*Spoiler* Alerts are taking over the community!!

[Teresa]

I have been on Netflix a while about a year, though I have had to stop and start my subscription twice for personal reasons so my profile looks like I'm new. I love much Netflix but the reviews are falling into a terrible trend. Every page I look at is flooded with reviews flagged with *Spoiler* Alerts. It is sloppy annoying and usually they are wrong. WHAT is going on with that. Look at the top 7 reviews here:
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/RocknRolla/70098900?dmode=CUSTOMERREVI...

or here:
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Death_Race/70098610?trkid=222336

or here:
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Lost_Season_4/70065931?trkid=222336

I would never rent any of these cuz I could never read far enough to find a review that wasn't flagged. but none of these actually have spoilers. The Community Features are great but the community seems to be falling apart. There are another 100 pages that look like this and it is bad for everyone.

Someone needs to fix this!
YIKES!

baffled,
Mis. T

[Phatz]

Teresa,

I have called Netflix Customer Service about FIFTEEN of my own reviews inappropriately flagged and they claim there is apparently NO ONE in the company who can remove a spoiler. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it is getting worse. There are actually people organizing to commit these malicious attacks. The same visible reviewers that get bombarded with Not Helpfuls from these trolls are getting flagged Spoilers too. Netflix bottom line could careless about the community features but you are right, this is different. The average viewer the majority of that 10 million members they are going to notice pages like you pointed out. Those are not going to help Netflix put more DVDs in more Mailboxes. Ultimately what matters to shareholders is stock value and subscriptions is how that happens. These alerts actually affect the quality of the site enough that eventually SOMEONE somewhere will send SOMEBODY to computer school to teach them how to remove the Spoiler. They should have hung on to Droidmaker ;-) LOL oh well, maybe its me but I think everybody I know hates to read a spoiler. alas ... [deep sigh] some people are really that immature. I can't imagine taking this hobby so seriously to go to that kinda low but that is just me. =) I do this for fun and so ... I'm off to go write a review or two. (no spoilers I promise ;-) LOL

Cheers my Friend!
-Matt

[Kristyn]

I can't imagine taking this hobby so seriously to go to that kinda low but that is just me. =)

Poppycock. It is not just you, Phatz. I am sure if those that are hitting that spoiler tag start getting their own reviews tagged as Spoiler when they can clearly see they are NOT, they will feel the same way, too. All it is is immaturity. It's just a review, people.

[Cheryl Bailey]

I totally agree with what has been said. When you see all the top 3 reviews being tagged you know something is up, especially when they have been at the top for weeks with lots of helpfuls and then all of a sudden, like overnight all top 3 or 4 reviews are tagged with a spoiler?? This is malicious and underhanded just so someone can try and bost their own reviewer number up and take out all the competition. GROW UP PEOPLE and GET A LIFE.

[BuBBa]

Oh well I guess that is what you get when your dealing with 12 year olds LOL
But you guys are right this is going to scare the new people that have just started writing reviews off and most likely affect Netflix’s bottom line not a lot but maybe 1% well that could be a lot I guess. Still it does seem kinda weird like an organized attack??? Also I think that goes against Ning rules I read them when they ended the adult content On Ning since their only or main sponsor is Google
Here are the Google Adsense content restrictions:

Violent content, racial intolerance, or advocacy against any individual, group, or organization
Pornography, adult, or mature content
Hacking/cracking content
Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
Excessive profanity
Gambling or casino-related content
Content regarding programs which compensate users for clicking on ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites, or reading emails
Excessive, repetitive, or irrelevant keywords in the content or code of web pages
Deceptive or manipulative content or construction to improve your site's search engine ranking, e.g., your site's PageRank
Sales or promotion of weapons or ammunition (e.g., firearms, fighting knives, stun guns)
Sales or promotion of beer or hard alcohol
Sales or promotion of tobacco or tobacco-related products
Sales or promotion of prescription drugs
Sales or promotion of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods
Sales or distribution of term papers or student essays
Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity, or infringes on the legal rights of others

Copyrighted Material: Website publishers may not display Google ads on web pages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content.

Further clarification of their idea of "adult content:"

Adult content
The AdSense network is considered family-safe, which means that publishers aren't permitted to place Google ads on sites which contain adult content. In addition to photos and videos which contain nudity or sexual activities, here are some other examples of unacceptable content:

Lewd or provocative images
Crude or indecent language, including adult stories
Sexual tips or advice
Sexual fetish sites (e.g. foot fetish content)
Adult toys or products
Ads or links to external sites containing adult content

If your site has content which you wouldn't be comfortable viewing at work or with family members around, then it probably isn't an appropriate site to place Google ads upon.

