R.I.P. IMDB Message Boards 17Feb2017...

[Darren Dirt]

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

User content still available for the next 9 days. #PlentyOfTime

IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. As part of our ongoing effort to continually evaluate and enhance the customer experience on IMDb, we have decided to disable IMDb's message boards on February 20, 2017. This includes the Private Message system. After in-depth discussion and examination, we have concluded that IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide. The decision to retire a long-standing feature was made only after careful consideration and was based on data and traffic.

Increasingly, IMDb customers have migrated to IMDb's social media accounts as the primary place they choose to post comments and communicate with IMDb's editors and one another. IMDb's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/imdb) and official Twitter account (https://twitter.com/imdb) have an audience of more than 10 million engaged fans. IMDb also maintains official accounts on Snapchat (https://www.snapchat.com/add/imdblive), Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/imdbofficial/), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/imdb), and Tumblr (http://imdb.tumblr.com/).

Because IMDb's message boards continue to be utilized by a small but passionate community of IMDb users, we announced our decision to disable our message boards on February 3, 2017 but will leave them open for two additional weeks so that users will have ample time to archive any message board content they'd like to keep for personal use. During this two-week transition period, which concludes on February 19, 2017, IMDb message board users can exchange contact information with any other board users they would like to remain in communication with (since once we shut down the IMDb message boards, users will no longer be able to send personal messages to one another). We regret any disappointment or frustration IMDb message board users may experience as a result of this decision.

IMDb is passionately committed to providing innovative ways for our hundreds of millions of users to engage and communicate with one another. We will continue to enhance our current offerings and launch new features in 2017 and beyond that will help our customers communicate and express themselves in meaningful ways while leveraging emerging technologies and opportunities.

SUCH BS.

Half of the VALUE of IMDB when Amazon bought them out WAS the user community within the Message Boards.

And just like how "Jump The Shark" got bought out then its value soon removed, ditto for IMDB (just took a lot more years).

I mean, how much $ does it cost to maintain a working-fine-as-it-is forum community?

"message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience... Increasingly, IMDb customers have migrated to IMDb's social media accounts as the primary place they choose to post comments and communicate with IMDb's editors and one another."

In other words, they are tired of ass-hats spamming within their OWN resources, so will rely on 3rd parties to deal with the crap that will always be present BECAUSE INTERNET.





CLEARLY a profit/business-focused decision, not about the difficulty of maintaining a super-old technology, and definitely not about "community engagement" being virtually non-existent on their site vs. 3rd party social media. (ROFL) INSANE, some bean counter looked at total "fans" or "friends" or "followers" on Instagram and FB and Twitter and thinks that equates into actual INTERACTION? And ignores the high participation in the Message Boards for virtually ANY subject (little-known titles, even lesser-known people, etc...)


The responses here says it all.
Virtually EVERY SINGLE POST in the "Happy New Year 2017" = NEGATIVE towards this change. So of course now that thread is "read only".

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000040/nest/264681264?p=1
thru
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000040/nest/264681264?p=13

(Each of these pages, and http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/threads/ , saved to archive.is -- because IMDumBasses.)

[Darren Dirt]

SSLY FFS IMDB, the reason I was even in the Message Boards today is to see what other folks have said about "", a 1980 movie about TESLA (with Orson Welles as J P Morgan!) ... Be honest, what are the chances that I would ever hear a peep about this on your Facebook or Twitter? Over-Under on "ZERO"?

Congratulations, Generation Snowflake. "FOR GREAT SOCIAL JUSTICE" -- you have won. IMDB decision makers have given in to your "ouch, my feewings are hurt, I can't self-censor to limit what I expose my tender eyes to" whining: http://gizmodo.com/imdb-kills-its-message-boards-and-nothing-of-value-was-1791982678


OR you could consider common sense like that articulated here -- https://news.boxofficebuz.com/article/why-imdb-s-message-board-shut-down-is-misguided

I mean geez at least make available (for those INTERESTED in "archiving") a full "export" or something (perhaps even with user names "anonymized" but still cross-linkable). http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/threads/?p=2

[Mr. Analog]

CORRECTION: ALL the value of iMDB was contributor content, we made it and the @%&#ers who owned the project sold it and locked us out (remember!?)

