2001: A Space Odyssey : bye bye message boards!

bye bye message boards!

" IMDb, we have decided to disable IMDb’s message boards on February 20, 2017."

Is this a joke?
How are users supposed to comment on movies on facebook?
Man, I mostly use message boards on this website.

Poor decision, I hope 'The Man' reconsiders it.

Re: bye bye message boards!

I haven't been on this Board since all the intense arguing and deleting of comments before the US presidential election.
In spite of that, I want to wish good luck to all the "2001" Board regulars.
There were some good film discussions on this Board in the past.

How to figure out how to get and keep longterm internet movie discussions going? It won't be easy.
IMDb boards were some of the best designed I've seen on the web. (In some ways the best.)
And Facebook definitely will not be a good replacement or YouTube which is also poorly designed in terms of keeping track of comments.

Maybe another company will try to fill the void for movie buffs? We'll see.

Imo at least, BB ;-)

it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈

Post deleted

This message has been deleted.

Re: bye bye message boards!

Art's pretty boring if you can't think about it and talk about it. It becomes something you just passively consume and then throw away. Art becomes like spam, or something that exists just to advertise itself.

But that's the kind of thing Amazon's business model thrives upon.

IMDB was one of the only places where you could find good discussions on older films and directors. The popular boards are junk, especially from 2008 onwards, when Nolan/Marvel/troll-mania took over, but there are/were so many experts on alot of the more esoteric boards.

Re: bye bye message boards!

The troll problem on IMDb and the lack of moderation is definitely a huge problem that needs/needed to be addressed, but I don't think completely shutting down the boards (not even keeping up the old posts as an archive or allowing PM's) is the answer. This is absurd. Maybe I'm making a big deal out of not much, but it's just insane to imagine this all shutting down after, what, 20+ years of activity?

As mentioned, there's very few other places to discuss older and more obscure film, nowhere with the amount of users as IMDb. Sure it has its problems but this is a huge disappointment, a cop-out. Instead of stepping up to the task of providing competent moderation, they just decided to give up. The by turns insular and completely vapid content you get from Facebook or Twitter isn't at all analogous to the kind of far-ranging, intelligent discussion so often facilitated by the countless IMDb boards for every single film, TV show, and person involved in any way with either.

I hope the best posters here can stay in touch, we'll have to find another forum to migrate to perhaps but the options aren't terribly appealing. I suppose Reddit is a possibility, I occasionally post there, but as noted their current user base (for the Kubrick sub-reddit) is not a patch on the best users here.

Re: bye bye message boards!

What is telling in the 'announcement' is the shameless spin doctoring, the ubiquitous post-modern mode of PR spin and self-deception and duped subjectivity that always entails 'the coincidence of opposites', a perverse oppositional determination in which the announcement of an improvement in services coincides with the abolition of services. Here, the claim that the company is seeking to "enhance the customer experience on IMDb" by withdrawing services, is the very form of contemporary post-modern consumer-capital ideology. Taking away becomes the mode of appearance of Giving; the termination of services is the mode of appearance of enhancing services, analogous to the drearily perverse but rampant delusion of "getting things for free by paying for them" eg "Buy one, Get one Free!", "Fifty percent extra Free!", etc creating the illusion that you are consuming less, are 'saving' and being pragmatic when in fact you are consuming even more and saving even less; and when such a deluded ideology is applied to everything, including the global environment, you end up with the suicidal paradox of "saving the environment by ... consuming it, destroying it!). While superficially seeming like a ridiculous contradiction, stupid hypocrisy, the contradictory relation is in fact complementary: it is only by fantasizing that we are 'really' saving, are at a comfortable distance from what is really happening, that we can fully engage in the consuming, become libidinally invested in it, manifest our 'true' desires, which of course are the engineered desires of the consumer system itself, the desires of a non-existent posited Other, the imposed reality system to which everyone is immersed ... the illusion of distance ("I'm not consuming, I'm saving! Saving the starving in Africa, saving the dolphins, saving the rain-forests, save money, saving the planet, being a Responsible Citizen!), of imagining that we're 'not really doing it', not taking it seriously, being what enables us to fully do it.

