MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Welcome to MovieChat.org

Welcome to MovieChat.org

posted 8 years ago by jim (137)
157 replies | jump to latest

Hey guys,

Jim (founder) here. I thought I'd start a post where everyone can let me know their thoughts/suggestions publicly (I've been getting tons of emails, but decided to create a post so everyone can see and follow the discussion). For now, here's a mini-FAQ that addresses some of the more common questions I've received via email since we launched earlier today. Please continue to ask away!

1. How many movies/posts does the site have? Is it a full or partial backup/archive of IMDB?
We currently have a message board for every single movie and TV show on IMDB (that's over 4 million!). To access the message board for a particular movie/show, simply search for it in the search bar at the top of the site. Alternatively, you can go to moviechat.org/movies/IMDB_ID, where IMDB_ID is the IMDB id of the movie/show (e.g., tt0903747). I am also currently working very hard to back up as many posts on IMDB as I can - we currently have 3 million posts backed up so far, all accessible here on MovieChat.org, and I'm continuing to add more and more.

2. Are there legal concerns about archiving IMDB's posts?
No. Before I became a software engineer, I was a lawyer for 4 years practicing in the IP and copyright space, and thus I have a deep understanding of the current situation, which is partly why I decided to start this site. Furthermore, I have spoke with several individuals at AMZN/IMDB, all of whom state that the message boards are of absolute minimum value/concern to the company, and it is highly unlikely that the company would pursue any legal action should someone attempt to archive the boards. In fact, IMDB was actually considering creating an API / data extraction tool to allow users to retrieve whatever they wanted before the boards shut down, but they decided it just wasn't enough of a priority for them (it wouldn't bring in any revenue, so why should they do it?). The (much) more likely scenario is that a few individual users may directly request to have their posts removed (much like you can request Google to remove personal information about you from its search results). Such an action would have a very minimal effect on the overall content of our site.

3. Will you be adding pages for actors and other information/metadata?
If there is enough demand from the community, then absolutely. My current focus is on archiving as much information as possible from the IMDB message boards before they shut down, but once I complete that, I will begin working on the most popular requests from the community.

4. Will you require donations to keep the site running?
Donations are nice, but I am fully financially committed to this site, regardless of donations. After the terrible experience we all went through with IMDB, I pledge to keep this site up come hell or high water.

[–] hbenthow (83) 8 years ago

@Obakeneko, I noticed the same problem. I think it's because each page only held 9 replies. For some reason, all of the replies from pages 2-onward on multi-page threads appear to have not been archived on Moviechat. I don't know if there any way to fix that at this point or not.

[–] sprialstatic (8) 8 years ago

Thank you so much for all your work, Jim. In our time of need, here you are.

[–] Bella-UK (1288) 8 years ago

Jim thank you so very much for all your hard work and managing to save posters work. It must take you hours and hours of hard graft. You are my 'knight in shining armour', my 'white feathered angel'. I was so depressed last week thinking we were going to be made homeless and would have nowhere to go. We all became so close as a community on the Supernatural board and by last night we were all blubbering wrecks. Many of us only posted at IMDb which was why we were reluctant to look anywhere else. We are so happy we can post as before. (well almost)

I hope you can bring over all the emoticons from IMDb because I loved those so much they were so lively and bouncy.

Bella xx

[–] [email protected] (92) 8 years ago

Thanks Jim. I appreciate all your efforts to maintain the status quo!

[–] hippiechick (4) 8 years ago

Thanks for this site! :) I hardly ever posted on imdb message boards but always went to them and read after each movie I watched or series I finished. I gave this address to my boyfriend last night when we finished the movie we were watching so he was still able to read posts on the movie! He is already wanting you to have an app! ;) (I'm kidding, but he did say this to me! :)

[–] fgoodwin (6) 8 years ago

Thanx for doing this. I'm another IMDb refugee, and I've looked at several alternatives, but none of them were satisfactory. I wanted an IMDb clone, and it looks like I found it!

[–] Heeeeey (28) 8 years ago

Thank you for this effort, Jim.

I'm sure this site will be an improvement over the Jeff 'Bozo' Bezos boards.

Not to seem impatient, but as long as you're taking suggestions, some of the boards are getting long. We are going to need to be able to set a limit of how many posts to view per page on our profile settings. Just something to add to your long to-do list.

[–] Jayzee33 (5) 8 years ago

Wow this is great Jim! Good on you for doing this. You've made a lot of people happy.

I think the only reason I'd still have to use IMDb is the trivia section as I always like to see the trivia about how a movie was made etc but I'll be straight on here now for the message boards!