When forums disappear - IMDb

[Minoosh]

One of the first websites I ever visited, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), has pulled the plug on its message boards. I was used to going to it after I'd seen a movie or binged on a series and wanted to what other people thought. Then after a "Wentworth" binge I was disappointed that the boards had been taken down. Too much bickering and trolling, apparently. Frequently I would see "This post has been deleted by an administrator," which sounds labor-intensive.

I've never administrated a message board/forum and am interested in the amount of work that goes into this. One way is to be relatively hands-off, such as YouTube (IMO). There's a lot of BS but I've trained myself to screen it out. Then there are forums that are so curated that owners (if that's the right word) must personally approve every post.

Also it seems CNN has eliminated or sharply curtailed comments sections, unless I'm looking in the wrong place. YouTube allows almost anything.

Is there a general trend with message boards? Does anyone here have experience or opinions on how curated comments sections should be, how they've evolved, etc.?

 

[Trebuchet]

Theres anpther thread here somewhere about the IMDB board closure. And message boards, like this one, are doing poorly in general.

 

[newyorkguy]

I am really shocked to hear that IMDb has shut down the Forum. I had been a member since about 2005. I admit over the past four or five years the forums had become pretty bad. Minoosh I did the same -- after I saw a movie I'd usually log on to IMDb -- but when I'd look at the message boards I was almost always disappointed.

According to a statement on IMDB, the site’s message forums and the private messaging system will be disabled on February 20th, because they “are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide.”

It’s a bit of an end-of-an-era moment. IMDb predates the World Wide Web: it got its start in 1990 with a series of lists on Usenet and migrated in 1993.

Yes it seems like it was the trolls, the really toxic ones.

The decision appears to mark the latest website to question the value of forums and comments, which can require heavy moderation. Other major websites, such as National Public Radio and Popular Science, have closed their own commenting sections because patrolling them for toxic users became a costly and time-consuming chore. Link

As I have mentioned before, a local news site in my area had a lively message forum. It was launched with the blurb: Get to know your neighborhood. And your neighbors! It was soon overrun with really vile trolls and finally shutdown. The news site said they did not have the resources to provide full-time moderation and they were "retooling." They rolled it out again and now, to post a message, you have to log in via a social media connection like Facebook or Twitter. That did get rid of the really toxic trolls but it also killed most discussion.

 

[newyorkguy]

Though the message boards are gone IMDb lives on! I no longer used the message boards much anyway. Annoyingly predictable: The movie was stupid, only brain dead losers like it.

How many times can you read that?

But the good news is the main part of IMDb is still up and running! You can search on a movie or TV show and come up with pages of info photos, links etc. I just tried it to be sure and accidentally found out something about Cheers that I always wondered about (without being consciously aware I wondered):

Why did Shelley Long leave the show after its fifth season?

At the time, there were various rumors going around about this. Some said that Shelley wasn't getting along well with the other cast members, especially Kelsey Grammer. It was also said that she left to pursue her movie career. More recently, Shelley Long says that she always intended to leave after her initial five-year contract was up, in order to spend time with her daughter while she was still young. IMDb link

 

[Ranb]

I suspect it was the racist trolls that killed the board. I think the IMDB administrators didn't like constantly deleting hateful posts in order to keep their forum from looking like Stormfront's little brother. The butt hurt from people who just couldn't believe movies like Hidden figures or Denial were allowed to exist was, interesting, to say the least.

I will miss the IMDB message boards.

Ranb

 

[Whip]

I was always baffled at the war between Lost fans and some other show I can't remember right now.

 

[Loss Leader]

racism and sexism killed the board. My understanding is that the comments section of the 2016 Ghostbusters read like a Klan meeting from the 1950s.

 

[Minoosh]

Theres anpther thread here somewhere about the IMDB board closure. And message boards, like this one, are doing poorly in general.

Probably I'd be better off staying off message boards. They are a great way to procrastinate, like now. I should have started a 2-hour drive 3 hours ago, I'd be there by now.

I may actually have created the other thread. Sometimes I'm shocked to see I've already posted something, forgotten about it, then reconstructed the whole rant in the space of 24 hours.

As I have mentioned before, a local news site in my area had a lively message forum. It was launched with the blurb: Get to know your neighborhood. And your neighbors!