It would be great if such odious, banal and obsessive-compulsive pseudo-"social media" as Fakebook and Twitterface, etc, adopted such an approach in a more literal way too ("In order to enhance your unique Fakebook life-style experience, we are shortly to withdraw all Fakebook services from the internet. This will ensure that we can continue to provide a quality experience to all our Fakebook zombies. It will be a sugar-free, low-Cal, decaffeinated Fakebook, a service free of all trolls and bad stuff, devoid of all content, just empty gestures and pseudo-activity. Guilt-free and Totally Addictive ... forever! ").
-------------------------------------------

Latest "TrumTwit": "We must keep "evil" out of our country!"

So Trump's planning to emigrate, to go into exile :-)?? [Why the scare quotes around "evil"? Virtual "evil" as seen on Reality TV? "We'll hold on to Real Evil 'cuz that's great, amazing, uuuge, good, just for us to have, but we'll get rid of all that nasty virtual Evil 'cuz it's nasty and virtual and interferes with my TV viewing and ratings figures".]



Yes, of course I completely agree, but aren't you actually completely wrong?

Re: bye bye message boards!

And "Col Needham" -- the man behind all this contradictory nonsense -- is offering more of it, by way of supposed explanation, on another board...

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/265706940?p=11&d=265758475#265758475

"I can add more here for you ... your suggestion of rebuilding the boards is the first thing we considered when we looked at the next steps. We hate to cut features. The extra context is that in 2017 we are coming to the end of a multi-year technology migration which you may have seen covered in recent end-of-year messages. It is this migration which is enabling things like data publication within minutes of arrival by the database content team and new interfaces for photo contribution / display. Almost the whole of IMDb has been rebuilt behind-the-scenes on a modern scalable platform which can handle the traffic of a Top 40 web site along with two app platforms (iOS & Android) and a mobile site, plus data exports to a whole host of other systems, including Amazon Fire TV. This is on a scale which many people here are not appreciating; they still think of IMDb as a small site BUT that is because, out of all our traffic, boards are a tiny (and shrinking) share.

As more of IMDb is on the modern platform, we get faster and faster at adding new features and improving existing ones on a huge multi-billion page view scale. Unfortunately, this means that the older technology becomes more and more of drag and disproportionately slows progress, hence our desire to finish everything in 2017. When we sat down for our annual planning cycle in the second half of 2016, we looked at the options for everything which still needed to be migrated. We had deep discussions on what would migrate and stay the same, what would migrate and be improved and also what would not be worth migrating.

For 26 years IMDb has been collecting film, TV, celebrity and other information and creating what we hope are powerful and useful services on top of this data for our many different customers. Our strengths are in gathering, processing and publishing permanent information around entertainment. Message boards are quite a different thing than the rest of IMDb (see my comments in the post referenced above). For years, our customers have done nothing but complain about how the boards are run, what features are missing and how angry they are about how other users have treated them. This is reflected in the relative traffic shrinkage of the boards. We have reached the point where most of our customers do not even know they exist; many that do know about them have been scared away after bad experiences. We have lost a non-trivial number of customers due to bad experiences on the boards. This is wrong on so many levels.

Even despite all of these problems, and per the post of mine which you highlighted, we still see value in the boards. However, during the planning process when we looked at the time and effort required to rebuild the boards, it just did not make sense. We can better serve customers by getting better at that things at which we are already good -- the core functions of IMDb and building things on top of the real data. Essentially, in business terms, it is core competency issue. Wrangling temporary discussions around topics like entertainment which naturally cause friction is not an IMDb core competency; you can even see this in the complaints in the last 24 hours from people who want us to keep the boards, yet then tacitly admit that the boards are not very good anyway. We see the helpful suggestions that if only we did this, that, or the other, then all the problems will disappear. The reality is harder at this scale; I am not going to address them all, but volunteer moderators, buying other software, charging subscription fees have all been examined with the full information available to us, and if there was a magic wand which could be waved, we would have found it.

I love our boards. I ignore trolls. I am going to be sorry when the boards close. However, I am going be more excited about the new possibilities which we can build and deploy once the boards are gone and are no longer slowing us down. As we like to say at Amazon, it is still Day One.

Col
"

--

So now the big concern is the loss of so many people due to "bad experiences" on the boards? Surely, surely Twitter and Facebook will be a safe haven from such experiences, for they are full of only the brightest and best of people, no trolls there at all...

