FanFare AutoBoost thought for your consideration June 29, 2023 10:49 AM Subscribe
How about adding a 'trigger' that moves a movie to the top of the page when it goes to streaming. And other "life events" in the career of any particular media. Perhaps when a book is turned into another form (see Like Water for Chocolate ballet) which is also a film, (hmm needs an opera:)
The easiest initial implementation would be a place to insert a release date for theater->streaming, not sure how to auto-populate but we can research that. Mostly for blockbusters but that does seem to be a preponderance of films on the lavender.
Yes yes, but this is for an AutoBump, not just a regular old bump Bump....
posted by sammyo at 4:10 PM on June 29, 2023
posted by sammyo at 4:10 PM on June 29, 2023
I talked about this on the Reddit thread for some reason, but I think there are two things that are undeniably true:
1). FanFare has an immense library of movies covered. My count is 4,125 movies. Lots of these are great posts with really good links and details! (DirtyOldTown has posted 1300 times to FanFare!)
2). Movie posts -- especially catalog movies -- get almost no activity after they drop down the front page.
As an example, the Coen brothers have a catalog of movies that are worth talking about; their films have an average of 24 comments. There's a total of 407 comments on their films on FanFare, and only 61 came from more than a week after the post was made. About half of those week-or-more posts came from the two movies (Hail, Caesar! and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) that were released in the FanFare era, so people hadn't seen the movie when the initial post was made, and were trickling in over time. There's lots of great stuff in those discussions. Fargo wasn't only relevant for a week in Feb 2018; orange swan had a great comment on how it captures the pettiness of real crime. The Big Liebowski was posted in July 2014, maxsparber has a great comment on the hidden detail in a 'loose' film.
I almost always read the FanFare about a movie when I've seen it, and I almost never comment because it feels like tacking a notice to a dust-covered, sun-faded bulletin board that nobody will ever read (even though I'm standing there reading it).
I think that boosting in conjunction with movies entering streaming (what service? what country?) or whatever (I once did tech for a community theatre play that took on Fight Club that had all of maybe 200 people attend) might be complicated. But I think that a boosting mechanism would both help avoid the idea that movies never get talked about again and also provide another chance for us to have cool discussions about movies.
The easiest thing it seems to me would be to have a bot randomly pick a movie every day and boost it to the top of FanFare.
This could be improved; the pool of movies could be -- instead of all 4000+ movies; there's a lot of movies with limited appeal -- be movies that hadn't been on the front of FanFare in the past 18 months and that had at least x comments (about half the movies get 5 comments; about 20% get 10, about 5% get 20 comments; Raging Bull and Driving Miss Daisy have 0 comments). It's possible to add curation, which could include theme weeks/months (e.g. horror movies in October, previous franchise movies before the next one is released), but this adds in overhead and gives someone or some group some power.
A more involved step that should be relatively maintenance-free once created could be to add two features; instead of picking a movie, the bot picks 5 to 10 movies, and there's a poll at the top of FanFare where we can vote for the Movie Of Tomorrow. That reduces the odds that a bot picks movies nobody cares about, and also gives a reason to come back to FanFare on the regular.
posted by Superilla at 4:46 PM on June 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
1). FanFare has an immense library of movies covered. My count is 4,125 movies. Lots of these are great posts with really good links and details! (DirtyOldTown has posted 1300 times to FanFare!)
2). Movie posts -- especially catalog movies -- get almost no activity after they drop down the front page.
As an example, the Coen brothers have a catalog of movies that are worth talking about; their films have an average of 24 comments. There's a total of 407 comments on their films on FanFare, and only 61 came from more than a week after the post was made. About half of those week-or-more posts came from the two movies (Hail, Caesar! and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) that were released in the FanFare era, so people hadn't seen the movie when the initial post was made, and were trickling in over time. There's lots of great stuff in those discussions. Fargo wasn't only relevant for a week in Feb 2018; orange swan had a great comment on how it captures the pettiness of real crime. The Big Liebowski was posted in July 2014, maxsparber has a great comment on the hidden detail in a 'loose' film.
