IMDB to permanently shut down their message boards on 20th Feb.

JackieChang · 04-02-2017 12:16PM #1

As the title says, they're shutting it down as part of their "ongoing effort to continually evaluate and enhance the customer experience on IMDb"

Did anybody here use the IMDB message boards? It was always the first place I went to after watching a movie. I'll miss it. I don't think there's anywhere else like it on the interwebs.

http://www.imdb.com/board/announcement

Harry Palmr · 04-02-2017 12:32PM

Not used them, they'd developed a rep for being a hot-bed of trolling BS hadn't they?

Ben Gadot · 04-02-2017 12:34PM

Sometimes you'd get the odd interesting in the know info but mostly it's just an incoherent mess. Both in format and content.

Sad Professor · 04-02-2017 12:56PM

The quieter IMDb boards are great for news, info and discussion on older, lesser known and cult films or films stuck in development hell. But the busy boards are vile places altogether. Impossible to moderate.

pinkypinky · 04-02-2017 02:22PM

I did post on them years ago but agree they are a hot mess these days. It's probably for the best.

Arghus · 04-02-2017 07:08PM

Don't venture there much these days, too much pond scum, but sometimes if you had a legitimate query about a movie they weren't a bad place to start.

branie2 · 04-02-2017 07:24PM

I'm a member too

yerwanthere123 · 05-02-2017 12:31AM

Well I for one am sad, I'll miss them. I don't contribute, but they're pretty much my first stop after watching a movie to gauge opinion. Sure, there's a lot of trolling, but it's very easy to see past and ignore imo. It's handy for lesser known movies and it's great to be able to dissect a movie in it's entirety. So yeah, I think it's a big loss.

I'm hoping that it's all a big publicity stunt and they'll 'change their minds' right at the last minute, but it's not looking good.

briany · 05-02-2017 12:46PM

The best place to talk about movies and TV, provided it's not a current release, in which case it's a hotbed of lunatics, trolls and, lately, political agendas.

I wonder if IMDB are shutting it down because of the vocal minority?

When you think about it, every single show had a message board, and every single movie, and every single actor. I don't know if you can find that anywhere else in such an easily searchable, consolidated format.

pixelburp · 05-02-2017 06:12PM

Honestly, I was never inclined to use those fora precisely because of its somewhat well-earned reputation. It only takes a few lunatics to poison the well & life's too short to waste time picking through the sludge to just chat about films. Its a shame to hear it close in some ways, but if IMDB weren't proactive enough to clean house then it's hard to feel too sorry about the closure. Not to be too self-congratulatory, Boards and other places offer far friendlier places to talk.

team_actimel · 06-02-2017 10:55AM

Sad Professor wrote: »

The quieter IMDb boards are great for news, info and discussion on older, lesser known and cult films or films stuck in development hell. But the busy boards are vile places altogether. Impossible to moderate.

Agree. I love using the ones for lesser known films and they're great for information you wouldn't find elsewhere. I never use the ones for well known films cos it's full of the moaniest posters.

check_six · 06-02-2017 12:02PM

Navigating the IMDB message boards was very fiddly (especially on mobile). I found that the same bloody scuttering gobsheens would be fouling up so many of the different boards that it was awkward trawling through the rubbish to find interesting information.

However, I did always take the plunge into that sewer to try to unearth some gems after every movie I watched, so it can't have been all bad. As has been mentioned, the popular movies and actors boards are a total mess so you can see how it has come to this. I will miss them though.

arcticmonkeys · 06-02-2017 05:03PM

The more popular boards can be a real hot bed for trolls most Notorious I remember being the Dark Knight board when the movie was first released lol but it was always the first place I would go after watching new episodes for certain TV shows like game of Thrones Sopranos ect or seeing a new movie in the cinema.

Sad to see it gone though, been on and off the site for over 10 years now and yea the mobile app was a piece of garbage nowhere near as user friendly as say Reddits .

goose2005 · 06-02-2017 05:30PM

Sad Professor wrote: »

The quieter IMDb boards are great for news, info and discussion on older, lesser known and cult films or films stuck in development hell. But the busy boards are vile places altogether. Impossible to moderate.

Then why not just shut down the boards on the most popular 1% of films?

Sad Professor · 06-02-2017 06:20PM

goose2005 wrote: »

Then why not just shut down the boards on the most popular 1% of films?

