Except there are a whole slew of romantic comedy where romance and comedy aren't sufficient. We even have a shortened phrase for them called RomCom. I'd argue you'd make a better point by saying "Romantic Comedy" is its own genre, not a subgenre, but in the IMDb system that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm sure there are "official" subgenres that you could make the point that the genres are "sufficient".
Also, if they aren't going to accept them as keywords (though they certainly should), they should ban the keywords because otherwise we are forced in to putting them in the "other" category.
There was some discussion about this guideline and the list of subgenres, but IMDb has recently confirmed that they would stick with the guideline:
In response to previous feedback from this community, we have opted to capture these scenarios with combinations of genres (Romance+Drama genres instead of romantic-drama subgenre) going forward, instead of duplicating the same data under subgenre keywords.
So, they are just going to ignore the problem and the fact that there is a complete and recognized genre of RomComs? That doesn't seem very intelligent nor logic but then the whole rollout of categories for keywords seems to have not been thought out very well or logically like having characters under "other" instead of "plot detail".
Basically, IMDb staff gave in to the pressure from @bradley_kent, who railed against keywords that combine multiple genres in the same keyword in increasingly acerbic post after post, even though others such as myself supported these keywords.
Although I publicly supported multi-genre keywords, I never felt particularly strongly about them. In contrast, Mr. Kent did indicate (over and over) that he felt particularly strongly about them. I guess the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
I will admit that there was a conflict between the guidelines--one of which expressly prohibited multi-genre keywords and others of which expressly allowed them. (Mr. Kent described this as IMDb staff "violating" their own guidelines. I did not agree with that characterization.)
With that said, a few keywords that (technically) combine multiple genres still remain on the list of "suggested" keywords. Those include music-documentary, sports-documentary, and crime-documentary.
As for RomComs, I agree with you that this is an established subgenre and that allowing these types of movies to be searched via keywords would be a good thing, not a bad thing.
You might be able to sneak in some keywords using the examples below, although don't be surprised if Mr. Kent edits these keywords out of existence in the near future, now that they have been discussed on the forum.
like having characters under "other" instead of "plot detail".
Can you explain what you mean by that? Are you sure this was a policy position taken by IMDb staff, or could this be a mistake by a contributor? Examples would be helpful.
So, "romantic comedy" should not be a subgenre of comedy, just as "comedic romance" should not be a subgenre of romance, because "romantic comedy" and "comedic romance" are synonymous? I wonder if Bradley Kent's thinking is something along these lines, and I also wonder if the IMDb site authorities thought through all the set theory with Venn diagrams before implementing the concept of the genre-within-genre" keywords. Well, now, couldn't some subgenres belong to more than one genre?
This may explain why I never saw the original posts. There are certain posters I don't ever pay attention to because they never have anything constructive to say (and constantly say they are going to quit -- for years -- and never do.)
Okay, gotcha. I agree with you that "-character" keywords should be Plot Detail keywords. That seems pretty obvious to me.
And now I know why people have been asking about "mood" keywords, since that is also briefly mentioned in the help article. The idea of "mood" keywords makes very little sense to me, and would in most cases constitute subjective keywords, which are generally disfavored on IMDb.
Again, you are giving me too much credit (or ridicule). I have been simply trying to follow IMDb's own guidelines:
"Repeating genres: For example, we have the genres Romance and Drama so you can submit these as genres to the title rather than submitting the keyword romantic-drama."
Combining genres in keywords when the titles should have those genres already affixed to them just seems like repetition.
There are so many repetitions, omissions and convolutions of subgenres that I am expecting almost anything to appear.
I think it's pretty clear you get the credit here. The staff acknowledged as much in the post that @Peter_pbn quoted:
In response to previous feedback from this community, we have opted to capture these scenarios with combinations of genres (Romance+Drama genres instead of romantic-drama subgenre) going forward, instead of duplicating the same data under subgenre keywords.
Peter_pbn
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The keyword guidelines use the equivalent example romantic-drama and says it should not be used because the genres Romance and Drama are sufficient.
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