Was there a recent change to review sorting by "featured"?

What does "several user inputs" mean? The helpfulness votes are of course a type of user input, but are there others?

I'm surprised that there would still be editorial review of selection of featured reviews when there are other ways of doing it. It doesn't seem like there is abundant manoeuvre at IMDb for other tasks like data management or support requests.

@Peter_pbn​ I am not sure why it says “editorial review” when that is not a factor.  We will get the help text updated, thanks. 

@Peter_pbn​ Thanks again -- the help text has been updated. 

@Col_Needham hey buddy, good to hear from you again. This still doesn't answer my concern. I've been using IMDb for years and never seen a review of mine drop that far when I'm getting upvotes at a significantly higher rate.

I thought of other possibilities, like more new reviews coming in with better helpfulness, or other higher ranked prolific reviews getting bumped ahead of mine. None of those are the case here.

I was the second highest review with 54% upvotes, then got dropped off the first page after receiving 72% upvotes since then.

Thanks again for your help.

@FeastMode​ We have new information on this. It turns out that there was an unannounced change to the algorithm late last week. An experimental adjustment which had been under test across a subset of titles was launched to all titles. It was not a typical launch since it was just an expansion of an already live change, and the variables under consideration remain the same per the help text. However, the team responsible failed to follow our usual change notification process, hence the reply from Ozzy above.  We have taken steps to ensure the proper process is followed in future even under circumstances like this. 

This accounts for the change in where your review appears on this title’s featured review list as the title was not previously part of the experiment.  Similar to the IMDb ratings algorithm, the relevant teams are often making adjustments to the various weights to keep the sentiments in both systems aligned. 

Hope this helps. 

It appears that the new algorithm has incorporated an editorial review. Several of my reviews have dropped, even below some reviews that had zero “likes”.

What is an editorial review? Are they having someone decide if it should be on the first page?

Man. I'm so upset with IMDb that I've been using their site significantly less. At best this is complete incompetence by whoever modified the algorithm. At worst (and more likely), IMDb is going down the same shady route as Rotten Tomatoes. I am completely losing trust in this website and may migrate fully to Letterboxd.

Example 1:

My review for Hit Man (2023) (tt20215968) has 29 out of 35 upvotes. That's 83% positive. That, along with my "prolific reviewer" status, would basically guarantee to have me on the first page. I would have had hundreds of votes by now.

Instead, my review is currently at 165th, behind SEVERAL reviews with

1 out of 10 positive

3 out of 20

4 out of 26

0 out of 3

0 out of 2

0 out of 1

I used to have about one in three or one in four reviews make it to the first page. Since this change I have had ZERO.

Example 2:

My review for Beast (2022) (tt13223398) is ranked 8th out of my 2,300+ reviews based on helpfulness. With 528 out of 633, it's one of my best reviews ever. It was the top review before this change.

While it's still on the first page, it's been dropped down to 14th. I checked the 13 reviews above mine. Nearly every one has a SIGNIFICANTLY lower helpfulness percentage. And only one of the 13 is a more "prolific reviewer" than I am.

This is so shady and has destroyed my love of the hobby of reviewing movies. I used to make sure to see movies on opening night so I could get my review out right away. Lately, I've been skipping movies and deciding to watch them at home.

@Col_Needham sorry to keep looping you in here, but I'm hoping you could save IMDb for me. I used it more than any other website/app and am likely in your top 0.1% of users. Why is IMDb making decision that's causing its most loyal users to feel like IMDb hates us?

Hi @FeastMode,

There is no "editorial review" process carried out in regards to which user reviews are featured or displayed. As previously stated, the selection of featured reviews takes several criteria into consideration. For example, this criteria can affect the display order of user reviews to combat targeted abuse or more accurately represent audience sentiment on IMDb title pages.

Cheers!

@Ozzy  this is the second time within this thread that you've given me a generic response that doesn't answer my question at all. And the first time it turned out you were wrong. Please stop marking the issue as solved with it is clearly not.

Here is another example.

Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) (tt5113044)

My review was the number one review with 129 out 178 helpfulness votes (72.5% positive).

Now it's ranked 23rd behind the following:

2 out of 3

7 out of 15

4 out of 7

10 out of 21

5 out of 8

38 out of 56

48 out of 81

6 out of 10

These and most of the rest are below my helpfulness percentage, have less total votes and are not prolific reviewers.

So please explain to me how I am behind all of those when I should be ahead based on every metric used in the past.

Hi @FeastMode,

As mentioned above, the first response to this thread was in fact incorrect due to a recent and internally unannounced change to our user review algorithm. However the information we have since given you is correct, and is all we are permitted to share on this matter. User reviews are featured or displayed in an order based on a developing algorithm, this is to ensure a wider representation of audience sentiment and contributor criteria is presented on IMDb title pages. We believe this will provide a better experience for user reviews on IMDb altogether.

Additionally, a thread is marked solved when its issue/question is deemed resolved or answered. We're sorry that this is not the response you may have hoped for, and I will pass on your feedback and concerns to the relevant team for review.

Thanks!