Duplicate Keywords - List #21 (Proposals for Permanent Merger and Auto-Conversion)

Here is the next installment of my lists of proposed keywords for permanent merger and auto-conversion.

I am posting this for fellow contributors to review first and raise any objections or questions. I will wait at least seven days before changing this post to a "problem" post and asking IMDb staff to make the proposed changes.

The mergers and auto-conversions should be made in the direction of the arrows.

Duplicate Keywords Proposed for Permanent Merging and Auto-Conversion

2010's (265 titles) --> 2010s (18186 titles)

april-fools-day (25 titles) --> april-fool's-day (89 titles) --> april-fools'-day (3 titles)

argue (15 titles) --> arguing (98 titles) --> arguments (4 titles) --> argument (2338 titles)

awakened-by-alarm-clock (49 titles) --> awakened-by-an-alarm-clock (43 titles)

awakened-by-phone (39 titles) --> awakened-by-a-phone (27 titles) --> awaken-by-phone-call (29 titles) --> woken-by-a-telephone-call (47 titles) --> awakened-by-a-telephone-call (2 titles)

bats (50 titles) --> bat (696 titles)

bed-wetting (81 titles) --> wetting-the-bed (19 titles) --> wetting-bed (14 titles) --> wet-the-bed (2 titles) --> bedwetting (20 titles)

broken-hearts (2 titles) --> broken-hearted (1 title) --> brokenhearted (3 titles) --> heart-broken (72 titles) --> heartbroken (18 titles) --> broken-heart (321 titles)

child-smoking-cigarette (63 titles) --> child-smoking-a-cigarette (6 titles) --> child-smokes-a-cigarette (44 titles)

dreams (221 titles) --> dream (6331 titles)

ethical-dilemma (57 titles) --> moral-dillema (2 titles) --> moral-dilemma (694 titles)

health-care (135 titles) --> healthcare (272 titles)

home-sickness (4 titles) --> homesick (66 titles) --> homesickness (140 titles)

interviewing (50 titles) --> interview (19457 titles)

job-loss (33 titles) --> loss-of-job (382 titles) --> loss-of-a-job (6 titles) --> loosing-a-job (2 titles) --> losing-a-job (65 titles)

lies (271 titles) --> lie (4340 titles)

lonely (63 titles) --> lonelines (2 titles) --> loneliness (3200 titles)

lp-record (76 titles) --> lp-record-album (31 titles) --> lp-recording (12 titles) --> record-album (94 titles)

meth (68 titles) --> methamphetamine (169 titles)

mysterious-phone-call (50 titles) --> mysterious-telephone-call (49 titles)

news-reader (60 titles) --> newsreader (5190 titles)

olympics (528 titles) --> olympic (47 titles) --> olympic-sport (12 titles) --> olympic-games (284 titles)

pact-with-the-devil (65 titles) --> pact-with-devil (9 titles) --> deal-with-the-devil (325 titles)

persevere (1 title) --> perserverance (6 titles) --> never-give-up (64 titles) --> not-giving-up (2 titles) --> perseverance (133 titles)

politic (3514 titles) --> political (328 titles) --> politica (2 titles) --> politically (2 titles) --> politics (6898 titles)

quitting-job (140 titles) --> quit-job (63 titles) --> quitting-a-job (520 titles)

resign-from-job (6 titles) --> job-resignation (94 titles) --> resigning-from-a-job (40 titles)

safe-cracking (40 titles) --> safecracking (121 titles)

safe-cracker (58 titles) --> safe-crackers (1 title) --> safecracker (267 titles

search-for-missing-person (95 titles) --> missing-person-search (5 titles) --> search-for-missing-people (248 titles) --> search-for-a-missing-person (10 titles)

smart-phone (83 titles) --> smartphone (410 titles)

snow-storm (79 titles) --> snowstorm (353 titles)

soul-mate (120 titles) --> soul-mates (16 titles) --> soulmates (7 titles) --> soulmate (40 titles)

teenage-smoking (50 titles) --> teenagers-smoking (5 titles) --> teen-smoking (73 titles)

trashcan (191 titles) --> trash-can (87 titles) --> trash-bin (57 titles) --> rubbish-bin (14 titles) --> garbage-bin (62 titles) --> garbage-can (287 titles)

videogame (54 titles) --> videogames (37 titles) --> video-games (160 titles) --> vidoe-game (3 titles) --> video-game (132 titles)

wet (196 titles) --> wetness (116 titles)

woman-smoking-cigarette (79 titles) --> woman-smoking-cigarete (3 titles) --> woman-smoking-a-cigarette (15 titles) --> woman-smokes-a-cigarette (3 titles)

___

I have removed the "covid-19" keywords from this list and started a new post here.

