Thinking about it, if the boards were busier wouldn't there be a similar problem? "Interesting to a particular member" topics would still get pushed off the front page - just by a broader range of posts.

"General" movie chat would be nice, but it all went horribly wrong last time. I still think it could work, but would need solid policing and rapid deployment of the ban hammer. That said, I know from experience that people will just re-register and keep behaving badly unless the other users don't rise to the bait.

When things with General Chat went from bad to worse last year was when moderator Marr got doxed, as also did one of the people (username Twizlee) who always hung with the trolls crowd. The doxer was posting personal pictures and regular-life identifying and location information, which that was when it was clear General Chat was definitely going to wind up axed.

@genplant29 said:

When things with General Chat went from bad to worse last year was when moderator Marr got doxed, as also did one of the people (Twizzlee, I believe was the username) who always hung with the trolls crowd. The doxer was posting personal pictures and regular-life identifying and location information, which that was when it was clear General Chat was definitely going to wind up axed.

I didn't realise it got that bad. I only saw the usual sort of IMDb trolls that made the GoT board a no-go area. Can't say I'm surprised there's no appetite to try again!

Travis even made General Chat "invisible" (removed it from the "Let's Chat" screen), trying to get the bad situation to cool down. Unfortunately, the trolls crowd (along with many of the rest of us) quickly figured out that as long as a person already had saved a bookmark to General Chat, you could still readily access the area and continue to post, respond, etc. So it was clear that there was no way to solve the out-of-control (or perhaps I should say the trolls IN control) trolls situation, short of eliminating General Chat altogether.

@genplant29 said:

Anyone with niche movie/t.v. interests generally gets to enjoy hardly any discussion/interaction with others here, as there may be only one to three or four - if any - other message boards users who actually are interested in the same niche things. It's very disappointing.

Yeah, I'll start a thread about a Richard Linklater film or some other interesting, small indie film, or a heartwarming anime I've found on Netflix. And it's just met with tumbleweeds. No-one gives a crap. So I just end up talking about comic book movies.

Like other people have said. The layout of this site is great. It works very well. I'm baffled why more people are not drawn to it. I don't understand the popularity of other sites like Moviechat that have taken the old IMDB boards. The original IMDB posters are not gonna get a notification, so most of the time it's useless replying to any of those threads.

The IMDB boards are dead. This site is the best opportunity for a new start.

I agree with everything you said, Justin. Despite that we have a lowish quantity of active message boards users, and the fact that there's typically only certain specific genres and titles that get a successful, satisfying extent of discussions participation, this is, overall, easily the site that has the most going for it (other than lacking a general discussions forum), and with, for sure, the most appealing layout. Too, regarding the database aspect of TMDb, it's getting steadily better and more fleshed-out by the day.

Our message boards community will no doubt, over time, become more sizable and representative regarding varied genres and tastes. Unfortunately, it feels like it's going to take a long time to gradually happen.

Having said that, considering that ALL of TMDb's Movie/TV/Celebrity message boards were 100% empty until February 2017, and that presently so far 30,240 individual threads have been created in those forum categories since then, that's quite a significant accomplishment in a relatively short span of time. And unlike MovieChat and film|boards that lifted and reproduced IMDb's past message boards threads, we built all of TMDb's discussion threads our own selves - and all within the last 22 months.

@genplant29 said:

OddRob meant on TMDb's Movies-category forum, rather than on this specific movie's message board.

Things have been fine for the last day or two though.

What's that board? A Message Board for Movies in General like in IMDB? Can you link it?

I find it really interesting.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@genplant29 said:

Anyone with niche movie/t.v. interests generally gets to enjoy hardly any discussion/interaction with others here, as there may be only one to three or four - if any - other message boards users who actually are interested in the same niche things. It's very disappointing.

Yeah, I'll start a thread about a Richard Linklater film or some other interesting, small indie film, or a heartwarming anime I've found on Netflix. And it's just met with tumbleweeds. No-one gives a crap. So I just end up talking about comic book movies.

Like other people have said. The layout of this site is great. It works very well. I'm baffled why more people are not drawn to it. I don't understand the popularity of other sites like Moviechat that have taken the old IMDB boards. The original IMDB posters are not gonna get a notification, so most of the time it's useless replying to any of those threads.

The IMDB boards are dead. This site is the best opportunity for a new start.

The Movie DB has some problems. Travis has an extremely small staff team therefore all the changes they have to make (from advices from many members, including ex-IMDB members) have been taking a long time.

And of course, while the layout of this site is good in general it has some things that do complicate a lot such as:

• not being able to appear on Wikipedia
• not being able to appear in many search engines as much as IMDB
• not having a "Message Boards" button instead of "Discussions"
• not being able to send PMs
• not having General Message Boards
• the EDIT feature is really annoying
• the ratings shouldn't be from 0.5 to 5 stars and then finally changing to the way better 1 to 10 rating ...

@Harry Skywalker said:

@genplant29 said:

OddRob meant on TMDb's Movies-category forum, rather than on this specific movie's message board.

