IMDb Turns 15

An anonymous reader writes "15 years ago today, Col Needham posted some shell scripts to rec.arts.movies which allowed anyone to search lists of actors, actresses, directors, and biographies. From this humble beginning -- which predates Yahoo, Google, and even the web itself -- the IMDb has wrangled the collective wisdom of millions of submitters to become not only a top 100 website but also a standard Hollywood tool for filmmaking. IMDb is celebrating with a retrospective of the last 15 years of IMDb and movies. Congratulations to IMDb and the internet community that built it."

Comments

What other pre-web services are out there?

[suso]

Its easy to see that the IMDB is one of the oldest if not the oldest internet services (I'm not talking about protocols). And it also predates the web. I was wondering if any of you could name other Internet services that predate the web and still exist today. What constitutes a service is probably difficult because things like IMDB made a move from Usenet to Web which are two very different protocols (although they used them simularly).

DISCLAIMER: Again, i'm not talking about protocols like HTTP, Usenet itself, IRC, etc.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[CyricZ]

Gopher, MUDs.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[suso]

See, this is exactly why I put the DISCLAIMER in my original posting. Give me a specific MUD, or a specific gopher site that has been running for more than 12 years.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Jherek Carnelian]

if any of you could name other Internet services that predate the web and still exist today.

Purity tests.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

NetHack

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Weather Underground. It existed solely as an interactive Telnet service.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[blueg3]

I don't think IMDB even comes close to being one of the oldest Internet services. While it predates the Web, perhaps, it's only by a month or so. ENQUIRE was developed in the 80s, and the first Web pages was written in late December, 1990. The answer here also greatly depends on what you mean by "an Internet service". In the very first days of the Internet, the Telnet protocol could be used to access a number of mainframes. At the time, UNIX access to a mainframe computer could certainly be considered a service.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

The On-Line Guitar Archive is nearing 15. They say the oldest file they can find is from June 12, 1992.

Wonder if the RIAA wishes those days of sueing over midis and lyrics and sheet music had never ended, when few had the bandwidth for mp3s.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[blueg3]

I know it's not popular to read the article, but you apparently didn't even read the whole comment you're replying to.

Not protocols, services. That at least eliminates FTP, Gopher, IRC, Telnet, and SSH. Whether or not you want to consider hosting Finger, Whois, and NNTP to be a service is debateable. Things you can access using these protocols, however, might be services.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wonder if the RIAA wishes those days of sueing over midis and lyrics and sheet music had never ended, when few had the bandwidth for mp3s.

They are lawyers. Suing of Midi's and lyrics had questionable return, but suing of MP3's? Of course they need to. The fact they rejected proposals to aggressively defend against the widespread adoption of MP3's and prevent the explosion of digital piracy is their dirty little secret...

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Michael Meissner]

Without thinking too much about it, the mailing list sf-lovers (aka, morphed into USENET's rec.arts.sf.written) stems from about 1972 or so. When I checked a few days ago, there were still quite a few posters there: http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AIM/scale/nethistory.html

The RISKS list dates from 1985 or so: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/

The comp.compilers group goes back to 1986 or so: http://compilers.iecc.com/

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

See, this is exactly why I put the DISCLAIMER in my original posting. Give me a specific MUD, or a specific gopher site that has been running for more than 12 years.

How 'bout the department FTP site of almost any university that was connected to the internet 15 years ago. If you're anal enough to require a specific example, try wuarchive.wustl.edu. Google Usenet archives show it active as early as 1989 (and most likely active for years before that).

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.archives/brows e_thread/thread/2dd9e5571ccd264b/3d5b72e7e6d6ad04

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[m50d]

Mud1 has been running since 1980 and is still going.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[HalfFlat]

Well, TinyTIM has been running since 1990, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn of older LPMUDs or the like.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

Porn.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am posting AC because I am not 100% positive, but I believe the Darwin Awards started out much like IMDB

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[gonk]

Things you can access using these protocols, however, might be services.

Yes. For example, 'ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com' has been around since 1986. I would consider that a service that has been around a long time.

robert

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

-1, Troll??? mods must be on crack again.

wuarchive was a popular service back in the day. A kind of pre-www download.com or tucows. Almost every freeware and shareware program you could think of ended up there. It also maintained archives of usenet groups and mailing lists.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[spanklin]

I would guess that many scientific / other university research databases did the same thing. I can think of, for example, NED:

The NASA Extragalactic Database

and SIMBAD:

(Sorry, no idea what this one stands for -- it's French, but I don't know if it is an acronym or proper name)

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[spencerogden]

I think Project Gutenburg would be the best example similar to IMDb. I believe they started around 1976 with the Declaration of Independence. Certainly grew into a world wide collaborative process before the WWW.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[who what why]

The physics preprint server (originally xxx.lanl.gov, now residing at the more innocuous arXiv.org) started in mid-1991.

I assume that since this predates the web, it was accessible through ftp and email at the beginning. It looks like the web interface has remained the same since it was added at some later date - i.e. a real 1994-style user interface!

Despite its clunkiness, this is a fantastic resource used by tens if not hundreds of thousands of scientists to pre-publish papers, get the newest results out there (albeit in an unofficial form) and generally grease the wheels of the peer review and publication process.

There's a great (and dated) discussion of the history and technical aspects of running the service, linked to as a postscript file here: . Some choice quotes:

The system originally ran as a background job on a small Unix workstation (a 25MHz NeXTstation)... which was primarly used for research purposes by another member of my group.

An active archive such as hep-th requires about 70 megabytes per year (that is, $40 per year) for storing papers, including figures (I'm sure that's increased a little in the last ten years!

Hep-th for example would be come less useful if it were to become inundated by submissions from "crackpots" promoting their perpetual motion machines. - OOOOOPS! That did somewhat happen, and now there is a system of "endorsements" in order to post to arxiv.org, but the basic idea of opening access to the newest papers has worked and continues to serve the needs of an ever broadening scientific community.

Long live XXX!

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[jedrek]

I just logged in to ftp.funet.fi where I used to download MODs from in like '89 or '90.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Edzor]

what about alt.nerd.obsessive, im sure its been around for a good while.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[spanklin]

I remember reading at one point in the mid-90s in the astro-ph archive it saying something along the lines of, "be careful about your searches, this service is being run off of a 68030 Mac and a 386 PC." or something like that.

I don't think that the astronomy (astro-ph -- part of the same xxx.lanl.gov service) archive pre-existed the net, though, my recollection is that we were still sending around paper preprints even after mosaic arrived on the scene.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

Quick scan on http://www.topmudsites.com/ reveals the MUDs Armageddon, Medievia, Dragons Gate as all over 12 years - and that's just the first page.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[blueg3]

Nice example.

"The FTP archive on gatekeeper.research.compaq.com is an unsupported service of Compaq Corporate Research."

It's not too well-known and is rather specialized, as far as I know, so if you changed the question to "what major, popular Internet service has been around longer than IMDB and still exists?" it might not qualify.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Dadoo]

Give me a specific...

How about prep.ai.mit.edu? I can remember using it back as far as 1987, and - wait, let me check - yup, it's still running.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Keruo]

Btw, you can download IMDB from ftp://ftp.funet.fi/.
It's located under /pub/mirrors/ftp.imdb.com/pub. The complete movie database is there, with tools that allow you to run your own imdb server, only thing missing are the poster images.
The diffs folder contains updates to the database which are released weekly.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[harl]

cdnow.com used to be accessed via telnet.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Dadoo]

Sorry to reply to my own post, but I just checked and ftp.uu.net is still running, too. That was a big FTP site, back in the day.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Tired_Blood]

The service of knowingly causing a computer to become engulfed in flames.

This service is now more commonly known as a slashdotting.

It used to be the case that improperly rewiring cables was one of the most common causes. Thankfully, that laborious method has since been replaced.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[ndansmith]

It is amazing to me that the The Weather Underground could orchestrate all those bombings using only Telnet. Who needs SSH?

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Michael Meissner]

I dunno, I never read alt.nerd.obsessive, whatever that is. However, I suspect it isn't that old, since the alt.* groups came after USENET's great renaming. There was a time when it was possible to read (and later scan) all USENET groups when they were net.* and mod.* before the renaming. In fact, I remember reading the list of new web sites being added daily and that I could do it in 5-10 minutes, including going to the initial URL to get a quick look around. The one site I remember in particular was 800flowers.com which was one of the first commerical web sites actually selling stuff off of the web.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Michael Meissner]

Lo how the mighty have fallen if gatekeeper.dec.com is not too well known. However, I was surprised to see it still survives after the takeovers by Compaq and later HP. I remember hearing how Amando (I'm probably mispelling his name) had to fight to keep DEC to support the site, particularly when it was one of the backbones of USENET, and had $100,000/month phone bills (in 1980's money) for the UUCP connections.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Strasbourg" is a city - on the German border in Lorraine Province.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[anthony_dipierro]

I was wondering if any of you could name other Internet services that predate the web and still exist today.

Time magazine. That service predates even the Internet itself.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Anonymous Coward]

E*TRADE

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[rapiddescent]

monochrome in the UK has been running since late 1990 and continues to do so today. Started out before the UK had a widespread IP based network, then it moved to telnet and now most people log in over ssh. It still looks the same as it did 15 years ago - which is a very good thing.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[isotpist]

When did they switch from domestic terrorism to a weather service?

No seriously, how old is the weather underground? I remember getting data from them in 1994, but the University of Michigan Gopher server had a better system then.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Ponyegg]

Yeah, but most of those phone calls weren't racked up by the legit users now were they :-)

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Big_Al_B]

The Lexis/Nexis database, a ubiquitous research tool by the late '80s.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[spanklin]

I knew the URL pointed to Strasbourg, what I meant in my original comment was that I didn't know the meaning of the name "SIMBAD".

In the meantime, I have found out what it stands for (since I'm sure everyone has been waiting on the edge of their seats to find out): SIMBAD = Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Big_Al_B]

Two things:

I meant ".., was a ubiquitous database..." in my last post. Careless typing.

And I thought of one more very good one: I believe Sabre, the air travel reservation system, predated the Interweb, but is now the backoffice engine for most travel booking sites.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[Deven]

Its easy to see that the IMDB is one of the oldest if not the oldest internet services (I'm not talking about protocols). And it also predates the web. I was wondering if any of you could name other Internet services that predate the web and still exist today. What constitutes a service is probably difficult because things like IMDB made a move from Usenet to Web which are two very different protocols (although they used them simularly).

