this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
259 points (98.1% liked)

Asklemmy

55280 readers
185 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Just wanted to check some user reviews for a serie, now IMDB forces me to create an account. Such bullshit to read some reviews. No fucking way. Fuck corporate enshittification. Fuck IMDB. Fuck Amazon.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] PerfectDark@lemmy.world 115 points 3 months ago (4 children)

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

https://www.themoviedb.org/

[–] goreverminski@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 24 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Isn't tmdb prone to the same enshittification if it gets enough traction?

[–] valar@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

As is everything that isnt open source

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Just checked for 2 minutes and immediately noticed clearly astroturfed fake and AI reviews.

[–] Aatube@piefed.social 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

see also Letterboxd for just reviews

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 42 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Donjuanme@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] goreverminski@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Amazon already knows everything about you from your buying habits, down to menstrual cycles and toilet cleaning. What's your favourite films on top of it?

(I hate Amazon, finally deleted my decades old IMDb account a while back. Now if only I could rid myself of Amazon... They've not fulfilled a single order for me correctly since 2020 so it's not even the ease that counts any more... One day!)

[–] valar@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Do it now. You will not regret it. There are alternatives for everything. Including just doing less online shopping.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 4 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Almost anything you can find on Amazon, you can also find on Ebay. And sometimes Ebay is actually cheaper.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ok_effect@feddit.dk 41 points 3 months ago (1 children)

IMDb is owned by Amazon. Use TMDB (the movie database) instead.

themoviedb.org

[–] LightYagami@lemmus.org 5 points 3 months ago
[–] Mihies@programming.dev 31 points 3 months ago (5 children)
[–] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 26 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Mihies@programming.dev 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I knew about Goodreads but not the others. Enshittification, indeed.

[–] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Some other sites to check out: Discogs (all music) and VGMdb (video game music). I don't know about ownership.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago

Discogs is inferior to musicbrainz in terms of information.
To me it's only value is the market place (which is very good)

[–] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They also bought out and screwed DPReview.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

IMDb has been trash for like a decade now

[–] charokol@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago

Somebody recently acted like I was weird for looking up an actor’s filmography on Wikipedia instead of imdb. But I HATE imdb’s 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 it’s just presented in a simple table

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Ew I didn’t know they were owned by Amazon. Gross.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] wickedrando@lemmy.ml 21 points 3 months ago
[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] dotAlexX@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] belunos@lemmus.org 6 points 3 months ago

It started when Amazon bought them

[–] Quokka@quokk.au 12 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Is there a Fediverse IMDb equivalent?

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Not everything needs to be fediverse.

Anyway, TMDB and TVDB are potential rivals

[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 13 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Not everything needs to be fediverse.

The way things are going, I'd argue otherwise lol

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

Because Amazon bought it

[–] plenipotentprotogod@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] yilian@sopuli.xyz 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I’m only there to look at actors and see what they’re in or view their actor relationships (siblings, spouses, kids, etc.)

[–] funksoulkitchen@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 months ago

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

It’s gotten more aggressive, but it hasn’t forced me to create an account yet.

E: hmm, the app doesn’t force me to sign in, but I do see that if I try to use a web browser.

[–] okwhateverdude@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

You don't need to log in with the phone app, you've already given them everything they need by installing their spyware

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] vapor_body@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 months ago

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 😎 . 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 πŸŽ€

[–] goreverminski@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

There's a really nice TMDb compatible Android app called ShowCase, btw.

[–] lemmylump@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Enshitification

[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I've had an IMDb account longer than some Netizens have been alive. I feel like the Fediverse angles older, though, so I should be careful how I word it here. Popular social networks, though? Easy claim. Though, I feel like when people capitalise the B at the end, they might be younger? But I just checked and the B is definitely still lowercase, so I'm not sure where they got that it was upper.

That said, I got rid of the app a while ago. I just browse to it in Safari (iPhone) or Firefox (Mac) now. The app is trash. I've migrated my data to TMDB, but the site's not quite as good and lacks information, so I use both. (TMDB does not have an app. There's an app on the App Store, but it's not official and it sucks. So it's browser-only for now.)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] daannii@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

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.

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί