Replacement for Internet Movie Database?

[alison]

Following the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)'s recent decision to remove all its discussion boards, thereby effectively doing away with perhaps 15 years or more discussion of films and TV programmes, I was wondering if there were any alternatives which anyone could recommend?  I'm looking for somewhere to discuss TV programmes and movies (on separate sites if necessary), major and minor, where the discussions don't by and large become inaccessible after maybe 6 months (I know IMDb did cull discussions on the most popular films and programmes, but at the same time you could still find discussion going years back on more esoteric ones), and something you can post on without having to go via Facebook/Twitter/Google or other social media etc. accounts.

[Melody]

Oh dear - this looks like another victim of the growing aggressiveness and trolling on discussion forums.

 

Does Amazon still have its forums? I seem to remember that there are movie and TV areas there.

[trog]

I think the problem has less to do with trolling and more to do with IMDB migration towards being an Amazon annex over a movie database. I never trust a review by a paid critic. I used to know the reviewer for an Australian daily, and this person disliked Sci-Fi films, yet they always gave the film a reasonable review. The worse that they would say is "This film is not for me". I suspect many professional reviewers also post favourable reviews of films, etc that they really don't like. I will trust the review of a truely independent review, that is Joe Public. There were many negative comments about main stream films on the IMDB. Amazon is in the business of selling stuff and negative reviews might impact on their sales.
 
This is reason the BBC closed it's Points of View message boards. These were meant to feed the TV program of the same name. There was too much negative discussion on the boards about specific TV programs, so Auntie said to use Twitter, where you can't have a proper discussion and they can control what is being talked about. There is nothing more annoying to an organisation is the ability for people to start topics on whatever they want.
 
I haven't found a forum dedicated to films as reliable as IMDB. The big advantage with IMDB was that you could find a discussion about a specific film that you were interested. This was really useful for an old film that would pop-up on the TV; you could read independent comments and decide if you might like it.
 
I sometimes read the Digital Fix and Home Theater forums but they are very US centric and mostly related to current films. Den of Geek isn't bad if you're interested in current TV programs and Movie Forums has some interesting discussions. Again I only lurk on these.

 

I miss the IMDB forums, where I was an occasional poster.

[alison]

Me too

[Quintus]

If you speak French there's the Allociné forum, though the search function never works for me

 

http://www.allocine.fr/communaute/forum/forum_gen_cforumliste=3.html

[alison]

Thanks, Quintus, might be useful, although I'm not sure I'd ever post   Can't help wondering if it might be a bit too Les Cahiers du Cinema-level for me!

[alison]

 

I think the problem has less to do with trolling and more to do with IMDB migration towards being an Amazon annex over a movie database.

 

Yep, why not?  After all, they already ruined LOVEFILM within a very short time of taking it over, due largely to a(nti?)pathy.