TIL about it after reading this post. It seems to have started around 17/April
From the article:
a login barrier for reading does not really stop AI scrapers because bots can be equipped with accounts within a few minutes. Instead, many suspect that Amazon’s main aim is to increase the number of registered users. After all, those who are logged in can be tracked better – and can be provided with more targeted recommendations and advertising.
Are there open source alternatives to it?
When everything everything everything became an 8+ a few years ago, I stopped using them and rotten tomato.
A couple of media related websites have started doing this recently. There is an influx of web scraping that has been causing performance degradation of the website, so requiring users to log in is a way of maintaining website performance for valid users.
I totally understand that a lot of people dont want to create accounts or give personal information, and I understand that website degradation is not always the driving factor.
I have an IMDB account but Inrefuse to use it because they got rid of the forums.
TMDB is a non-shit alternative
Thanks for mentioning that site. I didn’t know it exists. At first glance it seems pretty good.
They have an app that I use quite often too. It’s not quite as comprehensive as IMDb, but it’s steadily improved over time
I stopped using IMDB ages ago when they started serving their ads through the same domain they host all their other images on, so blocking ads broke the site entirely.
I left those ads blocked though, and just stopped using IMDB. Looks like I made the right choice.
Sounds like a great day for a competitor to pop up.
Or Letterboxd. They have funnier reviews anyway.
competiion will barely arise because the ai scrape stuff eventually hits a sites profitability. Ai scraping for example is why Rtings went subscription for full review access, as most users dont even bother to click through to the rtings source for recommendations after googling for a product review.
combination of gemini, AMP links and such has basically destroyed text based reviews
Also known as Wikipedia
Wikipedia doesn’t offer user reviews, however.
I do read Wikipedia before I bother reading IMDb – even before today –, though.
I just head to the Reception section and check the Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Well, I guess I will never go to IMDb again
Cutting off your leg because someone is standing on your foot
Bye Felisha
Good thing I don’t care about others’ reviews. If they start blocking access to movie information though, I might have to quit using their site.
What’s the state of BookWyrm, these days?
