ron3's profile

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Sunday, February 18th, 2024 3:15 AM

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as attribute for cast name of 'Beth' no longer accepted

Recently noticed that an 'as' attribute for the name 'Beth' when adding cast data is no longer accepted.  Other 'as' names seem okay.  Why is "(as Beth)" no longer a valid attribute?

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9 months ago

Hi @ron3 -

Thanks for your report, I believe this issue is isolated this this specific name page only (for "Beth Poll").  I have filed a ticket for the appropriate tech team to review and fix.  As soon as I have an update I will let you know here.

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9 months ago

Note: An error is causing Peter's reply to be displayed instead of ron3's.

It should be because the alternate name has been hidden by the person via IMDb Pro, as mentioned in

However, in order for IMDb to display "as a different name" for the relevant credits it should be possible to add "as Beth", so I think there is something wrong with IMDb's implementation.

(edited)

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It should be because the alternate name has been hidden by the person via IMDb Pro, as mentioned in

However, in order for IMDb to hide the name in the 'as' attribute it must be possible to add the attribute, so I think there is something wrong with IMDb's implementation.

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Hi, @Peter_pbn​.

I suspect those (as...) attributes were entered before this hapless policy came into force.

Current implementation only prevents the addition of new "hidden" akas.

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@ljdoncel​ 

Or just before the subscriber chose to hide the name.

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@ljdoncel​ 

But what I meant is that if IMDb wants to display "as a different name" next to the credits where this person was credited as "Beth", then it should still be possible to add  "as Beth".

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Yes, Peter, you are correct.

The policy of displaying NAKA (even though it is public information) may be more or less debatable, but it should always be possible to send and store all the correct data, first of all because this is the primary purpose of a database that aspires to be comprehensive, and also because it may happen that someone changes their mind and decides to have their nickname displayed from then on.

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9 months ago

I was unaware of this "as a different name" policy.  I pulled up the data on a couple of other people that are using that "feature" and tried to add and correct (without submitting) their "as" attributes, and found no issues.  However, I may not have been trying the correct hidden name. https://www.google.com/search?q="as+a+different+name"+site%3Aimdb.com

Bottom line (IMO) is that in order for the IMDb to be "complete" we need to be able to submit factual data.  That data also needs to be editable.  If for display purposes, someone chooses to have that data "hidden", then the IMDb should make it clear to people viewing that data, that it has been hidden on purpose by that person or someone acting on their behalf.  Right now, I don't feel that the text, "as a different name", makes that clear.

Thanks.

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6 months ago

Hi @ron3 & all -

I'm circling back to confirm that, as discussed in this thread, the contribution form is working as designed, when this error displays it means that the claimed page owner has chosen to suppress their alternative name.

Concerning the comments here, I have relayed the feedback to the appropriate teams regarding this display and contribution experience.

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4 months ago

Col: ron3 raised an interesting point above:

Your policy reply addresses the concerns about displaying information, but DOES NOT address the fact that IMDb no longer allows the submission of complete and accurate information.  We (the contributors) should be allowed to submit and edit accurate data, regardless of how it eventually gets displayed.

Suppose actress "Jane Smith" (fictional example person) currently has her alternative name "Jane L. Smith" suppressed. That means that if a contributor sees a movie -- let's call it The Gromit82 Story -- where she was credited as Jane L. Smith, it's not possible to submit the attribute to the cast list for her -- not even to be submitted but replaced by (as a different name) upon display.

Now suppose that Jane Smith realizes that suppressing the alternative name "Jane L. Smith" was a mistake and changes her "Performer profiles & credentials" to allow that name to be displayed again. That would not cause the attribute (as Jane L. Smith) to now be displayed by her credit in The Gromit82 Story, since IMDb would never have collected that information in the first place.

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@gromit82​ Jane would be able to submit corrections to restore the "(as Jane L. Smith)" attributes at the point they reset the display setting, or at any time later (as would anyone else).   

You might be missing a subtlety here, for privacy and compliance reasons, we can no longer store which credits have which "(as ...)" names once a customer has chosen to hide the alternate name(s) -- hence the simple "(as a different name)" flag.  It is similar to complying with advertising privacy laws ... when a customer requests not to track them, the advertising system deletes all of the tracking info beyond "do not track this account" -- there's no keeping it around in a secret stash just in case they change their mind later :-)

Hope this helps. 

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@Col_Needham​ 

But you do store the alternate names themselves. 

I too assumed that you kept the existing data about which credits had specific "as" attributes. This is perhaps because the announcement text only mentions changes to "display".

(edited)

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4 months ago

How does "as a different name" attribute affect cast verification flags?

It would seem that if the "as a different name" attribute appears anywhere in the cast list, that the cast cannot be verified. Neither as a new verification, or if the attribute is added after verification, the verification is removed.

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@ron3​ "It would seem that if the "as a different name" attribute appears anywhere in the cast list, that the cast cannot be verified."

I agree. For such cast lists, it would simply be a lie to state that "the cast listing is correct as it appears on screen to the best of my knowledge." Therefore, you can't IMHO in good conscience click the "warning understood" button.

(also, you can't claim that all the necessary "as" attributes have been added. The fact that, apparently, there are privacy and compliance reasons IMDb is by law not allowed to add them, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be there)

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13 days ago

For some reason I can't follow, this thread: https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/as-attribute-for-cast-name-of-beth-no-longer-accepted/65d1766b36d43032e5748d3c has been labelled Solved and Closed while 18 days ago, I bumped questions I asked earlier that remain unanswered. Apart from that, @ron3 raised a question as well.

So therefore I created this new thread in the hope that IMDb will answer the questions raised in the now Closed thread....

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Open questions regarding muzzled conversation about (as a different name) attribute