Allow unknown watching date
i'm a Trakt noob. when my favorite iPhone app completely shifted over to using Trakt for their backend, i had to create a Trakt account if i wanted to continue using it. so i did.
recently i learned that the Trakt website lets you also track Movie's & such too (yes, i had not visited the actual website until recently); so i began to explore the site & thought i'd start filling in what i've seen & wanna see etc.
i was astonished to find that i could NOT add any movies to the "History" & "Collection" areas without providing a date & time. THAT's HORRIBLE!!! how the hell do i know when i first watch "The Princess Bride" or "Aliens" or "Braveheart" etc etc etc ?!?!?!?!
surely this can't be so, so... i dug in a little to the support pages - only to find that the Trakt people have made an intentional decision to NOT allow us users to add vids we've watched &/or own without requiring the date & time of such watching/buying! this is INCONCEIVABLE (pun intended) in my opinion!
to me, this renders my utilizing this service/site useless!
but, since this site SEEMS to be the best option to track both tv & movies, i would like to make a plea to the owner(s)/developer(s) to make the date/time part optional. or, if you can't conceive of how to do that (for some weird reason), then put an "unknown" or "i don't remember" option in the date/time sheet.
i read on one of the other posts linked below, where Founder/Admin Justin Nemeth said, "We don’t plan on supporting an unknown date right now since everything is key off of dates" - if that's true, then perhaps you can program in a hidden date/time for database purposes; or just add the date/time of the "Add to..." action AND having an optional date/time of watched/seen option for the users to use if they want to (and if they remember the date/time of when they saw it). all that to say, i bet some creative out-of-the-box thinking could figure out a solution.
now, i spent all this time to try, search, read, & write this but i do recognize that i could have missed something somewhere to render this post a stupid waste; and if that's so, then my apologies!
lastly, if you've actually read this far, then...
thank you for your time & consideration.
.peace.
REFS:
http://support.trakt.tv/forums/188762-general/suggestions/6899488-please-fix-trakt-2-0-re-the-diary-function-previ
http://support.trakt.tv/forums/188762-general/suggestions/4938996-seen-date-should-be-uncertain-different-from-th
http://support.trakt.tv/forums/188762-general/suggestions/9548070-remove-time-option-when-manually-adding-a-title-to
http://support.trakt.tv/forums/188762-general/suggestions/10829259-watched-at-obscure-date
SyberKnight
shared this idea
Your points make sense, but as before this is still not something we plan on supporting. I’ll move this to researching, but I don’t anticipate changing this in the near term.
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David Jarosz
commented
I just started using trakt, as it was recommended by my brother. I've been using Plex for a while, and it was able to sync with it.
However, some of the shows have not been accounted for in my history for various reasons, and I don't remember (like many of you) when I watched them.
I honestly can't see a point in not having a general "watched" button that excludes the date and time requirement.
For those that started with trakt from the beginning, perfect, everything is accounted for. For those of us that simply can't remember and would rather not pick an arbitrary date or date aired.
The OP (and others) have made a really good case for this to happen. Honestly, I was very excited about this service until I learned about this...
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Thogek
commented
> "This isn’t something we plan to support since many of the site features rely on this data."
> A lot of site functionality surrounding stats use the watched date...
If I'm understanding this correctly, the answer is that they designed themselves into a corner on this one (hey, it happens), so fixing this UX bug at this point would be more expensive than it sounds on the surface, so it's not getting fixed. Understandable.
Just understand that this UX bug makes the entire feature of having watched-dates at all nearly useless for those of us who run into the situations ImreToth describes.
Even the idea of a no-value UI state that corresponding to a MinDate value in the code/data would seem a pretty reasonable patch for this. But if the coded-into corner doesn't even work with that sort of a patch... wow. That's some corner.
Oh, well.
BTW...
> It would be best to keep the comments in a single thread moving forward.
Which thread?
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goose
commented
@dgw Ahh ok, that makes sense to me.
