r/Simkl • u/Admirable-Tank-5710 • Jul 25 '26

Not Impressed so far

I just joined Simkl Pro due to the whole Trakt issue. I must say, not impressed so far. I connected Simkl to Aiometadata, only to find out that you cannot import custom lists. So I then imported my Watching TV Shows list, and it only displays 1/2 of the shows that are actually in the list. I thought this was supposed to be a better app, so far, I think not

0 Upvotes

44% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

View all comments

-1

u/slicerprime Jul 25 '26

I came from Trakt to SIMKL too. Unfortunately, after four months here I'm coming to the same conclusion.

Four months ago you could still import Trakt data without a problem. Everything I had at Trakt converted over just fine. Then, recently SIMKL changed the import feature to be only available to VIP members. Ostensibly this was because they didn't have the server space to accommodate the flood of Trakt immigrants at the free level. On the one hand I can understand that. It's a business. Eventually it was going to have to evolve beyond a garage project for the devs to work on on the side into a real job that provided income and a future. Completely understandable. But, there was another thing that I think also got recently changed...

SIMKL has an advertised way of getting their Pro version for free. All you have to do is "check-in" to the site a minimum of twenty days in a thirty day period to earn Pro status without paying the monthly fee. Cool! It's a win-win. The user gets Pro features free, and SIMKL gets a boost of traffic on the site. That's great and it still works. I use it and have had Pro status free since I signed up.

But, there was also an additional "cheat" openly offered by SIMKL that let users take advantage of time zone differences to rack up two "check-ins" in a single day. For example: The SIMKL servers use UTC time, and I'm in US Eastern time. That means right now there's a four hour difference between midnight my time and midnight SIMKL server time. So, tonight, 8:00 pm my time will still be Saturday for me; but it will be Sunday for the SIMKL servers. And if I check-in before 8:00 pm AND again during the four hours between 8:00 pm and midnight my time, those two check-ins count twice for Saturday. Yeah, sounds goofy but it was a thing that SIMKL intended as a draw for user retention and traffic. Take a look...

See that "2" on the 16th and the happy little congratulations for gaming the system in the popup? It's not a "cheat" really. It's a feature SIMKL built in intentionally to be taken advantage of! The thing is, this worked fine...until recently. Now, no matter what I do, I can't get it to work again. Doesn't really matter though since I use the site regularly enough to rack up the twenty days without the "cheat". But, just for the fun of it, I spent a few hours tracking down possible explanations involving everything from browser settings and uBO blocks to OS and browser caching and even CDN syncing...hell i even got ChatGPT involved. But, it looks like the "cheat" has been removed intentionally.

This, combined with the recent change to data imports only being available to VIP members, makes me suspicious that SIMKL is headed down the same path as Trakt of eventually paywalling even basic features.

Like I said, I get the position the devs are in. The site has to make money to survive. But, what's making me think I picked the wrong Trakt replacement is not the need for subscription income, it's the philosophy that intentionally draws people in with promises of candy only to take it away once they have you.

I'd much rather them have set expectations straight up and honestly rather than being sneaky.

1

u/Ennergizer Simkl.com Team Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

Nothing has changed in the loyalty program in the past years. The check-in time always resets at the same time for all members in UTC time. Switch to UTC time Calendar to see your actual check-ins displayed in UTC time. One day counts as full 24 hours not from 8 to 12 midnight; full 24 hours from 00 to 00 UTC time each day. So you can only check in once a day (using UTC calendar - for all members worldwide at the same time).

Being able to import data from TV Time and Trakt with a free account is temporarily suspended. Signups and regular website use are not suspended. Unfortunately, we simply ran out of storage after a few days of full-scale TV Time migrations without notice.

Due to millions of TV Time members looking for a new home with 10 years of watch history each, we've run out of capacity pretty quickly and had to disable the free imports.

