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Hi MovieLens users! We recently launched our first major revision to MovieLens since 2003! Please help us grow in the right direction by giving us thoughtful feedback on the design and functioning of the new user experience.

Ideas, questions, and bug reports are all welcome here.

How can we improve MovieLens? (if you have multiple suggestions, please submit them separately)

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68 results found

  1. Can you please distinguish films that I have already seen from those that I haven't?

    I don't remember every film I've seen and I used to look up Movielens to check. This is not possible anymore, as there is no difference in layout for recommended ratings and existing ratings. I find the new layout altogether pretty shit if I may say so. After many years and more than 1300 rated films I am seriously considering giving it a rest.

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    Does https://movielens.org/explore/your-ratings not work for you? Also, click the “list view” for the no-graphics view, which you would probably prefer.

    You are not the first user to say negative things about the interface without suggesting anything helpful. Use classic.movielens.org.

  2. Order by Recommended doesn't work

    I click 'sort by recommended' and I get all kinds of predicted ratings at the top, it should go from highest to lowest, but it's all over the place.

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    declined  ·  AdminMovieLens Admin (Product Manager, MovieLens) responded

    This is, currently, the intended behavior of our recommender -- the key idea here is that we think of "predicted rating" and "recommendation" as two separate ideas -- there's more to forming good recommendations than just filling it up with things we predict a person will like if they watch. For instance -- if the recommendation is full of things that the user is unlikely to watch (even if they would rate it highly *if* they did watch it) then it's not a good recommendation is it? An example of this might be recommendations full of obscure, or hard-to-find movies. Another common example is a recommendation full of only one thing (like, recommending only "star trek" movies -- there's enough to fill a page of recommendations, but after recommending one or two, there isn't actually much point recommending the rest *at the same time*)


    To try to avoid this, we…

  3. I preffer movie recomendation from the old movielens

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  4. I do not like the look of the update. I can read, I don't need pictures. There is nothing wrong with the current format.

    An improvement would be a way to filter out useless entries like Bulgarian documentaries about sea urchins. There has to be a concession to availability by the average site user. No more TV shows and video games. I have rated nearly 1700 movies. Having to weed through pages of movie posters instead of seeing a list of latest additions is inefficient and unnecessary. I can go on if you like but the bottom line is do not change the format, just work on how to make the current version work more efficiently and accurately. Also, not everyone uses Facebook or…

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    There is already another thread on adding a “no images” search interface, please contribute your thoughts (or votes) there. And, please keep your feedback constructive.

  5. New Interface is Overly Simplified

    Whereas I can see wanting to simplify the main page, this is too much. I don't like Movielens looking like Netflix or Primewire. The way it is presented now, it seems like more of a sponsored site that is trying to advertise particular movies. Almost looks like a Pop-up Ad!

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  6. Why is the Sidebar now at the top!?

    I'm lost! I honestly liked it on the side! Why change something that wasn't a problem to begin with?

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    The problem is that the current version of movielens does not work well on mobile devices (including tablets). One goal of the redesign is to have a “responsive” layout that works better across a variety of devices. That is solvable with a side menu, but we went a different direction, design-wise.

    Sorry this makes you less happy! Hopefully this is more of a “get used to it” kind of thing, rather than a serious functional defect.

  7. A description of the movie should appear when the cursor goes over it.

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  8. Please keep the group recommendation function!

    My boyfriend and I have differing tastes in movies and use this feature to find movies we're both interested in seeing: it would be a bummer to lose it from the new version of the site!

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  9. Where's all the information and options gone?

    This new version seems to have a lot of stuff missing. Maybe the old site's features are all here, but I can't see them.

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    This is a “preview” site designed to get feedback as we go. It is not a finished version.

  10. This layout looks like a phone app.

    The new site looks like it's designed to be viewed on a phone. I'm not browsing from my phone, I want it to look like a proper website.

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    Thanks for the feedback. There are several other threads concerning the lack of information density on the initial version, so I’m closing this one. We’re addressing these issues, hope to get an iteration out for feedback soon.

