IMDb Name Page BETA OPT-IN

@patty42​ I also think that the people that design the websites and game developers NEVER use the page nor play the game....it's all about how "creative" they can be and "flex" their brain muscle...and go..."LOOK AT ME"...I can do this...I'm great!!!

@patty42​

@patty42​

Lists are apparently passé. I remember years back when lists disappeared from Amazon and Netflix. No streaming platform presents choices in lists. Everything requires you to decipher and interpret the content of images in a screen's worth at a time as you scroll repeatedly, rather than taking a quick glance at a word or two at items in a text list. What prompted this near-universal trend? Where did the idea that this was a good thing come from? Why is everybody jumping on that bandwagon?

Allow me to add something to it. I don't consult databases to see pretty pictures, I want info - preferably clear, correct and easy to access. I'm an old Usenet user as well, I don't need frills, bells or dancing gifs. Stop the wokeism now, this is ridiculous. 

@patty42​ 💕💕💕💕💕💕 this comment

@Coreena​ this update is not geared toward mobile users. This is a revamp of the desktop website. There might be some similarities, but if you go to the IMDb website on your mobile device you get a site made for mobile. Again, this is made for desktop. It just is different and rather clunky, as many users have already pointed out. 

I don't use mobile......This was basically what @Col_Needham  was saying. I tried to find that comment but can't find it right now.  He was saying they want it to be the same across all platforms!!
Found it......took a screen shot from my e mail

Yep. Sheer discrimination. Congrats, Col, you got another woke medal. NOT "inclusive" at all.

@Coreena​ 😀

 computer users vs. mobile users

- - -

Updated my older message here:
https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/imdbcom/imdb-name-page-beta-optin/62db09f1e232bb632089ba01?commentId=62db1035c998636027ac8d0b&replyId=62dbe2d31b2f176c00112d11

Computer :

See the New version 

https://www.imdb.com/preferences/beta-control/?e=name&t=1&u=/name/nm0001682/

Back to the Old Version 

https://www.imdb.com/preferences/beta-control/?e=name&t=0&u=/name/nm0001682/

Mobile:

See the New version 

https://m.imdb.com/preferences/beta-control/?e=name&t=1&u=/name/nm0001682/

Back to the Old Version 

https://m.imdb.com/preferences/beta-control/?e=name&t=0&u=/name/nm0001682/

for

Mickey Rooney
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001682/

You can change the Name link "name/nm__" for other names

Also, it's too clunky for casting directors to search through, as IMDB is also a resume.

@thomas_ely_sage​ Thanks for the feedback.  This is already supported in the new pages. For example, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/ click the symbol to the left of the credit categories and switch the “Sort by” to “Movie, TV, etc”  to get to:

Hope this helps. 

@bderoes​ Thanks for the bug report; another good catch. 

If someone has more credits in Additional Crew than in other departments, I believe that section is listed first by default in the current as well as the new design.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000866/

I do agree that having to click each department (this name has 13 in total) in order to have those credits included is annoying.

I just wanted to clarify that in my post I take a giant dump all over the IMDB developers and others who run the scene, on purpose, because that's the same thing they are doing to the site.

Don't even try to play this off as a redesign that was desperately needed because the site was so outdated. Or that anybody who uses IMDB ever asked for this redesign, because they didn't.

Let me make it crystal clear why the site has gone through such massive redesigns to its own detriment. It's because Amazon own IMDB now, but the site still looks the same as when the previous owner had it. This is just Amazon selfishly trying to make it their own, because their ego is too big to accept that someone else already made a perfectly sound design.

On top of that, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's all -purposefully- designed to be confusing and difficult to navigate. Why? Because they can stuff more advertisements and other nonsense junk onto the page. That's why. Compact down the page into images and a strict limit of characters per nugget of information and you have more room to bombard the user with complete garbage.

So to the guy who is responding to these posts, working for IMDB, don't even bother with trying to deflect this as something "for the users" or a "better experience". If you truly believe that then you don't even use the website.

