IMDb Welcoming Page

I've already invited some of the Star Wars regulars over here. I haven't posted much over the years, but it looks like I'll be back, hopefully with some new users!

 

More the merrier. Bring a legion of fans to JCF! Glad to have you and any other IMDB refugees aboard

 

IMDB. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum & villainy. You must be causious going back there.

 

Welcome and enjoy! We're better because our site has avatars.

 

The IMDBers may try to take over!

 

Bring Sith!!!!

The Sith Empire

 

Good. The IMDb boards were often a breeding ground of ridiculous speculation and fan theories. Maybe without them, ridiculous "Jar-Jar is Snoke" ideas will be less common. I can't speak for the decency of the SW fans there, but the several boards I've visited were host to trolls, and general degenerates who lurked only to piss on fans.

 

The hub "ridiculous speculation" seems to be Reddit. They have far more influence because of the sheer amount of people that visit the site. I mean, have you ever visited r/StarWarsSpeculation?

 

I lurked around on the forums a bit awhile ago. I have to say that it was probably the most toxic forum I've seen. Too bad it could't be fixed.

 

I'm old, I've never visited Reddit, and never have planned to.

 

Trust me, you're not missing out on anything.

 

Welcome back. As someone who has posted on IMDb before, I am not particularly saddened by this news. The discussions were almost never insightful.

 

That's a understatement.

I never posted on there, but I have lurked and those forums were just filled with trolls with no moderation whatsoever. I remember it being at times as bad as 4chan. Good riddance I say.

 

Their was like 20 guys on the SW IMDB boards with names like President Ackbar, General Ackbar, Great Admiral Ackbar, El Grande Ackbar, etc, etc. They liked to have a lot of fun. I wonder if they'll come here. The Ackbar Clones.

 

HOLY CRAP!!!

I just saw this thread poking out at the top of the forum list and had to click. Then I brought up IMDb and read the announcement this very second.

As someone who -- yes, alas -- spent time on the IMDb boards, especially (at various times) the "Lost In Translation" and "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" boards (well, all prequel boards, but especially that one), I'm in slight shock at this announcement. Though, on the other hand, it doesn't surprise me.

The top paragraph of their announcement:

Ignoring the last sentence, my response to the bolded one is a reflexive "no ****!"

Look, I don't wish to stick the knife in too much, however...

They can say what they like about traffic and data analysis, but even a casual glance at a lot of their boards -- never mind the experiences one "acquires" posting there -- could paint a different picture. Fact is, those boards have never been run properly, and abuse and trolling of various kinds were given an almost entirely free reign. Of course, every cloud has a silver lining, and the relatively unchained nature of discussion at IMDb did allow one to blow off steam and created some amusing sparks at times. But it also leads one to the reasonable conclusion that, over a longer span of time, the IMDb discussion format was never destined (or, indeed, designed) to last.

You've also got the fact that, while they might be allowing a bit of grace time, now, for people to say goodbye to various contacts and save whatever content remains available, the vast majority of content is inevitably (and, it seems, irrevocably) missing, thanks to a second strand of apathy that accompanied the fairly unmoderated discussion space: setting up the boards so that threads and post data were/are automatically pruned; or, put more concretely, constantly erased. There's no "base" to any of the discussions because all post data was/is forever falling into a void (from which, presumably, it can't be recovered). Some of this post data, in anthropological terms, would be really interesting to have; especially to assess the mood around a film, or a certain period of time, when a film, or block of films, had recently been released (and, of course, in an on-going chronological sense, too). Like newspaper cuttings around the time of any event, big or small, epochal or trivial.

Furthermore, allowing post data to be constantly destroyed also, in my opinion, had a detrimental effect on the phenomenon of community and of people comporting themselves with responsibility and grace. What is the point in certain individuals acting nice or playing fair when they know their tracks are constantly being erased? And a corollary: How are people able to defend themselves, or enhance existing discussions, when post data that might be pertinent to refer back to is no longer accessible? This deliberate decision on the part of the holders and maintainers of IMDb, applied across their discussion space, has been very corrosive to the quality of the discussion boards, in my opinion; and, along with the fairly invisible (though by no means absent) moderation, led to the IMDb boards becoming something of a joke across the Internet. And I think they know this only too well.

