Ongoing changes to several IMDb features

This is in reference to gromit82's post below:

Would the staff be willing to post a page that will list the features and functions that have been removed, and explain the future status of those items -- that is, whether they are (a) going to be brought back, (b) going to be brought back but with some significant changes, (c) under consideration to be brought back, or (d) not going to be brought back at all? 

Thanks for the suggestion.  We are just about finished with the retirement of the old software. We have less than ten items to go from the starting set of over 210, and the remainder are mostly on the small side -- some are simply HTML pages still served off the old system; the largest is advanced name search for which there is a drop-in replacement with a whole set of bugs and limitations removed (including the dreaded 10,000 result limit; the same limit will be removed from advanced title search in Q1 2018).

Given we are talking about over 200 systems / features and many of the changes only added functionality and/or fixed bugs, producing a comprehensive list is not going to be practical, sorry.  Everything with an announcement thread can be located by https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb?topic-list[settings][type]=update and we are encouraging the teams to keep either the main announcement up-to-date or to add an official reply as appropriate (although sometimes things are moving so quickly that it is simply best to get on with building the software). 

The items which were not announced (sometimes deliberate, sometimes accidental) which have active threads are:

• https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/reference-view-not-working-properly  (now superseded by https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/changes-to-title-reference-view)
• https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/epdate-epvote-eprate
• https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/company-credits-see-more-link

Col Needham
Founder & CEO, IMDb.com

A quick update on the progress here ...

Yesterday, on Friday 29 December 2017 at 3:41pm PST (11:41pm GMT) the final piece of old software in this multi-year migration moved to the new platform. 

Thank you for your patience so far.  We appreciate change is always hard -- please be assured we are doing this to build a much better IMDb for the long term. As noted elsewhere across other announcement threads (see https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb?topic-list[settings][type]=update), the final timing here left us no alternatives other than making some (mostly temporary) painful cuts in functionality of some features. On the plus side, it also made us examine some underused or outdated features and determine to simplify or remove them. Sometimes the best thing to do to improve the usability of an interface is to remove the least used features. Sorry if a personally beloved feature was in this latter set -- you can always gauge shared interest from other customers and lobby for its return by posting in the relevant "Ideas" section here on Get Satisfaction (for the web site, see https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/categories/imdb_imdbcom?topic-list[settings][type]=idea).

For those interested, the final change was the advanced title search (ATS) form at http://www.imdb.com/search/title. It was a relatively small change so the page is pretty much as before, except the (broken) keyword suggestion search field is now a (working) manual field, and the entries in the include / exclude menus in "Lists" are now in most recently modified order for consistency with the rest of the site.  The suggestion search powered keyword field will return early in 2018.  This now clears the way for an upgrade to the back-end ATS software which will remove the 10,000 result limit. This same limit has already been removed from advanced name search at http://www.imdb.com/search/name via a similar upgrade as part of the migration work. 

We are already working on adding / returning features on the new platform.  The pace of this work will increase when more of the team are back in the office after the New Year holiday next week. Please see the individual announcement threads at https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb?topic-list[settings][type]=update to keep up with specific progress as things launch. 

You should already see a more consistent interface across the main IMDb site, and in 2018 you will see more consistency across all parts of IMDb (web site, mobile web, iOS app and Android app). If a feature is missing or limited in one or more interfaces then there's a good chance it is at least in planning. 

Repeating some text which I wrote in another thread earlier this week ...

The numbers we are watching here are all showing improved customer engagement, with even more potential as things like review sort orders and ratings filtering are added back in the New Year.  We now have: a consistent design across all core pages on the web site; list editing on the Android app; all user reviews readable everywhere; consistent (and automatic) character pages; news available everywhere; all data published  everywhere as it is processed and available for instant editing (not random sections running 24-36 hours out-of-sync); an easier data cross-linking format; a better help system; a faster suggestion search powered contribution system; more visible core box office information; more modern list editing (okay yes, drag-and-drop on web is an unfortunate casualty, but the rest is better IMHO); the end of the unmanaged wiki systems (open for all contributors, with FAQ coming soon). This had led to new registrations at an all-time high across 2017; data contributors and data contributions similarly on all-time highs, yet (ignoring temporary holiday backlogs this week) the fastest ever overall processing times plus with the smallest ever backlogs.  Behind-the-scenes almost everything is now on the same modern software platform with simpler, faster paths for future changes; hundreds of (sometimes) years old bugs have been resolved; scores of longstanding requests / suggestions have been implemented; consistency has improved hugely between the nine "on platform" sites and apps which our team directly supports (with more work to do here in 2018).

Of course, not everything today is perfect nor in its desired end state. As mentioned, we had to make some awful short-term trade-off decisions to ensure we completed the technology migration in 2017, but we are confident the short term pain is worth the long term gain. 

Sonny: "Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not yet the end." from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1412386/quotes/qt1645298 :-)

Thanks again for continuing to bear with us.  Lastly, thanks to the amazing IMDb team who have all worked hard across 2017 to get us to this point.  Onwards now to our traditional end-of-year "thank you" to IMDb's top data contributors which will be published as on Monday as usual (archive from 2016 and earlier, available at https://contribute.imdb.com/czone/top_msg). 

Col Needham
Founder & CEO, IMDb.com

Is one of the changes that the backend is now more synchronized to the front end? I've noticed now that you can edit changes made to a title within hours if not minutes whereas it used to be at leat 24 hours before you could edit submitted data before?

