Good riddance, Troll Central!

[BettyNewbie]

Yes, the infamous IMDb message boards (aka. Troll Central) are finally getting the boot, and hilariously, it's for the exact reason you would expect:

Good riddance to one of the worst places to socialize on the internet. Amazon-owned IMDb announced today it will be closing down its discussion board later this month, and turning off the ability for users to private message each other. The company claimed the decision was made because the boards were “no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide.”

Anyone familiar with the boards would say that’s putting it mildly. Like many large, internet gathering places without strict moderation capabilities in place, IMDb’s boards didn’t serve the community as intended. That is, they failed to offer a place to have productive conversations about movies, shows, actors, and other members of the entertainment industry.

Instead, the boards were notoriously known for hosting some of the most pointless and hateful commentary around. They’ve been compared, in many cases, to YouTube’s sort of unfettered brand of internet commentary – which is another way of saying, these boards were full of trolling. There’s an entire Reddit thread about the matter, in fact.

Often, the boards only seemed to exist for people to bash others’ dissenting opinions, or thoroughly trash the TV or movies being discussed, no matter how critically acclaimed or generally popular. At their worst, they would delve into other sorts of offensive commentary, or even racist remarks.

Read More: techcrunch.com/2017/02/03/one-of-the-worst-comments-sections-on-the-internet-is-shutting-down/

[Tim]

So they're finally going to tear down Troll Central.  As you said, Betty, good riddance. 

Instead, the boards were notoriously known for hosting some of the most pointless and hateful commentary around.

Got that straight.  

The IMDB boards became the place where racists, homophobes, nutcases, pedophiles and other trolls could run loose and not have to worry about being reined in.  I'm just surprised that it's taken so long for the place to finally be shut down for good. 

It won't be missed.

[BettyNewbie]

I read that there was a HUGE surge in sexist/racist/homophobic comments at the site in the wake of Orange Hitler's campaign and election. I guess things finally got so bad that IMDb couldn't ignore it anymore and had to take action.

Now, if only the same could happen to YouTube's comments section...

[Tim]

I read that there was a HUGE surge in sexist/racist/homophobic comments at the site in the wake of Orange Hitler's campaign and election. I guess things finally got so bad that IMDb couldn't ignore it anymore and had to take action.

I'm not surprised.  IMDB has been a cesspool for so long, it was only natural that more such oxygen wasters would find their way there.   Since there was no active moderation, it only got worse and worse. 

Now, if only the same could happen to YouTube's comments section...

I can see why many user prefer to disable the comments section of their accounts these days.  Some of those sections...  Yikes!

[adzpower]

Was never apart of it and I guess now I never will be, sounds like its for the best.

[Tim]

Yeah, you missed nothing, Adam.

I don't know why the Moderators of those boards just gave up years ago. Once that happened, however, the trolls quickly moved in.

An ironic article. 

[adzpower]

What happened to the mods there?

[Tim]

I have no idea.

For some reason, they just disappeared.

[nimue]

I must be honest here, but I will miss it. IMDB was perfect for going on boards after watching a movie, and reading other people's reactions to it (better than reviews, in my opinion), as well as get answers if I was confused about something in a movie or TV show, follow an actor's career... I think it's a shame that they weren't better able to moderate the boards.

[Squad 51]

IMDB was good for getting information about new movies and actors. That I'd miss for sure, but certainly not the boards where they could talk freely about all and nothing.

[Tim]

Problem was that the boards never stayed on the topic of the movie or actor in question.  Eventually, the trolls would hijack the thread with their antics.  I saw many a post ruined by this.

I saw one movie thread hijacked by a pedophile (at least that is the impression I got reading this sick person's posts).   And the moderator, if there was one, did nothing about this.

Yeah, if there had been decent moderation, the IMDB boards might not now be closing.  However, I guess we'll never know.

[BettyNewbie]

Aside from the woeful lack of moderation, another reason why the IMDB boards closed was simply because they were losing membership. Traditional message boards have been losing ground to Facebook and Twitter for the last several years, and it got to a point where it was a waste of money and resources for IMDB to continue hosting message boards.

It's for these same reasons that another large long-running fan board, Television Without Pity, kicked the bucket a few years ago. Fandom is moving away from traditional forums.

[Tim]

That's true.  Social Media, like Facebook and Twitter are big now.   And they offer their users the option of posting without having a Mod around. 

Old style message boards like IMDB and TWOP just can't compete with this.

[Squad 51]

Realized that meanwhile too that only the message boards are gone but not the info about the stars and movies. Sorry. Never mind. Still, as information boards on actors/actresses and movies, IMDB is good.

[Tim]

Yeah, if you want to  look up info on a  movie or such, you still can. 

While their message boards became a cesspool, the rest of IMDB isn't bad.