What is SideReel?

SideReel is an entertainment guide and community site for television and film enthusiasts.

Why SideReel?

Simple - finding quality entertainment online or offline shouldn't be difficult - our job is to make it easy.

Who "runs" SideReel?

You do. SideReel is built and maintained by a community of entertainment enthusiasts. Wanna help?

How do I reset my password?

Click here to reset your password.

When you reset it, a new randomized password will be e-mailed to you at the address you used to sign up on SideReel. This e-mail may show up in your junk mail, so if you don't get it immediately, check your junk folder.

Once you get the new password in your e-mail, you can sign in with your username and that password. Once logged in, you can click "My Profile" and change your password.

How do I clear my activity on my profile?

If you're looking to clear your activity on SideReel, go to the Activity section of your Profile page and click "Clear".

Can I cancel my account?

Sure. If you don't wish to use a specific account, you can just click the "Log Out" link on the top right of the page.

If you want your account removed from our system, please Contact Us and we'll take care of it for you.

What is Facebook Connect?

Facebook Connect allows you to connect your SideReel user account with your Facebook account. Facebook Connect brings all sorts of fun stuff to both your SideReel and Facebook experiences starting with displaying your connected Facebook friends on your SideReel profile! Additionally, connecting with Facebook will allow you to share with your friends (and vice versa) what you're all watching and talking about on SideReel.

How do I connect if I already have a SideReel account?

If you already have a SideReel account, you need to log in to SideReel first, click the 'Facebook Connect' button and enter your Facebook information when you're prompted to do so. If you're already logged in on Facebook when you request to connect on SideReel, just verify that it's your Facebook account noted on the connect option. Click to connect and you're all set up!

How do I connect if I don't have a SideReel account?

If you don't have a SideReel account yet...no problem! You can sign up through your Facebook account. Just make sure you're logged into Facebook and bring up SideReel on a separate window. Once you click the 'Facebook Connect' button on the top navigation bar of SideReel, you'll be asked to confirm that your Facebook account is correct. At this point you'll be prompted to choose a SideReel username, which will be needed to participate on SideReel. After you've done this, you're ready to go!

Can my Facebook friends see what I'm doing on SideReel?

Only if you want them to. For any action you take on SideReel that might become part of your Facebook feed, you'll receive a prompt asking you if this is ok. Approve it if you want to or cancel if you'd rather not add it to your feed. Share as much or as little information as you'd like!

How do I watch videos?

To watch a video, go to the show's page like Lost or search by title in the search box on the top right of the site. On every SideReel page there's a link box that's categorized by season and episode. The current season of a show will always be at the top.

Click on the episode you want to watch, that link will open up to show the different links available for that episode.

SideReel indexes links to video. We do not host the actual videos. Videos are hosted by different sites, which SideReel does not control. If you are within the U.S., you should be able to watch videos from sites like ABC, NBC, CBS, Hulu and others.

Why am I having trouble viewing some videos?

Many video sites require Adobe's Flash Player to play the videos on their site, so make sure you have the latest Flash Player. Also, some video sites have better support for the FireFox browser (as opposed to Internet Explorer, Safari or Opera browsers). SideReel recommends that you install and use FireFox.

Sometimes links to videos break because those videos have been moved or removed. However, often a video just needs to finish loading. To enable to video to load, pause that video (without playing it) for a minute so that it can load, then click on the play button.

Does watching videos cost anything?

SideReel is free to use. Most of the links on SideReel point to free videos. Some links point to content that you have to pay for, such as video from Amazon and iTunes. Please remember that if you join a service that you have to pay for, that service is not provided by SideReel and SideReel has no control over that service.

How do I add images to my posts on SideReel?

To Add an image, try the following:

[Image:http://www.sidereel.com/image.jpg | width=100px | height=200px]

Be careful not to make the image too large, as it might overwhelm your post or the page. If you don't add the size, it will show up as its actual size.

How do I add a link to another site?

To add a link, try the following:

[http://getreel.sidereel.com Get your entertainment news fix]

This will show up as: Get your entertainment news fix. The first part of the entry is the URL of the link, then a space, then whatever text you want to be linked.

How do I add an internal link to another page on SideReel?

To add an internal link, try the following:

[[The Office]] creates a link to The Office on SideReel with name of the page as the text.

Contact us if you need a hand.

Where to Post

On all SideReel pages, there are three sections for three types of posts: News, Reviews, and Discussion.

