[fforde]

Hi folks, just wanted to drop a bit of information on an upcoming feature we have in the works, Moving Pictures Social. Basically Moving Pictures Social is a website that keeps track of and allows you to share information about your movie collection. If you have ever wanted to send a quick URL to a friend that lists all of your movies, or shares information about what you have been watching recently, then this is the feature for you.

If enabled, you will have a personal profile page on the Moving Pictures Social website that lists information about your movie collection. While initially private, you will be able to optionally share this profile with your friends or even the whole world if you are feeling brave.

I know there are going to be a lot of questions. Below is a a brief FAQ we have put together covering the service. If you have any additional questions feel free to post here. Feedback, questions, and suggestions are all welcome. If you are interested in helping out with this project, please jump into the IRC channel and say hello.

Currently gshipley, ZealotSix, and LRFalk01 are the primary developers for this project. Armandp and I will answer questions as well as we are able to, but these are the guys that are in the trenches everyday working on Moving Pictures Social, so direct your questions and thanks to them.

Finally I want to acknowledge the hard work other people have put into similar projects. I know Moving Pictures Social overlaps with the functionality of some other projects that have been posted around here. I hope there are no hard feelings, and if other developers (web or otherwise) are interesting in helping out or just discussing further what we have in mind, please jump on the IRC channel.


Further details will be posted here as they are available.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I have to do to synchronize my collection with the website?
Your collection will be automatically synchronized with Moving Pictures Social as soon as a movie is added to your collection. If you have added a new movie to your local Moving Pictures install, it will immediately appear on the website with no action required on your part.


Who can see my profile?
Initially your profile will be private. This means that the only people able to view your profile are those you have approved as friends on the Moving Pictures Social website. If you do not add anyone as a friend, no one will be able to see your profile. You also will have a private URL that you can share to allow anyone to view your profile (regardless of whether they are Moving Pictures users). Finally you will optionally be able to set your profile to be publicly visible so that anyone visiting the page will be able to view details about your movie collection.


Will I have to host anything myself? Do I need a web server or any technical knowledge?
No. Moving Pictures Social will be hosted on the Moving Pictures website. To use the service you simply need to create a profile (as easy as creating a Facebook or Twitter account).


Will Moving Pictures Social support multiple languages?
Yes. We are not ready to share a list of specific languages supported, but movie details can be listed in any supported locale. The language displayed will be dependent on the user visiting the page. So your collection could be viewed in both English and German (or in any other supported language for that matter), depending solely on the language of the person visiting the page.


Can I customize movie details listed on my profile?
Movie details are stored and maintained in a Wiki style. This means that changes to one movie will be reflected for all users, and any registered user can make modifications. Hopefully this will mean that over time data will become more accurate. A similar approach is used for sites like themoviedb.org and thetvdb.com.


Where does the movie information come from?
When a movie is added to the database the movie details for that movie are uploaded from the first user to submit the movie. From that point on the movie details will be managed by the community in a Wiki style. This means that the details listed on the website will often not be word for word identical to what you see in the Moving Pictures plugin itself.


How far along is this project? When will it be available?
Discussion began about Moving Pictures Social as far back as February of this year. We began taking the project seriously in late May and the first bit of code was committed in early June. Roughly, we expect to launch this Winter along with Moving Pictures 0.9. This time frame is tentative and subject to change.


What data do you store about me?
To register a profile with Moving Pictures Social, you will need to submit a valid email address. This is used for password recovery purposes only. We will never share your email address with anyone, nor send you unsolicited email, and will have a public privacy policy saying as much. Details about your movie collection will of course also be stored. We will never log your IP address or collect any other information than what is listed here. We realize that there are privacy concerns regarding posting data to the internet, but we will do our best to allow you remain as private and anonymous as possible.


What if I don't want to use Moving Pictures Social?
Moving Pictures Social will be completely opt-in. To activate the service you will need to explicitly create a profile from the Moving Pictures Configuration screen. If you choose not to create a profile, no data will ever leave your computer.

[ThaClown]

Sounds amazing thx alot!