The whole post reeks with smugness and complacency, with not-giving-a-sh-t about the boards, frankly. Col acts like they're some minor subset of IMDb when they're actually the main attraction of it for most of its biggest users. As another poster put it, if the database of information is the "core" of the website, then the boards are the heart and soul. Gutting them completely is just absurd.

Some choice replies:

"You betrayed your own website."

--

"Col,

This site has a board for every movie, cast and crew member, no matter how obscure. That is a beautiful thing and is what attracted me to IMDB over a decade ago. It is my ritual whenever I watch a film to visit its board here. This site was what introduced me to internet forums and I visit these boards nearly daily, even though I don't post as much as when I was younger. I still greatly value the boards and IMDB showed me the true beauty of online communication. It isn't always pleasant (as evident in the first two responses to your post) and trolling is an unfortunate problem, but is the price of freedom of communication. I've heard from older users that this is exactly how IMDB started. Without this feature, I will have little reason to visit the site. What a shame. I don't see how Facebook or Twitter can replicate the boards, especially for those of use that appreciate these boards specifically because they were not like modern social media.

I know my opinion does not really matter and you owe me nothing as these boards are free. I wish IMDB luck going forward. Thank you for over a decade of providing a place for wonderful discussion on an artform I love. I am sad to see the forums dissapear. For me personally, IMDB will be no more.
"

--

"Amazon is one of the most technologically advanced companies on the planet, but you can't work out the logistics of keeping trolls off a message board?

Volunteers ABSOLUTELY work. They have been the foundation of message boards since the internet began. And while you may look at unpaid volunteers and say to yourself "I don't have the time or resources to train and monitor volunteer staff," my answer is this. You don't have to. You pick volunteers, you monitor them for a short time to see if they're making wise moderating decisions, and, then you promote them to positions to where they're monitoring other volunteers. With the tiniest amount of effort, one paid staff member can be overseeing an army of unpaid admins/moderators.

This isn't rocket science. If you really want the forums to remain open, there are ways.
"

Re: bye bye message boards!

The way Col Needham keeps mentioning customers, makes it seem as though he's really nuking the boards because advertisers and studios don't like them.

Re: bye bye message boards!

I think so, yeah. I think the studios are certainly not comfortable with having such powerful, visible public boards attached to the most popular database for storing film and actor/crew info. Wouldn't be surprised if they were pressuring Amazon/IMDb to drop the boards so as to shut down negative publicity, bad reviews, and just the flat-out mean sh-t people write on actor's (especially actress's) boards.


A former employee at IMDb posted this:


This is no surprise whatsoever. I've worked at IMDb (the worst and most discouraging experience of my professional life ) and believe me, the company is a soulless, empty corporate shell that has one goal: to sell advertising. It's not about movies, TV, or being 'guardians of data' - everything is about making money. The entire site is setup to sell advertising, and movie data is simply a means to achieve that. End of story.

The reason IMDb is getting rid of the message boards is simple: they can't be monetised. If IMDb could make money out of the boards, they'd be staying, but there's no cash in it for them, so they're getting axed. The sell-outs who run IMDb will have looked at the 'metrics' (a risible corporate buzzword the Data Team loves so much) and decided that traffic is not high enough for them to make any real money.

It really is that simple. I've experienced first-hand the obsession with metrics, and making money (at the expense of customer satisfaction), and it really is pathetic to behold. No decision is made at IMDb without greed being factored into the equation, and believe me, they will also shut down certain data sections at some point if they get in the way of making money. Forget the fact that the site has compiled 20+ years worth of important data - if one of the sections can no longer be monetised effectively (Literature, for example), they'll just get rid of it.

In financial terms, keeping the message boards live costs IMDb basically nothing, bar the human cost of maintenance, which - when considered in the context of the site's huge annual profit margin - is less than miniscule.

There's no point complaining about it, making suggestions, or suggesting alternate, viable solutions - the hacks at IMDb don't give a toss. There's no money in it for them, so they're not interested. They'll fob you off with the usual hollow platitudes, but make no mistake, the IMDb that people love died years ago. Now, the site is just a shiny, corporate plaything, pimped out by Amazon for the purposes of making money, with greed - not customer focus - being its primary driving force.

