IMDb India

And now, we have "Top 10 Indian movies added to IMDb Watchlists' on individual title pages, jammed between Cast and Storyline sections....

1. How does the design and placement even make sense?!
2. What am I supposed to do with this info? Be a sheeple and add it to my watchlist?

Anyway, more picking for my element hider to block.

IMDb, why are you so desperate to deep-throat us with content we do not want?

Found a couple of apps for my TV series that have all the titles that IMDB has. So switched over. Found some for movies too, but they are pay-to-use. As soon as I find a free one, I am outta here.

So what exactly are you saying? That the minorities should shut up and take it? Even if what you say is true, when a CEO's address has mostly "nays" as replies, likes this one does, it says a lot about his professionalism and integrity when he and his company refuses to acknowledge it. No one is asking for a roll-back. People are asking for an opt-out. That should not be hard for a company this size.

Yes it says a lot about the CEO and the company... and that's all it does. Two months and a whopping 76 nay comments later, I doubt if it makes any business sense even to acknowledge anything, let alone provide an opt-out. Prople are loving it. If the kind of movies that make money is an indicator of the kind of content they enjoy and prefer to pay for, then Im sure IMDB engagement is sky rocketting. Bigger hue and cry had been made for changes made by bigger companies like Facebook. But what happened? End of the day, stocks rose up and investors are happy. Their R&D on how best to monetize their business model far far FAR outweighs the fraction dust of minority that is displeased with their decision. Nothing will happen till the numbers begin to drop. Then they go back and see what went wrong. Till that happens, it's all good, and people are loving the new "Indian feel". Garbage or not, you think anyone in the company cares if its bringing in more clicks and user retention? Lets take a hit on the profits and make a 0.000000001% minority population of the users happy... geez... what a ridiculous idea even thinking about it!!

Bigger hue and cry had been made for changes made by bigger companies like Facebook. But what happened?

Are you forgetting what happened? India passed one of the strictest Net Neutrality laws there is. That's what happened. In spite of the telecom giants like Airtel lobbying against it.

Prople are loving it.

Do you have any evidence for this? I have not met a single person in my circle who was happy with this change, including those who are into Bollywood movies.

Its fine to defend an action. Debates are always healthy. But you need to substantiate your claims. Telling me they have not made any changes is proof in itself is not substantiating your claims.

Im not talking about the net neutrality fiasco with facebook. That's not in their hands. I'm talking about the internal company controlled business decisions... design changes, news feed, that thing on the right side that's constantly updating, and the evergreen war on privacy changes and the defenders of people's pictures. The only time a company will take feedback seriously is when there is competition that can lure customers away from them. That, or revenue getting affected.  

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/imdb.com

That's the alexa web stats... most of the info is for paid numbers, but you can see a general idea of where the ranking is going by looking at that rank graph. Its not solid proof or anything, but that taken with the clickbaits positioned on premium screen real estates, The latest "news" about the popular celebrities with India as default, the embarrassingly prominent hard sell on amazon prime and the subsequent "top" and "trending" prime videos, etc. Taking all that and the website rank going up, I fail to see how this is not an excellent that paid off. 

If what you are saying is true... that the people in your circle is a representation of the users who use IMDB, then what follows is an overwhelming majority of users who disapproves? How does that even make any sense? A CEO has a legal obligation to the shareholders to make the most profitable decisions. You really think if the numbers were actually dwindling, they wouldnt change it back because they're holding on to some hurt ego or something? Do the math... India is the third largest user base of IMDB. You really think if a majority of the Indians did not like the Indian content and was falling in engagement stats, they're gonna sit by there and say "meh"? No... its a fair assumption to think that a majority love the new idea and that's reflecting in the rankings. 

So basically, all you have is an Alexa stat, and an assumption that the majority love it because the CEO is being apathetic? Way to make your point!

