Sorry to be the party pooper here, but you know the story, like imdb, which started as nice friendly community initiative then sold to Amazon, and the rest.
Discuss
More likely sued to death for stealing Netflix content as their own promotional content, I mean seriously outright copying of a copyrighted video and proclaiming it as theirs while saying their is millions of users here when they're is likely 100 max
This site is too funny
Before any big company would want to buy the site from Jim, he'd have to demonstrate how it could monetize.
Wow. I hope not. Then they can pull the rug out from under us just like those bastards at IMDB.
I don't think Jim would sell this. Probably b/c there's a reason Jim started. He was going to miss imdb. He knows how it feels to have the boards pulled out from under us.
shareIt wouldn't shock me honestly. A lot of entrepreneurs start projects with a ultimate goal of building them up just to sell them off. That may very well be jim's plan.
shareWe just got here. I don't want to think that.
shareWell think about it like this. If the site actually gets big enough that some big company wants to buy it then that at least means the site has become a thriving community.
In a way, to me, that thought is comforting because right now things are still pretty slow and survival is not at all guaranteed.
But it was cut by Amazon because it wasn't cost effective. Didn't generate revenue. So what company would buy it?
shareSomeone who thinks they can monetize it. I mean, Conde Nast bought Reddit in 2006 and all Reddit really is is a vast collection of message boards.
shareConde Nast owns Reddit?! I'm kind of shocked by that news. (Ok, old news.)
I suppose it's possible that sometime down the time someone might give Jim an offer "can't refuse," if they see a way to monetize the site, and he begins to feel it's too much of a time suck, or loses enthusiasm, or any combination of the above.
But because Amazon thought decimating a long-time and quite passionate community, of which I understand Jim was a member of, was a good idea, I can't see that happening any time soon, and I hope not at all.
Re: Conde Nast, to quote Wikipedia:
"Condé Nast Publications acquired the site in October 2006. Reddit became a direct subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications, in September 2011."
As for someone buying MovieChat, as you say, if it happens it will be a long time down the road. The site has to be built into something that has millions of users before it will really be worth anything. One thing to keep in mind is that if it ever IS purchased, then it will be purchased specifically as a message board/community and not as something like IMDB where the community is just some expendable thing tacked on to the REAL product.
Also, I know we like to complain about IMDB around here, but keep in mind that Amazon purchased IMDB in 1998. So under Amazon's ownership, it was nearly 20 years before they closed down the message boards. It wasn't like the sell to Amazon meant sudden, sweeping changes to the site.
I wasn't questioning your information about Conde Nast having bought Reddit, 9. It's just that it's so … surprising to me, and incongruous with how I've always thought of the company up until now.
I'd really love to know how many people used IMDb's boards, on a regular or even semi-regular basis before they were torpedoed. I still find it difficult to believe it was only a fraction of a % of users, as they claimed. One thing I've found interesting about a number of posters here is quite a few have said they only lurked on the boards, without posting. I love that this forum has brought these people out, the vast majority of whose posts I've found to be very articulate and interesting, and I wished they'd posted back when, but am very glad they're posting here, now.
I didn't know Amazon had bought IMDb that long ago, and that the message boards had existed under Amazon's rule (if you will) for so many years. Nevertheless, I can't forgive the decision to decimate such a long-standing and tight online community they way they did, with a mere TWO WEEKS' notice, and then to not even abide by their own dates.
Passionate online communities, trolls or no, are valuable. It's easy to see by the reactions of those on this forum, as well as others, who are trying to serve as virtual lifeboats for the virtual IMDb refugees that have suddenly found themselves adrift, and trying their best to reconnect and even to find one another somehow.
We live in a world where it's increasingly more difficult to connect than it ever was, and you have to know as well as I do that connection is crucial to the human experience. 140 characters, timelines and messages that become like the Tower of Babble. This isn't connection, and we all know it.
This site will die one way or another eventually. Everything dies. Especially on the internet. Eventually all of our brains are just going to be jacked into a hive mind. This medieval days of message boards will be a curiosity footnote of history only.
shareI'm not sure. I do recall that on the initial version of this site there was a note from the founder saying he was upset with IMDB and wanted to create something for the fans, by the fans. So hopefully that means we'll always be the driving force of this place and have a real say in it. So far so good.
share