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“We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

imdb.com

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Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#171

Post by tatoalo »

mynameishere wrote: post #145
notatoad wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"we have concluded that IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority..." they don't explicitly say "we're shutting down because of trolls", but i think the message is pretty clear.

It's not clear at all. Probably what they mean is that out of every million unique hits, only a small fraction actually use the message boards. Meanwhile, the message boards, being dynamic, are expensive to host.

It's definitely expensive, but aren't they heavily AWS based? More importantly, aren't they an Amazon sub-company?? I understand that they could rearrange the resources elsewhere but I don't think, at least this time, it's a merely cash problem.

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#172

Post by stevewillows »

It's a shame to see the boards go, but I can understand their reasoning.

Letterboxd and the others are handy for tracking movies, but I found that using Google Sheets with the OMDB API is much better. I can pull the information that I want and easily input titles from lists on Letterboxd and other sites. Add 'Cloud Ignite' instead of pulling from the XML though. Going straight to the XML isn't reliable.

For those looking for good conversations, /r/flicks is the best bet. /r/truefilm is fantastic, but is geared toward long-form discussion.

Its unfortunate for the community. The IMDB boards have been handy over the years. I'm surprised they didn't move to something like Disqus.

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#173

Post by stevewillows »

It's a shame to see the boards go, but I can understand their reasoning.

Letterboxd and the others are handy for tracking movies, but I found that using Google Sheets with the OMDB API is much better. I can pull the information that I want and easily input titles from lists on Letterboxd and other sites. Add 'Cloud Ignite' instead of pulling from the XML though. Going straight to the XML isn't reliable.

For those looking for good conversations, /r/flicks is the best bet. /r/truefilm is fantastic, but is geared toward long-form discussion.

Its unfortunate for the community. The IMDB boards have been handy over the years. I'm surprised they didn't move to something like Disqus.

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#174

Post by robbrown451 »

It amazes me that no one has yet been able to build a self moderating message board that uses a combination of crowd sourcing and machine learning to lower the volumes of the microphones of bad actors. (while balancing it against the general concept of freedom of expression)

Hacker News is one of the better ones out there, but I think it comes more from having a smallish community and active moderation from above. Quora does a pretty good job of suppressing the content of trolls and spammers and those who are unable to provide positive content. But all of them could be improved.

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#175

Post by rhizome »

5_minutes wrote: post #19

Perhaps I'm oldfashioned but all the discussions that happen on the "social web" are very scattered, volatile and basically instantly forgotten. So I don't really find that a good argument to delete these archives. That they're overal low-quality discussions, that's true, though. I guess it has more to do with "Focus", and that comes before "Nostalgia".

Welcome to HN, 5_minutes, are you really saying that because you think these interactions are "instantly forgotten," that that's a reason to keep the archives?

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#176

Post by madgar »

degenerate wrote: post #83
chippy wrote: post #74

This is pretty bad move and here's why: IMDb relies on users using the site, editing entries, facts, quotes and correcting things. These are the community, and they are movie fans, hardcore fans, the reason why IMDb continues. The "db" in IMDb has been created, by hand, by volunteers - the users who use the message board. IMDb has totally overlooked the value of the Message Boards - they are for the community. Remove…

It would be like Y Combinator shutting down its "message board", citing " Increasingly, Y Combinator customers have migrated to Reddit "

If hacker news doesn't stem the growth of trolling (which has pushed out plenty of my friends) then it probably will eventually "shut down" new signups for a while.

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#177

Post by malka »

Chathamization wrote: post #140
chris_st wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly an opportunity to create a website just for the "nomadic TV club"?

I imagine they'll migrate somewhere. But they won't have the same opportunity to pick up random people as they float from board to board (they won't be nomadic anymore).

Reddit ?

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#178

Post by 5_minutes »

rhizome wrote: post #175
5_minutes wrote: post #19

Perhaps I'm oldfashioned but all the discussions that happen on the "social web" are very scattered, volatile and basically instantly forgotten. So I don't really find that a good argument to delete these archives. That they're overal low-quality discussions, that's true, though. I guess it has more to do with "Focus", and that comes before "Nostalgia".

Welcome to HN, 5_minutes, are you really saying that because you think these interactions are "instantly forgotten," that that's a reason to keep the archives?

No I am merely stating that the discussions on the social web are perhaps the new trend, but not necessarily a reason to discontinue the classic forum setup. Perhaps, for example, IMDb could've invested a little bit more on the usability and interface of the forums, instead of letting it die just like that. And then at least the conversation would have had an honest chance to be hosted on their own platform. Because as it currently is, it's not just on another platform, it's just lost....

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#179

Post by riffic »

exodust wrote: post #42

Thumbs down to whoever decided to close the boards. I'll miss being able to argue about why a movie is rubbish with someone who thinks it's fantastic, or vice-versa. There's some great discussions on some of the movie boards where people talk about the stories and motivations of characters etc. Sure it gets heated sometimes, but that's life. You just navigate around that stuff and find things worth responding to. Sen…

  Thumbs down to whoever decided to close the boards.  
  I'll miss being able to argue about why a movie is rubbish with someone who thinks it's fantastic, or vice-versa.
This would be a great opportunity for you to start your own film community then.

Re: “We have decided to disable IMDb's message boards”

#180

Post by ch0wn »

amatix wrote: post #110
exodust wrote: post #42

Thumbs down to whoever decided to close the boards. I'll miss being able to argue about why a movie is rubbish with someone who thinks it's fantastic, or vice-versa. There's some great discussions on some of the movie boards where people talk about the stories and motivations of characters etc. Sure it gets heated sometimes, but that's life. You just navigate around that stuff and find things worth responding to. Sen…

Head to https://letterboxd.com — besides looking and working beautifully, it's designed from the ground up as a social movie site to find, review, track and share great (and awful) watches. The list functionality is superb — Best car chases? Submarine films? Movies where white people solve racism? Got it.

That looks lovely, but as most other movie communities there's no import option. After having rated hundreds of movies on IMDB and Trakt, I really don't like the idea of starting from scratch, again.
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