Again, no one is asking them for a roll-back. They are being asked for a opt-out. That's how it makes sense. You set something as default. Fine! As a company, its your right to do whatever you want with your product. That's what IMDb did. But when the CEO's address gets an overwhelming number of nays, and they say, "fuck you, you do not get something that as basic as an opt-out?" That is not only inconsiderate, that is not only bad design, that is outright forcing the users to accept something just because the company can. That is not affording a courtesy to their allegedly minority Indian users as they would to their western users.

That is how this relates to Facebook. Facebook tried to do that with the whole internet. Their idea with Free Basics was to say "you access the parts of internet we allow you to. Everything else is out of reach, or you pay a premium price for it." The result, you already know. Also, for each change that Facebook makes to its privacy policies, they usually have an opt-out. I went off Facebook years ago, so I do not know the state of affairs now, but at that time, they made the less private option the default and then you had to dig deep in the settings to opt-out. But there usually was an opt-out.

There is an important takeaway here. You say India is their 3rd largest user-base and yet they did not even show the basic decency of an opt-out for us Indians; something that is basic design when such a sweeping change is made. The fact that you are defending them says more about you than it does about them. You are proving them right. That we are lesser than their Western users, that we will bend over and take whatever we are given, and we will squabble among ourselves rather than make them do the right thing.

So basically, all you have is an Alexa stat, and an assumption that the majority love it because the CEO is being apathetic? Way to make your point!

Its a better made point than something to the tune of "No one in my circle likes it, so that must represent the Indian users". You are more than welcome to bring to the table evidence of an overwhelming majority NOT liking it. A two month old announcement thread with some 70 odd comments it is not. 

That is not affording a courtesy to their allegedly minority Indian users as they would to their western users.

Sure... that is a fact. Maybe in their R&D, they discovered that the best way to monetize the indian users is to not give them an opt out. Who knows what the strategy is. I can see the outcome, and I can derive valuable information about the company from it. Nothing points towards "fairness" and "equality" and other such ideologies. I have made no such assumptions. There is no "They could, but they wouldn't". I'm not under this delusion that their business decisions are based on feedback from their users. Case in point - the much beloved community discussion board that you see on the bottom of every movie... The heart of the community with discussions on theories, exchange or opinions, etc... that's going to be stopped in about a week. You think an outcry for making that an opt feature is going to get any traction? 

The fact that you are defending them says more about you than it does about them. You are proving them right. That we are lesser than their Western users, that we will bend over and take whatever we are given, and we will squabble among ourselves rather than make them do the right thing.

Things like "defending them" and "taking sides" are infantile notions to me. At most there is a vague sense of (soon to be non existent) brand loyalty... that's all. I don't assign human characteristics to companies... IMDB is not my "friend" who "betrayed" me, etc. I'm not the one here who's in denial about the company turning out to not have this sense of morality that it ought to have had, etc. Make them do the right thing? Right thing for whom? Im not under this false sense of a two way communication street where someone can "make them do" something.

Do I like the changes? Of course not... I was one of the first people to voice my displeasure here. . Can I do something about it? Unfortunately no, and more importantly I'm not under the delusion that I can. This is not Braveheart and there is no "freedom" to be won Gandhi-style if the numbers don't overwhelm and tip the scales. 

You are more than welcome to bring to the table evidence of an overwhelming majority NOT liking it.

I never claimed we were among the majority. You seem to be reading what you want to read, not what is actually written. My point was that companies like this are considerate enough to give their western users a opt-out, even if a majority don't care and especially if something like the CEOs address gets a majority of nays. They offer it as part of basic design to their western users, something they consider us too "third world" for. This is bias.

You really think they bothered to do R&D? Really? If they had, they would have received the feedback they are receiving in the comments section right now and would have provided an opt-out. This decision reeks of the exact opposite of R&D. This decision reeks of "these backward lion cloth wearing fuckers will consume what we give them to consume. Lets earn money from them without considering their tastes. We will shape their tastes. It will be out gift to them".

