MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Do you think Imdb lost much traffic sinc...

Do you think Imdb lost much traffic since they dropped the board?

posted 7 years ago by Olivergbyrne (685)
44 replies | jump to latest

I am Personally over the moon I found this site because I used to go to Imdb every day to check what people were talking about when it comes to film and TV. I was very loyal for over 10 years, however since they dropped the forum I really stopped going and for film reviews I use rotten tomatoes. I wonder if I am one of many and if Imdb lost much traffic, if they did I cannot say I feel sorry for them because they did not give us a lot of time before shutting down their forum..Come to think of it I felt it was a bit of a bit disrespectful towards so many users. Wonder if in the long run they will regret their decision..

[–] TexasJack (12515) 7 years ago

I would love to lie to you and tell you that the imdb people are drowning in their tears over lost traffic from closing the boards, but it ain't so. They get 99.99% of their traffic from being the first search result on Google for pretty much every movie/tv show/actor and that is not going to change anytime soon.

[–] Prelude (1443) 7 years ago

I've noticed, though, that they seem now to be the second result in searches, not the first much anymore. When I search on a movie title for basic information, I'm actually finding Wiki entries coming up above the IMDb one.

[–] janX9 (446) 7 years ago

Based on how much I'm on there in comparison to now. Yes, I would say they lost a lot of traffic.

I was on there almost every time I watched a movie, reading about other people's opinions. I got much joy from it. Sadly, movie chat had very little traffic so it is no longer common practice for me to goto forums while watching a movie.

[–] mplo (2305) 7 years ago

I've always gone to message board forums, including the (former) imdb.com message board(s) after I've watched movies to discuss them, because watching movies on youtube can be somewhat painful and stifling for me, due to the whole experience being narrowed down to something quite small, which isn't comfortable for me. That's why I prefer to see a film on a great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low, when the opportunity comes up.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

get a big screen tv

[–] mplo (2305) 7 years ago

I have a 32-inch television, but nothing beats seeing a good movie, especially one of the great golden oldiei-but-keeper classic films, on a great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low, and sharing the whole experience with a bunch of other people whether one knows them or not.

Going to a movie theatre to watch a movie entails going to a real community, which is cool.

[–] CyberVerm (117) 7 years ago

IMDB was a crap forum with inconsistent moderators and outdated technology but it was the only place in the web where right after I finished watching some crap, B movie with Michael Ironside on tv at 3AM with my wife snoring beside me, I could log in, search the movie and actually have people down below talking about that movie with recent posts. I could expect to get a response to what I thought about the movie in a few days.

I had been going to IMDB pretty much ever since I first hooked up to the internet in 1994 but I stopped going regularly after they closed the forum. I found this site, picked my same nickname I used there and I have to admit I am pretty happy here.

[–] mplo (2305) 7 years ago

One of the big problems with the imdb is the fact that there was so much "flaming" on some of the boards, due to a lack of any real moderators. I wonder if that's part of the reason that the imdb.com message boards were shut down.

[–] Prelude (1443) 7 years ago

Sadly I suspect it was part of a movement I'm seeing in general, of shutting people up. I've noticed that comments sections are being removed from a lot of websites that used to allow forum-like posts and interaction.

MSN's news magazine website used to allow comments on every article. This year they shut that down. Comments were getting very heated, particularly politically. I think the "powers that be" couldn't stand the heat anymore, and decided it was too easy a depository for poison and stirring things up.

I don't agree. I think people should be allowed to vent and express. But I'm seeing a lot of shutdowns of that feature these days, online.

Of IMDb, people will say "they just didn't make money on forums, that's the only reason they shut them down." Funny though, the boards were going for more than twenty years of "not making money" but they still kept them all that time. . .

[–] mplo (2305) 7 years ago

Yes, people should be allowed to vent and express, but when venting and expressing crosses over to the point when are absolutely degrading, abasing, abusing, name calling and insulting people whose viewpoints/opinions that they don't agree with, it's way out of bounds...and unacceptable.

People also have to realize that with the rights to vent and express oneself, and free speech, generally, comes a responsibility. When it becomes abusive, nasty, insulting, and generally degrading, it's not free speech any longer.

[–] Prelude (1443) 7 years ago

Of course there's a line that can be crossed, and then there's the territory of outright trolling, too, which IMDb became rife with. I do think they were freaked out by the amount of extreme abuse and even stalking members were perpetrating on each other, for which there are now starting to even be enforceable laws.

However, I don't agree with shutting down all discussion entirely just because there are times when it gets beyond the pale. It's like pre-emptive censorship. "We are afraid of you getting out of control so we're not going to let anyone discuss anything, ever again."

That's not the answer to anything, be it a conversation, discussion, a website forum, family mealtime, the way to run a nation. . .it's not the answer to just ban everything from everyone just because abuse by some is possible.

[–] mplo (2305) 7 years ago

I believe that if imdb had assigned any true moderators to their message boards as a means of preventing conversations and discussions from getting so out of control, they wouldn't have felt compelled to shut down their message boards. Having said that, I firmly believe that imdb.com brought about its own demise by making the big mistake of not having moderators on their message boards.

That being said, the trick is to put a stop to this kind of "flaming" and/or trolling before it gets to that point, which imdb, sadly, failed to do.

[–] McQualude (4231) 7 years ago

The problem is many sites allow anonymity which let's people feel like they don't have to be civil. Anonymity is fun in theory but in practice it isn't working.

[–] mplo (2305) 7 years ago

Therein lies the problem, McQualude. People say stuff to others on these forums/message boards that they wouldn't dare say to these same people in real life, lest they get their faces bashed in, or possibly worse.

Maybe people should be made to put their name(s), even if they only be nicknames.

[–] McQualude (4231) 7 years ago

And really I don't have anything against arguing, that's what keeps forums active, difference of opinion. But like you said above, it's the flaming and trolling that gets out of hand, people who contribute nothing to a discussion except rudeness.

[–] McQualude (4231) 7 years ago

I'm sure they lost a lot of traffic but they knew that would happen. Amazon is going to use it for shuttling traffic to their streaming service.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

Who??

😎

"I Am the FBI."

[–] dponzi (133) 7 years ago

I used to go on IMDB a few times a day. After they dropped the message boards, I don't go on so much. I love this message board though, and I do use the IMDB links occasionally.

[–] tenhotuisku (2) 7 years ago

My imdb account says "member since 2004" and I honestly didn't know the message board existed before I read elsewhere that they had been deleted. Funnily enough talking about the former imdb forums is also how I found this site today.