Rotten Tomatoes changes up audience reaction system to combat trolling

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Over the last few years, Rotten Tomatoes has had some trouble on its hands with their comments and audience reviews section. That part of the site was meant to allow movie fans to come together to talk about the movie in a respectable way, no matter your opinion on a movie, but has since become a tool for online trolls to bash a movie before it even comes out. Now the site is taking measures to combat such negative output by making changes to their comment system, one in a series of new updates to the site.

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The changes come on the heels of negative comments and reactions aimed at Marvel’s newest movie, CAPTAIN MARVEL, a movie that has, in fact, not come out yet. Trolls flocked to give it negative comments and even drive down the “Want to See” percentage, a tool RT made available for readers to gauge just how much people were wanting to see a certain movie. This behavior from online haters is similar to actions taken against other movies like BLACK PANTHER, GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) and even STAR WARS: EPISODE IX.

A new editorial on Rotten Tomatoes went through the changes they’ve made to the site, which went into effect starting yesterday. Not only is there a design change to the actual “Tomatometer” for all movies and shows, but now the “Want to See” percentage is completely gone, in its place only a raw number reflecting the number of people who have selected it as a movie they want to see. According to the piece, the “Want to See” percentage was often confused with an Audience Score akin to the actual critic-driven percentage, so the aim is to eliminate any confusion it’s a reflective score of public opinion.

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The biggest change, though, comes in the form of the user review and comment section. Readers could comment on movies and leave their thoughts at any point before the movie's release, but now the function has been disabled and won’t let users comment about a movie until it has officially been released.

We are disabling the comment function prior to a movie’s release date. Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in non-constructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership. We have decided that turning off this feature, for now, is the best course of action. Don’t worry though, fans will still get to have their say: Once a movie is released, audiences can leave a user rating and comments as they always have.

Disabling the comments until after the movie comes out won’t stop mass trolling entirely, but it will help in stopping online trolls from trying to sabotage a movie before it has even come out. Those hoping to rail against certain movies no matter what will still share some spiteful review after the movie has come out, but at least they will have to blend in with the positive reception and thought out, reasonable criticisms.

Read the full piece in the "Source" link below