The "case in point" you make is not a case at all. "Much beloved", my ass! I am actually surprised they kept it operational this long. There are far better and far more interactive avenues to discuss movies and series than in an IMDb discussion board that was hardly updated since the 90s. There was no outcry about this because no one gives a fuck about it. Example, Collider.com's Youtube chan does a Movie Talk segment every weekday. They do it live and then post a recording. Go check out how many people interact and comment over there. Example, any Facebook group or Sub-Reddit about movies in general or a specific franchise.

Things like "defending them" and "taking sides" are infantile notions to me..... Im not under this false sense of a two way communication street where someone can "make them do" something.

You are one of those over-smart people who are a little too full of themselves, aren't you? You make grandiose claims and assumptions but have little other than philosophy to back it. In reality you are too "smart" to basically even draw the correct inference from my words.

I am not here under any delusion that my words or the words of 76 other commentators will make a change. That is again an assumption from you because you are a little too full of your own self to really think about what others are actually saying. As I said, its their product, they can do whatever the fuck they want with it. I am here to call them out for a bad decision, a decision that I feel was made without research, insight, consideration and with conscious or subconscious bias towards their 3rd largest user base. Do with it whatever you want!

I never claimed we were among the majority. You seem to be reading what you want to read, not what is actually written.

Sure... and  when I say people are loving it, and you respond by saying "I have not met a single person in my circle who was happy with this change, including those who are into Bollywood movies." I should automagically not draw any inference about quantity or weightage here? A bit too convenient don't you think? If not, then what was it intended to imply? You know... since I seem to read things that were never there. 

They offer it as part of basic design to their western users, something they consider us too "third world" for. This is bias.

Yeah... so? They cannot be biased? They should remain indifferent in spite of what makes better business sense? KFC has fewer veg options than vegetarians would like. Some international shopping websites exclude certain African countries in their list. Im sure the Nigerians are not too happy with that... because its not right to be biased like that, etc These are business decisions and don't carry any baggage of morality to do the right thing or be unbiased or whatever. 

You really think they bothered to do R&D? Really? If they had, they would have received the feedback they are receiving in the comments section right now and would have provided an opt-out.

Seriously... in which world does R&D take feedback from the users? And especially when you hold all the cards and there is no competition? Experts in the field of analytics and hired / oursourced and inferring useful information from big data is what I mean by R&D, not in the strict sense of labcoats and guinea pigs. I mean R&D into understanding what can hook the largest numbers while expending the lowest resources. And if that means catering to the lowest common denominators like they were mindless sheep, then so be it. If its a bad business decision, and the numbers are dropping, then i guess their assumptions were wrong. Im not keeping my fingers crossed though, because I agree with their assumptions. I dont need to like it to agree with it. 

This decision reeks of "these backward lion cloth wearing fuckers will consume what we give them to consume. Lets earn money from them without considering their tastes. We will shape their tastes. It will be our gift to them".

Of course they will consume. When have they not? Are you again implying that the average Indian IMDB user's tastes does not prefer the clickbaits and bollywood shit-splatter all over the IMDB pages? Because if they don't, it should reflect in the numbers dropping and IMDB would be all over this "fuck up", trying to course correct. Im going to take a wild guess and just assume here that no one's in any hurry trying to correct anything. 

The "case in point" you make is not a case at all. "Much beloved", my ass! I am actually surprised they kept it operational this long. 

How is it not a case in point. They have themselves written that the message board is used mostly by a small but passionate user base. Judging by the activities that go on there when a movie is announced, when its released and much later after the movie release, I would say its a much much bigger crowd of users than the 70 odd pissed off people on this thread for sure. How hard do you think is it to hide the message board by default and have it visible as an opt in feature in the account settings? Oh that's fine because it's shit anyways? Then put yourself in the shoes of an idiot who enjoys being spoonfed bollywood crap and not getting any of that on IMDB? Lose all that loin cloth wearing clicks and engagement stats at the expense of a few naysayers looking for fairness and equality?

