@CalabrianQueen said:

1: I don't think so

2:I don't think so

3: Yup. I'm using my old Instagram name now, but you know who I am , Lemons

4: Believe it or not there were A LOT of people who used imbd for the reason it was intended for, to look up information on movies, and those people didn't stop because of deactivated message boards. I doubt traffic decreased by a significant amount, and if it did I believe we would have heard about it by now.

So we had no power at all?

@CalabrianQueen said:

1: I don't think so

2:I don't think so

3: Yup. I'm using my old Instagram name now, but you know who I am , Lemons

4: Believe it or not there were A LOT of people who used imbd for the reason it was intended for, to look up information on movies, and those people didn't stop because of deactivated message boards. I doubt traffic decreased by a significant amount, and if it did I believe we would have heard about it by now.

Thank you for answering my questions Erica! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me as I learn more about this site.

@LadyGigi said:

@CalabrianQueen said:

1: I don't think so

2:I don't think so

3: Yup. I'm using my old Instagram name now, but you know who I am , Lemons

4: Believe it or not there were A LOT of people who used imbd for the reason it was intended for, to look up information on movies, and those people didn't stop because of deactivated message boards. I doubt traffic decreased by a significant amount, and if it did I believe we would have heard about it by now.

So we had no power at all?

We were the minority. If we weren't it would have been a poor business model to nix the boards.

There has been discussion on several other TMDB boards that in fact the IMDB boards were deleted because there was too much criticism of new movies, and IMDB was already more beholden to studios and is even moreso now that the boards are gone. Studios buy special presentations on the IMDB pages in full color with more advertising etc. And they didn't want regular people commenting that their movies might actually stink.

So the actual numbers of people using the message boards wasn't the issue, in fact the more people using them - and criticizing new movies - the more the studios wanted IMDB to get rid of them.

@Knixon said:

There has been discussion on several other TMDB boards that in fact the IMDB boards were deleted because there was too much criticism of new movies, and IMDB was already more beholden to studios and is even moreso now that the boards are gone. Studios buy special presentations on the IMDB pages in full color with more advertising etc. And they didn't want regular people commenting that their movies might actually stink.

So the actual numbers of people using the message boards wasn't the issue, in fact the more people using them - and criticizing new movies - the more the studios wanted IMDB to get rid of them.

But you can still write a scathing review. It only needs to be 100 characters long and you add spoiler in it.. Lol

Yeah, for now. The user reviews are different though too, and they rotate and stuff. Many also expect the points/stars rating system to go away too, and be replaced by just a thumbs-up/thumbs-down type of thing, for similar reasons.

@Knixon said:

There has been discussion on several other TMDB boards that in fact the IMDB boards were deleted because there was too much criticism of new movies, and IMDB was already more beholden to studios and is even moreso now that the boards are gone. Studios buy special presentations on the IMDB pages in full color with more advertising etc. And they didn't want regular people commenting that their movies might actually stink.

So the actual numbers of people using the message boards wasn't the issue, in fact the more people using them - and criticizing new movies - the more the studios wanted IMDB to get rid of them.

User criticism didn't cost the studios money though, criticism is par for the course. I think Amazon caved to advertiser demands; advertisers who want firm control on how their product is marketed on the site.

But they were - and still are - largely advertising MOVIES.

Very interesting points by Knixon and Queen. I like how TPTB tried to say that the boards just weren't a positive experience for the users anymore. Heaven knows, there was enough drama and negativity, but I enjoyed my time there and still miss it. Between the season/series finales of my favorite shows and some movies I've recently watched, there were several IMDB message boards I would have loved to have jumped on. As it is, I come here, and do searches that usually take me to reddit or Previously TV. They are ok and sometimes I find an interesting thread there, but again, just not the same.

@Gothish520 said:

Very interesting points by Knixon and Queen. I like how TPTB tried to say that the boards just weren't a positive experience for the users anymore. Heaven knows, there was enough drama and negativity, but I enjoyed my time there and still miss it. Between the season/series finales of my favorite shows and some movies I've recently watched, there were several IMDB message boards I would have loved to have jumped on. As it is, I come here, and do searches that usually take me to reddit or Previously TV. They are ok and sometimes I find an interesting thread there, but again, just not the same.

