Announcement: Contribution Form Update

Thanks Vande, let us know if you identify any issues or suggestions for further improvement, and I'll feed them back to the engineering team. Don't forget to try out the keyboard shortcuts too, and see if those make contributing easier for you. Thanks, Mark

Thanks Mark. I have just discovered that one of my most used boxes "Name Merge" does not work on the new form. It just says "Add Merge" without any box actually appearing. Edited to add - if you do another correction to the same person at the same time as the Name Merge, then the Name Merge box suddenly appears, but only after you have actually put something into whatever other box you have chosen to update.

Thanks for flagging Vande! The team have been able to reproduce this issue. It appears to only affect compact mode. We have a fix already and it should be fully deployed within 24 hours. Let us know if you come across any other issues. Thanks, Mark

Hi again Mark, The exact same issue is present with Keywords - if you try to add one, there is no box available, but if you add a Genre at the same time, then the Keywords box appears. You must then of course remember to close the Genre box again, so as not to add one that doesn't apply.

Thanks Vande, I'll forward this to the team and ask them to try applying the same fix they did for Name Merge. Thanks, Mark

This issue should be fixed now Vande. Thanks, Mark

Thanks Mark.

Hello Mark, There is now another minor issue - in the Distributors section, all the boxes are there except for Company Name. So you have to fill them in then wait for the error on the next screen for that box to come up.

I can see the company name box if I go to the form for adding a distributor. Given the difference, it may be difficult for staff to reproduce the issue. If you can give a specific example - which title page did you start at and what did you do that led to the update page without the company name box. It should not make a difference whether you started at a normal title page, the reference view, or a Pro title page but it will help if you are specific about that.

It happens on any new titles for me. I can't add a photo here anymore, but this is what I get: Distributors Add 1 credit Action Company Attribute Order New #1 Region: Choose Year: Type: Choose Attribute: Those boxes show on the left of the form where the Company Name would normally go, then once filled in, they shift over to their correct position on the right on the next screen, with the Company Name box now visible on the left, and of course an error message saying I haven't filled it in!

The issue seems to be on new titles. Adding a distributor to an existing title looks fine to me but for a new title I get the missing the company name box as you describe.

Thanks Vande, Thanks owenrees, I'll ask the team to investigate this issue and let you know once we have a fix. Thanks, Mark

Hi Vande, This issue should now be fixed. Many thanks, Mark

Hi cinemacriterion, Yes, the roll out has started with approximately 50% of contributors seeing the new experience at this time. We will continue to roll out to everyone over the next 2 weeks. Thanks, Mark

Will it also be available on the iOS app?

These changes will not be coming to the iOS App anytime soon, but the floating submit button has been available in the app for some time now, so this change makes the two experiences a little more consistent.

Still not seeing the new layout, is there a way to opt in to it?

There is not currently an option to opt in. The roll out will continue over the next 10 days by which time everyone should see the new experience.

Still not seeing it. Is it still coming?

Hi cinemacriterion, The rollout is still in progress. You should see the changes early next week, if not before. Thanks, Mark

You still haven't made the new form available to everyone?

and at me they changed it back

@Mark13: You stated "The rollout is still in progress. You should see the changes early next week, if not before." I still see the old contribution form. I don't mind, mind you, but I do wonder when it will be rolled out to everybody.

Hi Marco, I just checked in with the developers and we should be able to enable it for everyone from tomorrow or Thursday. Thanks for your patience.

@Mark13: Thanks for the very swift reply!

Thanks MovieCat, Yes, change can take some getting used to, but we hope that once you've gotten used to these changes you'll find the new additions like the keyboard shortcuts and floating submit button make contributing easier. Thanks, Mark

Hi Tatjana1984, We appreciate it may take some getting used to, but having to scroll to the bottom each time to see the check updates and submit buttons has been one of the most consistent complaints from users for years. Thanks, Mark

Hi ericnm, Have you tried using the compact view? For me, when I am in compact view the warning checkbox is visible without needing to scroll. Thanks, Mark

Thanks Scott_A_D, We've tried to ensure a similar degree of "data density" to the previous experience. If we find additional opportunities to compress without impacting accessibility, then we'll explore them. Thanks, Mark

Please see the help linked in the announcement above: https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/new-features-updates/announcement-contribution-form-update/GAVYKTP4MVQWB3B2#

Hi thebluetuna, the page should scroll as you tab, so that you can always see the form field your cursor is on. If that is not working for you, please share details of your operating system and browser version so we can attempt to replicate the issue. Thanks, Mark

The page advances down as I tab to the next form field; however, because the buttons sit overtop of whatever is on the bottom of the page inside the scroll field it hides the active form field being worked on. Using Google Chrome on the PC, but this also occurs on Microsoft Edge. Examples of the issue can be seen here with the form field being worked outlined in blue: Here the field is visible -- [ https://i.postimg.cc/kM6DjnjV/aaaa1.png ] But if I hit Tab three times to advance to the next Item #, then the field is covered up by the buttons -- [ https://i.postimg.cc/D0Mr359q/aaaa2.png ] Thus to advance the page so that the fields are visible, I have Tab forward to the Item # that is past the one that I want to add/edit so that it becomes visible, and than back-Tab to it so that the information can be entered. [note: normally the blue outline isn't even visible when Tabbing to the next line as the whole Item line is hidden, but I adjusted the scroll down slightly so that the top of the blue outline for the active box could be seen in the second image.]

