Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Movies Television Entertainment

Rotten Tomatoes Bans User Reviews and Comments Before a Film's Theatrical Release To Counter Online Trolls (rottentomatoes.com) 443

Rotten Tomatoes is finally addressing its troll problem. The review aggregation website has unveiled a new initiative to "modernize its audience rating system through a series of product enhancements," -- the first of which includes banning user reviews and comments prior to a movie's theatrical release. Getting rid of pre-release user reviews means internet trolls will not be able to flood film pages with negative scores before a movie comes out. As we saw earlier this week, Captain Marvel was at the receiving end of what appeared to be a targeted campaign to lower the upcoming movie's audience rating. Rotten Tomatoes is not banning user reviews entirely. It says it will offer this functionality to users once the movie has hit the theaters.

Further reading on Rotten Tomatoes: Movie Studios Are Blaming Rotten Tomatoes For Killing Movies No One Wants To See
Hollywood Producer Blames Rotten Tomatoes For Convincing People Not To See His Movie
Rotten Tomatoes Scores Don't Correlate To Box Office Success or Woes, Research Shows
DC Fans Angry Over Rotten Tomatoes 'Justice League' Ratings
Why Don't We Care About The Rotten Tomatoes Scores Of TV Shows?
Real Moviegoers Don't Care About Rotten Tomatoes.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Rotten Tomatoes Bans User Reviews and Comments Before a Film's Theatrical Release To Counter Online Trolls

Comments Filter:
  • Common (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zorro ( 15797 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:04AM (#58182758)

    Meet Sense.

    • one has to question the nature of what generated this troll feeding frenzy.
  • Can you imagine a world where you had to actually have some first-hand knowledge of something before you could express an opinion?

    Me neither.

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Are you going to jump off this bridge with a broken bungee cord? Why not? Do you have first hand knowledge of broken cord bungee jumping?
    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:19AM (#58182876)

      Can you imagine a world where you had to actually have some first-hand knowledge of something before you could express an opinion?

      I don't know what that world would be like, but I don't like it.

    • Can you imagine a world where you had to actually have some first-hand knowledge of something before you could express an opinion?

      Why would we want that? Such a society would be paralyzed and unable to function. We every day have to depend on and have opinions about all sorts of things from the mundane to the profound that we haven't experienced first hand. Nobody can be experts in everything so we depend on information we get from others. Hopefully good quality information.

      To be crude about it, you probably don't need to suck a dick to have an opinion about whether you are going to enjoy the experience.

    • Can you imagine a world where you had to actually have some first-hand knowledge of something before you could express an opinion?

      Me neither.

      No, and this will not fix that, since there will still be audience reviews once the movie is released. We cannot devalue social media's weight in society fast enough.

    • I have a friend that views movies before they're released several times a month. He provides reviews of them on Facebook all the time. He would have a legit reason to review a movie before the theater release but now couldn't share that review with RT, as he does with his Facebook friends.
      • by nucrash ( 549705 )

        He could always be a professional film critic. Rotten Tomatoes does allow film review of professional critics to post in advance of the release of the film.

        • He's in a well known punk rock band and a bartender, but maybe professional film critic could be added to that list.
    • Can you imagine a world where you had to actually have some first-hand knowledge of something before you could express an opinion?

      How is this relevant?

      If you haven't seen the film, you have no business leaving a review. People rely on Rotten Tomatoes for reviews of films. If the reviews are being spammed by gibberish non-reviews by weirdos pushing a political agenda on a movie review site, then they stop being useful.

      The only real surprise is this should have been the policy from day one. Because *of course

    • Can you imagine a world where you had to actually have some first-hand knowledge of something before you could express an opinion?

      Sure would be nice to never again have to hear a liberal talk about guns, war, or border walls ...

      On the other hand I'm not looking forward to all the bank robbers and murderers getting let off the hook because we couldn't find 12 jurists who had firsthand experience with those crimes.

      • by tsqr ( 808554 )

        On the other hand I'm not looking forward to all the bank robbers and murderers getting let off the hook because we couldn't find 12 jurists who had firsthand experience with those crimes.

