Have they implemented some other social media widget in its place or is the website just another database?
I've been trying my utmost never to use their website since they closed the boards on Feb 20th but out of morbid curiosity would like to know how they're doing. I thought I'd eventually forget about the place but its been 8 months and it still feels fresh in my mind.
Try this and compare against wherever you'd like: https://www.similarweb.com/
It's apparently not taken much of a hit as far as I can see, but there could be underhanded reasons for that.
Thanks, I've bookmarked the link. For IMDb to walk away from this and not receive any backlash it shows you life really isn't like the movies.
shareIt's getting worse. They're taking away even more features than ever before.
They're removing the character biographies starting in December.
If I want to look up a specific character on the site, and want to find out what movies/tv episodes they appeared in then I will no longer be able to.
I found this to be a very useful feature because certain characters appeared in specific films/shows that I never knew existed.
Yikes, they're in total self-destruct mode right now aren't they? Maybe they should remove trivia and connections too, why not even the cast list? They're trying to simplify the website by removing its key features, the audience care about all the technicalities because film purists are technical people. We like details! I don't know what they're trying to do, but it's truly sad to sit by and let them do this.
I hope some big name like Netflix will come along and put together a forum, because it's clear as day there is demand for something definitive.
Damn! What is their friggin' problem? Are they trying to alienate everyone??
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Who knows? If they keep on the way they're going, they may very well succeed in alienating everybody!!
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They appear to be heading in that direction.
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YOU'RE the...alien or whatever, shuttup!
shareShut up yourself, asshole!
shareYou make me mplo-ded brain, you make me!!@
Blow it out your ass, b**ch!
shareI wish you weren't such a stupid. Why do you have to be such a stupid?
my
poor
lame-brained
waste of Organs.
Mplo.
You're the stupid one, Jehosaphet. Even those people down in Southie and over in Charlestown who rioted against forced school busing back in the 1970's are a hell of a lot smarter than you are. So was the late Boston School Committeewoman/City Councilwoman, Louise Day Hicks. Oh. and if you don't know who Louise Day Hicks was, do a google search. A goldmine of info awaits you there.
shareThey do fine unfortunately, and Bezos became even mad richer.
shareIf you ever want to use a movie data base, go to www.themoviedb.com
It’s just as good and you’re not giving imdb any traffic.
Is that a relatively new website, or has www.themoviedb.com been in existence for awhile? Just curious.
shareI only discovered it after imdb pissed me off. But I think it was relatively new.
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Poorly I hope, the bastards!
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It's pretty much boring without the forums. Then again, when I made an account there to activate permission to write in the forums, they had this bullshit verification system where you had to give your phone number in order to get a verification code, but I never got the code, no matter how many times I've sent my number and tried to contact IMDb. I just deleted the account instead. Their loss I guess.
I honestly hope this becomes an alternative so that IMDb can crash and burn like Jump The Shark did when TV Guide bought it
I do miss the place, and I still cannot shake it off! I found it so sad that all the friends we made just scattered never to be seen again. It feels like IMDb is shutting down altogether even if its just bit by bit. I thought the boards might come back within a year, but that looks less likely now. Where else do you guys post apart from here? Just curious...
I feel the same, I really really miss IMDb MB. Sooner or later IMDb will merge with Amazon, its identity is slowly fading. It's tragic.
shareI'm usually either on Reddit, Tumblr, and Amino.
I feel you, though. I wanted to really join IMDb's forum because their conversations were pretty interesting, but IMDb just keeps screwing things up. I understand that they wanted to fight trolls, but they did with such a shitty security system.
I don't think it was about the trolls. I think that was just a cover, an excuse for the real reason. I did read somewhere that not enough traffic to the site was one big problem, but can't remember the other. I will give those three you list notalgia a try, thanks. I already thought IMDb was part of Amazon anyway or did I miss something?
You see, there's the conflicting information though.
