# IMDB is killing all their message boards **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 3, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915 "2017-02-03T17:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/41 "2017-02-04T21:59:18Z")
I can’t say as I care. Whenever I tried reading the boards, every thread I read was trolls and idiots. Not worth my time to join. The discussion here is levels above that board. Now if they’d replace some of the useful features they’ve removed over the years, and get rid of those too-tiny-to-be-useful profile pictures, that’d be great. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/42 "2017-02-04T23:26:49Z")
At least they _have_ avatars. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/43 "2017-02-05T00:00:36Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > This sucks. People made a lot of dumb jokes there (myself included), and I saw a lot of off topic fighting, but there were a lot of thoughtful questions and clarification of plot points on the boards. > > So where do we go now for those things? As mentioned, Cafe Society but thats probably easier to start a new thread on a particular movie, beyond that, Reddit has a forum for movies, but have not seen anything earlier than the seventies, but I was never really looking either. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/44 "2017-02-05T00:04:54Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I consider IMDb the original killer app for the web, so yeah, disappointing. Yeah, me too. When I saw the IMDB, I knew I had to ditch my Amiga and move over to the “IBM-Compatibles” and get in on this internet thing. Luckily, Win95 had just came out. Made the switch easier to bear. I never really got into the message sections though, so I’ll live. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/45 "2017-02-05T00:10:29Z")
Anything here is wholly unsuitable. I am not particularly fond of IMDB, going there only to read hateful reviews, but the MO is look up a film, then find a thread beneath — here one would have to go to that forum and search for a thread on a film ( which mostly wouldn’t exist ) = FILM:THREAD over THREAD:FILM. Nor would the limited number of members here contribute much that is valuable. I myself am barely interested in films, and wouldn’t have anything to say. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/46 "2017-02-05T00:35:44Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Yeah, me too. When I saw the IMDB, I knew I had to ditch my Amiga and move over to the “IBM-Compatibles” and get in on this internet thing. Luckily, Win95 had just came out. Made the switch easier to bear. The IMDB was what convinced me that this “Internet” thing was going to be huge. Back then, it wasn’t even a website yet; it was a database that you could query with commands sent via email. Since then, it’s replaced a whole shelf of reference books; it’s no accident that _Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide_ has ceased publication. Although I did enjoy the message boards for a while, IMDB is primarily a reference source for me. I stopped participating in the forums when they became too trolly; I always had the feeling I was surrounded by jerkish 15-year-old males who made a point of hating everything and everybody. ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/47 "2017-02-05T01:11:02Z")
You can discuss the latest Hollywood movie practically anywhere on the web, but where am I supposed to go for obscure films? I would hit up the imdb boards after viewing every foreign, older, or just plain obscure films and there were hardly any trolls and always a few discussions worth reading. It was also a good place for early reviews of movies playing at film festivals. This sucks. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/48 "2017-02-05T01:30:53Z")
This is seriously the worst non-political news I’ve heard in I don’t know how long. ☹ > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Too bad, but the IMDB boards were filled with 12-year-olds who never saw a movie released before 1980. You must have only checked out the boards for big, current films. [Here’s an example](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060827/board/nest/221003198) of a thread for the kinds of movies I counted on their boards for. Not a troll or 12 year old in sight. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’m disappointed as well. It was nice to go to the boards and read discussion of a movie I just saw, or to bring up some point I didn’t understand. People discuss movies and TV shows here as well, but some movies never get enough interest here to sustain a discussion. Exactly. Whether it’s a semi-obscure film released 50 years ago, or a microbudget indie from 2009, I am constantly seeing movies for the first time and knowing I can go to IMDb to discuss it with others who have seen it. And there just aren’t a lot of trolls on those kinds of threads. To illustrate: anyone want to chat about [Wendy Reichardt’s brilliant and devastating 2008 film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152850/board/nest/231431293) _Wendy and Lucy?_ How about [Jacques Tati’s classic French masterpiece](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062136/board/nest/220032906) _Playtime_, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year? No one? > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > There is a Movies discussion section on [previously.tv](http://previously.tv): > > [http://forums.previously.tv/forum/55-movies/](http://forums.previously.tv/forum/55-movies/) I did not know this–and I use it all the time for TV. I have to wonder if it can funnel people into discussions the way IMDb does with its massive size, the fact that a Google search for a film will bring the IMDb page up high on the results (not to mention that Wikipedia pretty much always cites a movie’s IMDb page on its main list of links at the bottom, not buried in all the footnotes). > [@erysichthon](#): > > That was what I enjoyed about the IMDB boards. I’d watch some old, obscure movie on Netflix or Hulu, and afterward I’d go to IMDB and find discussion threads about it. Many of the messages would be years old, but they were mostly from people who—like me—had just finished watching the movie and were eager to talk about it. It reminded me of seeing movies with my friends in college and heading off to a bar to discuss what we had just seen. Yes, this. Exactly this. And for movies that aren’t that widely known (like the ones I linked above), you could get into slow-motion discussions with people. Reply to those years-old messages, and they’d get an email notification, and often come reply back! I get IMDb notifications every day, and while they skew toward stuff I’ve commented on in the past week or two, at least once a week I get a notification about a reply to a comment I made literally years ago. I love that. (Soon to be “I loved that”, sigh.) ETA: > [@gladtobeblazed](#): > > You can discuss the latest Hollywood movie practically anywhere on the web, but where am I supposed to go for obscure films? I would hit up the imdb boards after viewing every foreign, older, or just plain obscure films and there were hardly any trolls and always a few discussions worth reading. It was also a good place for early reviews of movies playing at film festivals. This sucks. Also this. I guess we should try to make the Previously TV boards a thing. I doubt as I said above that it can match the reach of IMDb, but it’s better than nothing. Also, as painful as it would be (I’m in way deep up to this point), I’m seriously considering cancelling my Prime account and boycotting Amazon over this. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/49 "2017-02-05T01:54:34Z")