I hope they choke and die in their own ad-saturated filth

[Darren Dirt]

CORRECTION: ALL the value of iMDB was contributor content, we made it and the @%&#ers who owned the project sold it and locked us out (remember!?)

I hope they choke and die in their own ad-saturated filth

Hey Amazon, you DO KNOW there are other providers of media, right?

Here is my feedback submitted into a likely garbage chute, but hey just in case...

And I suggest others do the same while there is "time". HA HA.

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/nest/265844137 ( pg1 = https://archive.is/2INBy , pg2 = https://archive.is/V96s2 = mine is the last post obv. )

[Darren Dirt]

you know what i seriously give up generation snowflake.

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/nest/265769778?p=2#265843830 https://archive.is/WH1Fy#selection-1285.0-1285.18

"
I complained that another person a few months ago mocked me for mentioning that I'm a film school graduate and just yesterday, vicki does the same thing. So you see, I can't have a mature discussion with anybody here without people getting personal.

If I can't post here without getting attacked, then I say take these boards down. Don't wait until Feb. 20, take this sucker down NOW. Sometimes censorship isn't a bad thing. The only people in America that have use for free speech are people who attack one another.
"

^ i wish this was atypical and uncommon on [adult-filled, presumably] "social" media nowadays but it absolutely is not, it's the "norm". Everywhere but GAB ( http://gab.ai/ ) where you easily MUTE someone or some words you don't want to be exposed to. #SpeakFreely FU Twitter and FB etc. and now FU IMDB/Amazon. I wash my hands of you, weak fear-motivated hyper-sensitive passive-aggressive cowards, ALL OF YOU!



PS: since Amazon profits from selling garbage media, I think this MESSAGE BOARD post nails it...

"Legal issues" It's not the site's fault if people posts spoilers, or say they hated a movie or television show.  This would be another stupid reason to shut down the boards.  Just another empty excuse.  Sounds more like they want to shut down freedom of speech and the fact that many movies and shows are garbage. Too many reboots, rehashed ideas, and agenda pushing.

[Darren Dirt]

At least it looks some smart developer(s) did some kind of crawl of the current Message Boards and hopes to give life to "IMDB 2.0" -- http://imdb2.freeforums.net/thread/471/blimey-imdb-trying-explain ( brand new though:( http://imdb2.freeforums.net/thread/873/site )

(just not sure if they could easily do "one thread per movie/person" but seems that all of the the top level stuff is still there; hence their archive of "The Sandbox" http://imdb2.freeforums.net/board/98/sandbox )


seriously CRAZY how almost every "top level" subforum has a handful of new threads complaining / querying.
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000001/threads/ ( 4 days ago: https://archive.is/V1SBW , just now: https://archive.is/XIVc9 )

The People have spoken, if they are ignored I hope "imdb2" OR https://www.themoviedb.org/ end up working out for the community.

[Darren Dirt]

Even on the infamous "industry insider" site, plenty of the comments are very skeptical about this being a "community quality" decision:

http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/imdb-message-boards-shut-down-1201977581/


"It's a crime to delete all that stored knowledge, some from folks no longer with us. It is the 21st century equivalent of book burning."

"Moving the discussions to social media makes it much easier to delete or block someone that says anything they do not like, including being critical of Amazon's original content. I will not be surprised when reviews, polls and list-making are eliminated as well."

"Blame the trolls? They are not that difficult to navigate round - wouldn't surprise me if IMDb are doing the bidding of industry insiders who don't like that bad reviews their programmes/movies get. Also wouldn't surprise me if IMDb dies a death because of this -- 'message boards were the main reason many people even went to the site.