Responses

Accepted Solution

Pencho15

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6.8K Messages

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3 years ago

On lp record, the following keywords may also be merged:

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keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@Pencho15 I agree the first three could be merged, but not the "vinyl" keyword, since that doesn't necessarily mean a vinyl record.

With that said, one of my rules of thumb is to not ask for a merger unless the keyword (or set of keywords) to be merged has been applied to at least 50 titles. When it's less than 50, it is easier for contributors to make the mergers manually through edits. But at around 50 titles or more, it is much more efficient for the IMDb staff to do the merger on a mass scale.

Here, the two keywords that would be merged and set up for auto-conversion ("vinyl-recording" and "vinyl-records") only total 18 titles. So not worth asking for staff action in my opinion.

I do keep a long list of keywords that have between 40 and 50 titles, which I am monitoring periodically to see when they get above 50 titles.

(edited)

3 years ago

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gromit82

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7.4K Messages

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276K Points

3 years ago

KE: I believe some of these ought to be merged in a different direction than the one you suggest.

april-fools-day (25 titles) --> april-fool's-day (89 titles) --> april-fools'-day (3 titles)

I would prefer not to merge to the least common version of the phrase.

awakened-by-phone (39 titles) --> awakened-by-a-phone (27 titles) --> awaken-by-phone-call (29 titles) --> woken-by-a-telephone-call (47 titles) --> awakened-by-a-telephone-call (2 titles)

Again, this would be a merge to the least common version, which is also the longest version (although sometimes a longer keyword is better, I would rather not make keywords longer than necessary). Besides, nowadays many of us are awakened by our phones but not by a telephone call, since smartphones have alarm functions.

job-loss (33 titles) --> loss-of-job (382 titles) --> loss-of-a-job (6 titles) --> loosing-a-job (2 titles) --> losing-a-job (65 titles)

Since "loss-of-job" is by far the most common version of these, I think we should use it.

olympics (528 titles) --> olympic (47 titles) --> olympic-sport (12 titles) --> olympic-games (284 titles)

Since "olympics" is unambiguous and the most common version, I think we should use it.

pipe-smoking (1175 titles) --> smoking-pipe (35 titles) --> smoking-a-pipe (34 titles)

Let's use "pipe-smoking", by far the most common version.

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keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@gromit82

Here are my thoughts and explanations on the keywords you commented on.

In general, often it makes sense to look beyond the specific duplicate keywords in question and consider similar keywords as well. Also, while it is true that sometimes longer keywords should be discouraged, sometimes they are more precise and aligned with the proper grammar and IMDb keyword formatting, and the good news is that if/when these keywords are set up for auto-conversion, contributors can still type the shorter version and it will be converted for them.

april-fools'-day is the only grammatically correct form of the keyword; the others are incorrect.

awakened-by-a-telephone-call is to align the formatting with awakened-by-an-alarm-clock. While it is true that people can be awakened by a cell phone alarm, we already have the keyword awakened-by-a-cellphone-alarm (which should be "awakened-by-a-cell-phone-alarm"; I will go ahead and correct that keyword). Going forward, I think it is better to set up distinctions between the various ways of being awakened by a device: awakened-by-a-telephone-call, "awakened-by-a-cell-phone-alarm" and awakened-by-an-alarm-clock.

Regarding loss-of-job versus losing-a-job, my thinking was it is better to align the format with quitting-a-job, resigning-from-a-job, starting-a-new-job, seeking-a-job, etc., some of which are very popular keywords.

I believe olympics is at least slightly vague, since it could refer to the Olympic Mountains. In fact, people who live near those mountains often just use the term "Olympics." I don't believe that any of the titles that currently have "olympics" assigned to it are intended to refer to the mountains. But to avoid any potential confusion going forward, I think olympic-games is the better keyword.

Regarding pipe-smoking, you may be right about that one. I will take it off the list for now. My thinking was smoking-a-pipe is better aligned with smoking-a-bong, smoking-crack, smoking-marijuana, smoking-opium, smoking-tobacco, etc., so that you can see from the first word in the keyword that smoking is involved, and to distinguish from different words like teen-smoking and underage-smoking, which show in the first word who is doing the smoking rather than what is being smoked. Plus, "pipe-smoking" sounds slightly awkward to me, compared to "smoking-a-pipe." I would also like to see "cigarette-smoking" and "cigar-smoking" changed to "smoking-a-cigarette" and "smoking-a-cigar," respectively, for the same reasons, but I also realize those are very popular keywords as well. For now, I will remove "pipe-smoking" from the list, potentially to be revisited at a later date.

Now that you have heard my explanations, do you still feel that any of the proposed mergers should be modified?

