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{{Infobox Website
|websitename = [[Image:IMDb.Logo.png]]
|screenshot = [[image:The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)1145113025625.png|150px|The front page of the Internet Movie Database]]
|commercial = Yes
|type = Online movie, TV, and video game database
|owner = [[Amazon.com]]
|author = [[Col Needham]]
|url = http://www.imdb.com/
}}
The '''Internet Movie Database''' ('''IMDb''') is an [[online]] [[database]] of information about [[actor]]s, [[film]]s, [[Television program|television shows]], television stars, [[video games]] and production crew personnel.

Owned by [[Amazon.com]] since 1998, the IMDb celebrated its fifteenth anniversary on [[October 17]], [[2005]].

As of [[August 22]], [[2006]] IMDb featured 825,865 titles and 2,179,165 people. <ref>{{cite web
| title = IMDb Statistics
| url = http://www.imdb.com/database_statistics
| accessdate = 2006-08-22 }}</ref>

==Overview==
The IMDb website consists of the largest known single accumulation of data on individual films (including complete cast and crew listings), television programs (including complete cast and crew listings), direct-to-video product and videogames reaching back to their respective beginnings, and worldwide in scope. Wherever possible, the information goes beyond simple screen or press credits to include uncredited personnel and companies involved, either artistically or technically, in the production and distribution, thus aiming at completeness of detail (even including filming locations of productions). Furthermore, IMDb tracks projects in production, and even major, announced projects still in the developmental stage. Simultaneously, a collateral database of all persons identified in the product database exists, including biographical details and information about other aspects of their professional lives not covered by individual entries in the database (theatrical appearances, commercial advertising appearances, etc.). Information is largely provided by a cadre of volunteer contributors, with only 17 members of the staff dedicated to monitoring the data received [http://us.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?imdbstaff].

The IMDb also offers ancillary material such as daily movie and TV news, and running special features about various movie events such as the [[Academy Awards]]. IMDb also has an active message board system: there are message boards for each database entry, which can be found at the bottom of the relevant page, as well as general discussion boards on various topics.

IMDb is a free site, which requires only registration to access its complete range of data and activities. Any person with an [[e-mail]] account and a [[web browser]] that accepts [[HTTP cookie|cookies]] can set up an account with IMDb, then research covered product, submit information and engage in other site activities. (Site visitors not wishing to provide registration information can, however, view and search the database.) For automated queries, most of the database can be downloaded as ([[data compression|compressed]]) [[binary and text files|plain text]] files and the information can be extracted using the tools provided (typically using a [[command line interface]]). See: [http://imdb.com/interfaces IMDb interfaces]

It has also in 2003 spun off a private, subscription-funded site, IMDbPro, offering the entire IMDb contents plus additional information for business professionals, such as personnel contact details, movie event calendars, and a greater range of industry news.

==History==
===In rec.arts.movies===
The database originated from two lists started as independent projects in early 1989 by participants in the [[Usenet]] [[newsgroup]] rec.arts.movies. In each case, a single maintainer recorded items [[email]]ed by newsgroup readers, and posted updated versions of his list from time to time. [[Google Groups]] coverage of rec.arts.movies is incomplete during the relevant time period, with a 6-month gap in late 1988 and early 1989 and a number of missing articles after that. <ref>Google Groups coverage of rec.arts.movies is incomplete during the relevant time period, with a 6-month gap in late 1988 and early 1989 and a number of missing articles after that. This posting, with almost 1000 entries, is the earliest version of THE LIST that is preserved. This response to an item in the newsgroup's FAQ list tells the then-recent story of the list's origin.</ref>

It began with a posting titled "Those Eyes", on the subject of [[actress]]es with beautiful eyes. [[Hank Driskill]] began to collect a list of sexy actresses and what movies they had appeared in, and as the size of the repeated posting grew far beyond a normal newsgroup article, it soon became known simply as "THE LIST". <ref>Chuck Musciano's first posting proposing the movie ratings report is also missing, but here are his first call for votes and his first ratings report.</ref>

The other project, started by [[Chuck Musciano]], was briefly called the "Movie Ratings List" and soon became the "Movie Ratings Report". Musciano simply asked readers to rate movies on a scale of one to ten, and reported on the votes .
He soon began posting "ballots" with lists of movies for people to rate, so his list also grew quickly.