One final note: it probably burns IMDb that the majority (over one third) of their users come from China, the audience for which is far less valuable to advertisers than, say, the USA and the UK. Only about 5% of IMDb's users come from the UK, which is ironic considering the site originated in England. But, I digress - this post will, of course, be deleted, but what the hell. I don't care!


Re: bye bye message boards!

Yay, that disgruntled former imdb wage slave, fancy pants whistle-blowing blowjob has had his posts at Reddit go viral, people reposting them at getsatisfaction.com and many other horny sites. There's more from him too, via Reddit, about 'Col Needham' (the Kentucky Fried Chicken of Media):

https://www.reddit.com/user/Manhattan_Writer

[–]Manhattan_Writer 5 points 1 day ago

He fell down the corporate rabbit hole years ago. I've heard the same story, and he's so proud of it because that's what he really values. When I was at IMDb, the place was bursting with fantastic, intelligent people, especially on the Data Team. Everyone was so friendly, committed, and motivated; they'd work themselves to the bone because they really cared. Col and his corporate lackeys (including the head of the Data Team, a horrible corporate bully) totally destroyed that. You really had to see it to believe it. Backstabbing, bullying, intimidation (at one point, he screamed horrible obscenities down the phone at one of the team leaders for daring to show some initiative (an exchange that was recorded), and this was one of the most important members of the team; someone about whom Col regularly waxed lyrical. It'a toxic environment, and the recent article in the NY Times about the negativity of the Amazon working culture also applies to IMDb.
permalink


[–]Manhattan_Writer 4 points 1 day ago


It's all an act. He is superficially charming, and I've seen with my own eyes how he treats people behind the scenes. I've also experienced it myself - like with so many others, he went out of his way to get rid of me after I voiced my objections (directly to him in one-to-one meetings) to bullying and harassment within the data team.

And I'm not making any assumptions. After three years working at IMDb, I know exactly how the company operates, and everything is about money. If it can't be monetized effectively, the feature is scrapped, and/or not even considered. IMBd is not about movie data; the data is merely a delivery mechanism for advertising/monetization. End of story. Everything is about pageviews and metrics, and if the feature/site section doesn't garner enough pageviews to make money, it's scrapped.

Also, it's important to clear something up: Jeff Bezos has nothing to do with IMDb's operation. IMDb is a separate entity; Amazon owns it, but it operates independently, though the risible corporatisation of IMDb is a by-product of that ownership.

This decision comes from the site's founder, in collaboration with his CTO (another corporate psychopath). They will have decided this between themselves, and then gone through the motions of consulting with the data team/IT guys/Editorial team, most of whom are corporate lackeys and/or too afraid for their jobs to voice objections.

You're right - it is a dumb move, but they don't care about that, and do not give a toss about upsetting their users. They view board users and contributors with contempt; an annoyance that must be tolerated. And due to the alleged 250m visitors a month, their mindset is that the dissent doesn't matter as the site has so many visitors.

Just look at the founder's messages to people on the IMDb thread announcing the shutdown:

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/thread/265706940

It's all corporate BS, talking about how the message boards are not a 'core competency' for IMDb. What?! Who talks about 'core competencies' when talking about a freakin' message boards? Those are the words of a corporate whore who is so lost in the corporate black hole that he can't see the wood for the trees.

Incidentally, 'core competency' is prevalent Amazon buzzword that is used extensively behind the scenes.

[–]Manhattan_Writer 9 points 2 days ago*


Yes, he'll know who I am. I already posted my comments the official IMDb thread and he deleted them twice. I could write a book about the negative BS I witnessed at IMDb (I plan to at some point in the future). Re backstabbing the co-founders - He shamelessly sold them down the river to strengthen his own position. It was sickening. I worked with these guys on the Data team, which was run by another corporate psychopath (one of his underlings), and she bullied and intimidated the whole team into submission. In the space of around 6 months, she forced out 90% of the team with bullying tactics, and he just stood there and let it happen. I and others raised these issues many times, but he refused to accept it, and simply turned a blind eye. Believe me, this guy fits all the criteria of the typical corporate psychopath (superficially charming, emotionally shallow, grandiose sense of self worth (just look how he's plastered all over IMDB), but he's ultimately two-faced, unbelievably phony, and totally devoid of genuine empathy.

