News » RT's New Community Section Beta is Here!

RT's New Community Section Beta is Here!

Connecting with fellow RTers is easier than it's ever been.

by RT Staff | Friday, Jun. 05 2009
444 comments

Part of the unique experience of Rotten Tomatoes is our extensive and passionate community. You wouldn't be here if you didn't love movies and love talking about them. With this in mind, we've gone to great lengths to update our Community pages to be more intuitive and user-friendly. You can still do everything you did before, but you may find that it's less confusing, less roundabout, and less time-consuming than it was before.

Some of the upgraded functionality includes:

  • * Immediate updates on latest activity of your friends
  • * Improved organization of recent reviews and ratings
  • * Statistics to show how your ratings match up to Critics, Top Critics, Community Ratings, etc.
  • * A personal URL for your user journal
  • * Much more for you to explore...

If you've never given much thought to utilizing your journal or checking out the profiles of other users, this is the time to poke around and get started! It's never been easier to keep track of friends, write blog entries, rate movies, or create lists. We know you love movies; now show the rest of RT just how much you do!

You can go straight to the new Community index HERE.
To visit the official RT Profile, go HERE.
If you don't yet have an RT user account, you can register for one HERE


NOTE: Because we encountered some security issues while pushing the upgraded FORUMS live last night, we will be performing some more checks today to make sure it's safe to push. We will try to have them securely up and running by Monday.

We are also currently debugging various items that appeared during launch, so please bear with us while we go through this process. Thank you for your patience!

Comments

Max the Movie Kid

Max the Movie Kid on 06-5-2009 11:33 AM

I like it. And I'm so glad everything's finally fixed!

Epistemophobia

Epistemophobia on 06-5-2009 12:19 PM

Fixed? Your reply keeps disappearing and reappearing. :p

Amateur PSYCHOlogist

Amateur PSYCHOlogist on 06-5-2009 02:55 PM

Epi, that'll show them!!! :rolleyes:

gillianren

gillianren on 06-5-2009 11:42 AM

I don't like it. I'm glad to have the option to set my own url, as I can't remember the string of letters and numbers assigned me by the system. However, the friends I had who weren't RT members but had my site bookmarked are having trouble accessing it, and I like the idea of a page that just had the most recent few entries on it. I also don't like that everything not marked as a review gets marked "blog," as a lot of my not-review entries actually are reviews. It's just that RT doesn't have the thing I'm reviewing in their system.

gillianren

gillianren on 06-5-2009 07:40 PM

Okay, the more time I spend fiddling with things, the more annoyed I get. My not-movie reviews are now rating-less. It changed my categories, which I put a lot of time and thought into. (Are we at least going to get more than ten now?) The ads really bother me. And the site doesn't seem to like Opera, the browser I've been using for years.

alfindeol

alfindeol on 06-5-2009 11:52 AM

Sweet jesus.... you realize that all of us who put so much effort into getting their journal pages and reviews looking good are now boned right? Not only is all that hard work lost, but any review with images in it is impossible to read. The site looks generic and boring. If I wanted that, I could have stayed at Flixster. Guess I will stop updating my journal now.

The new features are welcome, but why mess up everyone's journal with the new format?

Darklord35

Darklord35 on 06-7-2009 09:29 AM

You've got to be kidding. This is an upgrade? What happened to the page that I've worked on for more than 3 years now!!! I've invested a lot of time and effort into that now replaced page! I gathered pictures, personalized, and put some heart and soul into it and now it's all gone! Replaced with a generic crappy version that is boring to look at and impossible for my non-RT friends to access! This new version seriously sucks... no other way to describe it for those that have been here a while this is crappy! Give me my old page back! :(

BigBoy

BigBoy on 06-7-2009 10:51 AM

You sound upset which is understandable (your avatar of Lord Vader is meant to broadcast that feeling I assume).

You put much work into a project that means something to you and *poof* it's gone ... but is it?

This site is undergoing not only a visial makeover but a functional one as well, more importantly. I am quite sure that the RT staff and developers had many, many meetings to discuss and decide upon these decisions. They were not just pulled out of a magic code hat and slapped onto a server. A lot of work was put into this (and will continue to be).

Perhaps it would be worthwhile (until the majority of bugs are discovered and terminated) then reconsider your previous work; rebuild anew, fresh. I promise you that you will be even more satisfied with what you've done now, what will be shared with the RT community =)

Thanks,
slippy

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:30 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

BigBoy

BigBoy on 06-7-2009 10:55 AM

*version 2 - edited for typos/grammar

You sound upset which is understandable (your avatar of Lord Vader is meant to broadcast that feeling I assume?)

You put much work into a project that means something to you and *poof* it's gone ... but is it?

