Birth names no longer a useful section of the database?

What the hell happened?

I sure hope a staffer will respond to this question.

Imdb keeping all valid info permanently is one of the main reasons why I love this website so much..

The answer is in the article, no?

What do you mean??

You ask what happened, and the article in the first post explains the background.

My only worry is what will this end up leading to..

"Valid info" ??!

Yes, valid info. This is a database. It stores data. In this particular case, about, among other things, people who worked on movies, series and video games. Someone's name as well as someone's birth name is data. It is stored in a database.

WTF do you knowing someones dead name?

I think that for literally 99 per cent of all famous people, it's easy to find out their birth names. So knowing the birth name of someone in this database is not that weird.

You are here to look up movies

Among other things. People are also here to look up actors, or directors, or simply people with whom they share a birthday. As founder and current CEO of IMDb, Col Needham, once said "IMDb means different things to different people."

what you want is one of those investigation sites so you can dox people and harass them.

If you are actually accusing people on this board of wanting to dox or harass people, you are way out of line and I feel you should take it back and apologize.

(if someone knows how to delete duplicated posts, I'm all ears)

Thanks Ed, for clearing that up.

Luke Davies, it most certainly will. It is evident that birth names are a notable exception and partial, at that.

This is a fricken  fan movie site,

Well, partly, but more that a fan movie site, IMDb is a database (guess what the Db in the name IMDb stand for :) ) about films, tv series and video games and the people who worked on them. Obviously, such a database will draw a lot of fans of a lot of movies, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a database.

not the FBI  Luke.

You do realize that lots of internet sites mention birth names of well-known people don't you?

I'm with Perky Pants, IMDb has been way too bureaucratic about this very sensitive issue for way too long.

You can't put that over the well being of marginalized people.

You can't put that over the well being of marginalized people.

A database is neutral. It doesn't judge. It doesn't give one group of people an advantage or a disadvantage. It doesn't have an opinion about the people it lists, be they marginalized or not.
A database does not marginalize people. Other people do that. And that is terrible and should be stopped. But not allowing people to talk and know about FACTS is always the wrong answer, no matter what the question is.

Deadnames are used to hurt people. IMDb is providing deadnames. IMDb is hurting trans people.

Birth names can be used to hurt people, but stating that birth names are always used to hurt people is just nonsense and I think you know that. IMDb doesn't use birth names to hurt people. Other people might use these names to hurt people, but that can't and shouldn't be blamed on an impartial database, it should be blamed on the people who willingly hurt other people.

Birth names can be used to hurt people, but stating that birth names are always used to hurt people is just nonsense and I think you know that. IMDb doesn't use birth names to hurt people. Other people might use these names to hurt people, but that can't and shouldn't be blamed on an impartial database, it should be blamed on the people who willingly hurt other people.

What does that mean? That their original name will still appear?

If I understand correctly:

If someone was credited under their birth (or other former) name, then the credited name will still appear for credit identification purposes along with the current name (but the birth name will not appear in the biography section if requested).

If someone was not ever credited under their birth name, and all of the other conditions apply, then you won't see the birth name anymore.

Ya because Imdb stress that on-screen credits are what matter

But they also state that will go forth and erase ALL birth names of those who have changed their names for whatever reason..

Are the rules in these 3 following articles still permanent

The way I understand all this bad news, is that the content of the first two articles needs an update and is currently incorrect.

But the 3rd remains unaffected because it just has to do with film titles, tv show titles and video game titles, not their individual credits?

I think so, yes.

Ya.. very bad call..