troywindhorst's profile

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Saturday, July 1st, 2023

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Report streaming (“Where to watch”) error

There are a lot of errors with the “Where to watch” feature. In most cases, this is a ‘same name’ issue. I wish there was an easy way to report these errors. In all fairness, IMDb does an amazing job, but providing an easy reporting method would should help out both IMDb and it’s users. 

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3 years ago

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Indeed I am. Thanks for the reply.

Maybe I didn’t explain it well. I appreciate the link, but I’m not referring to purchases or Amazon availability. I’m specifically referring to where titles are available for streaming (aka “Where to watch”).

For example, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098802 shows available on Tubi, when in reality, it is not (Tubi has a movie with the same name). I would like to easily submit a correction. If there is a way to do this, I have been unsuccessful in finding it. 

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@troywindhorst​ Yes, that's the form -> https://help.imdb.com/contact?deepLink=aiv&disableLoginPopup=true so here you would write:

Film/video title: "Get a Life" (1990)
IMDb identifier: tt0098802
Amazon Identifier: -
Comment:  This is linked to the wrong title on Tubi.com, please remove or relink to the correct title. 

similarly the form can be used to add missing watch links.

(edited)

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@troywindhorst​ ... and in this case, we have submitted the above on your behalf. 

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Thank you much.

Of course, this is just one title. There is other incorrect info. 

I won’t pretend to understand the complexities of APIs and algorithms. The fact that it works as well as it does is quite remarkable. IMDb is my favorite and most used iOS app (for that reason, I can be critical—no arrogance intended). 

“Where to stream” info should be available in the Edit Page interface. Or maybe instead a simple “Report error” link within the “Where to stream” interface itself. Of course, I understand you can’t just have users running around like the Wild West submitting corrections that are erroneous on their own. I suspect there would be checks and balances in place. 

If the only option now is to report such errors by creating a community post for each title, that seems like a lot of extra baggage.

Nonetheless, thanks for reading.

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@troywindhorst​ Just to be clear, the form at https://help.imdb.com/contact?deepLink=aiv&disableLoginPopup=true does not create a community post.  It sends the data directly to the team who also process the submissions via the “Edit Page” interface. 

The “Edit Page” system is integrated with the main IMDb database, but the where-to-watch offers are not stored there so it’s not practical to fold such edits into that system, hence the separate form. 

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@Col_Needham​  Ah… where-to-watch is a different database. That makes sense- thank you for that info.

The Contact Us dialog is buried deep, imo. I didn’t even know it existed. Most of the help section points to community support. Nonetheless, the Contact Us interface is a nice feature/tool.

Q: I’m assuming the Amazon Watch selection in the Contact Us interface is generically used for all streaming services. In other words, would I key “NA” for ‘Amazon Identifier’?

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@troywindhorst​ The incorrect Tubi link here has now been removed. 

To answer your later question, yes, if there’s no Amazon identifier, leaving it blank or using “-“ or “NA” or anything similar is fine. 

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Col: The description for the Amazon "Watch" or "Buy Now" linking function is as follows:

If you noticed that a video is available for online viewing on Amazon.com and our page for it doesn't include a "Watch Now" option for it, or if there is an incorrect purchasing link displayed on a title, please let us know using the E-mail button below and we'll be glad to add/correct it where possible.

Make sure to provide the information requested in the form to aid our editors in making this update for you.

Lastly, please note not all videos shown on Amazon.com can be linked to films/titles listed on IMDb.In some cases, due to technical limitations or availability restrictions, certain products may not be available for linking even if they have a product listing on Amazon.com.

I suggest that this text be edited to include a mention that corrections regarding links to other streaming services can also be submitted through this e-mail. "When submitting a correction regarding a link to a non-Amazon.com service, please leave the Amazon identifier blank." This should be possible without having to do any coding changes beyond changing this text.

Without having seen this thread, I would not have known that this function also applies to links to Tubi or any other streaming service that IMDb might link to.

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@gromit82​ Agree 100%. Even knowing, it’s still an unclear path.

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@gromit82​ Thanks; we now have a ticket open with the appropriate team to update the help text. 

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@gromit82​ The help text and the email template have now been updated.  Thanks for highlighting this.