From The Verge:
The Internet Movie Database is an indispensable resource if you have any interest whatsoever in films. Want to try and figure out where you’ve seen that character actor before? Do you need to know ratings, runtime, or quotes? But if you want to discuss movies, you’ll now have to go elsewhere: the site is shutting down its message boards system.
According to a statement on IMDB, the site’s message forums and the private messaging system will be disabled on February 20th, because they “are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide.”
It’s a bit of an end-of-an-era moment. IMDb predates the World Wide Web: it got its start in 1990 with a series of lists on Usenet and migrated in 1993. At that time, the internet was almost nothing but discussion forums. Since then, we’ve seen the rise of dedicated message forums, social media companies such as Myspace, Facebook, and Reddit. IMDb noted in its announcement that more people were going to the site’s social media channels to post comments and interact with the site.
. . . .
The decision appears to mark the latest website to question the value of forums and comments, which can require heavy moderation. Other major websites, such as National Public Radio and Popular Science, have closed their own commenting sections because patrolling them for toxic users became a costly and time-consuming chore.
Link to the rest at The Verge and thanks to Jan for the tip.
PG has long believed that the comments are the best part of TPV. He has learned a great deal from various visitors over the years.
PG intends to keep welcoming comments. He asks that each commenter be respectful toward the views of others. The old saw about disagreeing without being disagreeable is still applicable here. Disagreeing without diminishing those who hold different views does not take a lot of time, effort or thought.
PG does suggest that, while the most recent US presidential election season was nasty on all sides and its outcome captured the interest and emotions of many, a large number of other virtual meeting places are much better venues to express views about such matters than TPV is.
This is one of the few places left where you can view dissenting opinions. I prefer reading articles here because it’s too annoying to read some heavily slanted piece at it’s original source where no comments are allowed.
I didn’t know IMDB had comments.
Me, either. I mostly just Google something I want to know, and scroll down a few results to see the data. I seldom went there, and I really didn’t like the format.
And I miss those posters others listed. Always good responses, rather than the knee-jerk anti-left stuff we end up getting shoved into just about every post.
I hope more comment sections shut down. Why do we need comments on YouTube? And at steelers.com, every article is followed by a work-from-home scam. Either moderate ’em or shut ’em down.
But I like coming here and hanging out with you guys. Usually.
I miss Libby.
Hawker? If so, I miss her, too.
There are a lot of people I miss. William Ockham. Paul Draker. Dan DeWitt. Laura Resnick. Marc Cabot. So many informative, thoughtful, intelligent, sometimes funny comments. I’m sure there are others I’ve forgotten.
Wherever you guys are, I hope you’re doing well.
That’s an all-star line-up.
Yeah.
+1
Thank you, Kathlena — that’s very kind of you. 🙂
Why do we need comments on YouTube?
I don’t know. Depends on one’s objectives.
Need doesn’t exist without an objective. I need X in order to have state Y.
I have an objective of learning things on the YouTube HowTo videos. The comments provide good information on things not covered in the video, or alternatives to what has been provided in the video.
The comments also allow one to ask a question of the video creator.
Some youtube channels are about topics that invite discussion and form communities. A lot of the tech review channels, for example. The reviewer shows a bit of gear and how it works, viewers ask questions about other aspects or discuss their own experiences.
Engaging viewers gets them repeat business.
The thing about IMDB is that, sadly, it wasn’t just about people behaving badly in terms of etiquette. I’ve read forums on bio-pics where some armchair philosopher had gone head-to-head with *people who were actually at the real-life events*, or the adult children of the same. Open forums work great when people realise when it’s time to shut up and acknowledge the limits of their expertise.
I hit up IMDB near-daily. For cast/crew, filming locations, that kind of info. I don’t recall ever going to the forum (if I did, it was probably once and I long forgot).
As long as they keep the “database” part, I’m happy.
Guess I won’t be going to IMDB much any more, then. I spent a lot more time on the message boards than the rest of the site.
