My good friend Myles has done a better job explaining all of this than I can, but I just wanted to reiterate some of the things that he said.
First of all, thanks Myles!
Essentially, most of the changes were done due to demand for them. Trust me, my focus is much more on movies than anything else, but if you don't cater to the needs of your audience, you cease to have an audience, and that renders moot any of the concerns that we all have.
Also, complaints about predictions or opinions are fairly useless, since they're just that, predictions. None of us are Nostradamus (to my knowledge, but if anyone is, please contact me about lottery numbers and a future wife)or members of the Academy, so it's all guessing games more or less. We make educated guesses, but guesses nonetheless. I for one don't always agree with Clayton's picks, but I can't deny that in the end he's usually pretty accurate (he hit on 18 out of 24 categories in the end at last year's Oscars, and that was tops in terms of us on the site...I came in second with 17 but that was only because I somehow got my prediction of Departures winning right). It's perfectly alright to question someone's thoughts or debate them, but to spew vitriol because he likes the chances of someone you don't feel as strongly about isn't really prudent.
On that issue, why is it necessary to be mean? What is gained? I'm still at a loss there, but maybe I'm naive, but Myles hit it on the head...if you send us a comment asking us a question or a suggestion in a somewhat even keeled manner, we're much more likely to respond or even implement what you desire as opposed to if you tell us to stick it where the sun don't shine.
Finally, we all agree that the site is not perfect, and that we need to update more (I know keeping the blog updated daily doesn't count), but just keep this in mind...just because we don't update the Main Page every single day doesn't mean that we're sitting on our hands doing nothing. There is almost always some combination of movies to see, screenings to attend, podcasts to record and edit, reviews to write, blog entries to post, articles to research and type up, DVD viewings to be done, and so on...often these things all occur at the same time, and that's not even counting when one of us has work or school to factor in (I've graduated, but last year I had a day when I wrote 3 reviews, posted a half dozen times on the blog, did an article, and wrote two film papers for a class in one night, so it can get hectic). Trust me, we're working as hard, or harder, then you think.
Thanks again to Myles for his excellent post and thanks to everyone for being a part of the site.
