Duplicate Keywords - List #2 (Proposal for Permanent Merging and Auto-Conversion)

Here is the second installment in my list of duplicate keywords proposed for permanent merging and auto-conversion.

As with the first list, I propose that the IMDb community be allowed one week to review and comment on this list before I formally submit it to IMDb staff for action.

Every duplicate keyword (or combination of multiple keywords) on this list has at least 50 titles.

The mergers should be made in the direction of the arrows.

Duplicate Keywords Proposed for Permanent Merging and Auto-Conversion

car-driving (416 titles) ---> driving-car (62 titles) ---> driving-a-car (644 titles)

cellphone (122 titles) ---> cellular-telephone (60 titles) ---> cell-phone (5769 titles)

clay-animation (182 titles) ---> claymation (243 titles)

colour-in-episode-title (540 titles) ---> color-in-episode-title (817 titles)

death-by-fall (8 titles) ---> death-by-falling (124 titles) ---> death-from-a-fall (12 titles) ---> fall-to-death (296 titles) ---> falling-to-one's-death (89 titles) ---> falling-to-death (785 titles)

ex-football-player (69 titles) ---> former-football-player (68 titles)

eye-witness (235 titles) ---> eyewitness (129 titles)

former-lover (110 titles) ---> former-lovers (41 titles) ---> ex-lover (251 titles)

frameup (146 titles) ---> frame-up (1897 titles)

imposter (430 titles) ---> impostor (1165 titles)

loss-of-memory (140 titles) ---> memory-loss (606 titles)

make-up (439 titles) ---> makeup (624 titles)

racial-relations (71 titles) ---> race-relations (901 titles)

reflection-in-mirror (65 titles) ---> reflection-in-a-mirror (210 titles)

school-teacher (664 titles) ---> schoolteacher (965 titles)

secret-passage (487 titles) ---> secret-passageway (160 titles)

southern-u.s. (317 titles) ---> southern-united-states (51 titles)

suicide-thoughts (72 titles) ---> suicidal-thought (24 titles) ---> suicidal-thoughts (272 titles)

switching-bodies (76 titles) ---> switch-bodies (11 titles) ---> body-switching (138 titles)

teen-prostitute (61 titles) ---> teenage-prostitute (110 titles)

usa (2418 titles) ---> u.s.a. (15 titles) ---> united-states (619 titles) ---> united-states-of-america (1055 titles)

western-u.s. (52 titles) ---> western-united-states (25 titles)

Responses

Accepted Solution

keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

3 years ago

This list was subsequently resolved under this post.

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bradley_kent

1.3K Messages

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23.4K Points

3 years ago

Most of these are quite good, with a couple exceptions:

former-footbll-player should be changed to ex-football-player

(I think there was a previous post on this, with "ex-" being the preferred antecedent for such keywords. Also, look at your ex-lover preference.)

There has also been previous discussion about acronyms, with the preference being for the acronym followed by its definition for those who may not know what the acronym stands for. Some examples from that previous discussion made preferred keywords like fbi-federal-bureau-of-investigation, cia-central-intelligence-agency, etc. This allows for the same searching, whether using fbi or fedreal-bureau-of-investigation, cia or central-intelligence-agency, etc. Once this has been established, then the acronym, itself, can be used in other keywords, i.e. fbi-agent, cia-director, reference-to-the-fbi, reference-to-the-cia, etc. While the use of usa as an acronym is probably known by close to everyone, for consistency's sake, that keyword should probably be usa-united-states-of-america, although, in this case, usa may suffice.

western-united-states? western-usa? This may need defining. To some of my New York "Go West, Young Man" friends, the west begins in Ohio!

(edited)

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bradley_kent

1.3K Messages

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23.4K Points

3 years ago

@Michelle

IMDb may stand for the Internet Movie Database, but I’ve always felt like it also stands for the International Movie Database. With users all over the globe, acronyms should be clearly understandable.

Please, merge “fbi” into “fbi-federal-bureau-of-investigation” and “cia” into “cia-central-intelligence-agency.” This has no adverse effect on searches. In fact, it may well improve them.

Look at this:

cia (46 titles)
cia-central-intelligence-agency (891 titles)

fbi (314 titles)
fbi-federal-bureau-of-investigation (1437 titles)

(edited)

9

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Peter_pbn

Champion

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14.4K Messages

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329.9K Points

People around the world know what FBI and CIA are.

3 years ago

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ACT_1

8.5K Messages

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176.2K Points

? ?

ATF (35 titles)

atf-agent (69 titles)

bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives-agent (2 titles)

bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives (6 titles)

reference-to-the-bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives (5 titles)

may find others ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,_Tobacco,_Firearms_and_Explosives

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
is a federal law enforcement organization within
the United States Department of Justice.

.

(edited)

3 years ago

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keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

Thank you @bradley_kent @Peter_pbn and @ACT_1 for your feedback.

It seems there are three different schools of thought on how acronyms and abbreviations should be treated in keywords--or at least, how certain acronyms should be treated. One approach is to just list the abbreviation or acronym (e.g., "cia"). One approach is to provide the full term (e.g., "central-intelligence-agency"). And a third approach is to combine the two other approaches in the same keyword (e.g. "cia-central-intelligence-agency").

I can't say for sure what should be done here, so I will be pulling the acronym keywords from my list (as well as the "ex"/"former" keywords) before I make a formal proposal to IMDb staff. There will be plenty of time to sort these questions out later, and there is no reason to wait on getting the other other keywords merged.

Whatever is done with acronyms and abbreviations in keywords, an important consideration should be consistency.

My personal take is that it does not make sense to shorten keywords solely to their acronyms. That can produce some absurd results, like the keyword "esp"(68 titles), instead of "extrasensory-perception" or "extra-sensory-perception"

Another quite ridiculous example is the keyword "id" (51 titles), which apparently to the contributors who have added this keyword means "identification" rather than the part of one's psyche.

Even limiting keywords for government entities or agencies to their abbreviations can start to get pretty absurd the more obscure or vague the keyword.

For instance, I have seen keywords like "sfpd" (6 titles) (which is probably meant for "san-francisco-police-department" but could theoretically also be "san-fernando-police-department"), as well as the keyword "esa" (which could be "european-space-agency" or "endangered-species-act."

Then there are keywords like "pda" which stands for "public-display-of-affection." To me it doesn't make much sense to create a keyword that would read "pda-public-display-of-affection."

Again, since there is not consensus on these keywords, I will take them off the list for now, to be revisited at a later date.

(edited)

3 years ago

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Peter_pbn

Champion

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14.4K Messages

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329.9K Points

There is no need for consistency among all keywords that can be abbreviated, exactly because not all abbreviations are equally well known.

3 years ago

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bradley_kent

1.3K Messages

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23.4K Points

The same acronym can stand for different things. This is the simple reason why there needs to be some delineation of what a specific acronym stands for.

Why, at one time in the UK, FBI stood for the Federation of British Industry.

(edited)

3 years ago