"Hmm. You "gave up" because people weren't agreeing with you and therefore nobody should be able to say anything anymore and it's good that the forums are get shut down?! Right. Thanks."

"They are shutting down the boards because of trolls ruining it for everyone. Under that logic are they going to shut down the roads too, because I see at least three idiots a day on my drive to work."


I'm gonna have to just let this go, I guess. Folks with far more clout and far more time MIGHT make a difference, but all thing that grow large either adapt to their new size or are left to die... Too bad all the positive signal (mostly from actual sincere fans of often esoteric art) will be lost to the dustbin of history due to the relatively SMALL ratio of noise (considering you can just skip a thread if it was too full of flaming and spamming).

[Mr. Analog]

The trouble with playing in somebody else's yard is they close the gate one day

You should see the @%&#-show that goes on with art hosting sites

[Darren Dirt]

Agreed, however when a site with such size and importance in its industry with more than 2 decades of "the history of pop culture in the world" is SUDDENLY going bye-bye due to clearly-dishonest reasons, and countless active members question that decision's URGENCY, it's pretty incomparable to anything else. "2 weeks" might as well be 2 hours.




THESE TWO POSTS really capture the essense of most of our complaints. And why this will be a "hard habit to break" (but break it must, I guess!)

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/265706940?p=6&d=265760984#265760984
"jt-hix2112: This site has a board for every movie, cast and crew member, no matter how obscure. That is a beautiful thing and is what attracted me to IMDB over a decade ago. It is my ritual whenever I watch a film to visit its board here"


http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/265706940?p=6&d=265812566#265812566
"Well said jt-hix2112, that is exactly why I visit IMDB.  I love seeing a movie and then seeing what people are saying about it or an actor, especially when it's an obscure/cult movie that might not have a ton of fans.

There's really nothing like IMDB in terms of what the message boards offer, for each actor/movie, etc. It helps build communities together with the love for the movies and people in them.



^ was in response to "IMDBb Staff Member Col Needham" http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/265706940?d=265758475#265758475

"
...your suggestion of rebuilding the boards is the first thing we considered when we looked at the next steps. We hate to cut features. The extra context is that in 2017 we are coming to the end of a multi-year technology migration which you may have seen covered in recent end-of-year messages. It is this migration which is enabling things like data publication within minutes of arrival by the database content team and new interfaces for photo contribution / display. Almost the whole of IMDb has been rebuilt behind-the-scenes on a modern scalable platform which can handle the traffic of a Top 40 web site along with two app platforms (iOS & Android) and a mobile site, plus data exports to a whole host of other systems, including Amazon Fire TV. This is on a scale which many people here are not appreciating; they still think of IMDb as a small site BUT that is because, out of all our traffic, boards are a tiny (and shrinking) share.

As more of IMDb is on the modern platform, we get faster and faster at adding new features and improving existing ones on a huge multi-billion page view scale. Unfortunately, this means that the older technology becomes more and more of drag and disproportionately slows progress, hence our desire to finish everything in 2017. When we sat down for our annual planning cycle in the second half of 2016, we looked at the options for everything which still needed to be migrated. We had deep discussions on what would migrate and stay the same, what would migrate and be improved and also what would not be worth migrating.

are powerful and useful services on top of this data for our many different customers. Our strengths are in gathering, processing and publishing permanent information around entertainment. Message boards are quite a different thing than the rest of IMDb

I love our boards. I ignore trolls. I am going to be sorry when the boards close. However, I am going be more excited about the new possibilities which we can build and deploy once the boards are gone and are no longer slowing us down. As we like to say at Amazon, it is still Day One.

-Col.
"

[ ] gets it


(toodles, IMDB! And maybe, going forward, Amazon to a lesser extent!)

[Mr. Analog]

I don't know if important is the right word, but at least projects like Archive.org exist to capture it all anyway

[Darren Dirt]

Except the FORUMS are not as readily available to the public, because by default the way the thread content is presented is like 10 posts to a page and not nested, or whatever.