You are one of those over-smart people who are a little too full of themselves, aren't you? You make grandiose claims and assumptions but have little other than philosophy to back it. In reality you are too "smart" to basically even draw the correct inference from my words.

Im not very sure of that word salad you just vomited there. Yes I'm pretty smart, but dont understand what "full of myself" means here. Have I been praising myself? And what are these grandiose claims that I back with philosophy? Calling the notion of "defending"or "taking sides" as infantile? Im not sure what philosophy plays in all this, but they are infantile ideas for sure... because it implies a lack of rational judgement and leans more towards emotional attachment... like one does with their favourite cricket team or the actions of someone close to them. 

As I said, its their product, they can do whatever the fuck they want with it. I am here to call them out for a bad decision, a decision that I feel was made without research, insight, consideration and with conscious or subconscious bias towards their 3rd largest user base. Do with it whatever you want!

Again, this brings me to my original comment... that India is a large country with a lot of idiots. Catering to the idiots' sensibilities is a large part of what decision makings are when it comes to running your business. Just because you or I don't like it and its insulting or whatever does not make it a bad decision. Its bad only in hindsight if the numbers go south. 

I see two prevalent themes in my discussion with you so far. (1) You call your own countrymen idiots, while (2) you support the foreigners who have no regard for your opinion. You have no desire to even try and make it so that a foreign company at least thinks twice before not putting us at par with their western users. How dare we demand this from them, right? Cause its only the metrics that count, right!

Your kind of people are the reason we were dominated by the British for more than 2 centuries. You are the reason why even after coming into being as an economic powerhouse in recent times, India is still considered by most of the west as a backwards third world country of will-less consumers, and they dare to not think twice before biasing against us. They want to make money off us but want to treat us as third-class citizens, and you are advocating FOR it. Well done!

Your kind of people are the reason we were dominated by the British for more than 2 centuries. 

Are you certain its because of me (or people like me) that we're still a will-less third word country? So you're telling me a vast majority of the Indian population thinks like I do? Im also over smart and full of myself? Every comment you make at my character seems to be riddled with inconsistencies and no rational basis. I also dont have this "Them vs Us" segregation that you strongly cling to. 

You call your own countrymen idiots

What's wrong with calling your countrymen idiots? Are you saying they are inherently smart because they are born inside an imaginary geographical boundary? Are you saying their nationality makes them non-idiots? Is it fine then if they weren't my "countrymen"? Other countries are fine? Should I call them smart even if they aren't because geography trumps reason? Because they're Indians, they deserve an exemption from scrutiny? Why oh why would I want to inflate the cost of honesty like that by subsidizing it with ridiculous exceptions? If for nothing, atleast for the sake of poetry, the bar has to be set higher, not lower!

 you support the foreigners who have no regard for your opinion. 

Compared to what? Indians who have regard for my opinions? I don't see a product / service as a product of a country and as such do not assign good guy/bad guy statuses to concepts like countries. I see a hollywood movie as a product of the director, producer and the various people who put it together. I do not see it as an American product. Same with Amazon or IMDB. I dont care for first determining how "Indian" it is and how "Foreign" it  is before using it. I support good products / services that provide value to my daily experiences. Where they are from or the nationality of the owner / CEO is the last thing I care about. Whether my opinion is regarded or not is not going to make me put my hands up one day and say "you fucking phoreigners... I'm going to use an Indian service from now on!!". The Indian alternative has to be better than the current one for me to make that jump. The nationality plays no role here. For example I use an Indian hosting service provider instead of Godaddy. That's not because Godaddy is foreign... its because the Indian one is better. 

You have no desire to even try and make it so that a foreign company at least thinks twice before not putting us at par with their western users. How dare we demand this from them, right? Cause its only the metrics that count, right!

