Cinemarati is shutting down…

by MaryAnn Johanson

Mon, Jun 04, 2007

9 comments

We had a good run, but it was time.

Comments are closed at Cinemarati. Feel free to use this as an open thread to discuss the Cinemarati shutdown.

(Technorati tags: Cinemarati)

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bats

Mon, Jun 04, 2007 3:47pm

I haven’t been much of a reader since the format changed for Cinemarati, but I’m sorry to see it wrapped up. If you and your fellow critics are “okay” with at, who am I to judge. I’ve bookmarked a number of folks with their own review sites, and I enjoyed the patter between all of you…and the civility you shared, even when opinions varied. That’s often a rare commondity.

David

Mon, Jun 04, 2007 4:03pm

That’s a real shame, although I can understand why it’s happening. The site was a nice place to have a conversation, and I too found some more critics who I now read regularly.

Although I can’t help wondering if I’m to blame here. I join IEWA and 3 months later it closes. I start posting on Cinemarati and 9 months later it closes. Maybe I should close my Rotten Tomatoes account… ;)

neil

Mon, Jun 04, 2007 9:07pm

Alex Fung, Jeff Huston, Mr. Brown and finally Cinemarati…it’s tough out there for a film critic nowadays; unless you’re generating a ton of traffic these independent sites tend to be a labor of love. Ah well, fond memories of the original Cinemarati message board. I felt it was much more interactive with the old format, but understood the need for a change. Good luck to all the members and I’ll keep all your individual sites bookmarked as long as you keep them active.

MaryAnn

Mon, Jun 04, 2007 9:39pm

it’s tough out there for a film critic nowadays; unless you’re generating a ton of traffic these independent sites tend to be a labor of love.

Unless you’re getting millions of page views per month, it’s impossible to make a living at this. FlickFilosopher.com is one of the most popular movie sites — it gets around half a million page views per month — but I don’t make anywhere near a living at this game. Certainly it was the need to be doing other stuff that makes money that kept most of the Cinemarati members from posting regularly.

Will

Tue, Jun 05, 2007 10:57am

I was never very active on Cinemarati, but I’ve been lurking and reading all of the insightful postings and comments for years. Thanks for a great run.

I hope the screen-cap quiz manifests itself somewhere else on the web!

Dan Jardine

Tue, Jun 05, 2007 2:05pm

Hey Will, I plan to keep on doing the screen cap quiz on my blog. See you there!

Tonio Kruger

Tue, Jun 05, 2007 3:31pm

At the risk of conjuring memories of a recent Sandra Bullock film that don’t deserve to be remembered…

I had a feeling that this was going to happen.

It’s sad that it happened. But hey, all good things come to an end and Cinemarati was a good thing.

I’ll probably be checking in on this site and certain other film-related sites that I have come to know and love.

In the meantime, I hope all the Cinemarati folks–even the ones I frequently disagreed with–live long and prosper. May the Net be with you and all that jazz.

Goodbye.

Adios.

Ciao.

Au revoir but hopefully not adieu.

Ned Depew

Thu, Jun 07, 2007 12:38pm

MaryAnn –

Well – it’s certainly not my fault. I did
my best to keep discussions alive – and without ever becoming and official “Cinemarati” member!!
I’m sad to see the site close down – I did
enjoy the discussions, and especially the
give and take between those who saw things
from different points of view!

But I was sad when the old Cinemarati closed down too – and I lived thtrough that and found other sites, which is guess is what we’ll all do again. I hope you’ll make some record of my site – http//:www.thenedpages.com/reviews – so that
those who are interested can hunt me down.

Thanks for all the time and effort everyone put in
on Cinemarati. See you all around the Web!

Ned

Tonio Kruger

Mon, Jun 11, 2007 9:10pm

For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was your fault, Ned.

It was becoming more and more obvious that Cinemarati wasn’t attracting the number of new posters that it needed to attract in order to make up for the infrequency of posts by older Cinemarati members. And those few posters who did show up rarely posted on more than one item.

Nor could one fault the older Cinemarati members for not contributing more to an effort that after all had started as a labor of love, not an act of holy obligation. MaryAnn and the other members went above and beyond the call of duty as far as I’m concerned, but it just wasn’t enough.

Anyway, I’ve posted my own original–if not all that imaginative–thoughts on the Cinemarati shutdown on my own site. Please feel free to drop by if anything I post there strikes your interest.

And, yes, MaryAnn and the others who post on this site are invited too.

Of course, I might have to straighten up a bit before you folks come over. But still…