Suggestion: Threads on streamed shows/movies should include source

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1

Here’s an example. The OP refers to a particular series, but doesn’t tell us where it comes from: Netflix? Hulu? Peacock? HBO? Disney Plus? Something else?

As it happens, we quickly learn that it’s Netflix. But, that was just because someone happened to mention it.

I would like to suggest that OPs started about series/movies that are streaming be strongly encouraged to include which service is streaming the material. If they don’t, posters should feel free to report the post to ask that a mod add which streaming service is showing it.

I suspect I’m not alone in finding this a potentially helpful policy. I try to keep my viewing time somewhat under control, but without trying much I have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and free movies on YouTube available to me. That’s more than enough, so I’d like to know up front, if possible, whether a thread is about something I can watch, or would require me to subscribe to another service.

Not a huge deal, but it would be awfully convenient if we had a culture of mentioning where streamed shows come from, and a policy of requesting moderator clarifications as needed.

2

I had the same thought. Thank you for posting this suggestion.

3

A lot of threads in CS are tagged. If you look at the tag for the thread you linked to, it has a Netflix tag on it. The information is already there. It’s just not spelled out in the OP.

Many of the streaming services already have tags set up for them. You can browse the tags for the service you have by either clicking on the tag for one of the threads, or by viewing all of the tags here: https://boards.straightdope.com/tags

In any event, your best bet is to google the name of the show/movie. Many shows/movies are exclusive to one particular streaming service, but many are not. The OP might be watching it on one service, but it might be available to you on another. For example, if you google True Lies, you’ll see that it is currently available on Youtube, Apple, Sling TV, Philo, and Amazon (some require additional subscriptions). The show you linked to, on the other hand, is only available on Netflix.

4

Fair enough, but what you suggest requires every single reader to do the extra work of Googling/checking tags.

What I am suggesting means that at a maximum, three people (the OP, a post reporter, and a mod) do a small amount of extra work. And if it becomes part of the culture, then no one does extra work, because of course the OP has some sense of at least one streaming source, and if they know it’s a good idea to add it to their first post, they will.

Isn’t my suggestion more efficient than making all readers take extra steps?

5

The tag is right under the thread title. If you read the title, you can read the tag with less than a second of “extra” work. Personally I think that needing it spelled out in the OP when the tag is right there is kinda silly.

It is significantly more efficient to train people to look at the tags.

6

Happy to be trained. Where is the (easy, obvious to all of us) training, that we don’t have to be kinda sorta “in the know” to find?

ETA: That sounds snarky. I don’t mean it that way. I will happily post various embarrassed emojis when it turns out I am the only poster who didn’t understand what I’m supposed to do.

7

There isn’t much about tags in the standard Discourse documentation because how they are used is up to each site. I think the original intent of Discourse was to actually use tags instead of the categories/forums that we have. In any event, that is definitely not how we use tags here.

Tags are just a way of categorizing things. For example, we use the Breaking News tag in MPSIMS, which flags the thread as Breaking News and therefore the specific Breaking News rules apply. Similarly, the Factual tag is used in QZ which means that the particular thread uses FQ rules for fact-only type discussions instead of the normal QZ rules which are more like IMHO/MPSIMS.

The vast majority of tags are used in CS. The intent is that if you are interested in something, like say things on Netflix, you can click on the Netflix tag and see all of the discussions about Netflix shows and movies. There are tags for Chess, Golf, Trivia, all sorts of things. In the case of streaming shows, many of the services already have tags set up for them. If you see a discussion about a show/movie that doesn’t already have a tag set up, report the OP and let us know what tag needs to be added.

In the case of streaming shows, the tag will show you what service the show is on, so that’s an additional benefit for that type of tag.

These aren’t supposed to be sneaky “in the know” sorts of things. We do actively encourage people to use them. While there isn’t much about them in the standard Discourse documentation, each forum that uses them does have some notes about them in the forum-specific rules for that forum.

Tags do not show up on the main SDMB page. But they do show up on the main page for each individual category (CS, FQ, IMHO, etc), directly under each thread title. And when you open the thread, the tags are again directly under the thread title, and remain under the thread title in the ribbon at the top of the page so that you don’t have to scroll up to the OP to see them. The tags are always visible, and you can click on them from anywhere in the thread.

ETA: @What_Exit very kindly volunteers his time to go through new posts and adds tags as needed, as do some of the other mods, so if the OP forgets to add a tag it’s no biggie. Again, if you notice something that was missed, just flag the post.

8

I really want to love and use tags, but i don’t. Yeah, if i look for them i can see them. But…i usually don’t notice them.

9

Well, I know roughly what tags are and where to find them, the problem is I haven’t been trained to look for them, when I see them it is mostly happenstance. I mostly notice them in the topics list, which might sometimes give me an idea, additional to the wording of the title, what the topic is about.

Spoilered because it’s probably a waste of your time to read it.

For myself, when I write an OP titled “Hey, everyone should take a look at Dripping With Irony, it’s hilarious!” my first sentence would say “It’s a theater-only movie that opened last week in major cities” or “It’s a short-run series that is on every Sunday at 3:00 am on TNT” or something. Because I figure, if I am interested in letting people know about the value of something, it also makes sense to use a tiny amount of effort to lead them to it. [/spoiler]

[spoiler] I guess that sounds snarky too. Not directed at moderators, and not to denigrate the undoubted usefulness of tags, I suppose it’s directed at the sloppy posting styles, especially of OPs, that seem to prevail here more now than in the past, and that make such tags so vital, instead of them being a supporting extra feature.