        Juries weigh evidence presented during a trial. Having firsthand experience with a bank robbery or murder would undoubtedly result in a prospective juror being disqualified from sitting on a jury for an alleged bank robber's or murderer's trial.

        By the way, you don't generally need 12 "jurists" for a trial. A judge, prosecutor and defense attorney are usually sufficient.

  • by RhettLivingston ( 544140 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:16AM (#58182838) Journal

    They could take this a step further by requiring some indication of actual attendance. This might be as simple as only accepting reviews posted by the app from the theater during or within a half an hour of a showing until the movie has been released on DVD or for streaming. Or perhaps every review could require a photo of a unique ticket stub assuming there is some way to validate them reliably.

    The audience score is the only aspect of Rotten Tomatoes I find to be of value. The scores from movie critics just don't seem to have a strong relationship with whether or not I'm going to enjoy a movie. Actually, maybe that's not quite correct. It does sometimes seem like a movie with a very low critics score and a high audience score is usually great. So there may be a strong inverse relationship.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I'm picturing Comic Book Guy with his laptop strapped over his shoulders, furiously typing

      Worst. Movie. Ever.

    • only accepting reviews posted by the app from the theater during ... a showing

      Please don't. The last thing we need is more people using their phones during the movie.

      The ticket stub idea has merit. Unlike what Rotten Tomatoes is doing it wouldn't interfere with reviews based on screenings prior to the main theatrical release, which are a factor in deciding whether the film is worth seeing on its opening night.

    • It's already hard enough to get people to leave reviews for nearly anything online. The more hoops you make them jump through, even very very small ones, create a barrier to entry that will cause a SIGNIFICANT drop in the number of reviews. For a site that is based on reviews and needs as many as possible, even a small step like using an app or submitting a photo would likely cut their reviews by more than 90%.
      • Just being in the lobby when you start to post the review doesn't seem like much of a barrier to me unless you didn't actually go to see the movie at all. I am very fond of the saying "trust, but verify".
        • I've seen as much as a 98% drop in responses online due to the addition of a single form field. Even the very smallest additions can have a HUGE impact on response rates. As small of a task as it seems to require people to start their review while in the theater lobby, it would likely be a huge barrier and cut down significantly on the number of reviews (not to mention all those who forget to start their review while there). Again, RT wants as many reviews as possible, so it'd be a determent to their site t
    • The audience score is the only aspect of Rotten Tomatoes I find to be of value. The scores from movie critics just don't seem to have a strong relationship with whether or not I'm going to enjoy a movie. Actually, maybe that's not quite correct. It does sometimes seem like a movie with a very low critics score and a high audience score is usually great. So there may be a strong inverse relationship.

      Do you read any of the reviews? Who cares whether a reviewer of any type liked or disliked a movie, what matters is why.

    • What they should have done is still allow user reviews before the movie is released. But just silently weight all those reviews by zero since clearly there's no way for those users to have actually seen the movie. Since an account can't submit more than one review for a movie, that at least clears the effect of all the dumb troll reviews from their rankings (the smart trolls would wait until after the movie's release). The text of the early reviews can stay too, just flag it with a big red banner on top
  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:20AM (#58182880) Journal

    ... "troll" means someone trolling for responses by posting something they don't really believe - or, they don't care whether they believe it, they just care that it is inflammatory and will get reactions.

    What exactly does that have to do with fake movie reviews? Yes, you could troll with those, I suppose, but the concern is the negative scores, not the trolling per se.

    "Troll" has evolved to mean "someone acting bad in my opinion on the internet".

    • A troll is someone who posts on the Internet with the intention of ruining something for someone else. This most definitely applies. A human who doesn't want to see a movie simply ignores it. A troll who doesn't want to see a movie goes on Rotten Tomatoes and votes it down.

      And then there are those who feel the need to explain they don't wanna see a movie with a female superhero lead. Those are misogynists.

      • A troll is someone who posts on the Internet with the intention of ruining something for someone else.

        No, that's not what a Troll is. A Troll posts something with the deliberate purpose of getting a rise out of the other party. That's nowhere near "ruining something for someone else." That's an asshole.

        If people keep expanding the meaning of Troll, then soon everyone will be a Troll. I just looked it up in Webster's and that, indeed, is what is happening.

