Oh, and it's a fascist thing to do.
shareThat's not why the boards are being shut down.
Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
Yes, I agree, the boards are being shut down because of the criticism. And kids these days can't handle that. Like I always say, "Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today." And now IMDB has succumb to that religions followers.
shareAgreed..Celebs can't handle criticism.
shareThat has nothing to do with why the message boards are being shut down. It's because of trolls and other users being a bunch of negative people and it's hard to have pleasant and fun conversations about your favorite shows and movies. I'm going to miss using the boards. Not sure where to go after the shutdown.
shareThat's not why the boards are being shut down either.
Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
Fine. Some people have nothing better to do than be keyboard bullies. So? They are cyber people. They have little to no bearing on my life. I discuss things I like and find new suggestions or reminders of things I've forgotten. When someone posts something I disagree with I have this really neat option to scroll on past and not let it send me into an emotional tornado of tears. If that is really the reason people need to toughen up.
shareIt's not the reason.
Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
That is exactly the reason. And it's true because perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
No, it's the money.
The bean counters at Amazon have looked at the costs (storage fees and technical maintenance/moderation costs, negative reviews that impact sales, etc) versus the benefits (ad revenue, boards generate interest in purchasing content) and determined that the costs outweigh the benefits.
Life lesson: With corporations or unprincipled individuals, it's almost always the money.
👆This guy knows.
Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
Ad revenue will drop starting Feb 20 and then the advertisers will want to renegotiate fees because traffic will decrease significantly. Amazon may want to cut costs but ad revenue is not a reason. Even with the savings from storage space, servers etc I can't see them increasing revenue with the loss of traffic.. that loss will be significant
shareThey've determined that the majority of ad traffic they currently have are from users not using the boards. Board users generate little ad traffic which is why they're not too concerned about this.....
Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
But they contribute to gross page hits and traffic which drives the value of ad space. There are two equations...total volume and total ad clicks. Both will go down but the first will be drastic until it stabilizes at a lower rate. Loss of content that is used regularly drives away users and they rarely come back at the same rates. Look at AOL.
shareAnd do you really think they did not consider this when making the decision?
I think you drastically overestimate how much site traffic is from board users in the overall scheme of things. The people who can actually see the numbers know exactly how much this will impact the site and have deemed it acceptable.
I'm pretty sure IMDB will still be here in 5-10 years. We'll see....
Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
I am sure the numbers entered into their decision and sure the site will be here in that time frame. AOL is still around but it has no where near the same relevancy. They too promoted all new services in an attempt to retain users after they trashed messaging and chat.
social media cannot replace the design and functionality of the IMDb message boards. It is a ridiculous notion. People will absolutely still come here but not nearly as often. To somehow claim that the message boards do not promote traffic is silly. You post and then see if someone responds, post again... rinse repeat. It is designed for repeat customers.
If the numbers showed that forum visitors generated that much ad revenue, I doubt they would have made this decision....
Perpetual outrage is the most popular religion today.
@Gun_Will_Travel.
No, it's the money.Nope. IMDB is more profitable each year without growing the staff. It's not a budget thing regarding staff and maintenance. It's simply criticism of the content they are promoting, as well as criticism of Amazon streaming content. If people don't like it and tell other people, it won't sell. Free speech hurts business...not a board that's been a successful part of their brand for 16 years. They will lose ad revenue when they drop the boards. Most of their consistent traffic is board users...who go there multiple times daily..they are the most passionate about films and productions.
Life lesson: With corporations or unprincipled individuals, it's almost always the money.Did you just learn this? Welcome to adulthood, kid. share
"it won't sell"
Exactly. You know another way of saying that? It's the money.
Trolls are a straw man.
IMDB could not monetize the board like they wanted, so it is gone.
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@Chrismoore74, It's true. It's hurting movies, so IMDB is shutting them down because IMDB is so influential now.
shareI don't think it's silencing when there are other avenues for people express their critiques. Personally, a part of me is glad that the message boards are ending. Hardly any intelligent conversation can be had on these message boards, they are just mostly filled with idiots and trolls.
shareEnding message board = silencing dumb criticism of film/TV industry.
Forums are nothing but geek politics run-a-muck. Go to reviews for informed professional criticisms and not whiny pricks who have their heads jammed up their ass.
What does an Italian say when he moves to Canada? I use to live in a boot.
Forums are nothing but geek politics run-a-muck. Go to reviews for informed professional criticisms and not whiny pricks who have their heads jammed up their ass.
[deleted]
@Fatzke,
more truth in their statements than with the paid critics.You mean paid shills. Most of these popular reviewers would never dare speak a negative word about any movie. Why? Cause they'd never be invited to a screening/premiere ever again. share
I agree with this. Paid shills seems to be the correct term for most movie reviewers these days. There's not a strong voice that speaks the harsh truth about movies in the way Pauline Kael actually made studios quake with fear in the 70's. The movies are for the most part lousy anyway with no critical voices in mainstream media propagating the very real idea that American film is in a state of crisis, all appearances to the contrary. I never care to read critics reviews anymore and invariably flock to the message boards to see a truer representation of how various projects are being received. I for one will delete the IMDb app immediately when I see the boards are gone on the 20th.
shareThe fact is, we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes. I think there's probably a number of things at work here. It seems like they could put ads in those large blank areas to the left and right, and tailor them to users who'd be showing interest in a given movie, show, or actor. That ought to make enough to pay the forum's expenses many times over. I'm sure the influence of negative user reviews and board comments on sales have something to do with it. Especially considering the close partnership between Amazon and several of the big studios.
But another major factor is probably just that these boards don't fit into the business model they're envisioning for the site. We'll see over the next few months by the changes they make to IMDB what that new model is. Personally, I think it involves the typical sort of stuff that greedy ADD executives tend to go for. Bigger, louder, more glitz. And of course more ads and ties to social media. But that's just a guess. Never assume there's some deep wisdom behind big corporate policies. Almost every disastrous misstep that's destroyed a brand name could have been avoided if they approached things in a more methodical, scientific way, instead of acting like con artists going for the biggest possible money grab right this second. The collapse of IMDB would barely put a ding in Amazon's fender. But I think the odds are greater than even that's exactly what will happen. Not overnight, it'll die slowly like Yahoo. Been there lately? It's all sponsored crap and clickbait headlines. How the mighty have fallen!
Well the app has already made lame changes. Example being you can no longer see the dates you have checked in on movies. Instead you see 'WAYS TO WATCH' under the image... which is stupid because you've obviously just watched recently why would you need to know ways to watch. The official response from IMDb is to give the app a streamlined experience... yet we all know it's to direct users to Amazon Video.
shareBUMP, my friends.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.