23 Messages

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364 Points

Monday, March 13th, 2023

Closed

Solved

Contribution Declined

I've had two contributions correcting goofs declined in the past week because "we are unable to verify your contribution."  This has happened before and is very frustrating because it frankly is the most idiotic response possible to someone trying to help clean up the IMDb database.  If you're not going to take the trouble to actually watch the relevant movie/TV show/episode to verify the submission, why decline it or even bother to request submissions in the first place?  I can't attach a copy of the video for the moderators to watch if they're too lazy to seek it out and watch it.  In both cases, the corrections I submitted are as clear as day if someone actually watched the relevant video clip.

At this point, I'm not so invested in the two submissions that were declined for someone to review them specifically again.  I just wish the review process was fixed once and for all on an ongoing basis such that submissions are not automatically declined unless someone at IMDb has gotten off the sofa or has stepped away from the coffee machine long enough to actually do a complete verification.  Stop wasting our time.  

End of rant - thank you.

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10.7K Messages

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226.1K Points

3 years ago

Well, items within submissions are not allowed to remain in the pending state for longer than seven days, previously fourteen days. Why ought the items be automatically approved once the time limit is exceeded when there is the genuine risk of the information being inaccurate? Is it because the contributor in question has a spectacular reputation for being very accurate? That would be the only conceivable justification.

Champion

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5.1K Messages

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118.7K Points

3 years ago

I'm curious: did you include a link to a video at the time that would be evidence for your submission, or at least a time code where to look at it?

I'm not an employee, but I can imagine they are not able to sit and watch an entire movie or even an episode of anything to verify a request.

Employee

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5.6K Messages

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58.9K Points

3 years ago

Hi @dab07041929 -

Can I have the 18-digit submission reference to check on this? Also as @bderoes mentions it does help a lot our editors if you give a timestamp for example so they can check.

Cheers!

23 Messages

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364 Points

3 years ago

I'll try to include a timestamp on future submissions to see how that gets treated, although not sure how to do that when I'm watching a movie/TV show on DVD.  But it's the inconsistency that I'm not understanding.  For a while all my submissions were being readily accepted.  Now they're being readily rejected even though I have not changed the nature/content/phrasing of the submissions.

jeorj_euler - I don't have a clue what you're talking about.  Can you clarify please?

(edited)

Employee

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5.6K Messages

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58.9K Points

@dab07041929​ Accepting or not an item can depend on many factors, the easiest way to have no problems with  your submissions is providing anything that can help editors verify things. It may also be a processing error as there are humans behind the processing of the data. For an item to be looked into specifically we will need the 18-digit submission reference.

Cheers!

10.7K Messages

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226.1K Points

I could try to clarify, but I'm a confused about why what I expressed is somehow incomprehensible. What do anxious contributors expect the data editors to do? Are the data editor expected to go looking for the Blu-ray/DVD, buy it and watch it, for the purposes of verification, all within seven days? And then, if time runs out, are they simply expected to approve for publication the information that could possibly be erroneous? Are these hard questions to answer? Possibly, but certainly everybody reading the questions understands the meaning of them, right? What gives?

Champion

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5.1K Messages

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118.7K Points

3 years ago

I thought most dvd players have some sort of OSD (On-screen display) feature that shows the current tine in and/or remaining.

10.7K Messages

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226.1K Points

I was assuming good faith toward the inqury, but now, given the continued lack of cooperation, I'm starting to suspect gaslighting.

23 Messages

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364 Points

@jeorj_euler​ What do you mean by lack of cooperation?  I replied above that I will try to include a time stamp in the future to improve my submissions (which in fact I did in my last two which were summarily declined).  And in my original post I mentioned that I was not so invested in the submissions that were declined that it was worth anybody's effort to review them.

And as for not understanding your first reply, I had no idea that there was some kind of time limit on how long submissions could be pending.  Why did that prompt a second sarcastic insulting reply?  

Do me a favor - if you're not going to be constructive in your replies, don't bother.

10.7K Messages

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226.1K Points

Well, there has been no sarcasm on my part. I do apologize, however, for my hurt-causing accusations, though. I'm not deliberately trying to irritate anybody, but I do generally become irritated whenever anybody claims to not understand what I'm telling him/her, despite me being extremely clear in the first place. I literally cannot help but wonder how I'm not understood, that I must've left out some crucial information.

