Extensive damage by the same contributor

I was going to attempt to tidy this up myself, but after some digging and realising the scale of the problem I think it needs dealing with at staff level, not least because the contributor itself might need investigating, if only to see how much damage they've done.

I was adding a credit for Steve Backshall and noticed not one, but two pages for a "Backshall Steve". They each had one credit and both referred to a Steve Backshall programme, so I was preparing to merge them, but then I realised that each of those credits led to a title page where the entire cast had reverse-name variants of their proper counterparts. Not only that, but in cases where someone appeared in both series, they had a separate wrong page for each one, for example Liz Bonnin (excuse me, "Bonnin Liz"):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32345043/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32375302/

From looking at the two "Bonnin Liz" pages, I then discovered another series on top of that, with the same affliction:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32345048/

Ah, but that's just the beginning! All three of these documentary series are listed as Drama titles for some baffling reason, all have the country of origin listed as USA instead of UK (they were broadcast on PBS and mostly filmed in America, but were produced by the BBC Natural History unit and broadcast in the UK first), and at least one of them already has a proper listing (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8442184/).

Could someone please check this contributor to see if they have created any other titles like this, and provide a large-scale clean-up on everything?

Many thanks

Responses

Ozzy

Employee

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1.9K Messages

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18.8K Points

6 months ago

Hi @tom_wake,

Thank you for reporting this.

I have filed a ticket (ref. #D134602336) with the appropriate team to investigate this erroneous data. I will provide updates to this thread as and when I receive them.

Cheers!

0

tom_wake

436 Messages

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7.2K Points

5 months ago

Hi,

I have found another example, with all the signs of being made by the same contributor (complete with duplicate actor pages, created with the names in reverse order). This time it's a drama series rather than documentary, and the title has been given a bizarre suffix that (I presume) reflects the fact that the contributor has been watching this UK series in America on PBS:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32370110/

This is the correct listing for the same series:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18556180/

I appreciate that time needs to be taken to look into this, but in the meantime, please could someone put a stop to this contributor before they cause any further damage? God knows how many duplicate reversed-name pages have already been created!

5

Ozzy

Employee

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1.9K Messages

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18.8K Points

Hi @tom_wake,

Thank you again for reporting this.

I am aware that we had previously made contact with this contributor, as such I will follow up with the investigating team to ensure a further review of this data and situation is conducted as soon as possible. I will provide any updates I receive to this thread when I have them.

I hope this helps!

5 months ago

0

tom_wake

436 Messages

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7.2K Points

@Ozzy Thanks,

I've also just found another page with the same errors, but it's so completely unsalvageable that I'm going to request that it be deleted.

The common link here, across all five pages found so far, seems to be that these are British series airing on PBS in America, with a PBS link being submitted as the "official site" in all cases.

Thanks also for the clean-up on the titles mentioned in my initial post, which I see have been tidied up nicely; please could the same be done for the "Maryland" one above (or, better yet, delete that page, as well as the name pages attached to it, since there's nothing to be gained by merging them; in fact the bad data might even make the original pages worse)

(edited)

5 months ago

Ozzy

Employee

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1.9K Messages

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18.8K Points

Hi @tom_wake,

Thank you for the additional information here.

I can confirm we are coaching the user and cleaning up these title pages where we can, but if you were to notice any further pages or any other related issues, please submit title corrections via the Contribution Form for us to review.

Cheers!

5 months ago

tom_wake

436 Messages

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7.2K Points

Hi @Ozzy

I have found two more pages that show all the signs of being from the same contributor; I would have submitted corrections via the update form, as requested, but the "title deletion" option does not appear on the form, and once again, these entries are in such a terrible state that merging the pages would do far more harm than good.

The UK-made TV movies The Gruffalo (2009) and The Gruffalo's Child (2011) have been given duplicate listings with the wrong format (TV series), the wrong release year (2017) the wrong production company (USA), and with the writers and directors listed as cast members. As usual, all the names have been reversed, e.g. "Smith John" instead of "John Smith". Literally nothing about these entries is correct, and merging the pages would only serve to add the incorrect data to the proper entries (unless you were to strip away all the data first, in which case you might just as well delete them anyway).

Please could the following titles be deleted (not merged):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32376224/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32376229/

Of course, that would still leave the nonsensical name pages intact, albeit without any credits attached, so these would need to be deleted as well:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16144070/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16144069/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16144068/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16144074/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16144073/

Thank you very much

3 months ago

0

Ozzy

Employee

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1.9K Messages

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18.8K Points

Hi @tom_wake,

Thank you for reporting these titles and name pages, these were added prior to our original investigation and as such were missed from the clean-up. We have now removed them from the site, this update will appear live shortly.

Cheers!

3 months ago

0

tom_wake

Extensive damage by the same contributor

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