Movies Website Review

[Anonymous]

I thought about building a website that lists only the best movies and not the crappy ones to make finding great movies easier. So I’m practically finished with the website and all i’m looking for is other peoples thoughts. Here are a few questions that i want to ask regarding the website.

5STARMOVIES.IO

1. Are the movies good? i know thats based on personal opinion but i choose the movies based on ratings and quality. What do you think about the list of movies? is it good or bad list?
2. I’m paying very close attention to spelling mistakes, grammar, and writing style because i’ve never really been much of a writer. What do you think about the “Personal Comments” in each movie and “fun facts”,? I took the facts from IMDB trivia but simply rephrased them.
3. Overall design. How is the overall design of the website? does it fit what the website is about?
4. Any bugs or issues at all?
5. Is this a website that you will actually consider using? would you return to the website again and again?

You don’t have to answer any of those questions, but thats mostly what i’m looking for. I want to thank @Traq and anyone else who helped me fix some issues along the way.

[__]

Looks pretty nice.
And you’re right; “good” movies are a matter of personal opinion.

Only question I have is why you are advertising “illegal sources” for the movies…? You do realize the risk goes far beyond “inappropriate advertising,” right? viruses, malware, …legal consequences (not only for your users, but possibly for you as well)?

edit

As you get more comfortable with writing, you might consider making a “blog”-like feature where you write a whole article on a given film and feature it (e.g., put it on the front page for a week or so). Since what makes a movie “good” is subjective anyway, writing from a personal perspective can help you cultivate regular visitors.

[Anonymous]

@BenWalker Thank you for the feedback. I didn’t realize there were so many simple mistakes and I’m wondering why i didn’t put a “/” between Download and Stream”. I made the changes based on your suggestions.

@Traq @BenWalker

inappropriate advertising,” right? viruses, malware, …legal consequences (not only for your users, but possibly for you as well)?

Although I’m not sure you should be recommending that at all.

I almost didn’t include pirate sources because of that reason. I realized that most people pirate movies rather than buy them on iTunes or DVD, so it would be an important feature. I also realized the decision is theirs to make although I should maybe include an alert message detailing the risks if they click on pirate sources and advising them to download from the legal links above. All I’m doing is listing places where they can download / stream the movie and that includes pirate websites.

As you get more comfortable with writing, you might consider making a “blog”-like feature where you write a whole article on a given film and feature it (e.g., put it on the front page for a week or so). Since what makes a movie “good” is subjective anyway, writing from a personal perspective can help you cultivate regular visitors.

I thought about doing something like that. Good to know it’s not just one of my terrible ideas. If this website does okay, I might create a blog section or something.

[Senff]

I like the design. At first sight, it reminds me a bit of Netflix and it doesn’t look like a “personal blog”. It’s clean. BUT… maybe a bit TOO clean. I see categories and movies, but that’s it. Personally, I would prefer to see links or descriptions right away — even if they’re copyrights or disclaimers.

To me, what makes a “professional” site, is immediate “professional” links or bits. I know that sounds weird, but I guess us users are trained to recognize official/professional site by seeing their official/professional links and such.

Now, the most important thing to me is the fact that the site claims that it knows what’s best. “The Best Movies“. That’s a very, very bold statement and it better deliver. I’ll be honest — when I see that statement, and then in the first row I see two movies that I think are ridiculously overrated and just plain crap, my first thought is “yeah right”. I’d probably not visit the site again, because I don’t think people like to be told what’s best.

Don’t get me wrong — I like a LOT about this site, but the one little thing that I don’t like, would be enough for me to not return immediately.

All in all, I think the main idea is good, but the execution could be a little better. For me personally, there’s no immediate need to bookmark the site if I would stumble upon it.

Maybe I’m not your target audience. But since you asked for feedback….there it is. :) Hope it’s helpful.

[Anonymous]

Now, the most important thing to me is the fact that the site claims that it knows what’s best. “The Best Movies“. That’s a very, very bold statement and it better deliver.

Now that I think about it, your right. There will always be movies on the list that some people will hate and because of that never return to the website. The “Best movies” statement does make that even worse, so i changed “Best Movies” to “Top Rated Movies”.