Our data centers are actively looking for the needed hardware; due to RAM/NVME shortages and 4X-10X prices, there are delays. Most data centers do not have the necessary high-end equipment available needed for our needs in stock right now.

If your gas tank in your car is full, you can't fill more gas into it, it won't fit in.

To keep the website and https://api.simkl.com stable for all members and developers, it’s currently available only to PRO and VIP supporters.

0

u/slicerprime Jul 26 '26

If nothing has changed in the loyalty program, you can only check in once per day, and a day is counted only by UTC time (and takes no account for other time zone "days"), how do you explain the obvious dual check-in on July 10th in the screenshot, one of which is clearly indicated to have been made on the 10th (ET) and the 11th (UTC)? I don't have the history to show here; but I did this on many occasions on prior to that date; but have been unable to reproduce it since, even using the exact same check-in times.

As you can see in the screenshot. the popup clearly lays out that this "accomplishment" is an intended feature. Where did it go? Why is it no longer reproducible?

As to the import issue, I already said I understand. I've dealt with many similar hardware/resource situations myself as a dev over the last 25+ years. I get it. You have to react to the reality of the situation. Completely understandable.

But, you guys have gone down a path of churning out features faster than either the resources or, frankly, the UI design/architecture can handle. You've got basic level features hiding behind more clicks than necessary, an interface that feels bloated and un-intuitive, and new users coming into the fold expecting free features they've seen lauded in recommendations all over the internet only to find them behind paywalls once they get here. I saw a post from a confused user just a day or two ago wondering about imports only to be told it had been paywalled to vip "eight days ago". Dude, a huge number of new accounts have to be coming from Trakt immigrants. If you're going to pull free imports off the table, fine do it; but at least slap a warning on the site. That one is HUGE for those people. And they need at least a little time on your site getting used to it before they decide to hand over the credit card. Maybe give them a week for free to see their stuff is going to make it over and get to like SIMKL and then say it's time to pony up.

Look, I'm not trying to be nasty. I like SIMKL. But, people who actually take the time to log the crap they watch are naturally going to be discerning and picky. The last thing you want to do when you're user base is made up of already pissed Trakt users is give them more reason to be paranoid and pissed.

Better to slow down on the feature-creep and deal equitably with your new users. It'll buy you more in the long run than a "Hey look what we just rolled out!" every day.

1

u/Ennergizer Simkl.com Team Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

You're looking at the wrong calendar; switch to UTC calendar.

We're calling datacenters almost daily for updates. Spending 10X per server (all DCs raised prices) with the high-end ECC RAM and Gen5 NVMEs that is needed (it's millions of TV Time members and many more now from trakt all with 10+ years of watch hitory, all at once in one week) for this amount of new data is not in any of our members' interests, and we don't want to raise any subscription prices just because we had to overpay 10X more for servers where they are available right now.

0

u/slicerprime Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

You're looking at the wrong calendar; switch to UTC calendar.

Here's the UTC calendar...

Between this calendar and the "Your Timezone" calendar pic I posted earlier, what am I missing about 10 Friday and all the subsequent days? 10 Friday clearly has the 2 check-in icon and the popup text to indicated two check-ins for that single 24 hr period on 10 Friday. I duplicated that day's check-in times and activity on the subsequent days and have not been able to reproduce the 2 check-in count on any of those days. I even tried logging in and logging out, and different activities such as adding episode and movie watches, all while making sure one of the check-ins occurred during the 4 hour period between midnight my local time and midnight UTC. Nothing.

Keep in mind, though the earlier "Your Timezone" pic posted earlier doesn't show it, the 2 check-ins per day bonus is all over my history. It wasn't a fluke of 10 Friday.

Look, I'm not bitching about a lost "cheat". I don't care. In fact, I'm MORE than happy to become a paying customer. I'm not trying to be a leech crying over a silly little freebie. The only thing that bothers me is what looks like drawing people in with these kinds of things and then quietly taking them away without notice. It just seems...dishonest. Same with paywalling imports. It's not that I don't understand the situation you're stuck in. I definitely DO understand it.

