TMU, its features, and you!

[Dulci]

Here's some neat features of TMU that you might not be aware of.


Like a movie you just watched? Think it should be included on the front page featured movies?

While on the movie page, click "Flag/Interact"
Then select "Feature this!"
It will then be considered by the admin when movies are chosen for the front page.

AND/OR

While on the movie page, click "Flag/Interact"
Then select "Add to Favorites"
Some of the internal sorting features of TMU are based on the number of time a movie has been selected by a user as a favorite.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

LEAVE A COMMENT


Boy, I wish more people from TMU would come to the forums.

Be friendly - If you notice a new person uploading movies, send them a private message and invite them to the forums:
Click on their name
Select Connect
Select Send a Personal Message


Feel like watching a movie?

Click Watch
Select one of the new releases
You can also sort the movies by using the drop-down menu that by default says "Most Recent". Options include: Most Viewed, Most Commented, Top Favorites, Top Rated, Recently Featured.
You can also choose "Random" from this drop-down menu to find a more diverse selection of movies.

OR

Click Categories
Choose a genre
Select one of the new releases
Or sort using the drop-down menu described above


OR

Go to Channels
Find a channel that looks interesting to you and peruse the videos


OR TO WATCH TOP RATED, ETC. FOR THE WEEK

Once you select what you want to sort by in the Watch screen (most commented, highest rated, most viewed, etc.)
You can then go to the drop-down menu that defaults to "-All-" and select by: 1 Week Old, 1 Day Old, 1 Month Old
You can also choose a specific category if you like.

My connection is slow and I wish I could download the movies instead and leave my comments later.

The DownloadHelper add-on (http://www.downloadhelper.net/) can be used to download movies on TMU.

I don't want to miss movies by my favorite filmmaker, but I don't have time to look at the forums or upload site every day! Whatever can I do?

Go to the profile page of the filmmaker whose work you are interested in. Once there, you will see a button directly under their profile picture that reads "Subscribe to User's videos". Simply click this button.

Going forward you will receive an email notification every time the filmmaker uploads a new movie.

How can I create a channel?

Click on the Channel Tab
Directly above the row that says "My Account, etc." is an option to click on "CREATE A CHANNEL!" Click it.
Follow the instructions on that page to name your channel, select categories, etc.
Please note that on this page you can decide if 1) only you can add movies to your channel; 2) other people can add movies to your channel with your approval; 3) anyone can add movies to your channel at any time.

To add movies to your channel, go to your channel page and click on "Add Videos"
In the same row you were able to "CREATE A CHANNEL!" you will see two options - one to add your own movies and one to add movies from your favorites.
NOTE: To add movies that aren't your own, you must have them selected as a favorite.


How Do I Get One of Those Nifty TMU Studio Badges Under My Avatar On The Forums?

Go to User CP -> Edit your Details -> scroll down to TMU Studio

Did you know that you can easily post the thumbnail of your movie on the forums?

On the movie site, simply use your mouse to select the name of your movie and the thumbnail picture, and then right click and select Copy.

On the forums, simply paste into a post and ta da! You'll see your thumbnail and a clickable link directly to your movie.


When I try to embed my video from another site, it fills up too much of the screen. What should I do?

In your embed code, you'll need to change it to width="455" height="369" to get the best results. Make sure you change it in both the object and embed tags. (thanks Riley!)

[JohnnyEx]

Thanks Dulci, that was informative.

[sisch]

Nice one, Dulci! :)

I'm sure a lot of people were not aware of all those nice features!

[Mefune Akira]

Very nice Dulci.

An excellent post!

[goofparade]

Good thinking Dulci.
Quick question, is there a big visible link, right on the main TMU page saying "TMU Forums".
I haven't seen one but then again I'm half blind from the syphlis....

[kuroken]

Good thinking Dulci.
Quick question, is there a big visible link, right on the main TMU page saying "TMU Forums".
I haven't seen one but then again I'm half blind from the syphlis....
No, but it is coming....

[rileyman]

The forum link is now there!

[Killian]

Woot! Nice (and fast!) work, my man!

[Dulci]

The forum link is now there!

Awesome! :thumbup:

[Dulci]

First post edited to include:

I don't want to miss movies by my favorite filmmaker, but I don't have time to look at the forums or upload site every day! Whatever can I do?

Go to the profile page of the filmmaker whose work you are interested in. Once there, you will see a button directly under their profile picture that reads "Subscribe to User's videos". Simply click this button.