Yes... its only the metrics that count. The day the metrics go wrong, is when the third world assumptions be questioned. If they are tallying with the assumptions, then everything is just fine. Their R&D on the tastes and sensibilities of what the Indians are going to gobble up is bang on accurate. Trying to wish it away, and claiming their assumptions are all actually wrong etc is useless when the data and numbers speak otherwise. 

I'd retort but you know what they say - "Don't feed the trolls". I made the British comment to gauge your reaction. Do you call me out on avoiding replying to your comments or do you just run with it like a good troll...

Oh really now... I wish I could answer if I knew what the choices were... "to call you out" or "run with it"? I cant make head or tails of what those two are.  Some clarity on teh vagueness would help if you are really asking a question.

As for the troll theory.... yeah well... bear with me on this logic for a sec... this is my post and you are the one who is commenting and questioning it. So maybe this is the sixth sense moment where I realize you were the troll?

A for effort. D for execution. You have a lot to learn. Reddit is a good place if you wanna hone your skills. 4chan too, if you can take the heat.

lol... whatever strokes your ego dude :)

Better luck next time!

Last word :)

Sure!

Oh shit... ha ha ha ... now I get it... after reading again in context! You had written some BS intentionally and was looking for whether I would "call you out" for not responding to the earlier comment. And my "going with it" with my "usual style" of response helped you determine I was a troll (or something to that effect).

Ok... well... I dont think I'm going to ever understand the logic behind that. But it reminds be of the kind of logic we used to have back as kids... you know the one that goes "Its mine... I saw it first... no I saw it first", etc. But even leaving that aside, here's why I ruled out troll behaviour initially from your side - trolls need an audience. This platform sadly is anything but audience friendly. Its not like a forum argument where what we say are notified to everyone in the forum and they all come with popcorn. Its more like a private conversation and a passerby will need to take an extra effort to reach this conversation.

From my perspective, I simply voiced my opinion about the uselessness of complaining about the Indian shit. And that to make matters worse, any outcry on other platforms like blogs simply go unnoticed due to google's algorithms giving weightage to reputation, link backs, etc. Moreover the clickbaits work just like a Salman Khan movie makes money. 

So when you started with your nationalistic streak, I gave you the benefit of a doubt by responding, thinking maybe you're just too hell bent on the notion of "injustice" and some weird "we are all equals" kind of mentality. After all... as a pattern in all your responses, there never was any real argument to anything i said. Everything was emotionally charged  and all led to new tangents... finally leading downhill to nonsense like "you think you are over-smart", "you are full of yourself" etc. And as predicted, it hit rock bottom to the classic "power play" reversal attempt at salvaging whatever ego was remaining... with you "rating" me on my "effort" and "execution" and oh so benevolent of you to recommend battlefields where I can hone my trolling skills... hahahahah... I am humbled for sure :)

So ya... you can have your last word now if you want... and then let's close this shall we? We're barking up two different trees entirely. I'm not going to respond unless you have some direct question for me... That sounds fair I think. Alternatively you can choose to not respond, and that will be that. 

Sony you're a fucking idiot,you're behaving like a shill of the company and who knows,with your background in the film industry, you probably are one.You're the ones to gain most from the recent changes to IMDB. Anyway all the points you make are fucking stupid,drawing parallels to changes made at Facebook etc is asinine because ,as you pointed out yourself ,those are merely design and layout changes,what's happened here is a fucking change in CONTENTS and obviously its comes as a rude shock for regular users of IMDB in India.As for the "76" complaints on the forum,i think it's a big deal,considering how inactive and less visited these IMDB forums are.I think those 76 complaints can easily be extrapolated to 7.6 million.And the "bitching" has certainly helped ,it got an IMdb rep to reply to our concerns.What were're asking is not a big deal for IMdB,it's just one click of a button to access their american site,they will still keep their "huge profits" they're making from their recent changes,so don't be a dumbass .

@barrybb
You are correlating my statement about the efficacy of complaining here to the benefits of having an opt out. Where have I made such claims? There is no correlation there. I too would love an opt out feature. You are talking like I am against a feature like that. 

