Classical-Western Keyword

Keyword_Expert,

Firstly glad to see your still around. I always admired your desire to eliminate repetitive keywords.
 
Yeah somebody has gone insane with them. The original concept was that they were supposed to be key parts of the plot, now they just seem to be a way for people to stay in the top 50 of contributors list. 

I knew one long time contributor who needed that so bad he'd go to every western and he'd start off with cowboy-shirt, cowboy-pants, cowboy-socks, cowboy-boots, and it became the same things over where he'd submit 50 - 70 of them and you realized it was the exact same in every film.

It dilutes it so much that the real keywords are now lost amongst the others. The Last of the Mohicans which now includes oily-skin, and sweating. It used to have around 123 which for the length of a movie.

but just as an example. Yesterday I watched The Charge at Feather River. A western about the primary character going after 2 white girls who were kidnapped by Native Americans 5 years before.  When I looked down the keyword list, they not only looked bloated, very few were actually important to the plot. I dont think anybody brought up that one of the girls was blonde. 

Then I see military ranks listed that were really not a part of the story. The group of soldiers were supposed to be civilians so rank wasnt even allowed to be mentioned. There wasn't even a cavalry charge really. Just the cavalry riding up slowly on the Indians at the end.  

But that' just a few examples . I could go on about that movie but won't.

If you continue to make keyword duplicate list for merging, may I suggest

Two-Gun Holster 
Double Holster

Somebody has put those both down for the exact same 135 films.


Also

Native American
American Indian

  
Also

Native American White Relationships
White Native American Relationships
White Native American Relationship
Native American White Relationship


I'm sure there are plenty more. It's obvious the same person put these as they are usually attached to the same films. 

I agree. Regrettably, certain contributors are more focused on using keywords to describe random physical objects, clothing, body parts, etc. than they are about describing plot devices or elements.

After all, when you click the "edit" button to add new keywords, the "Tips for keyword submissions" state that "Keywords should reflect concepts and notable ideas, scenes, or objects and not people."

Unless a character's cowboy boots, long hair, or backpack are an actual plot device or somehow noteworthy to the plot, then it is just a waste of everyone's time to add the keywords "cowboy-boots," "long-hair," and "backpack." Yet certain contributors insist on doing it anyway.

I wish I could continue compiling keyword merger lists. Unfortunately, IMDb staff stopped acting on my lists at least six months ago, and they recently confirmed that as a matter of policy, they will not act on keyword merger requests any further. Their stated reason is insufficient staffing. You can read about it here. To say I am disappointed is an understatement.

@phillip​ 

p.s. Here is yet another contributor discussion about the bad keyword "classical-western."

With IMDb staff causing so many errors and inaccuracies with the new subgenre keywords and guidelines, it feels like they should have instead spent all that time and energy on mass-cleaning duplicate keywords. The site would be a lot better off for it.

@Michelle​ As always thank you very much.

Also one you may want to look at as it's going to be the same user who is doin git is comedy-short. By IMDb definition your not supposed to list a genre as a keyword and so you have things that have comedy's and shorts as a genre but he insist on adding comedy-short as a keyword to the stuff.  

https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=comedy-short&ref_=fn_kw_kw_1

The other thing (sorry but since this might go to the policy team) is while a staff member tried to address it by saying there's no rules against it (though by IMDb definition keywords should be novel concepts) somebody developed a bot/script that has put "western hemisphere" and "North America" along with 1900s on every episode of Gunsmoke, Family Guy, The View, Cheers, and a few other shows. They did it to a few tv shows and they did the same thing to southern hemisphere. To say that western hemisphere is a novel concept would be a joke considering it could be added to 95% of IMDb titles and same with North America.  Obviously the first line of keyword submission is "Keywords should reflect concepts and notable ideas, scenes, or objects and not people." Obviously western hemisphere isn't "notable" in the least.  They even put it on Family guy episodes that haven't even been filmed yet.

Thanks Again

The only reason

Hi @phillip​ -

Thanks for this additional report.  The "comedy-short" keywords have now been removed.  Concerning "western hemisphere", I was unable to locate any live keywords, if you are still seeing these on the site can you link some of the title pages here?

I can think of some scenarios where these additional keywords (North America, Southern Hemisphere, etc.) could arguably be useful, for example a nature documentary such as "Planet Earth".

Yes I completely agree. There are times when the hemispheres can be helpful what I meant to say was northern and southern hemisphere.

https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=northern-hemisphere&ref_=fn_kw_kw_1

Somebody used a bot and attached northern hemisphere to every Gunsmoke,  The Simpsons, Cheers, The View, Family Guy, etc along with the term 1900s and North America to the same shows I guess in an effort to pad lines so if you look under I think 90% of the Gunsmoke episodes it now has "Northern Hemisphere" and "North America" as a keyword and the same for all those other respective shows. They did the same to a few movies like The Godfather but it mainly seemed programed towards television shows. It seems somebody was padding lines. They did the same to southern hemisphere adding it to a few popular Australian series and movies. They just picked a few shows with a lot of episodes and basically wrote a script I'd guess to pad lines it seems. 

Just so you can see

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0594068/keywords/?ref_=tttr_ql_stry_4

The same person put Northern Hemisphere on this Family guy episode which hasn't even been filmed yet.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26457878/keywords/?ref_=tttr_ql_stry_4
Heres the same to Cheers

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0539692/keywords/?ref_=tttr_ql_stry_4

Sorry I truly hate posting and I know your busy but another things that the same person who did the comedy-shorts loves to do and is doing to this day is "two-reeler."  What the person is referring too is a technical aspect and has nothing to do with the story, etc.  Movies were filmed in reels back then. 15 minutes a reel. By the mid 1910s all of those comedy shorts were typically filmed to be between 20 and 30 minutes. For some reason the contributor feels the need to add it as a keyword but you will see even on IMDb it's actually already down in the technical aspect section but he keeps on adding them as keywords which obviously has nothing to do with the plot. Here's a good example. You will see it listed in tech aspects and at the same time he feels the need to add it as a plot keyword. (though it has nothing to do with the plot)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025727/technical/?ref_=tttr_ql_dt_6

Phil

Hi @phillip​ -

Thanks for this additional context, I understand the situation better now and have filed a ticket (#P102606815) to investigate and clean-up any keyword violations.  We are also initiating coaching the contributor responsible.

Hi @phillip,

Thank you for your patience regarding this report. The below is an update on the ticket mentioned above (ref. #P102606815).

Our team have determined that the keywords "north-america", "northern-hemisphere" and "southern-hemisphere" are all eligible to be listed on titles as they provide the means for a user to filter titles by location setting. We therefore will not be taking any action to remove or clean up any of the above keywords. As you have mentioned, these keywords have been added to unreleased episodes. This is acceptable for titles where the keyword is likely to be accurate throughout the series and therefore no further action will be taken in regards to those keyword additions.

The ticket regarding "classical-western" is still under review. We will provide an update on that when we can.

I hope this helps!