announced yesterday and effective feb. 20th:
http://www.imdb.com/board/announcement

i only posted about once every couple years, but i see this as another dick move by the establishment and another nail in the coffin of message boards.

i use imdb as a regular resource. professional reviews of films and shows are cool, but i really like word of mouth and what fans think. the imdb boards were an invaluable resource for getting that kind of casual commentary and so much more. there were discussions about the most minute details and thoughtful interpretations that you just won't get anywhere else online from what i've seen, at least not organized so well. if i want to know more about a scene, line of dialog, or plot development in some old, obscure movie i just watched, i don't know where to go now. then there were d-list actors posting under aliases to defend and promote themselves and the people posting who were extras or PAs sharing stories from decades past. that's just fun to read. there were also people with really good taste and depth of knowledge who would recommend or reference something uncommon but awesome. was there trolling and flaming going on on the imdb boards, i'm sure; that wasn't what i came for or paid much attention to. it's hard not to read into amazon's decision as appeasing the powers that be, including hollywood vanity.

it's also another sad day for the message board as a communication platform. there are so many once thriving message boards i've come across that were either deleted since my last visit or are now ghost towns. when i google something and land on a message board, it is so eerie to see one still online without having had a post in years, all the more so when i take a closer look and don't see any announcement of a shutdown or migration. at least the imdb regulars have a couple weeks to do what they have to do before it's all gone, but what i got out of those boards can't be replicated by imdb's social media platforms.