He'll be scanning this Reddit thread right now. That's another thing they do - endlessly scan the net (via bots) for any negative mention of IMDb, and he'll be trying to figure out a way he can sue me for defamation. Good luck with that!
[–]Manhattan_Writer 132 points 3 days ago*




As an add-on to my previous post: having worked at IMDb, I know from first-hand experience that the company is populated with corporate psychopaths, and they take their lead from the guy at the top, who is a ruthless, power hungry, two-faced phony. IMDb wasn't just founded by one guy; in the beginning, there were 5 or 6 guys who collaborated on getting it off the ground, but IMDb's current head honcho systematically stabbed them all in the back and either forced them out of the company, or ensured they got fired by Amazon. And these were his friends; people he'd worked with 15-20 years (!) This guy loves being in the limelight; swanning around to various film festivals acting like he's God's gift to film. Make no mistake: he (and his equally smug CTO, another corporate psychopath) are behind this change. He sold out to Amazon years ago, and doesn't give a toss about customer engagement. Like all corporate psychopaths, he talks a good game, and feigns interest, but as I've experienced first-hand, it's all an act, and it's all about money.

If something can't be monetized, or the 'metrics' don't show enough pageviews, it's gone, irrespective of the customer impact. You only have to look at the discussion thread on the Contributor's help board to see the contempt with which the head of IMDb holds the site's visitors.

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/flat/265706940?p=8

He's ignored 99% of comments, and replied only to the one comment that somewhat supports the abolishment of the message boards. Plus, like a coward, he deleted my comment on thread, and I'm sure he's furiously emailing Reddit right now trying to get my posts removed here. Good luck with that!

Re: bye bye message boards!

Yeah I read those, too. Good on him. I hope he keeps on posting over and over and over no matter how many times his posts mysteriously "vanish." Col sounds like a real prick, and that sounds like a soul-sucking, horrific workplace. Now it makes more sense why the boards were run so incompetently in the first place.

I just saw that the big thread where Col made that announcement further explaining the decision has been locked, made read-only now after 25 pages of criticism of that decision and his post. Figures. Shutting down opposition and discussion everywhere is their M.O., not unlike Trump's own fascism ("if it portrays me in a negative light then it's FAKE NEWS and must be deleted!")

Re: bye bye message boards!

I couldn't agree anymore. Well put. Certain films needed what the core of 2001's posters brought. People who may have differed in opinion but definitely agreed in the complexities of the film and of Kubrick himself. Trolls are one thing but the floodgates will destroy this. Sad day indeed. This was the first board I thought of.

Re: bye bye message boards!

Maybe IMDb is aiming to remove one of the few things that brings me pleasure in life ;-).

Re: bye bye message boards!

This was a phenomenal board. Disagreements and all and even some of the heated arguments... There always was substance. It was MOSTLY not out of line. We discussed some great stuff on here and while stragglers showed up, the strong core kept this interesting. I loved hearing everyone's POVs. I truly believe that it's necessary to hear different takes on such a film like 2001. Now it'll be millions of *beep* chiming in when they probably aren't aware of Kubrick, his themes, methods and outlook on the Global Economy/Conflicts etc. While we all don't see eye to eye, I cherished this board. The Shining and 2001 were my absolute favorites. It's a damn shame

Re: bye bye message boards!

Damn! There's not a minute to loose then: we have less than a month to go all "Farenheit 451" (as in the end of the book) on the better IMDb boards and absorb their contents, before they go all "Farenheit 451" (as in the rest of the book) and burn them into oblivion. Pick one.

Re: bye bye message boards!

I'll be saving all the best posts from all the best people.

I've learned a lot from many of the posters here, so for that, thank you.




Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride

Re: bye bye message boards!

I've just created a new Kubrick discussion group on Slack. It's called Kubrick Scholars, located at http://kubrickscholars.slack.com


It's invite-only, but you can join just by clicking the link below:

https://kubrickscholars.slack.com/shared_invite/MTM2MzI2OTQxNTA1LTE0ODYxODU5NDEtN2VjZmMwZmZkYQ

Tieman, harry, MJP, Barbed, Evan, and many others, please feel free to join and give it a shot. I can't promise it'll be great, but we can try. I am shaping it to be a more highbrow, intelligent venue for Kubrick discussion compared to most other boards, including the ones here. It allows for instant messaging, which of course IMDb does not, but it also allows you to edit or delete any of your messages as you wish, and the bunch of different sub-channels (encompassing every Kubrick film, and other areas of interest) are akin to the different film boards on IMDb.

