IMDb message boards

FIRST AMENDMENT!

Now that we know that IMDb has decided to disrespect its customers closing the message boards let's find a way to "hurt" them the most:

Closing our accounts massively?

Not entering the site ever again?

Complaints to IMDb advertisers?

Dear Col Needham ~

"As part of our ongoing effort to continually evaluate and enhance the customer experience on IMDb, we have decided to disable IMDb's message boards..."

What can that possibly mean? How on Earth can disabling a service to customers "enhance the customer experience"??

 I trust that IMDb's decision makers are becoming aware of the protests from faithful members, concerning the decision to discontinue the Messageboards, and that they will give very serious consideration to this feedback. See for instance the numerous comments appended to the petition at: 

 https://www.change.org/p/imdb-stop-imdb-from-disabling-the-message-boards

 There are many web sites available for those who want to read reviews, consult cast lists, find biographical details of directors, actors, producers, etc. IMDb does an excellent job of all that, but that is not what makes IMDb unique. I know of no other internet forum where movie enthusiasts can get to know each other, exchange opinions and have thought-provoking discussions, not only about recent "mainstream" movies but also old classics, movies by independent film makers and obscure but fascinating films. ("Social networks" such as Facebook and Twitter are woefully inadequate for this purpose, for obvious reasons...)

 The explanation given for closing down this (for me and for many others worldwide) irreplaceable feature is: "IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide." That is ridiculous. It is possibly true that only a "small but passionate community of IMDb users" actually post on the discussion threads; but what about the far greater number of users who only rarely contribute to the discussions but nevertheless read them and acquire valuable information from them? For those users the Messageboards have been the heart and soul of IMDb for many years. They deserve respect.

According to Wikipedia, "Col Needham also mentioned in a post some months earlier that the boards received less income from ads, and that their members only made up a very small part of the website's visitors plus the fact that the boards were costly to run due to the system's age and dated design, which did not make much sense businesswise."

Then why not upgrade the system's outdated design? Maybe, as claimed, "the boards received less income from ads", but if the IMDb web site loses visitors (as it surely will!) because of the absence of this uniquely valuable feature, the income from ads will be depleted. That, to me, does not "make much sense businesswise"! Why not introduce a fee for accessing the Messageboards? (which would not only bring in revenue from this irreplaceable feature, it would also eliminate much of the trolling and silliness that plagues some of the discussions - especially those relating to recent popular movies).

 On behalf of the thousands - perhaps millions - of IMDb users who are shocked and dismayed, I earnestly request you: please think again. Don't "throw out the baby with the bathwater".

Best wishes

~ Eric Lord

(member since 2006)

I have been an IMDB member for nearly 20 years. I discovered IMDB through a search I did on a fledgling site at the time called Google (you may have heard of it). I loved movies but for some personal reasons I elected not to attend cinema theaters. Instead I purchased or rented movies as soon as they came out (remember Blockbuster?) At the time, IMDB was my favorite place to see box office numbers to get a sense of audience reception for new releases.

After a few years IMDB introduced the message boards we have today (and that will disappear very shortly). While far from being the first message board, they were revolutionary in being able to provide an organized platform for such a mass user base to share their opinions in direct exchange with their peers; where every film title had its own dedicated board. I really enjoyed seeing the correspondence between cinephiles, some of whom added a great deal of context on what most others overlooked or simply misunderstood (myself included). It became clear the IMDB boards added an entirely different dimension of audience reception and pop culture relevance that pure numbers could not convey. Not to mention, around that time Box Office Mojo become more popular for those just seeking numbers and facts.

Granted there were several types of people that came to these boards, from the intellectual to the eccentric, one thing they all shared was their passion for movies. Yes, that includes the so called “trolls” as well. I think one must accept the fact that anything that gains popularity amongst the masses will proportionately gain dislike among the few, and there will be those who elect to vehemently voice their disdainful opinions, perhaps in an attempt to appear nonconformist. Unfortunately, to an outsider the louder voice of the few may give the false perception that this represents the majority.

