Asian Cinema : Fellow Asian Forum Soon to be IMDb Refugees - the show so far

I created a "Recently Seen" thread at three places that have set up Discussion Boards which mimic the IMDb world (none have boards for individual *beep*

https://www.imdforums.com/forums/asian-cinema.118 = IM Forums
http://imdb2.freeforums.net/board/89/asian-cinema = IMDB v2
http://www.thegotboard.com/board/95/asian-cinema = IMC Forums

The best way to decide if any of them seem like a place we might migrate to is to go to them, create an account, flop around, reply to a post, quote a post, post your own review, post something off-topic, and ask yourself if it feels good. Or bad.

One big thing: None of them have nested threads, which is kind of a deal-breaker in my mind. But to be fair, nested threads have problems, too.

*** https://www.themoviedb.org TMDB is another site that may evolve. It's at the other end of things. It has discussions for individual movies/actors/etc, because it is a film database. But no one ever used them. The Admin there removed them a while back because no one used them but given the recent news, has re-instated them and is considering implementing General Discussions. A thread talking about it: https://www.themoviedb.org/talk/5894e6e0c3a368089b000e1e IMDb closing message boards.

And there's http://s4.zetaboards.com/fg3/index FG3D which is a film board that's been around a while.

I'll reply to myself here with my thoughts on each of these places and hope some of you will too (because we can nest things!), and then broach the subject of alternatives to a non-nested world. The few of us who have already met at one of these places all reacted with a gasp to this Facebook/Twitter model of hit-and-run "conversations". I think the gut reaction is that our "Recently Seen" thread might not work as well. It might be better to split things up somehow. But how?

Whither thou goest, I will dawdelest along to eventually

Somewhere betwixt hither and yon ye shall land.

I'm going to join IMDforums now.

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Favourite films:
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls006514680/

I'm just following wherever you think is best suited for us. We've been here for years now and I know that you know what will suit us.

I think aside from the fact that we all love Asian films here, we're also not fans of the social media outlets like fb and whatelseisthere so I think there's a consensus on the lay-out on IMDforum.

What I love about IMDb is its user-friendliness in a sense that the threads are just nested, all you see are texts (not opposed to you guys putting images on your threads on that forum btw), its just easy to navigate.

I hate IMDb for doing this. We were all comfortable in this place as if this lasted forever and now this. I think we need to explore some other more options and if all else fails, I think if we still haven't settled in a concrete place by feb. 15, we should start posting contact infos like email ad so we can reach others if we already find that IMDb-like place we're going to migrate too permanently.

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I'm just following wherever you think is best suited for us.

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Here's what's on my mind:

Many of us Asian Forum folk rarely venture outside these lovely confines. Others, who shall remain nameless (but one of them has a name that rhymes with leebossert), have fun all over. Having fun requires other people.

At this point, the the forum that has the most appealing software, and at this point the friendliest vibe, is the https://www.imdforums.com/forums/asian-cinema.118 = IM Forums . It also has the fewest people, but it's growing.

The friendlier vibe and the lower population are probably connected.

http://imdb2.freeforums.net/board/89/asian-cinema = IMDB v2 'feels' the most like IMDb, yo mama. It definitely has the largest migration so far. Sadly, turf wars have begun.

http://www.thegotboard.com/board/95/asian-cinema = IMC Forums started as, I think, a Game of Thrones lovefest. Now they have a forum for every forum at IMDb. It might look the most like IMDb but it feels cramped, to me.

Visit http://s4.zetaboards.com/fg3/index FG3D sometime if you like low-key. Its software is kind of old and klunky, but it's a mature forum with folks who care about movies.

Several of us have shown up at the IM Forums already. No need to rush anywhere. In the end I think we'll go where the fun is. If you know what I'm saying. Hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge.

I've checked yesterday on the three other forums you linked and seems like the software or what do you call it, the appearance, looks like the IM Forums too. So I didn't bother exploring more because I have this indifference towards seeing big avatars and posts just saying one line eating up the whole screen. That's why I prefer it here, just your name, a small avatar and pure texts on what our thoughts are. Plain and simple.

Yeah, I see elanor and Daniel are already there too. And clayton will also join there so I guess its, as of this moment, the consensus of where we'll settle down. I'll start posting my serious reviews there now. If we have a change of mind, then we'll move out from there. At least we still have a meeting place where we could gather come Feb. 20.

Thanks for getting this process started! I will check out these options soon.

YouTube Asian Movie Review Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/anticlimacus100

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The best way to decide if any of them seem like a place we might migrate to is to go to them, create an account, flop around, reply to a post, quote a post, post your own review, post something off-topic, and ask yourself if it feels good. Or bad. - sitenoise

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Today I signed in and added some replies and a thread at https://www.imdforums.com/forums/asian-cinema.118.

