Forum Discussion

cocotower's avatar
cocotower
Roku Guru
5 years ago

Channels no longer found in Channel Store unless fully typed

Suddenly two of my channels can no longer be found in the Channel Store using the Roku or from the web by typing part of the channel name.  My other channels still come up by typing part of the names, along with a list of other similar channels naturally.  If I type the channel names completely, Roku shows them in the results as (1) Result... otherwise, nothing.

I'm losing subscriptions because of this and Roku didn't give me a correct answer in my last ticket.  "you need to implement the Search Feed".  Uh, no.... that's for the media within the channel.  I've seen at least one other thread about this and nobody has an answer.  They filtered out the channels, obviously unless fully entered letter for letter.  Now, before you start English-splaining to me, don't waste your time.  Type the word "boo" in the search field and both of my channels used to appear in a list... NOW they don't, even though both contain that snippet.

I'm not asking the average reader for a solution.. what I'm asking is if others were able to resolve this problem, and how?

Also, why does it appear I'm shadow-banned in the forums?  Come on, guys!  Is anybody home?

 

Roku Developer Program

3 Replies

    • cocotower's avatar
      cocotower
      Roku Guru
      4 years ago

      Sorry for the delay.  I missed this message from you.  The two channels that were vanished from the search results unless you type in the entire name of the channels are:

      Boobtube
      Beer and Boobs

      I think it was shortly after I tagged the channel types as "18" from the long drop-down list in the developer portal.  If that's the problem then I want to change them back to Movies.  I wanted to attract more visitors, but then things were already going great.  It's mainly vintage R drive-in movies.  The lady who finally responded through Partner Success shockingly said that due to the nature of the channels, they can't "promote" them.  Well, a search result isn't a promotion.  Somebody is actually typing in those keywords and wants to find something related.  I'm in no way going anywhere near the grade of stuff being blasted by Netflix and Prime.  I'm just a little vintage R publisher, and both channels were appropriate for a long time until somebody at Roku decided otherwise, I guess, hopefully not from prematurely acting on a competitors attack on me.  Please expedite a review of the situation and get me back in the search results with the other thousands of similar channels.  Thank you!

       

      • pwrsurge's avatar
        pwrsurge
        Binge Watcher
        4 years ago
        cocotower wrote:

        I think it was shortly after I tagged the channel types as "18" from the long drop-down list in the developer portal.

        Probably this is why.  If you think about it, it makes sense as Roku wants to prevent underage users from inadvertently stumbling upon 18+ channels in their search results.   Using your "boo" example, it would not make sense to have "*boob*" results when a kid is trying to find Halloween themed channels with "boo" in the title.

        If the channels are suitable for viewers under the age of 18 then they should not be classified as 18+.