Some people say IMDb couldn't afford the servers because traffic to the boards was too much to handle without adding expensive servers.
Then other information says there "wasn't enough traffic" for the forums to be worth keeping. If there wasn't enough traffic there wouldn't ever BE server overwhelm.
Others say even as it was, the forums running were "too expensive." That's bullshit too, because it wasn't "too expensive" all the twenty long years they DID have the forums.
None of these purported reasons actually make much sense, and most of them even conflict with each other.
The real reason is because it was now linked to Amazon and some of the trolling WAS so bad that Amazon did not want that offensive content -- including criticisms of movies -- associated with their site. Which also sells Blu-rays and DVDs.
IMDb were not willing to implement more on-hand staff to deal with trolling -- there were actually real staff, as I communicated with at least one of them about a matter. But to monitor all the board activity -- and there were vast numbers of posts every day, don't believe the bullshit -- would have taken a lot more actual, real-person staff.
It's also whispered that the movie industry itself was fully aware of IMDb's forum boards and were fed up of how very fast, voluminous and brutal word-of-mouth on the boards of their big new releases could potentially endanger audience numbers on a new film.
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Hi Prelude, I would bet anything that your analysis is 100 percent right. It absolutely was NOT because of server expense or anything like that.
shareBezos owns them both
shareThere was an awful lot of flaming going on a number of the boards on imdb.com, which may have had something to do with why they closed their messages boards in the first place. Had they gotten a moderator for their boards and kept him/her on, their message boards might still be up and running, today.
shareYes, I think this is the real reason or at least one of the reasons. Because, also, laws are now starting to be put in place that are a new age of making some of that stuff actually a criminal act law enforcement can hunt down and prosecute for.
Things like doxxing, serious sustained trolling of a vicious nature, character defamation, bullying online, etc - - these things were all on the rise across the IMDb forums. For years there was nothing written into law about any of that. But now there's starting to be, and I think IMDb/Amazon did not want to be associated with a place where there might start to be highly publicized prosecutions and arrests and stuff. Even though it will be a while yet where a lot of that online in general gets prosecuted, I think IMDb wanted to nip things in the bud and get out of the game of hosting a venue for stuff that can now be criminal.
I still can't believe that IMDb would be bothered about trolls. It seems such a lame excuse because all boards have their trolls, and are still running. IMDb did have its fair share, but trolls come and go. Those of us that want to stay the long haul are the ones that truly suffered if that was the real reason? When it boils down to it, they should have had someone in who professionally could deal with trolls if it was the issue. Many sites have moderators attached who fish out the troublemakers and deal with them accordingly. Why do the good guys have to suffer? I was on IMDb for seven years and was a huge chunk of my life, then to whip it from under so many of us seems very heavy to bear. That's why I feel it was way more than dealing with trolls.
But have you noticed across the internet though, Bella, that many sites have started to deactivate their comments section? I see news sites for example, that used to have very active user-comment features, and they've been shut down too, hot on the heels of IMDb's forum shut down.
More and more sites are now electing to do away with the public's ability to have discussions, comment, and of course troll.
I think it's a growing trend to want to shut down the heat of that stuff.
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Yep I'm kind of torn about it.
On the one hand, like you, I can understand why, as there is so much horrible content of people just fighting it out.
On the other hand, with so many of these comment sections vanishing, it can also feel a tiny bit like public comment is being silenced, and even though these are privately owned enterprises who have the legal right to do that if they want to, it's kind of eerie-feeling, like the baby-steps toward censorship of people's expressions of opinions.
The internet has served to give voices to people and create discussion that wasn't possible before, yet also now things are being reeled-in to take away all that. It's a bit ominous.
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Yep, it's certainly a dilemma.
I think that something else too which may have contributed to a lot of sites killing their forums and comments sections is that laws are now being introduced where online threats, racism and harassment is now becoming a prosecutable crime instead of just par for the course, and maybe these sites didn't want their names sullied with headlines about court cases springing from activity on their site.
