IMDb to close message boards 2/20/2017

I only use imdb for spellchecking names on trailers. My New Year's resolution was to stay off unmoderated forums and comment sections. I even added a filter on my web browser so I don't see them. I realized I need to more closely guard the information and feelings I allow into my brain. Too much hate and ugliness out there. Sometimes I wonder if most people were always secret a-holes, or if social media has turned everybody into one.
 
Batutta said:
I realized I need to more closely guard the information and feelings I allow into my brain. Too much hate and ugliness out there...
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I hate all of Malik's films, especially those I have not seen.

PS. People are people. The thing with the message boards is that they can be more interesting as they become confrontational but only up to a point, after which the exchange descends into fruitless name calling. The problem with some moderated forums, however, is that they will suppress the less popular views to placate the masses.

PPS. I had an e-friend who once told me that the most agitated debates that he has seen take place on wine forums.
 
Other than the occasional laugh and gaining additional knowledge through posts, one major aspect I got from the IMDb message boards was public opinion on industry people and pop culture, often brutally honest. It's a great resource (in my opinion) to learn exactly what others think of you and your work. It's in text so it's subjective sometimes, but I'm always fascinated by a lot of the discussions that go on there. Even the "trolls", are a benefit because people's personalities and passions butterfly out. Just reading Christopher Nolan's message board and the amount of defense his fans give is just fascinating to me. There's a few threads on there with someone asking if he's the new Stanley Kubrick and the responses range from "absolutely!" to "there is no comparison, Kubrick is a god!" and "Nolan is Nolan, and Kubrick is Kubrick".

From the looks of their official announcement, it sounds like the existing threads won't be archived and will simply be removed, which is really sad. Hopefully the Wayback Machine can bring it back!
 
DLD said:
I hate all of Malik's films, especially those I have not seen.

PS. People are people. The thing with the message boards is that they can be more interesting as they become confrontational but only up to a point, after which the exchange descends into fruitless name calling. The problem with some moderated forums, however, is that they will suppress the less popular views to placate the masses.
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That hasn't been my experience with moderated forums. They mostly just keep the a-holes under control...People are people, but I'm a person, and half of my stance is because it's far too easy for me to get sucked into those debates, which affects my mood for the rest of the day, the result being I end up wasting a lot of time that would be better spent being productive. I've decided to become much more selective of where I waste my time on the internet...anyway, that's why the Imdb forum shutting down is no great loss for me.
 
Batutta said:
... People are people, but I'm a person, and half of my stance is because it's far too easy for me to get sucked into those debates, which affects my mood for the rest of the day...
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Retail/sales trainers always teach the employees to detach themselves from aggravation and take it as purely impersonal insults. That really helps keep one's temper under control in most situations, not just when responding to the anonymous posters (like DLD).
 
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Batutta said:
That hasn't been my experience with moderated forums. They mostly just keep the a-holes under control...People are people, but I'm a person, and half of my stance is because it's far too easy for me to get sucked into those debates, which affects my mood for the rest of the day, the result being I end up wasting a lot of time that would be better spent being productive. I've decided to become much more selective of where I waste my time on the internet...anyway, that's why the Imdb forum shutting down is no great loss for me.
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I am so with you how it can mess up your mood for the rest of the day. I still do this. . .express some opinion, get disagreed with, get pissed off for an unreasonable amount of time. Makes no sense. Stupid brain.
 
Josh Bass said:
I am so with you how it can mess up your mood for the rest of the day. I still do this. . .express some opinion, get disagreed with, get pissed off for an unreasonable amount of time. Makes no sense. Stupid brain.
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Yes, it's natural (I still get peeved on some boards and at some topics ... especially those I was banned from). That is why you have to train yourself to control your temper. Even if it doesn't work all the time, it's still beneficial.

As a side note. Usually, if one pauses away from the forums, a nearly identical take will be posted by someone else. The other option is to walk away completely but to post on the subject/thread when you're proven to be correct at a later date.
 
I have recently found that social media, other than a few work-related discussion boards like this one that I still frequent, has no place in my life. It is all a wellspring of negativity, stupidity, ego and a pointless exercise in time wasting. Two weeks ago, I nuked my LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. I still have Facebook, but am taking a one month hiatus from it and on February 27th, when I return I will either nuke it or will go on permanent ignore, only opening it if I need to communicate with someone who I only communicate with through FB Messenger. I have to say, two weeks in, dumping social media has measurably improved the quality of my life. I am enjoying NOT seeing the endless bitterness, acrimony, bitching, pissing and moaning, trolls and people's utterly pointless posts about Trump, politics, America's current cultural war, their pet rants, what they had for dinner, how much they love their kids, etc. It's so good not seeing that toxic crap.

