So far YouTube doesn't need a Message Board because they offer and include their own comment sections right below the video. Instant feedback as well as additional material gleaned from the comment sections for those so skilled at farming them. Why even have a industry specific Message Board if other more popular locations (Facebook, etc) exist for Socialized conversations about entertainment?

Well, youtube has a message board under every single video and if you think IMDB boards were full of vitriol you should check out those boards. They are downright toxic.

I wouldn't put the blame on you tube for the demise of the message boards. The writing was on the wall if we paid enough attention. There hasn't been a signficant update to the message boards in years and when the site was crawling on Sunday nights they made no effort to boost the servers to make up for the extra traffic. You tube is one of many money making enterprises on the internet and from what I hear it doesn't make much money for google. They have already began to try to swing it to be more "family friendly" to please advertisers which has a lot of people who actually make a living on you tube speaking their filth flam filth (I'm joking, I curse like a sailor myself ) feathers rustled. I can understand why. A lot of you tube's appeal for a lot of shows is the absolute authenticity of the personalities which is so lacking with "family friendly" television. This trend to bend over to please advertisers may be closer to the reason to why the boards met their demise. Just by looking at how long it took to get those petition signatures woke me up to the fact that not a lot of us used the boards that much. So therefore even if every single one of use never step foot on IMDB again, it more than likely will not affect them that much. I for one am done with them. It's just the way I am when it comes to loyalty. I stuck by IMDB for 15 years and had plenty of other places I could have gone for my movie data but didn't. The only thing I really enjoyed about it was the message boards and for something that doesn't much effort to keep on and they wanna take it away I don't think deserve my patronage. Au revoir MFers.

I think the BvS and Ghostbusters (2016) boards might have led IMDb to shut them down. The amount of verbal, social wars on both these boards was something that was just painful to read. Plus, I could also argue that too many triggered and sensitive people, desperate for validation, reported too many users/trolls, and IMDb observed this, came to the conclusion to shut it down. Since they did say that the boards are "no longer providing a positive, useful experience".

We are living in a world where people are becoming a bit too sensitive about certain subjects that require opinions, not facts.

It was idiots who reported people as trolls just because they had a different opinion.

We are living in a world where people are becoming a bit too sensitive about certain subjects that require opinions, not facts.

I'll agree with you there. The SJWs are out of control as well. I am a left leaning, democratic socialist but I can agree that the quest for social equality and respect is over stepping its boundaries on freedom of speech. Some people are nasty and say some vile sh!t. It's up to you to be strong and not let it affect you. You are not in the backseat anymore fighting with your siblings where you can yell, "Mommy, Johnny called me a bitch!" . Harden up for fk's sake.

@movie_nazi said:

Well, youtube has a message board under every single video and if you think IMDB boards were full of vitriol you should check out those boards. They are downright toxic.

I wouldn't put the blame on you tube for the demise of the message boards. The writing was on the wall if we paid enough attention. There hasn't been a significant update to the message boards in years and when the site was crawling on Sunday nights they made no effort to boost the servers to make up for the extra traffic. You tube is one of many money making enterprises on the internet and from what I hear it doesn't make much money for google.

YouTube does make money for the content providers based on Advertisers and YouTube is quite pervasive. I'm not suggesting that YouTube is the 99% of culprit but I feel that the operating model for YouTube is something that Message Boards aren't giving into. Blaming IMDB's Demise solely on troll behavior I think is short-sighted. Trollish behavior will indeed reach every Message Board. As you stated the comment sections below each YouTube video are fertile ground for trollish activity.

Intellectually Dishonest Free Speech Advocators defending trollish behavior with push back against what they perceive to be abusive Political Correctness is nothing more than a false flag for all out anarchy and chaos.

Again I haven't really built a convincing case for IMDB's Message Board pulling the plug because of their unwillingness to follow the YouTube model but lack of moderators on their site would was only a small factor.

Intellectually Dishonest Free Speech Advocators defending trollish behavior with push back against what they perceive to be abusive Political Correctness is nothing more than a false flag for all out anarchy and chaos. Again I haven't really built a convincing case for IMDB's Message Board pulling the plug because of their unwillingness to follow the YouTube model but lack of moderators on their site would was only a small factor.

