Comments can be a good thing. However for the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) which is the largest internet-based movie database, it has failed to offer a place for productive conversation involving movies, actors, shows and others in the entertainment industry.
The Amazon-owned IMDb's message boards can be worst place to socialize.
More than often, languages that were used on the boards were mild. But anyone that is familiar with the board would say that it's a place without strict moderation.
IMDb has garnered reputations of having the meanest commenters on the internet that post many pointless and hateful comments. At their worst, they would post many sorts of offensive commentary to even racist remarks.
For that reason, IMDb has decided to shut them all down, including its message discussion boards as well as its private messaging feature.
The "message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide," said IMDb in a statement.
IMDb can't further cope with the criticisms it's having. And the decision marks IMDb that can no longer see the value of keeping the popular discussion board anymore. According to its announcement on the matter, the decision was made "only after careful consideration and was based on data and traffic."
The closure is also influenced by the fact that the IMDb-hosted message boards are no longer the preferred place of discussion for many users. Many of them have shifted to social networks, like Facebook and Twitter.
IMDb is keeping the forums for the next two weeks before shutting them down on February 18th, 2017. This way, users can archive their conversations if they want to. They can also use the remaining time to reach out to others via private message to stay in touch in the future.
Users are also using the remaining time to discuss replacement platforms they could use after IMDb took it off the internet.