Going forward you will receive an email notification every time the filmmaker uploads a new movie.

[Fospherous]

Very Informative and Interesting...

Great Little post Dulci! :)

[Dulci]

Updated opening post to include:

How can I create a channel?

Click on the Channel Tab
Directly above the row that says "My Account, etc." is an option to click on "CREATE A CHANNEL!" Click it.
Follow the instructions on that page to name your channel, select categories, etc.
Please note that on this page you can decide if 1) only you can add movies to your channel; 2) other people can add movies to your channel with your approval; 3) anyone can add movies to your channel at any time.

To add movies to your channel, go to your channel page and click on "Add Videos"
In the same row you were able to "CREATE A CHANNEL!" you will see two options - one to add your own movies and one to add movies from your favorites.
NOTE: To add movies that aren't your own, you must have them selected as a favorite.

[Dulci]

Updated first post to include...

How Do I Get One of Those Nifty TMU Studio Badges Under My Avatar On The Forums?

Go to User CP -> Edit your Details -> scroll down to TMU Studio



Thank you Riley!

[Dulci]

Updated first post to include...

Did you know that you can easily post the thumbnail of your movie on the forums?

On the movie site, simply use your mouse to select the name of your movie and the thumbnail picture, and then right click and select Copy.

On the forums, simply paste into a post and ta da! You'll see your thumbnail and a clickable link directly to your movie.

[Dulci]

Updated first post to include:

My connection is slow and I wish I could download the movies instead and leave my comments later.

The DownloadHelper add-on (http://www.downloadhelper.net/) can be used to download movies on TMU.

[Dulci]

Updated first post to include:

When I try to embed my video from another site, it fills up too much of the screen. What should I do?

In your embed code, you'll need to change it to width="455" height="369" to get the best results. Make sure you change it in both the object and embed tags. (thanks Riley!)

[rileyman]

On the Filmmakers page (http://www.tmunderground.com/users.php), the search box has been updated. Once you've typed a few characters in, it now drops down with a list of matching studio names. Clicking on a studio will take you to their studio page.

(Note that on occasion -- in particular, when someone is uploading a film -- the site can take a few moments to respond. This may affect the speed of the studio name drop-down appearing.)

[Harb40]

Very nice Riley. That will be very handy and make searches go faster and easier. Thanks.

[rileyman]

And as I noticed that the load time of the Filmmakers page was dreadfully slow, I looked into it... The Sharemixer guys forgot to put a search index on the userid field in the video table, which was making the query take a good 20 seconds or so (it had to manually count the number of videos each user uploaded).

In short, the Filmmakers page now loads much more quickly; and that should help the speed of the site as a whole.

[Dulci]

And as I noticed that the load time of the Filmmakers page was dreadfully slow, I looked into it... The Sharemixer guys forgot to put a search index on the userid field in the video table, which was making the query take a good 20 seconds or so (it had to manually count the number of videos each user uploaded).

In short, the Filmmakers page now loads much more quickly; and that should help the speed of the site as a whole.

Wow, what a difference! Thanks :)

[rileyman]

On the Watch! page (http://www.tmunderground.com/video.php), a similar search box has been added. Start typing the title of a movie, and a drop-down box will appear with a list of matching movie titles (with the studio name in brackets). Click on a title to jump to the movie page.

Some additional search filters will be available soon...

[rileyman]

The additional search filters are now available on the Watch! page (http://www.tmunderground.com/video.php). (You might need to click refresh in your browser once for them to appear.)

In general, you will want to choose your filter criteria first, and then click inside the "Search for a movie title containing" box. As long as you have at least one filter field entered, the drop-down list of movie titles should appear shortly.

If you only want to search for movies from a particular studio, start typing the studio name in the "Filter movies by studio" box.

You can also filter by any combination of category, or by any date range. Clicking inside the "Added on or after" or "Added prior to" boxes will bring up a calendar chooser. For example, to find all movies released in November 2009: Choose Nov. 1, 2009 for "on or after", and Dec. 1, 2009 for "prior to".

[thebiz]

Just saw the date range abilities. Great work Rileyman! Something I have been hoping for for quite a while. Huzzah!


Edit - But where the search button? Ive put in the dates but dont know how to submit it...hehe...Im serious.

[rileyman]

After you've chosen your search criteria, just click inside the "search for a movie title containing" field. Wait for a second, and the drop-down will appear that lists the filtered movie titles.