No one wants anarchy and chaos. But reporting people because they called me a name and I demand they get removed is downright childish. You want to remove lewd behavior and comments that is better at home on a porn and violent threats fine. But banning people because they called someone an idiot is taking it too far IMO.

@movie_nazi said:

No one wants anarchy and chaos. But reporting people because they called me a name and I demand they get removed is downright childish. You want to remove lewd behavior and comments that is better at home on a porn and violent threats fine. But banning people because they called someone an idiot is taking it too far IMO.

I think most would agree that reporting people has pros and cons. In the beginning there was the original sin. Then came the revenge report. Then came the retaliation report. Next there was the 'just because' report. Almost every rule will be gamed and exploited. That leads to the very chaos the board is trying to prevent.

@rgreen7313 said:

The number of IMDB Refugees that have so far migrated here and to the other forums and sites might just represent the maximum population that ever participated and that number appears to be quite small. Embarrassingly small even if you extrapolate.

It certainly seems embarrassingly small. But I don't think Youtube is the culprit here; rather that social networks in general have made it much more convenient for people to talk about anything, movies included, with people they know. What's left are the tiny minority of people who don't have friends who share the same taste in movies as ours. So now that the general moviegoers are gone, we are the only ones left.

But even then, I'm still surprised how small our niche turned out to be.

The number of IMDB Refugees that have so far migrated here and to the other forums and sites might just represent the maximum population that ever participated and that number appears to be quite small. Embarrassingly small even if you extrapolate.

I read an article written by the creator of IMDb boards, in which he says:

"I don't use the boards myself any more, although I do occasionally look over them, perhaps once or twice a year. It's been clear for a while that they're not getting a fraction of the use that they once did, and that's fair. The web is a different thing in 2017 entirely, and that's also a good thing."

This guy is not affiliated with IMDb anymore, so there's no point of him lying about the numbers. It really seems that boards weren't the biggest attraction of IMDb. Or they were, but people were just reading them instead of posting, cause trolls chased the decent posters away... we'll never know.

@Apis said:

I read an article written by the creator of IMDb boards, in which he says:

"I don't use the boards myself any more, although I do occasionally look over them, perhaps once or twice a year. It's been clear for a while that they're not getting a fraction of the use that they once did, and that's fair. The web is a different thing in 2017 entirely, and that's also a good thing."

This guy is not affiliated with IMDb anymore, so there's no point of him lying about the numbers. It really seems that boards weren't the biggest attraction of IMDb. Or they were, but people were just reading them instead of posting, cause trolls chased the decent posters away... we'll never know.

I will still put my stake in the ground on the monetization of the Internet being the biggest driving force killing free forum Message Boards. There are a growing number of YouTubers airing Reaction videos and Review videos of anything and everything complete with solicitations to comment on their offering as well as hosting Live chats. Why this rapid growth? Notoriety, Celebrity status and money. I myself do like Double Toasted now and enjoyed the crew when they were Spill.com . How does supporting a Message Board make sense when the audience is dwindling? I use Wikipedia but it is not exactly a fun place to visit and it's not supposed to be a fun place. It serves a very utilitarian function, it is done well and they have to host fund drives to stay in business.

Sensationalism sells, and for awhile before certain forums on IMDB Message Boards became their own insane asylum, that sensationalism was just the ability to freely exchange thoughts and discussions with others anywhere in the world about any movie, TV show or topic. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram eventually all had to make money some kind of way to stay in business and grow.

@Apis said:

The number of IMDB Refugees that have so far migrated here and to the other forums and sites might just represent the maximum population that ever participated and that number appears to be quite small. Embarrassingly small even if you extrapolate.

I read an article written by the creator of IMDb boards, in which he says:

"I don't use the boards myself any more, although I do occasionally look over them, perhaps once or twice a year. It's been clear for a while that they're not getting a fraction of the use that they once did, and that's fair. The web is a different thing in 2017 entirely, and that's also a good thing."

This guy is not affiliated with IMDb anymore, so there's no point of him lying about the numbers. It really seems that boards weren't the biggest attraction of IMDb. Or they were, but people were just reading them instead of posting, cause trolls chased the decent posters away... we'll never know.

That's just speculation from his part, he hasn't been working for IMDb since 2006 so there's no way for him to be in possession of any up-to-date statistical data.