

I'm seeing an error message 'review must contain at least 600 words'. Say what??!"!  I can see others before me with 150 or 300 words only - which is fair and reasonable. So why am I being regaled for 600??!!  16 July 2004

Previous similar posts are not answered by imdb and I discern many members will no longer leave their own thoughts and reviews!!

2

0

Col_Needham

Employee

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8.2K Messages

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190.5K Points

@picgoer​ As we wrote above ... 

It seems some of the other people commenting here have not appreciated that the limit is 600 characters and NOT 600 words.  In English, 600 characters falls somewhere between 90 and 150 words.  It’s hardly an essay. 

Including this paragraph, this reply itself is over 600 characters, which is essentially just over the size of two 280-character full-length tweets. A little bit of context to even a brief review is helpful in understanding the author’s position. At the same time, the quantity of “drive-by” trolling has been significantly reduced whilst also improving overall review quality. 

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1 year ago

0

picgoer

5 Messages

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100 Points

Thanks for clarifying Col.

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1 year ago

0

picgoer

5 Messages

 • 

100 Points

1 year ago

I'm seeing an error message 'review must contain at least 600 words'. Say what??!"!  I can see others before me with 150 or 300 words only - which is fair and reasonable. So why am I being regaled for 600??!!

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Number of words in my review

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Ozzy

Employee

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2.6K Messages

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27K Points

Hi @picgoer,

These reviews were submitted prior to our policy change requiring reviews to be 600 characters, meaning the reviews you are seeing have been grandfathered. For more information, please see our user review guidelines.

I hope this helps!

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1 year ago

0

picgoer

5 Messages

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100 Points

Thanks for the note Ozzy

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1 year ago

0

guidokuwas

6 Messages

 • 

128 Points

1 year ago

Why do I need to write 600 characters while I see others have posted a short review?

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Adding a user review

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0

Stevecagneyfan

4 Messages

 • 

202 Points

1 year ago

I repeat what others have said. Reduce requirement from 600 characters to enable viewers to leave reviews without having to repeat ourselves.

I used to enjoy reading and leaving reviews 

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