(edited)

3 years ago

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Peter_pbn

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awakened-by-a-telephone-call is to align the formatting with awakened-by-an-alarm-clock. While it is true that people can be awakened by a cell phone alarm, we already have the keyword awakened-by-a-cellphone-alarm

Can you be sure that the contributed entries for awakened-by-phone and awakened-by-a-phone all refer to telephone calls?

3 years ago

keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@Peter_pbn We can't be 100% sure, but I still think this proposed merger makes sense.

Alarms on cell phones have been a relatively new technological innovation, which allows us to rule out any title produced more than 20 years ago. When we sort those two links by date, there are less than 40 titles with either of those keywords produced in the past 20 years. A few of those titles also have the keyword "telephone call," which is an indicator that a telephone call was involved in the "awakened-by-a-telephone" keyword. Some of the plot descriptions specifically refer to telephone calls as well.

To summarize, technically you are correct that some of these titles may involve the use of these keywords to refer to being awakened by a cell phone alarm rather than a phone call. But the chance of that is extremely low, and if there are any such titles, the numbers will be minimal. I believe those factors are outweighed by the need to address the duplication and bifurcation of these multiple keywords -- a problem that will only grow over time.

3 years ago

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Pencho15

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6.8K Messages

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3 years ago

On bedwetting, you may also include urinating on a bed

Is there a difference between quitting and resigning from a job? Maybe both of them can go together

I'm not sure on merging lp record with album recording. LP is a particular format, while an album may come as a cassette, a cd or even digital.

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keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@Pencho15

Thank you for catching urinating-on-a-bed; I have added that one to the list.

I do think there is a slight difference between quitting a job and resigning from a job. Probably in 90+% of cases they are identical, but resigning from a job is slightly more formal. If somebody quits their job in anger on the spot, they are definitely quitting, but might not be resigning.

Resignation vs. Quitting: Differences, Dos and Don'ts

You are right that an album may be released on another format, and that is why I kept the keyword "album" out of the list. But where a keyword specifically refers to a record album or an LP record, the odds are very good that the intention was to refer to the same thing. The one keyword that might be slightly non-aligned here is "album-recording"; now that I look closer at that keyword, I think what some of the contributors meant was "recording-an-album," which is not an existing keyword. I will take "album-recording" off the list and will manually edit that keyword as best I can.

3 years ago

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keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@Pencho15 I just finished editing "album-recording" and I'm glad you raised this, since all 11 titles that had "album-recording" were specifically intended to mean "recording-an-album" rather than "record-album." I have made those changes.

3 years ago

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Pencho15

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@keyword_expert Glad to help

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3 years ago

Peter_pbn

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Bed-wetting is involuntary urination; can you be sure that the entries for urinating on a bed refer to the same thing?

3 years ago

keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@Peter_pbn I understand your concern about adding "urinating-on-a-bed." We want to make sure we are not merging two slightly different things, and I share your tendency to be strict about that.

First, I don't agree that the word "bedwetting" always denotes or connotes an involuntary act.

In fact, here is the dictionary definition for "bedwetting." Note the word "esp.," which here means "especially":

urinating in bed, esp. habitually and involuntarily; enuresis.

But there does remain the fact that "bedwetting" is usually intended to mean an involuntary act, as distinguished from a very intentional act like the infamously rumored "Pee Pee Tape."

Since "urinating-on-a-bed" has only been applied to 3 titles, I think we can just keep that keyword separate and I will do some manual editing of the keyword rather than ask for a mass merger. I have already determined based on the plot summary that at least 1 of the 3 instances involves involuntary bedwetting.

Thanks for weighing in.

3 years ago

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keyword_expert

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

3 years ago

@Michelle

Now that the seven-day comment period has passed, I have converted this post to a "problem" post, and the list is ready for IMDb staff to complete the requested mass mergers and set up auto-conversions for these duplicate keywords.

Duplicate Keywords Proposed for Permanent Merging and Auto-Conversion

2010's --> 2010s

april-fools-day --> april-fool's-day --> april-fools'-day

argue --> arguing --> arguments --> argument

awakened-by-alarm-clock --> awakened-by-an-alarm-clock

awakened-by-phone --> awakened-by-a-phone --> awaken-by-phone-call --> woken-by-a-telephone-call --> awakened-by-a-telephone-call

bats --> bat

bed-wetting --> wetting-the-bed --> wetting-bed --> wet-the-bed --> bedwetting

broken-hearts --> broken-hearted --> brokenhearted --> heart-broken --> heartbroken --> broken-heart

child-smoking-cigarette --> child-smoking-a-cigarette --> child-smokes-a-cigarette

dreams --> dream

ethical-dilemma --> moral-dillema --> moral-dilemma