This article really points out some great reasons why shutting down the IMDB Boards is a horrible idea: https://news.boxofficebuz.com/article/why-imdb-s-message-board-shut-down-is-misguided
I've got no future I can plan on past tomorrow
Sign the petitions
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-to-keep-the-imdb-messageboards-going
https://www.change.org/p/imdb-stop-imdb-from-disabling-the-message-boards
Ok, I signed. Did it work? Are the boards still open?
shareGreat article! Thanks for posting.š
shareIMDB was THE place to go for comments..yes there were trolls galore but I could go to the most obsure movies from the 1920's and find postings
shareYeah it was honestly a mixture of optics for Amazon being a publicly traded company
But mainly they just wanted to tighten up the control on the narrative, as they knew a few "scandals" will be coming
Yeah, I miss the old IMDB board (I miss ALOT of things from ten years ago, quite honestly), I thought it was great. I think this site is pretty solid, but a few comments/ideas were lost in the transition and I just wish we didn't have to change in the first place (the INXS song "Don't Change" comes to my mind). I guess it's a little like when ESPN's "NFL Primetime" became something else after NBC paid a ton of money for the NFL pregame show & Sunday Night Game.
shareOne of the issues of IMDB shutting down was the community splintering. It is my understanding that a good portion of the posters on there were older, and perhaps did not spend as much time on the internet. When the site shut down, it seems a lot of them just disappeared, taking their voices with them. While this site is a decent alternative, there is a lacking concentration of context that was so apparent on IMDB. As someone above mentioned, you could create a thread on an obscure film and, within a month or two, often get at least one reply.
Here, if you make a post on an obscure film sub-section that only has a few posts from eight months ago, it's unlikely anyone will respond.
I remember seeing a post on IMDB in the A.I. Artificial Intelligence sub-section where someone had written an incredible analysis of the film. While this exists on MovieChat, it's rarer in my opinion, and not because the average member here is uninterested or obtuse, but because the format is designed around a specific niche that appears to build on itself. A lot of members on this site are very intelligent and have interesting insight on an array of topics. It is just that the feedback provided here is more fast-paced and designed around the latest trends, so it functions more like a Facebook or Twitter where information is just churned out with little digestion.
Perhaps my biggest qualm is that very little film discussions really occurs for film, unless it's for the latest trend. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, but anything beyond discussing politics or comic book adaptations get lost in the ether.
It could be a function of the times. The internet has shifted in just ten years, but that's the nature of information in generalāit changes rapidly, making it impossible to keep up once brain plasticity drops to a certain threshold.
Stay safe.
I agree with what you said about this site being more fast-paced and about trends/pop culture than films. I've actually learned some things about what's going on in such areas that I wasn't aware of, but that isn't something I seek out. That's definitely what I've noticed: people in occupations such as porn or politics, and historical figures such as Jesus and Homer get more attention than the content of films. I don't necessarily think that's a change for the better.
You stay safe as well!
Very perceptive post, Fandango. Thank you.
shareIts also about the numbers...EVERYONE knew if you wanted to talk movie/TV IMDB was the place. 10's of millions used it therefore postings on obsure films and show.
shareI agree, IMDB was where it was at to get some information/comments/feedback on films and the talent involved in those films.
On another note: back before the message boards were closed, I had a ton of comments on "Dexter" that went back to 2007. It looks like most of those have been removed. I'm fine with that, as I've had all kinds of wacky & calamitous to overcome, but it certainly changed things.
Something else I thought about, which almost happened to me: after IMDB abandoned their message board format, I think there was a portion of people who lost heart and just said "Forget about it", while others (like myself) didn't realize at first that there was an offshoot of the IMDB message boards created (I was informed by someone on Lebeau's Leblog, a site I frequented then and to this day, about this particular site. Otherwise I would've been in the dark).
shareI searched and searched for IMDB replacement for ages.
I don't think any board could beat specific subreddits population-wise, even this one.
I just wish their format would allow for more and have less biased mods that could ban you for any opposing/negative review regardless of how it was framed.
One good thing about IMDB,,,it was the PLACE to go to for comments. There were posts for every movie even silients ones
shareThere's a site called Film Boards which has kept everything from the IMDB boards pre-shutdown.
shareOh yeah? That's good news! I see some of my old comments sprinkled on here and am always surprised and delighted to see them (probably because I'm egotistical). I miss how the old IMDB site was though, but then there was a writing site called Triond that crashed and burned around that time, along with Showtime going black on digital cable in that era. A lot of nonsense if you ask me:-).
shareFilm Boards has kept IMDB's format. It's like stepping into an old home. Memories flood back in an instant.
I miss the old days of social networking.
I think it probably has something with studios paying for a higher rating of a not that great movie and members responding to it by making threads questioning it and discussing how much the movie sucks. They needed to silence all that.
shareI can believe that (what they fail to realize is that simple word of mouth and general human judgement can temper the Box Office production of a film without online communication; like that whole "Silent night, Deadly Night" deal back in the day. Anyways, I'd like to believe that a lot of people out there can think for themselves and make their own choices for entertainment, no matter reviews), and also that IMDB probably didn't want to moderate comments anymore as well.
shareModeration isn't really needed. If you simply give people the ability to block someone they don't want to see comments from that's all you need on any forum. It become so annoying when people whine about someone simply because they don't like something the person wrote. Why the fuck do people have to be such thin skinned little turds.
shareI'm not about moderation either (that's why I eat the entire wheel of Wal-Mart cheesecake), but there's just a lot of touchy, jumpy, and uptight people out there who make the Cameron character from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" look like one of the crew from "Porky's". I mean, nowadays one has to be so specific (and even then certain individual begin to fold); I just had a dealing with that on the Kay Lenz page on here when I said she seems self-contained, and someone got all up in my keyboard grille about me saying that, so then I had to over-explain.
But I agree with you, it's pretty simple for people: if they don't like something or feel like they'll be uncomfortable or don't want to hear it, then stay away from it and do something else (ha ha, maybe go moderate something, at a moderate level).