    Not sure what a “proper website” is, so that’s not too helpful to us as we revise our designs.

  11. A few things to keep from the older version of the site: the movie tuner definitely; the wish list; and the detailed movie tags.

    A few things to keep from the older version of the site: the movie tuner definitely; the wish list; and the detailed movie tags. Not having those is a hit to why I use this site.

    I do like the new layout design, but you need to keep the more detailed information parts that I listed above. Being able to single out specific reasons why we liked a certain movie are very helpful, and using the community tags allows us to quickly find similar movies even if they weren't suggested by the movie tuner.

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    Thanks for the feedback. There are existing threads for each of these three features, so I’m going to close this one.

    We do plan to re-add in all of those features before we launch.

  12. Missed a question on the survey and wasn't obvious

    During the initial survey, I missed a question and hit submit. It wasn't immediately obvious that I had missed something and that the form wasn't submitted. I had to scroll up to look at it. Maybe scroll to the first missed question automatically when the user hits submit. That would be helpful.

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  13. Make clearer the underlying search parameters of screenfuls of movies

    I'm talking about a page like this:

    https://beta.movielens.org/explore?minPop=100&maxDaysAgo=365&maxFutureDays=0&ratedStatus=unrated&sortBy=prediction&sortDirection=desc&page=1

    The movies that appear on the page above are ones released within the past year that you haven't yet rated, sorted by your predicted ratings.

    But to figure all that out from the page itself is far from obvious. First, you have to figure out to sort the results by "Recommended" instead of the far more obvious "Your Predicted Rating".

    But the real problem is the time span the list covers. There's nothing on the page to indicate that these are all from within the last year, and further that they're the…

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    Thanks for the feedback! I submitted your feedback to our bug tracking system, so I’m going to close this “idea”. We’ll get this done soon.

  14. maintain the capability to review movies that I've already seen

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  15. Please keep the old interface too

    The new interface looks good, but I would prefer the older, more functional interface.

    But the old interface could be improved by including the movie posters in the listings - it's very visual.

    What I really miss, is an API for content providers. It would be great if any movie rental shop, or any streaming provider could rate their actual offerings for me.

    Also, I believe the rating system could be reused in other areas, where it could bring into light hidden gems based on personalized recommendations:music, books, wines, but even restaurants and hotels.

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    Even after we launch the new site, we’ll keep the old site around until we feel like we’ve done a good job of bringing all of the functionality back, and that we’ve addressed user feedback as well as we can. At some point, it’s going to go away, though.

    We are definitely interested in building a public API.

  16. Keep the "rated movies" number and buddies

    I like knowing how many movies I've watched and which movies that I would enjoy with friends, "buddies." I do love the addition of the pictures of the movies; it makes rating movies much easier.

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  17. A more extensive set of search option would be great.

    The feature I use the most on the classic Movielens is the Advanced Search. The search toolbar that has been added here is easier to use then the Advanced Search, but it doesn't have as many options. I can no longer organize my searches by how well I rated them, only by how much movielens predicts that I will like them. I would recommend adding all the features that were in the old Advanced Search to the new Search Toolbar, and maybe even more.

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  18. The "catchword" function

    in the older version there were the descriptive words people could submit which would appear larger or smaller depending on the number of people who'd added them which could then be clicked to find movies matching the same words. While it was a little messy I found this function very useful for finding movies beyond the simple "similar films" function.

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  19. Top Picks For You

    I don't like how the top picks on the original version of Movie Lens is different from the new version. The should match.

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    Thanks for the feedback. We are using a similar algorithm in the new site, but it is “tuned” somewhat differently. One of the cool things about the new site is that it will (at some point) allow you to choose among different recommenders. We could look into providing a “movielens classic recommender” I suppose.

  20. Don't use downloadable fonts for icons

    You (and other sites) are using arbitrary characters in custom fonts as icons. My browser version does not support that. Don't use it or provide a fallback for users like me.

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    declined  ·  Max Harper responded

    Sorry, we just don’t have the developer time to support old browsers. For now, we’ll test down to IE9.

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