MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Any Thoughts On Why There Aren't More Se...

Any Thoughts On Why There Aren't More Serious Posters Here?


I've been on and off with this site and I have great affection and respect for those who planned it and maintain it but egads (!) there seems to be a lot of trolling, joking and just not getting down to the business of talking film or TV or anything else that can't be made fun of. Some of this is simply that there simply aren't enough IMDB message board old-timers here. There's not a whole lot of action on the boards specific to films, which I'm so glad were preserved for posterity here. I'm disappointed by this,--no, not pointing fingers at anyone or any group--and I hope things improve around here.

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There are times I don't respond to a post because I fear being attacked for my opinion. I try to make my responses short. I once made a post asking "What happened to being nice?" I received about 70% well thought out responses.

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I know where you're comin' from, Wheelin. Most of the responses I get are positive, not mean, but there's always that small percentage that aren't...

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I'd like to preface this by saying that I don't mean to be rude, or put down your concerns, I'm just genuinely curious.

How much activity do you expect there to be on the movie specific boards? The movies in the database probably number in the high thousands, and there are still a relatively small number of posters here (certainly nothing like IMDb had). Factor in different time zones (missing movies in Trending you've seen), personal tastes, and desire to add to a discussion, activity there falls even more.

Also, some of the films I watch seem to have had very little or no activity even on IMDb. Just a few days ago I went to the Chamane (1996) board, and there was nothing there. Nothing! So how can I expect for people to come chat with me about it here, when people weren't doing that on IMDb either?

Again I don't mean to be rude, but we should really adjust our expectations a bit, I think. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement, and the GD board has slowed down a bit movie discussion-wise, but all we can do really is make a thread and hope someone would want to discuss whatever we've posted.

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Wishful thinking on my part, I guess, Mina.

Also, the IMDB message boards were treasure troves. I'm a classic movie fan, old Hollywood especially, Where else on this planet could one go, even in the big wide world of the Internet, having just seen, say, an obscure entry in the Charlie Chan series, a minor western from the Forties, an actor who had a fair to middlin' film careeer, is best remembered for playing a minor role on a TV series in the Sixties, and find five freakin' pages of just posts on just this topic and nothing else?

Those classic movie and TV and actor and actress boards were a small miracle for people like me, and there are a lot of us; and now they're gone. None of the post-apocalypse sites that have sprung up in the wake of the death of the IMDB message boards can match this. Yes, maybe I'm asking for too much, but that too much was there, at my fingertips, every time I logged in on-line, for nearly fifteen years. There are some good sites out there that are trying, and trying hard, to match that, but even the best lack the database, the resources of the larger IMDB.

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I agree with your points here and I understand your frustration. The boards were a treasure trove! But they were the accumulated contribution of many many people, over many many years. We can't match that, not yet. In time, hopefully, it'll grow, and become a new rich resource for film fans from all walks. But unfortunately, we also have to take both the good and the bad, that comes with online communities like these.

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Well said Mina.
With respect to the OP we can't expect miracles and as you point out many of the old IMDb boards were either dead or seriously lacking in activity too,especially with older films or shows.

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Yup! We're romanticising IMDb's boards to a point, where people forget all the nastiness that went on over there, or that there were lots of boards that weren't bustling with activity. But because you can just log on and read a discussion with 10 replies a year appart each, it created the illusion of activity I suppose.

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That has been my observation as well. Perhaps we should judge this site by current series and movies... there's a good activity for those.

But if someone prefers to chat about old movies, he might find himself lonely on those boards.

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I agree. Baby Driver is a permanent fixture in Trending, along with other new things. And I see a good enough amount of old movies pop up in there as well (not sure how many actual conversations are happening there, though). But, we can't cover everything...

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I didn't post much on IMDb. Its primary function (for me) used to be the source for ideas which movies and series to watch next. In that regard, this site is a valuable replacement so I'm not complaining. I got plenty of good ideas so far by observing the Trending Section. Except, now I have to post here to keep it going... I can live with that. :)

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There were a few boards that were almost no go areas on IMDb! You had to have nerves of steel to post on The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones boards,I lurked there now and then a lot of nastiness went on there,doxxing and personal photos/info were shared,Film General was quite cliquey too.
The lack of human moderation meant that the report button was seriously abused too.
It was by no means perfect,I really don't miss it!

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This place is like a ghost town.

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Tell me about it...😏

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Well... the movies currently in theatre don't really warrant any serious discussion... so jokes and such makes sense..

I've gotten a few thoughtful responses on older movies... it just takes time as people have to be seeking those boards...

Yeah, some of the discussions here are more adversarial and less cineaste than on the other site, but they're almost always about the movie or movie culture... i've had very few ad-hominems hurled against me, even when the discussion is heated... just the occasional trope of being called a troll, which happens to everyone who has an opinion at some point..