I almost always read the FanFare about a movie when I've seen it, and I almost never comment because it feels like tacking a notice to a dust-covered, sun-faded bulletin board that nobody will ever read (even though I'm standing there reading it).
I think that boosting in conjunction with movies entering streaming (what service? what country?) or whatever (I once did tech for a community theatre play that took on Fight Club that had all of maybe 200 people attend) might be complicated. But I think that a boosting mechanism would both help avoid the idea that movies never get talked about again and also provide another chance for us to have cool discussions about movies.
The easiest thing it seems to me would be to have a bot randomly pick a movie every day and boost it to the top of FanFare.
This could be improved; the pool of movies could be -- instead of all 4000+ movies; there's a lot of movies with limited appeal -- be movies that hadn't been on the front of FanFare in the past 18 months and that had at least x comments (about half the movies get 5 comments; about 20% get 10, about 5% get 20 comments; Raging Bull and Driving Miss Daisy have 0 comments). It's possible to add curation, which could include theme weeks/months (e.g. horror movies in October, previous franchise movies before the next one is released), but this adds in overhead and gives someone or some group some power.
A more involved step that should be relatively maintenance-free once created could be to add two features; instead of picking a movie, the bot picks 5 to 10 movies, and there's a poll at the top of FanFare where we can vote for the Movie Of Tomorrow. That reduces the odds that a bot picks movies nobody cares about, and also gives a reason to come back to FanFare on the regular.
posted by Superilla at 4:46 PM on June 29, 2023 [8 favorites]
I think there were additional related threads about this that have not been previouslied here yet. My suggestion in one of those was to default fanfare to a “recently” view that shows posts in order of being posted or having a new comment. This would naturally surface stuff as it becomes topical, e.g., newly streaming, etc.
posted by snofoam at 5:53 PM on June 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 5:53 PM on June 29, 2023 [2 favorites]
Maybe a derail from the point of the OP, but I think people need to get more used to posting on old FanFare threads. They stay open for a reason!
I put every movie I watch or have watched in my recent activity, so I see all the comments when they pop up. That's what its for! I want to know what everyone thinks, even on really old FanFare threads!
posted by LizBoBiz at 3:10 AM on June 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
I put every movie I watch or have watched in my recent activity, so I see all the comments when they pop up. That's what its for! I want to know what everyone thinks, even on really old FanFare threads!
posted by LizBoBiz at 3:10 AM on June 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
> I almost always read the FanFare about a movie when I've seen it, and I almost never comment because it feels like tacking a notice to a dust-covered, sun-faded bulletin board that nobody will ever read (even though I'm standing there reading it).
If you have a comment, post it! Others who commented or clicked "add to activity" will see it in Recent Activity, even if it's been years. (I usually read, fave, and "add to activity" shows I've watched.)
> My suggestion in one of those was to default fanfare to a “recently” view that shows posts in order of being posted or having a new comment.
See Posts with Recent Comments. I was wondering how far that, and comments like "heads up, this is now streaming on Peacock", would go toward scratching this itch. A bot for those comments might help.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:05 AM on June 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
If you have a comment, post it! Others who commented or clicked "add to activity" will see it in Recent Activity, even if it's been years. (I usually read, fave, and "add to activity" shows I've watched.)
> My suggestion in one of those was to default fanfare to a “recently” view that shows posts in order of being posted or having a new comment.
See Posts with Recent Comments. I was wondering how far that, and comments like "heads up, this is now streaming on Peacock", would go toward scratching this itch. A bot for those comments might help.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:05 AM on June 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
Seconding the “post a comment anyway.” It almost always gets a tiny bit of attention, so I know someone read it, and I’ve recorded at least some of my thoughts if I need to go back and retrieve them later. It’s a win-win!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:50 AM on June 30, 2023
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:50 AM on June 30, 2023
Y'all are right and I need to get in the habit of actually posting in threads rather than just looking them up when I see a movie.
posted by restless_nomad (retired) at 6:17 AM on June 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad (retired) at 6:17 AM on June 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
I put every movie I watch or have watched in my recent activity, so I see all the comments when they pop up. That's what its for! I want to know what everyone thinks, even on really old FanFare threads!