If you count reimplementations, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has a long history of Computer-Mediated Communications (CMC) systems (i.e. "chat" or "IM" systems) that predate IRC as well as the World-Wide Web. I believe the first one may even predate Bitnet Relay. This series of systems might constitute a "service", in that each one served the same purpose (allowing users to talk to each other) and the same user base followed from one system to another until the present day:

• Around 1984, students in the RPI-ACM created the "CB" program, which took the place of chatting (in "vamp mode") via the MTS system's *FORUM service (which was a bit like a proto-blog, I suppose).
• In 1986, a complete rewrite of the system was made, and named "CONNECT". All of the users moved from CB to CONNECT, which was quite superior.
• There was a vaporware project called "Connect-2" that was active around 1988-1990 -- this was to be an advanced object-oriented successor to CONNECT, but it was never actually written, despite the dozens of people who were actively involved with the project. (Some interesting design documents were created, however.)
• Another system, "Clover" was started in December 1989, and all the CONNECT users moved to this system after the CONNECT system was shut down (for political reasons) on June 30, 1991. Clover was the first in this line of CMC systems written for a Unix system instead of the MTS operating system that RPI used for its mainframe.
• Another CONNECT-like CMC system (which I wrote) was Gangplank, which was previously known as "Phoenix". (In its earliest days, it was just called "conf" and written in C, but this was just in the few months since development began on November 30, 1992 -- the system was soon rewritten in C++ and renamed.) I renamed the system on November 30, 2001 when I released the source code under an Open Source license. Originally, I wrote this server to talk to family members who couldn't use CONNECT. Later, I hoped it might replace Clover, but it wasn't ready enough until it was too late to interest the existing users. Gangplank is unique in that it implements the TELNET protocol directly (along with remote echo, line editing, input history, etc.) instead of using a client application. (I'm not aware of any other CMC system that provides such a user-friendly interface directly to TELNET clients...)
• In early 1994, one of the authors of Clover wrote yet another new CMC system from scratch, named lily. Again, this system was similar (from a user perspective) to CONNECT and Clover, but it was a complete platform change again. Although still running on Unix, lily is implemented in the LambdaMOO programming language. Again, the entire user base transitioned to a replacement system, moving from Clover to lily. The lily system remains in active use today. This is also an open source system, but the main server is the RPI server that the old user base migrated to.

RPI's "CMC service" might qualify as a "pre-web" service according to your definition -- although the users migrated from C

A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people.

[CyricZ]

I just want to say Thanks! to everyone who has contributed to the the IMDb effort. Indeed, time and time again I have found it to be the ultimate resource when it comes to films. The database is always very complete, the summaries and cast lists accurate, and all in all it is a very helpful website.

Many cheers and pip to them all! May they continue to provide such a useful service for years to come.

Re:A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people.

[ImaLamer]

May they continue to provide such a useful service for years to come.

Bad news, since this story is one the Slashdot front page, IMDb will soon be bought by Google.

Re:A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people.

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon already owns it.

Re:A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people.

[bleedingpegasus]

I'd say greatly thanks for its db interface availability on: http://www.imdb.com/interfaces. Great for off-line references, up-to date data, thorough references, in short-> just GREAT!!!

Re:A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people.

[l337dexter]

I contribute because I love the service. It is amazing and all the people that contribute to it rock my socks off.

I'd like IMDB more if...

[Nom du Keyboard]

I'd like IMDB more if they didn't charge to submit basic photos to their database. I have permission for one star on their site to submit her picture (none is presently available) and they want money for something that improves their site overall.

Leaves me with the feeling that bigness + age != niceness.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[FadedTimes]

then the Star can pay the fee and have a picture loaded. It helps prevent people posting false pictures or trying to have the star have a negative image.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[F_Scentura]

"bigness + age != niceness."

It's still a very nice and useful service, but bigness + self-sustaining does require a bit less in the way of nicety.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[lazyrobb]

Do A-list movie stars have to pay to get their picture submitted? I understand the purpose for limiting photos for independent actors who use the site as an online resume; however, sometimes I don't remember a specific actor playing a certain role and I just wish that there were a picture there. Sometimes the galleries just feel empty.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[Anonymous Coward]

Leaves me with the feeling that bigness + age != niceness.

Of course it doesn't. When have you ever met a person who was fat, old AND nice? Never! That's when! If you're fat and old, you're gonna be pissed 'cause you have all this fat and you're not getting any younger, so you'll probably have more fat. And that makes you mean. Yeah. Mean, old and fat!

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[pipingguy]

They know that they have everyone by the balls (so to speak) so they can do whatever they want.

Their message boards started to require logged-in registration just to view messages (before you could read but not post- that was fair). They have instituted a few measures to cut down on trolls and have implemented a ranking system but the same teeny-bopper "It rulex/suxors" comments are still there because they have no way to police this sort of nonsense.

They are also pushing the paid version, which seems to prey on wannabe actors, film industry workers and losers with twenty bucks to spend in order to keep up with the latest pathetic celebrity rumours. They also have those annoying "overlay" Flash ads.

How much are they demanding for the headshot?

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[macthulhu]

Not that I've ever met him personally, but "fat, old, and nice" sounds an awful lot like Santa Claus... or at least Captain Kangaroo.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[Anonymous Coward]

... but what about the hundreds of deceased actors.

Moe Howard
Loe Costello
Ed Wood

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[schon]

I'd like them more if they actually updated their site.

I've submitted information to them on a couple of occasions, and the information still hasn't shown up.

An example: the movie Mannequin. IMDB says that there is no DVD available, but I happen to own one (and have for almost two years.) I submitted the information for it over 8 months ago, (including the barcode so they could even check it if they need to.)

This is what it shows for my update history:

The update has already been sent to IMDb so there is usually no need to resubmit it. To quit this view simply return to your submission history or press the 'Cancel' button. Since the data has already been transmitted to our central servers, the 'Cancel' button only closes this view and does not retract the submission.

Other updates I've made say exactly the same thing.

I just gave up.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[easttuth]

Congratulations, you've been IBM'd.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[magefile]

Really? Because the other information (biographical and trivia-related, for example) that people can post for free can be (and I've seen many circumstances where this is the case) false and reputation-damaging, or simply an invasion of privacy. Don't get me wrong, IMDB is really neat, but there's no way for an individual to correct or limit the information about themselves.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[F_Scentura]

In addition, posting images that they do not own the copyright for.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[monkeydo]

Don't get me wrong, IMDB is really neat, but there's no way for an individual to correct or limit the information about themselves.

So, what does the "Update information" link do:

You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the button on the left will take you through a new improved step-by-step process.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[HunterZ]

Right, because nobody is going to pay to be dishonest, and nobody who is honest will mind paying.

</sarcasm>

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[Flamekebab]

The registration process was originally implemented to decrease traffic on the forums. Apparently.

So says someone at my local LUG who runs some of the servers for the IMDb.

However, I'm also told that it only worked for a short while, after which the traffic shot back up again..

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[HunterZ]

What? It says there are DVDs available in four languages when I view it...

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[secolactico]

An example: the movie Mannequin. IMDB says that there is no DVD available, but I happen to own one (and have for almost two years.)

You should be ashamed of yourself... ;-)

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[pipingguy]

IMDB is using a LUG for its operation? I hope they are getting paid nicely.

There never seems to be a shortage of trolls and (likely) paid astroturfers at IMDB. Just check out any new, TV-hyped releases - it's full of fanbois. It would be deriliction of duty to not point out that studios populate IMDB in order to generate "buzz" for the latest upcoming release. The target for marketing is stupid teenagers and they aren't old/experienced enough to know that they're being manipulated.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[schon]

It says there are DVDs available in four languages when I view it

I'm not talking about the advertisements - try clicking on the DVD DETAILS link on the left side of the page. Oh, that's right - you can't. Try this link then.

See all the nicely laid out information, showing the details about availability, the subtitles, aspect ratio, audio, and languages?

Neither do I.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the "runner of servers" is the "someone" not the "LUG" ;)

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[gordgekko]

They aren't too snappy with the updates. I'm acquintances with a Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actor who has some incorrect in his bio and they haven't corrected it after repeated attempts over two years.

That said, IMDb kicks ass.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[Bun]

Do A-list movie stars have to pay to get their picture submitted? I understand the purpose for limiting photos for independent actors who use the site as an online resume; however, sometimes I don't remember a specific actor playing a certain role and I just wish that there were a picture there. Sometimes the galleries just feel empty.

If these actors are using the site as an on-line resume, $35 is a trival (tax deductable) expense, especially when you consider the potential benefit.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[magefile]

They don't always accept changes, and they never remove information about an actor, even at the actor's request.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[RupW]

Do A-list movie stars have to pay to get their picture submitted?

IMDB also use pictures from wireimage, so if the A-lister attends virtually any premiere they'll get a photo on IMDB for free.

If they want a different photo, I'd guess they have to pay, yeah.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[jred]

Around here you can get a headshot for less than $1k.

BOOM! ;)

Happy Birthday

[jamesgamble]

Happy Birthday IMDB!

Thank you IMDb!

[decipher_saint]

Without you I wouldn't know that actor's name that was in that one movie that uhh... oh wait I know this one, he starred with umm, shit, what was her name?

As a gift I will unblock all the ads for one day!

Re:Thank you IMDb!

[tevfik.yucek]

As a gift I will unblock all the ads for one day!

Which ads?

(Firefox user)

Re:Thank you IMDb!

[eingram]

Most likely her name is Kirsten Dunst.

Re:Thank you IMDb!

[lav-chan]

Really wish you guys would stop doing that. Whenever anybody mentions anything related to ads in any way (even when they're talking about blocking the ads) some wisenheimer has to go WHAT ADS I USE FIREFOX AM I MISSIN OUT ON SOMTHIN LOL ???

You are not clever because you use Firefox, OK. Nobody is impressed. Especially not on Slashdot, where EVERYBODY has known how to block ads for ages now.

Re:Thank you IMDb!

[KH]

Did you try searching for Kevin Bacon? You will eventually find out the actor's name.

