IMDb is greedy and it is showing; shutting down their message boards is a huge mistake
amazon 3:55 PM
I remember a while back when IMDb announced that they were going to clean up their archives; they were going to delete "old messages" to clean up their message boards. I remember how mad I was. How can you, as an Internet Movie DATABASE, delete messages like that? Messages that hold merit and bring valuable opinions and such to the virtual table of movie lovers? What comes next definitely should have, therefore, not come as a surprise... yet it did.
I am an avid movie watcher. I love watching movies, discussing them, and even theorizing them. I always have strong opinions about every movie I watch and have ever watched and I am not going to stop any time soon. Unfortunately, I do not have many friends who share the same passion in movies as I do. Almost always, when I am done watching a movie, and my controversial opinions hit the roof of my brain again, I turn to the IMDB message boards to see if there any like-minded people. And even if I do not have a very strong opinion about a certain movie, I still like to skim the IMDB boards for fun to see what people are mainly arguing about when it comes to certain movies. Sometimes I even stumble upon topics and things I had not even realized prior to visiting the boards.
Well, yesterday wasn't any different for me. I was watching the movie The Conspiracy (2012) with a friend. I had already watched this particular movie, but I wanted him to watch it too. So, I watched it with him. After we watched the movie we were discussing it a bit and I went to IMDb to see what the majority of the people there had to say about it. When I arrived I was greeted with this message:
In short, Amazon (IMDb's owner) is closing down the message boards and the private message system, and anything that has to do with interaction between site members, because they feel it doesn't add any positive experience to IMDb anymore.
IMDb has officially stated we should all mass-move to their Twitter and Facebook for discussions. You might think "hey wait what?" but yep that is what they are saying.
These incredibly dense brainless bonehats think that their irreplaceable message boards can be replaced with websites like Twitter and Facebook where there isn't even a proper archiving system, let alone a proper commenting system where you can go to to have a civil discussion. Go to any popular Facebook or Twitter and please tell me how this is any better than the IMDb message boards. At least on the IMDb message boards you can find proper content unlike Facebook and/or Twitter comments.
IMDb literally stands for Internet Movie DATABASE. Except for the fact that they are pretty good at keeping detailed information about certain movies (it is not like Wikipedia isn't doing something alike and it isn't like Wikipedia is actually more enjoyable to read), providing entertaining trivia, and the fact that seeing other users' their movie lists is a pretty cool feature, the main thing about IMDB (for me at least) was their message boards and I think the message board makes up a HUGE part of their "DATABASE".
There is no website like IMDb out there. Think like... a 100 years from now how interesting the message boards will be for movie historians. Reading comments and opinions of actual real people on movies and their interpretations and other important topics that have to do with the movies they are commenting on. There is nothing like it out there. Every single movie, actor, director, you name it has its own message board where members can share their thoughts and opinions and it is a truly great resource.
Media coverage
I googled a bit and found some articles on the issue. An article on the website, engadget.com, stated "And as our TechCrunch colleagues note, message boards aren't as vital these days -- why go to IMDb to chat about a movie when you can share your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter?"Not only at the website Engadget, but apparently also on the website TechCrunch they think it isn't a really big loss because message boards aren't vital. Excuse me? As long as the internet exists message boards ARE vital. I browse a lot of message boards, I usually lurk (browsing without posting) and I enjoy it this way. I do not necessarily want to participate in any discussions, I just want to see what opinionated people on the internet think about a certain subject and even if I do want to participate, I definitely do not want to participate with my for-all-to-see Facebook profile. Does my grandfather's sister really have to know that I found a certain scene arousing to watch? Does my future employee have to know that I enjoy skipping work to watch the newest the Walking Dead episode?
This one article I found is unfortunately not an isolated case. Most websites seem to agree, and not care nor mourn the future loss of the IMDb message boards. Although I did really enjoy reading the comments on the Guardian's article on the matter: IMDb shuts down its message boards. There are a lot of interesting people there making comments that are worth reading.
Luckily I also stumbled upon a reddit thread where people seem to agree with me. People making comments about watching obscure movies not knowing where to go now to discuss them, being sad that it is closing down cause it is part of their movie-watching-ritual (like me), and mainly a lot of people being met with confusion as to why it is shutting down.
the Real Reason
In the reddit thread I mentioned (and linked to) above there are some theories as to why it is shutting down. Lots of people believe the official "based on data and traffic" statement IMDb put out, but there are lots of people also saying there is something more than meets the eye.
It is obvious that the IMDb message board in its whole was very outdated. Before, when I didn't use the website as much, I would read the message board as "thread" and would click each individual message to read the thread as a whole. It was only a few years ago that I have discovered that I just had to press "nest" and I could read them properly. Ever since I have been using the website a whole lot more.
Let's also not even talk about the replying system, the outdated flat text.. everything about it was just so very unappealing. And yet... people still used their message boards. Why? BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT OUT THERE.
My biggest guess as the "real reason" that IMDb is getting rid of its message boards is corporate greed and nothing more. I see it happening a lot in the entertainment industry; something isn't bringing in money? Let's shut it down. People who work higher up in companies who make these sorts of decisions don't even think about us people as "people" they see us as dollar signs and nothing more.
They don't care that we might get hurt by their decision, they don't care about our opinions. Even if we come with better solutions where both parties win: we give you money based on a monhtly subscription (company gain), you give us our message boards (people gain) . They only care that we are bringing money to their website and if that means they have to implement some new tactic or whatever we will be met with a NO. Because everything nowadays has to be FAST and EASY. Message boards are anything but that. They need constant monitoring and sponsors can retreat when there is a lot of negativity on the boards.
It is clear that IMDb is battling with the never-ending hunger of devouring dollar bills, and this will ultimately be their demise.
How can we keep the message boards?
I don't think we can. It is clearly they have made up their minds. We can still protest and maybe we will get some kind of leverage but I don't think much will come of it. In my opinion, it is still better to let your voice be heard than to be silent. I found two petitions on the reddit thread I found which you can sign:Change.org: Stop IMDB from disabling the message boards
iPetitions.com: Petition to keep the IMDB messageboards going
You can also e-mail Jeff Bezos (CEO of amazon): jeff@amazon.com
You can also private message Colin Needham (IMDb CEO): http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1000000/
Doing something is better than doing nothing.
