The Movie Database Support

Hello,

Thank you for your previous response.

I understand that new rules may restrict films hosted solely on YouTube. However, I’d like to raise a concern regarding consistency. There are numerous films currently listed on TMDb that are entirely hosted on YouTube, including fan-made projects, animations, and independent works — many of which clearly do not meet the new policy criteria.

If YouTube-hosted films are now not allowed, why are these earlier entries still published without issue? Shouldn’t policies apply retroactively for fairness, or at least be communicated transparently?

I’m not asking for special treatment — only for a fair and consistent application of the rules. It’s discouraging to see original, fully voice-acted and narrative-driven content automatically dismissed while similar works remain in the database.

I would appreciate clarity on:

Whether the rule applies retroactively or only to new submissions

Why older YouTube-based entries remain untouched

If exceptions can be made for feature-length original works

Also, if I were to re-upload the film to Vimeo — would that increase its chances of being accepted on TMDb? I’m happy to take that step if it aligns better with your content policies.

Thank you for your time and attention. I hope this can open a constructive discussion.

Best regards, Özgür Emre Özkan

8 replies (on page 1 of 1)

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@ozgurozkn35 said:

Hello,

Thank you for your previous response.

I understand that new rules may restrict films hosted solely on YouTube. However, I’d like to raise a concern regarding consistency. There are numerous films currently listed on TMDb that are entirely hosted on YouTube, including fan-made projects, animations, and independent works — many of which clearly do not meet the new policy criteria.

Do you have examples of these films hosted on YouTube that you have reported or seen others reported that have not been solved within six months/have been kept intentionally (a mod has responded saying they will ignore the new rule and keep it)?

If you (or anyone) havent been reporting these films you've seen, then please report them and including providing some useful information to help speed up the process of those entries being deleted.

Also, if I were to re-upload the film to Vimeo — would that increase its chances of being accepted on TMDb? I’m happy to take that step if it aligns better with your content policies.

No, the same thing applies to Vimeo as it does to Youtube.

Although I think it might be considered a professional release if it is sold on Vimeo ondemand? (not sure though I could be wrong about that)

If you want to know how/what content is allowed on this database you should read this:

https://www.themoviedb.org/bible/new_content

@ozgurozkn35 said:

I understand that new rules may restrict films hosted solely on YouTube.

Note that these are not new rules, but rules for new content. They are in place since multiple years.

Moderators here are volunteers and don't have the time to check every entry at the time they are created. They can only check them if they are interested in a subject or if they are reported to us.

I don't want to answer, I wish you success with your site. I hope we get a chance to see more movies like how to clean a toilet. :)

@ozgurozkn35 said:

I don't want to answer, I wish you success with your site. I hope we get a chance to see more movies like how to clean a toilet. :)

?

This is a database maintained by volunteers. If you want the site to remove content that goes against the rules you (or somebody) needs to help (the mods) by reporting stuff that shouldnt be on the site.

I'm not a mod, but I think that the crux of the issue here is that some users might be confused by the wording in the email template that gets sent to them when something gets deleted. It refers to "new content guidelines". Some users might (mis)interpret that as "new guidelines (for content)", while what it actually means is "guidelines (for new content)". 'New content' is a section in the Contribution Bible.

There are no new guidelines: I don't think content that's been published only on YouTube or Vimeo has ever been permitted on this database. (Others are welcome to correct me if I'm wrong.) But it's definitely not a new requirement, there are no "new" guidelines to impose retroactively in this regard.

Unqualifying content gets removed when it's spotted or reported. So, Ozgurozkn35, if you've spotted unqualifying pages that haven't been reported yet, you can report them and the pages will be removed when mods (who are volunteers) get to your report.

@rubylane said:

There are no new guidelines: I don't think content that's been published only on YouTube or Vimeo has ever been permitted on this database. (Others are welcome to correct me if I'm wrong.) But it's definitely not a new requirement, there are no "new" guidelines to impose retroactively in this regard.

Content only published on YouTube has been allowed before in the past, there have been new changes to the rules. But this was many years ago I believe (maybe 3-7 years ago Im guessing was when the rules changed Im not sure). The rules used to say/or exceptions used to be made for content on youtube that was made by professional companies or by professional people or like mentioned by professional website/publications- Im not describing it well but yeah the rules did change- it was a somewhat like quiet subjective rule that was along the lines of "some amateur content may be allowed with the discretion of mod's discernment" . Now the content must have a professional release.

I had added this one web series on here that was released only on YouTube that was definitely allowed on the site after a discussion that involved a mod researching about it and them finding out that I believe there were some professional companies involved with the project or something like that. But years later after the rule change it was deleted with the explicit explanation from a mod that it was deleted because of the rule change. I cant remember the name of it though lol.

EDIT: You are correct though- that the message should be changed because it makes it sound like to the user thats receiving that message that there has been a very recent rule change. When thats not the case.

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