Re:Thank you IMDb!

[nitehawk214]

If he bothers you that much just tell him to click here.

15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Seth Finklestein]

1. IMDb is owned by Amazon.com, a company which makes horrifying use of software patents.
2. Since the acquisition by Ama$on, IMDb has started using Flash-laden banner ads throughout their site. Some of these ads even include sound; these ads are not acceptable.
3. Agent information and other data has been moved off of the free IMDb site and onto IMDbPRO, which I refuse to use.
4. To insert data into this database, such as photographs of my favourite actors, costs money. This was supposed to be a free site.
5. Flagrant product placement. Virtually every "article" on IMDb's front page is a paid advertisement. Most "articles" are just used to link to Ama$on items.
6. IMDb does not use proper HTML.
7. IMDb has given nothing back to the community; rather it takes from the community (the poor) and gives to a large e-tailer (the rich).

Sorry, IMDb. I'm going to boycott you and go with a site where non-commercialism is more important.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[FinestLittleSpace]

ITS A MOVIE SITE. When the hell were movies NON-BLOODY-COMMERCIAL?!

The site has a huge database, it's very easy and trustworthy to use.... it has some crap. So what? So does every site that needs to make money.

Shut it.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[giorgiofr]

Oh yeah it takes from the community. It takes your frigging USELESS time, you idiot. Don't like it? Don't watch it. See? It was easy.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[F_Scentura]

# Agent information and other data has been moved off of the free IMDb site and onto IMDbPRO, which I refuse to use.

There's little real need for the non-industry to know agent information.

# To insert data into this database, such as photographs of my favourite actors, costs money. This was
supposed to be a free site.

It's absolutely free to use. A site of that size can't live off of goodwill, sunshine, and gumdrops. I'll take a bit of annoyance to have it retain the useful information.

# Flagrant product placement. Virtually every "article" on IMDb's front page is a paid advertisement. Most "articles" are just used to link to Ama$on items.

They are a resource, not a content provider. There are thousands of useful review sites What else do you want? If you really want to complain about sucking the corporate teat, at least bitch about AICN, IMDB makes no pretenses of objectivity.

# IMDb has given nothing back to the community; rather it takes from the community (the poor) and gives to a large e-tailer (the rich).

It provides a huge service to the community. They don't owe *you* specifically a damn thing.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Quaoar]

I count 7...

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[chad.koehler]

That's really only 7 reasons.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

Waaaaaa...cry about it a little bit why don't you.

Seriously. Do you think all these companies out there exist for your benefit without any benefit to yourself? Why does everybody these days feel like they're owed something without giving anything in return. You want all that information (easily) off of IMDB? Guess what...that requires money. So, now there are advertisements. And, yeah, so what if Amazon owns the site and put [HORROR] their own banners on it! Wow...who would've thought.

Geez. If you don't like it, don't use it.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Jherek Carnelian]

When the hell were movies NON-BLOODY-COMMERCIAL?!

While I have my disagreements with the original post, your rebuttal is lacking.

Movies are shared culture, and despite how the MPAA likes to assert property rights to every dimension of commercial film, movies are more than simply business. The stories they borrow from and the stories they tell are all public knowledge and are not owned by anyone.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Red Flayer]

I'm going to give my 3 reasons to disagree:

"7. IMDb has given nothing back to the community; rather it takes from the community (the poor) and gives to a large e-tailer (the rich).

They provide a service that is used by the community (the poor). Is it not possible to give to the poor and also give to the rich? A win-win situation, which is commercialism at its finest?

Well, one reason, I guess, but that shows my l334 counting skilz as well as the 15 (7) reasons in the OP.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[FinestLittleSpace]

"your rebuttal is lacking."

Tell me about it. I have the worst flu (bird flu?! ;-)), and am pissed off at how incoherant my post was. To be lazy, What you said, is basically, what I think.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[grungebox]

If it helps, there is also AllMovie which is pretty decent. It's not a bad alternative, I suppose, but it's not nearly as complete as imdb. I still use imdb, but at least if you're going to list 15 bitches about imdb (which, for the record, you only list 7), might as well list an alternative.

As a sidenote, AllMusic is bad fucking ass. Completely OT, but I thought I'd mention it as a sidenote for any readers who've never been there.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Ilgaz]

I don't agree with your points as I am a bit liberal on such huge sites and I better clear something since I am directly connected to some actor who is listed on IMDB site.

You can't post headshot of him/her even if you pay for it. It has to be done with his/her agency or the person him/herself.

There is always copyright involved in movie business, its one of the reasons. Photo is not a feature for fans, its for artist/agency.

quoting from imdb

http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?photossubmitwho

Who is allowed to submit photos?

First and foremost, FANS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SUBMIT PHOTOS.

For People: You may submit a photo for yourself or an authorized representative may submit a photo on your behalf. Examples of authorized representatives include your agent, your publicist, your parent, or even a friend you asked to help you because you're no good with computers, just so long as they have your express permission. If you're submitting a photo for a person who is deceased, you must be that person's heir or have permission from their heir(s).

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Seth Finklestein]

The number "15" is symbolic. In this case, it symbolizes the number of years which IMDb is old. Each of my bullet points is symbolic of approximately 2.14285714 (or pi - 1) normal-sized reasons.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[badasscat]

Movies are shared culture, and despite how the MPAA likes to assert property rights to every dimension of commercial film, movies are more than simply business. The stories they borrow from and the stories they tell are all public knowledge and are not owned by anyone.

Er... how very... communist(?) of you.

The fact of the matter is movies have been a business since they were invented. This is not like the music industry, where music existed prior to the music industry - movies did not exist prior to the movie industry. Movies were an industry ever since Thomas Edison invented the kinetograph, which he developed specifically looking for new ways to make money. Movies themselves have been copyrighted for as long as it occured to anyone to do so. That includes the stories, which sure as hell are owned by those that write them, at least until they sell those stories to a studio or producer (at which point they are then owned by the studio or producer). Movie plots don't write themselves, despite the wishes of most Hollywood producers.

Sure, movies are a part of our culture, but just because something's a part of our culture doesn't mean it's not also copyrighted (and copyrightable) as well as a commercial enterprise.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

I in particular enjoy the cries of "death to google!" "death to IMDB!" and other free and useful services. The world owes them a livin!

It's like the person who idolizes their favorite actor or band, gushing pleasantries until they do one wrong movie or CD, then they've "sold out", regardless of their potential worth. Everyone and their grandmother knows and uses it, so it's not geekcool.

If bitching about free internet services angers you, get off the internet and do something worthwhile.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[schon]

Er... how very... communist(?) of you.

How refreshing - someone who thinks that the founders of the USA were communist!

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[drsquare]

Reasons why IMDB is great:

1. Ranking system provides great amusement and opportunity for arguments as great but controversial films are low rated whilst fanboy-fueled crap rises to the top.

2. Ill-informed, narrow-minded comments let you feel superior.

3. Quotes section has endless repeats in case you forget half way down the page.

4. Quotes full of mistakes to test your knowledge.

5. Several films or programmes all with exactly the same name with no way of telling which one is which, this makes using the site more exciting.

6. Reviews by shills, all exactly the same with the names changed. This saves time as you don't have to read more than one type of comment.

7. Forum which you have to pay to access, just to find out it's rubbish. This teaches you to be more careful with your money.

For all these reasons, IMDB is a fantastic site. Here's to another 15 years!

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[F_Scentura]

"Movies are shared culture, and despite how the MPAA likes to assert property rights to every dimension of commercial film, movies are more than simply business. The stories they borrow from and the stories they tell are all public knowledge and are not owned by anyone."

I'm glad that you speak for all artists everywhere, however regardless of the MPAA's abuses, art is not by default and in the strictist terms public domain.

Concessions must be made, and the wealthy benefactors have often had requirements througout the ages, regardless of the individual or the party that sponsors the creative expression.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[sjaskow]

Best reason to not boycott them is the Bacon game: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/. It's a great way to waste an afternoon waing on Iron Mountain to deliver tapes for a restore. And you don't even have to go to imdb unless you want to.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

The stories they borrow from and the stories they tell are all public knowledge and are not owned by anyone.

Keyrist why do I have the urge to sing Kumbaya all of the sudden?

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[mctk]

# IMDb has given nothing back to the community; rather it takes from the community (the poor) and gives to a large e-tailer (the rich).

YEAH! I'm sick of this. When are they going to seed all of the movies they have info on, huh? Seriously. Give something back, already! And while you're at it, take down all of those ads! No, I don't want to buy in to your subscription service to help support your site! Give something back to the community! This is supposed to be a free site!

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

2. Ill-informed, narrow-minded comments let you feel superior.

Yeah, and you get to read comments from complete nutters who apparently do nothing all day, every day... except comment on a film they don't even like. Scary stuff :-).

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

There's little real need for the non-industry to know agent information.

You've obviously never tried stalki^H^H^H^H^H^Hgetting an autograph from your favorite star...

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha. Flamebait. Go me. Fuck the mods.
Anyways, IMDb is still a free site for the most part. Very informative and useful. Who the hell cares if you have to pay to submit photos? Got some extra secret special rare SMG photos that you're tired of whacking off to and now you think it's time to share them and you can't? Boo-hoo, loser.
Switching gears to bands, I used to be a huge Metallica fan. Now they didn't just do one wrong cd. Oooh no. They really did sell out. Cut off all their hair, got every concievable body part pierced, and started singing shit that has yet to end. Not to mention Lars' little pussy tirade about Napster. I downloaded what I thought was Helpless from Garage Days Re-Revisited. Nope. It was some live -acoustic- version and James was singing falsetto!

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[2008]

"That includes the stories, which sure as hell are owned by those that write them"

I think he was referring to stuff like fairy tales, biblical movies, Shakespeare adaptations, and traditional storylines like "boy meets girl, loses girl, meets girl again". The stories are often owned by the culture, the specific scripts are owned by whoever the writer sells them to.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[hackstraw]

IMDb is owned by Amazon.com, a company which makes horrifying use of software patents.

True, but the only one I can really think of is the one-click thing, and that is more of a sign of our patent system being screwed up. I actually like amazon, and can overlook this.

Since the acquisition by Ama$on, IMDb has started using Flash-laden banner ads throughout their site. Some of these ads even include sound; these ads are not acceptable.