Well, it's one way of getting to know them, and realizing you'd rather not know them. But I'm not sure the negative remarks from my newspaper were even from area residents, just random people who liked to provoke.

I meant to mention that IMDb was still there and had a lot of good content but my post was getting long.

ETA: Sometimes I think all the BS is just teenagers (or even pre-teen) who know each other and are playing a game.

 

[newyorkguy]

racism and sexism killed the board. My understanding is that the comments section of the 2016 Ghostbusters read like a Klan meeting from the 1950s.

Yeah I don't know what happened. When I first started posting on IMDb about 2005 it wasn't like that. There were some fairly intelligent conversations and it was a great way to get information. One night I was watching a 1950s movie set in New York City and I could not figure out the location of a exterior nightclub scene with a bridge in the background. I got an answer while the movie was still on. (It was the 59th Street bridge.)

There was another thread about the single season TV sitcom He & She starring Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss. Someone who worked in the production unit posted a message in the thread saying it was awesome to find that all these years later people still fondly remembered the show. She said Benjamin and Prentiss were really cool people and working on the show had been a great experience.

Recently cruising the board I found a thread about, "Would you have unprotected sex with Salma Hyak?"

 

[Minoosh]

One night I was watching a 1950s movie set in New York City and I could not figure out the location of a exterior nightclub scene with a bridge in the background. I got an answer while the movie was still on. (It was the 59th Street bridge.)

Groovy .

There was another thread about the single season TV sitcom He & She starring Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss.

That is pretty obscure. I used it to look up a Scrabble friend who was a kid extra on "Rat Patrol." That stuff is still there. You may still be able to put in a FAQ. Someone might be bored enough to look.

Recently cruising the board I found a thread about, "Would you have unprotected sex with Salma Hyak?"

Well, would they??

 

[Trebuchet]

I may actually have created the other thread. Sometimes I'm shocked to see I've already posted something, forgotten about it, then reconstructed the whole rant in the space of 24 hours.

Rest easy, you didn't. You didn't even post in it!

 

[Whip]

Well, would they??

I think it would depend on if her bodyguards left the room.

 

[newyorkguy]

...Well, would they??

Yes eagerly, as they explained in very graphic terms. It seemed like mostly high school kids, though, which is why I couldn't resist posting:

Hey guys, when we sack out tonight...lets keep those hands above the covers, okay?

I meant it as a joke but that actually stopped the thread cold.

 

[fuelair]

No. but the actress Salma Hayak..............

 

[newyorkguy]

No. but the actress Salma Hayak...

When you want to be snarky it kind of helps if you spell the name right.

One of Hollywood's most dazzling leading actresses, Salma Hayek was born on September 2, 1966, in the oil boomtown of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. IMDb link

 

[Minoosh]

Yes eagerly, as they explained in very graphic terms. It seemed like mostly high school kids, though, which is why I couldn't resist posting: (Hey guys, when we sack out tonight...lets keep those hands above the covers, okay?)

I meant it as a joke but that actually stopped the thread cold.

They think they invented it, like pot smoking. Not something their parents (or grandparents) did. Or do.

 

[carlvs]

...Recently cruising the board I found a thread about, "Would you have unprotected sex with Salma Hyak?"

You think that's bad - when the remake of The Karate Kid came out, some members thought it was "cute" to discuss the size of Jaden Smith's genitalia...

(At least they did until I pointed out to the board's mods that allowing the discussion of a minor's genitalia may be somewhat questionable...)

 

[newyorkguy]

You think that's bad - when the remake of The Karate Kid came out, some members thought it was "cute" to discuss the size of Jaden Smith's genitalia......

That actually sounds disturbingly familiar.

There were some good threads, some really great ones in fact. About ten years ago there was one on the The Graduate message board. It started with a woman who was a UCLA film studies instructor. I think she primarily taught American Cinema History. Something like that. (She grew up in a small town in north Texas and had a whole thing about The Last Picture Show. She saw it about five times when she was a kid and it was what convinced her: I got to get out of north Texas.)

The thread was: What Would The Graduate Sequel Have Been Like?

I said in the sequel Benjamin and Elaine would be divorced after Elaine had come out as a lesbian. Benjamin was back living at home again. The Robinson's were divorced. Something like that. She thought it was funny. We had a lot of fun in that thread.