      • by RedK ( 112790 )

        You're the one that's letting people's different opinions ruin it for you, they are not actively trying to ruin it at all.

        Brie Larson made a stupid comment, had to walk it back, and some people didn't like her "activism" and as such opted to leave a note on RT that they wouldn't see the movie (not a review, there were no reviews).

  • What reviews? (Score:5, Informative)

    by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:26AM (#58182930)

    When I checked Rotten Tomatoes last week, I saw no bad reviews.

    I did see that about 29% of people planned to see the movie. That isn't a review or a rating.

    • by dasunt ( 249686 )

      Replying to my own comment, but I checked again.

      Now Rotten Tomatoes is listing the number of people who want to see the film - not the percentage.

      Just clicking around finds no other movies that shows anybody who wants to see them. Only Captain Marvel. Now perhaps there is a threshhold of votes that have to be met before Rotten Tomatoes will display the numbers. And admittedly, Captain Marvel is part of a franchise that's pretty popular. But what are the odds that people, in reaction to reports of a tro

      • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        No, RT decided to start scrubbing long time accounts that were heavily active, and their "no interest" posts on billet page. What they're doing is removing "no interest" posts because it makes the movie look bad. Nothing more, nothing less.

      • Next up: Pissed off users voting up all other movies to surpass the number of people planning to see Marvel.

  • by xack ( 5304745 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:28AM (#58182940)
    To see what the fuss is about. Trolling backfires in this regard.
  • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:30AM (#58182966) Homepage Journal

    According to RT, these are the top 100 movies OF ALL TIME (their words):

    https://www.rottentomatoes.com... [rottentomatoes.com]

    Who can take this site seriously?

    Rank Rating Title No. of Reviews
    1. 97% Black Panther (2018) 456
    2. 99% Lady Bird (2017) 355
    3. 98% The Wizard of Oz (1939) 111
    4. 100% Citizen Kane (1941) 80
    5. 96% BlacKkKlansman (2018) 386

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The flaw here seem to be that they weight the ranking according to factors including the number of critic reviews... Since there are more critics for recent movies (because their critic database is always growing) it favours recent movies, and of course Citizen Kane because critics are secretly trolling everyone with it*.

      * Nah it's a good movie really, just a product of its time and not something many modern viewers would enjoy that much. Kinda like 2001.

      • The flaw is the entire system. I mean give me a break, I liked Black Panther, but it has a 98% rating and is listed as the #1 movie OF ALL TIME. They should call the list something else.

    • just the best on Rotten Tomatoes. RT isn't exactly a movie buff site. It's for popcorn lovers. e.g. pop culture. If you're going to a site called "Rotten Tomatoes" you probably shouldn't expect deep film criticism or elevated craftsmanship....
    • Who can take this site seriously?

      People who think superhero films are the height of film making.

      • People who think superhero films are the height of film making.

        Judging by the amount of money people are paying to see them you could make a good argument that they are, at least by some metrics. Maybe not to art house snobs but they are good movies and many people rate them as their favorites. Ranking movies by the sum of the enjoyment they provide is not a silly metric. I have to admit I've watched The Avengers and Star Wars many more times and gotten far more enjoyment from them than Casablanca or Citizen Kane or whatever art house movie you think should be put o

    • by phayes ( 202222 )

      Using RT as a reference automatically gets you classed as someone who doesn't care about being taken seriously in any case.

      • by phayes ( 202222 )

        My apologies: You meant RT=Rotten Tomatoes. I'm used to trolls trying to use another RT as a reference.
        Sorry for that.

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      How many times have you made almost the exact same post and why do you think it's insightful? So you don't agree with their top 5 movies of all time? Who cares?

      All five of those movies were very well received critically and this is reflected in their scores so those seem to be accurate enough. This is what people come to the site for, an averaged metric to give them some indication as to whether a movie will be good or not based on average user and critic scores.

      Their method for creating these scores though

    • According to RT, these are the top 100 movies OF ALL TIME (their words): Who can take this site seriously?

