Col_Needham's profile
Employee

Employee

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8.2K Messages

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190.5K Points

Friday, February 3rd, 2017

Closed

IMDb message boards

Please see the text below from http://www.imdb.com/board/announcement

In addition, we have created a new Get Satisfaction categories for "I Need to Know" to replace the "I Need to Know" message board and "IMDb Poll" to replace the "IMDb Poll" message board. A post on the Contributors Help board explains the migration path from there to the newly renamed Get Satisfaction category "Data Issues & Policy Discussions"  (which is an already active community here). 

An FAQ on the closure is now available at http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?boardsclosurefaq

IMDb Message Boards Announcement

IMDb is the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. 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 on February 20, 2017. This includes the Private Message system. After in-depth discussion and examination, we have concluded that 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. The decision to retire a long-standing feature was made only after careful consideration and was based on data and traffic.

Increasingly, IMDb customers have migrated to IMDb’s social media accounts as the primary place they choose to post comments and communicate with IMDb’s editors and one another. IMDb’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/imdb) and official Twitter account (https://twitter.com/imdb) have an audience of more than 10 million engaged fans. IMDb also maintains official accounts on Snapchat (https://www.snapchat.com/add/imdblive), Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/imdbofficial/), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/imdb), and Tumblr (http://imdb.tumblr.com/).

Because IMDb’s message boards continue to be utilized by a small but passionate community of IMDb users, we announced our decision to disable our message boards on February 3, 2017 but will leave them open for two additional weeks so that users will have ample time to archive any message board content they’d like to keep for personal use. During this two-week transition period, which concludes on February 19, 2017, IMDb message board users can exchange contact information with any other board users they would like to remain in communication with (since once we shut down the IMDb message boards, users will no longer be able to send personal messages to one another). We regret any disappointment or frustration IMDb message board users may experience as a result of this decision.

IMDb is passionately committed to providing innovative ways for our hundreds of millions of users to engage and communicate with one another. We will continue to enhance our current offerings and launch new features in 2017 and beyond that will help our customers communicate and express themselves in meaningful ways while leveraging emerging technologies and opportunities.


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9 Messages

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2.2K Points

9 years ago

Deleted my account and will not click on that site again.

2 Messages

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150 Points

Pardon my being naive, but I honestly didn't know Amazon owned the IMDb. Once that info. came out everything else that has happened here became blatantly clear. It "does not take a rocket scientist" to understand the profit motive in taking away the message boards. Anyone who doesn't understand Amazon's corporate motives needs to take a hard look at how they run their business. Col may have made the decision locally, but I will bet you a hundred dollars that "someone" at Amazon decided that a place that was often times critical (even if constructively) did not sit well with the idea that Hollywood was "concerned" about whether their business would suffer and advertising would be pulled because of negative criticism on the message boards. The future is here and our version of the Weyland Corp. has arrived.

9 Messages

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2.2K Points

That is exactly what I said. Col said it was nonsense and linked to several hidden features on IMDB to prove they were not trying to hide criticism of films. Sounds legit......

758 Messages

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29.6K Points

9 years ago

2 Messages

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234 Points

9 years ago

Just watched Strange Days (1995), went to go read about what people are saying... and there's nothing there! lol... Strange days indeed

24 Messages

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2.6K Points

Love that movie....

You can sign this petition though that already has 10,000 + signatures....

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-to-keep-the-imdb-messageboards-going

This is really one of the dumbest decisions I have seen a company make but if we make enough of our voices heard we can possibly get them to make a replacement boards which they probably should have done anyway.  corporations will try to get away with anything, if no one does anything to stop them.  Make your voices heard, and sometimes they are forced to do things they don't want to do. 

2 Messages

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150 Points

Just signed it and left brief message saying it is NOT a good business decision and will be shown to not be a profit to the site.

518 Messages

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15.2K Points

Here are some things to consider.

There is always more to do than people to do it. IMDb has multiple vacancies for software developers at multiple locations, as well as other roles that may be relevant to getting some new software project implemented. If you know anybody who has the relevant skills and would be interested, get them to apply. Whatever you may want done has to compete for scarce staff time so one way to get a better chance is to help increase the number of staff of the required kind.

Rather than running a petition, why not propose a new discussion system as an Idea here on GetSatisfaction. We have been told that Ideas that get a lot of Likes get considered when decisions are made on what gets done. Focus on what such a system would need to be to be more valuable than the old boards and also better than Facebook, Twitter, usenet or any other external discussion system. Good ideas with a lot of support may make it onto the list of things that get done.

2 Messages

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210 Points

9 years ago

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled No more message boards? Just deleted my imdb account..

See ya, you short-sighted cowardly website. I will be on the hunt for alternatives. 

6 Messages

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276 Points

9 years ago

Where will discuss my concerns and preferences without a message board?!

