I've got another Grievance That Is Admittedly Petty in the Grand Scheme of Things but Also Arguably Symptomatic of a Much Broader Systemic Issue That I Alone Am in No Way Equipped to Resolve to rant about, if you don't mind. Or if you do mind because this is my blog fuck you I do what I want.
I kinda really hate Letterboxd, and not for the reasons one might expect of an artist. My disdain for it has nothing to do with the notion that Cataloging the Art You've Engaged With in the Format of Star Ratings on a Website is inherently degrading or whatever, so long as said "ratings" aren't erroneously ascribed any sort of objectivity. What really irks me about Letterboxd is best understood in the form of four distinct categories:
Quality of Discourse
Outside of forbidding plagiarism & hate speech, there is absolutely no standard for what constitutes a "review" on Letterboxd, meaning "reviews" will range from as shallow as a one-line quip indistinguishable from Xitter ragebait, to as thorough as an entire essay, with the former taking clear precedence over the latter in practice, thanks to the structural incentive of Getting Likes in order to appear first on the dedicated Popular Reviews section. One of these approaches is far easier than the other, as it turns out. It also doesn't help that there's no designated comment section separate from a film's "reviews", nor a way (that I'm aware of) to save more casually-written diary entries to your profile without publicizing them for the entire userbase to see, forcing all these varying forms of commentary into a singular box. Some of the most fundamental problems with social media at large remain perfectly intact here, hidden only by the thin veil of branding as a "Community United by a Love of Film". If you'll allow me to indulge in a little anecdotal cherrypicking, I've selected some noteworthy consequences of this featured prominently on some of my personal favorite films' pages at the time of writing, in no particular order.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
"easily one of the top 5 movies about taxes"
-Karsten, proud recipient of 46,853 Likes[1]
Skinamarink (2022)
"why are you nerds crying it's 100 minutes of looking at the corner of a ceiling..."
-megan, proud recipient of 7,057 Likes
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
"YOU ONCE WERE A VE-GON
BUT NOW YOU WILL BE-GONE"
-Georgia, proud recipient of 16,323 Likes, for Literally Just Quoting A Line From The Movie
Coraline (2009)
"child neglect but make it family friendly"
-may, proud recipient of 12,487 Likes
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
"With how annoying these characters were, I was rooting for the witch"
-russman, proud recipient of 13,331 Likes
The Truman Show (1998)
"worried for the guy taking the longest bath of all time"
-adam, proud recipient of 24,077 Likes
Inland Empire (2006)
"?"
-Grooveman, proud recipient of 10,924 Likes
Like, I won't deny that a few of these made me chuckle — particularly the ones that weren't outright insulting or redundant — but I think it's pretty self-evident that these probably don't belong at the top of a "Reviews" section?? And that's without even getting into the comments on individual reviews, which may house entire shit-flinging competitions of their own, whether directed at the original poster or another commenter. The whole system is just a recipe for disaster in nearly every conceivable way, in remarkably Obvious ways, in Actually Incredibly Simple To Address ways, as evidenced by a certain superior website I will touch on later.
Sustainability
Maybe I'll eat my words when the time comes, but as of now, I dunno if Letterboxd is even still gonna exist in 15 years, at least not without suffering severe enshittification in the process. I am inherently distrusting of websites beholden to a for-profit investor, not to mention totally lacking in direct communication between operator(s) & users outside of anonymized press releases. Of course, oftentimes this is just the unavoidable reality of our current best available option, like in the case of Bandcamp for example, but thankfully, Letterboxd is not in fact our current best available option! (in my opinion ^_^)
Visual Language
god i fucking hate minimalism (in web design)
Inexplicable Popularity in Spite of the Glaring Flaws I've Just Outlined
Letterboxd is to film cataloging as Spotify is to music listening; the platform is Popular Because It's Popular, thereby the most convenient option no matter the benefits of its alternatives, leaving the likes of RateYourMusic and Soulseek by the wayside in the cultural consciousness. Yes, you read that right. RateYourMusic is my film cataloging tool of choice, contrary to the solely musical focus its name implies. I get the best of both worlds in one place! Seriously, everything I just criticized Letterboxd for is something RateYourMusic already figured out eons ago, and that's without being valued at over 50 million dollars.
