IMDB Message Boards Closed

[Data]

Today, IMDB decided it would be ending it's message boards on February 20th 2017.

This is part of the message on their site right now.

IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. As part of our ongoing effort to continually evaluate and enhance the customer experience on IMDb, we have decided to disable IMDb's message boards on February 20, 2017. This includes the Private Message system. After in-depth discussion and examination, we have concluded that IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide. The decision to retire a long-standing feature was made only after careful consideration and was based on data and traffic.

Point 1  How does removing the best feature enhance the customer experience?

Point 2 I agree that much of what you find on IMDB message boards in the last few years are not "positive" but there was also a wealth of useful criticism.  

Point 3 Not sure what they mean by basing the decision on data and traffic.  This is the best feature of IMDB.  It is unlike any forum.  Every Television show, Movie and performer has a listing on IMDB and for each listing, there was a message board.  This is a bad excuse for removing the most useful form of opinions sharing about media on the internet.

[Areala]

That's a shame. I loved reading the IMDB message boards. Often the people there were just as good, if not better, at critiquing and pointing out/explaining confusing premises than the professional reviewers were. Even if they were just opinions, there's more than one non-American film I've watched that had me running to the boards afterwards in curiosity to see what others thought/felt. Frequently this improved my understanding, and thus enjoyment, of the film in question. :(

*huggles*
Areala

[MisterXiado]

Don't you know? Taking things away is how you get more! Like when ISPs got rid of emergency dialup service, and USENET access, and started arbitrarily blocking network ports and content providers, then raising your bill because it's not like you can change ISPs without moving halfway across the state, all while their costs for data and the amount they pay employees drop constantly, thanks in no small part to outsourcing.

 

Oh, you want to know what you get more of? Anger.

[Data]

And when they said they were discontinuing over the air television to free up radio wavelength.

What they meant was they can make more money if they charge you a cable / satellite fee.

[MisterXiado]

Overreach from media corporations just push people into discovering new ways to pirate content. They can pass all the laws they want, but you can archive 123movies on a shoebox full of MicroSD cards and ship it priority mail for pennies.