[Robert Crawford]

Some HTF members have suggested that separate Review/Discussion threads be revived again in Movies. One of their concerns is people who watched a particular film are not using spoilers, therefore, identifying film details that might spoiled the enjoyment level of those that haven't watched the film yet, but wanted to read some reviews of it beforehand from other HTF members. Some of the reasons why we stopped designating such threads was because we felt that they didn't facilitate further film discussion in Movies. Also, members stopped posting their comments in the review/discussion threads, but instead posted their thoughts in the annual "track the films you watched" threads.

So now, we're going to poll the membership on whether they want dedicated official review/discussion threads again or on a limited basis or not at all. As indicated, you will have three options to vote on regarding this subject matter. Voting on this issue will remain open until July 20th.

Thank you for your full consideration on this matter.

[Joe Karlosi]

I like the idea of a "Discussion" thread for a new film where people can talk about anything they wish about a new movie, including spoilers, put within the title of the thread should be a notation: "THIS THREAD INCLUDES SPOILERS!" -- Is there a way the administrators can make sure the "INCLUDES SPOILERS" warning is always indicated in the heading?

The "Review" Thread maybe can be the one where members say what they thought about a new film, but WITHOUT SPOILERS.

I'm not sure if this is the way the old system went.

[Chris]

Yes, please.. put it back to official review/discussion.

[Patrick Sun]

Just to add a note on a moderating the review threads: in the official review threads, careless people habitually posted their followup comments to reviews in the review thread instead of doing so in the discussion thread. Sure, I understand it's convenient to just snap off a quick followup to a review post (instead of copy/paste/quote what is being responded to in a review), but it's in the wrong thread! If we go back to the official threads, let's try and keep the followups in the review threads to a bare minimum (as in none).

[Diallo B]

absolutely. i was wondering why they went away in the first place.

[Michael Reuben]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Sun

Sure, I understand it's convenient to just snap off a quick followup to a review post (instead of copy/paste/quote what is being responded to in a review), but it's in the wrong thread! If we go back to the official threads, let's try and keep the followups in the review threads to a bare minimum (as in none).

Just to add to my colleague's point: All the official review threads contained a warning that anything besides reviews (including comments and followups) would be deleted without warning. But people would still complain when their non-review posts got deleted.

When we moved to the current version of the board software, there were a lot of new moderator functions, including a relatively simple method for relocating posts from one thread to another. So a few times I tried moving non-review posts to the appropriate discussion thread, and guess what? People still complained.

Official threads are a lot more work for moderators. We're happy to do it, if that's what the membership wants, but it's a two-way street. If we go back to official threads, please make sure your post is in the right place. Otherwise, it'll move or disappear, whichever is easiest at the time.

M.

[TravisR]

Obviously I'm in the minority but I don't see the need to have two threads for one topic. If I haven't seen a movie once it opens, I avoid the thread if I don't want to read spoilers. Once it's out, I know the 'risk' of reading posts.

It's like if I missed the newest episode of Lost, I would wait until I saw it to go into the Lost thread again. While Lost has a designated air time and you can see a movie at any time, I still wait to go back to a thread once a movie is in theaters.

[Michael Reuben]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TravisR

If I haven't seen a movie once it opens, I avoid the thread if I don't want to read spoilers. Once it's out, I know the 'risk' of reading posts.

And that is the only way to be certain of avoiding spoilers. We can put explicit instructions in bold lettering, put "NO SPOILERS" in the thread title, etc. etc., but there will still be people who put spoilers in a review thread. They don't read, or they don't think, or they have a different notion of what constitutes a spoiler (or all of the above). When we had official review threads, we used to get this kind of thing reported to us on a regular basis.

M.

[Kevin Grey]

I don't care what form it takes but it would be nice to have some way of gaging reaction to a movie post release without getting spoilers.

[Michael Reuben]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Grey

I don't care what form it takes but it would be nice to have some way of gaging reaction to a movie post release without getting spoilers.

Rotten Tomatoes is a good source. I don't think I've ever seen a spoiler in the little snippets of reviews quoted on RT.

M.

[Kevin Grey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Reuben

Rotten Tomatoes is a good source. I don't think I've ever seen a spoiler in the little snippets of reviews quoted on RT.

M.

Oh sure RT is a great resource that I use. But the membership here matches my tastes much more than a general critical consensus. For example, going by RT, Transformers is "rotten" at 57% but the vast majority of the comments here in the Transformers thread have been of the very good to great variety.

The Fountain is another example where the RT consensus and the HTF consensus seem to differ greatly.

While the situation has improved in the last 10 years, I think "real" critics still have a pretty large bias against genre stuff so their reviews on that subject matter aren't really that useful to me.