• Reviews: If you want to write about an episode of a show or talk about what you think about a show, movie or video in general, go to the Reviews section and click "Add a Review" to the far right of the Reviews title bar.
• News: If you want to post a news tidbit or news article about a show, movie, or video, do the same in the News section.
• Discussion: The Discussion section is a great place to post any questions you have about the show, movie, or video, and any questions or comments you have about what's happening on that SideReel page.

If you select the incorrect type of post, you can reclassify it while in edit mode which shows up as "Type" under the title block.

Any post you make will show up in section you selected on the SideReel page, and on your SideReel profile.

Do's of Posting

• Post news and gossip you find about a show! Spoilers are fine as long as users are fairly warned at the beginning of the post that spoilers are included, and no spoilers are included in your post title.
• Links to news and gossip articles are great so users can read more about it. You can link with brackets around the link for the article, space and then the title.
• If you see a post you enjoy reading or have something to say about, comment away! On any post, you'll find 'add a comment' to the top right of the post. When you click this, you'll be able to type in your comment, and when you submit it, it will show up at the bottom of that post.
• Ask questions! That's what discussion is all about, so feel free to post any questions you have about a show or what's happening on the page in the discussion section and get a conversation going with other fans.
• Do write reviews even if you feel like you're not an expert. If you watch it, you're the expert! Feel free to review an episode, or a show or movie as a whole. Users are often looking for recommendations through reviews on a page, or want to see what others thought of an episode, so your input is always great.

Dont's of Posting

• Please refrain from any profanity as we have users of all ages and we'd like your help to keep the site clean and appropriate. If you see an inappropriate post, you can click 'report this as inappropriate' at the bottom of the post which tags it to be reviewed by site mods and admins.
• Please refrain from criticizing other users in posts or comments. If you have something to say to a user that doesn't apply to the post content, keep it respectful, and please send it directly to them in the form of a 'compliment' which will appear on his/her profile.
• Avoid including show, episode, or movie spoilers in your post title, and please make it clear if you're posting spoilers.
• Please do not put links to watch videos in a post unless it's part of a news story or otherwise relevant. If you have links to watch the show or movie, please add these only to the link box on the page. Posts to promote links will be considered spam and will be removed.
• If a post is spam or any sort of advertisement, it will be removed from the site.
• If a post contains profanity or other inappropriate content, it will be edited to remove the inappropriate content, or removed from the site if the post contains more inappropriate content than good content.

Do's of Link Adding

• Adding working links is good!
• When adding links, make sure to enter information in the "description/title" section. Do not add info like "Part 1" in the episode line as this will cause your link to be a separate section instead of going under that episode as it should.
• Adding the source of the link in the description is also helpful.
• When adding links for non-episodes such as a site with information about the video or a fan site, check out the link box to see what categories are already added and add yours to the category it fits in or tab down from Season to select Category when adding your link and make a new appropriately titled category for your link.

Dont's of Link Adding

• Do not add links to infringing videos and content.
• If you run a video site or work for a video website, adding good, working links is a good thing - but taking over the link box with your links is NOT!
• Do not remove other working links to push your own link to the top of a section.
• Do not add links without the season or episode for the sake of making it an outlying link - your links will be seen plenty well by anyone looking for it when they click on the season and episode.
• Do not remove your own links and then re-add them to push your links to the top.
• Do not add links to sites that have adult advertisements, install spyware, contain viruses or any other nastiness.
• Do not add links that redirect to another site.
• Any one abusing the site by abusing other users' links, other sites' links, or doing anything to make their links at the top or most obvious, is considered, yes, abuse to SideReel.
• Abusive behavior will receive a warning right away asking the user to stop this behavior. If the behavior continues, the user and his/her site will be banned from SideReel.

Basically, add good links, remove only the bad or broken ones, and treat everyone with R - E - S - P - E - C - T!

What is spam?

Spam links are those that are added for the sake of promoting a website and its product. The difference between a spam link for a site and a good link is that spam links are often advertising their link as containing content it does not and is an advertisement for a product, instead of containing an actual online video or other content that's relevant and allowed on SideReel pages. Spamming also includes using redirect sites to add more than one link of the same content, and this often includes redirecting to add many of the same advertisement sites as well.

What should I do when I find spam?

If you find content that you believe are spam, notify us(using the form below) or remove it from the page(if it's a link).

If you see many spam links or pages added by the same user or for the same site, report them to the SideReel team using the form below. Include the site, and if possible, the page you found it on and the user who added it. You can see which user added the link by looking in the Link History on the page that the link was added to. It's fine to make posts about spam issues on pages around the site as well as this gives the community a heads up about the issues, but the most direct and efficient way to make sure something is done about it is to report it to the SideReel team.

What does the SideReel team do about spam?