Aside of the not-nesting the site feels good to me. They automatically add the URL-commando to links, so that the URL becomes click-able. They have Bold,Italics, and Colours (one has to find the applicable numbers). An admin announced that they work on emojis. [edit] I forgot to allow the scripting. Now I'm seeing the toolbox and can use all their fine features, including clicking on colours and emojis.[/edit]

The look of the other two forums was not as agreeable to me. So, up to now I refrained from registering. I will register on the site you decide on in the end.

each brain develops its own preferences

How long does it take to get a confirmation email from IMDFORUMS? I've been waiting for an hour.

YouTube Asian Movie Review Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/anticlimacus100

Nevermind. I can post despite not getting the confirmation email.

That's fine with me.


YouTube Asian Movie Review Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/anticlimacus100

Hit "Resend email confirmation" I had to do that a few times. I had to wait, then I just banged on the resend and one came right away

Something to note:

The http://imdb2.freeforums.net/board/89/asian-cinema = IMDB v2 forum has over 1,000 members at this point.

The https://www.imdforums.com/forums/asian-cinema.118 = IM Forums forum just hit 100.

Watching, waiting.

The http://imdb2.freeforums.net/board/89/asian-cinema = IMDB v2
Film General = 97 posts, 891 replies
Horror = 24 posts, 239 replies

The https://www.imdforums.com/forums/asian-cinema.118 = IM Forums
Film General = 8 posts, 69 replies
Horror = 2 posts, 5 replies

http://www.thegotboard.com/board/95/asian-cinema = IMC Forums
Film General = 2 posts, 7 replies
Horror = 5 posts, 12 replies

I can't speak to the quality of posts.

For those interested, TMDB https://www.themoviedb.org TMDB shouldn't be counted out yet. It looks like a bunch of people have showed up there recently because they are looking for a place to discuss individual movies/actors/etc.

Here's a link to a page that shows recent posts across the site:

https://www.themoviedb.org/discuss

It's still unclear if they will create general discussion forums. My reading between the lines is that they probably will, but it will be a small subset of the IMDb boards. (Personally, I think it's a mistake for the other three sites trying to mimic IMDb to have things like Soapbox, Watercooler, Politics, Religion, etc.).

One of the major discussions across all these sites at this point is about "how to moderate". Lots of jockeying for power.

TMDB is a one man operation. The guy seems nice enough and may be a brilliant coder but I think his UI skills/taste are very weak. I use the site exclusively for getting movie postersthey have the best ones because there seems to be no concern for copyright infringement. I have to click and scroll and click and scroll and click and scroll and click and scroll and click and scroll to see all of them. I pointed this out to him and asked if it was acceptable to him, or could use improvement. He said he'd look at it. That was well over a year ago. I think he thinks it's acceptable because like so many "designers" these days who have no sense of User Experience, they design something to look good in a static state, with very little concern for how it gets used. Apple is the worst at this these days. Oops. Soapbox. Anyway, check it out if you are interested in a place for individual discussions.

Interesting all the anarchy and civil war and feudal power struggles that have been unleashed by the sudden collapse of the imdb empire.

I can't log in to the imdf page today. How long am I going to be patient and tolerant about that? Not long.

I guess I'll see how things shake out in a month or so and check in wherever you're posting on a regular basis.

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I can't log in to the imdf page today.

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I just checked in there half-an-hour ago and didn't have any problems with access. I do get a lot of error messages on imdb though - like I'm entering onto a ship that's breaking up.

The apocalypse is near..I also got several d'oh pages today, think that's one way of them telling us "start packing your bags now" lol.

I would encounter occasional error pages on IMDf too but it would get cured after a few attempts. The longest I could not log in there was around 2 hours, but that was when they just started the site so I don't know if it has something to do with their system calibration or whatever.

They rebooted the system a couple times over the last day or so. I'd get logged out but could always log back in.

I will alert them.

They are dismantling IMDb as we speak. I've gotten many D'oh pages here. Sads.

Not worth visiting at this point, nobody's there yet, but maybe worth a bookmark for the future:

The Movie Message Board http://moviemb.com

They have the same Categories of IMDb general Discussion. Their hook is that you can request a forum for anything you want.

I don't think that's gonna work.

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Our goal is to provide a host of general message boards, which can be found below, but also to provide individual message boards for every movie, tv show, and actor/actress. We are adding new boards as fast as we can, and we encourage everyone to use our Movie Forum Request form if the movie you want to talk about is not available.

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I just noticed that IMDbv2 has separated out "Indian Cinema", placing it in the Main "Movies" section alongside things like Film General. Good for Indian Cinema fans. There were a lot of them, so I get that.

IMDbv2 http://imdb2.freeforums.net/board/89/asian-cinema also created a Top Category called Legacy Boards and put Asian Cinema in that section at the bottom of the page. We don't have the numbers to change that.

The Admin of the https://www.imdforums.com/forums/asian-cinema.118 IMDforums posted there yesterday, at IMDbv2, that there is NOT going to be a merge of forums.

