*I’m going to apologize in advance for this, because some of you may roll your eyes. But sometimes a dude’s just gotta’ wax poetic.*
Throughout history, there have been several long and arduous journeys that mankind has undertaken, all in the interest of making life better. Sometimes these journeys are simply a a testament to ourselves of what we’re capable of. Other times, they’re made out of necessity. Regardless of the motivation, we seem to consistently seek out and take on the challenges that initially seem impossible, but once conquered, define us.
I’ve shared briefly in our first blog post how the journey of SeenTh.at began. The hope will always be that completion of our goal,
“To provide movie lovers a way to socially enrich their interaction with movies beyond the viewing experience”
will fill a common need amongst film fans, even those that don’t now realize what they’re missing 
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I’m proud to share that we’ve had another great month of development, and we’re that much closer to our goal of launching a private beta by Christmas. For those of you that didn’t get a chance to visit the blog in October, we revealed both the movie detail page and user profile designs. Speaking of which, some people have asked me if I think we’ve given away too much about how the site will work, or what it will look like. My short (and only) answer is no, I don’t. I want you all to get excited and to join us on this journey by telling us what works and what doesn’t. The best way I know how to do that is to forgo the mystery and just be open. There’s been a lot of praise thus far (which, by the way is great and keeps us motivated), but we’d love to hear any constructive feedback as well. We are building this for you too, after all 
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The only unfortunate side effect of sharing so much with you this early, is that now you’re hooked with nothing to do about it. You’ve seen some exciting stuff, and can’t use any of it. Trust us, we know EXACTLY how you feel. But there are a few things you can do now to prepare for the launch of SeenTh.at. Just follow this simple list of to do’s, and you’ll be ahead of the curve come launch:
• Keep track of movies you watch from now until launch. We’re going to give you the option to add details around each viewing (who you saw the movie with, when you saw it, etc.) so don’t leave that to your memory.
• Jot down any movies you’re dying to see (whether new or old). We’re giving all users the ability to create a MustSee list right off the bat.
• Know your top 5/10/20 movies of all time. People who find you on SeenTh.at are going to want to know whether or not your opinion should matter to them. Showing off your personal best-of-the-best is a great way to let them know.
• Tell your friends about SeenTh.at. It’s hard to socially enrich your experience with movies if you don’t have anyone to share your passion with or recommend movies to.
Anyway, keep the feedback coming and we’ll keep pushing through this tough road of development. I have a feeling it will all be worth it in the end.
Peace, love and happy movie watching.
JP
I got some more questions:
1 – Will I be able to add films by myself like in GR (or at least suggest them as in aNobii)?
2 – Do you plan to “combine” different translations of the same film as in GR or “Star Wars”, “Guerre Stellari”, “La guerra de las galaxias” and “La Guerre des étoiles” (meaning SW Episode IV) would be four different records without any linking between them? Keep in mind that in some cases different translation share the same title (as for Avatar), and it would be useful to know which language is the original.
3 – Is this social just about films or about telefilms too? I am sure you have stated something about that in another place, but I can’t find it. If the answer is yes, I would reiterate question #2 about telefilms.
1 – This is currently not in the plan, especially in the early going. It may be something we look at down the road if more requests for it are made.
2 – I’m happy to report that our current database does offer the ability to search for other languages, though results returned are in English. A search for “Guerre Stellari” returned all 6 Star Wars episodes as search results. A search for “Il buono…” brings up The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a result. I can’t say everything will line up perfectly all the time, but I think that answers your question.
3 – Can you define telefims? We don’t really use that as a term in English and I want to be sure I know what you’re referring to. TV shows?
Sorry for the delay in the answer, I’ve been busy.
As for #1 and #2, those are quite good news, although I would have preferred being able to tell someone I saw a certain film in a certain language (and not just generically that I saw the film). But I hope this would be a future feature (also because I will try to get support in this request)
As for #3, yes, I meant TV shows lile Chuck, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Lost, How I met your mother. Serials, or television films. Alas, I suppose I will be able to choose only among USA ones… (I dont’care, I chose to follow serials in original language, so…)
For now, we’re sticking to feature films. Perhaps one day we’ll roll television in.
Hey mate, just found out about your website and was curious if you plan on allowing users to import ratings from other websites? For example, I have well over 500 ratings over at rottentomatoes and it would be a pain for me to have to rerate all of those films again
Thanks
Ryan, this is something we don’t have an answer to right now, unfortunately. I, personally, know how you feel as I’ve rated over 1,700 films on Netflix, but only time will tell (after we get the site up and running) whether this is a possibility or not. Just know you’re not the first to ask and we’ll do whatever we can to link up to other data sources in the future.
It will look awesome, for sure!
Thank you Suzy!
