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UPDATE: Warner Bros Lawyers Dig In Garbage Over ‘The … 
3RD UPDATE THURSDAY: WGAW Pressured IMDB On Writers Credits
2ND UPDATE 5:30PM: Writers credits are back atop IMDB. Cool.
UPDATE 3PM: This change is on IMDB, not IMDB Pro. Here is what IMDB says:
Notice something different? IMDb is continually trying out new ways to provide and display content that will improve your experience on our site. Over time, you may notice that we’ve added a new feature or changed around elements within a particular page or section. We will not be removing data from the site but we may occasionally alter where data is located. We are always interested in constructive feedback from you regarding these changes, especially if you’ve experienced a change in functionality on the site. Please send feedback to: http://www.imdb.com/helpdesk/contact_form
12PM: Bad enough that free IMDB (not pay IMDB Pro) has grown increasingly unreliable as a source of accurate and up-to-date showbiz info. But I’m suddenly flooded with angry emails complaining about IMDB’s latest moronic decision: 
moving writers down to “Additional Details” so that now only directors and the major cast are at the top of the movie’s home page there. This took place a day ago and is an outrage! (And it’s long been an outrage that below-the-line crew are relegated to a different page…) “Even if the director is also the writer, the credit has been drop-kicked to the bottom with the crew,” one writer fumes. “Writers and composers are the only artists in the filmmaking process that begin with a blank page. We create the blueprint, the foundation upon which every director, actor and craftsperson builds. This must stop. Please, Nikki, mention this and help IMDB change this attempt to ‘whitewash’ the writer from their proper place in filmmaking credits.” Or, as another writer emails, “Let slip the dogs of war on these assholes.” IMDB bigwigs and their Amazon bosses read my website. NOTE: One very reliable source of info on IMDB is Lew Irwin’s Studio Briefing, which is also now a blog…)
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IMDB jumped the shark last year when they bought Withoutabox. Now a film only has to be submitted (not accepted, just submitted) to a festival that is recognized by IMDB and it gets listed.
Net net, I can shoot 10 min of my navel, submit it to a fest and voila, Navel (2009) is on IMDB.
Ridiculous.
But canning writers from the top listing? Plain stupid.
That is some ripe B.S.
What is this “Writer’s to the below the line” ballyhoo??! Try making a movie with no script…
I hate that a vast majority of people (fans, industry types) take the imdb as “gospel,” when I’m continually having to fix entries filled with inaccuracies. At this rate, the wikipedia is more accurate than the imdb!
And it’s disgusting to put writers down “under the cut” on the page listed with “additional crew.” Without them, films would not exist!
I’m so glad someone else commented on this… I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I guess the director is god in the IMDB world.
IMDB is the least of our problems in the WGA. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just announced their latest inductees into their ranks: EIGHT PUBLICISTS are now new members while only FOUR WRITERS were considered worthy. Everyone knows when you want to create a magical scene that will be remembered in the annals of film history, you call on a publicist.
As asinine a move as this clearly is, as someone who has been using imdb for well over a decade I can say that this will drastically alter the site’s usability for me. I go looking for writers slightly more than I go looking for any other categories combined. I’m fine with additional content and layout changes, as long as it’s actually something I have any interest in and it doesn’t make it harder for me to find the information I came looking for in the first place! To makes us hunt down the inventors of the movie is insulting to the intelligence of both the writers and the users.
If you can win a televised Oscar for your work, you should bloody well be above the digital fold.
That is absolutely ridiculous! It is bad enough that Hollywood has so little respect for the craft of writing and many writers get treated as second class citizens on the sets of their own creation but to list them with “other crew” is criminal.
I am increasingly disgusted with the level of service IMDB gives it’s membership (which I PAY for) and if it isn’t fixed this may just make me cancel my subscription!
GET IT TOGETHER IMDB!!!
Send letters to Christian Gaines, he used to run AFI FEST so you’d think he’d know better.
I guess not enough writers are joining IMDB and paying the monthly fee. It’s all about the fees. That’s why I have only five credits listed of the nearly thirty I’ve earned. IMDB is a joke!