Also, this user opt-in isn't to make sweeping changes to the redesign. They are here to get you to report bugs and other very minor tweaks. Make no mistake, the bulk of this redesign is launching whether you like it or not. Amazon doesn't care. As someone else pointed out, just look at how terribly designed their Amazon store site is. Which has to be intentional at this point, because there's no way they haven't had complaints about it.

Forgot to mention, the reason I'm so upset about this change is because this page is arguably -the- most important page on the site. It's the one I use the most. They borked everything else on this site and I barely cared. Now that the actor's credits page is getting borked, it's over. There's nothing left to be had on this site. I relied on the quick glance of information when talking to my friends or while watching a film/show to see pertinent data on the actor.

Because the page mostly had text information on it, I could use CTRL+F to quickly find what I needed! Now all that data is hidden behind me having to manually click a bunch of buttons until I find the information. The entire point of a computer is to be efficient by making the computer do the work for you! Your redesign is NONSENSE!

As someone else in this place has pointed out, all of the redesign has made the site slow down drastically. No, it has nothing to do with where people live or their internet connection. I live in Pennsylvania and my internet is 300 Mbps down and 12 up. Maybe fiber optic internet users won't notice any problems with the site, but I doubt it. The site is just filled with too much junk, period.

@black_flag​ Black flag - 1000 thumbs up on the line speed issue. I believe as you do that it is the clutter that causes the issue. I have an old ADSL fixed line modem, an LTE mobile modem and a cell phone LTE Hotspot, with speeds varying between 5mbs to 50mbs and it makes NO DISCERNABLE difference in usability. The problem is the redesign and what it is doing to the system. At times I can actually watch on the bottom left of my screen where it says 'contacting imdb' and then 'waiting for imdb' or whatever the server name is. More irritating is that as soon as I can see the 'handshakes' and communications on the lower left, I know that I am guaranteed a data crash and 'save your page for later story' !!

@black_flag​ Allow me to give this post of yours a trillion likes. Actually, make it a quadrillion.

I woke up and it struck me exactly what all of these redesigns are about. It's very simple. 3 words.

USER ENGAGEMENT METRICS

The longer you are on the page, the more adverts and banners and other things you will see, the more likely you are to click it. Even if you don't click it, they have to provide these engagement metrics to anybody who wants to advertise their content on the site (e.g. HBO Max). Do you think that advertisers will pay more for you to be on the page for 10 seconds or 60 seconds? 60 seconds of course!

If I bring up IMDB and I can find the information I needed on an actor in under 20 seconds, that's not good for the page view engagement metrics. It means that I'm not on the site long enough for advertisers to want to sell to me.

Adding the excessive navigation hoops of clicking through sub-menus increases the time I spend on the page substantially.

Keep in mind that this is Amazon and they are only out to make profit, nothing else. This is one area of life where you should remain 100% cynical and assume the worst intentions. Don't let people like @Col_Needham make you believe that it's anything different. He gets a paycheck to defend this. He knows exactly what he's doing. Amazon knows that you will associate his humanity with his role at the corporation. Don't get confused about why he is here. If Col had any problems with what Amazon does ethically he could work somewhere else, but he doesn't. I'm not saying people should attack him for these changes (I doubt he's in charge of it), but don't mistake him as your friend or someone with the best intentions for end-users.

@black_flag​ Just to be clear, Amazon has owned IMDb since 1998. The site has been redesigned since then. For example, check out https://web.archive.org/web/20040918105950/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0247177/ for how a name page looked in 2004. 

The "user engagement metrics" of making people spend more time being exposed to ads to get the same amount of information does seem like a plausible motivation for the redesign.

@black_flag​ 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝 & a gazillion more!!!  🥰🥰
You are exactly right...... @Col_Needham  gets his big paycheck and HE HAS TO DEFEND IT, LOVE IT, PROMOTE IT.....ugh!!!!!
It's the same with game site moderators when us players of the game hate the new updates.....they HAVE to say the love it etc!!!!