Really looking forward to this site. I’m fine with the social side of things, but what I’m really looking for is a functional database that allows me to catalog the films I’ve seen and sort by:
- director
- year of release
- country of origin
- genre
- date(s) i viewed the film
For me, the purpose of the tool I’m looking for would be to get a clean overview not only of what I’ve seen, but also to analyze and prioritize what I want to see next.
Therefore, also useful could be inclusion of titles from a “to watch” list in the sortable database, so for example if I’ve seen most of Kubrick’s films and “Barry Lyndon” is on my “to watch” list, I can quickly identify it and prioritize watching that film.
Do you expect functionality along these lines?
Thanks,
Liam
Thanks for your comments Liam. In the early going, a lot of the advance search features you’re talking about would not be available. However, the goal has always been to create the kind of tool you’re talking about to ORGANIZE your viewing history, both present and future. Of course, we have to scale up to some of those more advanced features, and I’ll admit we haven’t thought of everything you’ve mentioned, but this is a process where we can all grow together and build the ideal site to:
SHARE anything/everything we think about movies
FIND new/old films to enjoy
ORGANIZE your history with movies, and
CONNECT with others who have the same passion
Comments like yours really help us think past what’s right in front of us, which is getting this site live!
Keep the comments coming!
JP
Hi. I was thinking about how much I wanted a goodreads for film. That lead me to google which lead me to a post by John on goodreads. http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/511385-movie-site-similar-to-goodreads
THAT led me to facebook to google+ to your site to your blog. And here I am leaving a message.
I love the ideas and look from what I’ve seen. I haven’t had time just yet to read all your blog posts to discover what’s in store. But I just wanted to say that I’m happy to hear someone is taking the initiative.
While I know you can’t “copy” goodreads – I do hope some of their features can be similarly incorporated into Seen That. While I really want to review movies, I really want to review FILM (tv shows and streaming content too!). And while reviewing is awesome, I want to be able to use a site as an organizing tool the way that good reads does – build my “to watch” queue and “have watched” shelf, etc…
Thanks for listening. I’ll be catching up on your blog.
Crystal
Glad to hear you found us Crystal. Goodreads has definitely been an inspiration for us, and we’ve taken some of the ideas incorporated on that site and applied them to movies. In the early going, in order to really streamline and figure out how things are going to work, we’re not including TV shows as a part of SeenTh.at. Having said that, you’re not the only person to mention they would like that as an option, so once we get up and running we will have a better idea of how TV can fit into the SeenTh.at model. As I mentioned above in reply to Liam’s comment, priority number one for us is getting this site up and live so we can hear from all of you users about what works and what doesn’t. That’s where things really get fun
Best,
JP
Finally, found an awesome website before my cousin! I’m totally going to suggest this to her! We are movie fanatics! She’s about 18 years younger than me. I’ve seen movies she’s never heard of, and she’s seen movies I’ve never heard of. Together we’ve both expanded the number of movies in our viewing portfolio! It will be great to actually see each others lists and watch other movies together (which we do a lot of!).
I am curious if there’s going to be an “own it” feature, like in goodreads? I find that extremely fun, plus it will help me keep track of my own video library! Also, I think adding TV shows would be awesome too! Great job! I can’t wait! So excited!
Happy to hear the excitement Lisah! There will be an “OwnThat” feature on the site. If you take a look here (http://dribbble.com/shots/345432-SeenTh-at-Actions-on-the-Grid) you can get an idea of how you might use it.
I have to ask this because I have a need for precision but when rating movies out of 5 stars, will we be able to use half stars?
Yes, rating to the half star will be possible. In effect, it will be a 1-10 rating system, represented as 5 stars. I hope that made sense.
So, can you tell us the status of the site? We’re nearing the end of the year, which is pushing your ‘Fall’ date a bit.
I”m anxious to begin cataloging!
Thanks for all your work on this.
Tooms
The site is coming along nicely. I’m sad to report that we’re moving a little more slowly than originally anticipated, as you well know. But it’s all in order to provide a richer experience out of the gate. I can’t really provide a hard launch date…but I can say we’re pushing our hardest to get live before the end of January. Thanks for your support and patience!
JP
Hope to see something new soon…I know you can’t rush genius, but I keep thinking about how fun it will be when the site launches!
Idea is brilliant and the site looks great. Please launch soon!
A question and a suggestion:
Q: What exactly is the criteria SeenTh.at will use for recommendations?
S: To enhance interactivity, maybe consider doing some “tournament”-style recommendation rounds to pull userbase together. Might not be what you guys are into, though.
Great site and I eagerly anticipate launch!
Thanks Hank. As far as recommendations, we haven’t yet worked on a “recommendation engine,” so I can’t really speak to that yet. Users can recommend movies to each other, however, so that is available now.
I like the suggestion as well. We’ll be working some game mechanics into the site as we grow in order to enrich the experience.
JP