Classic Film : IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

And whose fault is that IMDb? You let the miscreants run rampant by not having admins routinely monitor the main boards. You encouraged mayhem in that manner, probably because you believe that even the worst troll has to buy a movie from Amazon every once in a while.

Well, I've been cutting back my appearances here as I've been discussing things other than movies in other forums and I do have other movie boards that I frequent that do have administrators who keep things in line. I'll miss the friends that I have here but that this day was coming has been obvious for some time.



IMDb Message Boards Announcement

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.



It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Shock and distress upon seeing the message just now. It will take me some time to be able to respond as I'd like to. I won't, in any case, get a facebook or twitter account. Will I still be able to keep in touch with all the people here I've grown to care about? I don't know. Shock and distress.


Put it on a tripod!

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Yeah, I don't want to do Facebook or Twitter either, but the world is moving in that direction, forcing us to give out our real information so they can feed us advertising 24/7 and keep track of us online (and I suppose in many ways, offline). Much worse trolling than we find here, because everybody can easily find out loads of personal information about everybody else; privacy is so 20th century.

It seems to me that a self-moderated site that is active enough to be worth keeping going is the only real solution for a lot of us; several attempts were made to make "Film General" alternate sites over the years but none of them really lasted in large part due to lack of interest - most people still posted on the main IMDb forum as well. Unless there's something else at all equivalent to IMDb now, I think such a site could work better going forward. And it could be pretty troll-free; I'm on a large and pretty active beer site that has ZERO troll problems, because it has something like 150 administrators so there are always people there ready to wipe out the outright trolls that show up trying to sell penis-enlargement products, and discipline members who do to nutso. Of course it's not perfect and the admins don't agree 100% of the time but there are no trolls who create new accounts weekly or daily, post porno links and viciously attack users over and over to try to get them to leave.

And those who want to keep attacking and insulting and posting political crap all the time can easily find forums to suit their agendas as well. Ultimately we may all be better off, though it may take some work and adjustments.

Here's to the fools who dream

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

This is a terrible news. Disbanding the boards is more than just disabling a feature. It is destroying a community akin to genocide.


"The trickis not minding that it hurts."

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Problem is it was a community that was built using someone else's dimein this case Jeff Bezos's.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience


I do have other movie boards that I frequent that do have administrators who keep things in line.
The problem with administrators is that they are a human, they're not perfect and tend to sometimes come across too harshly, banning people who don't deserve to be banned, and lock threads that don't deserve to be locked. It's happened to me on other boards. I've had people lock my threads just for posting links to a YouTube video of a TV show clip. They said it was because I was using bandwidth and that they had warned me, but I never received any such warning.

I preferred IMDb's system of not monitoring people, and just letting folks flagged the things they deemed offensive and letting things play out themselves. It may have been archaic at times, but all in all, I've had a much better experience on this site than any other. Whenever people get in the way in the form of "admins", their personal prejudices and biases get in the way, and it limits the scope of discussion.

Yes, I thought IMDb had the right idea with not monitoring discussions. Sad to see it go.

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

I know what you mean - I've also had real life issues with policemen who've roughed me up. But I also had one or two who showed up when I needed them and without my asking. I actually owe my life to one. In the end, I'd rather have cops than not.

It's not even a matter of micro-managing admins necessary. But something more than a robot making thread deletion decisions would have been helpful.


It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

clore_2

They only believe in Freedom Of Speech, if they agree with you.

Hope we can remain in touch.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Unfortunately imdb has lost control of the trolls completely I've seen this coming for some time though, the popular movie boards are just filled with crap, abuse and irrelevant stuff personally I can't standard those boards anymore but still it's a big shame I will miss reading classic movies bords and peoples thoughs about those movies as the old movie boards usually had no trolls like that,damn where shall I go now if I decide if to see an old movie or not. The trolls really have ruined the wonderful thing imdb used to be but imdb too as they should have took control long ago.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Admins cost money. How much are you paying? Perhaps if you upgraded to IMDB pro, you might get benefits such as an ad-free experience.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience


Admins cost money. How much are you paying? Perhaps if you upgraded to IMDB pro, you might get benefits such as an ad-free experience.


In a sense, thought, that's like blaming the victim. It isn't users responsible for the fact that IMDb made the forums fee-free and then allowed them to deteriorate. And if they'd marketed Pro more wisely when they first introduced it they might have been able to maintain a moderately-fee'd site that could have paid for some help in moderatng the forums.