I shouldn’t complain, really, compared to so many other places people post, this place is a monument to Strunk and White.

10

Okay, I’m sure this is a dumb question, but fight my ignorance: let’s say I really like “Dark” and I post a new thread about it, called “Dark proves that translated foreign shows can be great.”

“Dark,” as it happens, is a series on Netflix. But if I don’t mention that in my OP, and I don’t create tags … what happens?

11

It’s been my standard practice to do what the OP suggests for years.

Personally I wish people would get into the habit of giving a brief summary of a new show they want to talk about.

Example:

Mrs. Davis

“I really enjoyed the show. Found the protagonists interesting and the overall pacing to be spot on”

Me thinking: Okay great. But what is the freaking show about!?

12

@What_Exit or another mod will probably come along within a day or two and add a tag for Netflix and also a tag for tv-shows-scripted.

13

All the time I do a quick Google of the show to determine the streamer and then add the appropriate tag. I did for the specific example of The Diplomat in fact. Often, I have to determine type also. Like #tv-shows-scripted

Additionally if you have lets say Netflix, and click the #netflix tag, it will pull up all the shows on Netflix we’ve had threads on in the last 2+ years. Over 200.

I have the 6 major ones tagged as they come up often enough.
Click any of these below.

#netflix
#hbomax-wb-dc
#star-trek-paramount
#apple
#amazon-prime
#disney-hulu

Also #showtime but that has only 1 thread so far.

In the hamburger menu is a link to all the tags.

For the record, I agree it would be a great idea to include the streamer in the OP for tv shows and maybe what type of show, like sitcom, drama, documentary etc.

In the meantime I’m trying to fill the gap with the tags.

14

…you’ve got to remember that this is an international website and that different shows are licensed on different streaming sites depending on where you live. For a long time we could only watch Star Trek on Netflix here in NZ. And when it moved to Paramount Plus in the US we had to wait until TVNZ+ picked up the streaming rights. We don’t have Hulu. Or Peacock. Or even HBO. Instead shows are distributed through local streamers depending on how they are licensed. So I’ll watch it on NEON, or SkyTV, or TVNZ+, or maybe Disney, or maybe Netflix. And sometimes even Netflix shows will get licensed by another streaming site because these deals can get complex.

So for many if not most shows, I wouldn’t be able to tell you where they are streaming in the US even if I wanted too. The name of the show is enough. Google that and find out what local streamer is showing it.

15

…just as an example: here is one of our streamers, NEON. (It may be geo-blocked outside of NZ)

https://www.neontv.co.nz/

Its got Yellowjackets (Showtime), The Last of Us (HBO), Yellowstone (Paramount Plus), Handmaids Tale (Hulu). All on the same channel. Over at TVNZ+ (again, may be geolocked) we’ve got Rabbit Hole (Paramount Plus), Bel Air (Peacock), Lucky Hank (AMC).

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/

Its all mixed up :slight_smile:

16

Okay, that makes sense. Although if we want to be sensitive to non-American members, as @Banquet_Bear points out, then perhaps shows shouldn’t be tagged with the American streaming service? Nah … if the tags are helpful to the majority of readers, I think they make sense.

And my thanks to @What_Exit and any other mods who go through the work of adding tags.

17

Hmm, the streaming services i have used are Netflix, prime, Disney+, and YouTube. I’m surprised that two of them didn’t make your list.

18

Actually #disney-hulu is one of the big ones, I forgot to list it last night, I know I was missing at least one that I tagged. YouTube doesn’t really have shows apparently, at least ones that Dopers talk about.

Expectations are that Disney & Hulu will fold together eventually. Having the same primary owner they already share some shows like the Orville.

I’ll probably merge the one Showtime thread into Paramount soon as they have merged. Though you can still get just Showtime through Prime or Apple, so I’m not sure yet.

19

BTW: The tags are listed for specific Categories (Forums) and on a non-mobile device like a PC or laptop if you’re open to Cafe Society just below where the banner is in the upper left-hand corner it shows Cafe Society and then all tags.

all tags is a pull down for easy access to just Cafe threads tagged with whatever you picked, like #gardening or #comic-strips

BTW: in using discourse, if you want to link to either a Category (Forum) or list of Tags; type # then a few letters of the category or tag’s name and you get a handy list. This creates a link to either the category or tag. It works very much like the @ with posters names.

So #cafe brings up #cafe-society and #Hul brings up #disney-hulu . With the tags it also shows the number of threads with the tag in the selection window.

Something I do about once a week is choose #cafe-society choose no tags so I can see if I missed tagging any threads. Some I missed and some are old threads that have been missed. I do the same for #the-game-room.

20

I guess I didn’t think it required insurmountable effort for someone to check whether they had access to a show on whatever service they use. Especially when discussing a realtively new show that seems to have been somewhat highly promoted. And I confess I am sometimes not sure which of our streaming services a show is on. But - if I think of it - I’ll try to include platform info in any future threads.