In 1990 [[Col Needham]] collated the two lists and produced a "Combined LIST & Movie Ratings Report",<ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies/msg/0203e8ba735348fd?dmode=source&hl=en Needham's first combined LIST and ratings report]. His first posting of the database scripts is not available.</ref> and at this point the ball really started rolling. Needham soon found himself starting a (male) "[[Actor]]s List", while [[Dave Knight]] began a "[[film director|Directors]] List", and [[Andy Krieg]] took over THE LIST, which would later be renamed as the "Actress List". Both this and the Actors List had been restricted to people who were still alive and working, but retired people began to be added, and Needham also started what was then (but did not remain) a separate "Dead Actors/Actresses List". The goal now was to make the lists as inclusive as the maintainers could manage.
In late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 [[movies]] and [[television series]]. On [[October 17]], [[1990 in film|1990]], Needham posted a collection of [[Unix]] [[shell script]]s which could be used to search the four lists, and the database that would become the IMDb was born. At the time, it was known as the "rec.arts.movies movie database".

===On the web===
By [[1993 in film|1993]], the database had been expanded to include additional categories of filmmakers and other demographic material, as well as [[trivia]], [[biographies]], and [[plot|plot summaries]]; the movie ratings had been properly integrated with the list data; and a centralised email interface for querying the database had been created. Later in the year, it moved onto to the [[World Wide Web]] (a network in its infancy back then) under the name of ''Cardiff Internet Movie Database''. The database resided on the [[Server (computing)|server]]s of the computer science department of [[Cardiff University]] in [[Wales]]. [[Rob Hartill]] was the original web interface author. In [[1994 in film|1994]], the email interface was revised to accept the submission of all information, meaning that people no longer had to email the specific list maintainer with their updates. However, the structure remained that information received on a single film was divided among multiple section managers, the sections being defined and determined by categories of film personnel and the individual filmographies contained therein. Its management also continued to be in the hands of a small contingent of underpaid or volunteer "section managers" who were receiving ever-growing quantities of information on films from around the world and across time from contributors of widely varying level of expertise and informational resources. Despite the annual claims of Needham, in a year-end report newsletter to the Top fifty contributors, that "fewer holes" must now remain for the coming year, the amount of information still missing from the database was vastly underestimated. Over the next few years, the database was run on a network of [[mirror (computing)|mirrors]] across the world with donated bandwidth.

===As an independent company===
In 1995, it became obvious to the principal site managers that the project had become too large to maintain merely through donations and in their spare time. The decision was made to become a commercial venture and in 1996, IMDb was incorporated in the [[United Kingdom]], becoming the Internet Movie Database Ltd, with [[Col Needham]] the primary owner as well as identified figurehead. The remaining shareholders were the people maintaining the database. Revenue was generated through advertising, licensing and partnerships.

This state of affairs continued until 1998. The database was growing every day, and it was again reaching a critical point. Most revenues were being spent on equipment, and there was not enough money left over to pay full time salaries. The system was also suffering noticeable slowdowns both in accessing the site and in having new data posted. Offers were solicited and received from major businesses to purchase the database; however, the shareholders were unwilling to sell if it could not be guaranteed that the information would be accessible to the internet community for free.

===As a subsidiary company===
In 1998[http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=37602], [[Jeff Bezos]], founder, owner and CEO of [[Amazon.com]] struck a deal with Col Needham and other principal shareholders, to buy IMDb outright and attach it to his corporate empire as a subsidiary, private company. This gave IMDb the ability to pay the shareholders salaries for their work, while Amazon.com would be able to use the IMDb as an advertising resource for selling [[DVD]]s and [[videotape]]s. Volunteer contributors were not advised in advance of even the possibility of IMDb - and their contributions along with it - being sold to a private business, which created some initial discord and defection of regulars.

IMDb continues to expand its functionality. In 2002, it added a subscription service known as IMDbPro aimed at entertainment professionals. It provides a variety of services including [[film production|production]] and [[box office]] details, as well as a company directory. Most information contained in the IMDb database proper continues to come from volunteer researchers, whose additional incentive, since 2003, is that if they are identified as being one of "the top one hundred contributors" in terms of amounts of hard data submitted, they receive complimentary free access to IMDbPro for the following calendar year. However, many volunteer contributors just contribute data because they want to improve the database, with no thought of reward.

