MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > What made me stay?

What made me stay?

posted 8 years ago by Veloxydiedora (131)
13 replies | jump to latest

I had my doubts over this site when i first came here. I thought this was just a quick money grab, feasting on the loss of our beloved IMDB discussion board(R.I.P) through ads.
It took me only 5 minutes to realise, this is it, this is the place I have been looking for, I saw the potential, I really need this to work and for this to work it needs to survive long enough.
I wondered what is the foundation of this site, is it rage and commitment or just the good old money, I had to find out, that's when I decided to disable my Adblocker. Normally I wouldn't do that, unless the page forces me or if they kindly ask me to disable it
Disabled My Adblocker, refreshed, to my surprise there isn't a single ad on this site but what really sealed the deal was Jim's (founder) pledge in the mini FAQ
4. Will you require donations to keep the site running?
Donations are nice, but I am fully financially committed to this site, regardless of donations. After the terrible experience we all went through with IMDB, I pledge to keep this site up come hell or high water.

Let's all work together and add flesh to this revolution

Thanks Jim

[–] 9 (1235) 8 years ago

[–] Filmfanforever (13) 8 years ago

I am so glad I found this site through a link posted in the waning days of IMDb. I visited that site several times every day, reading more than posting, but always getting a lot out of it. I watch a lot of classic Hollywood movies, and follow some current TV shows, too. I felt a real loss when Imdb posted their intention to eliminate the message boards. I am so thankful for all the hard work Jim has put into creating this place to share common interests.

[–] arvin g borkar (2854) 8 years ago

If it is really headed to where I think it will be, it will be something that totally surpasses IMDb. The thing is, it will only work if we all have input. I can see that the creator has done much and more than what we could all ask for on our own.

One way this could be better is to personalize the site to fans. This means, not all movies have to be talked about and not all will be talked about. Unlike IMDb, every new movie that comes out has to be detailed on that site. Here, we can choose what movies we want to talk about. The database could have like 4 million, yet maybe 1000 of those, in present time, would be ones that would hold down conversations.

Additionally, we could suggest features that IMDb lacked. Maybe when someone replies, everyone on the thread sees it? When there are posts talking about similar things, only the one with most replies gets to be kept and there would be some way to merge threads that would allow other responders of that thread and even the OP of that other thread, to still see what the original OP had said about that one topic. It could really get that technical if we wanted it to.

To run any site though, I would think it would need funding. IMDb gets its revenue from all the actors and actresses, managers, agents, directors, etc. that use the IMDb Pro feature. I would expect that, like wikipedia, we may have to contribute something yearly.

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 8 years ago

I have been impressed by the breadth of responses....if I'm going to be in a discussion with others about art or facts, I want them to be able to express themselves effectively. If I am using a site daily or every other day, I don't mind paying a fee or making a donation. Perhaps that's one way to keep disruptive trolls out...which is what eventually junked up and hobbled the imdb boards (for me). (along with the ads.) I'm not saying that fees are where this site is headed...but I'm saying I wouldn't necessarily be against that, either. And it might screen out the posters who don't contribute honestly to discussions (?)

It will be interesting to see where the whole thing goes.

[–] LeiaOfLothlorien (1980) 8 years ago

Hear, hear!🤗 👏🏻😄

[–] wheresjohnny (29) 8 years ago

I like the effort that's being made here and his desire to do it right. I'm gonna give this a genuine chance. I'm automatically checking here after I see a movie or show just like I did at IMDB. And it's great to see how busy things are in General Discussions. It gives hope.

[–] Veloxydiedora (131) 8 years ago

I know it's a little bit early for this, as we are still low on numbers.
What do you guys think about having our own rating system, MC users ratings on series/movies. We don't need to ditch the IMDB ratings right away, MCs rating could be put right next to IMDBs rating, maybe one day we won't even need IMDBs ratings, slowly getting out of the shadow of IMDB, becoming more independent

[–] LeiaOfLothlorien (1980) 8 years ago

That would be kinda cool.

[–] Sentient Meat (1509) 8 years ago

It would be good if this site had it's own rating system... even though very small, after a short while it would become more accurate than imdb because it seems to have a lot of industry people who game the ratings. (Logan already having a 9.5 rating) The advantage of a small site might be that not many would bother to cheat, so it would be more useful.

[–] Veloxydiedora (131) 8 years ago

Less paid voters, trolls and bots

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 8 years ago

I've never understood the advantage of a rating system. If a film or TV show looks appealing or gets good reviews in the press or word-of-mouth, I watch it. If it doesn't look like my kind of thing, i don't.

I'm not really invested in how highly a project is rated publicly. I have my own internal rating system.

[–] neverstandinalone (641) 8 years ago

"I'm not really invested in how highly a project is rated publicly. I have my own internal rating system." As do I. I started using this guy's rating system though 'cause it follows along well with my own and sometimes I just couldn't decide, and he put the time into it, whereas I didn't. He'd given permission to anyone, sooo:

http://www.dr-lex.be/info-stuff/movieratings.html

[–] 9 (1235) 8 years ago