I choose the movies based on ratings on rottent tomatoes, and the number of stars on multiple services like itunes, amazon, netflix, google play, and more.

[nixnerd]

Hey @jarolin! I see you got your layout/grid done! Nice! I remember you posted a jpg a while back. Looks like you translated it quite well. Nice job!

[Anonymous]

@NIX Thanks :). I realized that what i was trying to achieve was unnecessary and not worth the time.

[chrisburton]

legal consequences (not only for your users, but possibly for you as well)

Vicarious liability and contributory copyright infringement.

[__]

Vicarious liability and contributory copyright infringement.

Yeah… regardless of how you frame your (lack of) involvement, lawyers will come after you first. You’re a bigger, easier target.

[Anonymous]

@Traq @chrisburton I doubt they will waste their time(even if its an easy target) with a small, unpopular website. If the website gets popular then they might take notice, but for now I don’t think its much of a risk. I was thinking of removing the pirate sources once the website gains momentum.

When it comes to the users I will post warnings and detail the risks of downloading from pirate websites, and make the legal sources look better than the illegal ones.

[John]

I see you changed Fun Fact to Trivia, but I’d change it to Did you know? like he mentioned.
Trivia sounds like a question/answer type thing.

[Anonymous]

So long as you are aware that you can be prosecuted for it, it’s your decision whether you take that risk. Personally, I wouldn’t; especially when it’s not clear that there’s anything to gain from it.

@BenWalker I am aware that theres a risk involved but I think adding multiple sources including pirate sources can increase the chance of the website succeeding. I feel a little guilty about promoting piracy but there are many people who do it and so I think including pirate sources can help the site grow.

I also mentioned that i will most likely remove the pirate links if the website becomes noticeable.

On a mobile device there is a lot of vertical scrolling due to the picture sizes, which could be more compact (maybe pictures to the left of titles rather than above them?).

I put the titles on the left of the cover to see what it would look like but it still looked too empty. I decreased the image size and displayed 2 covers per row. It definitely looks better and image quality would improve on retina display devices. Thanks for the advice.

@John I agree. “Did you know?” seems friendlier in a way.

[chrisburton]

I doubt they will waste their time(even if its an easy target) with a small, unpopular website. If the website gets popular then they might take notice, but for now I don’t think its much of a risk. I was thinking of removing the pirate sources once the website gains momentum.

You’re not really thinking this through clearly. What is the whole point in this website? To gain users, correct? The only way to “gain momentum” is to provide pirated sources to your users. That’s where the success would be coming from. To remove the pirated sources would also result in losing users. The whole logic behind this does not make any sense.

When it comes to the users I will post warnings and detail the risks of downloading from pirate websites, and make the legal sources look better than the illegal ones.

For what? That does not protect you in any way.

but there are many people who do it and so I think including pirate sources can help the site grow.

Ever heard of that old-saying, “if your friend jumped off a bridge[..]”?

[Anonymous]

The only way to “gain momentum” is to provide pirated sources to your users. That’s where the success would be coming from.

That won’t be were the success comes from. The success will come from the carefully selected movies, wether it includes any download sources or not. I simply think it will help with the success but not enough for people to stop visiting the website once i remove the download sources.

Vicarious liability and contributory copyright infringement.

@ChrisBurton Google is basically doing the same thing i’m doing. They link to pirate websites but on a much larger scale. Not that it makes it ok, but if they can do it and get away with it I’m sure others can, unless Google knows a legal loophole that no one else is aware of.

I think I might remove the pirate sources either way because I don’t want the website to have a bad image. For example, people don’t necessarily think nice thoughts about PirateBay, or any website that hurts companies/people/anything and I am aware that linking to pirate sources will hurt the film industry and so people will think badly about 5starmovies.io, even if they pirate content themselves.
To put it in short terms: Sending users to bad websites, will make my website bad.

[chrisburton]

That won’t be were the success comes from. The success will come from the carefully selected movies, wether it includes any download sources or not.

How do you find success in showing “carefully selected movies”? Think about that. I still find your logic to be a bit distant.

Google is basically doing the same thing i’m doing.

Not really. Google’s algorithm is showing those links. They are not manually being placed for search results. And whether you realized this or not, Google also receives take-down notices via the DMCA act.

[Author]

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