IMDb is owned by Amazon. Use TMDB (the movie database) instead.
this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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IMDB has existed for a long, long time. It's honestly a shame as to what they turned into. They used to have been like the pinnacle of online movie reviewing and showcasing. Then they decided to axe the forums. Then they decided to blanket their splash page with what big movie is happening.
It just declined from there.
I've been using tmdb out of spite since they brought this shitty change in. Less reviews, but I can be the change I want to see, and submit reviews here myself
Isn't tmdb prone to the same enshittification if it gets enough traction?
As is everything that isnt open source
Just checked for 2 minutes and immediately noticed clearly astroturfed fake and AI reviews.
I deleted my decades old IMDb account recently and migrated here. Meager protest against Amazon, I know, but tmdb is definitely good enough. Don't miss a thang.
see also Letterboxd for just reviews
I dunno, man. Letterboxd is the movie version of goodreads. It's not a reliable place to find good movies in my opinion. Can be, if you follow reviewers whose opinions you trust, but personally, I only use Letterboxd to catalogue movies I have seen. If I read reviews, it's mostly for shits and giggles as most of them are shitpostings anyways.
i've found goodreads alright
I miss the imbd forums and reading about all the different theories viewers had on movies and shows. Enshitification of imbd started when they just randomly one day got rid of the forums.
It started when Amazon bought them
IMDb has been trash for like a decade now
Somebody recently acted like I was weird for looking up an actorβs filmography on Wikipedia instead of imdb. But I HATE imdbβs interface and will avoid it every time if I can. Wikipedia might not have every project a person has worked on but it has enough and itβs just presented in a simple table
Yep. Found that out a couple weeks ago for the same reason. I'm not giving them my data just to read some reviews. There's literally no reason to hide those behind a login other than to harvest your info and viewing habits.
But they already have your info and habits, that's all pretty easy to gather with ip logs and cookies. They want even more, and they want you to have to ask them to delete it
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Iβm only there to look at actors and see what theyβre in or view their actor relationships (siblings, spouses, kids, etc.)
Its for when you recognize an actor, but can't recall what you know them from. And it's bothering you that you don't know
I'm there for the trivia after I watch a movie. Sometimes to watch people's mental issues play out in the "goofs" section.
TIL Amazon owns IMDB?
Amazon also owns IGDB (game database), Goodreads (books), and so on. For music data, they just support MusicBrainz which is open source, open license, and independent database. MusicBrainz have pilot project for books database, but it's not as good as Goodreads or other DB yet.
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Wait till you find out who owns Rotten Tomatoes...
π when one thinks it can't get worse...
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hi, just wanted to notify you that this can be circumvented automatically with a https://libredirect.github.io/ linking to an IMDB instance. I just checked and there is at least one public instance available. It has a button in the settings that scans a public registry of them, it can randomly select from them, and there is a button in its popup menu to automatically remove any broken instance + reroll. Often there are some that exist it doesn't know about, and the whole point is that you can host your own. In fewer words, it's a collection of private frontends run by a variety of collectives and hobbyists, with a slick addon that works in Firefox Android mobile btw π . This should drastically improve your experience on mainstream websites, especially if you are the kind who "just drops in for second" and slams into a stupid login wall
Don't get caught lacking my friend nobody should be browsing default Youtube and IMDB layout. They have themes π
Because Amazon bought it
Enshitification
IMDb has been making shitty decisions for a long time. They have always been a business first, community last.
I doubt RT is much better but I use it mostly. It at least has been consistently the same amount of shitty UI since inception. TheMovieDb.org has a decent ratings system too and is getting more use, but again it's privately owned.
I'm not aware of a community run and operated ratings DB that's got any significant uptake.. Would be glad to hear of one if anyone knows.
Letterboxd isn't a 1-to-1 replacement for imdb, but it does have user submitted reviews and ratings out of 5 stars. I would suggest giving it a shot if that's primarily what you're after.
Is there a Fediverse IMDb equivalent?
Not everything needs to be fediverse.
Anyway, TMDB and TVDB are potential rivals
Not everything needs to be fediverse.
The way things are going, I'd argue otherwise lol
Just found out one of the site runners I believe it was @nutomic@lemmy.ml is making a federated wiki, which is terrific considering how wikis work and the process of filtering out the ideological bullshit on Wikipedia itself. Less drama since there's split, more tightly-knit teams, but also consider the possibility of being caugut up in multiple wiki moderation wars simultaneously π€ who knows if it would increase or decrease overall moderation spaghetti
The point is, what could possibly be worse than the current wikipedia moderation? They are absolute nolifer hellions
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IMDB started as an open wikipedia type website where everyone contributed content about movies and actors.
As soon as volunteers had added enough content that it was really useful, the IMDB creators locked out the contributors and sold it.
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Yeah I tried to look at an episode list on my phone. Tried to force me to download an app. No way to view the website on my phone.
Itβs gotten more aggressive, but it hasnβt forced me to create an account yet.
E: hmm, the app doesnβt force me to sign in, but I do see that if I try to use a web browser.
You don't need to log in with the phone app, you've already given them everything they need by installing their spyware
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At leeast tvtropes.org and imfdb.org are still ok. :)
I hit the same wall as OP yesterday but found myself on tvtropes instead which now has about 20 tabs open.
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