==TV episodes==
On [[26 January]] [[2006]], the long-awaited "Full Episode Support" came online, meaning the database now supports separate cast and crew listings for every episode of every TV series. This was described by Col Needham as "the largest change we've ever made to our data model", and increased the number of titles in the database from 485,000 to nearly 750,000.

At present, the database entries for TV series are in a state of flux, as listings are migrated from series titles to individual episodes. The maintainers anticipate that it will take a couple of months for data to settle down and bugs to be ironed out.

==Ancillary features==
===User ratings of films===
[[Image:IMDB top 250.svg|thumb|250px|IMDb top 250 films, plotted by year and the sum of the ratings for movies from that year.]]
As one adjunct to data, the IMDb offers a [[rating scale]] which allows users to rate films by choosing one of ten categories in the range 1-10, with each user able to submit one rating. The points of reference given to users of these categories are the descriptions "1 (awful)" and "10 (excellent)"; and these are the only descriptions of categories. Due the minimum category being scored one, the mid-point of the ''range'' of scores is 5.5, rather than 5.0 as might intuitively be expected given a maximum score of ten. This rating system has also recently been implemented for television programming on an episode-by-episode basis.

In adopting this method, IMDb is following its widespread usage; the method is the same as rating in the range of a half star to five stars. When used in reviews by a single reviewer, the method has some basic utility given a rating is usually given in the context of a qualitative appraisal of the film. The simplicity of this method makes it popular, but in terms of [[psychometric]], statistical, and other criteria, the method suffers shortcomings (see [[Rating scale|online rating scales]]).

====Plot Keywords====
Plot keywords are keywords that contributors to the IMDb submit. These are keywords regarding objects and occurrences in each film on the IMDb.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/updates/guide/keywords Submission Guide: Keywords]</ref>

====The use of filters and weights for individual films====
IMDb indicates that submitted ratings are filtered and weighted in various ways in order to produce a [[weighted mean]] that is displayed for each film, series, and so on. It states that filters are used to avoid "[[ballot stuffing|vote stuffing]]"; the method is not described in detail, to avoid attempts to circumvent it.

====Lists in which films are ranked====
The IMDb [http://www.imdb.com/top_250_films Top 250] is intended to be a listing the top 'rated' 250 films, based on ratings by the registered users of the website using the methods described. Only theatrical releases running longer than sixty minutes with over 1300 ratings are considered; all other products are ineligible. Also, the 'top 250' rating is based on only the ratings of "regular voters" (IMDb does not define this term). In addition to other weightings, the top 250 films are also based on a weighted rating formula referred to in actuarial science as a ''credibility formula'' [http://stats.lse.ac.uk/norberg/links/papers/CRED-eas.pdf]. This label arises because a statistic is taken to be more credible the greater the number of individual pieces of information; in this case from eligible users who submit ratings.

The IMDb also has a [http://www.imdb.com/bottom_100_films Bottom 100] feature which is assembled in the same way. Although the Top 250 films generally do not shift much (the "great" films are typically better known, and therefore have a high number of votes and a higher popularity inertia) the "winner" of the Bottom one hundred changes frequently. A disproportionate number of "Bottom 100" films were featured on [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]], as a result of an MST3K website encouraging all its users to register with IMDb and vote "1" on films featured on the show, during IMDb's early years. (MST3K was a show specializing in showing bad movies.)

The top 250 list comprises a wide strata of films, including major releases, cult films, independent films, critically acclaimed films, silent films and foreign films. Nevertheless, there are issues{{fact}} associated with compiling such lists of ''rankings'' which arise from the shortcomings of the approach to ratings.

===Message boards===
One of the most used features of the Internet Movie Database is the Message Boards that coincide with every database entry, along with forty seven Main Boards. These boards allow registered users to share, discuss and debate information about the movie/actor/writer. They were not originally part of the IMDb, but were added only after its purchase by Amazon.com, some time in the year 2000.

The [http://www.imdb.com/boards/ Main Boards] are wide discussion forums that pertain to certain aspects of film discussion. They divide into the categories ''Trivia! Trivia!'' (various aspects of detailed film minutia), ''Awards Season'' (various movie awards winners and nominees), ''FilmTalk'' (talk about film in general and specific films), ''TV Talk'' (television shows, new and old), ''Shop Talk'' (film professions), ''Genre Zone'' (a number of established movie genres), ''Around the World'' (global cinema), ''Star Talk'' (celebrities and film professionals), ''General Boards'' (miscellaneous and non-film-related topics), ''Video Games'' (talk about games consoles and video games in general) and ''IMDb Help'' (anything pertaining directly to the site itself). As the IMDb expires older posts from all message boards variably, it is difficult to precisely measure traffic according to individual board, but [http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000043/threads/ The Sandbox] and [http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000044/threads/ The Soapbox] are amongst the highest traffic boards on IMDb. The Soapbox is a general purpose discussion board, where users can go for "their more heated discussions". The Sandbox is a general purpose, anything-goes board designated for test messages and off-topic posts.

Over the last five years the [[George W. Bush]], [[Michael Jackson]] and Soapbox message boards (and, to a lesser extent, the ''[[Fahrenheit 9/11]]'' and ''[[The Passion of the Christ]]'' message boards and other message boards for political and religious personas) have been major targets for heated debate, ranting and [[Internet troll|trolling]].{{uncited}}



===My movies===
Registered users also have access to "my movies," which is a database that can be created by any registered user<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/help/search?domain=helpdesk_faq&index=1&file=mymoviesguide What Is IMDb's My Movies service?]</ref>. The user can sort the content of that database according to several criteria, such as vote history <ref>[http://www.imdb.com/help/search?domain=helpdesk_faq&index=1&file=mymoviescreatelist How do I create a personalized movie list with My Movies?]</ref>.

==Criticisms==
{{verify}}
Despite its popularity, IMDb has critics who regard it as unreliable, even by the standards of a [[wiki]]. Common complaints leveled against the site include the following:

*The database doesn't accept every vote submitted for movies to be placed on the "Top 250" or "Bottom 100" list. They only count votes from "Regular Voters," and they refuse to publish the criteria for what a "Regular Voter" is. The staff claims that it is to prevent people from taking multiple accounts and just voting for their favorite or least favorite films over and over again, but many users question this claim. Accusations abound that the voting is "rigged."

*The ability of software to filter content is limited so all content has to be manually approved. This leads to backlogs.

*The site's listing of titles for foreign films does not list any alternate titles except under "Also Known As." This leads to heavy problems in searching for various foreign films and titles, given that many people only know the English translations of the titles, or have incomplete information about the original titles of the films.

*Staff members gauge the validity of contributed data based on the past reliability of the contributor, as none are themselves experts in all of the significantly varied areas of film history to know what is valid themselves.{{fact}} The volume of submissions and the number of volunteers who submit information are therefore likely to result in frequent errors.

*Submissions of product data are processed by categories of personnel contained in the submission, meaning the data for any one film is broken up into several components and examined independently of the other components, then reassembled without checking the continuity of the whole, which may be further disrupted if one manager's section(s) is/are backlogged, an unfortunately regular occurrence at IMDb. {{fact}}

*IMDb follows stringent rules on displaying cast lists only according to "the order shown on the screen in the most complete cast list shown." This was one of Col Needham's earliest rules.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/Newsletter/newsletter-8#howto Getting it right the first time] by ''Rod Crawford''</ref> Such complete screen cast lists are frequently based on order of appearance or, occasionally, alphabetical listings of players. In either case, the rules for listing may result in the names of a film's stars appearing well into the cast list even though a list of main actors may have appeared at the beginning of the film or shortly after the end, as well as in advertising for the film. Consequently, visitors to the site may first encounter an abbreviated entry on a film which displays a list of cast and crew members who are not major actors in the film.

*Conversely, a fixed display by categories is used instead of screen order of credits. Only the ''writers'' category allows multiple names to be listed in the order of screen appearance within its confines.

*Submission policies have become more stringent over the years, and approval of new titles to be added has become more cautious, but errors still occur while the added restrictions have made it more difficult to add information to the database or correct mistakes.

