My Videos Sorting - Not working (known issues), Also - "Vault Picks" seems to be contributing to UI/UX confusion

Just got my invite, activated my beta and dove in… (work can wait!)

Um…

There doesn’t seem to be a way to just LIST my episodes, in order, by season?

I’ve tried selecting “By Date” for “All” and “MST3K Episodes” and neither are working properly?

There should be two KTMA episodes first, then S1 episodes?

See attached.

Need to get back to work, was excited to kick the tires right away, but immediately found 4 flats?


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Yeah, the sort by date doesn’t seem to be working.

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I think the “date” sort means the date you received the video. I would like for the date sort mean date episode aired so I can watch the episodes (and even shorts if possible) in release order.

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I think date (aside from not currently functioning) is very vague. Date it was added to my collection? Date the episode aired? Date the movie was released? I’d be happy with just the date the episode aired, personally, but it needs to be a bit more specific.

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Neither the A to Z sort nor the date sort seem to do anything useful. I expected A to Z to sort by title but that’s not happening and the date sort I would want to be by MST3K release.

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The problem is the Vault picks list first regardless of other considerations. I wonder if that is messing up the rest of the sort?

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That may be the case, but I’d also be fine if the vault picks were more clearly labeled or not segregated out at all.

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Thanks for all the replies…

Ok, so sorting by date is a known bug… Sorry for a likely duplicate post then… I skimmed before posting, and didn’t find it … and was rushing to post before changing clothes to head to a customer site…

(I was skimming the main Gizmoplex forum and not the Theater sub forum… sorry again… perhaps the Theater beta forum could be a top-level but somehow restricted to accounts who have Theater beats access?)

Not sure what to reply to first so here goes -

Wait, they’re putting the “Vault Picks” in “My Videos”?

The only thing that belongs in “My Videos” is… well … “My Videos”. Not someone else’s picks? And certainly should NEVER change my sorting preferences? That’s just…

Sigh.

That’s just not right… That’s not the UI/UX that’s going to get me using the Theater … Especially when it’s going to take a lot of additional steps for the foreseeable future to use it w/ my TV?

“My Library”/“My Videos”… Is MINE… Don’t mess with it… SMH… This isn’t hard… Stop making this hard.

Sigh.

I think that the extremely reasonable expectation is that it will be by original release/air date?

Added to Library date would just duplicate the infuriating mess we already have on the VHX apps lacking a proper Season/Episode view… but… worse … because it’ll be spread out over separate pages and pages of canisters?

Shudder…

Ideal sort by date result would be that the Episodes would be listed by original release/air date, and any shorts in “My Videos” would appear just before the Episode that the Short appears… That would be the most useful “By Date” I can imagine?

Ok, will kick the tires more after dinner, thanks all…

And again, sorry for what must be a duplicate thread…

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It is adding the monthly vault episodes and the current premier episode at the top of the date sort.
Looks like they meant for it to be that way, so you can see that the premiere and vault episodes are available to you

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I’ll note that I’d be okay with that (tacking the “what’s happening monthly” vids at the start of the sort order) so long as they are labeled in some way so that’s obvious.

Others might hate having them there altogether, which I understand. Option to show or hide them maybe?

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The problem is that it doesn’t just add them to the top, it removes them from the rest of the “My Library” regardless of sorting options?

Also, it makes them appear to not be “owned/purchased” as they are labeled “Watch until the end of the month” regardless of if someone has purchased them or not?

It’s not just an annoying UI/UX issue, it’s also an ignoring the English definition of “My” issue? Two, Two “Flames, flaming out of the sides of my face” problems/annoyances in one!

I’ll be posing screen grabs in the following post, as well as a couple of suggestions of how to possibly improve the UI/UX re: what are currently referred to as “Vault Picks” but perhaps could be called something else.

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Ok, so I’ve been playing around with the searching/sorting options in “My Videos” and I’m finding some good sorting behaviors are being broken by the “Vault Picks”?

Yes, there’s definitely other issues, especially with S0 episodes and Shorts, but for now, I’ll share what I’ve noticed re: the “Vault Picks”

In my previous posts, I’ve already mentioned that “My Videos” really isn’t where the “Vault Picks” belong in the first place? It’s an annoyance that anything is up front and center regardless of what I attempt to choose as a sort option?

Here’s the thing… “Vault Picks” being in “My Videos” adds even more confusion the more you dig into it!

For one, “Vault Picks” removes episodes you own from all other sorting/views?

