IMDb Name Page BETA OPT-IN

@Michelle​ Another Epic Fail in film research follows: wanted to look up a TV credit for actress Sue Ane Langdon (episode of Perry Mason). Would have taken  seconds under current system, under proposed new design, almost impossible to find that episode in Sue Ane L>angdo's filmography.  Leave it alone!

@barrpub​ Your last sentence says it all!

@barrpub​ We encourage you to opt-out of the beta if it is not meeting your needs as currently designed.  Updates are coming before the launch. 

In this specific case:

then:

To reach:

Also, there's a convenient link above to her character page on Perry Mason -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050051/characters/nm0486057 which is not reachable at all from the previous name page (similarly, the new pages show directly or provide faster access to: the poster; the IMDb rating; your own rating; viewing information on TV or streaming or DVD; the trailer; add-to-watchlist; title plot outline; running time; certificate; genres; and the ability to rate -- all of which have been much-requested features by other customers).  

Hope this helps. 

I really hope you all keep the Credits listing vertical. Again, it is very difficult to read two titles next to each other and then move down to the next column and repeat.

@Michelle​ 😀

We will continue to iterate on our design 
based on feedback prior to launching the new Name page (coming soon!).

All Feedback?? : Keep it as it was!!

I am not using the New View

Took another look today 🙄

You combined  Actor TV & Movies as Projects??

Not a great idea   (maybe we just wanna see TV)

Raymond Burr (1917–1993)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000994/

Old
https://www.imdb.com/preferences/beta-control/?e=name&t=0&u=/name/nm0000994/

Filmography
Actor: TV       (79 credits)
Actor: Movie (67 credits)

New
https://www.imdb.com/preferences/beta-control/?e=name&t=1&u=/name/nm0000994/

Actor
Previous projects  146

- - -

EDIT:   TUE AUG 9 2022

Raymond Burr
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000994/

Wayback Machine
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000994/

SEPTEMBER 19, 2004
http://web.archive.org/web/20040919021024/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000994/

.

@ACT_1​  This has been the default on IMDb for 15-20 years, although there is a user preference to split filmographies by title type.   The same thing is in the new design (and more) — see the filter icon in the upper left of the grab below from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000994/

Hope this helps. 

@Michelle​ Is there any way to permanently stay on the existing page? Skip the new changes coming?

@michael_paliobeis​ me too

I'd really like that option too

@alyssa_amodei​  Thanks for taking the time to provide your feedback.  The pages are a work-in-progress, and as you will see elsewhere in this thread, fixes for some of your issues are in the pipeline.  We wanted to provide the option for people to comment early vs. when everything is finalised.  For things not already in the pipeline, your comments will help shape the next steps. 

@Col_Needham​ "For things not already in the pipeline" - I think you should have elicited comments loooooong before you even began the pipeline, so it was possible to incorporate any suggestions (including an emphatic "DON'T DO IT - ABANDON THIS ILL-THOUGHT-OUT EXPERIMENT").

I fear that IMDB has wasted a lot of money (developers' salaries) doing something that no-one wants and which will make IMDB several orders of magnitude harder to use, to the extent that contributors will leave in droves. The fewer people who contribute, the less up-to-date the data will be. The less up-to-date, the fewer visitors will visit the site to see the adverts. That will affect IMDB's bottom line. Is that blunt enough for you?

I've seen a few hare-brained decisions in my time, but this one is beyond stupid - it's suicidal.


(As always, the caveat is that this is not a personal attack on Col. You're just the poor sod who is having to field all the flak, and who may or may not agree with us but has to toe the party line nevertheless. As the person who founded IMDB, you must be heartbroken to see what Amazon has turned "your baby" into (a well-respected industry-standard database turned into a toy). You have my commiserations - you are being put in an invidious position.)

@alyssa_amodei​ 

I've started a petition to stop the changes. If we get enough steam, these Amazon changes could be stopped!

https://chng.it/xtprF89H

@alyssa_amodei​ Agree with this completely. For a desktop view, this is awful. The current page is concise and lets the user see everything in one go. It takes multiple clicks to see what I can currently see on initial page load. A redesign should make things more efficient, not more complicated. Why not give us a list view as an option?

@slanskye​

Thanks for the feedback, please see our update yesterday at https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/imdb-name-page-beta-optin/62db09f1e232bb632089ba01?commentId=62e80718c998636027af1350 specifically:

@don_wood_5537932​  Sorry about that.  We have asked the team to update the FAQ.  You should see a little timer / clock icon in the lower right of the page.  If you click on the icon, there’s a “Go Back” link in the menu which pops-up. 

@Col_Needham​ 😀

Not easy to find for all those not reading this ??

.

Oddly, it looks like a cookie/biscuit. Not sure why the text "Go Back" couldn't be used.

I hope you are keeping stats on how many people do actually go back. The format looks similar to the iOS app... and that format is the reason I rarely use the app.

@don_wood_5537932​ 

I've started a petition for the New Amazon look to stop its changes to IMDB.