50 Is The New Cutoff Age.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Strangely I am "okay" with this. It seemed to be coming for a long time.

But I learned more about film from other posters than anything on an individual official IMDb boards. I don't think they know what they will be losing.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

A bit shocked and definitely sad, but IMDb asked for this scenario. They have no one to blame but themselves for allowing this state of affairs to developthey've had ample notice as to what needed to be fixed, and the ability to implement some basic fixes, chose not to, and now want to punish the majority for the idiocy of a few. Typical. Best guess is they'll lose a fair amount by this move.

So are the messaging boards departing IMDb Pro as well? Or if the user is willing to pony up an annual fee will he retain posting privileges?

50 Is The New Cutoff Age.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience


So are the messaging boards departing IMDb Pro as well? Or if the user is willing to pony up an annual fee will he retain posting privileges?




Good question! Depending on the cost I would go for that if it meant a troll-free message board!


Gee Woodle, Space Kadoodle!

So Would I

So would I if the price wasn't prohibitive. I'd only do so if the sire was truly troll free, and that includes flaming and personal insults generally. Keep it polite or stay away should be the motto. Also, if there's a serious migration of regulars to the new boards,which would, I assume be essentially more or less a continuation of the boards we already haveabsolutely. But it has to be a quality place. Such a place is worth paying for, like a club or a lodge that charges fees .

Re: So Would I

^^^ Yes to all this, as always you are one of the voices of wisdom.


Here's to the fools who dream

Thanks

We'll all keep in touch I trust. Somewhere, somehow, a classic film board shall survive.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

It would seem that that certain someone who used to claim to be buying old IMDb accounts by the 100s from some black-market Chinese dealer may not be getting full value for his money.



It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

I've seen some boards in which it seemed like the IMDB mods were protecting trolls. Threads and posts warning users of them were deleted, and the quality of the boards were overall diminished. Too bad.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

There are some who believe that the major trolls - the ones with hundreds of accounts - were just bored admins who were amusing themselves by causing trouble. It may make some sense as I've seen anti-Semitic posts that hung around for days while innocent poll or review threads were struck down in just a few hours if even that long.



It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Clore, I've harbored this suspicion myself for the past several years. Anecdata and circumstantial evidence aren't proof, but in lieu of a smoking gun (and I don't see how any of us could come by that), they do point mightily to just that scenario. It would be angering in a particularly sharp way to think that users are losing a resource of this type because IMDb/Amazon is too lazy and/or cheap to bother with doing a little internal policing of its staff. But neither does this possibility surprise me at all.

50 Is The New Cutoff Age.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

So there is a possibility the inmates really were guarding the asylum? The plot thickens..

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience


The plot thickens..



Also:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guardians?


audio quid ueteres olim moneatis amici,
"pone seram, cohibe." sed quis custodiet ipsos
custodes? cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor.


I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will guard
the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them.


(Juvenal's Satires)





Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

The fact that it was almost impossible to get virulently anti-Semitic posts removed from the IMDB - and never in less than a week - or that the regular anti-Semites rarely got their accounts nuked was always highly suspect.


"Security - release the badgers."

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

I think the huge increase in racist posts over the past year was a major reason. The mods could just not handle the flood.
I wonder if they were depending too much on a robot which detected the more obvious bigoted poststhe one using the N word for instancebut allowed the not so obvious ones through.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Just logged in, and I was pretty shocked and annoyed to see the official message. Maybe if the site had proper admins to monitor the boards this action wouldn't have been necessary.

In recent months I have been sick to the back teeth of seeing so few of us here on this board(one of the few left on the entire site staying on topic)actually staying on topic and discussing film. Off topic threads have been rampant, receiving hundreds of replies, while most on topic ones have been lucky if they get a handful of responses.

I have enjoyed many fantastic discussions on this board, and made some great friends who share my passion for classic cinema. I want to thank those who have made my time on the message boards so enjoyable.




Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience


I have enjoyed many fantastic discussions on this board, and made some great friends who share my passion for classic cinema. I want to thank those who have made my time on the message boards so enjoyable.


I'd like to thank YOU for all the great film threads you've started.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience


I'd like to thank YOU for all the great film threads you've started.

I'll second that, Rcocean3. Maddy's posts have really kept me on my toes, as posters comment of films of which I was unaware, and others that I hadn't seen in decades. Thanks, Maddy!



Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

That's the nice thing about these boards. Sure some of us get off-topic (especially lately because of USA's political issues), but we do get back to talking film eventually.

~~~~~
Proud to be Canadian!

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Maddy, I'm going to miss you. I don't always respond, but I really enjoy your threads, and it's so apparent your love for classic and older film. You've made it a very positive, enjoyable experience for me.


Life can be arbitrary and comes without a warranty.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience

Maddy, you were the best. Your ID should be just "Maddyclass" because you are very, very classy.

Re: IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive experience




Life can be arbitrary and comes without a warranty.

I am sad yet not sad

The landscape of the IMDb message boards has changed since I first stumbled upon them. When I first discovered the IMDb message boards in 2000, I participated in Film General, I Need To Know, Best And Worst, Shop Talk Actors, International Cinema, Actors And Actresses and Directors as well as the Classic Film Board.

The wealth of information, the passion of the film buffs and geeks (and often their generosity) was amazing. I first bonded with two members called Katbird and Peachum (both long departed from the IMDb message boards) and for awhile, almost every single day we would have conversations about acting, movies and what we were doing in our lives. Then there was the "notorious" fixing the Oscars game where a lot of CFB members bonded as well as screaming, insulting, manipulating, laughing and pissing each other off. Through the game I became closer to Zetes (damn, we were nasty to each other!), Ali (I think I called her a fascist at one point but I later apologized) and a host of others who have eventually abandoned the boards as it deteriorated.

I even got to meet several IMDb members in person (DFC, Lee-109, SpinningVertigo, Lars, Animala, Alsolikelife, Fish Beauty, Billyed) and you may look at the names and go "Who?", yeah, they've abandoned the CFB too. The boards seems a haven for trolls and the tone of the board as well as the proliferation of OT threads seemed to have destroyed a community and we have likes of people like . no, why give them the attention they crave who seem more interested in gossiping and tearing down other posters then talking about cinema.

Eventually I stopped doing career threads or posting games and my participation in the past few years has been limited to the WCDYWTW thread which remains (relatively) an oasis of civilization in the IMDb message board desert.

I've found other outlets, other places that are better moderated to discuss cinema with both old friends and strangers. I'll survive the demise of the IMDb message boards, so will you. Who will I miss? Well, I'm in touch with all my IMDb "friends" away from the boards so they'll still be there. But I'll miss Matt Garth's games (thank you Matt!) and I always appreciated rcocean's honest input even if we disagree politically.

But you know what? I suspect this "announcement" by the IMDb is just bogus hot air. We shall see ..

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this

Re: I am sad yet not sad

I joined CFB in 2005, remember many of those names you mentioned.
Certainly CFB used to be great at that point, and I learned many many things thanks to posters here, especially from you Addison.
Haven't seen you posting much in the last year or 2, although it was always interesting to see your rare posts.
Hope to see you in some other group eventually.
Oleg is my real name, so you'll recognise me :))

Re: I am sad yet not sad


Hope to see you in some other group eventually
That's entirely possible, my friend.

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this

Re: I am sad yet not sad

vivalarsx (Lars) posted here a couple of times in December:

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000010/thread/264049954?d=264050298#264050298

I miss DryToast, HaroldRobbins, jackcarson, johnnyguitar, DrMiklosRozsa, melvelvit and blaqueicemartini's posts. They were great. Ooh, and even edwardmiller. I wonder if he really knew Joan Crawford or was he just pulling our leg?

Re: I am sad yet not sad

Yes, I know. We're friends

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this

Re: I am sad yet not sad

You know who your real friends are. I'm sure you will stay in touch forever.

If I am in any way responsible for any of this I am very sorry, and do apologize. We do what we think is right at the time but hindsight is always better than foresight.

Re: I am sad yet not sad

With all due respect, I don't know you that well. I don't think we've talked much, have we? I'm certainly not accusing you of anything.

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this

Re: I am sad yet not sad

No, not what I meant. No worries.

Re: I am sad yet not sad

Hey Addison!!

I just read the news today and logged on to say goodbye to you. Thank you for always being the ultimate gentleman. I've learned so much abt films from you.

Take care you dear sweet man :-))

Re: I am sad yet not sad

Aw, I'll miss you, girl! If you want to stay in touch, send me a PM and I'll let you know how

In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as gods. They have never forgotten this

Re: I am sad yet not sad