[edterbak]

WOW!!! This sounds sweet. Id love such a function.

I have a question or 2.
- Is it posible to select a different host than the movingpictures host? Id love to use this on my own server.
- Who is making the server available, and what is the benefit for that person? (more of a curiousity question)
- Will such a function make importing the database from Internet possible? In case of a fresh install MP and/or OS.



[edit] Thanks for the anwsers... Clear and well thought of.

[fforde]

This is an open source project so you might theoretically be able to setup your own server, but this will not be a supported configuration. It will probably be possible though if that is what you really want to do. You would miss out on the community features though, which we will probably be expanding as time goes on.

As for hosting, we are using a for pay host service (Godaddy right now, although this could change) which will be supported by donations and possibly revenue from a partner program with something like amazon (i.e. a link on a movie page to the Amazon page to purchase the DVD). This is still up in the air though.

The advantages of a central server are 1) ease of use and 2) the ability to create a community rather than a simple list of your movies with limited interactivity. In the future if you rate a movie in Moving Pictures, that rating will automatically show up online. You will be able to see a list of what your friends have been watching lately and what they thought of the movies. In the future we will probably add the ability to write your own review of a movie, flag movies as favorites, and we will probably come up with some kind of integration with other social media sites like Flixter or Facebook. Most of these features would not be possible if everyone hosted their own version of Moving Pictures Social.

EDIT:
Sorry forgot to answer your last question. No Moving Pictures Social will not serve as an online backup for your database. This is something we have discussed, but this a little bit outside the scope of the project and also raises some privacy concerns. To essentially create a backup of your database, you would need to store your filenames online. This is not something I think many people will be comfortable with.

[funkstar]

Interesting project guys. Certainally something I'll be looking into

Originally Posted by fforde

EDIT:
Sorry forgot to answer your last question. No Moving Pictures Social will not serve as an online backup for your database. This is something we have discussed, but this a little bit outside the scope of the project and also raises some privacy concerns. To essentially create a backup of your database, you would need to store your filenames online. This is not something I think many people will be comfortable with.

How about a one way hash of the file name?

I would have thought that this would be a good mechanism for sharing the same movie data between multiple MP clients. Mark one as the master and all the others as slave (master will update the online DB, slaves just download from it).

perhaps in the future

[fforde]

We will consider it, but that's a long way off if we ever go there.

[emphatic]

This is a very cool idea. It would be nice if the data of a users collection can be synced manually with the push of your remote, and also on the details view in MediaPortal, you would see a "add to/remove from Moving Pictures Social" in the context menu. Why? Well, perhaps not all movies Moving Pictures imports will look good in your collection online (DVD's you've borrowed from friends, porn etc.).

This could of course be "solved" by adding filter options to import of new titles, like "auto-add inserted DVD's to Moving Pictures Social? Yes/No" or "filter additions to Moving Pictures Social based on rating?
xxx [checkbox]
NC17 [checkbox]
etc.

Emph

[TheWho]

seems wonderful =)

but i hope in the long run i will be able to use MPS for the watched filter so if one of my "Moving Picture Social Friends" came over for movie night it would be great to be able to select that friend in in filter

so the friends list should have a IRL(In Real Life) checkbox just for this occasion so not all friends show up in the "watched filter list"


but still even if that wouldn't happen it seems like a great idea =)

[funkstar]

Originally Posted by emphatic

This is a very cool idea. It would be nice if the data of a users collection can be synced manually with the push of your remote, and also on the details view in MediaPortal, you would see a "add to/remove from Moving Pictures Social" in the context menu. Why? Well, perhaps not all movies Moving Pictures imports will look good in your collection online (DVD's you've borrowed from friends, porn etc.).

Indeed. Or the films that you bought that you don't really like after all, and don't really want to admit to owning. Like anything with Adam Sandler in it

[antonehenry]

Sounds nice. Suggestion. If possible integrate a database online, so that all info can be downloaded for your profile if for some reason you have to reinstall MP. The set up takes me forever at this time. Anyway. Thanks! Look forward to it.