For two decades, one of my favorite rituals was to log into IMDb after watching a movie to learn more about what I'd just watched. I'd get info on the actors, the crew, professional and amateur reviews. But what I looked forward to the most was reading the message boards where people would post questions or comments about the film and there'd be sometimes epic threads in all flavors of intelligent and not-so intelligent responses. It was the internet as a community, where people across the world would be able to talk about the movies.
Just now I finished watching "Passengers" and went to IMDb to check out the boards about it. And, as I scrolled down to near the bottom of the page where the message boards usually were placed I couldn't find anything. This happens sometimes for really old or obscure movies since there hasn't been anyone who cared to post anything, but for a brand-new and popular sci-fi film with top notch actors? I checked out links to other films and got the same result. Nothing.
I googled "IMDb forums" and found out why. Several media sites had articles announcing that as of yesterday, February 20th, the message boards on the site had been discontinued.
I feel like I've just lost an old friend.
Welcome to the new internet. Free speech is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Apparently, according to several of the articles I read, IMDb became disenchanted with having to police the boards for vile trolling and hate speech. According to at least one article, hate comments were rife and have been usurping the boards more and more as time went by. I call BS on this. Yes there'd be the occasional dickhead who spouted crap but for each douchebag there were plenty of others who would put that troll in their place right quick. Plus there were built in features to the boards which helped sanitize them for a more general "PG-rated" user experience like the word "beep" replacing any written curse words.
I'm one of the early users of the internet and I remember those days fondly. It truly was like the old wild, wild west. And I remember how we pioneers predicted that the frontier would be slowly but surely tamed and toned down once the corporations got their greedy, grubby hands on it. And sure enough, that's what's been happening over the past twenty years.
So what's next? reddit? Why that's nothing but a cesspool of libtard geeky neckbeards sitting alone in their mother's basement, right? Shut 'em down! Blogger? Eh, blogs are a dead forum anyway but too many try to rabble rouse as it is. Shut 'em down! What about the creme de la creme of free (thus sometimes disturbing) speech...YouTube comments? By some accounts, they've already started sanitizing content through monitization guideline restriction and frequent controversial channel closures. And many if not most YouTube comments are notoriously vile.
Free speech interferes with the true machinations of the corporate entities that are transforming the Web. The real message is what the corporations want you to see, read and hear. And it comes down to one thing. Their bottom line.
We see it so blatantly now with Facebook and Twitter. Ads are everywhere. Insidious ads that directly target your interests. How do they know what you like? Everything is witnessed and logged. Google searches, online purchases, sites visited, even software installed as reported by your operating system. Think your emails or Dropbox files are private? Think again. Why, someone's probably watching and listening to you from your computer or phone's camera and mic. No where is safe. Big brother is indeed watching you. They want your money.
Gone now are the days of sharing free thought and ideas for the sake of knowledge, learning and understanding. Anything that detracts from the corporations' goal of getting your money is being silenced.
This is how freedom dies on the Web. It's deleted. Like it never even existed at all.
Just now I finished watching "Passengers" and went to IMDb to check out the boards about it. And, as I scrolled down to near the bottom of the page where the message boards usually were placed I couldn't find anything. This happens sometimes for really old or obscure movies since there hasn't been anyone who cared to post anything, but for a brand-new and popular sci-fi film with top notch actors? I checked out links to other films and got the same result. Nothing.
I googled "IMDb forums" and found out why. Several media sites had articles announcing that as of yesterday, February 20th, the message boards on the site had been discontinued.
I feel like I've just lost an old friend.
Welcome to the new internet. Free speech is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Apparently, according to several of the articles I read, IMDb became disenchanted with having to police the boards for vile trolling and hate speech. According to at least one article, hate comments were rife and have been usurping the boards more and more as time went by. I call BS on this. Yes there'd be the occasional dickhead who spouted crap but for each douchebag there were plenty of others who would put that troll in their place right quick. Plus there were built in features to the boards which helped sanitize them for a more general "PG-rated" user experience like the word "beep" replacing any written curse words.
I'm one of the early users of the internet and I remember those days fondly. It truly was like the old wild, wild west. And I remember how we pioneers predicted that the frontier would be slowly but surely tamed and toned down once the corporations got their greedy, grubby hands on it. And sure enough, that's what's been happening over the past twenty years.
So what's next? reddit? Why that's nothing but a cesspool of libtard geeky neckbeards sitting alone in their mother's basement, right? Shut 'em down! Blogger? Eh, blogs are a dead forum anyway but too many try to rabble rouse as it is. Shut 'em down! What about the creme de la creme of free (thus sometimes disturbing) speech...YouTube comments? By some accounts, they've already started sanitizing content through monitization guideline restriction and frequent controversial channel closures. And many if not most YouTube comments are notoriously vile.
Free speech interferes with the true machinations of the corporate entities that are transforming the Web. The real message is what the corporations want you to see, read and hear. And it comes down to one thing. Their bottom line.
We see it so blatantly now with Facebook and Twitter. Ads are everywhere. Insidious ads that directly target your interests. How do they know what you like? Everything is witnessed and logged. Google searches, online purchases, sites visited, even software installed as reported by your operating system. Think your emails or Dropbox files are private? Think again. Why, someone's probably watching and listening to you from your computer or phone's camera and mic. No where is safe. Big brother is indeed watching you. They want your money.
Gone now are the days of sharing free thought and ideas for the sake of knowledge, learning and understanding. Anything that detracts from the corporations' goal of getting your money is being silenced.
This is how freedom dies on the Web. It's deleted. Like it never even existed at all.