''For use of tomatoes against performers, see Rotten tomatoes.

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of movies and video games. The name derives from the vaudeville-era cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad. The website created a distinctive means to summarize the general critical opinions about these works.

How the site works

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The Rotten Tomatoes staff search the Internet for as many websites as possible that contain reviews of particular films and games; from the amateur to the professional. Once found, the staff uses the aggregate data to determine if the review is positive ("fresh", marked by a small icon of a red tomato) or negative ("rotten", marked by a small icon of a green splatted tomato).

The website keeps track of all of the reviews counted (which can approach 200 for major films) and the percentage of positive reviews is tabulated. If the positive reviews make up 60% or more, the film is considered "fresh" in that the majority of the reviewers approve of the film. Conversely, if the positive reviews are less than 60%, then the film is considered "rotten." In addition, major film reviewers like Roger Ebert are listed in a sub-listing called "Cream of the Crop" which tabulates their reviews separately, while still including their opinions in the general rating. When there are sufficient reviews to form a conclusion, a consensus statement is posted which is intended to articulate the general reasons for the opinion. As of October 2005, the best reviewed film on the site is Toy Story 2 receiving 105 reviews, all of which are fresh and having an Average Rating of 8.6.

This rating in turn is marked with an equivalent icon when the film is listed, giving the reader a one glance look at the general critical opinion about the work.

In 2004, the website IGN Entertainment acquired Rottentomatoes.com. In September 2005, IGN was bought out by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Accolades and criticisms

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This site has been praised as an effective way for film reviews to challenge the hegemony of movie marketing by providing a simple, yet comprehensive, resource in which reviews can be referenced. At least one major newspaper, the Toronto Star, regularly publishes the ratings in its entertainment section weekly.

On the other hand, the website is sometimes criticized for being a measure of how many people liked a film, rather than how high they scored it. Thus only films with broad appeal get the highest scores, while great but controversial films can sport low ones. Another complaint is that reviews in more obscure entries may be labeled incorrectly (and a positive review given a "rotten" score) and go uncorrected. These mistakes can tip the balance in a close rating and can be enough to change the "consensus" on the site. This may happen more often in videogame entries.

Discussion Forums

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For about as long as Rotten Tomatoes has been online, so too has its discussion forums. Originally conceived as one forum to discuss films, the popularity of the board has exploded over the years. From 2000 to 2001, the forum was a free-for-all. Anyone could post under any username they chose for that particular post. For about a year-and-a-half this format existed. Unfortunately, during the summer of 2001, flame wars and trolling grew rampant as this feature was abused. It got to the point where film discussion was completely neutralized due to the fighting betweeen countless aliases.

In response, board administrators instituted a new format in September of 2001. Registration under one username became required. For several years this format grew and prospered, undergoing several changes with additional features, such as allowing a poster to find all of their old posts, undoubtedly leading to wasted afternoons spent reading year-old posts. The first several years are sometimes considered a Golden Age of film discussion on the board.

Soon after, the discussion forum saw an increase in the number of off-topic threads as well as thread after thread discussing the same film critics, usually Roger Ebert. As a result, the Off-Topic Forum and the Critics Discussion Forum were established. Opinion was divided over this move as various posters split up and went to different forums. While the new forums led to the formation of somewhat isolated camps, the discussion forums still saw an increase of activity as threads moved quickly down the page. There was much rejoicing.

Over the years, other forums have been added to Rotten Tomatoes: DVD Discussion, Movie Games, Upcoming Films and most recently, video game forums. With each new forum, posters are given different platforms from which to speak on a variety of topics. Personal blogs, part of the Vine, were added in 2003 along with highly individualized discussion groups. With over five years of forums, some threads have even become something of an institute. From the "official" reaction threads established in 2002 meant to discuss the most recent film release to the weekly Photoshop threads and themed group threads with posts numbering into the thousands, it's hard to now imagine the forums without these threads.

Human behavior will of course always keep things from getting boring. There has been a resurgence in the number of aliases, including a few infamous names like Shakira. Those banned have a way of returning with new identities. Most forums will still have the occasional off-topic thread and the Critics Discussion forum has long since abandoned its original intention. Taken over as a place to talk about more obscure films in comparison to General Discussion, it now appears that Critics Discussion has become essentially another general movie forum. After the sale of the site to IGN, upgrades have also been few and very far between. The last major overhaul was some time ago.

Yet after six years, the Rotten Tomatoes discussion forums continue to be a popular place to visit, appearing to be the place on the internet for such talk.

Photoshop contest

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Every Monday posters on the Rotten Tomatoes discussion forum are asked to satirically photoshop posters and screencaps of recent movies (e.g. the "movie of the week"). Several categories include "Cutest", Most Skilled", "Funniest", "Poor Taste", and "Best Reference To Another Movie"

This contest has been hosted since 2003 by the poster known as Donner and the winners are displayed on his website, The Slightly Warped Website. The contest has become known for its running joke of inserting the Vin Diesel character of Riddick into every competition. The winners of the competition are usually posted on Wednesday mornings.

External links

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• Rotten Tomatoes Movies
• RottenTomatoes forums, where the contests can be found

Computer and video game websites | Film criticism | Movie websites