 Please help up get enough signatures to stop these changes.

https://chng.it/xtprF89H

@Dinosauce​  Thanks for taking the time to comment. 

@Dinosauce​ 

I've started a petition for the New Amazon look to stop its changes to IMDB.

 Please help up get enough signatures to stop these changes.

https://chng.it/xtprF89H

@Col_Needham​ I agree completely with @Dinosauce At least give a list view option.

@slanskye​ You are commenting on last week's comments, please scroll to the top of page 1 of this announcement :-)

@bderoes​  Thanks, yes, this is another known bug (and glad you spotted it). If someone has self credits on a series, it sometimes obscures their acting credits or vice versa (Adam Sandler’s earlier acting credits obscure his later hosting credits on SNL, for an opposite example). 

The “Show all” requirement to also include episode details is a good catch, thanks. 

More missing credits and inconsistent display, still for 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1125732/

Compare her totals on the old format:

In addition to the series missing under acting, she's missing this title:

2002: Il barbiere di Siviglia (TV Movie)
Rosina

And under Self, she's missing:

2003: Gala Jean-Philippe Rameau - Concert du 20ème anniversaire des Musiciens du Louvre (TV Special)
Mezzo-soprano

@bderoes​  Thanks for confirming this bug.  This is also on the list and will be addressed before the pages go fully live.  The specific examples are useful as there are different reasons why some of the counts are mismatched. 

@bderoes​  The “by type” setting is not currently sticky and neither does it read the existing preference, so we will take this as the first request to support this.  Thanks.

Thanks on the genre exclusion (and we will be adding shorts to the excludable set too).

@virtyaluk​ You should see this on any name page, click "See new version":

@mbmb​ 

Are you talking about this feature?

@mbmb​ Thanks for the feedback.  This also a known bug which affects a small number of names, and it will be fixed before the pages go fully live (thanks for reporting it though). Do you remember on which names you saw this problem? 

@bderoes An example name we already have logged with this bug is Samara Weaving. 

@Col_Needham​ I think the behaviour I'm reporting happens on every page. It's not like that "Samara Weaving" page which happens as soon as page is loaded.

For example this name page mentioned in an above post: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1125732/

Click "Self" once to enable it, click it again to disable it and click it again to enable it again and in this step, it says "Credits excluded."

As far as I can tell this happens on every name page. It's possible I saw it happened with the first click too but my memory could be wrong on that and can't remember the name page as I was quickly checking multiple random name pages.

@mbmb​  Thanks for clarifying.  Good catch on a new bug there! 

@mbmb​  We have fixed the Samara Weaving case but not (yet) the open/close bug. 

@mbmb​ 

Click "Self" once to enable it, click it again to disable it and click it again to enable it again and in this step, it says "Credits excluded."

This is now fixed too, thanks again for spotting it. 

@Col_Needham​ Thanks for these updates.

@domsickles​  Thanks for the valuable feedback. 

@ddb_mnr​  Thanks for taking the time to comment.  The pages are definitely a work-in-progress.  Regarding the excessive subpages, the “30 more” links are a temporary experimental situation while we are still working on the pages.  We are aiming to strike the right balance between how many credits to load initially and when to have a “Show all” option to display the rest.  Thanks for confirming that 30 is too small. Related, a one-click “Show All” for all sections simultaneously is also on the list. 

On the speed front, sorry to hear on the load times.  May we ask in which country are you located and (roughly) how fast is your internet connection (visit https://fast.com or your speed test provider of choice)? 

@ddb_mnr​ "I'd really like to see the contributors build a new site for their data along the lines of the way Col Needham had imdb about 1998 before Amazon came in and everything got messed up.  With a video collection of about 50K titles and wish lists of hundreds of thousands of lines I'll attempt to continue using imdb, but it is really looking like in a couple of months this user will be gone for good."

Yes, it is "our" data - not in a legal way, but in a moral "result-of-sweated-labour" way. We've invested time and trouble, for the love of doing a job accurately and completely, and it is a crying shame to see it going to hell in a handbasket.

I too will struggle on when (not if) the changes become imposed on everyone. But at some point I too will be saying "sod this for a lark - it's just too difficult now".

If I could find it after it was built I'd be a regular user and give up imdb for good very happily

@hoehlengnarf​ Thanks for taking the time to comment. The “30 more” is a temporary experimental situation while we are still working on the pages.  We are aiming to strike the right balance between how many credits to load initially and when to have a “Show all” option to display the rest.  Thanks for confirming that 30 is too small.

Thanks for the problem report on the translations; these are not automated, but it sounds like the people who provided the translations are not as fluent as they should be, sorry. 

@lunamond91​ Thanks for the feedback.  You can opt-out the same way you opted in … you should still see a little timer / clock icon in the lower right of the page.  If you click on the icon, there’s a “Go Back” link in the menu which pops-up. 

However, episode details are still available on the new pages — click the character name to display them.  For example, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0428065/

Hope this helps. 

