Petition to keep message boards

They won't listen.

When they changed the front pages of the various movies, I noticed something doggone handy -- a link you could click that would take you straight to Amazon.com where you could either buy the movie or watch it on their streaming service. I didn't think anything of it at the time.

IMDb is owned by Amazon. They wanted it purely for marketing purposes. It also has a certain use in the "industry" -- that whole Pro side is nothing, as an actress friend of mine puts it, but numbers. People keep track of who's on the rise, who's on the fall, what's being developed, etc. That will stay. The front pages of the actors, directors, producers, writers and especially the movie boards will stay open. All of that leading people to click on those links leading to the DVD/Blu-Ray or streaming service.

You see? They made this decision long ago.

I'm quite an old-timer here, and have gone through many incarnations. I first came here when "The Passion of the Christ" was first announced, which was about 2001 or 2002. I was here when that board basically "broke" IMDb. They had to totally change the rules, then. And add more servers. At least twice. About then, Col Needham, then owner of the site, pitched a juvenile hissy-fit, saying that the message boards weren't the reason for IMDb. It was a lecture like a nervous schoolmarm would make to misbehaving children, and I should have saved it. He made it clear that he saw the message boards as an albatross around his neck, and that we were all on borrowed time if he had anything to say about it. Then he sold to Amazon, and the rest is history.

Amazon told me that they let him run it as he saw fit. But when they started making the changes a while back, putting in the links to Amazon, I think they'd all but decided.

It's down to dollars and cents. And since there's no sense in paying to keep this running out of the goodness of their hearts, Amazon is pulling the plug.

Now, if millions of people told Amazon they'd boycott them until they got the boards back up, that would be one thing. But people won't. Amazon's too big, and it's just too doggone convenient.

David took down Goliath, but he wasn't an accounting department at Amazon.com, or Col Needham who never liked the boards, anyway.

When evil is viewed as good, righteousness is viewed as evil.

Not sure why you decided to lecture me. I was just sharing a link that I thought others might be interested in. But whatever.

Let's face it, it's the end of an era. I joined another forum for a certain TV show, and most of the regulars signed up, but it won't be the same.