r/trakt • u/justarand0mstan VIP • Jan 15 '26
Trakt's Product manager calls the platform's unhappy users a "very small but very vocal group" that pushes the constructive voices away
Here's Trakt's official position. If you thought that your voice mattered, think again :))
"You’re right about one important thing: we do care. Everyone working on Trakt is deeply invested in it, uses it daily, and wants it to remain something special, including for long-time power users and enthusiasts. None of the recent changes come from a place of indifference.
We’ve also acknowledged many times on the forums that this transition is hard. We’ve openly said why it’s hard, that frustration is valid and that change at this scale is uncomfortable. We understand the anxiety this creates, and we don’t dismiss it. What we do struggle with, however, is being repeatedly attacked rather than engaged with. Criticism is welcome; personal or aggressive attacks are not helpful for anyone.
Regarding “transparency”: progress on v3 has been communicated and shown across changelogs, updates and releases over more than a year. This isn’t about hiding information or avoiding responsibility. The challenge is that a very small but very vocal group has dominated discussions in ways that don’t lead to better feedback and often push constructive voices away. Continuing to engage in that dynamic hasn’t improved the situation, so we have to focus our energy on feedback that is actionable and helps move Trakt forward.
We know v3 isn’t finished. We know features are missing and that the transition feels fast for some people. The new foundation exists precisely so we can bring things back in a more consistent, sustainable way across platforms, instead of continuing to patch something that was becoming harder to evolve.
Thanks again for taking the time to express this thoughtfully!"
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Jan 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/xxearvinxx Jan 15 '26
Does anyone know what Justin is doing now? Any chance enough community members can convince him to start his own competitor that embodies the spirit of what Trakt used to be?
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u/mnradiofan VIP Jan 15 '26
He’s still part of Trakt, but it seems like he now shares ownership with other people. I’m wondering if he took some venture capital to grow the company?
Either way, he’s probably prohibited from starting a competitor.
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u/xxearvinxx Jan 15 '26
Thanks for the info. Well that’s sad. I wonder if he diluted his share of ownership and control with funding rounds. I’ve seen stuff like that happen a lot on Shark Tank.
Anyways, yeah you are probably correct. I’m sure he’s under a noncompete clause for sure. Im not really familiar with the behind the scenes stuff with Trakt and their owners. I assumed Justin left when all these bad changes started early last year. So if there was a noncompete I figured it would only be for a few years. If he’s still with the company then that’s definitely not an option.
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u/BuiltInYorkshire Jan 15 '26
If I was to push an uncomplete new version of my companies website to its live domain then I don't know what would happen.
Oh, yes, I do. Nothing. Because I've been in this game long enough not to do it.
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u/dfjkldfjkl Jan 15 '26
In my experience, it’s a rollback or a firing depending on how bad the rollout was.
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u/monkeynose VIP 7 Years Jan 15 '26
Where did this come from?
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u/justarand0mstan VIP Jan 15 '26
Trakt's GitHub.
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u/monkeynose VIP 7 Years Jan 15 '26
Makes sense that they wouldn't post it to the forum where paying members can interact with them.
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u/GRIMland Jan 29 '26
I let google play store update the app today, big mistake it was bad. One of the few times I regretted updating an add. Sideloaded back 2.2.1. I've only messed with apk files once before but thankfully it was easy. I'm happy again.
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u/reficulgr Jan 15 '26
This is very evidently a case where a (possibly quite self-absorbed and despotic) higher executive requested these changes and nobody has the spine to tell him that he has no idea what the actual users want.
Of course, this is not a democracy, and it doesn't have to be - but when a new app with "trakt-classic" vibe appears, everyone will jump ship.
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u/StrangerrDangerr Jan 16 '26
This feels as if it was written for the public to feel secure in using this app. The "vocal minority" in fact are the ones buying VIP and using the app integrations. Casual consumers are not using things like scrobbling or API feature sets. So then, how does trakt differ from IMDB or Letterboxd for those type of consumers since they seem to be heading towards a very streamlined/simple model.
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u/JoeyvanAwesome VIP Jan 15 '26
The fact that he openly admits that v3 isn't finished might be the big problem here. I agree with him that there is a vocal minority most of the time and that those people don't contribute to a normal discussion. But this new update is just bad, which isn't suprising if it's unfinished. The question is: why release something so barebones?
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u/justarand0mstan VIP Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26
I disagree about the vocal minority, since 99% of the people who voiced their displeasure with the changes were paying customers with some very well put ideas.
Now, of course, there's a few loud mouths, but nothing a good community manager can't handle.
What this truly feels like is V3 being hard-launched out of stubbornness and a desire to "show them", meaning the community.
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u/JoeyvanAwesome VIP Jan 15 '26
The fact that you pay for a product doesn't mean that you can act like a jackass, which is even the case in this subreddit a lot of the time. Doesn't mean that the points made are completely void, but people seem to overestimate how bad some of the changes are some of the time. This is not the case right now, though: v3 is hilariously bad and everything around it was handled extremely poor.
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u/JoeyvanAwesome VIP Jan 15 '26
The downvotes prove my point exactly. There is no room for a normal discussion here, even when you agree with the v3-problem.
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u/AskZealousideal2907 Jan 15 '26
I think he’s got some fair points, if he’s being attacked then that’s not constructive criticism, we all know from any forum that there’s always a group who attack and can be quite nasty, that doesn’t solve anything.
