16 votes

What's the best IMDB alternative?

Used to love reading the IMDB boards after checking out a flick. Up until, of course, Amazon's takeover and purging. Now I feel dirty using the site to check out info about films, and am trying to break the habit of using it as my 'go-to' site.

Letterboxd and TheMovieDatabase seem to be the 2 most credible alternatives. Any other suggestions on the Web3.0 (or 2.5) solution to a great community to kick back, contribute and learn with others about film?

12 comments

  1. [5]
    envy
    Link
    Why?

    Now I feel dirty using the site to check out info about films

    Why?

    5 votes
    1. [4]
      citizenerased
      Link Parent
      I feel dirty spending time/money/effort on anything which has lost a personal touch and is owned by huuuuuuuge business. Even though sometimes it's necessary, I don't believe it should be a...

      I feel dirty spending time/money/effort on anything which has lost a personal touch and is owned by huuuuuuuge business. Even though sometimes it's necessary, I don't believe it should be a preferred outcome.

      I want to try as hard as possible to contribute to places which have a sense of real community, real people, a sense of freedom and where I feel my efforts are valued. It's basically why I'm here, too.

      3 votes
      1. envy
        Link Parent
        IMDb has been a subsidiary of Amazon.com since April 1998.

        IMDb has been a subsidiary of Amazon.com since April 1998.

        14 votes
      2. Douglas
        Link Parent
        I hear ya and understand where you're coming from. Even though it doesn't really feel like it makes all that big of a difference, it's just kinda the principle of the thing and you want to support...

        I hear ya and understand where you're coming from. Even though it doesn't really feel like it makes all that big of a difference, it's just kinda the principle of the thing and you want to support others where possible, even if it's just for peace of mind. Makes sense to me and thanks for asking this question. I'm so dependent on IMDb that I've just given up boycotting it and just use an Adblocker whenever I'm there. I totally get trying to cut Amazon out of your life wherever possible.

        I really should switch over to Letterboxd for my reviews.

        1 vote
      3. ibis
        Link Parent
        I didn’t know imdb was owned by amazon until now. I’ll also be avoiding the site.

        I didn’t know imdb was owned by amazon until now. I’ll also be avoiding the site.

  2. 45930
    Link
    Letterboxd? I haven't used it in a while, and don't know the ownership situation. But I get the sense that it's a much smaller community. Might be what you're looking for.

    Letterboxd? I haven't used it in a while, and don't know the ownership situation. But I get the sense that it's a much smaller community. Might be what you're looking for.

    2 votes
  3. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. krg
      Link Parent
      I scrolling through it and came upon this topic title under the Religion, Faith, and Spirituality board: "after homosexuals win the current holy war" 🤔 Well, apparently it's a poem, of some sort.

      I scrolling through it and came upon this topic title under the Religion, Faith, and Spirituality board: "after homosexuals win the current holy war"

      🤔

      Well, apparently it's a poem, of some sort.

  4. [2]
    est
    Link
    I plan to write a decentralized version on top of git. Make friends with merge & diff!

    I plan to write a decentralized version on top of git. Make friends with merge & diff!

    2 votes
    1. PopeRigby
      Link Parent
      Have you thought of using ActivityPub? That's the standard for decentralized social networking. You can also federated with other tech that uses it, like Mastodon.

      Have you thought of using ActivityPub? That's the standard for decentralized social networking. You can also federated with other tech that uses it, like Mastodon.

      1 vote
  5. mrbig
    Link
    I'd say Wikipedia.

    I'd say Wikipedia.

    2 votes
  6. Adys
    Link
    I spent a lot of time on that question. What I landed on is Trakt, which I actually straight up bought a subscription to. It allows me to track both movies and TV series. I used to use TVMaze but...

    I spent a lot of time on that question. What I landed on is Trakt, which I actually straight up bought a subscription to. It allows me to track both movies and TV series. I used to use TVMaze but it's tv-only and simply not as good. Trakt has a Plex webhook-based integration to automatically mark shows as watched right as you're watching them.

    In fact, if you guys want to creep a bit on my profile as an active user, I've set it to public. Here is year 2019, and here is my all-time.

    Unfortunately, I only started using all this a few months back so my profile is a bit weird due to the way I imported my data from tvmaze (wrote a script and everything…). Some items are marked as watched on their release date before I was even born, and I've probably not watched all of The Simpsons. It's also biased by my recent MCU marathon…
    One thing I really like is that you can see not just my watched movies/episodes, but also when I re-watch them. TVMaze didn't have that data, so it's lacking my unhealthily high amount of rewatches of Psych, IT Crowd and Futurama. Maybe I should be thankful for that.

    Anyway, if you're looking to contribute to the wiki side of the story, Trakt gathers its data from TheMovieDatabase and TheTVDB. I really like that approach; kinda similar to the way OpenStreetMap functions. And both of those still have backreferences to imdb IDs if needs be.

    1 vote
  7. tomf
    Link
    I've built a spreadsheet that uses APIs from OMDB, TMDB, etc and also scrapes Letterboxd. Each site has its own benefit. The ratings across all platforms are +/-0.5 for the most part, so that's...

    I've built a spreadsheet that uses APIs from OMDB, TMDB, etc and also scrapes Letterboxd. Each site has its own benefit. The ratings across all platforms are +/-0.5 for the most part, so that's largely irrelevant. The community aspects of Letterboxd is the best, but the cast listings and other references are best with IMDB.

    TMDB is okay and fills in some gaps where IMDB is missing out, but for the most part it's just not as good. The information isn't always consistent, for instance.

  8. Comment removed by site admin
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