Archive for the ‘RowThree announcements’ Category

  • 14 Nov

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    Introducing: Row Three Wiki

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    File this under experimental overkill, but I had an epiphany recently while listening to one of my favorite podcasts. At the end of the show they always remind listeners to head over to their Wiki page and add to or amend the show notes. Well dammit, if TWIT can have a Wiki, so can RowThree.

    The original idea here was to have a place where readers/listeners could have a bit more of a say with their experience while listening to the Cinecast. This IS NOT a place for commentary or discussion; you still do that in the regular comment section for each individual thread on RowThree proper. But if you’ve got something to add or a link or some reference you think should have some light shed upon it, you can now add it to the show notes yourself!

    We’re also trying a couple of other features with the Wiki. We’ve started a couple of pages with popular film titles being talked about in the third row. For now these are basically just a hive for the various threads in which the film was mentioned and maybe some alternate poster art. Maybe you can come up with some better uses for these pages!

    So all you need to do is head over to The Wiki Page and login (registering is free, fast and easy). Once you’re registered, do what you will. There are some basic help pages over there if you run into any trouble.

    So like I said this is still in the experimental phase of being, so bring on the ideas for what this Wiki can be used other than just sort of an archive of the history of RowThree. Feel free to edit or add to any article on the site that you have access to. Or heck, you can submit your own article on whatever you want. In the spirit of science, the admins will be pretty lenient as to what goes up there, at least in the beginning.

    Enjoy! And please let us know what you think about this new feature in the comments below. Thanks!

  • 25 Oct

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    Subscribe to RowThree on Google Currents

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    These days, getting all of your content from everywhere all at once is easier than ever. There are dozens (hundreds?) of outlets, aggregators, apps and readers out there to help you manage your daily information fuel-up. And one name for that function is always near the top of that list: Google.

    Now I for one have somewhat of a commute in the morning and evening, so that frees up a lot of time to catch up on my news reading. That means mobile browsing. And like I said, there are dozens of ways to do that. One of the prettiest though is Google Currents.

    Currents takes your RSS subscriptions and displays them in a very handsome format that’s easy to digest and disseminate on a mobile reader. That’s assuming the publisher has taken the time to set it up correctly. If not, it’s going to be fairly standard. Which is fine, but some of the smarter publishers out there have designed their Currents pages rather nicely and look quite sharp. While I don’t claim to be a nominee for designer of the year awards, we’ve spruced up our page a bit, added a table of contents and given ourselves a unique look.

    Currents will import your already existing RSS subscriptions from Google (or wherever) and also give suggestions for more you might like as well as browse content via various categories). If you already have Google Currents, then we’re easy to find! Just search for Row Three and we’ll pop right up on top of the list (in theory). If not, just download the free app from your respective device’s market and you’ll be off and running in no time.


    Currents is available for free on most devices:

              

  • 25 Oct

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    Drop Us a Voice Message on the Row Three Hotline [612.367.ROW3]

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    That’s right. Gone are the days of having to spend hours trying to type out your thoughts with the obvious sarcasm displaying itself as it should. Now you can contact us via the antiquated telephone* and just leave your angry comments or questions about the site using your own unique voice!

    Starting right now, you can dial 612-367-ROW3 (7693) and leave a message at the tone. You can mention a specific post, call out a RowThree staff member or even another commentator (be polite please… unless you’re calling about Matt Gamble – in which case you should let him have it!).

    OR you can enter YOUR number into the widget below, and we’ll call your phone and prompt you for a message:

     
    We’ll have the ability to rebroadcast your message on the Cinecast and possibly/probably embed your recorded voice right into the appropriate comment section of any post on RowThree. From here on out, we’ll be accepting the Cinecast Homework Assignments via this system!

    WARNING: We’ll of course screen calls for content and make judgments about posting voice messages appropriately. But please since you may want this voice mail public, please refrain from revealing any personal information like email addresses or phone numbers. Unless of course you want that information public.

    *This hotline is a free service and no different from any other regular telephone number. However, RowThree is not responsible for any minutes or dollars charged that are applied to your phone bill as a result of calling us. 612 is an area code in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. Please be aware of any long distance or international rate charges that might apply when calling this number.

    We look forward to hearing from you!

  • 20 Aug

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    RowThree Reader Survey

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    We need your help.