What's that board? A Message Board for Movies in General like in IMDB? Can you link it?

Hi, Harry. I just meant this forum area that we're on right now, that all Movie discussion threads list on: https://www.themoviedb.org/discuss/movies

@Harry Skywalker said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

@genplant29 said:

Anyone with niche movie/t.v. interests generally gets to enjoy hardly any discussion/interaction with others here, as there may be only one to three or four - if any - other message boards users who actually are interested in the same niche things. It's very disappointing.

Yeah, I'll start a thread about a Richard Linklater film or some other interesting, small indie film, or a heartwarming anime I've found on Netflix. And it's just met with tumbleweeds. No-one gives a crap. So I just end up talking about comic book movies.

Like other people have said. The layout of this site is great. It works very well. I'm baffled why more people are not drawn to it. I don't understand the popularity of other sites like Moviechat that have taken the old IMDB boards. The original IMDB posters are not gonna get a notification, so most of the time it's useless replying to any of those threads.

The IMDB boards are dead. This site is the best opportunity for a new start.

The Movie DB has some problems. Travis has an extremely small staff team therefore all the changes they have to make (from advices from many members, including ex-IMDB members) have been taking a long time.

And of course, while the layout of this site is good in general it has some things that do complicate a lot such as:

• not being able to appear on Wikipedia
• not being able to appear in many search engines as much as IM
• not having a "Message Boards" button instead of "Discussions"
• not being able to send PMs
• not having General Message Boards
• the EDIT feature is really annoying
• the ratings shouldn't be from 0.5 to 5 stars and then finally changing to the way better 1 to 10 rating ...

They are all tiny issues to me. I thought IMDB had far more issues. I think this site is better than IMDB, other than the lack of people. Though, yes I would like the General Discussions to return.

The website is excellent and far, far better than IMDB in my opinion. The issue raised by the Op appears to have resolved itself. We can't hold a gun to anyones head and force them to post, but I'm optimistic about this site going forward.

Once we have at least fifty or so more new active (creating or commenting on multiple threads at least a time or two weekly, rather than just occasionally), and of a variety of tastes and interests, things will really start picking up. We need many more ongoingly active boards users who are in to more than solely just current and recent "obvious" type stuff.

@genplant29 said:

@Harry Skywalker said:

@genplant29 said:

OddRob meant on TMDb's Movies-category forum, rather than on this specific movie's message board.

What's that board? A Message Board for Movies in General like in IMDB? Can you link it?

Hi, Harry. I just meant this forum area that we're on right now, that all Movie discussion threads list on: https://www.themoviedb.org/discuss/movies

Ah yes. I was suspecting that! Thanks.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@Harry Skywalker said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

@genplant29 said:

Anyone with niche movie/t.v. interests generally gets to enjoy hardly any discussion/interaction with others here, as there may be only one to three or four - if any - other message boards users who actually are interested in the same niche things. It's very disappointing.

Yeah, I'll start a thread about a Richard Linklater film or some other interesting, small indie film, or a heartwarming anime I've found on Netflix. And it's just met with tumbleweeds. No-one gives a crap. So I just end up talking about comic book movies.

Like other people have said. The layout of this site is great. It works very well. I'm baffled why more people are not drawn to it. I don't understand the popularity of other sites like Moviechat that have taken the old IMDB boards. The original IMDB posters are not gonna get a notification, so most of the time it's useless replying to any of those threads.

The IMDB boards are dead. This site is the best opportunity for a new start.

The Movie DB has some problems. Travis has an extremely small staff team therefore all the changes they have to make (from advices from many members, including ex-IMDB members) have been taking a long time.

And of course, while the layout of this site is good in general it has some things that do complicate a lot such as:

• not being able to appear on Wikipedia
• not being able to appear in many search engines as much as IM
• not having a "Message Boards" button instead of "Discussions"
• not being able to send PMs
• not having General Message Boards
• the EDIT feature is really annoying
• the ratings shouldn't be from 0.5 to 5 stars and then finally changing to the way better 1 to 10 rating ...

They are all tiny issues to me. I thought IMDB had far more issues. I think this site is better than IMDB, other than the lack of people. Though, yes I would like the General Discussions to return.

They are huge issues, the first 2 are giant since TMDB can't be as promoted as IMDB, at least for now.

And honestly I think IMDB was way better. TMDB needs to grow a lot more.

IMDb definitely is infinitely better informationally (we probably still all routinely go there for details); TMDb doesn't come in as even a remotely close second to IMDb where comprehensive information is concerned. I also like IMDb for reviews written by regular members, as often multiple people have posted interesting, informative, insightful reviews within the last year or two, therefore expressed opinions, comments, and details that aren't found on any other site's message boards of the last couple years. Another thing that IMDb is a useful reference regarding is representative user ratings, as you can see, numerically (and for the most part realistically, or semi-realistically [taking some rating fraud into consideration]), how many people voted what rating, and what gender and age category the voters fell within.