@black_flag​ 

I've started a petition for the New IMDB/Amazon look to stop its changes to IMDB. Please help up get enough signatures to stop these changes. Please share the link with fellow actors, producers, directors and more. Share with your social media and friends. Let's stop this change! Thank you for helping!

https://chng.it/xtprF89H

@JohnB​ I completely agree. Also, RIP anybody who has a data cap on their ISP. If you are looking to manage how much data you use just from browsing the internet, stay away from IMDB. That's a lot of images!

@DrDuffy​ The whole "celebs" thing makes me want to puke. I notice that in the drop-down list when performing a search, what used to be "Names" (implying actors/actresses/crew) is now termed "Celebs". The rot has set in :-(

There are at least two types of IMDB users: punters and contributors. Any attempt to force a one-size-fits-all page layout and amount of information is doomed to failure. Contributors want things kept very simple:

- for titles, list all the cast and all the crew, with the cast in the order in which they were listed in the closing credits (not some arbitrary "most popular trending actor" order)

- for actors/crew, list all the titles (including all the episode names for a TV series) in reverse date order

No fancy graphics. No trailers for other sections of the site which are irrelevant to the title/name being displayed.

That may not be what the average punter wants. Nothing wrong with that. We all have differnet needs. Just develop two sets of pages/scripts, one with graphics etc and a brief summary (with "more..." links), and one which is plain and simple (and perhaps boring to the punter!) but is complete. I don't mind how long an actor's filmography is - it doesn't matter how much the page has to scroll. I still hanker after the long-dead "Episode Cast" page that each TV series had which listed every episode, with its cast, all on the one page - a godsend for sanity-checking and looking for unexpected changes such as the mass deletion of an actor's credits (twice I picked that up and got the vandalilsm reversed). Sadly that page is long gone, for reasons which I always found profoundly unconvincing. Ah well :-(

Sadly IMDB seems to be trying to satisfy the majority, without recognising that the minority (the contributors) are the lifeblood of the site: without us adding new titles etc, the database would stagnate and fossilise.

And if pages are redesigned with lots of irrelevant dross, contributors will lose the will to live, and will stop contributing because each page takes so long to load and to display *in full* (by clicking on "More..." links).

And that will be the fault of whoever sanctioned the changes.


IMDB needs its contributors, and contributors need usable pages. Col, please don't force everyone to use the same simplified, lowest-common-denominator, designed-for-tablets, "luvvified" celeb-gossip site. Keep the present reference view for titles and names: even if that involves well-justified changes behind the scenes, you don't have to change what information is presented and spice it up with graphics and trailers, for those who don't want those things.


I think I'm summing up the mood of a lot of the postings on this thread. It's not just me being awkward, is it?

@martin_695862, no, it isn't just you being awkward. Although I rarely contribute data to IMDb, I completely recognize and honor the importance of people who do. If a design change discourages contributions, that will lead to negative consequences for all IMDb users.

I already have to use other data sources at times because of previous IMDb changes. For example, when TV episode names could no longer be viewed all on one page, I had to start using Wikipedia to find which season a specific episode was in so that I could then come back to IMDb to see the cast details. Very annoying.

I hope that Col and other IMDb execs will take your suggestions to heart and not break the site for the volunteer contributors who make it what it is.

@martin_695862​ No you are not being awkward. Contributors contributions are the lifeblood of the site, and a good part of the reason that it is as big and successful as it is. Sadly, the almighty dollar profit rules the world, and the powers that be will risk the loss of contributors for an extra few million a year from advertising and clickbait.

Message redacted due to content being taken out of context and used off topic.

@martin_695862​, @patty42​ 

There is a link to listing all episodes on the main title page.

It appears just under the 2 top-rated episodes (in the top of the white background section). Next to Browse Episodes is Top-rated.

That's an Advanced Title Search within the series.

If you add &count=250 to the url, you can see a lot of them on 1 page, and you have various sort options including Release Date.

Probably would be nice to have the same link on the Episodes page.

BTW, you can add &series=tt... to any Advanced Title Search url to customize it further.