Who by default browses the web with flash turned on? Every site, including slashdot use flash ads nowadays, its much easier and better to turn off plugins, and turn them on for those sites that appear devoid of content without enabling them.

Agent information and other data has been moved off of the free IMDb site and onto IMDbPRO, which I refuse to use.

So, should we boycott the free or the pay service? It seems to me it should be both. Or at least the pay one. Which is it?

To insert data into this database, such as photographs of my favourite actors, costs money. This was supposed to be a free site.

I dunno, but there are a number of sickos out there. Especially when it comes to celebrities. Maybe the fee is just to reduce their numbers.

Flagrant product placement. Virtually every "article" on IMDb's front page is a paid advertisement. Most "articles" are just used to link to Ama$on items.

This site is about the biggest bling in the US and owned by amazon. The ads haven't annoyed me (and I have a low threshold for annoyance). And virtually every "article" on any advertiser supported media is an advertisement. Ever read slashdot?

IMDb does not use proper HTML

Who does? It renders OK, I don't care.

IMDb has given nothing back to the community; rather it takes from the community (the poor) and gives to a large e-tailer (the rich).

Hold on here. IMDb is excellent. I'm annoyed when I'm watching TV or a movie with friends and I leave my laptop at work or its not already powered on. In seconds, I can find out where we saw that actor before, and tons of information for free about movies. The taglines, the fairly objective appearing voting system, etc. Its not that bad.

Now, if anybody should have boycotted this story would be slashdot, because they have officially taken the stand that amazon is already evil and IMDb is owned by amazon, but this is borderline because it covers IMDb before the acquisition.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[blueg3]

The movie is just an extension of the play, an art form that is old on the same time scale as music. As musical performance adapted to newer technologies in recording and presentation, so did acting adapt to the new medium of the film (and underwent still more changes as the medium became more advanced).

The stories are not necessarily the same as the script. A screenwriter writes a script. Sometimes they write a story. Other times, it's an adaptation of a previous story -- like a book or a play.

Not all films are commercial, either. There are a variety of independent films that are made for the sake of the art form and for the love of storytelling, much as local bands often perform for the sake of loving to perform music.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Jherek Carnelian]

Sure, movies are a part of our culture, but just because something's a part of our culture doesn't mean it's not also copyrighted (and copyrightable) as well as a commercial enterprise.

How does your statement conflict, rebut or otherwise disagree with my point that, "movies are more than simply business"?

Really, what is the point of your entire post?
Do you like jousting at windmills and strawmen or something?

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[monkeydo]

Movies were an industry ever since Thomas Edison invented the kinetograph, which he developed specifically looking for new ways to make money.

And the people who make movies have been greedy bastards ever since then too. One of the main reasons the big studios moved to CA was to get far away from Edison and his desire for roaylties on his inventions.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[EvanED]

Since the acquisition by Ama$on, IMDb has started using Flash-laden banner ads throughout their site. Some of these ads even include sound; these ads are not acceptable.

Block 'em. I know it'd be better if they didn't use them, but sounded ads are why I installed Flashblock.

To insert data into this database, such as photographs of my favourite actors, costs money. This was supposed to be a free site.

So that people don't submit bogus photos or ones they don't have licences for. Probably this is a liability decision more than anything.

(And, perhaps, a storage/bandwidth one.)

IMDb does not use proper HTML

You have a /. ID around the same value as mine. It's only about 15K higher. I don't know how long I've been registered, but it's been at least a few years.

Until recently, /. didn't validate. Did you register a long time ago, realize that /. doesn't use proper HTML, and leave for a couple years only to return a few weeks ago?

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[DJH47]

While I do not exactly think everything should be free, there is a small, but dedicated effort to create a true alternative to the IMDB. Currently, it is known as MovieWiki. It is still in development and final details are TBD, but it seems to be the best chance at an open movie database.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[manifoldronin]

Frankly I'm confused - if you don't think his statement "conflict, rebut, or otherwise disagree with" you earlier comment, what _was_ your point then?

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

Er... how very... communist(?) of you.

No news there -- the whole open source movement is communistic.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

just because something's a part of our culture doesn't mean it's not also copyrighted (and copyrightable) as well as a commercial enterprise.

AWESOME! So when do I get the royalty checks for the home movie I made out of my kid's first steps? I used the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey - do I have to pay that dude?

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[vdo2000]

1. Ranking system provides great amusement and opportunity for arguments as great but controversial films are low rated whilst fanboy-fueled crap rises to the top.
2. Ill-informed, narrow-minded comments let you feel superior.
3. Quotes section has endless repeats in case you forget half way down the page.
4. Quotes full of mistakes to test your knowledge.
5. Several films or programmes all with exactly the same name with no way of telling which one is which, this makes using the site more exciting.
6. Reviews by shills, all exactly the same with the names changed. This saves time as you don't have to read more than one type of comment.
7. Forum which you have to pay to access, just to find out it's rubbish. This teaches you to be more careful with your money.

Are you talking about IMDB or Slashdot?

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[doubledoh]

4. Quotes full of mistakes to test your knowledge.

5. Several films or programmes all with exactly the same name with no way of telling which one is which, this makes using the site more exciting.

That was fun-e. Thanks for the laughs.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[C0rinthian]

This is not like the music industry, where music existed prior to the music industry

Umm, there has always been industry surrounding music. As long as there has been money to make, people have made it by writing and performing music. It is no different than your description of the movie industry.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Optic7]

Thanks for the links. I didn't know about them. :)

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Dolda2000]

It's absolutely free to use. A site of that size can't live off of goodwill, sunshine, and gumdrops. I'll take a bit of annoyance to have it retain the useful information.

Really? Wikipedia seems to be doing pretty well without being for profit or having banner ads, even though I'd say that it's probably a lot larger than IMDb is.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a binary 15....

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Scarletdown]

Considering "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (aka the Theme from 2001) is from the late 19th Century, I _think_ it would be in the public domain by now.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Clod9]

>IMDb has given nothing back to the community

Nothing? Nothing at all? Not even a free ad-supported site that gives you information on every movie you've ever heard of, and a hundred times more that you've never heard of? I use it all the time, and have never given them anything, except a bit of information here or there over the years.

I've always thought of IMDB as precisely the kind of information resource the web was made for. Each of hundreds of thousands of contributors spends a small amount of time entering what they know, and everyone gets the benefit of all that information, 24x7, for free. What do you expect from them?

My fear was always that they'd take the information away by making it a subscription site, but they haven't done that. They may be Amazon (whom I don't like either), but give them a break already. Would you have sold for $20 mil?

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[ktakki]

I count 7...

To see the other 8, you have to sign up for SethFinklesteinPro.com


k.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[Anonymous Coward]

ahahaha you're a fuckwit

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[stpats]

These ads are "not acceptable"? Since when are their "acceptable" and "non-acceptable" ads? If you want to view the information for "free", that's the price you pay.

"This is supposed to be a free site". Says who? I doubt it's in their mission statement.

The reality is that any site getting that many hits, using that much bandwidth, and having that many employees to pay is going to cost a lot of money to run. If advertisements weren't used then nobody would be able to use it for "free".

Why do so many people think *everything* should be free and that operating large websites doesn't cost anything??

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[allgood2]

AWESOME. Now we're listening to so-so logic arguments from people who can't count!!! Anyway, I suggest you retitle your post, "7 Reasons Why I'd Boycott IMDb" subtitle "Won't You Join Me".

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[jfengel]

How does that work? Content may be free, but servers and bandwidth aren't.

The answer appears to be "donations", which is cool if somewhat undependable. But I suppose as long as they keep it primarily text-based you can support an awful lot of hits without using up all that much bandwidth.

Re:15 Reasons to boycott IMDb

[edg124]

should definitely check out hollywood.com, then. just re-launched, i think yesterday. (wonder if that was any sorta coincidence. hmmm....) good shit, though. and i've become sicka imdb.

Jeff Bezos

[l2718]

Reading IMDb's history, it is interesting to note that the site is owned by Jeff Bezos. I wonder if the advertizing revenue pays for the bills, or whether he supports this great service on a continuing basis.

Re:Jeff Bezos

[frodo from middle ea]

Umm, what about IMDBPro, that's like 13$ a month , that should generate some revenue.

I just wish they had cheaper options , 13$ a month is quite a lot in other countries, considering IMDB has info about internation films as well.

Reverse Lookup

[Buddy_DoQ]

IMDB has always been there for me when I need to know the name of an actor or crew that contributed to a given film. I can't always recall actor names, and it's always interesting to see what other films the director has made. Sometimes I go in looking for one little tidbit and end up spending hours digging through the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, as it were.

Cheers!

Re:Reverse Lookup

[JumboMessiah]

Apparently CNN is also using it as a resource as well...

Re:Reverse Lookup

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to see how many movies separate any actor from Kevin Bacon (or any other actor), use the Oracle of Bacon: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/

Actually, it's 15 years and 2 days ago

[Brama]

Google groups link: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies/bro wse_frm/thread/47bf560d092d9314/2c3c98e25987bf44?l nk=st&q=group:rec.arts.movies+author:needham&rnum= 2&hl=en#2c3c98e25987bf44

Re:Actually, it's 15 years and 2 days ago

[Anonymous Coward]

wheres the scripts?

Re:Actually, it's 15 years and 2 days ago

[jesseward]

scripts are here http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies/bro wse_thread/thread/5a3719142fd4db9e/152249faf7593d1 4?lnk=st&q=script&rnum=1&hl=en#152249faf7593d14

Re:Actually, it's 15 years and 2 days ago

[Anonymous Coward]

So it makes perfect sense that it's being posted on Slashdot today.

Re:IMDb trivia page for Needham

[generic-man]

No. It means they've been married 16.

--- Original Message ---

IMDb trivia page for Needham
(Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on 04:12 PM October 17th, 2005 (#13811674)
Spouse
Karen Needham (22 July 1989 - present) 2 children
Does that mean she is only 16?

