An article from www.wired.co.uk dated May 26, 2019. Jim Smith is interviewed and speaks about the origins of the site. Jim also discusses the Trump board, the Brie Larson board and the ongoing battle with trolls. Two of the mods are also quoted in the article - Mod4 and another mod named Scott.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/moderators-movie-chat-imdb
“Since our inception, we've dealt with racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, ....”
Doesn't 'racism' cover it all? Seriously, its shit like this that starts an argument. One group will feel marginalized, etc etc...
Anyway, I think what Jim did was great. I was here on Day 1, and participate in many other boards (non-movie ones as well) and I think this place is doing good.
I wished they had asked him about upgrading the site.
shareWhat do you mean, upgrade?
sharethe ability to posts pictures and videos without using [url]
shareOr the ability to post multiple quotes.
shareI agree the limitation on being only allowed to use a markup tag once in a post is annoying and should be a relatively easy quickfix. I always thought it was a bug from a coding oversight rather than deliberate policy.
shareIt probably is, but it's been mentioned many times before, so I definitely think they should fix it.
shareYeah the bold and italic tags only work once per post too. At least the url and spoiler anchors aren't limited like this. But it does make you wonder if anyone's even made him aware of these bugs since I doubt he reads random chitchat.
shareI think the mods know. They supposedly have a direct line to Jim.
shareI would consider that a downgrade.
sharewhy ??
share[deleted]
I never thought of that. It does make conversations here easier without all the pics and videos.
shareI agree they can be fun sometimes, but mostly I think they just add clutter. And they make threads l o n g - lots of scrolling.
shareI don't really like them either. It's one of the reasons why I preferred this to filmboards.
shareI like the simplicity we have here. I suppose if one is used to websites that use all that stuff this site seems pretty lame, but there's something to be said for keeping it simple. It's the content, not all the "bells and whistles." Besides, I like to see folks use their own words.
shareFilmboards is like that and although I can understand the convenience, I also feel like it makes for a messier interface. I like it better here.
just get rid of the url to make a link
share(Odd how I didn't get a notification), but everyone pretty much answered it.. I like the text-format, and its easier, not hectic, smiley faces, pictures, videos, etc.... It also makes the site slow, and the other movie sites have this, and this is EASILY the best looking. With text-only, it really is discussion oriented, and as GE said - use the words.
shareI am inclined to agree with you. All the pictures and videos just create clutter. My only beef is get rid of the url to post a link to a video.
shareI agree - ability for me to paste a youtube link, and you being able to click on it (without image).
Actually, I would change something. I think if you ignore one person, you should be able to read the replies, and maybe have a short message that reads "Ignored" while having everything else visible.
Actually, I would change something. I think if you ignore one person, you should be able to read the replies, and maybe have a short message that reads "Ignored" while having everything else visible.
Thank you!
shareYay!!!🥳
shareThanks for being you and all that you do Mod3!!!🙏💕🥰
For the suggestion box: please see if formatting on smart phones can be improved. On this very post the field is getting long and skinny and if it continues I will eventually have one character per line. I have to go to Edit to see it properly if it’s long. Thank you!!!
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Upgrade to me would be an easier format to follow. There have been so many times when I’m unable to determine who’s replying to whom! I’ve replied to the wrong poster, especially in a lengthy thread. I so hate to write this...gulp 🥴...but FB is easier to peruse.
I try to follow the gray lines and blocks, but there are times I give up and hope for the best. I also wish we could use a thig-a-majiggy with our screen ID. Help! Someone! My mind just froze! What are the funny pics called that people use when posting? 🤬
the place needs some sprucing up.
shareHello kspkap,
I think these funny little symbols - mostly in yellow - are called "emoticons" (or similar); but I'm not 100 p.ct. sure about that (my mother tongue isn't English...)
I always liked to have these funny little things available. I don't need signature pictures, but the little pictures were a nice little dot of colour - and there were so many varieties!