If it's of any help, I've been able to work around the memory issue just by looking at various sources, such as the backlog of my digital calendar, Facebook events, Netflix history (which logs everything you watch with a timestamp), and just asking some friends that I watched with. So at this point, for the movies I can't remember, I am able to at least remember if I saw them before or after certain other movies, allowing me to fit them into the map approximately.
(The timestamps on Ratings have been bothering me, however.)
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dgw
commented
@goose: Ratings isn't History. If you remember that you saw something but don't remember it well enough to give an honest rating, that's a problem. Ratings also have timestamps, and you can't even override them as you can for History and Collection entries.
For what it's worth, the Collection feature could also do with allowing the omission of a timestamp. It's not so much the specific type of entry as it is the fact that timestamps are *required* for *all Trakt data*, which is not practical if one is filling in a profile from memory.
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goose
commented
Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't this the difference between the Ratings feature and the History feature? The History feature is specifically for chronicling when you watch any given movie or episode of a show, while the Ratings feature lets you have a list of all of the movies you have seen by what you rate them, without the requirement of specifying a watched date.
I can see how this would be difficult for Collections though. The point of that feature is to keep a list of what you own, not necessarily to keep a list of when you bought it.
This seems to be an issue for a lot of people though, so will someone please explain what it is I'm missing?
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dgw
commented
My workaround is to specify a manual timestamp for things I know I watched but don't know when, telling the site I watched it at the exact minute of my birth. It means that statistical distortion is limited to that one day/year, and all following years should have accurate data.
Would still be better to mark something as seen without having to timestamp it. Items without timestamps could contribute to aggregate statistics without affecting time-based stats.
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ImreToth
commented
I've posted a similar request, but more detailed, here: <https://is.gd/3T6vYm>
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ImreToth
commented
NOTE: I wrote this post because actually the only unlocked thread that suggest this exactly same feature has the title "Requiring Date/Time for Add to History & Collection, etc features makes the site NOT worth using". I really really really want this feature, but I don't think that his absence "makes the site NOT worth using", and I think that other users think the same. So please don't lock this post. In any case, I sincerely hope that this feature will be implemented.
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ImreToth
commented
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When you want to add a show or a movie in your "History" or in your "Collection" you have to provide date and time. I think this is great, but sometimes it makes absolutely no sense! What do I do if I want to insert a movie I watched 10-15 years ago? Obviously it is impossible to remember the date! At best I remember the year... Currently the only solution is to enter a fake date. But so there is no precision. And the ability to enter a chosen date, completely loses its sense: what do you need to enter a date and a time if in some cases you have to falsify they?
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Before writing this post I searched and I found some similar suggestions:
> http://is.gd/FYV60Y (394 votes)
> http://is.gd/j7NXcC (320 votes)
> http://is.gd/N8aFzx (61 votes)
> http://is.gd/TIAHhg (39 votes)
> http://is.gd/XLUkRN (9 votes)
> http://is.gd/88gQlT (6 votes)
> http://is.gd/uOXnNq (3 votes)
> http://is.gd/fc4AaU (3 votes)
> http://is.gd/F0AQLE (2 votes)I read all these posts and obviously I read the common answer, that is: "this feature is not currently planned". Apparently this feature doesn't seem so difficult to implement, but probably there is something I can not understand. But I think that this feature, although not without hard work, needs to be implemented: it would greatly improve trakt.
After reading the previous posts I came to the conclusion that the best solution is this:
- Add the option "Unknown"
- Add the ability to insert a partial date------------------------------
In some of the posts I've linked I read some answers like the following:
"This isn’t something we plan to support since many of the site features rely on this data."
So maybe the problem is that the website absolutly needs this date. In this case the solution could be the following:
- When you set the date as "Unknown", in reality it's entered a very old date (for example with the year 0 or year 1000). When a date of this kind is detected, the website's graphic automatically shows "Unknown" instead of the date.
- For the partial date you simple insert an "Other date" with a 0 instead of the digits you want omit. Example: 2016/01/02 is January 2, 2016; 2016/01/00 is January 2016; 2016/00/00 is 2016. Something similar can be done for the time.------------------------------
Concluding, here is how the panel should be: <http://i.imgur.com/WQcNJ5K.png>. Now I explain every button in detail:
[RIGHT NOW] If I click on this button the website shows two buttons: "I started" and "I finished". If I click the first button, the date/time setted is the actual date/time plus the total duration of the movie/episode. If I click the second button, the date/time setted is the the actual date/time.