Alternate Interfaces

[anandpur]

More than just top and bottom 250 movies http://www.imdb.com/Top/

http://www.imdb.com/interfaces
http://us.imdb.com/Licensing/structure.html
http://us.imdb.com/database_statistics

Re:Alternate Interfaces

[Darth_Burrito]

The interfaces link above has a place for you to download text file exports of most of the actual movie data (attrociously normalized). I have occassionally wanted to use this data on my own site for various purposes, but there are all kinds of nasty warnings about copyright and how all one's base belongs to them. It had been my understanding that one could not copyright a collection of facts, though one could copyright a collection of facts organized and presented in a particular manner. Legally, is there any reason a person couldn't just take their data, import it into a format of their own design, and then do whatever they wanted with it?

In other words, do IMDB's though-shalt-not-use-our-data-without-licensing claims hold water? Do their legal threats only apply to imdb specific content like user comments or reviews (which I don't think are in the text dumps anyway) or do they also apply to things like public domain information about a movie?

I understand that IMDB does allow some use of the data, otherwise they wouldn't provide the dumps, but the question is, how can they restrict the use as much as they claim to?

Re:Alternate Interfaces

[Fatal]

An alternate interface that is just begging to be created is a SOAP interface to IMDB. Amazon has an excellent SOAP/Web Services interface; you would think they could transfer some of that knowledge to make a similarly useful interface to query IMDB using modern standards.

Re:Alternate Interfaces

[DrJimbo]

They are looking for Perl programmers.

The ad makes it look like it could be a pretty good job. You could get paid to implement your ideas.

Re:Alternate Interfaces

[Anonymous Coward]

If I remember right (IANAL and all of that), databases are protected against copying, even when they are listing public domain facts. However, you may construct you own database, from your own public sources, and this database may end up contain just the same data, and that will be perfectly legal. BUT you may not leech someone elses database, you have to do the effort of finding and adding all (public domain) facts yourself.

Common practice for database owners is adding small almost unnoticable errors in their database, which when present in another database prove it was copied from their database.

Re:Alternate Interfaces

[mattbrundage]

More than just top and bottom 250 movies

Box Office Mojo beats the socks off of IMDB in terms of useless box office data. Daily ... Weekend ... Yearly ... All Time ...

Like IMDb, Box Office Mojo seems to be cross-referenced out the wazoo.

Re:Alternate Interfaces

[fm6]

It had been my understanding that one could not copyright a collection of facts, though one could copyright a collection of facts organized and presented in a particular manner. Legally, is there any reason a person couldn't just take their data, import it into a format of their own design, and then do whatever they wanted with it?

That's always been my understanding. But the law is full of little subtlties a non-lawyer can't hope to anticipate. Before you go and flout IMDB's (or anybody else's) claim that they own a collection of material, you should definitely talk to a lawyer. Get a written opinion from him or her that you have a legal right to do what you want to do. Which will make it slightly harder for IMDB to hassle you, but not anything like impossible. Depending on what you do with the material, you might be in for a fight.

You might reasonably decide that fighting IMDB isn't worth the hassle, even if the law's on your side. Unfortunately, a lot of IP "ownership" consists simply of having more legal resources than anybody who want to challenge same.

IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[east coast]

Don't get me wrong, I love IMDb but I can not think of many single sites that can kill as much time as IMDb. Somedays I find myself looking at obscure actors/actresses just to see if I can find them in other films elsewhere, reading bios looking for the brother of the guy at the party in "Sixteen Candles", so one and so forth... The number of hours I spend on IMDb is not a kind number to consider.

People think I watch a lot of films when the truth is that I just read too much IMDb for my own good.

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[Will2k_is_here]

I can not think of many single sites that can kill as much time as IMDb

Yeah, not many. Wikipedia definately can.

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[east coast]

Wikipedia definately can.

I think that probably would be my top site for such an endevour. Altho it's a bit too educational to be considered a complete waste of time. I will have none of that in my home! I may learn something.

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[anjrober]

Except Slashdot or course. the ultimate time waste....

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[anjrober]

errr...make that "of" vs. "or", hit-self-for-not-using-preview...

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[rdoger6424]

why don't you try that Kevin Bacon thing?

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[manifoldronin]

Wait until you start talking about IMDb on Slashdot. _Now_ we are talking about the ultimate time waste...

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to admit I've wasted my share of time on IMDb but I certainly waste a lot more time on slashdot. :^)

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[Anonymous Coward]

Somedays I find myself looking at obscure actors/actresses just to see if I can find them in other films elsewhere

Even better! Look up actresses by the date they were born (say 1987--18 years ago) and then look at the details for each of them, to see which ones are pornstars (and which movies you should really check-out)!

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[Calvin Deck]

The same thing goes to slashdot for me

Re:IMDb is a complete waste of time!

[wasudeo]

Don't get me wrong, I love IMDb but I can not think of many single sites that can kill as much time as IMDb.

Evidently you don't visit slashdot too often

Name change?

[Quaoar]

I love IMDB, but I really think they ought to change their name by now. They have info on movies, television, video games, you name it. Something more befitting of a database that has more than just movie information.

Re:Name change?

[totallygeek]

I love IMDB, but I really think they ought to change their name by now. They have info on movies, television, video games, you name it.
I think it is the fact they have a four-letter domain that is the stopper. Finding a short domain name is tough, or in the case of four letters, impossible.

Re:Name change?

[east coast]

They have info on movies, television, video games, you name it. Something more befitting of a database that has more than just movie information.

Indeed. Just look at Burger King. They lost a lot of ground on McDonalds because everyone thinks they only sell burgers. No fries, no Coca Cola, just burgers. Altho I am shocked at the lack of Scottish dishes at McDonalds. I felt betrayed.

The same thing holds with RadioShack. I thought it was radio only until I found out they also sold TVs and phones. WTF is going on around here?

Re:Name change?

[HTH NE1]

I love IMDB, but I really think they ought to change their name by now.

Or drop the "I'm" and just be "Debbie".

Re:Name change?

[doxology]

Yeah, and I thought Wendy's only sold girls named Wendy. Boy was I surprised.

Re:Name change?

[imikem]

Easy, just call it the Internet MEDIA database. Thanks, that'll be $10000000.00.

Re:Name change?

[grub]

or in the case of four letters, impossible.

Good thing I was forward thinking back in 1997 :)

Re:Name change?

[Digital Vomit]

I think it is the fact they have a four-letter domain that is the stopper.

Internet Media DataBase?

Re:Name change?

[Anonymous Coward]

The domain is still perfect... Why not go by something like Internet Media Database?

Also...Does anyone know if there is a similar site for bands/musicians?

Re:Name change?

[gcalvin]

Altho I am shocked at the lack of Scottish dishes at McDonalds. I felt betrayed.

When they introduce Haggis McNuggets, you'll realize that "betrayed" isn't the worst way to feel.

Re:Name change?

[xavid]

Finding a short domain name is tough, or in the case of four letters, impossible. Not quite, there's still zqxq.com (get it while you still can!)

Re:Name change?

[RM6f9]

Thank you so very much for the laugh.

Re:Name change?

[Fortress]

I think it is the fact they have a four-letter domain that is the stopper. Finding a short domain name is tough, or in the case of four letters, impossible.

Perhaps they could change it to "The Internet Media Database." It would be a little more indicative of what they do, but wouldn't require a domain change.

Re:Name change?

[dhovis]

I think it is the fact they have a four-letter domain that is the stopper. Finding a short domain name is tough, or in the case of four letters, impossible.

Hey, lkdw.com is available. Linux Kernel DishWasher anyone?

Re:Name change?

[Anonymous Coward]

When they renamed it to imdb from the cardiff movie database, that was one name change too many!

Re:Name change?

[belg4mit]

I've wondered about that too, Internet Media Database

Re:Name change?

[Optic7]

Finding a short domain name is tough, or in the case of four letters, impossible.

Not so. I registered two previously unregistered four-letter .com domains a couple of months ago. They are there - you just have to look. Real four-letter word domains are hard to find though.

Re:Name change?

[timothykaine]

Internet Media DataBase. Done and done.

Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[hal2814]

IMDB is just fun to play around with. My friends and I have this challenge to see who has the most entries for acting in the IMDB. Orson Welles was the top guy for about a week. Then Peter North took over. He stayed there for a long time until it occurred to me to look up Mel Blanc. Anybody out there know someone who can beat Blanc (898 entries for acting)? Anybody out there want to guess on tops in other categories (writer, producer, notable TV appearances)? Is there a way to search IMDB for these statistics (of course, that would be cheating)?

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[Anonymous Coward]

IMDB counts cartoon shorts as entries, so it's not surprising Mel Blanc has so many.

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[brewer13210]

As a producer, Walt Disney hits 678...not bad.

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[HungWeiLo]

Why, the Hedgehog himself, of course!

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[Anonymous Coward]

It also counts porn short films, which is why Peter North has so many.

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[hal2814]

That's interesting because last time we looked him up (a couple of years ago), Blanc had him beat. I guess the Surreal Life has really picked up his career.

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[Anonymous Coward]

IMDb has a page for this

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[hackstraw]

IMDb has a page for this

Unfortunately, it appears to be censored.

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[SlayerofGods]

While certinly not the most (though if you count all the times he's been on the histroy channel....)
I find it amusing the amount of times Hitler has been credited
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0386944/
And I know for a fact that's not even all of the movies he has show up in.

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[RedWizzard]

Is there a way to search IMDB for these statistics (of course, that would be cheating)?

Download the plain text data files from http://www.imdb.com/interfaces.

Re:Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[KillShill]

as in something that no one wants to get too near to?

i'll buy that.

If it rreally is a useful tool for filmmaking...

[Darius Jedburgh]

...then they should apply for a SciTech award.

Original Usenet Post

[byteCoder]

The original Usenet post is here, courtesy of Google.

Re:Original Usenet Post

[Anonymous Coward]

Well done, fund the same post ;)

Radices

[lildogie]

three times five orbits around the star....

Wouldn't it be more geekly to note the number of seconds passing the next power of 2?

15 years too many?

[Will2k_is_here]

I don't know about others but I've really come to dislike imdb.
1. The design is terrible. I find it unappealing. (not that this is a necessity, but it would be nice to see a facelift). I think it's the choice of font.
2. The layout is terrible. There are no borders to show logical divisions in the content. It still feels like an online list of data circa 1990.
2. Too many ads, in too obtrusive places
3. A9 box right by the search box. At least use some integration between the two like Wikipedia does with google. Don't try to sucker users into using A9 when clearly this isn't what they want.
4. Required to register to even *look* at the discussions.
5. Trivia and other user contributed stuff is always redundant and filled with grammatical errors.
6. ?