When we find spam or have spam reported to us, we investigate to confirm that it's spam. If the content or site is indeed spam, it's blocked immediately, marked for site-wide removal, and further actions may be taken. If it is not spam, we see if there's a reason why a link was reported as spam. If the site that was linked to is in violation of our Link Adding Guidelines, then we will warn the user adding the links for that issue. If the bad behavior continues or if they don't remove the offending issue from their site, the site is blocked, and that user is informed of the ban.

Are Zango and CPA Lead spam?

Due to many issues and complaints, Zango will no longer be allowed in ANY form. Along with Zango, CPA Lead and anything else of the sort users cannot opt out of as it blocks direct access to the site content, is not allowed on links added to SideReel. As this falls under violation of SideReel's Link Adding Guidelines, sites including Zango, CPA Lead, and anything else that forces action before access to content will be banned. We can negotiate to unban only if the Zango or CPA Lead is removed from the links posted on SideReel.

Are ads considered spam?

There are ads that are considered spam and will result in a site ban, just like any other spamming. Check out our ad guidelines:

• No ads on the page that are intrusive/overlapping the video space.
• No ads that require clicking 'ok' or 'cancel' before closing.
• No ads that require sign-ups or downloads to access content.
• No misleading or inappropriate ads.
• Keep pop-ups to a minimum; an excessive or overly intrusive amount may result in a site ban.

How can I help?

Beyond reporting spam to the team and removing spam from the site, you can help by applying to be a SideReel Moderator! Moderators help clean up the site, and will soon have tools to better remove spam from the site. Apply to be a moderator today.

Additional resources

Interested in talking to other users who are finding and fighting spam? We've got just the place for you - check out the Spam page on SideReel.

Can I add a new page for my favorite TV show, film or actor?

Yes! It's easy & quick! First, try searching to see if the page exists. If it doesn't, create a new page !

What can I add?

While our mission is to give users information about entertainment, you can conceivably add information about anything to SideReel (and many folks have).

If you add a TV show or film, however, we treat those pages differently - for instance, the information on the page is formatted differently, it's added to our automated crawlers, "watch" links are enabled, and much much more...

I want to add something - how do I do it?

It's easy.

You'll be prompted to name the page and to select what type of page it is. Click submit and you can start to add text, images and links to your hearts content. (Remember - you can always change the page later.)

If there is a page(search for it and see!), you can edit that page(click on the "edit" link near the top of the page) and change anything on it.

What types of pages can I create (and why does it matter)?

SideReel understands several different "types" of pages. By setting the "pagetype" you enable special features and layout options. There are five page types:

• Video(Wiki Text - "PageType::Video")
• Television ("PageType::Television")
• Movie(Wiki Text - "PageType::Movie")
• Music Video(Wiki Text - "PageType::MusicVideo")
• Viral Videos(Wiki Text - "PageType::ViralVideo")
• Person(Wiki Text - "PageType::Person") - use this for actors or other "real" people
• Character(Wiki Text - "PageType::Character") - use this for characters in TV shows and films
• Generic(Wiki Text - "PageType::Generic") - use this for anything else that doesn't fit into the categories above

Edit a page then add, or update, the first line in the edit box: "PageType::Video", to make the page a video page. If there is no entry it will default to being a generic video page.

How do I edit a page?

Most pages have an "Edit Page" link near the top of the page. When you edit the page you'll see a large text box encompassing the special wiki text that makes up the page. You can edit this text and then preview it, or submit the page to save your changes to it.

(Note: If you don't see an edit link the page probably can't be edited or has been locked by a moderator.)

Someone deleted a change that I made?

Yes, this can happen. But don't worry - we keep track of every change that's made to a page in its "Page History" and you can revert it to an earlier version and get your change back.

What's this "Edit notes" field for?

Whenever you make a change to a page you can give a brief summary of the changes you made. Now whenever anyone looks at the history for the page they'll have a better idea as to what has changed.

How do I see all the changes to a page?

Most pages have an "history" link on the right of the page. When you click the link you'll see a list of all the changes.. You can click on any of the revisions to see what they looked like at that time.

How do I revert to a previous version of a page?

It's easy! Go into history mode by clicking on the history icon, select the version you'd like to revert to and click revert! You'll be shown what the page looked like at that version to be sure that the right version has been chosen.

Oh no! I've reverted to the wrong version! What do I do?

The magic of revision control! Just go back into history mode and click on the revision before your last revert (hint: check out the version preview!).

What special wiki text is available and what does it do?

When you are editing a page, adding special terms before sections of information will enable special functionality or formatting. The following list details what is available and where.