[lisag]

I guess this is when it pays to not be a top reviewer huh? No one reads mine so I can't get picked on, lol.
Teresa, go ahead and rent all three movies.
RocknRolla was awesome, well acted , a great storyline, plenty of action and some laugh out loud moments. And Gerard Butler of course!
Death Race is fast, loud, bloody and very violent..... it's the most fun I've had watching a movie in quite a while :) No deep story line, just lots and lots of cool crashes, explosions and Jason Statham looking very buff.
If you're a fan of Lost you can't miss any seasons, but you shouls start with season one as it's a very complex storyline.

[Teresa]

OK. Thanks lisag, I will. and yes it pays to not be a top reviewer :) I actually won't review because there is just too much politics in it all. I'll stick to my rotten tomatoes blog and leave Netflix out of it. thats just me.

BTW here are a few more pages that look terrible.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Vicky_Cristina_Barcelona/70097585?dmod...

sex drive
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Sex_Drive/70104312?trkid=204764

Death Race
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Death_Race/70098610?trkid=222336&l...

Resident Evil: Degeneration
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Resident_Evil_Degeneration/70109473?tr...

If its new cool an popular the page will undoubtedly be ruined. WHERE IS NETFLIX?! is there a Netflix rep on this forum? I wanna hear an official comment on this. It remind me of gang tag graffiti polluting my old neighborhood.
unbelievable!

[Kristen DJ]

i think the whole system is flawed because... people who write really awesome reviews get overlooked because they may not have as many friends as others might have to boost them up with helpfuls and their incredible reviews never get read because of politics. they quickly get swept down the pages and the people with the most friends get their reviews boosted up even when they may not be as good just because they are part of a friends helping friends network. I swear i have the best review written on a particular movie... and a person part of a network wrote a review in 1 day and got 25 helpfuls from friends, and my review which had been sitting on top for weeks quickly got demoted. To me, thats wrong... and my review was 10 times better. The whole ranking system is crap. The person with the most friends gets their review boosted when the person with the best review gets the shaft. That sound fair?

[BuBBa]

Well everybody has the same chance to make friends on NF there are 50 friends slots I know what you mean back in 03 I wrote 2 reviews one bad the other pretty good they both stayed on the first page till 05 one till 07 when reviewing took off but as I started to make friends I started to get votes What you need to do Kristen DJ is to make friends the whole point of the system was to get people renting movies so that is my best advice to you. You have come into the game late and it is a game but if you are that good there is also Flickster and Rotten Tomatoes where you can show your writing

[BuBBa]

P.S. also it took about 4 years before I made enough friends to actualy start getting votes I have been on NF off and on since about 2003

[Knaldskalle]

i think the whole system is flawed [...] The whole ranking system is crap.

Sour grapes?

[JHoward]

Indeed. *Nods, chuckles, and walks away*

[RJP]

Phatz,

I don't believe what Customer Service is telling you. I'm sure Netflix can remove Spoiler Alert tags - it makes no sense that Netflix can't just remove them all with just one programming change to remove that variable field. What Netflix is unwilling to do, however, is to set up a system to screen the Spoiler Alerts for validity, and then remove inappropriate ones individually. That would take a lot of manpower with negligible financial return. And Netflix isn't about to listen to a member griping about his/her Spoiler Alerts - that sort of defeats the purpose of the tag.

I further believe that, if Netflix knows who is clicking Helpfuls/Not Helpfuls on specific reviews, then they must also know who is clicking Spoiler Alerts for specific reviews. If Netflix wanted to, their programmers could devise a query to identify those Netflix members who click an unreasonable amount of Spoiler Alerts. But once again, that's a matter of priority - Netflix probably won't do anything until the "optics" of their review pages start looking really bizarre with all those red explanation marks.

I'm closing in on 900 reviews, written over the last 7 or 8 years. I never once saw a Spoiler Alert on any of my reviews until a few weeks ago. I've decided to take the high road - I edit any and all of my reviews that are marked as Spoilers to remove anything remotely resembling spoiler text, as defined by Netflix in their Review Guidelines and Terms Help page. I then add text, as the first line of the review, stating that spoiler text was removed as that particular date.