Sorting by Date and All, the “Vault Picks” elbow their way on top, and first on the list is “Teenagers From Outer Space”

Experiment 075…

But, if I’m not even thinking about “Vault Picks” and try to look for “Teenagers From Outer Space” where it belongs, it’s missing.

Yikes! I’d swear that I owned that episode! I mean, I have to own that episode, I know I’ve watched it recently…

So, off to the Gizmoplex site I go, and click through my collections only to find, I DO OWN TEENS!

So, even though I own Experiment 075, if it’s a “Vault Pick” it’s removed from the view I choose for sorting my episodes!

Another element of confusion having “Vault Picks” in “My Videos” adds – Regardless of if you have purchased an experiment or not, it will show as only available until the end of the month!

Let’s check out a different experiment, “She Creature” perhaps?

Again, I’d swear that I owned this episode? So, back to the Gizmoplex site I go clicking through the collections… Well, guess what… I do own “She Creature”.

This really doesn’t feel like the best way to get Gizmoplex Members their monthly “Vault Picks”?

I have two suggestions, that could help?

1: Change the name from “Vault Picks” to “Monthly Cinema Picks” - Add an option in the Lobby to go to Cinemas 1-6, to select each “Monthly Cinema Pick”. This would be an improvement in two ways. It would get them out of “My Videos”, and hopefully resolve the sorting problems. It would also be much more consistent with the exterior design of the Gizmoplex Theater.

There they are, the current “Vault Picks”, listed in Cinemas 1-6!

Another option?

2: Keep the name, “Vault Picks” if need be, but move them to the actual “Movie Vault” store section? Have a section Highlighted/Labeled “Free for the Month of (insert month here)”. Perhaps we could get an old MST3K friend to lend their appearance to a cardboard standout, holding a book about movies perhaps, titled, “Leonard Maltin’s Vault Picks for (Insert Month Here)”… Bonus if it could be a clickable/interactive element in the Gizmoplex where you could see fun facts about each movie in each months Picks? Favorite memories about the episode, etc?

What do y’all think?

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Hey, I get the frustration that something you want to work isn’t working properly, but let’s not joke about even mild violence here against folks who are working hard to create experiences for us. It all may not be perfect yet, but they love MST3K, too, and want it to be good. This is literally a baby of a product and that should be kept in mind. Please give feedback and share your passion, but let’s be cognizant of the words we choose to do that.

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Understand what you’re saying and will remove it.

Growing up, this was a phrase I heard used as a light hearted way to express frustration with something, not even close to the “mild violence” you and I guess others could read into it.

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I really like both of these alternatives.

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I appreciate that. I think it’s something you can say to someone you know and it’s in good fun, but it’s not really scalable to people you don’t know.

I know we as fans and they as makers all want the Gizmoplex to be as great as it can be. Thanks for your excitement and passion.

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Same with me. Not all the videos I have in mu VHX account are showing up.

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I’m guessing the “vault picks” have been inserted into the “fridge” section because, at least for now, it’s the only place that you could browse for them. I’m also guessing that the current misbehavior - incorrect sorting and all - is a bug related to the special case of the vault picks. Same with the limited time messages. These short-term free episodes should definitely get prominent call-outs no matter where they live - if I’ve got an un-owned episode and a brief window to watch it, I want to spot it easily!

One thing I’ve noticed is that if you take the vault picks out of the equation, the sort is working. However, the episode metadata isn’t always 100% right. Here’s a good example, with my season 7 episodes sorted.


Assuming The Brute Man starts with “T” then this is great. Except it’s really “Brute Man, The”. Some of the episodes sort according to this, like The Amazing Transparent Man. Most others don’t, like The Atomic Brain. It’s down with the t’s.

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Yup, besides the “Vault Picks”, and S0 and S11-12 episodes (and I think a handful of Mike episodes) “Sort by Date”… is close.

“Vault Picks” being in “My Videos” throws the whole thing into chaos, depending on how much you already own, and what you’re trying to find by using the sort settings you happen to choose?

As you correctly point out… Regardless of the path they take, they need to be sure to make it CRYSTAL clear that there’s episodes that someone doesn’t already own, so they can watch it as a “Vault Pick”, or at least realize, “hey, this episode that I don’t own is available to buy!”

It’s… so … so close…

Fingers crossed.

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Hmmm.

Well, with the recent update that we’ll have the entire library available to stream on-demand, not just what we own+Vault Picks… I’m pretty sure that a lot of this thread is going to be redundant at best?

But, I have to say that I still like the idea of doing something special for a selection of episodes every month?

Help me Leonard Maltin, you’re my only hope!

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