The Movie Database Support
Support → Website Support
Could you please add an explanatory note to the "Video?" field in the edit view?
posted by RubySTAFFMOD on February 25, 2025 at 7:48 AM
In "Primary Facts" edit view, there is a note next to "Adult Movie?" to help guide users in using it correctly.
Similarly, it would be great if we could have a note next to the "Video?" field. Users often get confused about the purpose of this field and assume any film would be a "video". Adding a link to this section on the Contribution Bible would be most wonderful, but, if that's not possible, a question mark with a short explanation, like the one that the "Adult Movie?" field has, would be helpful as well.
This would be a quick win: easy to add and super helpful in guiding users not to mark movie pages as "videos" incorrectly, which causes data issues further down the line on other services that use TMDb's API. Thanks so much!
Reply by Ruby
on May 1, 2025 at 10:27 AM
It's great to see the thumbs-up in support of this suggestion, especially from the mods.
Not having an explanation to the "video" setting leads very many users to misinterpret it: many think that the film that they're adding is, of course, a type of video/audiovisual content, others presume that this setting relates to an entry having a trailer added. Of course, one may say that those users should just check the Contribution Bible for an explanation, but the information about the "video" setting there is not that quick and intuitive to find.
Users applying the "video" setting incorrectly not only causes issues on other services using TMDb API, it also causes a lot of avoidable posts here, on TMDb forums, where users ask about why their films are not appearing on other services that use TMDb's API. More often than not, it's the incorrect use of "video:true" setting that's the cause.
I apologise for bumping this issue after less than six months, but, as this issue is getting more pressing, I hope Travis sees this and that adding the little "?" icon with an explanation to the "Video?" field could be a simple fix and a quick win for everyone: TMDb mods who would have fewer queries to deal with, support staff on other services who would have fewer queries to deal with, and users themselves whose films would be less likely to get miscategorised.
Thank you 🤞