They weren’t moved off the main page, they were moved to additional details further down with release date, etc.
The writers are still at least on the front page, what about the rest of the crew? Where’s the false outrage from the last decade when they weren’t on the front page?
yeah, i’ll be cancelling my imdbpro subscription if they don’t fix imdb and quick!!!!! terrible decision. someone should be fired for that idea.
This is such a bloody outrage and a huge slap in the face for many screenwriters who have worked hard to create original stories with interesting characters.
Way to go, IMDB!
I’ve email IMDB that I will not be renewing my subscription if this does not change. I urge other writers to do the same. Get their attention by getting them where it would hurt…Their pockets.
While I’m dumbfounded by this move, given the “writing” on, say, the latest summer blockbuster, it’s easy to see how IMDb may have thought this was okay. As one of thousands of uncredited writers, I’ve always been appalled that there wasn’t a catch-all “creative contributions by” credit for those who had a hand in the writing process. But as a screenwriter we’re supposed to be okay with the star’s masseuse and the 57 CGI minions getting more credit than us.
They also moved the comment section to the bottom of the page. THEY MUST BE ANTI-COMMENTS!
They also moved the plot synopsis to the bottom of the page! THEY MUST BE ANTI-PLOT SYNOPSIS!
They moved a bunch of information to lower on the page for all movies, NOT JUST THE WRITERS. Stop playing the victim on a non-existent problem. Sheesh.
Aren’t writers the ones who WRITE THE MOVIE. There can’t be a more NECESSARY, CRUCIAL element to the filmmaking process. This is RIDICULOUS!!
Thanks, Nikki. Never mind the rest of us. It’s just hard to see names like these (there are many others) –
Julius J. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein
Howard Koch
Frank Nugent
Charles Brackett
Frances Goodrich
Charles Lederer
Horton Foote
Waldo Salt
Paddy Chayefsky
Alvin Sargent
David Webb Peoples
– listed as “Additional Details” beneath the “MOVIEmeter” …
Somebody made a bad call. Somebody should quietly fix it.
IMDB and IMDBpro is run by monkeys.
Illiterate monkeys at that.
It is the most out of date and incorrect database in the industry. It is only acceptable for use by housewives in Topeka who want to look up their favorite soap stars credits which will invariably be incorrect.
I could pull a 6 year old copy of THE HOLLYWOOD CREATIVE DIRECTORY off my shelf and it will have more accurate information than IMDB or IMDBpro.
While that decision is total BS, according to my research – aka going to http://www.imdb.com – writers are still right up there on the top…
This is rich irony. Amazon was built on the backs of … WRITERS.
Writers are the MOST important (spare the whining comments from directors.) This whole “director’s medium” ownership is a canard. Regardless, dumping writers to na-na land is totally insane.
IMBD is unreliable overall and this latest stupid move opens the door for another site to fill the vacuum.
Why, IMDB, why? Many people in the industry are guilty of checking IMDB for someone’s writing credits. I know I work in the industry and our server occasionally chokes on IMDB from too many visitors. IMDB is geneally fast, mostly accurate, and can be a useful tool. I don’t see any possible advantage to making their site more inconvenient. Not to mention the terrible slight to writers everywhere.
This change only appears to be for IMDB, not IMDBpro. IMDB is a source of bar trivia and ‘Where are they now’ inquiries targeted to an audience 99% of which are not part of the industry. Where any credits are located to the average site visitor is totally arbitrary – why should IMDB not make their site easier to navigate (in their opinion) for the overwhelming majority of users? It’s their business – let them run it.
IMDBpro still has all the credits right up top so people who need that info can find it.
who can we file a complaint to? Christian Gaines? Agree that IMDB has jumped the shark. Stan the man is absolutely right. The whole submission process makes no sense at all ..including putting up erroneous information and then not taking it down. Do they use the variety factchecking department?
wow. you need to get a quote from them explaining why. like getting a job in today’s market isn’t tough enough already. not to take anything away from the other department heads or crew members, but writers need to have top billing on that site. ridiculous. nothing surprises me anymore.