Meet the most powerful Brit in Hollywood:
Col Needham, creator of IMDB
“I made friends on the message boards over my favorite film and actor at the time, Moulin Rouge and Ewan McGregor. We would trade fan-fiction ideas, our favourite parts of the film and generally fangirl about Ewan McGregor.”
Like many others, Madden has made a habit of checking the boards after viewing a film, reading up on the fan theories and narrative deconstructions. “With IMDb, the conversation is abundant and accessible. Now that the message boards are ending, I don’t have an outlet to discuss film in-depth.”
Emma Thorpe is a social media administrator who regularly checks in with the boards for a particular film after viewing it. Once the boards have been disbanded, Thorpe wonders whether she’ll have a reason to use the site at all; citing IMDb’s insistence that conversations will, and already have, migrated to social media as disingenuous. “It won’t work. Comments will get lost in the noise.” Echoing others, Thorpe added: “There is a definite sense of community on the boards. You won’t be able to use the site in the same way.”
Some outlets claim that IMDb’s assertion that the site no longer provides a “positive, useful experience” refers to those trolling the boards. US entertainment website the Wrap highlighted the recent example of Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro being hit with a slew of negative and one-star reviews before its official release date as a tipping point. And you don’t have to wade far into the films’ boards to find them riddled with racist, ignorant and posturingly obtuse comments.
“IMDb say that the boards have been overtaken by trolls, but they could easily make it harder for people to troll, by hindering them creating multiple accounts.” Dan L began an online petition to save the boards, currently at just under 10,000 signatures. He suspects the invocation of trolls is little more than a smokescreen. He believes the real reason is a combination of much lower user numbers than IMDb is publicising, and the way in which the boards and ratings are being exploited.
“They make bold claims such as 250 million monthly users worldwide. If IMDb really had 250 million users how come the movie with the most ratings, Shawshank Redemption, only has 1.7m votes? I don’t see how they can have 3.3% of the world’s population regularly using the site.”
There is also the issue of user ratings and boards being exploited to make a film seem as if it was more warmly received than it might have been, via ratings from false accounts. Dan uses the 2016 film Beta Test as an example of a fraudulently rated film in which half of the film’s apparent viewers have rated it a 9 or a 10, though the “top voters” (those with accounted for and regularly active accounts) have only rated it an average of 4.6.
“The message boards have become a liability in terms of their credibility, and this might lead to less companies wanting to advertise with them.”
One of the more disappointing aspects of the boards’ closure, he believes, is the lack of consultation of IMDb’s users, especially as the website relies so heavily on them providing the trivia and information.
A regular participator in the IMDb community, Dan even met his current partner via the boards, moving from Sweden to Scotland to live with her. “The message boards were at one point the only social outlet I had,” he says. “And it’s a bit of a slap in the face.”