Re: bye bye message boards!

Cheers, mate. See you there.



Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride

Re: bye bye message boards!

Royalty?

Re: bye bye message boards!

All the best people, kmags. All the best people.



Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride

Re: bye bye message boards!

Not the most virtuous, or indeed the least virtuous, or the cleverest or the stupidest, or the richest or the best born. But the best. In a word, people about whom there is no question.

Re: bye bye message boards!

Speaking of "all the best people", they're right here...all of an "ancient race". You're all my friends, more-so than the 'gators in my swamp or the catfish in my river. I'll never forget tieman's portraits of me or the posts by harry that took me hours to read and days to understand. Lester, have you seen Shyamalan's "Split", he has as many personalities as I would wish for. Barbed, you're a helluva guy who knows a great film when he sees one. This is all very sad, for these boards were some of my favorite things.

"gonna throw, my raincoat in the river...gonna toss, my umbrella in the sea"...Sammy Turner.

Re: bye bye message boards!

"Do not go gently into that goodnight" :-)

"gonna throw, my raincoat in the river...gonna toss, my umbrella in the sea"...Sammy Turner.

Re: bye bye message boards!

On ya, rain coat. Poet of the 2001 board, and introduced me to the magic of Leone's films.



Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride

Re: bye bye message boards!

This really is depressing, a bummer of epic proportions - and the ridiculous "explanations" provided on top of the page pretty much have the effect of adding insult to injury. The absurdity of the notion of "enhancing" the quality of the service by means of discontinuing the service has already been addressed, but the part about "concluding" that the "message boards are no longer providing a useful, positive experience" isn't any better. Apparently, the ones doing the concluding are a few big shots who are basing this conclusion purely on financial calculations because I've never heard of any survey or poll having been conducted amongst the actual posters - the only people who are qualified to judge whether or not the environment is useful or positive. Sure, the trolling and the spamming etc are problematic, but, for one thing, they've always been there and for another it seems rather naive to think that the ones in charge of the website give a sh-t about the quality of the content. At any rate, I haven't come across a single poster anywhere who thinks that the environment has become so polluted that snuffing it altogether would be a desireable or indeed reasonable course of action.

I first landed on this board almost nine years ago and have mostly found it to be an informative, stimulating place with a swell bunch of regular posters. Plenty of interesting debates during these years... well, all this is going to be over soon now. Gets me all nostalgic and sentimental. Too bad there ain't no dolphins around to create a replica of this world before it goes under, allowing us to go on and delude ourselves that apocalypse never occurred - like in one of those Douglas Adams books.

Whatta crock of sh-t.



"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

Re: bye bye message boards!

Amen & then some. :(

Re: bye bye message boards!

It's a genuine crock, all right, and I feel certain you've diagnosed the truth, which is the powers that be are too cheap to keep it running. When IMDb's boards close, I will delete my membership, cancel my Amazon Prime membership, and never again order anything from Amazon. And I'll encourage my friends and colleagues to do the same.


The Dumpster gives a whole new meaning to "red" states.

Re: bye bye message boards!


When IMDb's boards close, I will delete my membership, cancel my Amazon Prime membership, and never again order anything from Amazon. And I'll encourage my friends and colleagues to do the same.


That was my first reaction as well, but I don't think I can abandon my film ratings. I now have virtually all the films I remember seeing catalogued and archived in one convenient place, where information about said films is only a click away. That was actually the thing that encouraged me to become a member before I even discovered the boards, so deleting my membership would impact me much more than it would the overlords at amazon. So, most unfortunately, they've got me stuck. As disappointed and angry as I am about this, I'll just have to keep rating every film I see on here. I don't feel like I have a choice.

I then thought about boycotting Amazon, but again, that would just be shooting myself in the foot. I find my kindle fire incredibly useful and convenient, and Amazon's kindle store vastly better than any of the competitors :(.

Re: bye bye message boards!

to aaahmemories;
I definitely understand the frustration with Amazon and IMDb.
I still don't know if I can give them up completely.