Re:15 years too many?

[kevcol]

"4. Required to register to even *look* at the discussions."

The discussions are not worth your time, trust me.

Re:15 years too many?

[KinkifyTheNation]

7. Profit

Quite literally.

Re:15 years too many?

[Zach978]

Maybe you can try xregal..looks like it works off a local database though.

With a little hacking it might be a good alternative to all those Flash ads.

Re:15 years too many?

[Anonymous Coward]

6. No cross-reference to Mr. Skin database of nude scenes.

Re:15 years too many?

[Rirath.com]

4. Required to register to even *look* at the discussions.

IMDB has what I consider to be one of the worst "discussions" on the web today. Perhaps this has gotten better since they started requiring registration, but I'm highly doubtful. The funny thing about the IMDB boards was that you could pick pretty much any thread from any movie, and within 3-5 posts it would degrade into a total flamewar. And not just a debate of the movie, or any topic, mind you... just an all out mindless flame war.

It was comic in its uselessness.

Re:15 years too many?

[Anonymous Coward]

1. The design is terrible. I find it unappealing. (not that this is a necessity, but it would be nice to see a facelift). I think it's the choice of font.

Well, you could go to Tools->Options->General->Fonts&Colors (or the equivalent in your browser) and just change the font, couldn't you?

Re:15 years too many?

[multiplexo]

IMDB has what I consider to be one of the worst "discussions" on the web today. Perhaps this has gotten better since they started requiring registration, but I'm highly doubtful. The funny thing about the IMDB boards was that you could pick pretty much any thread from any movie, and within 3-5 posts it would degrade into a total flamewar. And not just a debate of the movie, or any topic, mind you... just an all out mindless flame war.

It was comic in its uselessness.

And here you are, posting to /. about a site where discussions quickly degenerate into flamewars and which is comic in its uselessness. You sir have a finely honed sense of irony. I salute you.

Re:15 years too many?

[Orlando]

6. The discussions are a waste of time
7. There is too much irrelevant information

eg a search for Clint Eastwood turns up this sort of stuff:

Filmography-

# The 77th Annual Academy Awards (2005) (TV) (also archive footage) .... Himself - Winner: Best Picture, Best Director/Nominee: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Personally I rely on The All Movie Guide (http://www.allmovie.com/ much more, the writing is more mature and the information isn't diluted with crap you're not interested in.

Orlando..

Re:15 years too many?

[jred]

Well, you're ugly & your momma dresses you funny!

IMDB Bottom 100 List

[PhatboySlim]

How did Britney's Spears' Crossroads movie end up on IMDB's Bottom 100 list? It's like the best movie of all time! Thank God that movies like Gigli, Son of the Mask, and From Justin to Kelly aren't on this list! Oh wait, there they are....

Guess I should be on the lookout for "Legend Of Zorro" to be appearing here soon as well...

Re:IMDB Bottom 100 List

[Anonymous Coward]

Guess I should be on the lookout for "Legend Of Zorro" to be appearing here soon as well...

Right next to Serenity.

(Posted anonymously to avoid the fanboys)

Re:IMDB Bottom 100 List

[DJCF]

It's a travesty to the whole of film, I agree. The reason is that the Top 100 list is a list of the top 100 highest-scoring films in the database. Films are scored by people who go on the film's page and vote the film up, or down. And people tend to only go on films they like or have seen so if, like the average jo, you don't watch many films... well, the more popular films always win.

Sad, sad truth. Now the IMDB have started a compulsory registration to view forum posts, I never use it anyway.

MOVIE DATABASE: version 2.9 now available

[koick]

Here's the mandatory google link:

After a quick search, here is the oldest google groups reference I could find.

Other collaborative bodies of work?

[dubl-u]

One of my favorite things about the Internet is how is allows the aggregation of small amounts of end-user work into large, impressive things. IMDB is one of my favorite examples of this, along with FreeDB and Wikipedia. And the Web 2.0 trend is pushing this further, with, e.g., Flickr's collaborative photo library.

What other collaborative favorites like IMDB do people have?

Re:Other collaborative bodies of work?

[nb caffeine]

Mine was tvtome.com before they got bought out and become tv.com. Now it is awful, but before it was the imdb for, um, tvshows.

specifically, i like snpp.com, for simpsons specific info.


oh, and this little thing called Linux

How about adding music?

[AugstWest]

It drive me *nuts* that they don't list any information about the music used in the movies.

It's a vital part of every movie, as vital as any of the other info listed, but for some reaon imdb always excludes it.

What gives?

Re:How about adding music?

[Attackman]

It's not always excluded. If a soundtrack listing is contributed, it's listed along the left sidebar. Those involved in composing scores are generally found in the full credits listing.
It can be sparse, that I'll agree to. But those two items make good jumping off points for further research elsewhere.

Re:How about adding music?

[modecx]

No doubt, and since Amazon owns it, at least they could point to the soundtracks, or the individual tracks from the movie, if they're not in the Official Soundtack. Goddamnit, that reminds me... The Transporter soundtrack still has me pissed off. #@&^$%* (WHY!)

Re:How about adding music?

[kavin]

crazy, but composer details are not in the default view. (makes them look somewhat incompetent imho.)

see tiny left column titled "Overview". default is "main details" but any link below that (try "combinded details") should give you composer credit.

- p

Re:How about adding music?

[Anonymous Coward]

composer - filmography

musicians are credited on IMDb...
wether they wrote the whole soundtrack
or their music was just chosen

Could someone please explain...

[higuy48]

... how The Man with the Smallest Penis in Existence and the Electron Microscope Technician Who Loved Him is not on the Top 250 movies of all time list?

Re:Could someone please explain...

[east coast]

Heh! That's perhaps the funniest thing I've read on /. in years. I wish I had mod points.

Re:Could someone please explain...

[Ilgaz]

There is a better movie name but never, ever post it on Slashdot as its related to some... troll organization :)

Re:Could someone please explain...

[Anonymous Coward]

Gayniggers From Outer Space. Yes, funky name.

Before Al Gore?

[alexandreracine]

What? The IMDB was created before Al Gore invented the Internet? *duck*

Who?

[antdude]

So who is this gal? ;)

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll recant that wink if it's the snapple lady, eh?

Re:Who?

[Nom du Keyboard]

So who is this gal? ;)

The one they list 98 movies for so far, in a career spanning 1983 through present -- and she isn't stopping yet.

All this, and it still says "Primary Photo Not Submitted." Well it's not for lack of trying. Nor trying to get them to publish an entire portfolio for free. We've offered them a free primary photo for the main bio page, and they don't even want to talk about it without cash up front. Just who is doing whom a favor here?

Re:Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

She must really be a nobody, and you must really be a horrid promoter if you can't shell out a few bucks to put a picture to her name in imdb, _the_ place for that kind of thing. Good luck with her career to her, and I hope you still have your job in the next few years - that's just plain silly. Maybe you should investigate a career change to an accountant? Pinching pennies is a required qualification.

Regrettably ...

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

AOL still exists

They put the DB in IMDB

[DysenteryInTheRanks]

So the history article says the site was founded with lists long culled by rec.arts.movies regulars, and that these lists are the "backbone" of the site to this day. Did any of these people ever get paid, particularly when Amazon.com acquired the site?

A copy of IMDb on Jan 22, 1997!

[antdude]

http://web.archive.org/web/19970122085113/http://i mdb.com/ (couldn't use HTML link for it, so copy and paste that (no spaces)).

Re:A copy of IMDb on Jan 22, 1997!

[Hadean]

If you follow your link to "What's New" and then click on the "The WASHED-UPdate" on October 16th, there's a story about washed up actors. Guess who it is?

"Yes, after the long wait and hundreds of votes the results are in. The votes were spread out all over the place, but the winner is... drumroll please... Wil "Wesley Crusher" Wheaton"

Of course, IMDb at the time was definitely overrun with computer/sci-fi nerds, so it's probably not a surprise he'd be the most "popular", but it's still sad. (Luckily Clever Nickname has decided to not fade out completely).

Re:A copy of IMDb on Jan 22, 1997!

[antdude]

Nice catch on that. Interesting. :)

wrangled?

[rakerman]

If by "wrangled" you mean "took contributions that users gave to the community for free, and used them to make money" then yes. Wrangled. Our friends at GraceCDDBNote are great wranglers too.

Re:wrangled?

[That's Unpossible!]

If by "wrangled" you mean "took contributions that users gave to the community for free, and used them to make money" then yes. Wrangled. Our friends at GraceCDDBNote are great wranglers too.

I love people who think like the parent poster.

It's quid pro quo.

People supply information, which is how IMDB gains.

IDMB provides the logistics for the organization and collection of all this data, which is how you gain.

Please explain, exactly, how this situation could be any better than it is?

Let me try to imagine the scenarios in your head, and nip them in the bud:

1. If you want them to pay you for your time, then you can expect to pay them for their resources.
2. If you want them to stop profiting from IMDB, then you can expect IMDB to go away.

They aren't a charity, and the exchange between people giving to IMDB and IMDB sharing seems to be quite amicable, except for the clueless among us who think everything should be free.

Re:wrangled?

[anthony_dipierro]

If by "wrangled" you mean "took contributions that users gave to the community for free, and used them to make money" then yes. Wrangled. Our friends at GraceCDDBNote are great wranglers too.

Not to mention our friends at Slashdot.

Re:wrangled?

[rakerman]

The point is not that they take free content and provide infrastructure around it. The point is that *it started out as a completely free user-to-user community* and then became corporate infrastructure, just like CDDB.

Maybe people didn't want them taking their free contributions and monetizing them, but they didn't have much choice about the matter when it happened.

I'm not saying the business model is wrong, I'm saying the business model changed well after the community was established.

Whereas with e.g. Slashdot people always knew the tradeoffs of submitted articles.

Re:wrangled?

[r5t8i6y3]

exactly.

originally the imdb was a community project. when the database that the community created was purchased by amazon quite a few folks were unhappy that their contributions to a public database were turned into a private database.

see if you can get amazon to give you a copy of the community created data.

does anyone know whether or not there was some kind of free documentation license attached to the original data?

