phillip's profile

127 Messages

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2.3K Points

Wednesday, July 26th, 2023 4:20 PM

In Progress

Classical-Western Keyword


One request and I know somebody has been spamming this onto titles so there's 511 of them but hopefully you'll see the argument.

Can you block the keyword Classical-Western?  Not only is it repetitive it's extremely subjective and now it even has movies attached to it from 2021.  I think it was originally supposed to be western-classic but even that was subject is nothing more than opinion not even really a novel concept at all. Something that I think started as good intentions but you can attach it to virtually any western which obviously means it's not novel. 

This post was created from this reply on different post

Champion

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14.2K Messages

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327.8K Points

1 year ago

The keyword was listed by IMDb as a subgenre with the definition "A western produced during the golden age of the genre, subsequently defining the genre."

The point has been made before that it is overused. Perhaps IMDb could define the "golden age" and block the keyword from titles outside that scope.

(edited)

127 Messages

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2.3K Points

1 year ago

@Peter_pbn 
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. It's nice to see a post that didn't seem like 2 people arguing over something only 2 people care about. 

The issue with the term seems to be that it's one of those things that's very difficult to define. I'm now seeing it added to television shows that didn't even last a season. i.e Casey Jones. Casey Jones didnt quite make it a season and didn't even rate a dvd release. so at a minimum it needs to be really revamped. 

It's like the term B-Western. The example they use in the section "7 Men From Now" stars Randolph Scott and was produced by John Wayne. It's sort of comical to think of Randolph Scott in a B-Western in the 1950s as most B-westerns were meant for the bottom half of the bill, maybe an hour running time etc. I see Drums Across the River has it down for it now also.  It really seems like keywords have gotten out of hand. 

Drums Across the River for example has neo-western. First I had to figure out what that was and obviously since this movie takes place in the 1880s it's obviously not that category.  It's just gotten out of hand especially when titles now have more keywords than running minutes. 

Drums Across the River (1954) also has this.

Hard Times (boy is that subjective and/or could be taken the wrong way)
Economic Downturn
Economics Depression
Economic Crisis

All obviously are meant to apply the same thing. 

Then you literally have somebody whose has put Double Gun Holster and Two Gun Holster down for the exact same 135 titles. 

 Hopefully Bethanny or a staff and merge some of these so they don't repeated. 









(edited)

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

1 year ago

I raised similar complaints about this bad keyword 11 months ago.

Keywords have become an unruly mess on IMDb over the past year. Unfortunately, IMDb staff have explained that keywords are now a low priority for them.  It's very disappointing. 

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Employee

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17.2K Messages

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310K Points

11 months ago

Hi @phillip & All -

We appreciate the discussion and all the comments concerning the sub-genre keyword "classical-western" and observed usage inconsistencies.  I filed a ticket for our Policy team to review the criteria and better define this keyword and to also review what data protections can be implemented to ensure proper usage.

127 Messages

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2.3K Points

@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

Employee

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17.2K Messages

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310K Points

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".

127 Messages

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2.3K Points

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

(edited)

Employee

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17.2K Messages

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310K Points

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.

Employee

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1.6K Messages

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16K Points

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!

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