I did sign an online petition for IMDb to keep the boards.
And I wrote a comment on the IMDb Facebook page asking them to reconsider their decision.

BB ;-)

it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈

"I can't get no …"

IMDB has a separate 'complaints-oriented' site over at "getsatisfaction.com", where, if you are lucky, your written grievance will actually be responded to by a real live functioning entity usually referred to as a 'human being', that is, by either a fully paid/salaried member of the IMDB staff or an unpaid, interned, over-worked,, 'happy slave', 'volunteer' member of staff, euphemistically termed an 'associate'. At the least, you will have the pleasure, the satisfaction, of knowing that your complaint post will be read by a staff member there.

Posters can express, more directly, their real or genuine concerns, at this lesser-known site, and it is quite clearly lesser-known, as there are hardly any complaints even yet registered there, a mere trickle, whereas complaining here on the ordinary message boards is just a case of ineffectual, uselessly impotent acting-out, for it will not even be seen by staff, only by the trolls still systematically terrorizing the boards and deleting posts [cf above], the boards' troll-stalked desolation the primary reason for the shutdown in addition to the usual cynical capitalist ones) .... Lobby, reason, argue, or rant and rave away, shout, roar, scream, and be generally enraged and outraged to your heart's content here:

https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/imdb-message-boards

This is doubly ironic as IMDB originated from a message board and as a message board, its founders having been posters at film-related USENET message boards back in the late-1990s.

Yes, of course I completely agree, but aren't you actually completely wrong?

Re: "I can't get no …"

Quite. This information needs to be circulated around the imdb message boards as I've never heard of this getsatisfaction.com imdb site, that it's the kinky panty-hose site where imdb users communicate directly with the imdb staff, get all erotic and sexy, and I'm sure most posters have never heard of it either, much less jerked themselves off there. Will re-post it around the boards and get people aroused, as the prostitute said to the priest.

Re: "I can't get no …"

"This could be the Last Time, this could be the Last Time, maybe the Last Time, I don't know...oh no"

"gonna throw, my raincoat in the river...gonna toss, my umbrella in the sea"...Sammy Turner.

Re: "I can't get no …"

There are more talented minds on these message boards than all of Amazon.

"gonna throw, my raincoat in the river...gonna toss, my umbrella in the sea"...Sammy Turner.

Re: "I can't get no …"

That's what they always want, always desire, for it to be the 'Last Time', the ultimate, final, everything fulfilled spasmic orgasmic gratification, a desire for deliverance onto - death. But then they awaken onto another day, onto the persistence of the world and themselves, and feel even more unfulfilled, feel even further from reaching the cosmic-level climactic gratification, feel guilty for not getting full satisfaction, insisting that they 'can't get no - satisfaction', insisting on enjoying their misery even more than their pleasures.

Just not kinky enough, poor bastards.

'I'd rather just suffer if it means my neighbour suffers even more than me, than just enjoy myself if it means my neighbour enjoys himself even more than precious me, myself and I': this is the sad, sorry, and mad affliction that infects all humans, and why humanity is totally beyond fúckéd.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned, But It's Much Sexier Than Hell Could Ever Hope To Be. You don't need him; you just knead him

Re: bye bye message boards! IMDb alternatives

** Where to go to see message boards/forums about various movies to replace IMDb?

- Facebook? I'd need to set up an anonymous FB account. I might do that but FB threads are cumbersome and can be annoying due to prompts for personal info.
- Reddit allows threads on a movie topic and then after a few weeks most of those threads are abandoned.
- With other websites like Rotten Tomatoes or Letterboxd, people can only write reviews and so there is not much dialogue.

- There is a new site I was informed about, IMDB v2.0.
http://imdb2.freeforums.net/
I set up an IMDb v2 account.
It's a typical web forum with a "flat" look. (To know what that means, pick the flat option in an IMDb thread.)
But it has the main IMDb forum/board listings. That's all that IMDb had in the old days (1999) when I first joined.
There is a science fiction board for instance where 2001 discussions could occur.

I'll see if there are enough members in the future on IMDb v2 so that the discussions can keep going.

Imo at least, BB ;-)

it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈

Re: bye bye message boards! IMDb alternatives

https://www.themoviedb.org

This site just set up individual movie threads. Looks like an uncluttered IMDB with a clean slate on its message boards.
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