Please copy and paste the following and distribute as widely as possible.
Internet Movie Database Fans Unite! Don’t let IMDb get away with the wanton destruction of nearly thirty years of message board content from millions of users including irreplaceable input from participants in many historic shows! Some of this valuable insight came from people no longer with us. On February 20, all message boards on the site are scheduled for deletion. All pleas to archive the content while upgrading the boards, or even creating completely new boards and making the old boards available as read-only archives, has fallen on deaf ears as the owners continue to obfuscate with silly excuses about the setup being ancient and trolls making the boards no longer a positive experience, insulting their loyal users and concealing their true motives. If the ill-advised owners insist on destroying one of the best sites on the internet, they must not escape unscathed. Here is a step-by-step plan to make them regret one of the poorest business decisions made in the history of decision-making, not to mention a senseless destruction of culture.
1. Go to your user profile at
http://www.imdb.com
Remove any reviews or personal contributions which you may have made to the website which can be removed other than message board posts. Archive them for future usage on other sites.
Removing reviews is a simple straightforward process not involving having to go to each individual page and hunt your own review. In your user profile, click on reviews. They can be exported and saved by saving each page of reviews as a PDF file and also copying and pasting as text. The expanded view should display the full text in a copy-friendly format. Then you can go right down the list deleting each one.
2. Make your ratings private.
3. Post your views on the board closures to Get Satisfaction. Upvote others with same issue:
http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?getsatisfaction
4. Spread the #IMDBExodus hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, or any other media of your choice, on February 20th.
5. Delete your account from IMDb -- here's the link --
http://www.imdb.com/register/delete Or, if you intend to continue visiting IMDb, use a browser extension such as AdBlock
6. Remove the IMDb app from your devices.
7. Since IMDb is owned by Amazon.com, BOYCOTT AMAZON! If possible save your Amazon content, such as Wish List, elsewhere as well, and delete your account! (If you wish, you can find for yourself contacts for Amazon Feedback, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, and IMDb owner Col Needham, but they are not included here as they result in dismissive form replies.)
8. Set up a dummy email address and create a Troll account at IMDb.
Someone needs to begin a list of top movies in which Amazon is invested, which they are either funding, or are bestsellers for Amazon. Go to your IMDb Troll account and post a flaming one-star review panning as many of these cinematic efforts as possible!
These are just a few ways you can turn your feelings about IMDb's closure of the message boards into actions that will eventually have an impact on the site, if enough people act.
9. Check out alternate sites. Of about 40 choices, as of now these 4 have emerged as the best possibilities.
https://www.imdforums.com
http://imdb2.freeforums.net
http://www.moviechat.org
https://www.themoviedb.org
10. If there is any other content important to you, such as user comments on your favorite movies, save it in some form now, because after all these actions take place, Internet Movie Database will not be an extant entity much longer!
Another to consider is identifying their advertisers. Perhaps they are listed somewhere and we can all contact them urging a boycott.
Thank you for your support.
