Anime would be handled fine if Trakt just stuck with TVDB, but they claimed the “costs” were too high and went with TMDB which is a shit show for anime. I still keep my Plex library organized with the TVDB database and it scrobbles fine for the most part, but it’s awful to look at on the Trakt website itself. Still, none of this is worth paying $60/year.
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While the way trakt uses TMDB for anime is not perfect and should use TVDB instead which at least has more logical seasons (see Detective Conan foe example, 1 season for 1+ episodes is ridiculous), simkl is indeed a horror mess. I cannot move to simkl because the way they show the anime is horrendous.
Like for real??
Trakt looks and feels 100x better. But now way in hell am I going to pay them 60$.
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I am not saying it is not correct. I am saying it makes no sense imo to show them like that. And simkl has S2 for final chapters and S4 for the other one. Matter of preference. I prefer more what trakt does with a few caveats where tvdb is better.
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Of course, it doesn’t make sense if you consider anime TV series…
While I agree with the OG post this will never happen and is actually the reason literally no one is swallowing the 60$ price tag. All of those requests you stated have been made before - multiple times - sometimes years ago! Nothing.
Posters for example: super simple. Letterboxd is doing it, as are others. Has nothing to do with copyrights as we already use the posters from TMDb just can’t choose our preferred one. 2023 Justin wanted “to look into it” - well I guess he’s still looking…
Younify is a security breach just waiting to happen. No idea why they cling to it so much. I mean I said it before but the entire redesign has an awful lot of “Younify Purple” in it - only to get harshly brushed off by Trakt Staff after mentioning that. I still think it was just too obvious especially considering how close both things were rolled out to another.
Anyways, if you really think at this point there is still hope for Trakt being a community driven experience you should prepare for reality. This ship has sailed months ago. Promises were broken, community feature requests haven’t been implemented for ages by now and communication from the devs is close to non existent.
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No. The way it is on Simkl doesn’t make sense period. “S4” shouldn’t be there.
Keeping free tier where It is, they should make tier for what you use. there should be more choice, not everyone is utilising even $30 worth of service.
Also strongly agree with separate database for Anime.
With 2 VIP members in the household, I’m currently on the fence as to wether or not we will keep VIP. For now I have cancelled, but I might renew given that I’m seeing sufficient value. In the end everyone should decide for themself if a product or service is worth the price to them.
What I would like to see improve are:
- Cross-Platform Feature Parity: The most obvious example being up next on the full website filtering out seasons that are not on my streaming services, but still showing them on iOS and AppleTV
- Family Subscription: VIP access for multiple users at a reduced price
- Family Sync: Ability to flag a series as a family watching series where watched info is synced between specified family accounts
- Usable automatic tracking: The current implementation is simply not good enough. It is not reliable (some series from supported streaming services are not being tracked). It needs real-time syncing. It needs to support all your services.
I don’t think there is a need to remove functionality. Sure there are features that I don’t care for, but they might be important for others. More than once I’ve passed someone driving a Porsche at 100 km/h on the highway. Although their engine is probably far more capable they choose not to use it, but I don’t think they asked the dealership for a cheaper version with a smaller engine 
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I haven’t looked at it properly but what am I missing about “advanced filtering" ?
Something like mdblist rocks my world for finding stuff and is free?
You are right, it does. It didn’t when I became a VIP years ago.
And right now Trakt isn’t encouraging me to pay them twice for something another service is doing for free. I’m just letting them know.
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I haven’t followed all the hubbub closely enough to truly understand why they are destroying such a beloved service, but the answer of course is always money.
I strongly agree with the OP on two points. Younify, and trakt lite. One is a privacy nightmare, and the other was just a Bad idea that is eating resources that could be used for features users actually want. Both are visions of a future I want no part of.
I can hope that the mass Exodus will have them reevaluate these foolish decisions to get back on TRAKT like HBO just did with the Max debacle, but I’m afraid they are prepared to die on this hill.
What a shame!
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Agreed
And there response about how Grandfathered accounts are non sustainable well that is beside the point, because if you knew that to be true you shouldnt have made the promises in the first place.
Though I can see a middle ground here, which would be to only eliminate the legacy/$15 agreements and negotiate them to the $30 GrandFathered price, which in my opinion $30 is the max that should be charged for this type of service regardless of what bulshit your trying to cook up to justify a higher price.
I was 100% contemplating moving my Wife and both daughters accounts to VIP accounts before the $60 increase last year because at $30 even though I believe that $30, is a stretch (at the outer limits) of what VIP is worth, I could just justify the cost for the service provided. So that lost Trakt $90 US just in my family members alone, and that diesnt even begin to account for the numbers of people I have steered toward Trakt over the last decade and I didn’t even use referrals, but that to stopped as soon as I was aware of the initial $60 price jump. So now you double down on the ignorance and you’ll not see another penny from this guy, as a result.
I’ve seen preteens playing Monopoly with far more economic sensibilities and awareness than what has been shown by Trakt over the Last year.
You are effectively killing a teir one service out of pure ignorance, and as a result you have seen the last VIP payment from this schmuck.
The picture I’m trying to paint for you says something along the lines of Ignorance is expensive.
But go on and hang on to that ignorance, if you’re so fond of it, as to tank a tier one service for it.
Or maybe you’re smarter than all of us and Bancruptcy is the goal. I mean it has worked for Trump 100 times over, So why not Tank your company, make it appear head over heels upside down and then go on take the money and run. You know the money you don’t have stashed away from the irs.
Actually, the more I think about this, the more absurd it all seems. Almost to the point of there having to be something we are all missing. Which is realy, just pissing me off further, because I’m leaning into conspiracy theory type reasons now, which is in of itself ignorant, and I absolutely despise ingnorance.
…
..
.
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I totally agree with Trakt needing a Family Subscription as an option. That way we’re not paying for 2+ accounts for your whole household.
$120+ a year for 2+ accounts to have VIP is definitely not worth it.
Streaming services have the option of multiple accounts per subscription… And they tend to cost a lot less than $60.
I totally agree,
Lists will help generate traffic.
I never use the Lite version, period.
A secure and simple way to sync my entire PLEX collection would be nice, without having to jump through hoops.
If nothing improves, I can’t see me renewing next time around.
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Well, you would have to offer an intermediate level with more lists and content in addition to the free version. That would be enough for many customers and you would rather take $10 - $30 as a tract than nothing at all.
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Exactly this. I get the new features are costly (like Younify) but Younify is so unreliable that I’d rather not pay for it. I also don’t have many “lists” and the ones I do have are pretty small, so maybe give 50-100 lists with 1000 items each or something like that, remove the Younify scrobbing, make backups manual and call it “trakt pro” for $30/yr.
Also, and I can’t emphasize this enough, put ads on the free tier again so that free users don’t pull down the service and cause the decreasing number of VIP users to have to subsidize free users. I get it, we all hate ads, but designing it in a way where VIP users subsidize free users isn’t sustainable long term, and will only cause more price increases in the future.
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