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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."
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!
crazy dynamite monkey
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.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
if any of you could name other Internet services that predate the web and still exist today.
Purity tests.
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?
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
I count 7...
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
Guess I should be on the lookout for "Legend Of Zorro" to be appearing here soon as well...
Be sure to remember the Programmers Prayer
... 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?
And now, for a sig that's a complete copout.
What? The IMDB was created before Al Gore invented the Internet? *duck*
No sig for now.
AOL still exists
I love IMDB, but I really think they ought to change their name by now.
Or drop the "I'm" and just be "Debbie".
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
7. Profit
Quite literally.
...and so does most of the people on IMDb forums
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.
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
Porn.
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!
6. No cross-reference to Mr. Skin database of nude scenes.
what about alt.nerd.obsessive, im sure its been around for a good while.
Didn't Al Gore create this?
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.
This is not my sig.
. . . founded on fantasizing about sex.
And there we have it folks. The complete history of the world in only five words.
KFG
It is amazing to me that the The Weather Underground could orchestrate all those bombings using only Telnet. Who needs SSH?
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.
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?
It's a binary 15....