[ON RELASE DATE] It enter the relase date of the movie/episode. For the movies it enter only the date, for the episodes of a show it enter also the relase time.
[OTHER DATE] I can insert the date/time that I want. I can also insert partial dates: (a) year, (b) year + month, (c) year + month + day, (d) year + month + date + time, (e) month + day, (f) ...
[UNKNOWN] It add a new watching with no date.
And from the history I can modify every date and improve the precision of a date. (Example: I insert a movie I saw in 1995; afterwards I remember also the month: I can simply add it.)
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The movies/episodes setted as watched with an unknown date are inserted in the history before the others with a date, in alphabetical order.
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I hope all this will be added: in addition to being very useful, this features would greatly improve trakt.tv!
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BevansDesign
commented
Yeah, I've been clicking "on release date", which is wrong.
I know they don't want to encumber the UI with too many buttons, but adding an "I don't know" button would be nice.
Or just make it optional - you would click the purple check box, and it marks it as watched. Then, you have the option to be more specific if you like. That's one-click-or-more functionality instead of the current mandatory-two-clicks functionality.
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thwaller
commented
@manoconnor I am not disagreeing on making improvements, sorry if it was taken that way. All I was stating is that I do not believe that the date issue "has to be fixed", but rather a feature request. My point in commenting was my change in opinion on that. It is my opinion, after personal review and experience with how I use trakt, that an unknown date is less useful to me as a data user then using the released date as a value for unknowns. I won't bore all with the exact reasons, but it is data integrity and compatibility reasons. Use of "unknown" added or not, I won't use it in favor of released date .... just my opinion, and a changed one.
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manoconnor
commented
This is the main lack of trakt, it makes no sense to submit your watching dates if in some cases you have to falsify them.
@Brian: Yes, trakt is great, but this does not mean to not improve it. The fact that I can not choose "Unknown Date" is an issue, and sooner or later it will have to be fixed (I hope sooner than later).
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thwaller
commented
Although I see this as an issue as well, I agree with the stand of Justin. All I do is use the released date if I am unsure of the date. Although I felt a bit differently prior, after using for a reasonable while, I no longer see this as a real issue, meaning a problem. Just my opinion. When I compare all of the other software, web sites and plugins used in combination for my media center, trakt.tv is currently one of least issues and is a welcome addition.
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Jake Lockerman
commented
I think the inability to add a movie or episode with an unknown watching date is horrible. Please add this feature! I have seen lot of movies and show of which I don't remember the date, and I think it's the same for most users!
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Joe Constantine commented
If I don't remember the exact date I watched something I either set it as release date, if I think I watched it when it was released, or a general guesstimate at the year I watched it.
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havok452
commented
I actually do go back years to see when I watched a specific movie, or see what I watched around a certain date. I have a terrible memory and this is extremely useful for me. There are tons of movies (and tv shows) that I know I've seen but I have no clue when I saw them. For those I pick a general date like January 1, 2000...
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Derek
commented
If you have a movie you watched previously (like a year ago) and you don't remember the exact date, I would say that the date isn't exactly important to you anymore. Therefore, you can use the release date button to put on there. It's not like you go back years to see when you watched a specific movie anyway.
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Anonymous
commented
Indeed. I have a lot of my times set to January 1, 1970 for movies that I know I have seen, but not accurately enough for a proper time. You could remove the requirement for a time at all, or allow imprecise times (e.g., Just a year, or a year/month)
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Ohifriend
commented
Ever since I started using Trakt I thought the same thing, I can understand that maybe from a technological point of view this may be hard to implement if the data is relying on the date/time, but as a fairly new user, from a user-experience point of view, it's hard to think that I can't fill my "Watched" history with any form of accurate data and there's no way I'm gonna remember the date and time I watched every single movie/episode of a show.
