Though you say "boards only" what will become of the IMDB Badges which users gain for their contributions to the DB? I mean, without message boards nobody will need to pay attention to each other to see what they have contributed, reviewed, posted, etc, so the profile pages of members become pointless and their contribution history inaccessible to the majority of members who form the current community. Seems almost like a slap in the face... "thanks for building 'the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content', we couldn't have done it without you, but now we're going to forget you ever existed". Bit like pulling down the tributes on a military site after the war is won and the veterans no longer need respecting. And I have to believe that the creation of this vast database was mostly the result of millions of hours of personal time from millions of contributors, not just a handful of paid Amazon employees.
Are those of us who would like to continue to contribute to become anonymous without thanks or the ability to discuss contributions with anyone but the faceless moderator who reply to our queries? In short, has the management actually thought this out fully and realised that many contibutors like their work to be a shared experience, and that by being forced to contibute as lone wolves their willingness may diminish and lead to less progress and fewer contributions in the long run? Do you realise that those you call "a small but passionate community of IMDb users" are probably the bulk of those who contribute regularly to the site and made it as successful as it is today? From what I can tell, they are sadly undervalued and instead of being thanked for their years of effort are being thrown under the bus by a company worth $250B. Those of us with sense know that the expense of running the IMDB boards must amount to less than 1% of its annual costs. Any company that made a profit of $749M in Q4 of 2016 hardly needs to "tighten its belt" and destroy a valued community unless it has motives it is unable or willing to disclose openly. I for one don't believe the "low traffic" excuse for a moment. Nor do many.
Many people around the world feel that America has become regressive since the election of Trump, more isolated, less socially coherent, less respectful of human values, individuality, integrity and achievement. I think this move by Amazon against IMDB epitomises that regressive attitude and the growing trend we've seen towards society. It harbours aggressive ideals which appear condescending to those affected and IMDB stands to lose a lot of very long-term loyal volunteer contributors who now feel stabbed in the back and left to bleed.
But returning to my original query, IMDB Badges -- now this feature seems redundant without an open community, will it remain?
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