People here do seem engaged with movies

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Thank you ALL very much for responding. It shows that there's life here after all. Some very good points, including those well taken ones about "busy" IMDB message boards that weren't so much busy as well traveled, with five or ten pages of posts over the period of a dozen years which, if you looked from the OP down it was like a new thread every four to six months, and many of them "dead" or with as many deleted threads and long and lively ones.

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I'm not good with old movies( even with the new ones,only with those what i'm interested to),that's why i never make many posts.

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I'm a (Fairly) serious poster and I certainly appreciate the candour of genuine conversation about whichever facets of culture I happen to share an interest in with others. I also enjoy the back-and-forth bickering with people who are looking to waste time or rile up people by asserting controversial or topical opinions just for reactions or attention. I think IMDb allowed for that very well and that was why it was as popular a site as it was for message board conversationalists.

With this in mind remember that IMDb started as a database of films back in 1990, by 1999 it was replete and went online for the general Internet faring public to view easily, around 2000 or so some boards cropped up and from there it expanded with both contemporary and classic movies, and eventually TV shows having their own boards. It really started picking up pace around 2004 and that is when I started reading the message boards for things I was interested in. They were beginning to be fun. There were forums elsewhere and then there was the IMDb message boards. I chose the former for discussion and the later for information. And then in 2007 and finally signed up, probably ten years ago to this day. I had gone to the cinema and seen Transformers. A terrible movie for anyone who appreciated the old cartoons and paraphernalia from the early 80's. I didn't sign up to discuss that movie however, it wasn't worth discussing. I signed up because there had been a trailer for something which looked awesome and I couldn't find information about it from anywhere else on the web.

Said trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvNkGm8mxiM
Read the comments, you'll get a real feel for the flavour that trailer generated.

Those message boards were the first time that I posted on IMDb; they were fun and they were serious. They were guessing and they were being derailed. They were poignant and they were messy. All in all I was hooked! A huge number of others were too (To be continued).

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...When those boards got wiped, a first in IMDb history, it escalated the mob rather than detracted from it. They were wiped for trolling, but with that wipe a huge (As big as a lion) number of serious threads were wiped too. It only added to the fun for most, the trolls doubled down and the studious punched up, more chaos was had by all. With this madness though came word of mouth, more and more people were hearing about the message boards of IMDb and whilst they might not take part in the foray that were those message boards they went and saw if their favourite movies/TV shows/actors/directors etc. had their own boards and they started taking part in their own way. That movie came and went but the boards were as raucous as always for a long while.

The following Summer The Dark Knight was released. What had happened the Summer before was magnified tangentially and the word on the web was that IMDb was the most toxic place with a good reputation for commenting (YouTube was still up and coming then). Morbid curiosity got the better of people and as they were rubbernecking they thought they might just see if their favourite had a listing, and it usually did and they signed up themselves and went about their business and enjoyed themselves free from the fracas which had initially drawn then there. 2008 was the biggest spike in IMDb sign-ups which managed to draw more and more users over the years since.

This isn't to say that there weren't stalwarts taking part and contributing brilliantly prior to these big increases in membership. Those were the ones that made IMDb reputable and they were rewarded with titles and even jobs on occasion. The core membership were lovers of cinema, in whichever capacity, and made the community what it was to begin with. It's just that word of mouth, excitement and lack of anywhere central to discuss "Mainstream" entertainment is what drove many people, serious and silly, to sign up and made many communities flourish (TBC).

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...With IMDb's message boards gone and its 27 years worth of building a reputation for itself in a fledgling world wide web something(s) will fill that void and I, and I am sure many here, would like to see MovieChat be a large part of that. Perhaps if more notice had been given by Colin Needham or Jeff Bezos contingency plans could have been put in place and more of the communities could have migrated in a more civilised manner.

As is I think MC has done a grand job of having as many archives of discussions as it has and allows for an old school system of discussion rather than adopting the hugely failing Web 2.0 model which many other sites use for gathering data from their contributors. Once Google has indexed all the threads here and more traffic is noticed from both the rumbustious and scholarly alike membership will increase and more trolls and serious posters will arrive and take part. Jim, the owner of the site here, will also need to generate an income for the site to cover increased loads of traffic and features which make this place competitive enough to be a favourite.

There will be a top successor to IMDb and it will have warts and all as both have a functional place in generating conversation and financial stability. How we get there is up to how our communities adapt and evolve and not everyone will be happy with any outcome regardless.

Persevere!

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Very interesting posts Harry.
What did you mean "When those boards got wiped"?

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The Cloverfield boards got wiped, as in all threads and replies got removed and it started afresh again. There was so much traffic and so many people of differing persuasions as to how to discuss the film, or the community, that it must have been seen by someone in authority to clean the slate and see what happens.

Like anywhere there were good people and bad people and yet everyone was punished, and oddly united, by this treatment of a dysfunctional family.

I think that by the time it came to Prometheus, the first time that you and I had noticed each other on IMDb, they metered the deletions to threads which hadn't been kept active to 'X' amount of years/months/weeks/days and lessened the amounts as that particular board got older.