Re:wrangled?

[That's Unpossible!]

see if you can get amazon to give you a copy of the community created data.

Did IMDB ever offer a copy of the data?

Re:wrangled?

[That's Unpossible!]

The point is not that they take free content and provide infrastructure around it. The point is that *it started out as a completely free user-to-user community* and then became corporate infrastructure, just like CDDB.

How is IMDB any different to the end-user that submits the information than it was when it started? I have noticed absolutely no difference. I could submit info before, I could search info before, and I can still do both now. For free. And because they are the best game in town, the data gets better and better.

Re:wrangled?

[bedessen]

Come on, that's a terrible comparison:

IMDB:
Built and maintained by volunteers.
Uses ads and value added service (like headshots and agent info) to make money.
Completely free to use.
Has never "pulled the rug out" of below users by radically changing policy.
Raw DB dumps havs always available for download in several formats.

Gracenote:
Built and maintained by volunteers.
Now requires that software developers that query the DB pay for a license.
No raw database available.
Pulled a massive 180 by declaring that only licensed clients may access the DB, where it used to be free.

As a result, people still contribute prolifically to IMDB, and it remains the undisputed gem in its category. In contrast, most contributors jumped the Gracenote ship long ago and formed FreeDB. Gracenote slowly circling the drain, trying to remain relevent with their idiotic licensing.

You say that IMDB makes a profit as if that's somehow evil. How the heck are they supposed to run a site in the alexa top 100 without a revenue stream? Is slashdot also evil for plastering every page with ads, even though the content is 99% user-contributed? Hell, you can't even download a DB dump of slashdot.

This Teenager Rox

[Sundroid]

Happy 15th birthday, IMDb! I write about movies on my blog (http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/), and IMDb is THE place the go for trivia. The site is a trivia galore. Where else can you find out that Peter Sellers was supposed to play four roles in "Dr. Strangelove", including Major Kong, which was eventually played by Slim Pickens? And in "2001: the Space Odyssey", by incrementing IBM you get HAL, for HAL-9000 the badass computer, although Arthur C. Clarke, the co-screenwriter, claims HAL stands for Heuristic ALgorithmic Computer.

Oh, yeah, geek but not meek! Congrats to the guys and gals who work for IMDb.com.

Re:This Teenager Rox

[Anonymous Coward]

Decrementing!!!!!!

IMDb Turns 15...

[Afecks]

...and so does most of the people on IMDb forums

I smell some CDDB here

[Karamchand]

..a community project which evolved into a company just bringing money to a very small percentage of people involved in the original project. How sad.

Re:I smell some CDDB here

[F_Scentura]

Your comparison is invalid? CDDB charged for access to all the files contributed, IMDB remains absolutely free for all the same consumer information one can post.

Consider your payback the ability to access any of that information, and its continuous uptime.

15 years eh?

[VonSkippy]

15 years old. Must be time for some international group like the UN or some other group of pussies to start DEMANDING that the control of the IMDB be handed over to some neutral international group so it can be safely controlled.

Rottentomatoes.com

[borawjm]

Since IMDb is more for reference, I personally prefer rottentomatoes.com for my "scoop" on movies.

I also like boxofficemojo.com to track a particular movie's progress at the box office.

I think the only thing that I use IMDb for is to look what movies a particular actor starred in and vice versa.

Re:Rottentomatoes.com

[kpharmer]

I used to like imdb, but have gradually grown tired of it:
    - the interface has become too clutered with advertising
    - the whole community-built, then commercialized for the profit of a couple is disheartening
    - the recent reviews are *so* polluted with paid-for movie-industry propaganda or are created
        by fourteen year old that I've got little taste in common with

So, here's a plug for something better: www.allmovie.com & www.allmusic.com. Why are they better, well:
    - they are commercial, but they started that way, didn't exploit free contributions
    - the categorization is far better
    - the reviews are often fantastic
    - it's hard for many people to objectively look at an alternative - if you don't think you'll
        ever like anything but imdb - then check out www.allmusic.com. That site is quite amazing.

What I really miss is www.allbooks.com

Re:Rottentomatoes.com

[Anonymous Coward]

IMDB, rottontomatoes.. pah! All you needs is cndb.com

IMDB

[modi123]

IMDB (1990)
Directed by: Col Needham
Writing credits: Jeff Bezos
Michel H.
Jon R.
Murray C.
Ron H.
Giancarlo C.
Peter S.
Oliver H.
Jake D.

Genre: Movies, TV, geeks, videophiles, one-line-aholics

User rating: * * * * * * * * 8.5/10 [643,044 votes]

Cast overview, first billed only:
Col Needham ... .rec.arts.movies

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violent content, archaic GUI, and being free
Run time: 15 years
Country: International
Language: French / German / Italian / English
Color: Color : Techniolor
Certification: USA: PG-13

Trivia:

How do I break into show business?

Semi-famous actors (often people who've done a lot of commercials or character roles), writers and agents/managers with varying levels of scruples keep certain arts-themed publications filled with ads, week after week, promising to tell you the secrets... if you pay for their seminar, service or book. In fact, preying on the "wannabe" is a cottage industry in any field that puts up barriers to entry, be it the movies or publishing or the music industry. We look at these people much like the get-rich-quick gurus on late-night TV... it stands to reason that they make more money telling you how to get rich with their secrets than they do using them, otherwise they'd be too busy using them to have time to sell them to you for $49.95.

The best advice we can give you are these few points...

1. Don't quit your day job. It can take years and you'll need money to live. Harrison Ford quit acting and worked in construction for a few years before coming back and getting his break. Bruce Willis was a waiter and bartender while he tried to get stage work in New York. Even people who seem to be overnight sensations played bit parts and struggled before they suddenly burst onto the scene in a prominent role.

2. A real agent or manager will not ask you for money (be it an "up-front fee" or "seed money"). They make money when they get you a job. Also, in California, talent agents must be licensed and there are laws governing their relationship with clients. Go to the unions, preferably SAG (Screen Actors Guild) or AFTRA (American Federation of Radio and Television Artists) or WGA (Writers Guild of America), and ask for their "franchised agency" list. You can buy it for a nominal fee or in some cases get it online for free. These lists will contain licensed agents who have signed contracts with the unions to follow specific rules when representing clients.

3. Take classes. It may be hard figuring out whether the $10 per session class is as good as the $100 per session class, and we can't help you there, but classes give you two benefits. First, they help you hone and perfect your craft, whatever branch of show biz you want to be in. Second, they will help flesh out a weak resume. If you don't have credits, you need classes. If you're wondering about the credits of the person teaching the class, look them up in our database. Except for writers on individual TV show episodes, we keep pretty good records.

4. Until you're commanding $20 million per film, you're not entitled to have a big ego. Don't reject parts you think are too small or insignificant because you're too busy looking for your big break. Judi Dench won an Oscar for six minutes of screen time.

If you're looking for books on breaking into the business, you may want to check out Amazon.com's entertainment book section where you can find books about screenwriting, acting, directing, etc.

How do I break into show business?

Re:Happy Birthday, Snake Router

[milktoastman]

Smidgen Pidgin, is that you? It's been awhile since you've prowled. However, this IMDB thing won't get out of hand. Don't retreat to the couch. What? No, not that couch...not the one we doused with fuel oil and had the big river party with. Yes, I like sentences to end that way. It's where it's at. Baby, don't pull it out by the roots, just search for the picture the old fashioned way. That's what IMDB is for. They WANT you to look for their pictures. That's what this biz is all about, cakes.

Hedgehog

[Anonymous Coward]

Ron Jeremy will top them all (pun intended)

"THE LIST"

[Caped Cod]

Even prior to Col's nifty script (which quite certainly was the beginning of the searchable IMDB), there was this innocent little posting with "THE LIST" as its subject. I don't recall the original author.

The body of the article was a rather short (5 - 10, IIRC) list of actresses. This list was better known as "the list of actresses we wish we could boink".

We guy-nerds (and maybe some properly-inclined gal-nerds) added to THE LIST for a few weeks until some decided that our salaciousness required male targets as well. Eventually, the lists, umm, grew and the "want to boink" aspect somewhat, umm, fell off. :-)

So, before it went legit, the forerunner of IMDB was completely founded on fantasizing about sex.

Re:"THE LIST"

[kfg]

. . . founded on fantasizing about sex.

And there we have it folks. The complete history of the world in only five words.

KFG

Col. Needham?

[Anonymous Coward]

I knew him when he was just a lieutenant.

Ah, the memories!

[Kelson]

IMDB was one of the first websites I ever looked at, back when I took a 1-hour seminar on "Using the Internet" back in fall 1994. (For almost a year I used the terms "web" and "Mosaic" interchangably, until I got a PPP dialer for my computer and installed Netscape. Other than that, it was all Terminal and Lynx unless I wanted to go into a computer lab.)

The other sites were the instructor's home page (which, like most home pages back then, consisted mainly of a much of links) and, IIRC, some directory called Yahoo.

Thinking about it, it's kind of surprising that some of the pioneers of the web are actually still around, if in vastly different forms. Usually the pioneers go out of business while the second wave makes it big.

and it's in Perl

[consumer]

IMDB was one of the first big sites to use mod_perl. Congrats, IMDB! Glad to see you still going strong.

Bullcrap

[Anonymous Coward]

And Slashdot is much different? Come on...

In This Movie Year - 1994

[Deinhard]

Check out 1994. At the bottom of the page it says:

"According to 1980's atrocious The Apple in the future world of 1994 the music industry is ruled by an evil, scheming conglomerate set on monopolizing the business (hey, wait a minute....)"

Prophetic?

I just want to say...

[ZachPruckowski]

IMDB Rocks. I work on the committee that brings movies to our college for cheap prices ($3 a ticket), and we rely heavily on it to know which movies we want to show. We also go on personal choices, but it is nice to have the resources of IMDb.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...Manniquin Sound Nude

[Nom du Keyboard]

An example: the movie Mannequin. IMDB says that there is no DVD available, but I happen to own one

I'd buy it just for the sound track. The two best songs in that movie have never been (to my knowledge) released on any soundtrack album otherwise.

