4 ms·

This is incredibly sad news. I have been a regular reader of IMDb message boards for over 15 years now. It's the last actual forum that I still visit. There's

by Strom 10y ago

This is incredibly sad news. I have been a regular reader of IMDb message boards for over 15 years now. It's the last actual forum that I still visit. There's so much valuable information stored on those boards, it's a tragedy to see it get deleted. Sure the most popular movie threads might be filled with toxic flamewars, but the long tail of more obscure movies has reasonable discussion and human recommendations of other similar movies. It's precisely this why I'm extra sad about this whole situation. It's not difficult to find a community to talk about the next Star Wars, but there aren't really any places where discussion (in English) about 20 years old Dutch movies happens.

exodust 10y ago
Exactly. The good finds on the boards are worth the bad contributions - which could be managed with a bit of effort and changing the format. The value of attaching discussion to a movie database is unmatched by any alternative. Take for example the old obscure film Stalker (1979). We see discussions 4 pages long about the meaning of the dog in the film. Or this one, "Other 'visually beautiful' films?", and people respond with suggestions. This information will be lost, and the opportunity to create similar threads in a sensible place in context with the movie, also lost. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/board/thread/138657635 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/board/thread/138657635?
- pvg 10y ago
  'Stalker' is not an 'old obscure film' and reams have been written about it. For instance, a recent book - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/books/review/geoff-dyers-zona-examines-the-film-stalker.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/books/review/geoff-dyers-z...
  - exodust 10y ago
    The point I was making is that non-mainstream films released a long time ago still have active quality ongoing discussion on IMDB. I didn't invest a lot time choosing an example film. You're not happy with my choice in Stalker, then replace it with whatever you like that happens to have good discussion on the boards. Perhaps "Celine and Julie go Boating (1974)" would qualify as obscure... Is anything considered obscure anymore? Before the internet if you wanted to watch Salo (Pasolini), you'd be out of luck unless some film festival was showing it. Now you can just grab the torrent and head to IMDB to join the discussion.
- dagenleg 10y ago
  Old and obscure? That's Tarkovsky, man.
Markoff 10y ago
same here, been user for 14 years. since there was no alternative everyone headed to IMDb boards to discuss movie so you could always find someone, now after destroying the boards not sure where to go, since everyone will try to find some place to discuss movies, though there is none really with critical mass of users i am thinking about trakt.tv though it's just threaded comments, but better than nothing since rotten tomatoes have read only forums and tmdb and metacritic doesn't have even that. my movie watching experience will be severely affected by lack of discussion after finishing movie, might as well watch less movies because of lack of place to discuss them
- xena 10y ago
  4chan has a television and film board, it's less 4chan than the other boards.
  - ndespres 10y ago
    If the IMDB boards were shut down due to the actions of malicious trolls, sending folks in search of a new movie forum to 4chan is rather ironic.
  - rjeli 10y ago
    For you -- other users not accustomed to 4chan's "charm" can find it extremely painful, even if 10% the discussion is high quality
  - Markoff 10y ago
    it has board created already for every single obscure movie? i think better option would be enable forums on TMDb as they discuss here https://www.themoviedb.org/talk/5894e6e0c3a368089b000e1e?page=3 https://www.themoviedb.org/talk/5894e6e0c3a368089b000e1e?pag...
everling 10y ago
Though it's no replacement for a forum, my side project has been a web app that finds thematic links between films. I use it to find hidden gems and such. I've had zero traction here on HN, but Gizmodo just did an article on it: http://gizmodo.com/a-way-to-search-for-film-recommendations-without-the-tr-1792001690 http://gizmodo.com/a-way-to-search-for-film-recommendations-... /plug

by Strom 10y ago

exodust 10y ago

Exactly. The good finds on the boards are worth the bad contributions - which could be managed with a bit of effort and changing the format. The value of attaching discussion to a movie database is unmatched by any alternative. Take for example the old obscure film Stalker (1979). We see discussions 4 pages long about the meaning of the dog in the film. Or this one, "Other 'visually beautiful' films?", and people respond with suggestions. This information will be lost, and the opportunity to create similar threads in a sensible place in context with the movie, also lost. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/board/thread/138657635 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/board/thread/138657635?

pvg 10y ago
'Stalker' is not an 'old obscure film' and reams have been written about it. For instance, a recent book - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/books/review/geoff-dyers-zona-examines-the-film-stalker.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/books/review/geoff-dyers-z...
- exodust 10y ago
  The point I was making is that non-mainstream films released a long time ago still have active quality ongoing discussion on IMDB. I didn't invest a lot time choosing an example film. You're not happy with my choice in Stalker, then replace it with whatever you like that happens to have good discussion on the boards. Perhaps "Celine and Julie go Boating (1974)" would qualify as obscure... Is anything considered obscure anymore? Before the internet if you wanted to watch Salo (Pasolini), you'd be out of luck unless some film festival was showing it. Now you can just grab the torrent and head to IMDB to join the discussion.
dagenleg 10y ago
Old and obscure? That's Tarkovsky, man.

Markoff 10y ago

same here, been user for 14 years. since there was no alternative everyone headed to IMDb boards to discuss movie so you could always find someone, now after destroying the boards not sure where to go, since everyone will try to find some place to discuss movies, though there is none really with critical mass of users i am thinking about trakt.tv though it's just threaded comments, but better than nothing since rotten tomatoes have read only forums and tmdb and metacritic doesn't have even that. my movie watching experience will be severely affected by lack of discussion after finishing movie, might as well watch less movies because of lack of place to discuss them

xena 10y ago
4chan has a television and film board, it's less 4chan than the other boards.
- ndespres 10y ago
  If the IMDB boards were shut down due to the actions of malicious trolls, sending folks in search of a new movie forum to 4chan is rather ironic.
- rjeli 10y ago
  For you -- other users not accustomed to 4chan's "charm" can find it extremely painful, even if 10% the discussion is high quality
- Markoff 10y ago
  it has board created already for every single obscure movie? i think better option would be enable forums on TMDb as they discuss here https://www.themoviedb.org/talk/5894e6e0c3a368089b000e1e?page=3 https://www.themoviedb.org/talk/5894e6e0c3a368089b000e1e?pag...

everling 10y ago

Though it's no replacement for a forum, my side project has been a web app that finds thematic links between films. I use it to find hidden gems and such. I've had zero traction here on HN, but Gizmodo just did an article on it: http://gizmodo.com/a-way-to-search-for-film-recommendations-without-the-tr-1792001690 http://gizmodo.com/a-way-to-search-for-film-recommendations-... /plug