    We’ve had a few ideas floating around the Third Row about ways in which we might improve or expand the site. But before we take Row Three towards any particular direction, we want to make sure it’s the right one! Or maybe we should simply maintain the status quo.

    And then of course there are some other things that we’re just generally curious about our readers/listeners. We want this to be the best movie community it can be and to do that we need to know as much as possible (that’s relevant) about the people who interact with the third row. So the best way to do that is to get your input directly. So that’s where you come in.

    We want/need your help in determining what’s right and what’s wrong with Row Three! If you’ve got a few extra minutes, we’d really appreciate your help with a little feedback by taking a short survey. Thank YOU for your time on this and continuing to be part of what has, so far, been one of the best movie discussion communities on the interwebs.

    If you haven’t got the time right now, please stop back soon to help us out with this. We really do value your opinion. At the very least, please feel free to drop any thoughts you might have about the site into the comment section below. THANKS!


    TAKE THE SURVEY

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  • 25 Mar

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    RowThree Mobile App is Here!

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    For those of you with smart phones, you can now sit in the third row pretty much anywhere you go with the brand new (and pretty spiffy) RowThree Mobile App. The app should be available on all of the major platforms: Android, Apple (both iPhones and iPads), Windows phones, Bada and Blackberry.

    We’re not actually in the various stores/markets quite yet – there are restrictions, an application process and fees that if nothing else just takes some time to process through the appropriate channels. We’ll get in there over the next couple of weeks;but fear not! You can have the app glistening on your home screen right now [absolutely FREE]!

    Features:
    – Instant streaming of all three podcasts hosted on R3 (Cinecast, Mamo!, After the Credits)
    – Up to date postings of all content at RowThree (news, trailers, op/ed, DVD listings, film festivals, etc.)
    – Reviews of all the latest movies and DVDs we can get our hands on
    – Keep up on the conversation with all of the most recent commentary from readers and contributors
    – Track our Twitter and Facebook and even add us to your like/follow feed
    – all of this and a few other goodies

    Download instructions:
    1) Point your browser to the download page: (rowthree.mobapp.at/)
    2) Enter your email address. We’ll send you a unique URL code via email.
    3) Open your email with your mobile device and click on your unique URL and the download should be begin within seconds
    4) Install the download and you’re ready to go!

    OR

    1) If you have a bar code scanner on your device just scan the image below and you’ll be prompted to download the app:

    We’re still sort of in the experimental stage on this right now, but having tested it with users around the globe and across various platforms, everything seems to be working swimmingly. It may not be the snazziest of movie related apps out there, but it’s certainly a worthy addition to your app library and fans of RowThree will likely get some use out of the very clean controls, the smoothness of its functionality and easy to navigate interface.

    If you are experiencing any glitches/problems, PLEASE let us know so we can fix it or implement these new ideas to keep things fresh. And heck, if you have any ideas for features or suggestions on how we can improve the app or keep things fresh, by all means let us know via email or drop your thoughts in the comment section below. In fact, you can contact us directly through the app controls!

    On a final note, this app is made possible partly from readers and listeners and their generous contributions. We really appreciate all you guys and gals and here’s hoping this application will further your enjoyment of the site. Cheers!

  • 19 Jan

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    Remodeling Complete. The New RowThree!

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    Welcome loyal readers and first time lurkers. What you’re seeing is the newly renovated third row of Cinema Internet. We figure you cared enough to drop by, the least we can do is make it feel a little more like home; both visually and interactively. There may be some minor glitches as the architecture of these new surroundings may still be a bit creaky. By all means LET US KNOW if there is something not working properly or that needs to addressed. Feel free to email or pop your thoughts in the comment section below.

    Other than the obvious aesthetic differences, there are a few minor tweaks we’ve made that we hope will enhance your experience during your stay with us. Off the bat, one of the first things you should check out when you arrive in your seat, is the “featured article” on the upper-right side of the page. An ever changing post highlighting something worthy of a little more discussion than your typical posting. In theory, this article will change roughly every few days. So stop back often for something new in that corner of the screen.

