I've been posting on these boards for 12 years, but I looked up movies and shows on this site for a while before that. This is the last message board I frequent. I don't know where I'll go. Facebook and twitter just isn't the same.
Semper Sci-Fi !!!
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IMDb will still remain as a very valuable source for many movie fans including myself regardless there are other platforms you can obtain more or less same techincal information about films. Because mainly it is years of habits of movie fans and being a leading platform, reference point in the field. But for the same factor of habits of movie fans, many users will have new habits to go to other websites to talk or listen about films. Out of habits, many of these users will be lost in mid or long term and once it is done it should be very hard to reverse the affect. Why a user should come back to IMDb (after a while , after the habit starts to fade away), if they find another website gives more or less same information and offer you to chance to engage in conversations? Of course, IMDb is the most important reference for many of us, but the activity/traffic will decrease dramitcally after a while. This is inevitable if they shut down the boards. I know mine will decrease.
A guess;
This decison will be reversed sooner or later. Because if IMDb really shuts down the boards, this will absolutely will reflect to the traffic/activity, thus the revenue, fuctionality, etc sooner or later.
A last point;
Check out how many very long time IMDb users says how much boards are important to them and one of the most important features of IMDb that they use. After shutting down the boards, check again how many long time IMDb users are less frequent in the site.

If the reason of this decision IMDb made;
is because boards takes up too much space / servers to support
It is still no good reason to kill one of most important part of the website generates traffic directly or indirectly. At the end, if you have less traffic / activity, you generates less revenue.
If the reason of this decision IMDb made;
Because since there is facebook, twitter page of IMBd or whatever
I dont and wont go these pages for IMDb, I am sure many users wont either. Because what we really need is probably being able to see separate boards for each title so that we can follow the things we want to follow.

If the reason of this decision IMDb made;
is because only major issue that the boards are creating board management is very time-consuming and requires manpower, thus doesnt worth
I am sure there would be lots of volunteers can be used as forum moderators. Or some technical limitations/measures can be used as mentioned above. Limitations arent ideal but better than cutting the boards off completely. And again you cant simply chop of your hand because you have severe pains.

If the reason of this decision IMDb made;
is because boards contain legal or ethicaletc issues for IMDb
If you implement some simple techinical limitations to use boards (like not allowing posting before a certain amount of time washes out or giving less access or right to post to certain users recieves automatic one-click complains, or limited access to users who didnt rate for certain of numbers of titles or hasnt been registered user for certain amount of time which one of them ideal but better than shutting down) or with another word if you implement a better board management instead of shutting them down altogether, we go back to square one of this argument; you will lose a chain reaction activity.

If the reason of this decision IMDb made;
is because the numbers of trolls made almost impossible to follow boards of some shows or movies
Yes, thats a fact. I have been following IMDb and its boards more than 20 years now (before I registered as a user), and in last a few years the boards were filled with irrelevant talks, hatreds, racism, intolerance, trolling which was not the case at all lets say 10 years ago, but again if you think that solution is simpy removing the boards, you are going to lose the very essence of the boards and indirectly the essence of the traffic towards the site.

If the reason of this decision IMDb made;
is because they believe boards arent as important part as other parts, thus it wont affect the traffic towards IMDb
Ask yourself what most of movie fan loves most about movies/shows? Engaging conversations. Do you know how many movie/show fans who doesnt like talking about what they have seen or how many fans arent interested in following what others say about it? When you shut down boards, you are taking this away from your users, so imagine how much interest you cut down towards the site.

If the reason of this decision IMDb made;
is because they believe only a small number of members are using the boards, thus it doesnt worth to invest time or manpower to maintain it
The number of people who engages in these boards without posting surely must be much larger. Activity of a forum cant be measure by the number of posts (which is still very large). Many users read dozens of posts or threads without posting a single one, or posts one or two. Even an actively posting member most of the time probably reads much more posts/threads than they post.
And do we need to remind we are in social media/platform age so this comes almost before than everything else for many?
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i know what you mean. i've been using the site for 62 years and my life will not be the same without it.

I definitely feel there have been hate campaigns / across the internet even, against films which didn't do as well as they could have if people hadn't been like
"Don't see this film, you'll hate it" ~ "Okay buddy, thanks for informing me! I won't see it!"
sometimes even before the film has opened and no one has seen it yet
it's very destructive and I don't think very good to have the mind polluted against films before seeing them
people work hard on films and it annoys me to see people to skip that film or to not see this film etc
Maybe it's a year for simply seeing where audiences vote with their feet to the films they want to see instead of rotten tomato scores and extended forum trolling

Funny thing is, they could simply fail to provide a comments section
for new movies
. They could protect new releases, say for a month, and then give them a message section just like all other movies.

