IMDb message boards shutting down

[Indeliblelink]

Just noticed that the IMDb message boards are shutting down which is a shame. I don't use them that much but occasionally they're very handy for additional info about a film or discussing theories on plots etc.

Message Boards - IMDb

IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. As part of our ongoing effort to continually evaluate and enhance the customer experience on IMDb, we have decided to disable IMDb's message boards on February 20, 2017. This includes the Private Message system. After in-depth discussion and examination, we have concluded that IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide. The decision to retire a long-standing feature was made only after careful consideration and was based on data and traffic.

....

Boo

 

[ska invita]

that is very sad...corporate internet gone mad

they're a brilliant resource
plus full of classic stupid comments


who owns imdb? Amazon?

 

[ska invita]

what a mealymouthed statement they put out too

 

[Sirena]

'a positive, useful experience....'

I don't know them but are they now full of gobby people shouting at each other.....?

 

[Indeliblelink]

Well they have a general forum with lots of different segments like here but it's the threads at the bottom of individual film pages I'll miss.

 

[ska invita]

'a positive, useful experience....'

I don't know them but are they now full of gobby people shouting at each other.....?

not really no....basically every film has its own board...essentially a message board for every single film in existence...an amazing resource

this is blatantly amazon deciding to save money, and fire their mods...the boards obviously need a bit of moderating.

A sad day for the internet

i really fucking hate amazon

 

[ska invita]

IMDb : Stop IMDB from disabling the message boards.
no chance

 

[zoooo]

They are mostly full of idiots, but amongst that there were always a couple of useful threads.
Are they going to delete them completely, or leave the old stuff there archived?

 

[Indeliblelink]

Well they say in the link in the OP that people should "archive any message board content they'd like to keep for personal use " which sounds to me like it will all be deleted.

 

[Reno]

The IMDb boards were full of trolls and idiots and they won't be any great loss to the quality of online film discussion, so I'm not sure how sad this is. I always found them depressing to read and rarely did. People can still submit a review and those are more thoughtful than shrieking "The worst/most overrated movie ever made!" at every film. Or denigrating the looks of actresses for committing the crime of growing older.

 

[ska invita]

There were lots of interesting threads on those boards...its easy to skip ones that are inane.

There is only every going to be one film hub on the internet and IMDB is it....

 

[danny la rouge]

I didn't know they had message boards.

 

[8den]

The extras on a film I worked on that was later never released stalked it's message forum with fan theories for years.

If you want detailed film theory and discussion there are plenty of better places on the internet

 

[ska invita]

I didn't know they had message boards.

clcik on any film and scroll to the bottom

 

[Orang Utan]

I love that no matter how bad a film is, there is someone out there who thinks it's the Best Film Ever Made.

 

[Reno]

I love that no matter how bad a film is, there is someone out there who thinks it's the Best Film Ever Made.

...and that goes the other way round as well!

 

[danny la rouge]

clcik on any film and scroll to the bottom

I picked, as my random film, How Green Was My Valley? And you're right, there are message boards at the bottom. I'd honestly never noticed before. I can't say I feel I've been missing anything.

I'm not a regular user of IMDb, though: I'm not really sure what it's for. If I google a film and Wikipedia comes up first, I'm more likely to click that: there's usually more information.

 

[ska invita]

My routine is usually to check TRIVIA first, then the message boards, especially if the film warrants some discussion/thought/interpretation.

 

[ska invita]

There are also message boards for each director/actor/writer etc

Or there were

 

[ska invita]

I picked, as my random film, How Green Was My Valley? And you're right, there are message boards at the bottom. I'd honestly never noticed before. I can't say I feel I've been missing anything.

I'm not a regular user of IMDb, though: I'm not really sure what it's for. If I google a film and Wikipedia comes up first, I'm more likely to click that: there's usually more information.

See, thats a film from 1941, yet theres a relatively busy board for it- people have posted repeatedly throughout 2016 Board: How Green Was My Valley (1941) - IMDb

i expect its idiots posting about films like the Ghostbusters remake that might have tipped this over the edge...

 

[Orang Utan]

I picked, as my random film, How Green Was My Valley? And you're right, there are message boards at the bottom. I'd honestly never noticed before. I can't say I feel I've been missing anything.

I'm not a regular user of IMDb, though: I'm not really sure what it's for. If I google a film and Wikipedia comes up first, I'm more likely to click that: there's usually more information.

There's more info about cast and crew members on IMDb. It's very useful for that. If you like the production design or whatever on one film, you can see what else that person has done. It's very good for tracking people's careers. Wiki provides more background information about production and reception but it's not as comprehensive for personnel information.

 

[ska invita]

There's more info about cast and crew members on IMDb. It's very useful for that. If you like the production design or whatever on one film, you can see what else that person has done. It's very good for tracking people's careers. Wiki provides more background information about production and reception but it's not as comprehensive for personnel information.

though tbf thats all staying on IMDB..........

 

[Orang Utan]

though tbf thats all staying on IMDB..........

Danny was wondering what the site was for though.
IMDb is probably my most visited website, aside from social media

 

[Indeliblelink]

The film section on RateMyMusic is also very good.
Great for going through a director or actor's work
eg John Ford filmography
Also useful for searching by genre or by year.

 

[ska invita]

at the very least they should leave the boards there for archive reading

 

[Supine]

I prefer metacritic. And u75 is the only message board worth bothering with

 

[ska invita]

I prefer metacritic. And u75 is the only message board worth bothering with

How Green Was My Valley, for example, isnt even listed

 

[Indeliblelink]

If you have made a user list on IMDb and made it public then people can leave comments via facebook at the bottom so hopefully they can extend this for film pages to replace the message boards, then all the hassle of moderating the content becomes FBs problem.

 

[Supine]

How Green Was My Valley, for example, isnt even listed

I tend to watch more modern films

 

[danny la rouge]

There's more info about cast and crew members on IMDb. It's very useful for that. If you like the production design or whatever on one film, you can see what else that person has done. It's very good for tracking people's careers. Wiki provides more background information about production and reception but it's not as comprehensive for personnel information.

I use it for when maybe I'm wondering the name of an actor. "Who played that character in x or y film?" sort of thing. Or "did x direct such and such a film or was it y?". Or if I'm watching something and I recognise an actor and I wonder where I've seen them before. So pretty infrequently. Maybe once a month at most. And like I say, Wikipedia is just as useful for that.

I'm more likely to look at genre specific websites, say French New Wave or whatever. Or if it's a genre I'm particularly into I'm more likely to buy books.

But I personally find IMDb, the mobile version particularly, very limited and not very useful (to me).