Fair play in my opinion but with the IMDb culture being what it was (At the time) people would bump posts from going into obscurity just to keep them active.

If you recall Taudarian's infamous thread, after being deleted so many times, eventually got locked and people had to post their archives of it to save it from being forgotten.

MC is well within its own rights to do as it pleases and will find its own problems regardless of how it chooses to progress, but if it gets to the level of IMDb it may have to do similar things to keep itself from legal troubles from parties which have such large and fragile egos that they can't take the cheap seats criticising them (Cheap shots are just cheap in my opinion).

Exciting to see how it will all play out of course but Jim has to look after himself prior to letting the "Good old days" slip back and end this whilst there is such potential to make money and let people have fun - just not exactly the fun they had on IMDb.

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Interesting I didn't know that had happened,so is it that the film makers saw the board and didn't like it or it was just overwhelmingly "active"? Cloverfield,great idea but hate found footage stuff!
With regard to Taudarians thread,I thought there was just a limit to the amount of posts in a thread and that's why it was locked. Was that not the case?
I think,if memory serves,it was deleted so often because it got reported so often,some people didn't like it but it didn't break any rules.I really hope that sort of thing doesn't happen here.We shall see.
I just think it's still really early days here,it's about 6 months old I guess? I've noticed a difference since the early days and it is slowly becoming more active.
I think people who want activity need to be proactive and post more,post on empty boards talk to yourself if needs be so that when (Field of Dreams) they come there will be something there when they look!

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I've no idea why it happened with the Cloverfield boards but I do know that IMDb was promoting itself in a big way at the time which has turned out well for them now as they are producing their own movies and even winning Oscars within them - things I can imagine they don't want to be found legally, or financially, punished for now they are well regarded content creators.

Taud's post was a case of being reported and eventually being a blight on the lack of proper moderation on IMDb. I doubt whoever locked it ever read it but when they did their stats analysis they've have noted it was a much returned thread title (Hi Mr/Ms Auditor, I hope your new job is working out for you!). It was locked which so many other threads on IMDb had not been. Perhaps there are archives here but I don't think so as there are many posts missing from certain archived threads.

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Some of this is simply that there simply aren't enough IMDB message board old-timers here.

Hi, Telly. I share your concerns.

I think its simply because the old community is splintered and scattered. Some are posting here, some are posting there, and some probably have given up completely.

Some of the Boards that I used to visit daily had DOZENS of posts a day. Now, they're down to 2 or 3 a week -- if that.

Also here, many people seem to prefer the "general discussion" board. I can't say that I see anything being accomplished from bitching about trolls.

It's a sad situation and there really is no answer. It'll take any of these new boards YEARS to develop into what the old boards were.

Take care,
-Gubbs

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Jim transferred the IBMD boards here on MovieChat so at least we can see ideas and opinions a few years back. The recent activity is a bit slow, but I think you are right to say people are scattered everywhere and it might take time for people to just land in one place. I do miss the trivia on each movie over at IMBD and the goofs as well. I learned alot about the actors on the one page over there, but Moviechat is a good replacement, and I am happy its here. I do hope it grows, where people comment on the actual movie threads and not just in General discussion. Happy 4th everyone!

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I think if you want a board that is as active and well populated as IMDb was you're going to be waiting a long time.
This is smaller,naturally and I think its evolving in a different way too.It's taking a shape of it's own.
Yes people post mostly on this board,I think that possibly is because it's right there at the top of the list and it's active and other boards are quieter.
It's not all bitching about trolls,but it's not a bad thing to be vigilant.

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Thanks, Gubbs. It's great to see all the responses here. Yet another problem for us here, as mentioned, and hugely frustrating for me: many IMDB boards veterans have simply not come here, and in many cases, my sense is anywhere, and to add insult to injury a fair number have changed their screen names when they do post. I've had the same screen name since the git, and I think you have, too, and yet so many have fallen off the radar screen.

I really miss the message boards that were specifically people oriented, as in about directors, actors, writers, producers and the like. Agreed with many that in the end the meltdown at the old site was godawful and there's no need to sentimentalize what the place had BECOME. As to what it had been, at its best, in its heyday, that's another matter.

Great to see your name here, Tel

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I'm a serious poster. However most movie buffs are classic and horror movies enthusiasts. Two genres which I am not keen of. I can't stand classic movies, they are slow and the acting are too much (not in a natural way like modern movies), sound and production values are also quite bad. Horrors I find silly and most of them are not even frightening. And as you can guess by now, classic horror movies of course are not my favorite.

Yet in a thread some time before which asked MovieChat posters what genre we like most, overwhelming majority are fans of classic and horrors, with most of them tend to like the classic horror movies.

So, I want to talk seriously about action movies, superhero movies, triple A blockbusters... but most of the discussion are either rants or (worse) political rants.

On those threads I mostly only post maybe one or two jokes to lighten up the mood, but mostly I just lurked around and read some of the old IMDb archieves. Here in MovieChat I mostly only active in General Discussion boards, mostly the Emoji Movie Title Game.

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