Site Suggestions: Ideas for Improvement

[Brent_Reid]

First off, I love this site and for the most part, the way it works. but everything on the internet is a work in progress, right? With that in mind, I've some questions and suggestions:

The system for adding releases works well enough, but why are completed entries locked off and moved? why not just maintain one or two open threads per film or film series? I realise it's likely the simplest way to keep tabs on what's been done, but it seems a very unwieldy way of doing it; many films now have dozens of dead threads dedicated to them!

The system for notifying of corrections works the same way and is fine for major fixes. However, it's a PITA starting a new thread for every single error or typo that I come across. I see them constantly when browsing, but most of the time simply can't be bothered to flag them up. It would be far easier if each listing had a comments section that logged-in users could simply post in as they went along. To stop comment threads getting too long you could even delete each one as it was acted upon, though most software collapses them very efficiently anyway. Besides, they still couldn't get anywhere as big as that humongous Completed Submissions and Requests section!

Does anyone have any other ideas; are there any site upgrades in the pipeline for us to know about?

[Samuel_Scott]

The system for adding releases works well enough, but why are completed entries locked off and moved? why not just maintain one or two open threads per film or film series? I realise it's likely the simplest way to keep tabs on what's been done, but it seems a very unwieldy way of doing it; many films now have dozens of dead threads dedicated to them!

We used to just delete them, but I figured I'd like to keep them somewhere just for posterity and for reference.

The idea you mention has been brought up before, but to be honest, I think it would make things harder for us. As it is right now, we knock out the release, lock the thread, and it is done and dusted. The other way would need a forum with really good search function (which I have never seen anywhere), and would make things just that little more difficult for tracking progress.

The system for notifying of corrections works the same way and is fine for major fixes. However, it's a PITA starting a new thread for every single error or typo that I come across. I see them constantly when browsing, but most of the time simply can't be bothered to flag them up. It would be far easier if each listing had a comments section that logged-in users could simply post in as they went along. To stop comment threads getting too long you could even delete each one as it was acted upon, though most software collapses them very efficiently anyway. Besides, they still couldn't get anywhere as big as that humongous Completed Submissions and Requests section!

We talked about allowing comments on each page at some point, but again, it is an easy target for fake information, hearsay, and needless commentary - IMO it will attract many idiots, whilst in the forum, every single member is a great asset to this very small community which makes things easy for us, and everyone has their own area of expertise!

We have talked about making a different submission routine, similar to what DVD Spot collection site had before they sold out to CNET. Unfortunately, as we are all doing this in our spare time, it is a big commitment, but Ulrich has been making a lot of changes behind the scenes and maybe this will happen one day?

Does anyone have any other ideas; are there any site upgrades in the pipeline for us to know about?

I always think we could do with a facelift, but when we surveyed this and when we have spoken to people, it seems people like the fact we are not a flashy site, and the info is very quick and easy to get to.

Ulrich also has done a great job at stopping the hacking issue the main page was having last year.

Thanks Brent!

[Brent_Reid]

Thanks for the replies, Sam.

Re your first point: it's still a faff starting a new thread every time and the search function only needs to be good enough for someone to find the title, which the current one already is. If someone starts a new thread by mistake, their post could simply be moved to the relevant thread. At least keep this in mind for the future.

Re comments: they'd be no more open to abuse than the forums are, ie not very much, as folk would still have to register first. A note could be automatically added at the beginning of each comments section, explaining what they're intended for, and that any erroneous or irrelevant ones will be deleted. This is the change I'd really like to see!

I'm not suggesting a comprehensive "facelift" at all: this is a basic database, not a snazzy Wordpress site, and is fine as is.

[Davy_Lee]

A delete feature for wrong posts etc that can be accessed by users would be nice. That way we wouldn't have to bother the mods

[Samuel_Scott]

Re your first point: it's still a faff starting a new thread every time and the search function only needs to be good enough for someone to find the title, which the current one already is. If someone starts a new thread by mistake, their post could simply be moved to the relevant thread. At least keep this in mind for the future.

The search function really isn't good enough as some titles only use words which are very common etc. It's just as quick to hit new thread and type the title, than to hit search and type the title. For us, it is also about keeping everything as simple and streamlined as possible for quick additions.

Re comments: they'd be no more open to abuse than the forums are, ie not very much, as folk would still have to register first. A note could be automatically added at the beginning of each comments section, explaining what they're intended for, and that any erroneous or irrelevant ones will be deleted. This is the change I'd really like to see!

Unfortunately, having seen something similar at other sites, adding comments sections can cause loads of hassle. Some sites completely removed it (caps-a-holic) and for some it has made for a lot of false information being floated around (we get lots of e-mails about what cases say compared to the actual disc - or reviewers on Amazon where their reviews have been placed on every version of a release etc.

It definitely is something I would like to see, but only if we can do it very well in limited free time in a way that would not add more work than required for actually adding info.

[Brent_Reid]

A delete feature for wrong posts etc that can be accessed by users would be nice. That way we wouldn't have to bother the mods

I agree, Davy. As long as there are no follow-up posts by other members, it ought to be possible to delete your own erroneous threads. I'm waiting right now on one of mine being deleted!

I appreciate your concerns, Sam, and have thought long and hard about them too. However, I still think it's workable.

Amazon's so-called reviews are a bloody mess: they get shared to every product, are technically poorly designed and offer no guidance as to what a product review should actually entail. Of course, the latter's obvious to all but the profoundly stupid - but their numbers are legion.

Love Caps-a-holic but they do go too far in simplifying. I miss their comments; they were far from unmanageable and threw up a ton of really vital and interesting info (much like IMDb's comments, RIP ). Additionally, Caps strangely dropped the DVD info printouts, retaining the BDs only, and randomly remove essential comparisons for no reason. For instance, they had well over a dozen T2 releases until very recently, which must have been among their most popular. Despite that, they've just deleted most of them, leaving only three... Three!

Anyhoo, given the relative inactivity of these forums, I don't envisage any comments sections here becoming that busy or even heated at all. Especially as there are no screencaps here and that's what folk most like to argue about!

[Brent_Reid]

Another question: why exactly do we list whether a BD uses the VC-1 or MPEG-4 AVC codec? Although the latter has taken precedent, neither is inherently superior to the other and there are countless examples of both that have superior quality A/V to their counterpart. After all, out of all the items in a disc's checklist, how many ever actually look for it?

[Samuel_Scott]

Another question: why exactly do we list whether a BD uses the VC-1 or MPEG-4 AVC codec? Although the latter has taken precedent, neither is inherently superior to the other and there are countless examples of both that have superior quality A/V to their counterpart. After all, out of all the items in a disc's checklist, how many ever actually look for it?

It is because at the start of the format, some companies were still using MPEG-2 (and some releases from budget companies still do). We class VC-1 and AVC as a draw, but a winner over MPEG-2.

[Brent_Reid]

But it's my understanding that though MPEG-4 is newer and more flexible, it's still not superior per se, as it comes down to source material and available bit rate. Again, do consumers ever check for this kind of stuff? I never have: ultimately it comes down to which individual release has the skilfully done encoding and overall best A/V, regardless of codec used.

Can you give me some examples of recent, inferior MPEG-2 BDs? I genuinely want to know if this is an ongoing problem and I'm missing a trick!

On a related note, always asking whether a DVD is struck from a dedicated PAL or NTSC master would be of equal use, as lack of it consistently degrades A/V quality.