QUOTE: The Guardian

"In a statement on its website, the IMDb said it had "concluded that IMDb's message boards are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide", and that the decision was "based on data and traffic".

More specifically, the company – which was set up in 1990 by Bristol-based IT worker Col Needham and later sold to Amazon – said that a shift to social media had made the message boards less vital; users, they said, had "migrated to IMDb's social media accounts as the primary place they choose to post comments and communicate with IMDb's editors and one another".

The message boards had long been seen by Needham as an integral part of the IMDb's appeal. He told the Guardian in 2013: "The human brain likes to make connections. Somebody spots a connection between two things ... you want to share that knowledge. And IMDb is a good platform.""


Has mudcat similarly diminished since certain cliques apparently deserted mudcat to set up their own cosy private gated community on facebook...???