And in addition that movie is just plain fun, which is a bonus. Too bad it was done before Kim Cattrall was willing to do SitC style nude, or even topless, work. :^(

That would have been fitting for this movie, and made Jonathan Switcher even more uncomfortable around her -- which is much the point. :^)

The 1991 sequel sure sucked though.

Kevin Bacon

[knitting fool]

Ah, yes! I made quite a sport of combining the two in my undergrad days.

The Oracle of Kevin Bacon

I don't know how long I spent looking for an actor with a Bacon number of 5, but I finally found one. Now if I could only remember his name!

I knew i way back when

[martin]

He was at Uni - same course. Always a clever chap, nice one col..

Re:IMDb trivia page for Needham

[Anonymous Coward]

Sigh. Let's go through this again:

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on discussion forums?

Fifteen already?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not long before our boy starts dating female movie databases

You're 9 days out

[taxexile]

Looks like they were posted on September 8th, 1990 at 12.17pm GMT
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.arts.movies/b rowse_thread/thread/5a3719142fd4db9e/152249faf7593 d14?lnk=st&q=script&rnum=1&hl=en#152249faf7593d14

Now a marketing tool but still useful

[hung_himself]

The ratings are somewhat helpful. I find that the audience is a bit too young and haven't seen enough films not made by Spielberg and Lucas, but you take that into account. And there's always been the film studies poseurs, the 13 year-olds, the fanboys etc that you have to filter out when reading reviews but that has always been part of the fun. Marketing shills are becoming too numerous and tedious though.

Still it's very useful for settling arguments and figuring out where you've seen that babe/hunk before. Also it can be cathartic to post a rant about how badly you just wasted your last 10 bucks...

TwoFifty

[webgrappa]

Ok guys, everybody wished happy birthday, everybody popped champagne, etc. Now it's time to investigate who has seen more Top250 films!

But I thought...

[phoric]

Didn't Al Gore create this?

do you always have to get paid?

[MooseTick]

If you ever contribute to anything and it ever makes money, are the moneymakers obligated to pay you?

Sometimes it seems like its just a bunch of whiners around here.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...Manniquin Sound Nude

[schon]

in addition that movie is just plain fun, which is a bonus.

Yeah, we picked it up in the $6.99 bargain bin. It's good to watch if you just want some mindless entertainment.

Too bad it was done before Kim Cattrall was willing to do SitC style nude, or even topless, work.

Huh? I thought she did topless in Porky's, which was 3 years before Mannequin..

Shh...

[atomic-penguin]

Don't tell the MPAA, they will buy it and turn it to something horrible like movie.com! See tv.com!=tvtome.com

But then...

[manifoldronin]

shouldn't you start counting from the year IMDb was bought by Amazon, rather than the beginning? ;-)

Gracenote anyone?

[samj]

Sounds suspiciously familiar.

An IMDb alternative

[magnany]

I happen to find IMDb to be too commercial for me... Too many ads, too much "Buy this at Amazon" buttons, it really becomes a chore to find information on IMDb these days. Recently, a couple alternatives seemed to have popped up, one of which being a wiki by the name of MovieWiki. It still seems to be in the works, but with more help, it could be an awesome replacement for IMDb. (Disclaimer: I work there)

Re:An IMDb alternative

[echelonre]

How could a wiki on films have accurate information? First of all, you've seen all the teenage fangirls at IMDB forums. If they go to a wiki entry about their favorite actor, they're bound to screw up profiles adding comments like "hot" or "omg i so want him". Then you've got people who will make fake, yet obscure, listings. Will the industry look at this as legitimate? At least IMDB content is verified.

Re:An IMDb alternative

[schon]

a wiki by the name of MovieWiki. It still seems to be in the works, but with more help, it could be an awesome replacement for IMDb. (Disclaimer: I work there)

First of all, I don't think that a standard wiki is a terribly good idea for something like this, as all the pages need to be updated manually. Part of the power of the IMDB is that everything is cross-referenced. Take Bruce Willis as an example. With your Wiki clicking on most of the links on http://digitalsubstance.com/wiki/Bruce_Willis, will take you to a blank page for you to edit - it should (at the *very* least) be a template, with Bruce Willis' name already in the correct spot, with a link back to the Willis page (again, already completed.)

This is the perfect app for a relational database, and wikis are not relational. There is just *way* too much redundant information here - a wiki will collapse under its weight once you go over 10,000 entries or so.

Second, if you really want to pursue this - it needs more data. IIRC data cannot be copyrighted (only the format of the data), so you can snag an old version of the IMDB data (or, if a lawyer tells you that's a bad idea, you can at least get a head start by getting the last public version of the IMDB data from USENET.)

But unless you're a masochist (and you believe that everyone who is going to contribute is as well), I'd first recommend designing a relational DB (a real relational DB, with proper constraints) with a custom front-end, then trying to populate it with data. Wikis may be cool, and it may be something you know how to admin, but it's just the wrong tool for the job.

Steve Ballmer

[xv4n]

Any updates on Steve Ballmer trying to Fucking Kill(TM) the IMDB also?

Amazon's only viable business

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon bought IMDB for a song. I recall it making about 5 million a year profit on 6 million revenue around 2000... Meanwhile, money losing Amazon wouldn't let them spend half a mil on new servers...

MOSIS

[__aadkms7016]

The MOS Implementation Service was doing e-commerce via email in 1984 (and probably somewhat before too, 1984 is when I sent my first chip off to them).

In this service, you send an email with the mask layout for an integrated circuit, along with a research grant number (and in later years, a credit card) and a few months later a few prototype ICs would show up via Fedex.

See:

http://www.mosis.edu/ for their modern incarnation.

Good and bad on IMDB

[Belseth]

I use IMDB but I'm not a big fan. I have over 300 films under my belt and yet I have maybe a dozen listings. They demand verification of credits so I gave up on them years ago. They had two glaring errors in my listing so I contacted them both times and both times they refused to correct the mistakes until I threatened legal action. I nearly lost a job because a Producer believed the credits on IMDB were accurate and questioned my resume. I was forced to verify some of my biggest credits before he'd accept the bulk of my resume. Most put too much faith in IMDB which makes it dangerous to the working people in the industry. A friend has an academy award and to this day they refuse to acknowledge it in his bio. It's a handy but over used service given how wildly inaccurate the information can be in the listings and they aren't inclined to correct errors.

What about "Bob"?

[glassgnost]

PraBob!

Spunk Library and Etext.org

[HooliganIntellectual]

A bunch of anaarchists started up Spunk Press (www.spunk.org) in 1992, which was a simple FTP site available through Etext.org. It later was available via Gopher and then the web. Both Spunk and Etext are still running today, although Spunk hasn't been updated in years.

One of the first digital libraries and online political projects.

Now we need a ITDB

[Sark666]

I used to love tvtome.com for tv shows, but he sold it and the big wigs always totally overhall the whole site, any others out there?

IMDB killer app for WAP

[dsc68]

Accessing IMDB through http://www.zedge.no/ via my WAP phone has been a killer app for me. Being able to browse through the video store and look up movie reviews and ratings has saved me from many dud movies.

alexa.org pegs them at #44 rank

[toby]

Details here. Do they still use MySQL?

Re:alexa.org pegs them at #44 rank

[Anonymous Coward]

What you meant to say was that "for those people who use the Alexa Toolbar, then IMDB is ranked #44." I don't know anybody who uses the Alexa toolbar, or why anyone would want to in the first place.

Despite all its best efforts, Alexa is not a credible source to cite for website popularity statistics.

Re:IMDb trivia page for Needham

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh sorry.

--- Original Message ---

Re:IMDb trivia page for Needham
  (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on 05:34 PM October 17th, 2005 (#13812325)

Sigh. Let's go through this again:

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on discussion forums?

contributors' copyright?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Copyright and Conditions of Use page on the IMDb website states that:


All content included on this site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, video clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software, is the property of IMDb or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws.


The website also says that the IMDb retain copyrights of the database as a whole, and reserve the right to license it. How can the IMDb keep the copyright of the whole database when individual contributors keep the copyright of their own contributions? Do they require that contributors waive their copyright to the IDMb? In any case, it seems abusive to me that the IMDb retain copyright of the database when most of their content is user-contributed. Of course they don't want to open the door to competitors, but still, it's kind of ungrateful, no?

Google could do it so much better

[Anonymous Coward]

IMDB is a great resource but it feels thrown together to me. It's the type of site I visit and think that google could do a much nicer job.

Collaborative research: MovieLens and WikiLens

[ForteTuba]

I'll also throw out a couple of sites our research lab runs. MovieLens is a long-running personalized movie recommender that has a reasonably active, large userbase and that has generated a lot of research in collaborative filtering and HCI. More specific to the movies-and-wiki theme, we've got a fairly new site WikiLens that combines community addition of content (based on PhpWiki) with ratings and recommendations. Neither is a replacement for IMDb but many people have found MovieLens to be darn useful and we're hoping WikiLens will take off as well.

Don't forget freenet! Predated the web by ages...

[Anonymous Coward]

The original freenet predates the web by ages (it started around 1984 or 5):
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/6271/fre enet.html
Alas, it shut down in 1999, after Case Western didn't feel like keep funding it anymore...

It provided a portal to the internet for many people long before most Slashdotters ever heard of this internet thing...

Lub the IMDB

[fncll]

Downloading, installing, and hosting an early version of the IMDB at the film library where I worked-- then keeping it up to date-- was my first foray into working with an internet app (other than email, TeX, and gal-trader on a Vax terminal). I thought Col Needham was a Colonel and had no clue what I was doing, but the buzz from that experience put me gently on the path to learning skills that could feed and clothe myself and my children (unlike my creative writing, literature, and philosophy degrees)...

Too easy...

[raehl]

Internet Media DataBase.

Maybe you just missed the memo.

Funny

[sad_]

from the 1994 page - According to 1980's atrocious The Apple in the future world of 1994 the music industry is ruled by an evil, scheming conglomerate set on monopolizing the business (hey, wait a minute...)

1971, rather.

[Grendel Drago]

PG has been around since 1971, actually---though they (or Michael Hart himself, more accurately) only released one etext that year, and an average of I think one every other year until the 1980s.

The pace has quickened somewhat since then, of course. (Those are the additions in the last day.)

To quote is divine...

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'm ready for my close up Mr.Deville!