Still, remember when ‘Jump The Shark’ was bought by Gemstar ( TV Guide ) in order to destroy it ( as motor companies bought up streetcar systems to destroy them ); nothing ever replaced it or had the same impact. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/50 "2017-02-05T03:32:40Z")
That’s really sad. I always enjoyed reading the board and even registered to post a few times about Westworld. I know there are other places but I liked THIS one. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/51 "2017-02-05T03:53:55Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Ah too bad. Takes me back to April 13 1998. > > The last time I read a useful post on the IMDb message boards. Ahhh, I remember that day. It was Roger Ebert’s brilliant deconstruction of Haskell Wexler’s uncredited B-roll work in _“Barney’s Great Adventure”._ But what worries me is how I’d deal with TPTB taking down this message board. What would I do with the sudden 3-5 hours a day of extra time? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/52 "2017-02-05T05:26:25Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > Still, remember when ‘Jump The Shark’ was bought by Gemstar ( TV Guide ) in order to destroy it ( as motor companies bought up streetcar systems to destroy them ); nothing ever replaced it or had the same impact. BoneTheFish tried, but last I checked it was a ghost town (and before that for certain sensitive topics leaned very far right). ---
**Author:** ![KatTP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@KatTP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KatTP)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/53 "2017-02-05T11:05:46Z")
Nice to see I’m not the only one upset about this. Though I’ve never participated on the boards myself, i almost always go directly to them after ive looked up whatever brought me there. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/54 "2017-02-05T16:39:06Z")
That’s a bummer. About a third of my visits to IMDB is to read the message boards and that’s what I spend the most time doing there. I like message boards because they are topical. I might have a question or am curious what others are finding interesting about a movie and the format allows me to focus in on what I want to read about. Now, instead I’ll probably go to Wikipedia more often. The problem is I’m interested in more then they dry facts. I might want to know what how people are liking some noncritical aspect to a movie, or opinions on a superhero’s new costume, if there should be a sequel, why they should have stopped at the third in the series or if the slang used was appropriate to the era it was set. There are always these softer questions dependent on personal takes that every movie raises and I don’t like having to wade through 50 reviews before I find someone talking about the one thing I might be interested in. Plus message boards allow people to directly respond on topic. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/55 "2017-02-05T20:41:15Z")
My hope is that Amazon might be willing to keep the IMDb boards going IF they were transitioned to something like the model we see working here at SDMB: users would either have to look at ads (which would make money for Amazon) or pay a fee to have a no-ads experience. Currently, there is sometimes a pop-up ad when you first go to the movie-or-show’s main page—but no ads on the message boards. If Amazon had simply instituted the ads-or-pay-for-membership system, there would be howls of outrage. But if they come in a couple of weeks after the announcement of closing the boards and say ‘well, we COULD keep the boards open…IF we start showing ads or make you pay not to see the ads’-------they’d be greeted as benevolent saviors of the IMDb-board-using masses. So I’m kind of hoping that that’s what they’re up to. Even if the board-users are fewer in number than the general-information-page IMDb users, it’s a dedicated bunch (and we’re certainly talking thousands if not tens of thousands). That’s an audience worth keeping, if Amazon can do so profitably. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/56 "2017-02-05T21:41:33Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > If Amazon had simply instituted the ads-or-pay-for-membership system, there would be howls of outrage. But if they come in a couple of weeks after the announcement of closing the boards and say ‘well, we COULD keep the boards open…IF we start showing ads or make you pay not to see the ads’-------they’d be greeted as benevolent saviors of the IMDb-board-using masses. > > So I’m kind of hoping that that’s what they’re up to. Aha, kind of like the cola wars with New Coke and then “benevolently” bringing back “Classic Coke”. I like it! I hope like hell you’re right. I remember when TwoP shuttered, they did at least rescind the plan to not archive anything, and then Previously TV came in to fill the void. Archiving the boards for the smaller films that never got much traffic would be a nice consolation prize at least. (Will that stuff be on the “Wayback Machine” at [archive.org](http://archive.org), I wonder?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Pork-Chop\_Express](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@The\_Pork-Chop\_Express](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Pork-Chop_Express)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/57 "2017-02-05T22:20:08Z")
I haven’t posted on there in years, but I was very active before MySpace/Facebook. Social media sites just aren’t the same. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/58 "2017-02-05T23:33:42Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Could be worse. Could be YouTube commenters. I find YouTube music comments to be pretty sane and positive, but then I never listen the music that is frequented by 12-yo snots. They re pretty useful for finding background information about artists, but for my selections, the comments are not often in English. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/59 "2017-02-06T12:59:51Z")
[Announcement on IMDB](http://www.imdb.com/boards/?ref_=nv_cm_bd_1) > [@](#): > > IMPORTANT: 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. I’m in two minds about this. Part of me won’t be sorry to see it go, it’s stuffed with trolls and idiots. But on the other hand you do occasionally get into interesting discussions with other film buffs and it’s sad that they have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I wouldn’t be surprised if Youtube follows suit soon, their comments seem to be 90% from lunatics but maybe that’s just my impression. But there again I’ve had some great dialogues there with other opera fans, science/computing geeks, etc so I kind of hope they don’t go. IMDB goes on to say that most people use Facebook and other social media but, hey, some of us still prefer message boards! BTW I love the bit about ‘enhancing the customer experience’. Why do companies always use weasel phrases like this when they’re about to shut a service down? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915/60 "2017-02-06T13:04:20Z")
[Weekend opening.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=818166) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/imdb-is-killing-all-their-message-boards/778915.md?page=4)