    Secondly, we’ve introduced “nested comments”. (*UPDATE: this is working now!*)This seems to be a helpful tool for productive film discussion as it provides a way for readers to reply directly to a comment further up in the hierarchy instead of way down at the bottom of the list where it may seem irrelevant if the discussion might have gone in another direction. This “nesting” as we call it, can go 5 comments deep. So use the feature to its fullest! Speaking of comments, the link to the comment section of a specific post from the main page is no longer at the bottom. The link is now in the upper right of the post in the form of a little speech bubble, which includes the current number of comments within that thread. Click the speech bubble to join in on the discussion.

    Social media. The individual pages for the RowThree media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) can be found at the top of the page in text only format – rather than the gaudy, obtrusive icons that once plagued the site. If you’re looking to help promote RowThre, find us on those pages and friend us, like us, kiss us, digg us, Tweet us, poke us or whatever it is that particular site might do. Of course we’re all about readers helping us out with spreading the word, so if you find a particular article you’d like to share with the world, click on the article’s title and then look for the sharing icons on the left hand side. You can auto-share to the internet’s more popular social media sites using those buttons.

    I can’t think of much else to mention. It’s pretty much the same site, but without the fugly (hopefully). Once again, we’re so appreciative to everyone who stops by – especially those that take the time to leave their thoughts and get into filmatic discussion in the various comment threads. If there’s anything that needs looking into, tweaking or outright not working properly, again, let us know immediately in the comment section for this post or just shoot us an email. We’ll try to get it fixed up as soon as possible.

    Jeff Goldblum appears courtesy of The Knights of Portugal.

  • 19 Dec

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    Holiday Schedule

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    As you may have noticed, things have been quiet in these parts for the past weekend and whatnot. As the year end holidays approach and we try to get in a little real-world social times, avoid shopping, and of course, see the 30-odd films that drop into the cinema around this time of year before New Year cut-off, it creates a sense of quiet in our little corner of the internet; snow falling on cedars if you will. Rest assured there will be at least one more cinecast before the end of the year. There is a long conversational post on Jean-Marc Vallee’s masterpiece, Cafe De Flore soon to drop. Furthermore, there is a high probability of list-y goodness, particularly in the MorePop sidebar.

    Also, given the recent events in North Korea, it’s very hard not to post the puppet version of Kim Jong-Il singing with Trey Parker’s nasal melancholy, but you’ve probably got enough of that from Twitter.

    On a final note, thanks to all the full-time and part time contributors and most especially all of our readers, commenters, and folks who keep the conversation going. You are for whom this website was most certainly designed. It has been a great and fun year, our 4th (and a bit!) in the Third Row.

  • 11 Aug

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    Chat! New RowThree Feature: “The Lounge”

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    RowThree has always been about community and discussion. That was our mission statement from day one. A place for relatively like-minded people to come together and shoot the bull on movies, flicks and films. That said, we also didn’t like the idea of a forum; we wanted the discussion to stay focused on the topic at hand and then let the conversation go where it needed to within the comment section. If it strayed off into uncharted territory, so be it; but essentially it stayed within the confines of whatever that particular subject happened to be. We’re still generally in-sync with that notion. However…

    We wanted a place where people could sound off immediately on any topic they see fit. A real time commenting section that doesn’t necessarily have to fit within the confines of a particular post. Yet we also didn’t want a separate page readers had to find and skew themselves away from RowThree. So what to do? Well, introducing the RowThree “Lounge”.

    In the lower right corner of your screen you’ll notice a little blue bar that reads, “click here to chat!”. So you can do just that. Enter in your screen name and an email address and start chatting away (the email address is only there for Gravatar purposes; we don’t collect that information in any way).

    It’s a fairly simple interface for now. We’re working on some ideas to make it a little bit more interactive and integrated better within the aesthetics of RowThree. But for now, it’s functional and working well. Clicking the bar will open up a small pop-up window with a running chat screen and an input field.

    Just type something profound, hit enter and voila, your voice will be seen (and heard with the alert sound). The interface will accept basic HTML tags for bold, italics and larger fonts. It apparently does not accept image tags at the moment but that’s something we’re working on a remedy for – along with some other neat ideas. Another small hitch is that for some reason it will not auto-scroll when each message arrives; you’ll have to do that yourself (we’re working on a fix for this). Otherwise, everything seems to work well.

    So for now, feel free to sound off about anything you like in there. Ask questions, talk politics, provide feedback, share interesting links, etc. And definitely give us some feedback on this new feature in the comments section of this post. What do you think? Worth keeping around or a stupid gimmick?