IMDB is totally just using "the trolls" as a scapegoat. If it really is such a "small but passionate community" they wouldn't even care and removing it would make no difference in data.
It has to be because of legal issues with studios because of leaked info and early negative buzz. Take Passengers for example, IMDB killed the success of that movie. They are either doing it so they won't get sued, or they received generous pay off. IMDB has also caused many to devalue critics and many look to the people for reviews on a film now.
IMDB is a studio's worst enemy. This has to be the real reason.

I think it's a HUGE mistake for imdb to close down the forums. Your site is simply going to die, all because of the few idiots that are trolling intentionally. You do realise this validates them right? Ridiculous move. For people that want to continue on, i suggest you search for TMDB. It will at least let you discuss movies with like minded people. It's been fun imdb. Adios

Without a doubt unique page visits will take a severe hit. I'll probably continue to use imdb to look for "who was the guy at that movie? argh it's gonna bother me all day" kind of scenario.
but that's that. it's very specific situation. Im routinely here, but after feb 19th probably once a month. poor business decision I reckon.

Like I said, I agree. The message boards should stay and are the biggest reason I come here. IMDB is foolish for taking them down and will surely suffer financially.
I am just saying IMDB does still hold some small amount of purpose. In terms of strict info on a film, the technical specs section is very valuable to me. It's something most people don't think/care about and I am glad IMDB always has that information. Not saying it will save the site lol.

Sure, but how much money is Amazon going to make on ads if the only people coming to IMDB are the ones who want to see whether a particular film was shot on 35mm stock?
This site exists to generate ad revenue. That's done by people going to lots of pages on the site.
When someone goes to IMDB because they see someone interesting in an old episode of Law & Order and say to themselves "They're pretty good, I wonder if they've done anything else" or "I've seen that actor somewhere else, I wonder where that was"
They only click on a few pages.
Someone going to the message boards is clicking on dozens of pages.
-I don't watch Fox 'News' for the same reason I don't eat out of the toilet

IMDB still has a use if you want to find out about technical details. You can't find out what type of camera, film stock and aspect ratio a movie has on any of those sites.
Oh sure, the site will still have it's worth, but it's worth that will cause me to come to the site maybe once a week if that much. That's in contrast with coming to the site pretty much every day to check the boards. They generate revenue by people seeing the ads. If one of the biggest reasons for coming to the site disappears, people will see less ads and therefore generate less revenue.
That information is static. You see them once and that's pretty much it. The boards are dynamic and dynamic is what generates traffic.
As that great philosopher Bugs Bunny said, "Something tells me I shoulda stood in bed."

IMDB still has a use if you want to find out about technical details. You can't find out what type of camera, film stock and aspect ratio a movie has on any of those sites.
Still, not a good idea to remove them, and I definitely won't be making as many visits.

looks like a good alternative

Without the Message Boards, I'll leave and I won't come back.
Check out The Movie Database. A lot of the people from here are moving over there after these boards shut down. It's practically the exact same site as here, and they have now added message boards to all their titles.
https://www.themoviedb.org/

ArchiveTeam.org has a project going, but they need help!
See this thread:
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/nest/265905912
https://archive.is/vnvFK

Chipping away at a mountain of pop culture trivia,
Darren Dirt.

Unfortunately for IMDB, there seem to be several alternatives as far as message boards go.
-I don't watch Fox 'News' for the same reason I don't eat out of the toilet

I have been a member since 2006 and the only reason I come here is to see what others say about a movie/tv show I watched, want to watch, or I am considering watching. I rarely ever watch anything without seeing what others say about it first. I could care less about reading the synopsis or plot, or watching the trailer, that is what I have youtube for.I do not read the articles, I never read the front page, but I love the lists that members make. I will miss the message boards for sure. Hope to find a place that is somewhat like these message boards.

I agree with this. What they are doing is not a solution. Most times after watching a TV show or a movie I will come to these boards to see what other people's opinions are. Sometimes reading ending interpretations and such.
That's why I use it too. It's often my first reaction after watching a film for the first time, to come on here and see others interpretations and opinions, but lets face it, that only works for older films with slow boards. All the boards for popular current shows and films (such as Game of Thrones for example) are completely unreadable because of the shear numbers of trolls. This hasn't been a fun or user friendly site for years because of the trolls. I only come here now after watching a new film for the first time, like I said. Never any other time, and I haven't for years.