They might be 1 percent of the films but they are 99 percent of the traffic. I guess from Amazon’s point for view the message boards are infested beyond saving and dragging down the image of the site. They make part of their revenue from industry professionals, some of whom (agents etc) may not appreciate seeing their clients being attacked at the bottom of their filmography page. I’m surprised they lasted this long.

They used to be great though and pre-social media some filmmakers would hang out in their boards. John Murphy sent me CD-Rs of several of his scores (incl. Sunshine and Miami Vice) long before they were officially released.

Tbh I think the days of anonymous internet forums and comment sections are probably coming to an end and will go back to being the basement of the internet. Even on heavily moderated sites like Boards the barbarians have been at the gate for some time.

tomofson · 07-02-2017 04:22PM

Sad Professor wrote: »

The quieter IMDb boards are great for news, info and discussion on older, lesser known and cult films or films stuck in development hell. But the busy boards are vile places altogether. Impossible to moderate.

Yes and i especially loved reading over the older threads that hadn't been touched in years, I hope they leave some sort of archive. I dont see why they are getting rid of their boards it was in my opinion the best boards site on the web and literally the only one to discuss rare or unique movies that not many others had seen....

Not a good move.

JP Liz V1 · 08-02-2017 11:40PM

I found them useful when had a particular movie query etc.,

briany · 09-02-2017 01:14AM

pixelburp wrote: »

hard to feel too sorry about the closure. Not to be too self-congratulatory, Boards and other places offer far friendlier places to talk.

No one is doubting that there are better places in terms of moderation, but few places, if any, offer a way to have sustained conversations about individual works. I can write a topic on Boards.ie/Films and get a few replies, and then see the thread sink like a stone. On the other hand, on IMDB, each and every entry has its own board, or will until Feb 20th.

Manach · 12-02-2017 10:54PM

I'd agree with Sad Professor, on them being a resource of niche media but any contemporary discussion rapidly heads downhill. Still unfortunate to see them go and that corporate message made my head reel with the jargon used.

charlie_says · 13-02-2017 12:52AM

Maybe just a tactic to weed out the sh1tposters? A cull.

I've never visited these forums. The site, however useful, has such a weird user star ratings for movies that I thought it would be safer to avoid the forums. Guess I was right

Charlie19 · 13-02-2017 01:07AM

Just noticed the message In the heading when I opened up the boards. I'll miss reading through the threads, It's a handy tool for finding some random bit of trivia.

Oh well.

TerrorFirmer · 13-02-2017 01:57PM

Great resource to talk about specific films, places like Boards are no real substitute for the depth of discussion offered.

Agent Coulson · 13-02-2017 02:58PM

They are handy for asking who was that in a film or especially on a specific episode of a tv series that isn't listed on the cast list you could open a thread on that episode alone and someone would have the answer.

Beanntraigheach · 14-02-2017 11:29PM

The best alternative I've come across is this:
https://www.themoviedb.org

It has individual forums for every film, TV programme etc.

branie2 · 19-02-2017 08:55PM

They've closed down now :mad:

Rothko · 20-02-2017 01:35AM

Pointless thing to do

yerwanthere123 · 20-02-2017 02:24AM

From their website

The IMDb message boards were disabled on February 20, 2017. This included the Private Message system. IMDb is passionately committed to providing innovative ways for our hundreds of millions of users to engage and communicate with one another.

And what better way to do this than delete the message boards :pac:

darkdubh · 20-02-2017 09:30AM

Beanntraigheach wrote: »

The best alternative I've come across is this:
https://www.themoviedb.org

It has individual forums for every film, TV programme etc.

Seems to be about five people posting in that site, most of the films and TV shows I checked out on it have no discussions going. Maybe it'll get more traffic from now.

arcticmonkeys · 20-02-2017 10:11AM

Most likely its going to become used as advertising space in the near future by big movie companies and the likes of Amazon as there is more money to be made. Easy to forget your community base when there's not a cent to be made off them.

The boards most likely will be thought of as a piece of nostalgic history in the same vein as MSN and yahoo messenger where back in the day quickly forgotten by the mass.

take everything · 10-03-2017 11:37AM

Hi
I miss these forums.
Anyone have any good suggestions for alternatives.
I loved going there after watching a film to better understand it.

Harry Palmr · 10-03-2017 11:40AM

There are a bunch of IMDB clone forums out there

https://onemovieavenue.com/

http://imdb2.freeforums.net/

http://forum.rottentomatoes.com/

IMDB to permanently shut down their message boards on 20th Feb.

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