23 Messages

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364 Points

3 years ago

Well, as I noted above, I will try to include a time stamp on my submissions to assist in their review.  However, two submissions I made over the weekend with time stamps noted were declined literally within a few hours of submission, for the same reason cited above (never mind a seven day limit on pending submissions).  So be it.

10.7K Messages

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226.1K Points

In the context of movies and shows that are available on Amazon's streaming service, the approach of merely providing a timestamp may possibly be viable, and this could somewhat extend to other streaming services. Otherwise, unless the  the IMDb data editors are somehow very confident in a particular contributor, they expect for hyperlinks, to screenshots of the actual content of the movie, to be provided in the explanation field of the submission form. This is the way things are. Okay? Now, if all those procedures are followed but yet the accurate (and allowed) items in the submission still wind up being declined regardless, then by all means, come back to this forum and inquire about it, even complain.

23 Messages

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364 Points

2 years ago

I've been away for a while.  My basic problem with the whole process is the inconsistency.  Some of my submissions are approved within a day or two, some are rejected in a day or two - no apparent difference in the submissions in terms of detail, timestamps, supporting evidence.   I have made hundreds of submissions, so I presume I'm not exactly an unknown quantity or a suspect for spamming or trolling.  And the comment that one person made about expecting the reviewers to run out and buy a DVD.  How did they approve the original submission?  Did they run out and buy a DVD?  Or did they just approve it without viewing the scene (and frankly, given how many corrections I've made, it doesn't look like they made much of an effort to verify original submissions)?  In either case, why would they do it for the original submission, but for my correction, they would just throw up their hands and say - well, we're not going to take the time to view the scene and we're not going to just approve it without viewing, so let's just reject it.  Again, our submissions, assuming that they are accurate, help IMDb by making their website more attractive to users by providing lots of interesting information for movie/TV buffs.  And none of us gets compensated for providing that information, except our own personal enjoyment.  So I don't get the "well, what do you expect IMBd to do" retort.  How about recognizing that we are helping THEM for free, so make an effort to treat submissions consistently?  Given how much trolling and paid cheerleading is now going on in the ratings shown for TV shows and movies, making the ratings pretty much unreliable, one would think that they would value those of us keeping the other sections of the site interesting and reliable.  End of rant.  Thank you.

(edited)

Employee

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18.2K Messages

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321.3K Points

Hi @dab07041929​ -

My apologies for the delayed staff response here.  I appreciate your feedback and understand the frustration, especially after making efforts to include evidence/explanations.

If you are still experiencing instances where your submissions are being declined despite valid evidence being provided, can you post some recent examples here of the 18-digit submission reference numbers for our staff to investigate?

23 Messages

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364 Points

Thank you for responding.  The most recent example is #230819-005157-966000 on August 18 2023.  I explained why it was a goof and provided a time stamp.  It was declined due to "Does not meet contribution guidelines", whatever that means.  It may well not meet the guidelines, but who knows why.  A further explanation of the reasons for a contribution being declined may take more time on IMDB's part, but it would also be more efficient in helping contributors to identify and frame items such as goofs so more time isn't wasted declining contributions that aren't valid.  As I have noted in earlier comments, it frankly seems to be a random process as to why some are accepted and some are declined since I identify no difference in the validity and quality of the contributions.  Don't know whether these are reviewed by automated process or an actual human, but I don't want to waste my time, or IMDB's, submitting contributions which don't pass muster.

23 Messages

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364 Points

@Michelle​ And we have yet another contributions declined - #230829-200245-692000 because it "Does not meet contribution guidelines".  Again, even though I describe the goof in detail and provide a time stamp, for which I was chided earlier for not including in my submissions.  Again, it would be helpful to understand why it did not meet the guidelines. again, just seems like a random process as to whether my submissions get accepted or rejected.

Employee

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18.2K Messages

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321.3K Points

Hi @dab07041929​ -

Upon reviewing these submissions  I can see that they were likely declined because they included a potential Spoiler but they weren't submitted with a spoiler tag.  These goofs have now been approved with the spoiler tag.

(edited)