"Important" as in "real living human beings chose to spend time dumping their thoughts onto the keyboard for free over 10-20 years even if maybe 5 people would ever see those words" , so important to the community members at the very least. And overall it added up to "go to IMDB, I am sure somebody in the Message Boards has an answer for you about [weird question re. weird little-known piece of art]". LOST COUNT of how many times that was my experience.

I don't actually use IMDB for anything else now, more than 90% of the time. Any other info can be gleaned from Wikipedia and a few other sources of "facts".


The "2 weeks" is what really gets me here. It is the one thing that stands out as "WTF? What suit decided THAT?" It is the one thing that I will remember about how this was handled, even if they extend it.

Never in the history of ANY BUSINESS OF ANY KIND (since the internet made it easy to see customer response) have I personally seen such virtually unanimous NEGATIVE feedback to a change that was not obviously "urgently necessary"... and yet now on the Message Boards themselves it seems they are starting to lock the threads filled with such feedback, even though the tone and contents of those threads = actually VERY CIVIL AND CALM (especially when you compare to the "troll filled" threads that are allegedly behind this decision! #Irony)


Seriously LOL WOW I just can't get over this, AMAZON FEEL THE LOVE (that you are about to KILL; there is still time to "BELAY THAT ORDER, ENSIGN!")
https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/imdb-message-boards?topic-reply-list%5Bsettings%5D%5Bfilter_by%5D=all https://archive.is/yhfZL

[Darren Dirt]

Aw, @%&# it for real.

I guess I had been deluding myself about "old content", since apparently it auto-expired anyway... Although for most "old" stuff it seems the algorithm was pretty intelligent about not wiping it all too quickly.


http://www.imdb.com/help/search?domain=helpdesk_faq&index=1&file=boardswhydeleted https://archive.is/MpxOo

"
If you are certain that the post has been deleted and you didn't do it, then there are two possible reasons: the message has been removed by a moderator or it has expired. Our boards are not designed to store messages indefinitely: after a certain amount of time older threads are removed from the board automatically. This process is called "expiry".
The rate of expiry is adjusted dynamically according to the posting traffic for each board. Threads are removed sooner from a board that attracts a lot of posts than they would be from a board with less activity.
Please keep in mind that the boards system is not meant to be an archival medium, and all posts are subject to expire and disappear sooner or later. This is intended to allow us to manage the resources consumed by each board effectively, and also to promote the ever changing flow of discussion.
"


Geez, instead of improving anti-spam and anti-flame methods and moderation, they had automatic time-based deletion of subjective opinions of people who cared enough to share... Cheaper maybe (because "storage space is super expensive" right?) but sure reduced the value of the community (since countless times somebody would post a new thread asking a question that had been already answered YEARS AGO with a decent discussion about it...)

[Darren Dirt]

***REALLY having a hard time with this. WTF?

I keep finding "spiritual brothers/sisters" in that "GetSatisfaction.com" thread as it gets new posts even within the last hour...


"
Though you thanked us for your feedback, it seems you have not listened to us at all. Re-formatting the information you provided in your first message into a FAQ is useless and offensive to our intellect. We want action and true explanation. We want our message boards. We want you to recognize that social media platforms are not viable for the type of discussion we seek. You seem completely unwilling to work with us (the people who have felt a personal responsibility to contribute and better IMDB) on this, so for I and many others, this is goodbye. I will be cancelling my Pro membership, deleting the IMDB app from my phone, and (reluctantly) severing my ties with Amazon. I urge others to do the same.

Thanks for nothing,

User of 11 years
"


"
To Col Needham - you spelt 'La la la la la la la - we're not listening!' wrong.

The announcement seems to hold thinly veiled contempt for the users - 'you peasants aren't using these out dated tools in the way we want you to so now we're taking them away from you'. Well guess what you're going to save an awful lot of costs when your website goes down the drain. So well done. Slow clap.
"



Now I am seriously considering saving a local copy of my own posts, just because in a way that was a PART of me I shared with strangers. Weird, idk...




https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/imdb-message-boards?topic-reply-list%5Bsettings%5D%5Bfilter_by%5D=all&topic-reply-list%5Bsettings%5D%5Breply_id%5D=18404194#reply_18404194
"Col Needham, you were smart to sell the site before you killed it."