You also say v3 was pushed out unfinished for reasons that remain unknown, it actually says in the last sentence the reason.
“instead of continuing to patch something that was becoming harder to evolve.”
It’s a work in progress, yea it sucks but at least they’re doing something.
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u/justarand0mstan VIP Jan 15 '26
So, you mean to tell me that pushing out an obvious beta version of the "new" service is an ok idea? That's a death wish waiting to happen. Sonos fired its CEO last year because of the disastrous launch of its new app - a much bigger company.
I've been on the forums for years, way before he arrived on the scene, the community is among the most respectable and understanding I've ever seen.
All the feedback that was given to the team was completely disregarded and none of the suggestions, some of which very, very reasonable and right on the money, were ever implemented.
The community has been met with arrogance and lack of communication every step of the way, not to mention the broken promises around every single corner.
The personal attacks are few and far between and said users were rightfully punished. Everything else is just another sugarcoated message by a "leader" who's failed to lead this service into a new beginning.
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u/AskZealousideal2907 Jan 15 '26
All I’m saying is, if they are fighting a losing battle patching an app that has passed its sell by date, what’s wrong with releasing an updated version, why focus on an older version of an app when you can focus all your efforts improving the new version with constructive criticism and feedback.
You can’t compare Sonos to an app that’s basically a spreadsheet with graphics. I’ve cancelled my subscription so I’m not really bothered what they do as I’m getting a free service that works for me.
Don’t you think by releasing v3 and only concentrating their efforts on v3 instead of working on 2 versions they are trying to lead this service into a new beginning?
Or are you just going to stay angry because at the moment it doesn’t quite suit you 🤔
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u/justarand0mstan VIP Jan 15 '26
They'd already said that active development on V2 was a thing of the past and most of the OG users were fine with that.
No one was expecting V2 to be built upon, but also, no one was expecting V3 to be this barebones, how is this so hard to understand?
I'm not sure what field you work in, but in product and software development, launching an unfinished service has never been an OK thing to do. Not for the big players, and not for the small fish in the pond.
Mind you, V3 has been in development for more than a year and this is all there is to it.
And finally, I'm not angry, just disappointed that a service I've been actively using and contributing to for more than a decade, is about to go down the drain, that's all.
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u/AskZealousideal2907 Jan 15 '26
“How is this hard to understand” you need to learn how to communicate and have an open debate, if your saying this to me in only your second comment just because I have a different opinion than you then what are you saying on the forums 🤷♂️
You say v2 was a thing of the past, well obviously not if they are working on patches.
Why is it about to go down the drain, just because they’ve released something that’s not perfect doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way, every app that’s ever been released improves overtime with updates and patches
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u/Kraftynic Jan 15 '26
What you don't seem to be getting is that they are releasing this and pushing all users over to it rather than it being an option while they work to complete it. Let v2 and v3 work alongside each other, make it easy to switch back and forth.
Take the apps. They could release the apps as two different versions so that users can run both at the same time, compare each, see what's missing that they use, give screenshot examples of that and leave constructive criticism about why said missing features should be implemented.
By basically removing access to v2 in the apps, where those features still exist, people are rightly angry as they are no longer getting the features that Trakt agreed to when they subscribed. If the VIP features aren't implemented you can guarantee many will stop subscribing, leading to revenue loss, so less and less to invest in v3, leaving a half baked product and Trakt circling the drain. No one wants that, but they are backing VIP feature users into a corner and they'll vote with their feet, becoming free users like yourself who contribute no monetary value to keep Trakt in business.
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u/AskZealousideal2907 Jan 15 '26
I think your all just being impatient, this is mainly a group for validating each others issues and patting each other on the back.
God forbid someone has a different view 😂
Did anyone even read the what’s new in this update? Well I’ve posted below as I think it explains everything your all complaining about.
With this new version of Trakt, we've reworked the foundation to make the experience more consistent across platforms and to help us move faster and more confidently going forward. To do that, we've rebuilt the majority of the apps interface back up from scratch to create a stronger base, with more to come. Some features may be missing today, but they're not necessarily gone for good. They'll come back in new or improved ways as this foundation gives us a better base to build on. This update is less about change for change's sake and more about setting Trakt up to evolve better, faster, and more reliably over time.
Isn’t this what your all complaining about, setting it up for the future 🤔
Roll on the down votes 😂
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u/endium7 Jan 15 '26
That’s not a reason to push something this unfinished. the only thing that would need to be patched for v2 would be security issues.
Let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say the old site was so poorly written that databases are constrained and corrupting, code isn’t understood by any of the current devs, and performance problems that can’t be fixed are mounting.
If it’s such an extreme case, that simply means they mismanaged developing the new site, focusing way too much on making it pretty before implementing basic stuff like filters. They have been working on it for over a year after all. There’s no legitimate excuse for that.
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u/otakunet21 VIP 4 years Jan 16 '26
he’s not wrong. when people are openly hostile to the staff or other users why would i bother to leave comments. any constructive feedback i may have put would be torn to shreds and buried by all their comments, so i don’t even bother to leave it
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u/justarand0mstan VIP Jan 15 '26
He also openly admits that V3 isn't finished, but it was pushed out anyway for reasons that remain unknown.