My attitude has improved, my own natural cynicism has receded and I am so much more productive both with my on-line life and my real life. For those of you contemplating your quality of life, I highly recommend disengaging from social media, either for a long vacation from it or permanently. I much prefer to engage face to face, on the phone or even by text over stupid social media. Don't you find that the same people, post basically just variations of the same old crap every day? So utterly pointless. And social media seems to have this way of bringing out the worst in people's nature, I have lost so much respect for people who I used to admire, just from their behavior on social media. Life is so much better in the real world!
 
puredrifting said:
I have recently found that social media, other than a few work-related discussion boards like this one that I still frequent, has no place in my life. It is all a wellspring of negativity, stupidity, ego and a pointless exercise in time wasting. Two weeks ago, I nuked my LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. I still have Facebook, but am taking a one month hiatus from it and on February 27th, when I return I will either nuke it or will go on permanent ignore, only opening it if I need to communicate with someone who I only communicate with through FB Messenger. I have to say, two weeks in, dumping social media has measurably improved the quality of my life. I am enjoying NOT seeing the endless bitterness, acrimony, bitching, pissing and moaning, trolls and people's utterly pointless posts about Trump, politics, America's current cultural war, their pet rants, what they had for dinner, how much they love their kids, etc. It's so good not seeing that toxic crap.

My attitude has improved, my own natural cynicism has receded and I am so much more productive both with my on-line life and my real life. For those of you contemplating your quality of life, I highly recommend disengaging from social media, either for a long vacation from it or permanently. I much prefer to engage face to face, on the phone or even by text over stupid social media. Don't you find that the same people, post basically just variations of the same old crap every day? So utterly pointless. And social media seems to have this way of bringing out the worst in people's nature, I have lost so much respect for people who I used to admire, just from their behavior on social media. Life is so much better in the real world!
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Yep. Exactly my feelings, although I never had a Twitter or Instagram account. Did delete my Disqus account. I can't quite divorce myself from Facebook. I have too many friends across the globe I like to keep in touch with, but I have unfollowed a great many people over these last several months. There is also a helpful browser plug-in called Social Fixer that will block stories and posts that contain certain keywords or subjects, so you don't see them.
 
I never signed up for facebook or twitter or linkedin, or instagram etc., and some people you just can't communicate with unless you are on one of those. Organizing a party or whatnot, and all invites and communications go through social media. So how do I function at that point - I cheat... because my wife is on Facebook, twitter etc., although she's not super active. But if I desperately need a product code for a discount or something that's only obtainable on facebook - I get my wife to do it.

My point being, that even for dedicated social media avoiders like myself, it's very, very, very difficult to simply cut off everything. It's as if this were the 1900's and you refused to have a phone. OK, for example Tarantino doesn't have a cell phone, doesn't use a computer and is really old skool on that stuff, but he has the luxury of having others do it for him.

That said, I like the concept of a "holiday". So, I take a "holiday" from various things, for example, every February, I don't drink alcohol the entire month (kinda like people do a Dry January). Or I won't visit a favorite site for a month. When I go on vacation, I really try to stay off the internet (unless I can't help it, cause I have to book tickets online or whatnot). I find that it always improves my life - and I don't miss it at all, even though otherwise I'm a total internet junkie.

Re: IMBD boards, I personally think it's a pity. Sure, there's a lot of trash out there, but those boards were not as bad as f.ex. youtube comment sections. And if you don't want to see the trash - easy, don't read the boards. But I sometimes found good info on those boards, like when a DVD is supposed to come out, or where to buy one and so on. You just have to wade through a lot of garbage. Plus, yes, I sometimes like to see people's uninhibited opinions about a movie - it's brutal, but informative about how people see things. The best of course are WELL moderated forums. But doing that is very hard, usually it ends up being too much censorship. DVXuser is pretty good moderation, but that's also partly down to a strict rule about avoiding politics, religion etc. - I feel it's a bit too restrictive in that respect when for example there's the stupid rule about "avoiding negativity" because that's so vague and subjective and besides it's unnatural to have a plastic smile forcible plastered to your face and desperate cheeriness doesn't reflect reality - but hey, nothing is perfect, and nobody would agree what perfect moderation is in any case... there's always a critic out there. Anyhow, I think the closing of the boards is bad - one man's opinion, FWIW.
 
Unfortunately Facebook is the place I dump random jokes I think of during the day and what I use for promoting my band (and if I ever get back into filmmaking, those projects). I'm a lost 'cause. Go on without me.
 
So, I post an amusing political cartoon on my Facebook page. First response is from an ex-neighbor whom I have not seen in 38 years. In Russian. I tried to explain that she missed the point of the cartoon. In Russian. Then comes a counter response to my ex-neighbor by an ex-classmate of mine, whom I have not seen in 38 years also. In English. Then, an angry Russian response to the angry English response. Then an angry English response to the angry Russian response. I am trying to make peace, "No fighting in the war room". Naturally, my pleas fall on deaf ears in both languages.

And, for some odd reason, I find this episode rather entertaining, although I am trying to be nice to my ex-neighbor because she promised to take a photo of my old building. Building that I have also not seen in 38 years.
 
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I look stuff up on imdb sometimes but wasn't familiar with the message boards.
I dislike Facebook. I finally had to get on it to make a page for my business after waiting 2 years for my business partner (who was on it daily goofing off) said he would do it but never did.
Else I would have stayed off it
 
Though the IMDB message boards had recently become full of trolls / spam, I personally believe that it is a mistake to close them down. I guess IMDB would have the most accurate metrics of what people did on the website, but I would think that a lot of their traffic was people wanting to discuss / share their experiences.

I understand closing down some of the boards that were completely unrelated to film (politics, sports, etc), which contained some of the worst examples of trolling / hate messaging, but they should have kept the individual film / award season boards.
 
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