IMDB boards. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum.

[Amaris]

My favourite thing about IMDB is that you can go to the board of every great movie in existence and find a thread titled "THIS MOVIE SUCKS", "WORST MOVIE EVER", "OVERRATED CRAP" or something to that effect.

I post on IMDB maybe half a dozen times per year, mostly if I see a post that gives me an opportunity to help someone who has a question about an actor, movie, or TV show I know a lot about. Occasionally I'll express an opinion there, but it's really not the place to go regularly for intelligent discussion about something.

I swear, we're spoiled here. I've been to many, many message boards in my day and so far this is one of the only ones I haven't eventually left due to frustration or irritation with how rude and stupid people are. This is really a haven for me with how much more mature and considerate its general population is compared to than of so many other sites.

TrekBBS is filled with intellectual giants when compared to just about any other message board, particularly genre boards.

 

[Aldo]

I post over at CommandBond.net, and I'd say there message board community is just as good as ours. Perhaps a bit better because the mods over there are a lot more strict than the ones here.

 

[Aragorn]

TrekBBS is second only to Ain't It Cool News.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

My favourite thing about IMDB is that you can go to the board of every great movie in existence and find a thread titled "THIS MOVIE SUCKS", "WORST MOVIE EVER", "OVERRATED CRAP" or something to that effect.

I post on IMDB maybe half a dozen times per year, mostly if I see a post that gives me an opportunity to help someone who has a question about an actor, movie, or TV show I know a lot about. Occasionally I'll express an opinion there, but it's really not the place to go regularly for intelligent discussion about something.

I swear, we're spoiled here. I've been to many, many message boards in my day and so far this is one of the only ones I haven't eventually left due to frustration or irritation with how rude and stupid people are. This is really a haven for me with how much more mature and considerate its general population is compared to than of so many other sites.

TrekBBS is filled with intellectual giants when compared to just about any other message board, particularly genre boards.

Even TNZ is a hotbed of maturity compared with the rest of the internet. But the worst are those sites taken over by vampire fans. Good gort! I wish I had a flamethrower that would work on message boards.

I post over at CommandBond.net, and I'd say there message board community is just as good as ours. Perhaps a bit better because the mods over there are a lot more strict than the ones here.

I wouldn't want them to be more strict. There's a danger of over-policing, too. Just look at twop.

 

[lurok]

I pop into imdb and aintitcool precisely for the shock/amusement.

The one prior board of which a member is very well moderated and self-policed. Although a noob here, so far (with a few exceptions) found this a haven of sane rational discussion.

 

[Count Zero]

Something IMDB recently did, (and maybe there's a way to change that but it's not immediately obvious to me) that really pissed me off was displaying the names of movies and tv-shows not in the original anymore but under the name they were released in my country which is annoying not only because I don't recognise the names since I watch all that stuff in English but also because the German titles of the movies are very often completely idiotic, especially movies from before 2000ish or so. (for example a couple days ago I wanted to look up something about the movie Breaking Away, and apparently the German title is "Vier irre Typen", which translates as "four crazy guys" - wtf, could you come up with something less inspiring if you tried to?)

Yeah, I always wondered who came up with some of those titles. My favourite one is still "Ripper, der Schlitzer" (Ripper, the Ripper). It's even worse when they make up new English titles.
This new naming scheme of IMDB annoys me, too, because often the episode titles of tv shows are still in English. It's a mess all around.

 

[Amasov]

I was on YouTube once watching an opening of a 1980 episode of The Price is Right. I scrolled down to peruse the comments and there was a flame war going about how the UK and the US were the worst countries in the world.

How they ended up on that subject is beyond me.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I always make the mistake of reading the comments on the music posted on YouTube. Some gushing interspersed with rants on how modern music sucks, Lady Gaga is horrible and hate for Justin Beiber. I assume in a few years they will be replaced by who ever is popular then and folks will be pining for the good old days when performers like Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga making "real" music.

 

[Captain Craig]

TrekBBS is second only to Ain't It Cool News.

I'm glad you put the emoticon there.
The AICN boards are pretty bad, or used to be, full of Negative Nancy trolls.
I haven't posted in there in over a year, maybe 1.5yrs.
I tried my account and couldn't get in, maybe it got deactivated due to lack of use?


This is my board of choice but I'm Captain Craig on about a dozen sites. My second highest post count is at BoxOfficeMojo.com

 

[Aldo]

I post over at CommandBond.net, and I'd say there message board community is just as good as ours. Perhaps a bit better because the mods over there are a lot more strict than the ones here.

I wouldn't want them to be more strict. There's a danger of over-policing, too. Just look at twop.

Perhaps more strict isn't the right wording. The team over there just has a different set of values and moderates accordingly. Neither board (this one or that one) is better, just different.