I stay away from any site which has no moderation, and any blog that doesn’t at least vet the first appearance of a commenter – because they fill up with drive-by garbage as soon as a troll finds them.
Some people take it to extremes – EVERY comment is ‘awaiting moderation’ when published. I still go there, but feel a little bit unwelcome.
Moderation in all things, even moderating?
I had moderation set to your first comment. If I published it, you had free rein unless proven to be a troll or an annoyance to others. But I couldn’t leave comments open. I covered Jewish and Israeli issues on my political blog, and the haters came out in force. Also the ones pretending to be Jews so they could then bash anything I wrote. Pro tip: If you’re pretending to be an Orthodox Jew, you probably shouldn’t post on Shabbat.
Oh yes on the garbage. I’ve been getting a lot of comments (ads actually) for things that really make me wonder if I need to go to the Urban Dictionary and look at what the latest slang for coitus and certain anatomical parts are.
I’ve banned one person (who has since been banned from the Internet by court order. His visit by my place was a test. What he did elsewhere was criminal.) And one kept trying to shill a book and after I stripped the sales links out the fourth time, he gave up. If he’d asked permission, I’d have been OK, but he didn’t.
Alicia, my site is one of those sites I guess you must feel unwelcome, because I hold every comment, period, for moderation. My site, my rules.
Even when my wife puts a comment on my site I have to approve it. I think that is the only sane way these days to keep things neutral and on topic.
Instead of feeling unwelcome, maybe you should realize when you go to a site where every comment is held for moderation that someone is taking the time to care. Just saying.
You’re whitelisted – but I understand the caution. But you have LOTS of visitors. I don’t.
I drop by periodically to learn from you and Kris.
Your business model is one I can’t emulate, but I do like to read about your speed and your success.
And you DO engage with people, just on your terms.
a large number of other virtual meeting places are much better venues to express views about such matters than TPV is.
God, yes! I’ve been finding this stuff on a popular comic strip discussion site and a pop culture site (whose owner has a page set aside for just those kind of rants).
The problem with larger boards like imdb is that it needs humans to moderate the boards.
It’s everywhere. I cannot go to a page on FB that doesn’t bring politics into the mix, usually with some form of mockery. Honestly, just STFU about it already. I’ve already put the politics filter on Social Fixer and wish I had one for the entire internet.
“The personal is political,” remember.
The left have spent the last fifty years politicizing absolutely everything. The right have now decided they might as well join them.
Obviously it won’t end well.
TBH, it’s not the right that is bringing politics into every FB group and page I’m on. But I do want both sides to stop.
Well, it didn’t take long for someone to ignore PG’s request by adding devisive political opinions to the discussion. Please stop.
What did I say that’s a ‘devisive political opinion’?
Your entire comment was devisive. Using “lefties” as a pejorative to start with. There are a few non-conservative readers here that don’t enjoy being denigrated. And it’s a name meant in a negative way because of the negative statement that follows it. A statement, by the way, that cannot be proven and is therefore an opinion.
There are categories of posts at TPV that I no longer read at all because I know the discussions will end up this exact way. I should have known better about this one too.
Agree. Thank you for the succinct example, Lydia.
I routinely skip reading the posts of a few commenters here, too. Honestly, it’s not about the political viewpoint, it’s how poorly it’s expressed.
You’re writers. I hold you to a higher standard.
If you can’t argue your point without at the same time denigrate people who don’t share your point of view – especially by using shorthand politicized labels from either side of the aisle – I won’t read it. It’s that simple. You lost the opportunity to bring me aboard, you lost a potential customer and you wasted your time.
Freedom of speech goes only so far if you can’t make people want to listen.
Freedom of speech goes only so far if you can’t make people want to listen.
Freedom of speech is limited to speaking. It is the choice of others to listen.
Oh, this isn’t going to turn out like that hold be nice thread A couple years back, is it?