Quality of discourse? Check. We have actual standards for what constitutes a review, and while some amount of shitposting will inevitably slip through the cracks, even that is much less of a concern without any well-poisoning incentive structure at play, thanks to the lessened emphasis on "popular" reviews, and the existence of a separate comment section for lower-stakes quips & thoughts, plus the ability to write down your thoughts in a list instead. You also don't even have to see any of that if you don't want to; simply scroll to the bottom of a release page, click "Customize page", and you're free to uncheck reviews, comments, or anything else deemed unnecessary, which will apply to all release pages for you going forward. Hell, you can even be a total recluse like me by disabling comments on your profile and all your lists!
Sustainability? Check. RYM is an independent passion project that feeds revenue back into improving itself, developed by Literally Just 2 Regular Guys and moderated by volunteers, with no investors to appease, and numerous ways to directly provide feedback on virtually any aspect of the site, whether that be via bug reports & feature requests on RYMzilla, or discussing rule changes on the Site Policy board. Meanwhile, criticism of Letterboxd for its boosting of low-quality reviews is well-documented enough to even appear on the site's Wikipedia page, and nothing has been done about it. There is no chance in hell you will be speaking with John Letterboxd one-on-one; the site simply is what it is. If anything kills RYM within my lifetime, I'm pretty confident it's not gonna be enshittification, so long as it remains crowdfunded.
Visual language? Check. Even having been somewhat 'modernized' since its initial launch, RYM never truly lost sight of its visual identity, nor sacrificed its intricacies in the process, allowing plenty of customization options and other niche features for power users to play with as they please.
For how often I see people pining for ~The Old Internet~, it baffles me that I so rarely see anyone give RYM the credit it deserves for being one of the last bastions of said internet, achieving modest success while still maintaining a user-first mentality that's completely antithetical to the Silicon Valley way of doing things. Sure, it's not perfect; I've had my fair share of policy disagreements over the years, and encountered some opinions so outlandish they dealt psychic damage, but even as-is, RYM feels downright miraculous in this economy, which makes me all the more saddened how many seem to view it as Cool To Hate. And that's not even exclusive to outsiders; I don't think anyone else in the world hates (or at least postures as hating) RYM more than RYM users do. It's kind of bizarre. Some of them are just so busy harassing unpaid moderators & proclaiming Every New Genre Tag Is Fake And Gay Because I've Personally Never Heard Of It that they've forgotten how lucky we are the site even still exists. This is my hot take to end all hot takes: RateYourMusic Is Good, Actually. I cannot think of a single more robust online resource for discovery of incredible music & movies. My life would never have been the same without it, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. I literally met my girlfriend because it liked my Bull of Heaven reviews. Who says RYM can't get you laid?!
It bothers me slightly more than it should that I've witnessed multiple people consciously turn away from RYM's practically ideal cataloging functionality in favor of Letterboxd Because Reasons. It truly confounds me. In private conversations on the subject with uninvolved parties, I've heard a couple notable theories:
• "probably just not as much expectation to be part of The Community TM
rym is smaller and more close knit so if you start to dislike the atmosphere it can feel more suffocating
letterboxd is a casual site for normies so you can just go yea whatever and ignore it"
This would make some sense were it not for the fact that RYM has such a wide array of customization features that you can effectively opt out of The Community entirely. You have zero obligation to partake in that atmosphere.
• "I’m sure it’s just bc that’s what friends use
Popular bc it’s popular
Objectively speaking there’s nothing especially good about Spotify even supposing you’re committed to using a major streaming service; it’s just what people use bc that’s what everyone else has
Goodreads is a pretty shitty website all things considered and there’s several alternatives but that’s what rose to the top for whatever reason"
Hearing that is how I came to realize what this all presumably boils down to. A boring truth, but a truth nonetheless.
So for now, the best you and I can hope to do in this situation is Not Be A Direct Part Of The Problem, No Matter How Small. I've never signed up for Letterboxd and never will. I will stand gleefully stubborn in the face of peer pressure. I will continue monetarily supporting RYM with an annual premium subscription because it actually fucking earned that. But I will also concede one thing: for video game cataloging in particular, I really can't fault anyone for using some shit like Backloggd instead of RYM's own Glitchwave, because unfortunately it's kind of a mess right now and will likely still be for years to come because nobody has time to work on it. The price you pay for trusting in a small independent team is a whole lot of Waiting. Just maybe please consider Glitchwave whenever it stops being a mess ok :) Plz support your local Website That Doesn't Suck Complete Ass if u can :)