In connection with this I would like to address the concerns the owners of IMDB have with respect to shutting down these boards for good. They stated two main arguments to back this decision, the first of which is these boards are no longer creating a positive user experience for the majority. The latter can be attributed to the aforementioned pretense that “loudness” is proportional to size. As many of the users here have stated, they recognize there has been an increasingly large problem with trolling, but not to the extent that it requires a complete shutdown. If it is that bad, I’m sure those that are sensitive to such exchanges should elect to abstain from the boards themselves. In my opinion, compared to the level of vitriol in the comments section of most popular YouTube videos, it is Disneyland here.

The second argument they have is that user activity has dulled with respect to the level of interaction on other social media platforms like their Facebook page. Moreover, supposedly it is only a “passionate few” that cling to this seemingly archaic platform when there are far more updated options. Of course, they would encourage this view since those alternatives essentially come at no added cost. I understand from a business perspective this makes sense, but I wonder if this decision would hurt future traffic. How exactly is traffic being measured anyway? Does it include those who read, but do not post? Does it include the cumulative traffic from the smaller boards? Does it include those that archive threads and view them offline due to intermittent internet access (I have done this)? Certainly, the latter cannot be accounted for.

I have seen at least two petitions to revoke this decision and one of them reached 10,000 within a few days. This is a petition that had no paid advertisement whatsoever and was simply being passed by word of mouth on these boards. Someone posted earlier that the Lego Batman movie had over 200 new threads not long after the release of the movie. Each thread housing hundreds, if not thousands, of unique comments from a massive user base. I fail to see how this represents a “small but passionate community.”

Facebook could possibly replace the mainboards (imdb.com/boards), but what about the individual boards for each movie and TV show? More so for those classic or even obscure films and shows that are likely not currently trending. It is difficult to meet and connect with those interested in communicating on a very specific topic in a general platform like Facebook.

The IMDB founder mentioned looking at all the alternatives before having no choice but to come to the conclusion they have. They also hinted at a new method of contact coming soon. I shudder at the thought that this “new and improved” system suggests some sort of paid subscription like IMDB Pro. This seems all the more likely considering how IMDB has chosen not to wait for the new messaging system to implemented first. Would it not make sense to do so to ease the transition? Surely in the age of freemium social platforms, one cannot directly charge for digital communication? Or can they?

I hope I am wrong about the latter. But regardless, there are several options that I can think of that perhaps might solve this dilemma or at least come to some sort of middle ground. Which of the following do you think is the most practical solution? If one in particular is favored, I will forward it to the IMDB CEO (Col Needham) directly. In fact, I encourage many of you to do the same. I know some of you may think this is futile, but as long as the chances are not non-zero, I say it is worth a shot! Anyway, let us get to the options:

1.       Connect every movie and TV show with an individual Facebook page. This may seem laborious, but this can be automated. In this case, all posts would be housed on Facebook, but tied to the individual movie and TV titles on IMDB via automated hashtags. In other words, the message boards would be replaced with posts from Facebook for each individual title. This would not allow posting organized subtopics like the current system, but is significantly better than nothing. The other negative here is that some may prefer not to show their posts on their Facebook page. This, however, can be solved by configuring one’s Facebook settings.

2.       Freeze the boards as is. Nothing new gets posted, but at the same time what we have is preserved. Not the best solution, but at least for those less popular boards with older posts we can retain some of the more intellectual and insightful exchanges.

3.       Find volunteer administrators to cover as many sections of the board as possible; divide them alphabetically, by genre, period, new releases, etc. I can guarantee there would be many who would be more than willing to take this position. Even by IMDB’s admission, this is a passionate community. As such, there would be a selection process to find those that would be the most suitable to do this work on a long-term basis. Wikipedia is already doing this with much success. Arguably, Wikipedia is far more difficult to manage from an administrative perspective due to its rapid growth and colossal level of changes (trolling included) over the entire site. I can only imagine the same kind of administrative work would be more easily accomplished for the IMDB boards.

