ROTTEN TOMATOES: Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor

A quick update on some of the changes at RT.

by Matt Atchity | February 20, 2008

Discuss Article | Blog Article | Email To A Friend

Hi everybody,

It's Matt here with a quick update on the progress of our RT upgrade. For those of you that are new to the site, we're in the midst of making some long overdue changes to the RT site to make it more fun, more useful and easier to use.

In the past four weeks since we launched the first phase of our redesign, we've gotten a tremendous amount of valuable feedback from the community. We're thrilled that you're all so passionate about the site and how it works and our goal is to keep you happy!

There are a few specific updates that we particularly wanted to call out because many of you noted them in your comments:

Search -- unfortunately the new search we launched did not work out as well as we'd hoped, so we've switched back to the old one while we continue to work on this important feature.
News -- we moved headlines higher on the main page for quick browsing.
Photo Galleries -- we're in the midst of a improving these sections so stay tuned!
Bug Fixes -- many of you noticed bugs in the display of reviews, comments and show times. All of these have been noted and are being fixed.

Long story short, we are working overtime here at RT HQ to get the site in tip top shape and we've launched a Company Blog so you can keep tabs on all of the progress. And thank you again for all of your support and feedback.

Matt Atchity
Editor in Chief
Rotten Tomatoes

(1-20 of 27 posts) | Reply

woody0221 writes:
on Feb 20 2008 09:18 AM

I hate the new look/function of the site. It look cheap and it's difficult to use. This is not a case of "getting used to it." Things are more difficult to find with less information available. The old Rotten Tomatoes was one of the most unique and user friendly sites around. Now it looks like a college freshman made it for his final. There are times in life when a company needs to admit it was wrong, eat crow, and go back to the old way of doing things. This is one of those times. The wholesale change was a terrible decision. If Roger Ebert, America's #1 Pundit, says you made a mistake, you should listen. Please go back to the old look.

(Reply to this)

TheGreatOne13 writes:
on Feb 20 2008 09:43 AM

Indeed...listen to Ebert...and at least put the top three threads being discussed back on the main page!

(Reply to this)

dahluzz writes:
on Feb 20 2008 09:45 AM

i demand that 'top critics' be changed back to 'cream of the crop' and that their reviews be displayed along the right side of a movie's page like they used to be.

also, try cycling out the Fresh People, at least on a weekly basis (sorry, jen's cool, but she doesn't need to be up there constantly). for fresh people, seeing the same options up there gets mighty stale. if a category doesn't get updated often enough it begins to feel irrelevant.

i don't hate the new site anymore and thanks for the update. though, sometimes i long for the olden days...

(Reply to this)

duckmanx88 writes:
on Feb 20 2008 09:51 AM

yeah i like the way it used to be. i loved commenting on the reviews that reviewers left and the cream of the crop was the best way to see reviews.please RT, make your changes, but go back to the way things were for a few items.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Feb 20 2008 10:34 AM

I'm getting used to the new format even though I still think it's worse than the old one in terms of ease of use. The most annoying thing is all the page formatting that's off in both of my browsers which are up-to-date Firefox and IE. I'd also get rid of the blue coloring, clashes horribly with the rest of the color scheme.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Feb 20 2008 10:37 AM

And the most annoying formatting issue is the comment edit box, which on my browsers intersects and underlaps the "Sponsored Links" group box.

(Reply to this)

J-Walk writes:
on Feb 20 2008 11:12 AM

The first comment (from woody0221) says it all. I was unaware that Mr. Ebert had commented on this, though. Hasn't the guy been through enough?

(Reply to this)

dracus writes:
on Feb 20 2008 11:21 AM

Whye do people feel they have to fix something that's not broken? Is it due to boredom I wonder. I've been a regular visitor to RT for years but nowadays I hardly log on.

(Reply to this)

rustdog writes:
on Feb 20 2008 11:27 AM

Do people even use the forums since the change? I want news and I want it updated often. The rest of the **** seems more confusing.

(Reply to this)

Pilgermann writes:
on Feb 20 2008 11:35 AM

I also miss being able to comment on reviews. That was truly one of the best features.

(Reply to this)

Rockslide writes:
on Feb 20 2008 11:52 AM

I have to agree with everyone, I know you at RT are trying to make things better, but it would seem that the vast consensus is things were better as they were. My biggest complaints still are that the home page has too much junk I could really careless about. I know that no one is forcing me to click all 378 links, but still, cut the fat, or relocate it. Review pages were much better and cleaner before with the cream of the crop.

One thing that has improved over the last 6 months is that the news pages are better. You used to have the huge movie poster right in the middle of the page and the current setup is better than that. However, you still can't tell who is replying to who when they try to reply to someone else's comment.

(Reply to this)

thereign writes:
on Feb 20 2008 12:56 PM

I would request that there be some type of "edit" feature available when a person is about to post their comment in a forum. If you happen to miss something and post, you have to make another post to correct the mistake you made(even if it's a simple spelling error), which just looks retarded.

And by all that's holy, since this is AN ABSOLUTELY FREE SITE THAT I DON'T HAVE TO SPEND ONE BLESSED PENNY ON TO BE A MEMBER, I demand this change be made at once!

:-P

(Reply to this)

cabezone writes:
on Feb 20 2008 12:57 PM

I wish they would explain to us what's wrong with the old style search.

(Reply to this)

liantener writes:
on Feb 20 2008 12:58 PM

The only new feature I enjoy is the new rating system. Is visually better than the stars, but mainly because now is beside each movie. In the other site it was impossible to rate a movie until you get it in the ratings page.

(Reply to this)

opTIMus Nerd writes:
on Feb 20 2008 01:09 PM

I haven't found the upgrades to be all that bad?! It has a nice flow to it and I had no trouble finding everything I need to find. I love this site. My only suggestion, to piggy back with those above, is that I too miss the cream-of-crop bar to the right in the reviews. Other than that, I think it's looking good!

(Reply to this)

Bloody Mathias writes:
on Feb 20 2008 02:06 PM

I can't believe we can't comment on critics' reviews.

Is there any excuse for this?

(Reply to this)

Kanduas writes:
on Feb 20 2008 02:29 PM

Please let me know the names of the original designer and editor, so that I can hire them to create my own movie website.

(Reply to this)

dwaltonk writes:
on Feb 20 2008 02:50 PM

I actually miss the related movies list the most. If I was bored and wanted to look up a random movie or possibly just see the originals movie's sequel/prequel, they were right there.

(Reply to this)

arendr writes:
on Feb 20 2008 03:06 PM

Not to join the bitchfest or anything, but I can't stand the way the comments on news articles work now. There needs to be a way to edit your posts and it's frustrating trying to figure out if someone replied to you. The only way to find out is to click on the number and lose your position on the page.

The one thing I do like is the site seems to be much faster now.

(Reply to this)

Floor Man writes:
on Feb 20 2008 03:40 PM

In reply to this comment (#1589715)
"i demand that 'top critics' be changed back to 'cream of the crop' and that their reviews be displayed along the right side of a movie's page like they used to be."

Thank you, dahluzz! Exactly. The Cream of the Crop column (pardon the unintentional alliteration) is sorely missing....

Put it back...please, RT?

(Reply to this)