The IMDB and bans

[TedShatner10]

Well, the IMDb system for handling offenders isn't to put them on ignore as punishment, it seems to be nothing more tha na feature to keep users from repeatedly reporting on a user. Now, you can uncheck it so that user isn't automatically ignored when you report them, or remove them from your ignore list after the fact.

Plus, unless I missed something, I've yet to actually see an IMDb staff member moderate anything. They seems to solely rely on the Report Abuse submissions.

IMDb does das boot users for undisclosed numbers of infractions of certain infractions, but it's a little weak. Users can get away repeatedly with offensives like threats and disgusting sexual inuendos and still have active accounts. But it can be hard to deal with them. They litterally have tens of thousands of users, some who post rarely, others who post frequently, and if you ban a person, then come back and register under a new name, even if you ban them by IP. It's a little much for the staff to handle.

It is not very transparent and prone to abuse (I witnessed trolls zap comparatively innocent posters with the "report" button and some of my posts have mysteriously vanished, although could IMDb freeing up server space or something).

I'll use myself as an example. Over at anotehr forum I posted at, we had this user with nutty behavior: constantly having arguments with users, lying and said he didn't say something when all he did was go back and edit his post after the fact and pretend the edit never occured, send harrassing e-mails, etc. This all stemed from one thing: he's obassessed in a deeply unhealthy way for an animated cartoon called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". He kept talking and talking about, trying to get people to appreciate it. It looked like diabetes for the brain to me, but I figured what the heck -- I'll check it out and make a judgement. So I made it through a few minutes and my verdict was not kind: childish eye cancer. Now, we've all seen somebody berate our favorite something or other at one point, but we (mature individules) don't start being nasty little e-bitches about it, no matter the wording or tact they've used. No so with this user.

This just made him flip his easily-flipped lid. The way he interacted and treated members got worse and worse and finally he posted a nasty sexual thread and got banned, after being given ridiculous amounts of chances to behave.

But it didn't end there. Anytime we brought his name up or made some kind of joke about his unhinged obssession with the cartoon, he would re-register and bitch, send threatening e-mails to the staff and users if he could find an e-mail. He wasn't content unless he got his harangues from his e-rostrum spewed all over the internet. I got my threatening e-mails to, but after the first one, I simply deleted and didn't read the others (well, maybe the first few words, as a batshit crazy person like him would use deceptive subject lines). I also got registered by him to various websites where he and other members meet (I assume he's banned from most of them, unless they're all like that), so I had to block and pre-emtively block e-mails.
I seriously beleive this person will one day hurt somebody, like a threater full of people -- that crazy.

Hmmmmm, wasn't the nutter called Ralin by any chance?

 

[Jedi_Master]

I was unaware that IMDB had forums or discussion pages until this very instant. Looks like I wasn't missing anything.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

^I use it for information only and always completely ignore the comments and other stuff not immediately concerned with the movie I'm looking up.

I think the forums ought to be switched off alltogether. The BD in IMDB stands for database and that's what it ought to be. Else it'd be IMF.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^I use it for information only and always completely ignore the comments and other stuff not immediately concerned with the movie I'm looking up.

I think the forums ought to be switched off alltogether. The BD in IMDB stands for database and that's what it ought to be. Else it'd be IMF.

Ignorant MotherFu¢%ers?

 

[biotech]

You should try being on any marvel film board when a new film comes out.

The Nolanites descend in hoards saying how terrible the film will be before it come out, how it will bomb, and then as the weeks go by and it makes more and more money, come out with its still not as good as the Dark Knight.

The message boards themselves aren't a big a problem as the top 250 films voting system, where marvel films are mass voted down, and Nolan films mass voted up.

Hell if Nolan had a film on his soup it would still be in the top 250 films of all time.

 

[suarezguy]

It's annoying on IMDb both when posts get deleted and when a few posters continuously give stock replies but I think the website does, and should, tend toward not banning and deleting. Then again, I tend to read and post about movies that have been around for some time (like Batman, Harry Potter, Star Wars) rather than brand-new, let alone unreleased, so my perspective is probably limited. The discussions I have seen tend to be pretty good, though, with a lot of the criticism of the movies and celebrities that does come up pretty constructive and open-minded.