I wonder if he really knew Joan Crawford or was he just pulling our leg?


Yes, I really did know Joan, from 1973 until her death. And one of the reasons why I shut down that account (I'd been a member since 2003) and stayed away from IMDb for over a year, a decade ago, was the fact that the trolls and haters were too much for me to bear.

Re: I am sad yet not sad

Yes, that board was brutal. I always wondered why they were such doubters. I'd assume it was jealousy. But one has to know that famous people do actually know people. It really isn't that much of a stretch.

I've mentioned before, many, many times until people no doubt want to strangle me, that my uncle/great uncle (he was my uncle but he was way older than me so I refuse to accept he was my literal uncle..) had a restaurant/gambling joint that the old Hollywood stars used to frequent when they were in NYC. He knew Joan Crawford.. It's not like Joan stayed at home knitting all the time.

Oh, you must be looking forward to FEUD?? Or dreading it? Too bad it doesn't air until March. I'd have enjoyed hearing your take on it.

Re: I am sad yet not sad


Oh, you must be looking forward to FEUD?? Or dreading it? Too bad it doesn't air until March. I'd have enjoyed hearing your take on it.


I have less than no interest at all in Feud, and will not be seeing it. There is a subculture that exists whose members seem to spend every waking moment (and some sleeping moments, as well) fantasizing about those two women doing battle through all eternity. Much of what has been written about their "relationship" is utter fiction (the chief offender is Shaun Considine's "The Divine Feud," which, I assume, is Ryan Murphy's source material); they barely knew each other, travelled in different social and professional circles, and other than one completed and one not completed film, had virtually no contact with each other. As far as I'm concerned, this is one dead horse that has been over-beaten.

Re: I am sad yet not sad

I try to be a Ryan Murphy completist, sticking it out to the bitter end. He starts off great but quickly loses interest in a project and leaves it to his minions to finish.

Never thought of the two of them as having much time together. They were at different studios, and as you say, different sets. Hollywood is not that small of a town. I hope they keep it entirely on the making of WHTBJ? Or better yet, why not do a remake of WHTBJ? without trying to imitate those two ladies.

The commercial is stunning beautiful, I have to give them credit for that.

Yes, with all they had going on for them why would they waste their lives jealous of the other? It makes no sense.

Thank you for your input. Good luck to you & have a great life!

Re: I am sad yet not sad

How sweet of you to remember me, Boomer-Baby. I came back when I heard the news about the message boards. I am still recovering from my stroke (whispering, as my orthotist does ), slowly, but with improvements every day. Luckily, it never affected my cognition or my speech, just movement. I have a long history of major depression disorder, and I wouldn't generally recommend a stroke as a cure for depression, but it seems to have helped in my case, more probably from the forced socialization, all the doctors, specialists, nurses, CNAs, physical therapists, etc., bringing me out of my isolation. I was also lucky already to be in the hospital for the root cause of it when it happened. And the day before I had the stroke, I was watching that Chita Rivera thing on PBS, and Ben Vereen recounted contacting Chita after he had his accident. "They say I'll never dance again," he told her, and Chita (who had been in the same situation) replied. "You'll dance again You'll dance different and vive la différence!"

I won't be presumptuous, so if anyone wants to stay in touch, sent me a private message. I am especially grateful to clore, for the help he has been over the years.

I have been hanging out on Facebook and running frequent screenshot games there, and I have also created a very sane theater-related group there.

Warm regards.

Re: I am sad yet not sad

I am so sorry to hear that you have been sick. But am I am very happy that you came back to us again!

Especially enjoyed your thoughts on The Talented Mr. Ripley board. Many good insights into the story. Thank you for all your expressed thoughts. It was always a pleasure to read your posts. You were very kind to me years ago about the nuances of In The Heat of the Night.

Yes, clore has always been the voice of reason around these parts. And he is always the first to welcome newcomers to this board. He is CFB, isn't he?

And please, accept my hopes for your continued recovery and good health. Yes, Chita Rivera's words were very wise. And we look to the entertainers, who with their wit & savvy know how to express the situation perfectly.

Re: I am sad yet not sad

Have I been of any help through the years? If so, then you must have been worthy of it, we always had good times as far as I'm concerned.

Sorry to hear of your illness, I've had a few bumps of late of my own but that comes with the aging process and a misspent youth.

Stay in touch.

It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

Re: I am sad yet not sad


But you know what? I suspect this "announcement" by the IMDb is just bogus hot air. We shall see ..


Well, That's interesting! Guess, I'll keep my weepy goodbyes in check till later.
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