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IMDb

posted 2 years ago by huwdj (4563)
3 replies | jump to latest

This is an interesting radio program about the origin of IMDb: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dxvm
It's 30 minutes on BBC Radio 4 and I don't know how accessible it will be outside the UK.
It's basically a story of a bunch of enthusiasts that started out as a chat group, became one of the earliest web sites and then one day sold themselves to Amazon where they apparently persist as an independent entity within the group. It all sounds like a very jolly, lucky romp.
One interesting factoid is that the star meter is actually used by the casting industry to spot rising stars - so I guess every time we visit a page in response to some bile filled post their career gets a little boost - this amused me 😀.
The discussion boards were not mentioned.

[–] AndyKing1967 (34822) 2 years ago

👍

[–] greenbudgie (2355) 2 years ago

I always wondered about the starmeter. On the new style pages for actors, no starmeter rating comes up if you hover over it. Until recently long dead actors had a starmeter rating which could rise or fall dramatically from week to week. That always seemed a bit odd.

[–] huwdj (4563) 2 years ago

Yes, I noticed that. I imagine IMDb Pro would allow you to query the data properly and get real value from it.