So:

Seems clear that for the foreseeable future IMDbv2 is going to be the place where General Film discussion, Trivia and games, politics, etc., (basically where most of the off page IMDb discussions took place, with threads like "Name films which have a scene set at McDonald's") is the place to go.

It's hard to say if Horror will do well there. Ebo might want to find a dedicated Horror Board. There's a bunch out there.

I think the https://www.themoviedb.org TMDB is going to take off as the place where peeps will go to talk specifics. As I mentioned above, they already have the database and discussion sections for talking about specific movies, tv shows, actors and actresses. It seems silly for the other three generalized contenders to say "If you want a forum to talk about The Workhorse & the Bigmouth just ask". Ain't gonna happen.

I think http://www.thegotboard.com/board/95/asian-cinema = IMC Forums will shrink to a smaller group of dedicated franchise forums, like Game of Thrones, Star Wars, what have you.

The admins at https://www.imdforums.com/forums/asian-cinema.118 IMDforums are a little too parent-y to ever let something like the free-for-all that was IMDb happen. That may be good, that may be bad.

Since I never went outside the Asian Cinema forum here anyway, I don't care. And frankly, I spend more time on letterboxd. But I'll really miss ebossert, and I think others will too if he chooses to hang it up and go Youtube full time or something. So I'm gonna make a public plea to him to post his monster 100 or so Japanese (and Korean) Recommendations threads over at IMDforums and let us pin them to the top. (I already asked the admins over there if we could). I think that will help recruit outsiders and then ebo can just "Watch" that thread for replies and play along as he wishes.

I know a lot of folks don't like to spread themselves too thin, but, in case everything else falls apart, there's letterboxd, unfortunately also owned by Amazon.

It's not the place for "Discussion" (capital D), but you can comment and occasionally get a response. Here are some tips for how to use it effectively, if anyone is interested:

Post reviews (so people will find you)
Follow people (so you'll get opinions about new stuff)

Posting Reviews

Keep them short and pithy for the most part. Long ones are cool too, but you might find it easier to post more if all you have to come up with is a sentence or two. Ebossert length is perfect. There are a bunch of 'professional' reviewers there, and wannabe pros. They all post long thought out stuff. Find one or two that suit you. But I think the key is to keep the people you follow limited to 10-20 at most. Beyond that it's a chore and it's messy. Pro tip: Don't follow people who create Watchlists. It really clutters your activity stream with useless information.

Following People

Do a search for a movie you love, preferably something more obscure than mainstream. Read a few of the reviews/ratings. I started by searching for About the Pink Sky. Bingo! There's two friends. You may also discover the beauty of the short and pithy review. It's easier and quicker to skim a bunch of them than it is to dive into a dissertation.

For Fun

Here's few examples of the short and pithy that got my attention on films I've recently seen:

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Gimme Danger - If you are watching this film with your shirt on, you're watching it wrong.

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The Girl on the Train - Everyone's wearing way too cosy sweaters to be that murdery.

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If Cats Disappeared From the World - Maybe *** if music disappeared from the film

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Creepy - An ex-cop focuses all of his energy trying to solve a case involving a gruesome serial killer. Gosh, I hope the killer hasn't chosen the cop's family and friends for his next victims.

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I Just Wanna Hug You - Such a wonderful low key romance movie, the carousel scene <3
BUT THEN WHY? WHY??? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? I HATE YOU MOVIE.
*goes to Asian wiki reads it's based on a true story *

*heart breaks*
Oh god, that's so sad :-( :-( :-(

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The first four are perhaps funnier than the last one. So that's the entertainment part. I'm not following them. The guy who posted the last one is the best guy on letterboxd. He watches all the stuff we watch, he's seen a ton, and he's sweet as can be - and he very seldom does that ALL CAPS thing (which tells me something about this particular film). He's a great source. His name is MrJago Follow him, for sure, if you attend.

You can go to my profile https://letterboxd.com/sitenoise and see what I've liked, who I follow, my lists, etc., for a jumping off point. It's not a lot. Use your 'likes' with discretion. Sometimes you just want to remember something. When you like something, chances are, except for the busy and/or pro types, the OP will look at your stuff. You can make friends that way if that's what you're after.

Don't 'like' a list that has over 100 entries. They're useless and redundant. Discourage them.

When you visit a movie page there are:

Reviews from friends
Popular reviews
Recent reviews

That makes sense to me. Each has a 'more' button.

See ya'll around!

In case anyone is interested, letterboxd, for a limited time (as it's usually a pro feature) will import your IMDb lists if you want.

And from their Feedback page http://feedback.letterboxd.com/forums/136771-general:

Add groups that users can join (and tag members when watching films together)

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Enable users to create groups they can join, such as "Filmspotting fans," "365 Movies in 365 Days" or groups by location, etc. sort of like Facebook groups.

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416 votes
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25 comments

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Posting Reviews

Keep them short and pithy for the most part. Long ones are cool too, but you might find it easier to post more if all you have to come up with is a sentence or two.

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Lol. Surely you jest.