The boards weren't a positive experience for the most part, that much is true. There were more negative posts on almost all the titles. The only titles that had positive reviews were the cult favorites. Most of the new movies were spoiled as well. The boards were larger a joke and bringing down the site. I understand why Col wanted the boards gonna but had he just invested in more moderators, then the situation would have improved drastically and you can see that that strategy of having moderators works at other forums.

@CalabrianQueen said:

@LadyGigi said:

So we had no power at all?

We were the minority. If we weren't it would have been a poor business model to nix the boards.

The information in this thread, as well as the alexa site (whether 100% accurate or not), has been very interesting to me.  I appreciate all of the responses!  I am admittedly rather naïve in some areas, and honestly believed IMDb would take a hit from the removal of the boards.  I’m choosing to look at it this way, though.  The boards in general may have represented an insignificant portion of IMDb's traffic, but within that group of people was a smaller one who together, created a very special community on TBBT board, and we maintained a strong enough bond that here we are still together on a new site.  And there’s nothing insignificant about that. 

IMDB is Dead. Long live TMDB etc. Also if I didn't want negativity and trolls I wouldn't be on the internet in the first place.

@Knixon said:

But they were - and still are - largely advertising MOVIES.

I understand that but criticism itself doesn't kill a movie or advertising. If the movie gets critically panned and quadruples it's budget at the box office it is still a successful movie. What hurts a studio is lack of marketing or lack of control over marketing that then has a domino effect on box office total

I believe advertisers felt that many movies were not advertised well to the subset of people who only visited the site for message boards so Amazon, rather than invest in fixing that problem threw the message boards out altogether and repurposed any revenue toward advertising. Anything to keep the golden goose happy.

You mean advertising of imdb? Because for advertising of movies ON imdb, the full-color drop-downs with sound etc, it's the studios who pay imdb/amazon for that and no redirecting of funds would be required.

And it does seem credible that the studios find it more valuable to be advertising on a site without all the negative comments about their movies.

@Lemons said:

@Tim-Buktu said:

When it comes to numeralizing, I do my best work with imaginary numbers. 1.I remember Mr. Brimley selling some kind of cereal made out of rocks and sticks and dirt and other such things. By the way, speaking of the Price is Right, I know where the Warsaw Tavern is. ( I'll let you work out the connection.)

1. I see that Goth found us. It's only a matter of time. By the way glyphics are legendary creatures that live high in the mountains. pyroglypics prefer volcanoes. 3.My aren't we getting demanding. I may or may not have a story about kangaroos, but my observation is this: Australians seem to think that Americans think that Australians ride kangaroos. I thought that was ridiculous. But then I thought Americans ride bulls (Not all Americans, _some _Americans) Which led me to think: Have any Australians ever tried riding kangaroos? I remember that it was a thing to have boxing matches with kangaroos. So why not. Especially college students who've been into the Fosters.

I would like to hear more about your imaginary numbers someday. That can be storytime on National Imaginary Things Day, which of course is just one day after National Non-Imaginary Things Day. I'm sure you've already got it marked on your calendar.

1. I believe it was Quaker Oats that Brimley peddled. You must have purchased the Forest and Nature Variety Pack. And thanks to Google I have learned that Warsaw Tavern is a bar that was featured on the Drew Carey (current host of TPIR) Show. Perhaps someday we can meet there for a bowl of rocks.

2.Yes, thankfully my thread was not written in unreadable code. But's that not really nice of you to accuse the noble glyphics of being high. They may live in the mountains, but that is no proof of rampant drug use.

3.After thinking about it some more, I'm not sure that kangaroos should befriend crawdads. With their huge feet, the lead character might have to be named "Squish the Crayfish". And of course Australians ride kangaroos! How else do they get to the eucalyptus grove to feed their koalas??

4.I decided to add a #4 to give the impression that we were actually answering my original questions.

One of the problems I have with TMDB is that I don't know if somebody replied to me. (Other than using my cosmic senses.) But here we go:

An imaginary number[note 1] is a complex number that can be written as a real number multiplied by the imaginary unit i,[note 2] which is defined by its property i2 = −1.[1] The square of an imaginary number bi is −b2. For example, 5i is an imaginary number, and its square is −25. Zero is considered to be both real and imaginary.

2) https://youtu.be/eOB4VdlkzO4?list=RDeOB4VdlkzO4

3) I know I've seen a video clip of a horse eating scorpions off of some guys face. Scorpions and crayfish are vaguely related. Not real close, like that distant cousin who shows up at family get together who drinks too much and tell off color jokes.

4) And who's to say we're not?