IMFDB:Blog Post/Upgrade

It is with great excitement that we announce a new project by imfdb. In the last six years imfdb has gone from a one man passion project begun on a kitchen table, to a tool that is used not just in the film industry but also by weapons manufacturers and enjoyed by millions of fans worldwide. In that time, the site has seen only minor changes as it has grown. We are currently looking at the single largest overhaul in the sites history to add additional features and take the site from a fun place to look up information to a true research tool. Let us explain the biggest problem with the current site: Updating pages. Generally, when a user creates a page for a movie -- for example Die Hard -- they will list the firearms used in the movie -- like the Beretta 92F -- on that page. What they will almost never do, however, is go to the page for the Beretta 92F and update it to include the fact that it was used in Die Hard. Similarly, they often fail to go to the page for Bruce Willis and update his page to show that he used the Beretta in Die Hard. Now, this is not a problem if you just want to see the guns used in a particular movie; but as our recent survey showed, 56% of people say they used the site to look up a particular gun and 26% said they look up actors/actresses. What is needed is a way to make these updates happen automatically. For the past six months, Chris (Bunni) and Zack (Zackmann08) have been working to develop this solution. In addition to automatically updating firearm and actor pages, this new software will also allow for deep searching like “list all TV shows that use a Smith & Wesson revolver” or “list all movies filmed in 1990 that feature a Beretta 92FS or a SIG-Sauer P226” or “list all 9mm pistols used by Tom Cruise”. In other words, this upgrade turns IMFDB into an unparalleled research tool for both the firearms and film industry. Unfortunately, we cannot afford the labor costs to move forward with this project on the sites current income. Today, we announce a crowd funding campaign via RocketHub. In return for your help funding the upgrade, you will get to have rewards ranging from imfdb merch, to once-in-a-lifetime opportunities such as a tour of one of the largest prophouses in the world. This is a major project that we have been working on for over 6 months now and are very excited to finally be making it a reality. We caution that it will be at least a few months until noticeable differences start to appear on the site, but when they do they will be big and we hope that you will love them. We encourage you to post your questions on the main discussion page of the site. If you have specific questions about the RocketHub campaign as it relates to funding, we encourage you to reach out to us via email at support@imfdb.org. imfdb has also been and will always be about our fans. We are nothing without your support and continued work to create a better website. For that, we thank you. -Chris, imfdb founder and CEO -Zack, imfdb member and COO