 

[23skidoo]

Nah, Youtube is MUCH worse. I don't think it's being moderated at all ...

It's not. Users (if they register a global account with Google ) have the option of reporting posts, or voting them thumbs down which gets them removed if too many thumbs down votes are received. And I think uploaders have the option of disabling comments altogether. But given how often people post spam and comments that often cross the line into not just libel but hate speech in some cases (i.e. pretty much any video relating to Obama these days), it's clear there's no such thing as a YouTube mod save the copyright police (and even that isn't consistently applied).

IMDb is pretty bad too. I don't see spam so much, but some comments in the various forums are sometimes so vicious (and unfairly) that they're most likely put there simply by people looking to troll. (Same goes for YouTube.) They don't really believe what they're posting half the time, I'm convinced of it. After seeing a string of rather unfair posts against a favorite actor a while back I've tended to ignore the IMDb posts. And I don't support global log-ins for stuff like YouTube so I stopped contributing to that "community" a few months ago. So they can be as much a hive as they want to be; I just ignore them.

Alex

 

[Too Much Fun]

I was on YouTube once watching an opening of a 1980 episode of The Price is Right. I scrolled down to peruse the comments and there was a flame war going about how the UK and the US were the worst countries in the world.

How they ended up on that subject is beyond me.

I see that stuff all the time! It's simultaneously sad and hilarious how people get into these hateful, politically-charged debates in comment sections for the most innocent videos.

 

[Nerd unRage]

What I don't like is half the actors listed on IMDB have at least one thread about their sexuality. It's like, who cares and what the endless debate? I'd rather use YouTube, IMDB, and the like for looking up information, not serious discussions. Real forums, like this one, are a much better avenue for that.

 

[IndyJones]

What I don't like is half the actors listed on IMDB have at least one thread about their sexuality. It's like, who cares and what the endless debate?

I've never gone into any of those threads, so I'm not a real fan.

But gays get a lot of push back in this country. Many grow up not knowing anyone else who shares a same sex attraction. It's not that strange that people would look to celebrities to try to find someone like them, and the many celebrities who denied being gay only to come out late only make it easier for that debate to continue.

 

[Eddie Roth]

You know, you can change the title display scheme back to the way it was in the account settings under "site preferences". I did that too. I just can't deal with seeing a film called "Zwei glorreiche Halunken" in the Top 250 where "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" should be.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I was on YouTube once watching an opening of a 1980 episode of The Price is Right. I scrolled down to peruse the comments and there was a flame war going about how the UK and the US were the worst countries in the world.

How they ended up on that subject is beyond me.

I see that stuff all the time! It's simultaneously sad and hilarious how people get into these hateful, politically-charged debates in comment sections for the most innocent videos.

And then you have morons who think it's so cute and dreadfully clever to call someone names or what have you because you're not willing to degrade into the flame war. The attitude is that, "We can do it and other critics do it, so you must be a baby for not doing it."

 

[cultcross]

I've always thought that once a board becomes 'famous' in the sense that people outside a niche audience will know about it, it's had its day as a meaningful discussion forum. Youtube comments and IMDB are good examples - the general public just waltz in and trample them with nonsense. One reason why I'm glad TrekBBS is in that lovely zone where we get enough traffic to keep it alive but we're not 'mainstream' enough to attract much trolling.

 

[Aragorn]

What I don't like is half the actors listed on IMDB have at least one thread about their sexuality. It's like, who cares and what the endless debate?

I've never gone into any of those threads, so I'm not a real fan.

But gays get a lot of push back in this country. Many grow up not knowing anyone else who shares a same sex attraction. It's not that strange that people would look to celebrities to try to find someone like them, and the many celebrities who denied being gay only to come out late only make it easier for that debate to continue.

I have first hand experience with some lesbians and lesbian groups who act like the WNBA not getting equal coverage to, say, the Super Bowl is a personal attack against them.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^Those are the scary ones. But I imagine they would be scary even if they were straight.

 

[Goliath]

I was on YouTube once watching an opening of a 1980 episode of The Price is Right. I scrolled down to peruse the comments and there was a flame war going about how the UK and the US were the worst countries in the world.

How they ended up on that subject is beyond me.

I see that stuff all the time! It's simultaneously sad and hilarious how people get into these hateful, politically-charged debates in comment sections for the most innocent videos.

Believe it or not, I've had people curse and swear at me on YouTube for my opinions about opera. Yes, opera.

Let me see if I can find it...

You are an idiot (and a shit). Most opera (and most classical music) is, to idiots like you, garbage. Most people would not watch opera, whether it was from Monteverdi or Glass. Your I'm-a-historical-moron is only a sad reflection on your own small-mindedness. Congratulations.

Opera. Serious stuff.