Another recently launched benefit from this is you can now click the number of episodes on the title main details and full cast pages of any TV-show to show exactly in which episodes the person appeared directly on the page.  For example, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/ (by clicking "9 episodes"):

Thanks for the heads up and I'm looking forward to more improvements. Some things at the top of my mind that I hope will come along:
-the new genres, obviously,
-a proper place for dubbers, obviously,
-being able to view one's photo additions/corrections/deletions in one's Update History,
-the return of the Location Tree,
-shorter/"prettier" links for the new Help Center,
-users not being referred to as customers by IMDb. I don't mind advertisers seeing us as customers, but I'd like you guys to think of us as users of this incredible database.

The next change is now live, please see https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/updates-to-the-ratings-pages-and-functionality

This also includes an update to the title/ratings page, for example: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/ratings

On reflection, I think it is good that IMDb is undergoing a modernisation. The loss of some features has been a shame, but I look forward to seeing improvements in the future. I appreciate your transparency about the situation as well.

The images below compare the old and new designs of the Your Ratings page. I like that the new design is more detailed, showing the number of votes, age rating, runtime, and genre. I also like that the IMDb score is now alongside your own score. My only criticism over the design is the availability information at the bottom, which is really just a promotion for Amazon.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled [ New Changes to IMDb ? ].



IMDb is here to provide information about Movies and TV shows and the people involved
http://www.imdb.com/stats
Titles: 4,633,621 | People: 8,248,515   (Credits: 92,130,317)

with features Users can Use to keep track of their favs
and add comments, trivia, ratings, etc
about 266,164,000 messages were posted on the IMDb Boards Aug 6 2002 ... Feb 20 2017 - (GONE)

Oh, and how many Users add information about these Movies and TV shows ?? (for free!)
https://contribute.imdb.com/czone/hall_of_fame

How many of the 82,340,000 IMDb Users requested these changes ??
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur82340000/

There are a lot of complaints here about these changes
Most of the Users do not know about GS to write more complaints

How many Users need to sign a petition to undo these unwanted changes ??
- - -

IMDb Traffic Statistics
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/imdb.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMDb
- - -

PS
I have been a registered User looking up information here almost everyday for 17 years



Thank you IMDb !!!

It might be all too obvious, but it is worth pointing out anyway that the electronic world is changing crazily right now. Look what happened to the Hulu Plus. In mid-to-late 2017, the "New Hulu Experience" was rolled out for a number of streaming device models, and a lot of subscribers detest it. Support for the YouTube app on the original Wii was needlessly abruptly retired. The transitions from seventh generation video game consoles to eighth generation renditions have been a rough ride as well. Microsoft Windows "Ten" is itself spyware, whereas the previous versions were barely that. The world-wide web in general is deteriorating as web developers scramble to pander to the masses of mobile device users (the newest and youngest of whom may be unfamiliar with the true scope of computing). For the time being, internet relay chat (IRC) is still sacred, but for how long? It looks like Hyper-text Transfer Protocol may simply take over the functions of a number of other communications network protocols.

As we know, a vast majority of the customers to IMDb haven't, aren't and won't notice any of the changes. It's also not being reported in the news let alone headlines. There are about a dozen or so articles around the web that reported on the decommissioning of the message boards, and even fewer YouTube videos or Reddit threads addressing the matter. It's as though IMDb belongs to the deep web, even though most of it is on the surface.

Here's an idea: Why not ask IMDb users what kinds of changes they'd prefer before making changes? Like, put up some polls to see what people would be opposed to or supportive of.

It's pretty much a unanimous feeling from the community, it seems to me, that the site is becoming increasingly frustrating to use.

Just an idea.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Some of these layout changes are actually reducing functionality -- not enhancing....

These recent changes to IMDb's interface are truly puzzling. When viewing user reviews now, I can only sort them by "helpfulness" -- but what will become of newly written reviews? If I were to write a review of a film that came out, say, one month ago, it would surely never been seen by anyone, let alone read, because it would be buried beneath hundreds of other reviews! I also wonder why I can no longer view all episodes of a television series on the same page, in compact view. It was tremendously helpful to see them listed that way, as it made comparing ratings across seasons much more feasible. For a show like The Simpsons, which is nearing 30 seasons, I'd have to scroll through 30 independent lists now.

It's bewildering that a website like IMDb, one of the most-visited sites in the United States, could dare not only to stall, but to REGRESS in functionality, in a digital age like the one we currently inhabit. Even little things, like the removal of the availability of the filming dates of a movie, gnaw at me.......I mean if I can't find that information on IMDb, where else am I supposed to go for it? IMDb Pro is aimed at professionals -- I'm merely a cinephile. I really wonder how many more "updates" I can stand. It'd be one thing if I were simply being difficult about adjusting to a new layout. But this is an actual LOSS of faculties, making the website HARDER to use.

The next advantage from the new system launched earlier this week -- list editing has finally been added to the IMDb Android app, please see https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/imdb-android-lists-update (which was a very popular request)

I'm hoping you'll add a profile view to the app version similar to the website.

For those of you who are unaware, a lot of the changes that have been made, are being made or will be made (which have adversely impacted desktop customers and bulk data customers) are for the purposes of bringing more features to mobile customers particularly ones using the previously relatively barren IMDb app. They had been begging for and demanding the ability to submit reviews and create lists for years, but still have not thanked the IMDb company for caving in to their pestering. Why do these 100 millions of people matter so much? What's going is a bunch of populist hogwash!