I never drew a parallel to the superficial changes made to facebook to the content of IMDB. I drew a parallel to the hue and cry of the users of the respective mediums. There is a big difference between what you are claiming I said and what I said. 

I would have to disagree with you on the 76 comments making a difference... that it led to an IMDB rep to reply and what not. The rep came in a few days after the announcement, did the "thank you for your valuable feedback" dance and hasn't been seen since. If your internet keeps going and coming randomly and you call up customer care who gives you the same canned response and nothing really happened for another two months, would you call that progress in the right direction from the service provider? And that complaining worked? If not, then why do you consider complaining here as effective? Do you see results?

I understand what you are asking is a simple click of a button, etc. I too would like one. I am also not the one who is stopping them from implementing it. My pointing out that it's in their best business interest to not give that option does not make me a company shill or like the fact every page is filled with Indian shit now. Where are you drawing all these nonsense assumptions from? Jeez... haven't you ever heard of the concept of objectivity? An apple remains to be an apple regardless of whether I like apples or whether I wanted oranges. If I say Kamal Haasan is a good actor, that does not automatically mean or imply I like Kamal Haasan. The vice versa is also true... If i say I hate Kamal Haasan, it does not mean he's a bad actor. Similarly If i say IMDB has taken a good business decision, doesnt mean im "on their side" or some retarded shit like that. It just means they have taken a decision that has seen benefits. 

I don't think it makes business sense to force their content on us,I'm already on metacritic as my regular go to.This is just like Dominos who've removed pork pepperoni from their menu,i'm not buying their pizzas anymore.Instead of spending so much time and effort in critiquing us for complaining you would have done better if you had written a well articulated 'complaint" to imdb and looked to spread it everywhere,heck even make one of those change.org threads(not sure if there's already one).

Im sure losing you as a customer is a small price to pay for approval of the thousands of muslims who are put off by the idea of eating from a shop that also sells pork. So I think its a good business decision. Its a decision that harms my experience, but its shortsighted of me to think they care for my preferences. See these are the kind of business decisions they need to make when dealing with idiots. In an ideal world, sell beef, pork and camels too under the same roof, give them the choice, let them choose etc. But not seeing them around is a reflection of what makes the best business sense in that particular free market. You are an user that IMDB can afford to lose... in fact I think they can afford to lose the entire extrapolated 7.6 million users as well. Im sure the users who love the indian shit is going to be exponentially higher and would love to have bollywood "top tens" shoved down their throats and be told what to prefer. 

And as for change.org, I checked, and ironically enough, most of the petitions are about getting the message boards back. I honestly don't think the number of people who disapprove is as high as you think... not even high enough to drop ratings by a fraction of a percentage. In fact quite the contrary... world rankings shot up from nearly 60 to 45 in the small time frame they introduced the Indian shit. That's saying a lot about whether the business decisions they took worked in their favour or not... and subsequently how many were pleased with the change. I doubt whether a change.org petition is going to suddenly change the tides... that its going to reach this hidden underground mass of imaginary people who are looking to join forces to fight content discrimination and what not. It is what it is. There must be a reason why there is no opt out feature, and we all have our theories. 

And coming back to pork pepperoni, I highly recommend you check out the ones from Mojo Pizza... download the app and see if they have a branch in your area. Dominos was nothing :)

Unfortunately Mojo don't serve my area,maybe next time i'm in Bangalore i will order from them.
So i just happened to read in the news today about the Govt fixing the ceiling price of medical stents ,thereby bringing prices down by around 70-80%.I had read somewhere that this was the result of the painstaking efforts of one guy who decided to pursue the arbitrary pricing of stents with the Govt.So you know ,never underestimate the power of one even :)

@barrybb Dude, don't feed the trolls. Lets concentrate on calling out IMDb for their myopic decision rather than indulging in arguing with someone who has already accepted defeat. You know what they say - misery loves company...so does defeat. He has a loser's mindset and he wants us all to have one.