227 Messages

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11.3K Points

9 years ago

I liked to read the boards straight after watching an episode or film to find out if i missed anything such as a hidden message or an easter egg or what the ending meant so not being able to do that is a pain, other new message boards created on the eve of the Boardcalypse aren't really that good or to that level. There were many things they could have done to improve the boards and shutting it down was not one of them. The board may have been on an out dated software but it worked perfectly. The boards nowadays are usually too scripty and would hog your RAM/browser but the IMDb Boards didn't...Shame, the way they speak about it, its very unlikely they will be restoring the boards anytime soon. I remember when the alternate name for IMDB was Internet Movie Discussion Boards due to its large community (over 40 million users), well thats no longer applicable.

5 Messages

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456 Points

9 years ago

You all should go over to moviechat.org if you haven't already. It has a lot of the boards backed up and a decent-sized community. Every actor, show, movie, writer, etc. has their own board.

2K Messages

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47K Points

9 years ago

Dear Col,

I have 2 inquiries that I was wondering if you could answer:

1. On Dec 29, 2016, my IMDb Live Polls had garnered 100,000 cumulative vote total thus making me eligible to receive the "Poll Maker Badge" on my profile. However, I am yet to receive it and was wondering if there is a certain timeframe I can expect to receive it in. I had corresponded with one of the chief editors of the website, Dan Dassow, and he unfortunately is not sure when this will materialize.

2. I noticed that my "Lifetime Trivia" badge had changed from a gold to silver status - is there something happening with contributed data now that would change our contribution totals?

Please let me know of any answers at your convenience and I look forward to hearing from you.

2 Messages

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100 Points

9 years ago

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled No Message Boards makes me sad :(.

It was my favorite thing to do after i watch a film. Anyone else? Do you have a similar place to go? 

4 Messages

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398 Points

For forums for each title: themoviedb.org seems to be the front runner successor.  There is also moviechat.org which has imported many old threads from IMDb but it's just boards, no DB, and seems to have much less activity right now.

1 Message

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62 Points

6 Messages

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500 Points

9 years ago

Eliminating the IMBD Message boards is eliminating the very essence of IMBD. Many visit IMBD for information and knowledge. Shifting or eliiminating the message board function was and is a bad idea as your upsetting your base of users. I'm now expected to visit Facebook to ask a trivia question regarding information on an actor from 80 years ago? When before that information was linked right with that actors page and information.

Now my new question is "WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE ONCE GREAT IMBD MESSAGE BOARDS AND IMBD" Hopefully both do not go the way of the Dodo Bird= Extinct.

2 Messages

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200 Points

9 years ago

The biggest reason to use IMDb was their message boards. It's a shame and very unfortunate that IMDb decided to remove them. There's not much incentive now to still use IMDb. Good thing for users is that this is the internet and this gap, and a huge missed opportunity for IMDb, is already being filled by better alternatives, like themoviedb.org, moviechat.org, imdforums.com, imdb2.freeforums.net, moviepanels.com, theimdbforum.com. Sign the petition here - https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-to-keep-the-imdb-messageboards-going

1 Message

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142 Points

9 years ago

I am literally shocked,such a disappointment! Please give us back message boards! After finishing a movie I always had to come to message boards to read the comments and discuss with other users. Message boards are very useful for information about actors and understanding the movie! Listen to all the users,everyone wants MESSAGE BOARDS BACK!!!

3 Messages

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182 Points

9 years ago

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Dubious views of Col Needham to justify the removal of Message Board!.

Needham said: "There are some interesting discussions with content worthy of being
preserved, but that content is better suited to being stored in
permanent parts of IMDb (such as user reviews, FAQs, trivia, goofs to
name just a few)
. "

Do we've to teach this fellow the diff. btwn. "discussions" and "reviews, FAQs, trivia, goofs"?
Are "reviews" "discussions"?
Those Col Needham know the definition of "discussion"?

Needham said:" we have concluded that IMDb’s message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority... IMDb’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/imdb) and official Twitter account (https://twitter.com/imdb) have an audience of more than 10 million engaged fans."

Does this idiot want us to believe that there will be more "positive and useful experience" only in Facebook and Twitter? How? Are these 2 sites, in the first place, designed for serious discussions about any subject? Are they?

Besides, the UI of a specialised forum is totally different (and more convenient for discussions) then the UI in Facebook and Twitter.

Is this fool aware of these basic facts?

Now compare 2 of his observations, "vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide"

&

"Facebook page and official Twitter account have an audience of more than 10 million engaged fans"

See the shocking irony!

IMDb cares more about 10 million Facebook/Twitter users than about the huge 250 million monthly users of IMDb!

And based on these false, whimsical grounds IMDb decided to stop its Message Board! This is another example how big Internet sites whimsically demolish existing - and very popular - UI's and features in favour of something else which is less appealing.

3 Messages

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256 Points

9 years ago

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Reinstate Message Boards.

Please reinstate the message boards. It's a very bad decision to remove them. This was one of the highlights of IMDB. You should have contacted users to ask if they were still interested in using them. Most of us would have said yes. This is very disappointing. This is coming from someone in the film industry. The message boards are vital. Please reevaluate this decision.

2 Messages

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122 Points

9 years ago

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Where are the message boards?.

Message boards -- what happened to them???  They are important to those of us who use IMDB!!!