GEEZ! That is who "Col" is?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_Needham#Career

"
Colin 'Col' Needham (born 26 January 1967) is an English entrepreneur who is best known as the founder and CEO of IMDb. He has served as general manager of IMDb since its acquisition by Amazon.com in 1998.

In 2017, Needham chose to dismantle the message boards section from IMDb resulting in the disappointment of many of the site's supporters.
"


(!) I can't understand why he didn't just "sell-and-retire" unless he honestly thought every decision Amazon was making was actually a good one. There goes his legacy. smh

[Darren Dirt]

ROFL: "I would like to thank IMDB"
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/nest/265845991 https://archive.is/9BibO

dgcasey lets it rip!

"
I, for one, would like to thank IMDB and Amazon for taking the unprecedented step in killing the community boards section at IMDB. There were times when I spent way too much time in the boards, reading comments and making comments of my own. Sometimes getting dragged into the slugfests, but mostly just enjoying good conversation with other movie fans.

But now, with the demise of the boards being imminent, I can see how I am going to gain back that time that I used to lose.

Because there is no way on God's green earth that I am going to Like or Follow IMDB on Facebook or on Twitter or on Pinterest. I have absolutely no desire to try to follow any of the comment streams, such as they are, on FB or get involved with them.

The FB page looks like nothing more than a "rah-rah" page for whatever movies the powers of IMDB deem worthy of their praise. I'm sure that if the comments sections had been gone before last summer, that travesty that was the new Ghostbusters movie would have been praised beyond belief and no one would have been the wiser.

So, thanks again IMDB and Amazon for giving me back this small portion of my life. I promise to use this newfound time wisely, which is to say, not wasting it on the IMDB social media pages.
"



OH how ironic:
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/thread/265829094?d=265836904#265836904 (via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMDb#Fan_activity )
"
One of the most-used features of the Internet Movie Database is the message boards that coincide with every title and name entry, along with over 140 main boards. This section is one of the more recent features of IMDb, having its beginnings in 2001. In order to post on the message boards a user needs to "authenticate" their account via cell phone, credit card, or by having been a recent customer of the parent company Amazon.com. Message boards have expanded in recent years. The Soapbox started in 1999 is a general message board meant for debates on any subject.
"




http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/thread/265829094
"What they are doing is not a solution. Most times after watching a TV show or a movie I will come to these boards to see what other people's opinions are. Sometimes reading ending interpretations and such."

^ OMG/DAMMIT that reminds me, I need to look up (and maybe save locally, if too many) the threads discussing Netflix's "The OA" that I just finished watching yesterday. *ANOTHER* example of why this is gonna KILL me. Future "interpretation discussions" re. plot or whatever will pretty much be low-traffic BLOGS or Wikipedia articles or similar. Goodbye diversity of opinions... :sigh:


-------


...sorry everybody, for emotionally dumping so much in this thread. [ "safe space"! ]

I know that while I'm normally pretty dang verbose, to the degree I went in this thread I recognize that it was "turned up to 11".

Never meant to "spam", just having a hard time. But leaving work finally now, so will likely be the last I say anything about this. GOOD LUCK to any of you who try "archiving" anything that you personally care about @ IMDB. Personally, they're pretty much dead to me now.

[Thorin]

Private company, they can do whatever the @%&# they want.  If you don't like it, start your own IMDB clone, then you get to decide what's included.

Never meant to "spam", just having a hard time. But leaving work finally now, so will likely be the last I say anything about this.

Shouldn't you be working, when you're at work?  Instead of ranting about IMDB's change?

All that said, there is a lot of information stored in those message boards.

Imagine what it'll be like when Wikipedia shuts down.