Not too long before IMDb took the decision to close the forums, one of the members there made national headlines for being arrested under the terrorist act, for manufacturing a bomb!
He was a well known user and apparently the FBI even looked into all his online accounts to see the nature of what he had been posting, including his IMDb account. Their name was bandied around the new reports about him -- I bet IMDb hated that kind of publicity.
A year or so just after this, they closed the forums; could have been part of their decision, or stuff like it.
Again, completely understandable (and those laws are a good move, too, in my opinion) but yes, something else that limits the places where discourse can take place.
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Prelude I am with you on this one, that comments are being silenced, that like our opinions don't matter any more. People watch movies and want to come and ready peoples reactions to that movie. Sometimes you get lost in the plot and others raise bits that you might have missed or not understood. The big thing was that board felt like 'Family'. We all had something in common that we loved that show, and now everyone scattered the odd friends have still kept in touch with me and say they still miss it badly. It was a community that grew, and we helped each other out if a troll did come along, we as a community dealt with it and they buggered off. It seems so stupid to close boards down when we bring so much traffic to those sites. Its a hard pill to swallow that we can't post in our favourite places any longer. What is the world coming too?
shareYes; I really believe that Jeff Bezos got freaked by associating the Wild West atmosphere sometimes found on the forums, with Amazon, who bought IMDb.
The "powers that be" felt it was too much to handle and killed our community.
So many sites are shutting down similar posting opportunities and I do really think it's a "silencing" as they don't want to handle the more negative possibilities - but they've also killed everything good about it!
It's so sad how scattered the IMDb folks are now. There are people on other sites I never took to, and we've lost each other, many of us.
I miss everyone on what was the Supernatural board, as it was fun tuning in after every episode to read what people had thought of the episode even those negative comments as reading others thoughts helped you get maybe what you didn't sometimes pick up and have a clearer mind of the writing, directing and acting. It was the place to go, and to engage with others who had a like minded spirit to write what they thought vocally. Its very, very sad when IMDb shut is doors, as that community bought people together who as we know have since, scattered. That breaks my heart not knowing where my friends are, and where they might be posting.
I am like you that some are posting on boards that I am not keen on and don't really want to stay because I don't like certain things about it. Previously TV was one site and readit.com but Moviechat feels very much like the old place, just wish it had more traffic and conversation. Also its sad that some friends even gave up watching the show, which is even more heartbreaking to hear.
Oh it was the best thing ever to go to the IMDb boards right after watching an episode of something!!!
For a couple of seasons I did that with LOST! The place was teeming with juicy speculation on the plot, and yes, people would point out stuff you missed and how it's an important reference, etc.
And in other shows, a lot of us posted while the show was even on, lol! Confessions of a geek here, but a lot of us did this on American Idol and it was hilarious, because there would be a really terrible singer or performance and we'd be posting in "real time" things like "What the F**K did my ears just have to hear?" and "That just made my dog run howling from the room." Lol.
It was such a fun community. I know some people have even never joined another board after - they said well it's time I just hung up my posting hat, and they're now nowhere, not on the new boards, nothing. It's sad.
I agree, I miss it too. This place is nice but it is not very busy. All my horror buds scattered to FB , but it's not the same either.
sharesounds like AOL with their chat rooms... they were doing great from the ad-revenue, but in the last couple of months, America Online thought "Why not invest a TON of money on AOL Gold" and charge $5 a month.. Well, it was slow, and awful, and people ended up canceling their service, e-mail, etc..... But then again, they own so much, they don't care.
shareChatrooms went out of vogue during the late 1990's/early to mid 2000's.
shareI find that one hard to believe? If they went out of fashion why are so many still chugging along without any real problems?
There are 12 million AOL users.... And up until two months ago, the rooms were so full you needed an illegal program to "bust" in.
shareThey became so boring and ralatively uselesss. Anyway, they deserved it
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