I guess I’m really in the minority here. I never went to IMDB for the message boards. In fact, a lot of the times that I’d be on IMDB I’d forget they had boards.
I go there to check out credits, episode synopsis, quotes, trivia, etc… so I’ll be going there as often as I always have.
Just a quick update. I’ve found that the official IMDB Community Boards at GetSatisfaction are the best substitute for the old IMDB boards. In fact they are far better as IMDB staff regularly participate in the threads along with other posters and pledge to answer all queries submitted within two days at the most.
You’re not the only one.
I think some of the reactions in here seem rather over the top, this isn’t exactly the great travesty of our time. Its a message board that everybody agrees was choc full of trolls and bullshit, I can totally see why IMDB would want to get rid altogether.
The insiders knew where to find the treasure nuggets in the knee-deep refuse. And now that’s gone.
Let’s hope the new semi-official fora are all treasure and no bullshit.
I rarely go there anyway, and only sometimes viewed the message boards for a laugh. However, I’m not everybody, and if many enjoyed it, like smoking or drinking and most forms of fun it’s churlish to take it away.
Message board hosting is quite cheap, particularly as an add-on to a massive site. Even if it were never monitored, no-one is forced to go there. The fainthearts should avoid it or engage: either is acceptable. Worrying about idiots one will never meet is a prime way to grow up a nation of sissies.
But “Discussion of individual films is not intended to be held here at Get Satisfaction at all, so no boards for each title are going to be created.” so not really a substitute for the original IMDB message boards.
There are a few other boards mention in the above thread. I’ll be checking them out as well as the ones posted here.
Speaking specifically of actor, actress, and movie/TV series title boards, many of them boards had a wealth of discussion and information, and my experience was that the trollery was a minor part of them. They did have dozens of special interest boards that I never frequented, so maybe those were a little more problematic.
I think you’re in the majority. It’s just people who don’t care about IMDB message boards, won’t be here complaining about the fact it went way.
I’m presumably included in “everybody”, and I don’t agree. The discussion around lesser known, but very high quality, classic/foreign/indie films was a kind of erudite scholarship. But there are so many such films and the people who have seen any individual one of them are so few and so scattered, you’re not going to get these “seminars” any other way. That is a serious loss for those of us who take the cinematic arts seriously.
The fact that on the big blockbuster movie boards, there were mass numbers of hostile idiots, is irrelevant. That’s like saying a world class research university should be shut down because many of its undergraduates go act like idiots at keg parties on the weekends.
I never went to those either; in fact, I didn’t go to the actor boards either. Just the title boards. And those, as I say, varied depending on how high profile the movie in question was. I would have been fine with their nuking just the big tentpole title boards, if they could figure a way to do so practically.
Oh, definitely. For most people, IMDB is the “Pause the TV, honey, I need to check where I’ve seen this actor before” website.
That’d be me; I’ve only ever used IMDB for “What was this person in?”-type stuff. I didn’t even know they had forums to shut down.
Pro-tip: If you want to search, use Google. They aren’t the biggest corporation on earth for nothing. And they’re infinitely better at search than the VB software this board uses.
Search any particular site by putting “site:straightdope.com” before the search term (replacing straightdope.com with whatever site you want), like so: site:straightdope.com “the cell” 2000
There aren’t a lot of relevant results, but they’re right at the top of the list. Any time I want to see what the Dope has (or had) to say about a movie, artist or show, this is the first thing I do.
Where do I go to find out what happened in that 3 minutes I missed of a show because someone was at my front door? (I come back to find the woman crying, running out of the room. On the show.) Where do I go to find out, or speculate, what was in that paper bag actor A slipped to actor B at the end of the show? (a weapon? a memento?) Look on Facebook? Wait till next week to find out?
If it’s a current series, Previously.tv has the best TV boards.
I’m making note of all these sites, just in case! (nothing will ever top Television Without Pity, years ago.
) The TV Club at AVClub.com has a lot of discussion after a review.
I read and participate in the discussions on the AVClub website as well. And that’s good for discussion immediately after an episode airs. But they only do reviews/recaps of a few shows, and it doesn’t help if you’re watching a show weeks or months after it aired.
Many thanks, DrCube–I’ve been soldiering on with the SD’s own search all this time, without thinking to use Google, instead. I’ll follow your advice.
(At the same time: this site isn’t big enough to have ongoing discussions of anywhere near as many movies and TV shows as IMDb had. There’s still a gap to be filled.)
Indeed: I’m not sure any site is big enough.
Damn. I still check actors’ names, etc., on the IMDB, because that’s the best place for movie/TV data, but without the message boards, it’s like going to your favorite bakery that used to have all manner of pastries, doughnuts, cakes, cookies, all kinds of breads, along with an array of coffees and teas, and now all they have is plain white Wonder Bread. The site feels gutted.
It would be interesting to see what’s actually happened to IMDb traffic. Since Alexa.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon, I’m not sure how reliable their figures would be, though. (The numbers would be something of a report card on how smart the decision to delete the message boards actually was—IF the numbers were reported accurately.)