*IMDb also retains the right to publish ''and'' not to publish information in such categories as a film's trivia, goofs, celebrity information, etc., regardless of how true it is. It is not uncommon for an item to be published one day, only to be removed the next; the criteria are secretive.<ref>{{cite news
| last = Finke
| first = Nikki
| title = Do You IMDB?
| work = [[LA Weekly]]
| date = 2004-08-5
| url = http://www.laweekly.com/deadline-hollywood/9084/do-you-imdb/
| accessdate = 2006-08-22 }}</ref> In other cases, it can be difficult to get a demonstrably untrue piece of information removed.

*There are recurrent complaints on general boards by certain users of a lack of moderation for its message boards. Thus, certain users complain that irrelevant, attacking or obscene messages, and general trolling is a problem on the boards of films and personalities, as well as the board set up by IMDb for the explicit purpose of being an outlet for screed (''The Soapbox''). Although offensive messages can be reported with the "Report abuse form"<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?boardsabuse What should I do if I see an offensive post on the message boards?] </ref>, their removal takes some time (up to 2-3 days) and only one report per offending poster can be filed by each user under a revised system introduced in late 2005, replacing a system which allowed multiple abuse reports against an offender. However, users have an "ignore this poster" option as a sop: the function blocks the message from the view of the user who has placed someone on his/her ignore list. (Of course, the offending poster's contributions remain live and visible to anyone who does not have them in "ignore" status.)

*Regular complaints can be seen on general boards that posts and accounts are being deleted without any reason, which has raised the question of whether [[Internet troll|trolls]] or other users have found a way to delete users' posts or even accounts. (If a post or thread is deleted by an administrator, it appears in the message board as "post or thread deleted by administrator"<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?boardsmarkers What's the meaning of all those "Post deleted" messages?]</ref>). In response to this complaint, the board administrators comment that "the problem they describe simply does not exist. The only people who can disable accounts are IMDb staff members on the boards administration team.{{fact}} For instance, the possibility has been posited that specific ''kinds'' of abuse report would result in automatic post deletion, such as posts which encourage illegal acts such as online piracy. The quantity of reports has also been questioned. Another recurrent issue raised on the IMDb general boards is whether the administrators thoroughly investigate reports of abuse or instead simply delete posts or accounts without verifying that the IMDb's [http://www.imdb.com/help/show_article?boardstc terms and conditions] for the message board have been violated.

*The "Mini biography" section on each actor's entry has information which is often very out-of-date and in many cases unverified (such as the information in the 'Height' and 'Trivia' sections). {{fact}} The information regarding the most popular and established performers is often (but not necessarily always) correct, while the quality and veracity of data for less well-known players is correspondingly less reliable.

*Complaints have been made about the advertisement being intrusive, however the IMDb says that it is working with advertising enterprises to reduce the impact that ads may have on the usability of the service <ref>[http://imdb.com/help/show_leaf?ads The ads on your site are really annoying. Can't you get rid of them?]</ref>

*Some actors and actresses, have no information associated with them. These are usually in the process of being linked.

===Copyright issues===
All volunteers who contribute content to the database retain [[copyright]] to their contributions but grant full rights to copy, modify, and sublicense the content to IMDb. IMDb in turn does not allow others to use movie summaries or actor biographies without written permission.

==See also==
*[[Movie Tome]]
*[[All Movie Guide]]
*[[TV IV]]
*[[Internet Broadway Database]]
*[[Internet Book List]]
*[[Fictional film]]
*[[Films that have been considered the greatest ever]]
*[[Films considered the worst ever]]
*[[Rotten Tomatoes]]
*[[Internet Movie Cars Database]]
*[[Internet Adult Film Database]]
*[[Hkmdb]] - the Hong Kong IMDb
{{Amazon}}

==External links==
* [http://www.imdb.com/ Internet Movie Database]
* [http://www.laweekly.com/deadline-hollywood/9084/do-you-imdb/ "Do You IMDb?"] (August 2004 article from ''[[L.A. Weekly]]'').
*[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies/msg/dcc90b58a95e1883?dmode=source&hl=en A 1994 FAQ list for the database]. ''Section eight tells its early history in a less sanitized manner than the IMDb link above.''

== Footnotes ==
<div class="references-small"><references /></div>

[[Category:1990 establishments|Internet Movie Database]]
[[Category:Film websites|Internet Movie Database]]
[[Category:Amazon.com|Internet Movie Database]]
[[Category:Online databases|Internet Movie Database]]

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Revision as of 12:16, 18 November 2006

LIES!!!

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