Add Specials in watchlist, by option

Cecile wrote:
Hello all,
I was looking for some specials episodes in my watchlist, and there ain't in it. So I have seen the the forum that was intendeed, and I understand the reason, some series has some useless specials episodes (in my opinion). But for others series, this is a problem (Doctor Who, Black Mirror, ect), because those episodes are a full part of the story.
So if we can't add them to do the watchlist for everyone, can it be an option, so each user can decide to add them or not?
What do you think about it?
___
ps: excuse my english, not my primory language

This sounds like a resonable thing to do, will suggest this to david and jan to put it on the to-do-list :)

cheers
Juan

JuanArango wrote:

This sounds like a resonable thing to do, will suggest this to david and jan to put it on the to-do-list :)
cheers
Juan

I think adding specials to that page would require an option to ignore them as well as I never bother to watch specials and it would bother me if it ruins my stats or will remain in the watchlist haha

ThomasNL wrote:

I think adding specials to that page would require an option to ignore them as well as I never bother to watch specials and it would bother me if it ruins my stats or will remain in the watchlist haha

Thomas, he said that, an option to either add them or not :)

cheers
Juan

JuanArango wrote:

Thomas, he said that, an option to either add them or not :)
cheers
Juan

Ah I see :)

I would also like the ability to add them to my watch list :D

Cheers!

How about an option to label special episodes as canon or non-canon. Most people prefer to watch specials that take place within a shows standard universe; for example, the Doctor Who Christmas Specials.

That way if a special is labeled as canon, it would show up in the watchlist along with all the standard episodes.

I usually rely on the watchlist to keep me apprised of upcoming episodes. I don't watch any non-canon special episodes but I really don't want to miss any canon episodes. I don't like it when I miss an episode that is relevant to the shows storyline.

I was looking to the suggestions forums just to see if someone was already on it, glad seeing that it might be implemented in the future.

Any development on this?

Missed the Sherlock special because of this :( would love this feature!

Thanks for the great work guys.

"How about an option to label special episodes as canon or non-canon."

I strongly wish something like this existed. The place I might differ with some people is that I wouldn't only want full length canon content. I'm not interested in "webisodes" and that kind of stuff.

It just seems surprising that no tv data service does this when for some shows specials can be the most important/watched episode of the year. ie. plot-driven Christmas Specials, the starting miniseries of Battlestar Galactica, documentary types shows with a special episode interviewing the president about a topic, etc

We're open to adding this, but it's not currently planned. (We'd have to be able to indicate different types of specials first, which is quite some work with widespread implications.)

typo correction: I would only want full length specials

Yeah, imagine it could be a little messy. Just wanted to include myself as someone who finds this frustrating (everywhere, not here specifically).

I agree that specials, especially specials that contribute to the story arc, need to be integrated more into the site with the other episodes.

As I've said before, I'd say list specials "normally" instead of putting them at the end of the list. Whether they're relevant or canon or whatever term you want to use, or not. Let the reader decide.

If the next show is a Special, I want to know about it by having it at the top of the page and all, rather than the bottom. How will I decide if it's not a "relevant" special if i don't know it's there so I can decide? :)

I'd be interested in having specials listed on my watchlist too.

I don't think there's any reason to differentiate between different types of specials as it'll only complicate things and specials aren't exactly a high volume thing, so it'll be trivial to skip the odd episode you don't want to watch.

While I don't think specials are high-volume compared to the total number of episodes on TV, they're becoming more and more prevalent. But that just means they should be more visible, IMO.

Differentiating them doesn't make sense to me, either. Let the individual reader decide... but at least let them know they're coming up so that they can decide.

The topic of specials is something i have thought about a few times in the past, and personally i do think the category "specials" is too vague for everything that seems to get put into that category; previews, sneak peaks, specials, webisodes etc IMO all these things should have their own section but maybe from a coding point of view that isn't practical.

As for adding specials into the watchlist as long as there is an option for the user not to have to have them listed then i think its a good idea, i personally don't want them in my watchlist, but the more options the end user has the better IMO. With that in mind an option to remove them from the calendar view as well would be grately appreciated, i hate seeing them cluttering up my calendar, looking back i had 40!!! of them listed in my October calendar.

I agree that we need to have the option to see specials in the watchlist too, some shows have specials that are important to the storyline like for instance Dr. Who.

However i also think that the section for specials needs clearing up, right now we have everything from important specials to 3 min sneak-peaks, previews and webisodes all mashed together, which means that for some shows there are just about as many "specials" listed for a season as there are actual episodes. Personally i feel specials should only contain "proper" specials, webisodes etc and loose the sneak peaks and previews which in my opinion are pointless to list, i know have brought this up multiple times before and have been told that staff is discussing it but hasn't made a decision yet, would be nice if a once and for all decision could be made on this.

I agree the specials section needs work. I don't want to make the arbitrary choice of hiding specials from the calendar or displaying them on the watchlist, because that would probably upset just as many people as it would appease.

I also don't think the problem can be solved by a stricter definition of what can be added as special. Even if we'd crack down against something like sneak peaks/previews there would be many "legitimate" specials that people want to hide from their watchlist/calendar.

So the only way to solve it would be extending the code to support different types of specials. To formalize this I just created an entry in Pending Features at http://www.tvmaze.com/threads/1888/better-handling-of-specials. If you want to see this happen, please vote for that feature!

While it's not exactly like i would prefer it, i think the pending feature suggestion is a good compromise and one that will solve a lot of the issues. But boy oh boy it's gonna be a LOT of work sorting all the specials listed.