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    Invelos Forums->DVD Profiler: Contribution Discussion Page: 1... 10 11 12  Previous   Next
Cast / Actor/Actress Database
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorRHo
Registered: March 13, 2007
Posts: 2,759
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Quoting mdnitoil:
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The worst part is, once you make the effort to start cleaning it up, you can no longer accept cast/crew updates from the online.  Otherwise it will quickly turn back into a plate of spaghetti.  Not so bad, but when new crew slots are added via a program update and you've got a couple of thousand profiles in your collection... 

If you contribute your efforts (OK this means even more work), you can accept future updates without any problem.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorRHo
Registered: March 13, 2007
Posts: 2,759
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.
 Last edited: by RHo
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantWhite Pongo, Jr.
No, I iz no Cheshire Cat!
Registered: August 22, 2007
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Quoting northbloke:
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Quoting White Pongo, Jr.:
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Without birth years, or some other element to distinguish between namesakes, how would we know if we want
Mary Jane (Actress, Jeepney King (1968))
OR
Mary Jane BY1983 (Actress, Morphine (2008) (V))
aka "Smoking Mary Jane"
OR
Mary Jane BY1975 (Actress, Buck Shot (1998) (V))
?


As DJ explained in his description of the idea, the new system would come combined with a direct link to the CLT from the program. I would imagine to find out which name you wanted you'd simply right-click on them and select "View all known online credits" (or something similar).
Finding out what else someone has worked on would be a lot easier than finding out when they were born. And remember I didn't say we would never have BYs in the database, but that they wouldn't be needed to separate duplicate names.


A credit lookup tool integrated in the program would be most welcome.
I would like it anyway, regardless of the new or old system.

But then, we always need something to distinguish Mary Jane from Mary Jane. In a list of names, how do you refer to one or the other? 
Now we use BYs.  IMDb uses ordinals.  We could change and use something else, but some sort of identifier will always be needed, IMHO.
-- Enry
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantWhite Pongo, Jr.
No, I iz no Cheshire Cat!
Registered: August 22, 2007
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Quoting northbloke:
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Quoting Morglum:
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Thanks, but I know how the current system works. My question was for the system with unique id for actors. Same procedure or more complicated?

My apologies, I completely misunderstood your question.
To answer your actual question.. 

This is how I would imagine it would work:
You currently have 3 entries in your database: Tohko (ID 1), Toko (ID 2) and Touko (ID 3).
Either by editing a profile, right-clicking on a credit or a direct menu option you open a Name Linking window. In it you select the names you want to link together, I imagine it may look similar to the boxset contents window with unlinked names on one side, and linked names on the other. You have to remember because this system wouldn't rely on common names it wouldn't matter which name you chose first or which order you put them in the list.
When you click on OK, all 3 names will be given a new, local ID - say L-ID 1.
Now you could leave it like that - in your database they link under the same ID (L-ID 1), but everyone else still has 3 separate names (ID 1, 2, 3).
But you decide to contribute and share the link.
Because this change would affect many rather than a single profile, I agree with Hal, they should be treated separately when it comes to voting. So maybe under the A-Z of profile titles we would have a 2nd A-Z of name contributions - or something like that.
On the voting page I imagine it would show all three names that you propose to link and under each one a list of all the affected profiles. Maybe like the CLT but with a column for each name.
Once it's accepted then all the linked names will be given a proper ID, for the sake of efficiency I imagine the system would re-use ID 1 for all 3 names and recycle IDs 2 and 3 for new name entries. A new Actors.dat (or whatever it's called) would then be downloaded on the next profile list update giving everyone else the new linked names: Tohko (ID 1), Toko (ID 1) and Touko (ID 1).

I hope this makes sense, it's very hard to describe how I think I see it working. I'm worried I've put too much detail in. Here's a condensed version:

Instead of editing the cast member to use "credited as", you would simply select a bunch of different names from a list and link them with a button press.
They would be voted on separately from other profile updates.
The updates would be part of the refresh of the Online Profile List.

But you have to remember, this is all hypothetical and I imagine very hard to visualize. To be honest it's not really worth going into such detail if Ken has shown no interest in changing the name database.


The detalis you provided were very interesting, now we have a better understanding of the proposal.
I have still to think about it, but I think I like it.

In short -correct me if I got it wrong- we would simply contribute cast and crew credits as we see on screen (no more Common Name / Credited As). Separately, we could also contribute and vote on linking between, say "Mary Jane" ID:1 and "Smoking Mary Jane" ID:2, as long as it can be documented that both credits refer to the same person.
Still, if there is another "Mary Jane" ID:3, I think we would always need something to disitinguish between Mary Janes  when their names are displayed in a list. Maybe the ID itself?
-- Enry
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributornorthbloke
Registered: March 15, 2007
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Yes, I think that's pretty much the jist of the idea. For profiles we would simply use the name on screen, the actual linking would be dealt with separately.

I've been musing over the idea of what to do about duplicate names, whether we make the ID visible (but not editable) or whether we simply have in the viewable list duplicate entries so when you go to edit cast and crew you can at least see there is more than one option. The danger there is people may not notice the identical names and simply pick the top one. Of course birth years will still help to differentiate, I certainly don't like IMDB's idea of roman numerals.
Maybe a popup would help if you pick a name that has duplicates the program could say something like: "there are currently xx Mary Janes in the database, are you sure you have the right one?" with an option to confirm or cancel.
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