This site is undergoing not only a visual makeover but a functional one as well, more importantly. I am quite sure that the RT staff and developers had many, many meetings to discuss and decide upon these decisions. They were not just pulled out of a magic code hat and slapped onto a server. A lot of work was put into this (and will continue to be).

Perhaps it would be worthwhile (until the majority of bugs are discovered and terminated) to reconsider your previous work; rebuild anew, fresh. I promise you that you will be even more satisfied with what you've done now, what will be shared with the RT community =)

Thanks,
slippy

Darklord35

Darklord35 on 06-7-2009 08:35 PM

Slippy,

Perhaps you're right, I'll wait it out and see what happens. It's just that the initial shock of seeing the look and feel of my old page (which I rather enjoyed) now being 'gone' was a little hard to swallow at first. I'll hold onto the hope that after all the issues are dealt with... perhaps I will like it even more. Time shall tell. :)

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:28 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

Fantasyfan23

Fantasyfan23 on 06-5-2009 11:56 AM

I don't like the new changes much either. I had about 120 private messages in my inbox before they started ''updating'' everything, and now they're gone. It's like they got deleted or something. I don't know if they're somewhere else, and I'm just not looking in the right place or if they're gone for good, but I'm pretty mad, because I wanted to save some of those. Is it just me, or has anyone else had this problem?

jazza923

jazza923 on 06-13-2009 10:14 PM

We have all had this problem. I lost 2,500 reviews, so I am not particularly happy either

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:33 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:32 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

PirateGirl

PirateGirl on 06-5-2009 12:01 PM

This is just plain bad, RT. I've been here for over five years - six in August - and I have been featured user. But I hate this, and am giving serious consideration to leaving.

bookworm1994

bookworm1994 on 06-14-2009 07:19 PM

I agree with the negative sentiments. LORD KNOWS IT WON'T CHANGE! But still...I miss my journal colors, my careful organizing, my PERSONALIZATION (above all things). This. is. horrible.

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:35 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

The Bomb

The Bomb on 06-5-2009 12:08 PM

Forums???

The Bomb

The Bomb on 06-5-2009 12:11 PM

Forums???

RT-Ryan

RT-Ryan on 06-5-2009 12:19 PM

It is a very different setup, I know, and I know the options for customizability will be missed. Please do, however, give the new layout a fair shot and see if it's not something you could get used to. You all have been very patient so far, and we couldn't ask for anything greater than that.

As the updated note above states, we are working through some unforeseen bugs that occurred during the update, and we'll try to have things back to normal soon.

Unfortunately, one of the bigger security risks we found was within the Forums, and since we don't want to take any chances with that, we're going to perform one last thorough check before we push the upgraded Forums live. As such, there's a chance they may not go up until Monday. I apologize for the delay, but as evidenced even by today, there are things we won't catch, and anything we can do to minimize that effect will be done. I miss the forums too.

PirateGirl

PirateGirl on 06-5-2009 12:40 PM

RT-Ryan, I think I'm just going to leave. I sent a message explaining the reasons. This is just poor design. Flat out. I don't even know how to add an entry! My boyfriend is a web developer and designer, and he can't even figure this out.

PirateGirl

PirateGirl on 06-5-2009 12:44 PM

"Connecting with fellow RTers is easier than it's ever been."
BS! It is harder than before!

Some of the upgraded functionality includes:
-Immediate updates on latest activity of your friends
--They don't load and you have to jump through countless ads!
-Improved organization of recent reviews and ratings Statistics to show how your ratings match up to Critics, Top Critics, Community Ratings, etc.
--No, you just stacked them on top of each other
A personal URL for your user journal
--I still haven't been able to do this.

ruthy rosen

ruthy rosen on 06-8-2009 12:25 PM

I am anxious to post to my journal again. Will it show up as "The Vine" and will I find it the way I saved it previously on the link I created?

Help!

Rexkix

Rexkix on 06-9-2009 05:40 PM

Ryan,

You know the forum users are anxiously waiting for them to come back up. To make matters worse, they went down with less than a day's notice. So far, we've heard three different predictions as to when they'll be back, with the latest one saying 6/8/2009, i.e. yesterday. At this point it seems a pretty safe bet that you're not going to make that date. ("Yesterday love was such an easy game to play\ Now I need a place to hide away\ Oh I believe in yesterday."). In fact, to have a date when you "predict" you'll be back online that occurs in the past makes that part of the site look very unprofessional. How hard is it to update that message?

At this point, it seems only reasonable that you should keep the date always in the future, and tell us something each time you move it forward. In my opinion, this should be done at least once every two days. At this point, there are a lot of people who are even more dissatisfied with the lack of communication and delays involved with this update than they were with the unpopular proposed changes we have yet to see in full.