4.       Also similar to Wikipedia, make the boards supported through donations. Those that donate would be indicated as such by having a medal or something similar attached to their name. Perhaps they might also be given access to exclusive content or at the very least more emojis or something along those lines to give extra incentive (I know that’s laughable, but you catch my drift). If nothing else, I’m sure this would at least ease the financial burden of maintaining the boards and over time make them more economically viable.

5.       Display more advertisements directly within the boards. Currently there is one ad each at the top, bottom, left and right of the forums. The ads on the sides don’t change as one scrolls vertically. Usually I only see two unique ads at most. Granted sponsors probably paid extra for this coverage, but there is still a lot that can be done with amount of available “real estate.” I’ve seen sites that plaster different ads all over the site. I know this would be horrible from a user perspective, but if this is what will save the boards, then so be it.

6.       Integrate Amazon purchases. It boggles my mind why Amazon ads aren’t as well integrated into the boards, considering they own IMDB. I recall seeing some Amazon ads in the distant past, but nothing as of late. It would be reasonable to assume they are making more money from sponsored ads rather than displaying their own. But it wouldn’t be difficult to integrate a particular movie title that has already been released on DVD, for example, right into its specific board. For instance, a simple hyperlink could be attached to the main title or title image that leads to the purchase of that movie on Amazon. This would not takeaway from the existing advertising real estate in the least. Also, when visiting a particular actor’s page, the Amazon links to his/her latest movie could be integrated. With 250 million monthly IMDB users, I can’t imagine the type of sales these strategies could potentially lead to.

I thought of these suggestions independently in one sitting, so I’m sure there are oversights, mistaken assumptions and the like. I hope that you can overlook those falsities so long as they do not contend with the main point that I tried to express. Moreover, having written this into the early hours of the morning, perhaps there are some spelling and grammatical errors. Rather than arguing over the minor details like semantics, let’s work on coming up with a plan of action together.

Again, please let me know which of the above sounds the most feasible to you. Perhaps you have a better suggestion? Of course, the best solution is to change nothing and keep the boards, but we know that’s not happening. If I see one particular point being favored a lot, I will do my best to contact the CEO and founder of IMDB directly. I don’t know if it will work, but we’ll see.

If none of the above are feasible, then I request all the trolls to please do their thing on the Facebook and Twitter pages of IMDB. Let’s see if these social media platforms will ban IMDB! (Okay, the last part was a joke! J)

This is my first and perhaps last post from this account. I sincerely hope on seeing you active on these boards come February 20.

If you ́re angry/dissapointed with IMDb decision of closing the boards, please don't give them what they like most: $$$ after they close the message boards.

That means not contributing (rating, reviewing, etc) or even visiting the site anymore.

I hope that sites like themoviedb grow (for its individual movie database) or any forum you choose as well. And I hope this site regret its lack of respect for the customers that made it big

One last thing, as a prediction: After a few months-time, when IMDb will see the decline in the number of visits, they will think it again.

The Message Board was a big part of the IMDB website and it's amazing the powers could not understand that. Posting on Facebook and Twitter is JUST NOT THE SAME. I've been around long enough to know that these decisions are always based on the bottom line ($). Your site will never be the same, so forget making the long time fan base happy by telling us there are alternatives to the Message Board. By the way I hate FACEBOOK & TWITTER, so I won't be indulging in the IMDB experience in that format.

The people who sat in a board room (I'm guessing a bunch of 20 some things) who pondered this dumb move don't understand loyalty or traditions. Good luck in the future as you've annoyed a loyal fan base beyond bonehead move.

If they wanted to get rid of trolls, all they had to do was charge a moderate fee per year. Let's say 25 dollars to be charged on a credit card. Trolls can at present easily come up with new email addresses and even cell phone numbers to register there. Some have as many as 40 concurrent accounts. I'm sure they don't have 40 credit cards and they're not about to spend 25 dollars for each new account at IMDb.

Note - they could always refund the yearly fee through Amazon purchase credits to be redeemed after a six month period. The point is to nail users to a credit card to minimize trolling and also have legitimate addresses on file should a legal need arise. One person per credit card - that raises the number of potential customers to be led to Amazon for purchases.