And various responses by Plex have made it pretty clear that unrestricted content is not how it’s supposed to be now. Yes they should’ve handled the introduction of discover and the watchlist much better, but the whole ‘sky is falling’ rhetoric is a bit OTT.
I really can’t see it. I get why people like it (one stop shop for content), but what does it really offer that is different from other services?
What I’m noticing is that people are tried of hunting for the next thing to watch. Everyone hates the 30 minute hunt to find a show/movie to watch. But, that leads to one of two things:
- Live Streaming - semi-preprogrammed (this is Youtube these days)
- Friend recommended watchlists (which are obviously preprogrammed).
See, auto recommendations only work to some degree. They don’t fill that “what am I in the mood for right now.” I might really enjoy Marvel movies, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch one right now. So, I’m still left with the hunt.
It only gets worse when there are multiple people watching too.
Finding the content isn’t hard, once you know what you want. Just head to IMDb or Decider or use Roku’s global search and find out where it exists.
But, maybe I’m missing something and Plex’s content offerings just aren’t fitting my needs.
I haven’t seen those responses. They have been addressing porn, but honestly I, and my family, don’t want to see a lot of other movie titles too. What is offensive is subjective. Just because most people don’t find something offensive, doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t. Why should Plex be in the position of making that decision?
I will add, I’m not trying to tell other people what is offensive either. I just want Plex to provide me with the tools to allow me to make the choice for my family and friends, who request that I do (with my local content).
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For my users probably not as they prefer using their individual services as well as Plex but not instead of. If that makes sense. None of them have shown any interest in this new offering.
Most of our content is viewed via Plex HTPC so aggregating content in one place has benefits as we like the app.
You are right though, unless the Plex offering is very good, it is far easier and more reliable to switch services when needed.
@ChuckPA - I haven’t read every single post here, so forgive me if this has been addressed.
I think it’s fine to offer a splash screen to a user, to inform them of a significant new feature.
And I like your suggestion that it be opt-in!
What I would like is to only see this message ONCE per USER.
Even if I like the feature, it’s very frustrating to be presented with the pop-up for every user on every device, over and over and over.
(Also, thank you for forum-wrangling, and hang in there!)
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I think there should be a toggle like everything else under “Online Media Sources”. Turn it on or off for you and your managed users. That is all for that aspect. If I want to disable sending search terms to 3rd party services then I should be able to.
Will I turn it off? Probably not.
As for the parental policies that is fairly obvious.
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Americans are prudes, I mean, they actually had the nerve to go to the FCC to file a complaint over the whole Chris and Will slap with a whopping 66+ filed complaints, which the media also went OTT to report. It resulted in the FCC stating that it was going to take those complaints SERIOUSLY.
It’s the intent. If Plex didn’t intend to have this happen, then fine, fix it but apologize and fix it ASAP. They seem to have sat on this for a bit. This also follows a pattern for Plex when they launch new shiny things all the while dismissing what else has been asked for.
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if you have an apple tv, or get a chance to play with one, check out the “tv” app on there. that is what first got me into this kind of content discovery feature. there are curated sections, genre sections, etc… and they aggregate content from within the apps that you install or a select few that have partnered with apple to offer paid content, as well as paid rentals from apple. my dream initially was that plex add an index to our media to that app, however, turns out apple needs to keep the entire list of content and that is sort of a privacy nightmare for users of plex. but if it could work that would have been perfect. fast forward to now, this is very clearly the vision of discover, and if we all stop complaining about it some of us who actually like recommendations can get a pretty cool feature. additionally i would like plex to implement some social features like each user on a server could have a list of recommendations that get a hub or something idk. but yeah when all the kinks are worked out i would actually use discover and the watchlist features.
i actually think plex should take it a step further and offer ways to authenticate inside plex via hbo max login for example and the content play directly in plex, similar to how tidal works.
but i feel like i’m in the minority.
so i feel like i expressed this to you before, but i am pretty sure what you are asking for already exists. it takes some leg work by you creating labels on media and such i will attach a screenshot to the library restrictions settings which exists for every user managed or shared.
You’re not in the minority for these new features. I would have been more open to these new shiny toys as soon as they had implemented powerful utilities towards granularity of our settings such as library locks 
or instead of pins, authentication through TouchID or QR code.