An "easier format to follow"? Oh yes, I would definitely welcome that. For example, in the "good old days of IMDB" there were three (or even four?) different ways how to display a thread: I remember that one form was called "nest", another (my favourite) was called "tree", etc. ...and it was a very good thing that every post had its exact date and time displayed. I'm glad that filmboards preserved to a certain extent the original "layout" of the IMDB boards, including the exact date and time.
Would be a fine upgrade if the "tree structure" of threads become available again. (I remember some teachers kept telling us that we should never use "if" and "would" in the same phrase... But I just can't say it better... and I'm almost sure I have seen this error (if it is one) here in some threads, too. What I would like to know, is it wrong or just bad style? :-)
Delete the first phrase of the preceding para. and read instead, "Were the 'tree structure' of threads available again, this would be a fine upgrade." - (Looks better to me. I hope it's correct now... ;-)
Kind regards
Andreas / 123all4me
Thanks! It must be the “tree” structure from IMDB I was recalling and not FB. I liked the exact date & time displayed.
As far as your questioning whether it’s appropriate to use “would” and “if” in the same phrase, I don’t recall doing so is in error.
Per you:
“Would be a fine upgrade if the "tree structure" of threads become available again.”
Per you it should be:
“Were the 'tree structure' of threads available again, this would be a fine upgrade."
If I were to write the sentence, my syntax structure would be:
“It would be a fine upgrade if the “tree structure” of threads became available again.”
Notice I added the word “It” in beginning the sentence. Also, I changed the verb “become” to “became”. The vernacular is changed.
We all seem to write these days with less words. We omit words which would have been a grave error in times past....such as “it” before the word “would”.
Over and out! My brain is taxed enough this morning!
Dear kspkap,
thank you very much for your friendly, detailed post - very interesting!
(I kept lots of stuff from my school days; in one of 2 or 3 big cardboard boxes in the attic or in the cellar, there must be some of my old English textbooks... but after all, I'm too lazy to put myself behind the exercises - I prefer "learning by doing" ;-)
Maybe you wouldn't believe that I have more than 100 books in English (mostly about history); but WRITING your language correctly is much more difficult than just reading it.
As to reading books in English, it also depends very much on the author's style... To explain what I mean, I'd like to mention two titles:
a) Herbert Adams Gibbons - The New Map of Europe 1911-1914 (I think my copy was published 1915 or soon after): Easy reading, I think I had to consult my dictionary just 2 or 3 times
b) William J Flynn - The Roosevelt Myth (1949, I think) ...brilliantly written study; I'm glad I found it - but the author used so many idiomatic expressions (okay, these two words I HAD to look up :-) and half-disclosed intimations about political and social affairs of the time that it is sometimes really not so easy to understand what he meant to say...
Again, thank you for your post!
Kind regards
Andreas / 123all4me
Ksp, all you have to do to reply to a poster is click on the "reply" link directly below their post you want to reply to.
Sometimes, if a sub-thread has a lot of replies, I have trouble following which post someone's replied to. The grey lines help some, but not a lot if there are a ton of posts.
To me FB is a mess. I have no idea how the posts there are organised. Sometimes responses were directly underneath, other times there was no rhyme or reason I could see 🤖. Here I've got a hope of figuring out who responded to whom even on a long thread.
Cat, thanks for the input, but replying to a poster isn’t my problem. As I’m doing so now to your reply to me. Apparently it’s the sub-threads which confuse me....and, not only me. I think of the line from “Taxi Driver”, “You talkin’ to me?”
There have been posters taking offense from someone who they think replied to them. When in truth the reply was to someone else! This is why I use to begin my reply with “As per ??”. I do this less frequently now due to the mocking I received. Result? I don’t reply if there is a question to whom I should reply.
"There ain't nobody else here ... You talkin' to me?" 😄
I dunno, Ksp, I haven't had this problem. I just reply to the post I want to reply to, and click on the link in my alerts which take me right to the posts of people replying to me, so no confusion here.