 

[Ethros]

Any movie or TV show or whatever you look up on IMDb will always have a thread in its latest 5 threads you can see with a title like "worst thing I've ever seen"

Anything on it.

I would never waste my time posting on the site.

 

[Sector 7]

I have never touched the imdb forums and am happy to leave it that way.

Same here. I use IMDB for informational purposes only, whenever I see something on TV and I think "who is that?"

Same for me. The only posts I have read sounded like they were written by 9 year old fanboys, so I never read another.

You should try being on any [marvel film] Trek board when a new Star Trek film comes out.

The [Nolanites] TOS purists descend in hoards saying how terrible the film will be before it come out, how it will bomb, and then as the weeks go by and it makes more and more money, come out with its still not as good as the [Dark Knight] TOS.

Yes, sir. It really is like our own board, I guess.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

I never knew they had a forum, but that is one I will never visit. Sounds too much like being on troll Kingdom to me, and I hate Troll Kingdom.

Sorry, but sometimes I really want to be able to discuss things without being personally attacked for a mere disagreement.

An occasional pot shot once in a while I can handle, but at balk at full bore harassment over a difference of opinion.

Also, there are differences between expressing a genuine negative opinion than being a troll. Expressing a negative opinion about something is not necessarily a personal attack designed to get someone riles, but often a person will take it personally and get upset and then start in.

A person shouldn't really get in trouble for expressing a negative opinion like that.

Purposeful trolling most definately.

 

[biotech]

Troll Kingdom isn't that bad, you should try the minefield, its quite relaxed.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Hmmmmm, wasn't the nutter called Ralin by any chance?

This particular person abused the anonymity the internet provides, so I can't say.


I'd also like to point out trolls who post solely to troll. They get some kind of sick perverted enjoyment from it and love to anger people and fire them up. Anything you say is irrelevant -- it feeds the ugly "Willow"-like troll.


And then there are users there who seem to like nothing more than annoy people with bullcrap posts. "Is so-and-so gay?" / "This is racist." / "L0L, this iz the worst thing i've ver seen.."

And stupid crap made just to confuse people. I remember particularly over at the forum for "Gravity" where one asshat took it upon himself to make a post and propigate a lie that Bullock had a masturbation scene and that it was cut from some countries. People actually bought into that shit.

 

[shivkala]

Any movie or TV show or whatever you look up on IMDb will always have a thread in its latest 5 threads you can see with a title like "worst thing I've ever seen"

Anything on it.

I would never waste my time posting on the site.

I love when those threads devolve into "Only morons would like this" vs. "You'd have to be a moron to not like it, because obviously you didn't understand what they were trying to do."

 

[Aldo]

There are usually some intelligent conversations going on, it's true though that you have to sift through most of the crap.

'Mad Max: Fury Road' had some really good discussions, even from people who genuinely didn't enjoy the film, at least they composed their points thoughtfully and articulately.

The message board for the 'Community' sitcom is also pretty decent. Again, there are people posting there that don't like the current season, but at least they do it without tearing down other peoples opinions.

My rule of thumb is: if a board has more trolls than regular posters, I usually skip it. But I suppose that could be true for any message board in this day and age.

 

[Ethros]

Another thing I also don't like is how there's no gap between peoples signatures and their post. At least on here there's a line, on there sometimes I'll read something and not be sure if it's part of the post or not

 

[TedShatner10]

IMDb seemed very fun when I signed up a decade ago, but I was young and dumb.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Another thing I also don't like is how there's no gap between peoples signatures and their post. At least on here there's a line, on there sometimes I'll read something and not be sure if it's part of the post or not

Seconded. I used a straight line of five or ten underscores above my signature to create a seperation line.

 

[TedShatner10]

I've seem Mad Max Fury Road and I can understand trolls full of piss and wind will see it as a good target when it shows heroic females fighting against against an exploitative male tyrant (while Max is tagging along).

Female characters and actresses seem to get picked on more, for some reason (see also Anne Hathaway and the bizarre hate campaign against Skyler White).