Hi Col, thanks for answering. I already found the episode lists. But I'm using the actor's pages quite much for private statistics. Up to 500 times per day. Can you imagine how much additional time it will cost if all the credits including episodes are not on the same page anymore and you need additional clicks? And how much longer it takes to find a credit if you first have to click on texts like 30 more for every actor? I can only hope both views stay available.

But thanks for helping me switching to the old view again.

@lunamond91​  Thanks for the feedback on the initial number of episodes shown. The batch size of 50 is a temporary experimental situation while we are still working on the pages.  We are aiming to strike the right balance between how many episodes to load initially and when to have a “Show all” option to display the rest.  Thanks for confirming that 50 is too small. 

Already on the pre-launch list is a “Show All” for all credits, we will take your comment above as another  request to include episode details here too (as above in https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/imdb-name-page-beta-optin/62db09f1e232bb632089ba01?commentId=62db45511b2f176c00111327&replyId=62db4844c998636027ac9835). 

Hi Col,

sorry but I think this was a misunderstanding. The new pages are too blown-up. For my work I need the compact but detailed old version. Without any additional click and without searching for texts between pictures, which I'm not interested in at all.

Another nice example if I want to know date of birth and place of birth of an actor, I saw it in the first view, now I have to scroll, scroll and scroll down to the personal information.

BUt if you're talking about a show all option. Will there be the option in the site preferences to always show them all, so you don't need to click on show all on every single page you visit?

@lunamond91​  Thanks for the feedback, which we have captured as you intended.  Thanks for comments on birth locations (birth & death dates are actually more visible in the new design, but not the locations). 

The “Show All” is currently not planned to be sticky (or a preference), however, your comment here is another vote in favour of making it so. 

@Col_Needham​ And I'd like to add my vote for "Show all" to be sticky as a per-user config setting. And do it as a setting that is saved at your server, not as a cookie that may be deleted from the user's browser cache.

I'm baffled that you didn't envisage making the value "sticky" right from the outset - we shouldn't be having to vote for it: it should be done by default, like any option that controls how the data is displayed.

@martin_695862​  Thanks for the comment in support of a preference.  

As to why this was not added by default, this is part of why we are doing this beta test. The problem is that every preference we add complicates the experience and often slows down future feature development.  We have to be sure each preference adds enough value to customers to justify the cost of the added complexity. 

@Col_Needham​ 😡😡🤬🤬😡😡🤬🤬

@lunamond91​ 

I've started a petition for the New Amazon look to stop its changes to IMDB.

 Please help up get enough signatures to stop these changes.

https://chng.it/xtprF89H

@Johan_132​  Thanks for the detailed feedback, which has been logged for the team.  The pages are a work-in-progress, and as now noted elsewhere in this thread, we are experimenting with how many credits to show and the support for “show all” options.

100% agree with this. When I visit IMDb, I'm looking for a list of actors appearing in a specific production, or a list of productions a specific actor has appeared in, or rarely actors' ages (for exactly the reason mentioned above) or birthplaces (what's that accent?) or movie release dates. Exactly as the above poster said, I’m looking for information, not idly browsing for random listicles and pretty pictures.

I frequently refer to IMDb on my phone while watching movies (at home, of course!) and always switch to the desktop site, because the mobile site so determinedly hides any and all information in an endless labyrinth of sub-pages and expanding lists, further obscured with giant image cards and giant "top cast" and "most known for" summary lists that are never useful to me. This new look seems to be taking everything that's wrong with the mobile site, doubling it, and applying it to the desktop view. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

@Johan_132​ "And for every list, I of course want all of it. I am not casually browsing just for fun: I'm looking for specific information. Cutting the list off and putting a "More .." link is bad user interface design: that UI pattern might have a place somewhere, but that place is not here!"

I fully agree with this. Contributors do not want "More..." links or buttons to expand sections. They want "Just the facts, ma'am". Contributors and serious researchers are a very different breed from casual users of IMDB. They have different needs which must be catered for by user-selectable sticky options. As with so many things in modern computing, IMDB is trying to force a low-tech "display-rich, content poor" format on everyone, instead of keeping configurable options for how things are displayed.

@martin_695862​ 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝

I use it ALL OF THE TIME for information, keeping track of what I have watched, etc etc etc.....b days, even heights of actors!!! lolol

@Johan_132​ 

I've started a petition for the New Amazon look to stop its changes to IMDB.

 Please help up get enough signatures to stop these changes.

https://chng.it/xtprF89H

@Col_Needham​ having a show all option should never be thought of as optional. When redesigning websites or software that previously showed all entries, reducing the number of displayed items and not having a show all button is nothing less than an insult to the user. If this new design stands as is without a show all button I, for one, will find another website to use. 

@trystane​ Thanks for the feedback.  It was never our intention to launch without a “Show all” button — this is a work-in-progress beta to get early feedback on other features on the page. 

@martin_695862​ This casual user also prefers the simple and complete interface!