As someone who has garnered much HN karma commenting on film, I'm glad to see an attempt to make a quality film community. It's difficult to bootstrap an online community, let alone one with the quality of HN. You're going to need visitors who (1) visit frequently and (2) have much insights to offer on film. (2) may be more difficult, because you need people who already educate themselves about film from quality sources. [1] Furthermore, you'll need to moderate heavily to enforce an editorial standard and dissuade low-quality reactions.
I share your frustration with existing online film communities. The problems I notice in online film communities (including the film-specific Letterboxd) are:
- knee-jerk reactions that are paltry in analysis (e.g. "old films are better because they were shot on film" or "how dare you dislike that film")
- churlish reactions getting "likes" in part to its humor, not its content
- comments saying nothing more than "look how beautiful/ugly this is"
A couple of questions:
1) This website may become more valuable if it could attract and retain insightful commenters. Is there any plan to achieve that?
2) What made you focus this website on film news? Are moviegoers more able to comment insightfully on news that is in-the-making?
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[1] This may be the root cause of the decline in the quality of film discussions, like with discussion of many other subjects in our age of social media. Most people do not engage with quality sources, which lowers their expectations for discussions in general. One can still find substantial information in publications that enforce editorial standards, such as trade magazines and journals on film studies.
In the same way Hacker News went after founders and developers on the inside of the big co’s, I wonder if it would be useful for OP to go after filmmakers and those employed by the big studios?
Bootstrapping like HN would be ideal, since the users knew each other (YC startup founders) and set the tone for an ideal interaction. I'm not sure if there's a completely analogous gathering for film.
Furthermore, the communities for film appreciation and film making may behave differently on a film news website. While people who appreciate film can candidly talk about films, people who make films have vested stakes. This can make Filmmakers self-censor their thoughts. (e.g. They don't want to openly criticize a veteran filmmaker, since the veterans might have influence in the younger filmmaker's future production.)
I share your frustration with existing online film communities. The problems I notice in online film communities (including the film-specific Letterboxd) are:
- knee-jerk reactions that are paltry in analysis (e.g. "old films are better because they were shot on film" or "how dare you dislike that film")
- churlish reactions getting "likes" in part to its humor, not its content
- comments saying nothing more than "look how beautiful/ugly this is"
A couple of questions:
1) This website may become more valuable if it could attract and retain insightful commenters. Is there any plan to achieve that?
2) What made you focus this website on film news? Are moviegoers more able to comment insightfully on news that is in-the-making?
---
[1] This may be the root cause of the decline in the quality of film discussions, like with discussion of many other subjects in our age of social media. Most people do not engage with quality sources, which lowers their expectations for discussions in general. One can still find substantial information in publications that enforce editorial standards, such as trade magazines and journals on film studies.