Thanks for the complete quote! It is funny. ☺️
shareIt's kind of sad that a movie chat site has to justify it's existence by claiming SJW principles by claiming to have dealt with a lot of political crap which is basically unrelated to movies and TV.
shareNo, racism doesn't cover it all. Sexism and racism are completely different things.
I wasn't here on day 1. Think it took me a week or two to find the place, after checking out the other alternatives I knew about. It was on one of them I learned about MC.
No, I was referring to the "racism" AND throwing "Anti-Semitic", when the first word would cover it all. Second, the term "Anti-Semitic" is bullshit, because most Semites are Arabs, but people are so brainwashed that they are brainwashed even with defined language! And regardless who it refers to, its saying that one group is more superior than all the others, which only creates pushback to the 98% of people who think "Hey now?"
sharePersonally I believe the word “racism” has been so loosely thrown about, it now is watered down. Just as NAZI is used against someone whose ideology is different yours (in the collective). I attempt to get folks to understand most people are *not* racists. They may be bigots, but not racists. To further explain, Hitler was a racist; Archie Bunker was a bigot.
We need to stop and think about what we deem others to be. Referring to someone as a racist over and over is a tag not easily thrown aside.
Frankly even "bigot" is thrown around too easily these days too, when not everything simplistically labeled as bigotry is true bigotry.
sharePersonally speaking I don't think it's nearly as trollish as IMDb..
but IMDb did have everything under the sun and I miss that..
But Moviechat is the best alternative, to me..
Cool to see an article about it.
Good find
I'd love to know who this 'worst offender from the early days' was!
It was probably me. I'm always causing trouble and mouthing off to people.
shareYour reign of terror here has been endless and brutal!
share[deleted]
We never shut up!
From what I've read a Dutch farmer in the 1600's named Jan Keers owned the entire area...Yonkers is a corruption of that name supposedly
Same with The Bronx...the Bronk family owned much of the modern day Bronx when it was woodland and pasture 400 years ago
I love these old place name stories and wonder how often they are nonsense LOL!
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here's the Brie Larson thread that is quoted
https://moviechat.org/tt4154664/Captain-Marvel/5c4572d59ed61c0afbf6def5/BOYCOTT-CAPTAIN-MARVEL
That's a very nice article. Hopefully it'll mean more new members. Non-trolling sorts 😄
shareWhy would Jim not post it here himself ??
shareI get the feeling that he doesn't come here very often. He used to post a fair amount in the beginning. I can't remember the last time he did, but he said something to the effect of "how's it going?"
share[deleted]
I see your point.
shareIMDb comments is still (and always will be) 1000x better than this or any other movie site.
Just based on the fact you had some extremely knowledgeable people who would chime in on the older movies ...and you don't get hardly any of that here. There were tons of threads I had book marked based on the level of insight provided on those older films alone.
Now it's all about movie franchises such at Star Wars/Marvel/etc, the SJW movement in Hollywood or Trump bashing.
I think Trump getting elected was one reason they shut down the imdb boards.
shareI doubt that...but he is a scapegoat for almost everything these days.
This article claims: "Targeted harassment, sexism, homophobia and racism have been longstanding issues in most (IMDb) comment sections" ...for the reason.
https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/3/14501650/imdb-message-boards-shutting-down
and remember when Madotsuki the Dreamer got arrested by the FBI for domestic terrorism? I thought that might have had something to do with it.
shareI think they thought the boards were going to be overcome with political venom after Trump got elected. I think it may have been a factor. I am not blaming Trump or any other politician.
sharethey would have been correct.
shareso we agree.
shareYou're completely wrong about this. The boards were riddled with knuckldraggers before and especially leading up to the election. Amazon unfortunately did not realize how much of a threat it was to allow them a platform until it was too late.
share[deleted]
It was a theory that was out there. We will never know why.
shareDunno. He hasn't been around much since the beginning, as GE said. Probably too busy with his career and life. That's my guess.
shareIt took me two minutes to post the article.
share