Thanks for the additional detail and screenshots thebluetuna, I'll ask the team to try to replicate this issue and figure out what we can do to address it. I'll provide an update as soon as I have it. Thanks, Mark

Hi thebluetuna, the team were able to replicate the issue and a fix has now been deployed. Let us know if you still see this issue. Thanks, Mark

Hi vinc17, no it has not been rolled back. We are rolling out this change gradually so we can monitor its performance. Whether you see the new experience is determined by random allocation with 50% of people still seeing the old experience. You probably were assigned to the new experience originally, but by clearing your site data you may have been put back into the control group. Thanks, Mark

Hi Mark, OK, so this is linked to the session rather than to the user account. This could explain that when using a different machine (my phone), I was seeing something different.

Hi raynor_pretorius, this is an intended update to the user interface. If you click on the three dots menu at the top of the form, you can enable compact view which reduces the spacing. Thanks, Mark

Not to step on raynor_pretorius toes here, but it's nice that IMDb has granted its developers with ultra large monitors. I've enabled the compact view, and it's still too big. Maybe a "super-compact-view" option would help. Some of the issues could be solved by re-arraigning the fields. For example, if you add a new episode to a TV Series, there is no reason for the Original Air Date to take up 3 lines. You could put the Day, Month and Year all on the same line. Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestion ron3, I'll pass this feedback to the team and see if this is something we can explore. Thanks, Mark

Thanks for the support ron3. A really appreciate your comment. For interest, I submit 42000+ entries per month MANUALLY - I'm 65 years old, so know absolutely zero about bots, spiders and automated data submission, so these types of 'upgrades' have a huge impact for me. I really like the new check/submit buttons permanently 'onscreen', but the amount of wasted whitespace, even in compact view is actually detrimental to comfortable submissions. Funny as it may be to an outsider, my mouse battery is now only lasting three days (instead of six) due to the constant scrolling and movement navigation in the new layout :-)

Thanks raynor_pretorius for the additional context on how these changes impact you. And thank you for all the data you share with IMDb. We appreciate it. I'll ask the team to explore whether we can make the data even more compact in the Compact Mode. Sounds like there is a clear opportunity with the Original Air Date field. Let us know if there are other specific fields that you think are problematic. Some changes the team can make get applied to every part of the form, and others are field specific, so it is always a balancing act to ensure we provide the right amount of space where necessary, without introducing too much space elsewhere. We might not get it right first time, but your feedback helps us identify where we can target improvements. Thanks, Mark

Hi @martin_695862, Thanks for reporting this. I have forwarded your report to the relevant team in place and they will be looking into this for you. We will update you as soon as we hear from the concerned team. Thank you for your support.

Hi martin_695862, just an update to let you know that while the team have not been able to recreate the issue you describe, they think they have an idea of what will fix it, and are working to get a change out. The fix should be live within 24 hours. Thanks, Mark

Hi gromit82, The help icons are still present. In the compact view they change color to grey, but they are still there. If you are still not seeing them, please send a screenshot and details of your browser version, so we can investigate further. Thanks, Mark

Mark: No, I'm still not seeing the icons, in either compact view or non-compact view. I took a screen shot and posted it at https://postimg.cc/2bpPHnzF (non-compact view), so if the icon is there, someone can point out to me exactly where it is. My browser is Google Chrome Version 136.0.7103.114 (Official Build) (64-bit).

In the old form, when selecting Correct/Delete, the blue question mark only appears after you have selected "Correct" or "Delete" for an item.

Peter: I just tested that, and in the new form, the question mark doesn't show up in any color when I do select "Correct" or "Delete".

Thank you gromit82, and thank you Peter_pbn, I'll have the team take a look at this and try to reproduce the issue. I'll post back here when I have an update. Thanks, Mark

Hi gromit82, the team have aligned on a solution to return the help links to the form. There were accessibility issues with the previous placement of the icons, and so the plan is to reposition them below each section. This does require a slightly more involved change, so will not happen immediately. As soon as I have a timeline for this fix I'll let you know. Thanks, Mark

Hi Viktor, Thanks for the feedback, I'll ask the team to look into this and will come back to you with an update. Thanks, Mark

Thanks for the feedback raynor_pretorius, I'll ask the team to investigate further reductions to whitespace in compact view, focussing on the episode contribution form. Thanks, Mark

This could be a little off topic, or maybe of use in the current circumstances. I think I remember that this was the only platform where one could submit a screenshot after comments, for clarity of any issue,but now I see no way to do this. Is this another 'improvement' or is my Alzheimers finally kicking in at 65 ? :-)

@raynor, you're right, but image upload has been disabled here for some time, along with hyperlinks, after the community was offline for a while earlier this year.

raynor: Peter is correct. We used to be able to upload images here, but for the last few months that has not been possible. That's an ongoing malfunction which the staff is hoping to fix. It wasn't meant to be an intentional change.

Thank you Peter and Gromit for the information. I am so deeply and sadly disappointed in the direction IMDB Management/IT Systems sometimes chooses to go. Proudly announced redesigned page changes take top priority, but systems that help contributors to EASILY portray to IMDB helpers and help desk staff where data issues exist, and particularly just WHERE these pages are WRONG or not USER FRIENDLY, are put on the backburner. If there was an easy way for all of us contributors to post the abysmal waste of desktop real estate that these new contribution pages are causing (even in so called compact mode), I am sure that they would reconsider, or at least put some speed into properly designing them, so that contributors and IMDB might all once again get on the SAME PAGE, in keeping IMDB a at the top of the worlds information sources.