In short, you're not "submitting" the form -- you're just choosing search criteria for the left-most input field. It's not tied to a submit button, nor to the rest of the page. A bit non-standard I guess... I'll look into maybe having the drop-down appear as soon as you enter at least one criteria field...

Update: Done -- choose a studio, or choose a category, or choose a complete date range; and the video list should popup within a second or so.

[JohnnyEx]

I've ALWAYS thought the TMU channels page was an extremely underused option. http://www.tmunderground.com/groups.php
While I'm all for The Movies Spain channel being a front page channel, but isnt there a way for our classic and by far the most popular channels to grace said page?
Channels with many members and videos; Dark Side, SuperUniverse, Galaxy at War, Dulci and Sisch's channels, IClone, Bizness In The Front...
I realize these featured channels are in the discretion of the moderator over there and she has alot of stuff to deal with, but theres gotta be a way to "expand" the page and perhaps even cut the workload with having to not even have to make a decision on features. The big channels would be in place right there for her...
I know Ive crowed about this before and Ken has told me to "ask Rileyman".
Rileyman, any thoughts to the probable limitations at that space?

[Dulci]

I've ALWAYS thought the TMU channels page was an extremely underused option. http://www.tmunderground.com/groups.php
While I'm all for The Movies Spain channel being a front page channel, but isnt there a way for our classic and by far the most popular channels to grace said page?
Channels with many members and videos; Dark Side, SuperUniverse, Galaxy at War, Dulci and Sisch's channels, IClone, Bizness In The Front...
I realize these featured channels are in the discretion of the moderator over there and she has alot of stuff to deal with, but theres gotta be a way to "expand" the page and perhaps even cut the workload with having to not even have to make a decision on features. The big channels would be in place right there for her...
I know Ive crowed about this before and Ken has told me to "ask Rileyman".
Rileyman, any thoughts to the probable limitations at that space?

I just recently switched around the featured Channels to mix things up. Until about 2 days ago, the featured Channels included many of the ones you have listed, or they've been featured at other times. I don't see any reason not to vary the featured channels on occasion.

If you have a specific channel you think should be featured, just send me a PM.

[JohnnyEx]

I guess the real question is can we expand the front page list?
To include those fine selections AND other "popular" channels, say 20 (just a round number) or something like that...
I couldnt agree more with varying the list on occasion, you do a great job there, we lubya...:001_wub:
I'm not complaining, I just think its an underused and undiscovered vehicle to artist/audience...

[Dulci]

I guess the real question is can we expand the front page list?
To include those fine selections AND other "popular" channels, say 20 (just a round number) or something like that...
I couldnt agree more with varying the list on occasion, you do a great job there, we lubya...:001_wub:
I'm not complaining, I just think its an underused and undiscovered vehicle to artist/audience...


There's a tab on the front page for "Top Video Channels" (along the side column, under the "Tags" list). I have expanded that to show 20, but I don't know how it selects the top ones - looks pretty random to me. Now, THAT is a question for Riley :)

[JohnnyEx]

Hate to beat this to death...
IF ya click "most popular" as a choice for channels that's basically a dead link, "ascending" or descending", always has been.
That will show you channels with 1 or 2 or no members ascending, then completely tweek out as descending.
I'm just sayin...

[thebiz]

File this one under, learning something new every day...

Check out Nukester's TMU Profile Page (http://www.tmunderground.com/Nukester). Scroll on down to the bottom to see his very cool personalized profile that includes a groovy poster and even a little music player. Neat eh?

He created this by including html content in the Personalization Tab of the Edit my Profile page. You can also apparently change background colors of the page and a whole lot of other little things using css style sheets (for you web savy folks). Definitely something to play with on a rainy day.

[animatechnica]

oooh good tip

thanks!

[Dulci]

Just a reminder on this one:

When I try to embed my video from another site, it fills up too much of the screen. What should I do?

In your embed code, you'll need to change it to width="455" height="369" to get the best results. Make sure you change it in both the object and embed tags.

[thebiz]

Like the chinese fortune cookie says....embed, embed embed. Putting your flick on another site (vimeo, youtube, elsewhere) and embedding it on tmu takes no additional upload time, gives you the ability to select the thumbnail, seems to have less issues than the TMU sharemixer software and queues up much faster for viewing. Plus you can access additional view stats that may not be available on TMU. But be aware of the height and width tags as Dulci mentioned below.

Someone might feel differently but I don't think uploading elsewhere and embedding on TMU lessens the TMU brand. It remains the central location for watching machinima.