I had to resort to backing up some discussions myself; or I wouldn't be able to view them today. I mean, they were super cavalier about this, and it kind of irks me that they never had a rethink, or were even particularly inclined to publicly indicate that this was something that all their boards -- and, therefore, board members/IMDb users -- were permanently subject to. Some kind of built-in archiving feature would have been nice. Of course, I don't know all the technical demands of letting so many boards just run and run, and I guess it was a fairly mammoth undertaking. Maybe, above all, it became something of an experiment -- another way of getting hits and turning a small profit, at least, that got a a little out-of-control. Yeah, allow the peasants to throw egg and tomatoes at one another, but don't bother giving it much structure. Just let them keep doing it, over and over, with little care or concern for older content. Just let it fall off the face of the Earth. It's only text. And who the hell cares about that?

Well, sorry. I'm not too bitter about it, despite everything I just said. This announcement has actually made me nostalgic. For all the silliness, the harassment, the bullying that went on, I had some enjoyable exchanges on IMDb, met some interesting folk, and the boards (or the ones I read and posted to) were a useful distraction and means of escape; and, I might add, a means of my "plying my trade" and flexing and developing my "word" and "argument" muscles. Like anything Internet-based, the boards also had a bit of an addictive quality, and I enjoyed being there and rolling my sleeves up and getting stuck in, all other frustrations aside. However, there were real frustrations; and those frustrations will always be part of my "IMDb" story. Still, can't go back and change anything; and maybe, when all is said and done, I wouldn't want to. Crazy place; and a reminder, I suppose, that "all things must pass".

Now, I wonder, what would be the legal aspects of sharing archived material in the future? I have a fair few prequel discussions (especially TPM discussions) saved stretching back to 2010 or so. I wouldn't necessarily mind re-posting some of that in the future.

And here, right now, lies an opportunity for me to try and port a few of the better people I met on the prequel boards across to TFN. This, to me, has always been the rightful place to discuss Star Wars. It's TFN and then it's everywhere else; or so far, at least, that is how I have always seen things.

Well, farewell, IMDb boards. It was good to know you; sort of. We may never see your likes again. A neat -- if trying and occasionally tiresome -- moment in geek net history. And now, back to all the moments unfolding; and to all those chapters and pages yet unwritten...

 

I don't think most of the posters there would last long here, but I went ahead and invited them anyway. Too long on IMDB and you get used to that "wild west" mentality. I'm actually kind of relieved, I'd spent way too much time there over the last decade. Once the Red Letter Media vids started going viral, the Star Wars boards there just exploded with trolls. And the Walking Dead forum would sometimes be flooded with nothing but pee and poop threads for 2 or 3 pages. Zero regulation.

 

heh,

must be in the minority here. Though I never posted there I enjoyed looking at others opinions on my favourite movies, and of course you got some really funny threads such as "Grandpa Joe is evil, here's why" from the Willy Wonka boards or "Howard just wants that sandwich!!" from the Halloween II boards. Of course you got the trolls, but trolls are easy to ignore. I can see why they have decided to close them though, all to often a conversation went like this:

!!!!Deleted!!!123567899

> yeah

> this post was deleted by the poster

> The OP is a troll everyone put him on ignore, he/she trolls the Frasier boards too

> This post was deleted by the poster

> This post was deleted by an Administrator

and well...that would be that

 

All they needed was stronger mods.

 

We can only hope.

A better layout too. Everything was a little too "small" for my tastes.

 

Although I'm not proud of it I used IMDB to "vent". At times i was very nasty, driven to the darkside. I'll never reveal my IMDB name! Don't want my enemies to find me. Now I can only vent at YouTube. I'm also may join IMDB v 2.0. I wonder if I can vent there.

But I'm not proud of my anger. IMDB was my darkness. JCF is my light! It is hard to stay balanced.

 

Although I'm not proud of it I used IMDB to "vent". At times i was very nasty, driven to the darkside. I'll never reveal my IMDB name!


I know who you are you ****** ******!!.......JOKING!! haha

MOD Edit: Please completely star out profanity.

 

The moderators over there sucked, but it was easily the spot to go to if you wanted to discuss any movie, TV show, actor, or director. This board, while I plan to become a regular here, is very specific. No other site allowed you to discuss a wide variety of topics (in the entertainment industry). I will miss it for sure, but I wish IMDb nothing but failure.

 

Check out our Community forum - there is film discussion there. Most of the film topics are tagged with 'Amph' (for Amphitheater). There's also an IMDB thread going there.