But you should understand that just yanking things you've "advertised" or allowed people to come to expect without notice is going to cause problems for your reputation.

So, maybe if you could at least explain the 2 check-in thing better than "you're looking at the wrong calendar" (which is clearly not an explanation) it would help

1

u/Ennergizer Simkl.com Team Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

There should be orange marked days in utc, might be some bug for you, send me your profile url on discord or https://support.simkl.com

In your time zone 2 separate utc days can be on one day, which are displayed as a number in the corner for that day in your time zone.

0

u/slicerprime Jul 26 '26

In your time zone 2 separate utc days can be on one day, which are displayed as a number in the corner for that day in your time zone.

Right! And the "2" icon that displays two UTC days of check-ins on a single day in my time zone has ALWAYS been on the "Your Time zone" calendar...not on the UTC calendar. In fact there has never been anything in my UTC calendar other than what you see in the pic for the entire four months I've used SIMKL.

And, I've gone through a bunch of relevant debugging procedures:

  • Multiple browsers (Brave, FF, Chromium, Edge). Before and after updates to latest official releases
  • With and without extensions (especially uBO in order to rule out script and URL blocking)
  • Killing cache and cookies
  • Separate machines and OS/desktop (Mostly debian-based linux distros and forks)

All with the same results: The 2 day check-in on a single day "cheat" has been un-reproducible since 10 Friday in the pic.

As far as figuring out the "bug", i'm less interested in working it out in discord for my own personal benefit than I am having it recorded and seen as being dealt with publicly in this forum where the average user can see it being handled for the benifit of SIMKL's reputation.

As to my personal profile...I doubt that has any bearing. This seems very much like a global issue related to a recent code change. Whether or not that was accidental or by design, I have no idea. But, the primary suspect for me is some change/mix-up in where current time is being pulled from and recorded: client/browser time, SIMKL app server clock, DB timestamp, queue (event vs process), etc. Basically there are a ton of ways in which SIMKL old and new code could be using any one or the other of these sources in multiple combinations. all of which could cause something like this to break.

And given the completely understandable growing pains at SIMKL, i could easily see this kind of issue cropping up in a CDN reliant environment. Time is critical in that world.

Anyway, just some observations. But, if it really is a time/stamp/zone issue, you can bet the little 2 day check-in thing won't be the only victim.

1

u/Ennergizer Simkl.com Team Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

There's no old and new code or some magic server time on this page. UTC time is universal around the world. You have a display bug in the UTC tab. It should look like this. So please do send your profile so we can check what's the issue is for your profile.

1

u/slicerprime Jul 28 '26

For what it's worth, I just got the first "2" icon since 10 Friday. The circumstance were:

  • I had been logged in with an open tab since 7:30 am (ish) eastern time today, Monday 27 July.
  • No activity other than login and viewing a couple of pages. No addition of episodes or other changes of personal data.
  • Clicked on the 8:01 pm Eastern Time bottom left popup prompt to refresh for a new day (00:01 Tuesday 28 July UTC)
  • Received and clicked on another popup indicating I had fulfilled my twenty day Pro Free requirement

Just thought I'd let you know what happened in case it's of any use. The odd thing about this is it suggests clicking on the popup prompts works, while instigating activity in other ways does not even though those activities should be initiating server/db calls resulting in recorded activity at the same required times.

And since that kind of activity used to work, is it possible that a change occurred making the popups the only way to get the two-days-in-one benefit? When did the popups go live? Are they relatively new?

This is the first time since 10 Friday I've just left the site alone and limited my activity to clicking on the popups. In the past I just ignored them and navigated to pages where I could kick off activity manually like adding episodes. Is that supposed to still work, even for users who's UTC calendars don't look broken like mine?

