What is Letterboxd to you? (Social network? Twitter replacement? Writing platform? De-shitified IMDB?)

I really dig Letterboxd! But it's a bit of a funny platform.

Obviously it's a way to track and rate what you've watched -- which is fun! Nothing complicated, but just a slight dose of "gamification" but without any kind of rewards (which is fine; I don't really want to be unlocking dumb badges and achievements that mean nothing)

It's sort of social media, but also not really (which isn't a bad thing). On the rare occasion, it's been a lovely way to connect with someone with like-minded tastes or a more expensive view of cinema for me to learn from -- but that's fairly rare.

It's sort of a writing platform (like Medium I guess?). There's some truly wonderful long and short form writing on Letterboxd, but can feel a bit like writing into the silent void (re: no one ever reads it, which is maybe fine?)

It's also sort of a way to discover movies in an algorithmless way (IE: browsing lists and diaries of people you follow). I like that there's no annoying "our algorithm thinks you'll love X based on Y.

I'm a former writer who hasn't, well, wrote anything in a lot of years, so Letterboxd has been really gratifying that way. I've discovered a few movies on the platform, but still mostly rely on discussions with people I already know in the real world (or, y'know, podcasts)

Curious to hear what folks think! Not meant as a criticism or takedown of Letterboxd, just trying to put my finger on what I and we all like about it.