Member Comment Histories Will Return!

posted by Patrick Crowley on January 11, 2005 at 6:05 am

As many of you may have noticed, member profile pages on Cinema Treasures have been missing member comment histories for the past week or so.

This unfortunate bug was the unexpected result of a recent upgrade to our website. Given the size of Cinema Treasures and our limited resources, sometimes these things happen.

We are, however, working on a solution and will have this feature restored as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who has brought this to our attention!

Comments (23)

Hibi
Hibi on January 11, 2005 at 6:58 am

Why Am I not getting e-mail notifications to my posts? I’ve written you about this, but I never got a reply from you.

Patrick Crowley
Patrick Crowley on January 11, 2005 at 7:22 am

We’re looking into this issue as well, TJ. They are probably related. Stay tuned…

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 11, 2005 at 8:03 am

Can you add a way to register for e-mail notifications even for theatres where I haven’t posted comments? Ideally, I’d like to get e-mail whenever anyone posts a comment for any theatre in Massachusetts.

Patrick Crowley
Patrick Crowley on January 11, 2005 at 8:36 am

I can’t promise you that we’ll implement your feature request, Ron… but we will certainly consider your idea for inclusion in a future version of the site.

megafishnd
megafishnd on January 11, 2005 at 9:44 am

When will the Photos option be reinstituted? Thanks.

Patrick Crowley
Patrick Crowley on January 11, 2005 at 11:40 am

Bill — we will add support for theater photo galleries as soon as possible.

But I’ll be honest with you. This is probably the most challenging part of the website we’ll ever need to develop. With over 8000 theaters, we need to have a system that can support tens of thousands of images.

This is something that’s going to take a serious amount of time and money to develop and support. And since we’re a volunteer organization with meager resources, that’s a challenge for us.

Thankfully though, with the publication of our book, adding this feature is more of a possibility now. As always, check the Add-A-Photo page for updates on this issue.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on January 11, 2005 at 9:51 pm

I’d like to see a longer list of recent comments, because if you miss a comment, it’s gone unless you go to that theater’s page, but unless you have already commented about that house, you’d never know a comment was made.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on January 11, 2005 at 10:01 pm

I agree. In fact, why not make that list something you can page through, day by day, just like the Updated Theatres and Newest Theatres lists?

Patrick Crowley
Patrick Crowley on January 12, 2005 at 6:28 am

I’ll see what we can do, guys. There are some technical issues that will probably prevent us from being able to have a page like Updated or Newest Theaters for browsing comments, but maybe we can find a way to show a longer list.

br91975
br91975 on January 12, 2005 at 6:48 am

I second saps and Ron’s opinion. If the software which keeps this site up-and-running allows it, maybe an on-screen history of 20-25 unique recently added to theatre comments pages would be a good compromise… again, as long as the software allows for it.

Hibi
Hibi on January 12, 2005 at 9:15 am

Thanks, Patrick. Am glad you are aware of the issues involved.

Roger Katz
Roger Katz on January 12, 2005 at 6:17 pm

Regarding recent comments, I would like the a way to see the list of theatres with recent comments along with their location as is done for new and updated theatres. For example, when I see Palace Theatre, I don’t know if it is one in Connecticut (which I’d care to read about), California (which I wouldn’t care to read about), or somewhere in between. It would make it easier than having to click on the theatre link to see which one it is.

Patsy
Patsy on February 4, 2005 at 11:23 am

Yes, the photo option should be returned SOON as there are many CT members who have lots of photos they NEED to share with other members! I really enjoy seeing a photo or postcard photo when logging onto a theatre page and am somewhat disappointed when there isn’t one there! :–(

Benjamin
Benjamin on February 5, 2005 at 3:59 pm

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this comment/suggestion, but I didn’t see any other place specifically set aside for suggestions — and I noticed that others have used this thread as a “suggestion box” of sorts. So here goes:

One thing I am surprised about is that neither the profiles at the top of each theater thread (e.g., architect, number of seats, etc.) nor the “Theater Guide” link (which appears to be a “summary” of the various profile topics) have a “field” that would allow for the inclusion of the date that a theater first opened.

Now I realize that it’s already probably pretty complicated (and expensive) to include all the topics that are already provided for, but if it is not too difficult or expensive to add an additional slot for “date theater first opened,” I think such a slot would contribute a tremendous new dimension to your website.

Viewers would then be likely to get a surer sense of which theaters were built when, and be better able to trace trends in theater construction (e.g., popular architects, seating sizes of auditoriums, configuration of seating plans, styles of decor, etc.).

Plus a “Theater Guide” listing that would allow one to list in chronological order all the theaters for which opening dates have been posted would really help viewers get a handle what was happening during certains “eras.” One would be able to see at a glance, for instance, all the theaters built in 1927. Looking at one theater on the list, say the Roxy, one could see at a glance all the other theaters that were built around the same time — and get a better perspective on both the Roxy and the theater building boom that was occurring at that time.

Since such a field (i.e., “date first opened”) seems like such an obviously wonderful “research” tool, I suppose there are probably some very good reasons (especially regarding money or time) that it is difficult to do. But, I thought I should at least throw such a “dream set up” on the table just in case it is something that is actually quite feasible.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on February 5, 2005 at 4:10 pm

When I add a theatre, the form does ask when the theatre first opened, as well as when it closed. But for some reason, this information isn’t being displayed.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on February 5, 2005 at 7:15 pm

I’d also like to see the date the entry was posted, or the date it was updated.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on March 11, 2005 at 10:17 am

Two months after you fixed this, my comment history has once again disappeared. Can you restore it?

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on March 11, 2005 at 4:01 pm

I don’t think it was ever fixed.

Patrick Crowley
Patrick Crowley on April 6, 2005 at 12:10 pm

To those who may not know, the comment history feature is now working again. :)

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on April 6, 2005 at 12:18 pm

I noticed that yesterday. What order is the history in? It doesn’t seem to be organized alphabetically by theatre name or by city.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on April 6, 2005 at 8:30 pm

Most recent comments on top.

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on April 7, 2005 at 10:54 am

What would be really cool would be to have the member profile include a list of all the theatres s/he ever added.

Any chance of adding this feature?

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on July 25, 2005 at 4:19 pm

Glad to see the “Recent Comment” section now shows many more recent comments. Thanks, folks.

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