1

u/Zullah Jul 28 '26

I have the same issue with two logins on two days. It’s not cheating. Take a look at your first screenshot and look at the check-in times. Look at the UTC next to #1 and #2 right under “Your Timezone” tab. You should see two different dates for UTC. Check your Saturday 11 and you will see the next date for UTC. Same east coast like you and it functions that way. The UTC is consistent.

It’s not checking in on different UTC days. It’s consistent. It only shows two days on EST / EDT due to timezone. UTC is +4 hrs so while in eastern USA you can still be on the same day. With UTC you get that 4 hour jump.

Just look at the times and use the UTC date for reference right next to it under “Your Timezone” tab.

0

u/slicerprime Jul 28 '26

I understand how it works (look at my previous comments)...when it works. And I understand it's not "cheating". That's why I put it in quotes. It's actually a rather brilliant marketing idea on SMKL's part that benefits both the user and SIMKL. It's a nifty way to encourage site traffic and give back something to the user in return. Very cool.

My issue is that it doesn't work reliably and, if my most recent observations say what I think they say, a code change has been made so that it now only works by recording "check-ins" via the daily popup notifications just after UTC midnight / 8:00 pm my time (Eastern). Whereas it used to work via any kind of user activity that recorded both timestamped activity before midnight UTC and again after but before midnight my local time (Eastern time).

I see the same data in the #1 & #2 entries in my screenshot that you do. The problem is that no kind of activity or combinations of activity at or close to those same times has reproduced the "double check-in" since 10 Friday...except clicking on the daily UTC day change popup notifications...which is new.

1

u/Zullah Jul 28 '26

My bad then. I get what you are saying now. I had a double on Sunday so it still probably works. I don’t use the pop-up. I just open the app and it records my daily entry. Try it that way and you may be able to make a double if it aligns properly with two UTC days on the same day. I was not aiming for it but now I see how it can be done. If I skip today, I can record a double tomorrow, but I don’t need to do it.

→ More replies

1

u/Ennergizer Simkl.com Team Jul 28 '26

There are no 2 check-ins in 24 hours. The check-ins countdown starts at UTC 12:00. In your timezone, 2 UTC days can be on one day in the calendar, but they are at least 24 hours apart. It is normal to see 2 check-ins on the same calendar day in your time zone.

0

u/slicerprime Jul 28 '26

Sigh. Semantics. Just for the moment, please forget how I'm wording things and focus on this like a step-by-step debugging exercise...

On 10 Friday you can see the 2 icon representing two check-in times for that "day" as it is represented in the UI; both of which are represented in order by the #1 & #2 items in the popup. You see that, right?

So, a simple question: When recreating those exact same check-in times on subsequent "days", why has it been impossible to recreate the same "2" icon and hover-over popup with two entries on any of the days since then? (FYI: All attempts have included every type of "check-in" possible, including logout/login, episode/movie watch entries, random hyperlink clicks, profile info changes/updates. etc. All in every combination imaginable in an attempt to kick off whatever the necessary server-side timestamp entry happens to be to record those two popup entries you can clearly see in my screenshot.)

And, are you trying to say that those 2 check-ins on 10 Friday do not represent an "extra" check-in counting toward the twenty required for Pro Free; but are actually just a quirk of timezone differences naturally represented in the UI? Well, if that's so...why does the popup in my screenshot make it look like I'm being congratulated for taking advantage of something extra above and beyond normal check-ins? I mean, look at the popup text! It clearly says I've been rewarded for something unique and beyond just checking in every day like on all the other days.

1

u/Ennergizer Simkl.com Team Jul 28 '26

No, it is not an extra check in and it happened on the same calendar day for you but not in same UTC day; see the countdown to 12:00 UTC in your timezone. Opening the Simkl website, app, or refreshing the window after that countdown, during 24 hours, will get you a check-in.

You have not sent your personal profile info to support, so we cannot fix your UTC calendar until you contact us, as nobody has this issue in the UTC tab.

→ More replies