Communication about the delays has been lacking and is leading to increased frustration.

As always, with respect,

-Rex

Sinister

Sinister on 06-9-2009 05:50 PM

Communication about the delays has been lacking and is leading to increased frustration.
...
...
This is so true.*Frustration rising*

GundamRT

GundamRT on 06-5-2009 12:19 PM

I can't make any definite comments one way or the other until the forums get working again, but so far I'm...undecided. I'm not having an instant "OMFG!" reaction, so I guess that's a good thing...

harrycarrybigfoot

harrycarrybigfoot on 06-5-2009 12:20 PM

Wow.....this really sucks.

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:23 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

RT-Ryan

RT-Ryan on 06-5-2009 12:25 PM

Also, to address the issue with Private Messages and with all the formatting some of you have done to your journals:

Those are both bugs. Those of you who are missing PMs (my inbox is currently empty, too, and I have thousands of PMs stored) will have all of them restored. Part of the migration involves moving the PM system so that it runs through our new Community interface, as opposed to the forums software, so we're making sure that's done properly.

The undoing of all the HTML formatting that many of you have included in your journal entries is currently showing up as text. This, of course, is also a bug, and it's being worked on even as I type this. Though color customization is no longer an option, all the formatting you've done to create a unique and compelling journal will return soon.

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:22 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:25 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

RT-Ryan

RT-Ryan on 06-5-2009 12:53 PM

PirateGirl,

We are currently doing our best to squash the bugs we've detected thus far, and most of the issues you've mentioned in your last two posts are actually dependent upon that. Please keep in mind that this is the BETA launch; it's difficult for us to judge exactly how the code will behave when thousands of users are using it at once, so although we do perform extensive testing, things inevitably go awry. As such, we're using this BETA launch to iron out the wrinkles. In other words, please don't take the Community in its current form, right at this moment, to be the end product of site update.

We should hopefully have a lot of the most glaring bugs worked out by tomorrow, and some of the other functions that are connected to the forums software will also be fixed when the forums go back up on Monday.

It's always pretty rocky just a couple hours post-launch, but we'll do what we can to bring things around soon. I apologize that some of these functions aren't working properly!

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:27 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

Rdog

Rdog on 06-5-2009 01:18 PM

Everyone in the RT staff needs to change the website back to the way it was because this community thing clearly isn't working. I hate it. There is no originality to the way it was and I have no clue how to interact with all of my friends here. For the love of god please turn back now. This new system is horrible and it's going to drive away a lot of the old members. Please change it back.

BigBoy

BigBoy on 06-5-2009 01:27 PM

I'm kind of liking it (beven though I can't upload my avatar for some reason :(

I think it looks "Fresh" (not "Rotten") like some of these people keep railing on about (over and over. crying won't help.) The guys/gals that did this ARE web designers AND programmers so what's the beef, jerky? Jeez...

Well, you can't please everyone, right?

Keep up the good work, RT (and we ARE going to get GD back, right??)

slippy

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:43 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

bikeman

bikeman on 06-5-2009 01:38 PM

Things had to be changed sometime! I think it's great! Keep up the good work!

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:45 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

RT-Ryan

RT-Ryan on 06-5-2009 01:47 PM

Yes, the forums will be back online by Monday. I know it's been a long wait, but as this morning has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, the more bugs we can squash before launching, the fewer we'll have to deal with when it goes live. We encountered some problems with the forum migration overnight, so we're pulling it back to make sure we don't launch it today in a wonky state, simply for the sake of launching it. They'll be back soon, but slipNslide, I expect you to behave yourself. =)

Oak

Oak on 06-11-2009 08:59 AM

RT-Ryan, you mean Monday, June 15, 2009, right?

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:48 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:46 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

GundamRT

GundamRT on 06-5-2009 01:51 PM

Ryan, are we still going to have all of our thread subscriptions when the forums come back up?

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:49 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

RT-Ryan

RT-Ryan on 06-5-2009 01:55 PM

Yes, your thread subscriptions should still be intact. The forums will essentially be pretty much the same, save for updated software and all subtle functionality upgrades that come with that.

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:50 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

Dyne

Dyne on 06-5-2009 01:55 PM

After trying to go to the second page of this thread:


Error: Parsing functions.php Time before: 1244235275.1785 Time after: 1244235275.1791


HAHAHAHAHAHA. Good old RT...

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:51 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

Zaraki

Zaraki on 06-5-2009 02:32 PM

I'll give it a fair shake, it may grow on me over time... just one thing: Make the damn news font bigger! It's kind of tedious to see, manageable, but irritating.

chen b.

chen b. on 07-8-2010 05:52 PM

http://www.7pmshoes.com

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