It was only recently that Netflix incorporated pins on accounts and I acknowledge Plex was the first to do so, now it just seems like their playing catch up with streaming services without innovation that would keep themselves unique to the ALL IN ONE PLACE approach as they want to be awarded for. Netflix solely created a Kids profile with no filth.
I want features that would be considered the ultimate family app and that includes being mindful of security features.
They can add whatever bells and whistles all they want but if their app no longer works how I wish, 
peace out. Customer relations has ended.
They failed to address these issues prior and now have a boat load of multiple things to address, besides the content that was accidentally displayed through Discover.
Again, all avoidable had they put mechanisms in place, which would have set the foundation for what they want to do.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I use the tools you mentioned extensively. Probably much more than most do.
I’m just wanting tools for outside content restriction as well. Honestly, for me and my friends, just an OFF SWITCH will do.
ok you keep saying this though and it makes it very confusing on what you are talking about. so then i will go back to our previous conversation and say i do not believe you, or me, or any admin has the right to decide what feature of plex, that we don’t control, our users are allowed to access. that is extreme. those users should demand their own controls and i am in favor of that. not the admin.
One thing keeps bugging me about this whole Discover thing, what discussions were taking place inside of Plex where they decided NOT to include a “Disable” option as they have for all their other outside sources offering?
It wasn’t just a mistake. It was deliberate.
So, what were the reasons where Plex decided not to include the Disable?
I believe those reasons would be very telling about what type of company Plex has become.
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this is because discover can be hidden, and in search this stuff appears in its own section as sort of a “hey plex user this thing exists on another app” kind of way. should they provide an off switch per user like the other content? yes absolutely. lets push for that. pushing for dictator admin privileges i cannot get behind.
whatever happened to the “search only from pinned content” or whatever it was called though? that could have also saved people from this feature.
Plex - I paid for your software, a rather pricey lifetime license mind you.
This software runs on MY hardware. I do not EVER want to see content that is not immediately available on MY server, whether it’s Suzy Sucks ■■■■■ 14 or Mickey Mouse’s Playhouse.
If the media is NOT ON MY SERVER, I DO NOT WANT TO SEE RESULTS FOR IT.
This must be fixed asap. I don’t care if it’s a discover tab, if it’s search results, or if it’s logging in to the app. I don’t ever want to see ■■■■ that I have not specifically curated. STOP.
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I agree. And a per user off switch seems to be one of the things the devs are currently working on.
See @BigWheel’s post from a few days ago:
oh so another entry in the setting section on the search bar specifically? yeah nobody even knows that exists lol.
I’m not sure how any dev with ethics can continue to work for a company where the scumbags in management thought that this abomination was acceptable. Fire every single one of the people who were responsible for subjecting users to this unmitigated disaster. Now.
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Competent companys let their paying users use ad-free. I can list off dozens of companys that force advertisements on their free leech customers and not if you paid into the product.
We can’t be users and products at the same time. It’s either or. Otherwise you are crawling into unethical business territory. Kinda sounds like shady cable/satellite companys.
Yes, giving a 3rd party such as justwatch our search terms and then displaying 3rd party services for media is ADVERTISEMENT verbatim. If Plex is not somehow getting paid for this then they truly are incompetent ignorant people.
Y’all should really quit alienating your community. It’s truly disgusting. We have other options.
100+ employees and jack gets done as far as fixing long standing bugs. What are you all doing over there? Like what exactly goes on over there? Just think about it for a second. 100+ employees… wow that’s a big chunk of resources.
We need 3 people to screw in the lightbulb though don’t we?
This doesn’t fit the narrative you’re trying to paint for Plex Movies and TV Shows under the managed users. I too have voiced my concern with additional features to further lock those down. I do want the kid friendly channels to exist from the Plex streaming channels but there’s no granularity to HIDE or lock down the other channels within the guide, only to add those kid channels as favorites. Additionally, the WHATS ON NOW hub shows OTHER channels that are right on the managed users HOME, again, something we all can’t change through the current rating system in place.
And again, I don’t think I’m asking too much here. I’ve seen this be raised for concern on Disney+ and in fact they just rolled out a pop up that has notified the user that new content will be rolling out for mature audiences on the platform and if I choose to want to upgrade my account to accept that content going forward, then I need to put a password in to activate that, otherwise the content in its current form on my profile will stay suitable for ages 14 and under.