  • 11 Jul

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    Google+ is Proud to Add One to RowThree

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    Movies and social media just got a little closer as the awesome new Google+ is now humbled by having RowThree practicing social interaction with them.

    Google is still working on this service; tightening a few bolts here and caulking a thing or two there. But we’ve already seen G+ grow remarkably over the last few days and a few rumblings of people making this their go to spot for home social media. You can find all of our contributors there as well as some neat stories and ideas you might not find on the RowThree main page. So come hang out and interact with us. It’ll be a ball!

    Readers can “+1″ (share) any of the posts here at RowThree by clicking the little doohickey at the bottom of each story. Better yet, you can see our profile and follow RowThree by clicking the icon in the upper right of your screen. It looks remarkably similar to this:

     
     

  • 01 Apr

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    New Feature: Gravatar “Hovercards”

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    Welcome to Friday. As our treat to you today (besides the usual awesomeness this blog provides), we’ve upgraded our commenting avatar system. As many of you know, we’re linked with Gravatar.com which is a system that allows anyone who wants to, have their commenting email address associated with a specific avatar or identifying image. Any blog at which you post your thoughts and use that specific email address when commenting and is linked with Gravatar.com will display your identifying image so that other readers will easily and quickly be able to recognize you.

    We’ve now taken this little trick a step further. For those that have recently updated their Gravatar.com profile, it is now possible to gather more information about a particular commenter just by rolling your pointer over their image. Such information may include more images, links to their social networking profiles or other frequented sites, personal descriptors, geographic location, messaging accounts or other information. Of course this information is completely voluntary and no information you don’t want displayed will show up. But it is a slick way of bringing our readers together ever closer and providing a more interactive community. Hope you like!

    For this to take effect, update your info over at Gravatar.com and check out this useful feature in any of the comments on this site hence forth. Make sure your Gravatar account is not set to “private.” As a side note, if you find any glitches or would like to make any other comments or suggestions for this site, by all means contact one of the admins and let them know about it. We obviously want to fix any bugs asap and we’re always looking to improve your experience if we can.

    Cheers and have a great weekend!

  • 22 May

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    A Saturday Reminder…

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  • 11 Feb

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    Follow RowThree on Google Buzz

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    If you’ve been keeping up with social media these days, which is becoming increasingly difficult and time consuming with all of the avenues available to us, you’ve maybe heard the BUZZ (and grumblings) about Google’s new social media linkage called…. well, BUZZ.

    Social media sites are fantastic tools for hooking up with long lost friends, finding new friends, keeping tabs on (stalking) current friends and lovers, getting all the latest gossip on any subject you can think of and finding interesting articles, stories and video. The possibilities are almost endless. RowThree has been carefully linked with both Twitter and Facebook (et. al.) for some time and it really has been a blast chatting it up and sharing movie info with so many people all around the globe.

    Google has, quite honestly, blown my mind over the past few years with almost every app and service that they provide (WAVE is a bit of a debacle, but leave that aside). If you’re not on Gmail, you’re using an inferior service. Period. The Google browser, Chrome, is the perfect browser that I’ve been searching for for over 3 years (and believe I tried alot of them!) and it actually exceeded my expectations. Enter Google BUZZ.

    After playing around on Google BUZZ for about 2 minutes yesterday, I could tell that it continues in the excellence and innovation Google was shown us time and time again. It reminds very much of Twitter, but is capable of so much more; including posting pics and video. Not to mention you’re allowed more than 140 characters (actually unlimited I think) for your updates. Beyond the posts, followers can then comment and discuss with their own words and images. It takes everything that is great about Facebook updates, Tweets, YouTube and Picassa and smashes them all together in one great application.

    Quick to join the fray, RowThree is now available to follow on BUZZ and as the days and weeks go by, we’ll continue to update and follow plenty of web sites and film fans while sharing all of the great news and op-ed stories we find in the online film world. BUZZ is yet another way to keep the spirit of RowThree expanding. We’re all about discussion here and BUZZ bridges all of us together with even more possibilities and furthers the horizon of discourse. I foresee BUZZ being quite the large bandwagon and one would do well to be on it. We’ll see you there.

     
    For more information about Google Buzz, click here or check out the video below the seats explaining it better than I ever could in words…
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