      I take it as seriously as any other list which is to say not very. It's just a list based on their metric of aggregated subjective opinions. You can have your own list based on whatever metrics make you happy and it won't be one bit more or less valid. There is no objectively "correct" list of best movies. Obviously you don't agree with their list but that doesn't make it or you wrong. Your opinion is yours and none of us are required to share it. Clearly to many people Black Panther legitimately is t

  • by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:30AM (#58182968)
    It's not the troll reviews which are the main problem, it is the shill reviews.

    For example, whenever a blockbuster is close to release you can expect stories on RT - audience "reactions" from a preview screening, or suspicious embargo busting reviews invariable positive. How are are these allowed to appear? Who greenlights the story in the first place? Why are reviews listed before an embargo? Who hand selects which tweets to highlight?

    My suspicion is RT is paid to generate positive feedback, "buzz" for a movie, and so prior to the embargo they fill the vaccum with bullshit and hype. And while troll reviews need to be fixed too, the user section is really is off on one side. I doubt it influences movie goers even a tiny fraction of what appears on the front page.

    • This could well be true... But we need to be honest here: There's no solid evidence for your assertion regarding shills (at least paid shills). There is a strong bit of evidence for a coordinated hit job (whether the cause for the hit job is valid is its own debate). Either practice harms the review process generally and needs to stop. I don't care about Ms. Larson's politics in general. I do have concerns as to her acting skills, but I'm reserving judgment given the franchise's relatively decent showings s
      • by DrXym ( 126579 )
        "It could well be true".

        It would be naive to think it isn't true unless RT emphatically deny doing it, e.g. by publishing their ethics. Go look at their lead headlines right now and witness an example [rottentomatoes.com] of what I'm talking about. Not the first time either [rottentomatoes.com]. It happens a lot with these major studio releases.

        And it's funny how their tweets seem to come from a core of blogs which have their own questionable ethical standards. These tweeters clearly don't seem bound by any embargo. It would be naive to assume

  • by mysidia ( 191772 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:40AM (#58183024)

      How about requiring people who want to review the movie to snapshot their ticket stub with an app on their phone?
        Or if you got the DVD, then take a picture of the box.

    • by Misagon ( 1135 )

      I don't think that would work.

      1. Tickets could be electronic. To take a snapshot of a ticket as a QR code (what my local theatre chain does), you would need a second phone running the RT app to photograph the first phone that shows the ticket.
      I suppose there could be systems out there that use NFC instead.

      2. The tickets need to be verified by a human. How would they identify what they see as a ticket?
      I have gone to many press screenings in Europe where the "ticket" was a full-size letter with just info abou

  • by aepervius ( 535155 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:45AM (#58183040)
    Last time I went on that page to see what the fuss was about, there was no review. In fact the only thing which was there was a percentage of people which announced whether they would want to see the film or not, and that was what was down very low, and a MISNAMED tab "audience review" which tells whether people want to see it in future or not. Case in point i jsut replaced the not interrested / will view picture with words : :

    "(not interrested)
    Never cared for Captain Marvel. Where's the Black Widow movie?

    (not interrested)
    Nate J February 25, 2019 looks kind of boring honestly

    (want to see it)
    Chris E February 25, 2019 Not a top tier character, but interested in the big picture "

    . Where are those invisible review bomb which everybody speak of ? Those are not review but hyped/not hyped feedback from potential cinema goer.

  • ...when they are the reason for this censorship. "FREE SPEECH!" Yeah, but no: it's their sandbox. I know mommy and daddy told you that you must share the sandbox and your toys, but they were not preparing you for the real world. Oh, and speech may be free, but never without consequence. So lie in that bed, fuckers.

    • I doubt this is going to solve the issue. It's gonna make it worse. You think they will now simply go away? What's gonna happen now is that the shitstorm will be postponed to the crucial first release week instead of having fizzled out by then because they moved on to their next target.

  • by sbrown123 ( 229895 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @11:58AM (#58183158) Homepage

    Same thing happened with Netflix and Amy Schumer's show. In that case Netflix removed all show ratings. That these establishments have to retreat from user input keeps making the "trolls" more powerful. Worse yet, removing user interactivity from your online offering is not a good idea generally. Since that Netflix change I stopped watching Netflix though its recommended queue. It quickly started to suck. But watching far less Netflix was not bad for me overall. Hell, I might even cancel my subscription I watch it so little now. Less TV and more money in my pocket.

