Quoting hal9g:

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You are absolutely correct .  This would need to be done through a separate contribution process, which would allow users to submit "linking requests", but would require sufficient supporting evidence that the two linked names are in fact the same person.  These "contributions" would be voted on the same way as profile contributions today, and ultimately reviewed by the screeners and approved/rejected as appropriate.

Personally I think that could work. In fact, I think I've seen that suggestion pop up in other threads as well (either by you or other users). I also agree that this ought to be pretty high on the priority list, considering quite a few users on the forums ask about this and it would also eliminate a lot of discussions.

That's the simple association system that was suggested long ago and I am in full support of it. BUT, at the same time Ken has said that he is going to revisit the linking system, all we can do is wait and see.

Skip

Quoting Astrakan:

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Yeah, sadly. To me, consistent linking of people is the single greatest improvement that can be done to DVD Profiler currently. It's too bad it doesn't seem to rank very highly on the todo list of software improvements.

This part doesn't need any improvment at all... It works already as it is supposed to, the problem is that the online database isn't reliable. It's simple to choose a linking name in our personal database and use the "credited as" system for all the other alias of a performer. I haven't use the online database for quite some time, but I remember clearly that after each profile update a lot of work was needed in my database to correct the bad credit.

I'd like to express my strong support for hal's ideas for a functioning name linking system.

Quoting Astrakan:

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Well, yeah. That's what we're talking about, the online. That's why I called it "consistent linking" - right now the only way to get it consistent is to do it ourselves offline.

Exactly. I think the whole concept of the online database and the current linking system is great. The problem is that there are so many variants on names of the same actor in the online that after you download a profile, you have to redo half of the work yourself locally in order to get a functioning linking system. It basically takes a way the usefulness of an online database for many users (that is my personal opinion; I know some other rather vocal users here disagree with this and think correct linking isn't part of the scope of DVDP. So I'm just stating my personal opinion here).

That's why I think what Hal proposes would be a great addition: people who don't care about linking can just continue submitting the WYSIWYT data like they do now, ignoring the linking submissions. Other users who care about such linking can start submitting in the linking tables then. The way I see it, it's win-win for both user groups.

So add one more for Hal's idea. In fact, maybe a poll should be organized to show how many users are actually behind this idea. It could give a clear signal to Invelos, no?

Quoting T!M:

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[...] i.e. lots of German DVD's have something like "German Title - English Title" in the "title" field (because they're both on the front cover), with no "original title" entered.[...]

I agree that in those cases the original title field should be populated, but I disagree that those cases are "German title - English title". I those cases the German tile is officially a combination of one part in German and another part in English combined with a dash.  The English part of the German title may be even different to the original English title. Yes, German film marketing guys are strange.

Quoting Dr Pavlov:

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That's the simple association system that was suggested long ago and I am in full support of it. BUT, at the same time Ken has said that he is going to revisit the linking system, all we can do is wait and see.

Skip

I don't think he is revisiting it with the intent to adopt the "simple association system". The last comments I saw from him on this subject were that he was considering making linking an opt-in for one's local db:

Quoting Ken Cole:

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And, more on topic, simple linking does not solve the problem where "Tom Smith" can really mean one of several actors.  Although it does allow linking of disparate credited names as the current system allows, it would also result in links where none should exist.

However, reverting to a simple "as credited" for the online database, and allowing the linking to be local is something we are considering.  At the moment, I would lean towards the current system, which allows one user to contribute links for others to benefit from, a philosophy which after all is the heart and soul of DVD Profiler.

For the current system to work there is just many errors in the online db.
I just bought fifteen older films they were in the online db. I started checking the cast and
crew credits against the films. Almoist every case the existing profile credits agreed with imdb and not necessarily the film credits.

Out of curiosity i down loaded every occurrence of the films regardless of the region and
started checking them. I didn't find any that were complete or totally correct.
And most credits were straight from the imdb!

I agree with Skip.
The credits of a DVD's profile should agree with what is on the film and the credit linking mechanism should use a separate list to display the linkage. Only the linkage list would be required to be updated and corrected not every DVD profile in the online db or every other db,. assuming that a DVD profile agrees with the film.