To all NON-IMDB staff: Please don't respond to this post otherwise we risk it being marked as 'Answered' for no reason.
The problem I wish to raise today is a general one where posts or reviews seem to be skimmed and not read properly and IMDB is thus suffering from a lack of quality/consistency control and alienating their contributor base. TWO cases in point:
Reference:
https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/declined-review-policies-are-impossible
1. My exact same review was arbitrarily declined several times and then approved. I read the contribution policies very carefully several times and the review didn't break any of them. But my review could be misconstrued as breaking those policies if it is only skimmed. So, obviously IMDB didn't read my review properly. Plus, it was eventually approved, evidently by someone who DID read it.
I see many more similar complaints over declined reviews on this board.
2. The above getsatisfaction post was marked as 'Answered' prematurely even though NONE of my four issues were solved. Once again proving that somebody isn't reading the posts properly.
Now, this is coming from a positive place and from someone who has been a big fan of IMDB for over 20 years. I can appreciate that this is an extremely busy site and staff probably have their hands full. But given that IMDB relies on its contributors, it would eventually be a big loss for IMDB to keep on frustrating them like this. There needs to be more quality control.
The problem I wish to raise today is a general one where posts or reviews seem to be skimmed and not read properly and IMDB is thus suffering from a lack of quality/consistency control and alienating their contributor base. TWO cases in point:
Reference:
https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/declined-review-policies-are-impossible
1. My exact same review was arbitrarily declined several times and then approved. I read the contribution policies very carefully several times and the review didn't break any of them. But my review could be misconstrued as breaking those policies if it is only skimmed. So, obviously IMDB didn't read my review properly. Plus, it was eventually approved, evidently by someone who DID read it.
I see many more similar complaints over declined reviews on this board.
2. The above getsatisfaction post was marked as 'Answered' prematurely even though NONE of my four issues were solved. Once again proving that somebody isn't reading the posts properly.
Now, this is coming from a positive place and from someone who has been a big fan of IMDB for over 20 years. I can appreciate that this is an extremely busy site and staff probably have their hands full. But given that IMDB relies on its contributors, it would eventually be a big loss for IMDB to keep on frustrating them like this. There needs to be more quality control.
Posted 1 year ago
Will, Official Rep
Ed Jones (XLIX)
That you might also mark a post as answered only if the replies by users satisfy IMDb's staffs concerns that the sites users have satisfactorily answered the issue correctly.
Zevt is under the impression that if "any answer" is given by a user rather than Staff, that you would mark it as answered. If you could clarify that for him please. I know already what the answer is, but Zevt needs to see your reply.
Thanks so much
Cheers
Happy Holidays
Will, Official Rep
Regards,
Will
zevt
If there was a chance that this was all a mistake or oversight, then obviously I shouldn't even be posting this post and it would be petty on my part to criticize a mere error. But it seems obvious to me that this is a general problem, not an error. Reasons:
1. I posted the review six times, four of which were rejected (you can see it in my Contribution history). As you said yourself, they should not have been rejected since they do not break any rules. Some versions were even identical. I think everyone would agree that four incorrect declines out of six is a general problem, not an error.
(By the way only one of the review versions had a reference to the Wikipedia and IMDB rules do not mention that this is not allowed).
2. I've had three interactions with IMDB in the past week. ALL three ended with IMDB clearly not reading what was written.
One was my review, the other was the previous post that was marked as 'Answered' even though it wasn't, and the third was here:
https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/lost-pending-review
Note that this one was marked 'Acknowledged' even though it was Solved by Vincent. So in this case IMDB didn't read the answer.
So once again, three out of three is a general problem, not an error.
zevt
zevt
Jeorj Euler
zevt
Congratulations IMDB, you have made the activity of submitting user reviews a repellent experience.
I suppose that 'human error' is a very convenient excuse for not thinking about things or for not seeking out solutions to problems.
On a positive note, thank you Vincent, Ed/dream_weaver and Jeorj for helping.
Michelle, Official Rep
Thanks for your feedback here regarding User Reviews. We are looking into better ways to process reviews, rest assured that I have passed it along to our team for visibility in our efforts to make User Review contributions a better experience and prevent incorrect rejections.