BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum

Our BetterMost Community => Chez Tremblay => Topic started by: ednbarby on April 08, 2006, 10:18:59 am

Title: All right, that's IT.
Post by: ednbarby on April 08, 2006, 10:18:59 am: >:(

I was just over at Netflix seeing if the review I wrote yesterday posted yet. Of course it did not. And in doing that, I read through the other member reviews there.

Is it just me, or does it seem like they've all been written by basically the same person who keeps finding new and exciting ways to say "boring/too long/overrated/disappointing/I'm not a bigot, but..." And it's just the same freaking crap over and over and over again, peppered very sparingly with the occasional 4-star but still mixed review and the nearly extinct 5-star review.

So I wrote their administrators a little letter, the text to follow:

Hello,

I'm finding a disturbing trend in the Brokeback Mountain member reviews at your site. It's as if all or most of them were written by the same person. You are only posting the negative "It was boring/overhyped/only getting the attention it's gotten because it's gay" etc. reviews and *very* few of the positive ones I know must be out there (not to mention the one I wrote yesterday that's still not posted, but I know it'll take up to 48 hours...)

Do you do any moderating of the reviews in general, or is whatever anyone posts posted automatically with no intervention? I've gotta believe you do *some* moderation, because I've seen enough hateful, bigoted crap about this movie on the IMDb site to last two lifetimes.

My point is, if you're choosing which reviews to post and which ones not to, I think you're shooting yourselves in the foot by not at least making it an even balance of raves and rants. You do want people to rent this movie/join your club, don't you?

Just my $0.02 and then some. For what it's worth.

Barbara Youngling, Netflix Member (who is seriously considering discontinuing that)

We shall see if I can any response at all... Meanwhile, I really am considering discontinuing my membership there. The last two movies I got from them have been collecting dust tumbleweeds since my first screener of Brokeback arrived, anyway.
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on April 08, 2006, 10:39:43 am: Barb,

You go, girlfriend! Yeehaw for you! That's tellin' 'em!
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: Meryl on April 08, 2006, 10:44:03 am: Yay, Barb! Wish we had that sword emoticon over here. This one :angel: will have to do for now.
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: EnnisDelMar on April 08, 2006, 10:45:40 am: Good job ;D, the rating over at IMDb is also down cause of all the trolls.
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: ednbarby on April 08, 2006, 10:48:03 am: Dumbass mules.
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: delalluvia on April 08, 2006, 10:52:10 am: BBM has made activists of us all. You go, girlfriend!
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: Sheyne on April 08, 2006, 11:05:01 am: Quote from: EnnisDelMar on April 08, 2006, 10:45:40 am
Good job ;D, the rating over at IMDb is also down cause of all the trolls.

Well much as I love the movie'n'all, my opinion of IMBd is now on par with my opinion of the Oscars..

If you've seen some of the utter tripe on their Top 250 movies, you'll know why I couldn't care less what they publish.. Another small scar attempting to deface a perfect work of art.

But good on you Barb. Evil can only prosper while good men - in this case women - sit back and do nothing.

But here it is, 1am again and I had this bet with Ray that I WOULDN'T leave his house after the amazing dinner he cooked me and come straight home and get on this site...

:-[ I lost Ray... You won... ;D
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: Front-Ranger on April 08, 2006, 11:54:35 am: We are the 'early adopters' the ones who set the trends, and so we have to resign ourselves to an inescapable slide in the level of taste/discrimination as the film makes its way into the mainstream. Still there are happy surprises. I had a delightful exchange on TOB with the poster who thought that Ennis and Jack were ninjas, the difference btwn ninjas and pirates, and a side discussion of trucks (Ennis and Jack's, and his and my son's new trucks [axles for skateboards--I was so proud that I knew what those were]).
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: littledarlin on April 08, 2006, 12:59:57 pm: unlike imdb, netflix is very good about keeping their site clean. if you report the reviews that are obviously by people who have not seen it, they will get removed.
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: JCinNYC2006 on April 08, 2006, 01:12:55 pm: Wow, I just glanced through the reviews and I am pretty frickin' pissed. I try not to get too into conspiracy theory mode, but as other people have said, soooooo many of the reviews said the same stupid things in the same stupid ways. "This movie is overrated", "it's boring", "if it had been a man and a woman it would be no big deal", and my favorite, "what did he say at the end?". If you have it on DVD, supposedly, TURN ON THE SUBTITLES YA MORONS!!

I had written my own being, since I have a Netflix account (can only account holders write reviews) and I don't see it. I went through like 10 pages of reviews and clicked 'not helpful' on anything that pissed me off. What a load of BS...like Netflix viewers are so enlightened they 'see through' the movie.

>:(
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: SFEnnisSF on April 08, 2006, 02:39:06 pm: I wonder if they are only posting the negatives because they don't have enough DVD's on hand to meet the demand for it. So they're trying to discourage people from adding it to their rental queue. Hunh?
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: starboardlight on April 08, 2006, 03:06:18 pm: I had quit my Netflix account last year, because I couldn't keep up with watching so many dvds to make it worth my while. I was starting to think about restarting my account, but now I'm not so sure. I'll wait and see how this plays out. I might have to give my business to Blockbuster instead.
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: dmmb_Mandy on April 08, 2006, 05:28:20 pm: Woohoo Barb, our hero! :-*
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: serious crayons on April 08, 2006, 06:00:46 pm: You go, Barb. Excellently worded letter. Let's hope it opens some eyes. I'm guessing they have never had to worry before about people who hate a movie going to so much trouble to review it, so they don't have a system in place for screening or sorting.

I'm not even going to look at those reviews. Personally, I have seen enough of that sh*t on imdb to last a lifetime.
Title: Re: All right, that's IT.
Post by: ednbarby on April 08, 2006, 08:39:58 pm: Quote from: latjoreme on April 08, 2006, 06:00:46 pm
You go, Barb. Excellently worded letter. Let's hope it opens some eyes. I'm guessing they have never had to worry before about people who hate a movie going to so much trouble to review it, so they don't have a system in place for screening or sorting.

I'm not even going to look at those reviews. Personally, I have seen enough of that sh*t on imdb to last a lifetime.

Yes, I recommend you don't. They will definitely piss you off. Not so much for hateful content - it's all surprisingly devoid of any of that. But for the sheer repetition of the same stupid comments and one- and two-star ratings over and over and over. I really think it's the work of one or a few trolls in cahoots with one another. It has to have been someone who rattled a bunch of similarly-worded crap off in one or two sittings and posted them bada-bing bada-bang right after each other. Fucking sheep. ;)