    • So you also scored a victory. Trolls are the Chaos Monkey of society, breaking what can be broken for the ultimate betterment of all.
  • Fake news, Day 2. (Score:2, Redundant)

    by scorp1us ( 235526 )

    Why is this propaganda on /.

    RT Already does not allow ratings or comments until release. The only number is the percent of people who want to see it.

    A similar article was posted yesterday. I would hope that /. and it's readers would be smarter than to fall for this. At this point the MSM is trolling the general public.

  • Dumb (Score:5, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @12:10PM (#58183284) Journal

    They weren't reviews.
    They were "do you want to see this film" that a clickbaity blogger parsed as "review bombing of our feminist victory film" and the activist left-wing media has gotten triggered themselves into righteous snow(flake)storm.

    That they don't even understand fundamentally what they are angry about is really the ironic icing on the cake.

  • by Rasatsu ( 5554686 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @12:17PM (#58183364)

    What they did was censor stats about how many people clicked that they wanted to see the movie, not review.

    And it was because once again because white men were told we are evil and not wanted, so a lot clicked on the not-wanting-to-watch option.

    Was /. always this moronic or is it just nostalgic memories clouding my view?

  • Right now, a studio can react in time to a bombing. Now it's gonna happen right in that critical first week after release with zero reaction and mitigation time for studios.

    Bravo. *golfclap*

  • by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @12:42PM (#58183582)
    Brie Larson - I hate white men. If you're a white male, fuck off and don't see my movie and don't come to any press events (paraphrased)
    Everyone - leaves an honest answer to the question "do you want to see this movie"
    The Media - OMG TROLLZ!
    • She actually said the exact opposite [indiewire.com].

      If you read the above article you'll find what made everyone freak out is she said that having 63% of film critics being white males seems a bit high to her. Given that they're about 36% of the population she might not be too far off.

      I'm not saying it's time for quotas (Troop Leader says ve have to meet our qoota [youtube.com]) but it probably wouldn't hurt to make sure we haven't left some systemic discrimination in place. While I don't believe in "where there's smoke there's
  • by Distan ( 122159 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @12:43PM (#58183586)
    I trust the Audience Scores over the "professional" Tomatometer any day. The Tomatometer is too vulnerable to outside manipulation by professional reviewers acting in coordination to "upbomb" a movie they want to promote.

    As an experiment I just thought up a handful of movies and mentally rated them on a scale of 0 to 100, then compared my rating to the TM and AS ratings at RT.com. When the TM and AS were in agreement I was generally in agreement too. When they differed greatly, oh boy, it was clear the TM rating was way out of line.

    Greatest Showman
    My=85 TM=56 AC=88

    The Prestige
    My=90 TM=75 AS=92

    Last Jedi
    My=40 TM=91 AS=44

    Ghostbusters
    My=35 TM=74 AS=51

    Laserblast
    My=10 TM=NA AS=13

    LEGO Movie 2
    My=80 TM=86 AS=75

    Happy Death Day
    My=70 TM=72 AS=66

    Remember that RT.com is now owned by Fandango (and Warner Brothers) and no longer serves the purpose of providing honest feedback on movies. Hollywood wants it to fit nicely as another gear in the movie promotion engine. Allowing honest feedback about movies from consumers will no longer be tolerated as it doesn't fit the agenda of selling more tickets no matter what. In that regard it has followed the same path as other "captive reviewers" like most car magazines or video game review websites.
  • by oogoliegoogolie ( 635356 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @01:03PM (#58183752)

    Mainly because of the racist & sexist actress that plays the leading role character, but also because I'm so sick and tired of Hollywood pushing feminist and feminist ideology into every bloody movie being made now and/or proudly proclaiming right now is the first time in cinematic history where women have had strong leading roles when those have existed for decades. In order to push their poor oppressed women narrative they conveniently forget about Laura Croft (Angelina Jolie version), Sarah Conner, Ripley, Princess Leia, Million Dollar Baby, Thelma & Louise, Silkwood, Blair Witch, Basic Instinct, Charlie's Angles, Quick and the Dead, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, x1000. Don't forget Wizard of Oz.

"Plastic gun. Ingenious. More coffee, please." -- The Phantom comics

Working...