I mean, it's nice to hear that it's seen, but we don't see "views." My experience the few times I've posted in old fanfare threads is not like GenjiandProust's. It's that the comment just hangs out with no favorites or responses. Which doesn't really incentivize me to share my thoughts further, it just feels like either no one is seeing it or people are and are thoroughly uninterested in continuing the conversation.
So I guess what I'm saying is that if we want a cultural shift to having people comment in old threads when they see old media that is new to them, then it would probably help to also encourage a cultural shift for the folks who were in that conversation to come back in and re-engage with new points of view.
posted by solotoro at 6:37 AM on June 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
I mean, it's nice to hear that it's seen, but we don't see "views." My experience the few times I've posted in old fanfare threads is not like GenjiandProust's. It's that the comment just hangs out with no favorites or responses. Which doesn't really incentivize me to share my thoughts further, it just feels like either no one is seeing it or people are and are thoroughly uninterested in continuing the conversation.
So I guess what I'm saying is that if we want a cultural shift to having people comment in old threads when they see old media that is new to them, then it would probably help to also encourage a cultural shift for the folks who were in that conversation to come back in and re-engage with new points of view.
posted by solotoro at 6:37 AM on June 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Fully agree on defaulting to recent comments view, which is already the most useful view. To ensure that new posts (without comments) are also showing at the top, the poster could add a comment when posting.
posted by snofoam at 8:29 AM on June 30, 2023
posted by snofoam at 8:29 AM on June 30, 2023
Please please it would be huge to somehow boost fanfare posts with recent comments!
posted by latkes at 11:05 AM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by latkes at 11:05 AM on July 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
+1 to recent comments view as default!
posted by gakiko at 6:31 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by gakiko at 6:31 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yes, I agree that Fanfare defaulting to recent comments would be a huge improvement. Maybe the space taken up by tv/film posters could be replaced with a feed of recently added posts, ideally with some limits, eg combining multiple successive posts for a single TV series into a single item so it doesn't get swamped as the default view often does.
posted by tavegyl at 7:21 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by tavegyl at 7:21 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Super late to this but want to agree with the recent comments as default and say in addition it's a crime that the three best features of Fanfare - recent comments, watercooler, and seeing the "all" lists - are completely invisible in the mobile interface.
posted by donnagirl at 9:16 AM on July 7, 2023
posted by donnagirl at 9:16 AM on July 7, 2023
Agree on recent comments suggestion - even if it's just for a "try out" period to ensure it's working as anticipated.
posted by joannemerriam at 10:11 AM on July 7, 2023
posted by joannemerriam at 10:11 AM on July 7, 2023
This seems like a good idea to me as well. While a person could argue it will drive many of my posts down the page, I'd argue that it will also make some of the obscure stuff I post gain new life when it hits streaming, gets rediscovered, etc.
In my ideal world, FF would have a two column display with "Newest Posts" on one side, "Most Recent Comments" on the other, and with each one topped with a little slider where you can click through the related posters. Little tabs above would let you keep the same look, but limit it to strictly movies, TV, etc.
All of those many ponies aside, neustile has a great point that defaulting to "most recent comments" is something useful that can be tried with the existing codebase, without a lot of blood, sweat, or tears.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:58 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
In my ideal world, FF would have a two column display with "Newest Posts" on one side, "Most Recent Comments" on the other, and with each one topped with a little slider where you can click through the related posters. Little tabs above would let you keep the same look, but limit it to strictly movies, TV, etc.
All of those many ponies aside, neustile has a great point that defaulting to "most recent comments" is something useful that can be tried with the existing codebase, without a lot of blood, sweat, or tears.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:58 PM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
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Still a worthy pony, though.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:37 PM on June 29, 2023