IMDb staff: What 19 indicates in the reference numbers like #000000-000000-000019?

Hi @Michelle,

Some of them:

#260707-191927-193019
#260724-185326-646819
#260727-094121-319819
#260804-151033-820619

I have two ideas on what that can be, but both result into a strange situation.

If for some reason the team can not give a comprehensive answer on public, please explain to my e-mail, I'm not going to reveal the results. Thank you.

Hi @MAthePA​ -

Thanks for these examples, I'm checking on this with the appropriate tech team (note it will likely not be until early next week until I get a response).

As soon as I have the details I will confirm them with you here (if I can share the specifics).

Hi, @MAthePA and @Michelle​:

Here's my guess, based on my own contribution reference numbers:

➡️ #xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx00: Title contribution (cast & crew, companies, etc.)

➡️ #xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx02: Image contribution (until May 2026) (❌deprecated?)

➡️ #xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx04: FAQ contribution (until September 2024) (❌deprecated?)

➡️ #xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx09: I have four of these, each of which just includes the addition of a certificate; these may be some of the very few contributions I made using the Data Gaps feature that used to exist (❌deprecated?)

➡️ #xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx19: Image contribution (since May 2026)

➡️ #xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx21: FAQ contribution (since September 2024)

Cheers!

@ljdoncel,

thank you.

I submitted a FAQ only once, maybe it was "21", didn't notice.

Data Gaps is totally not interesting since they restricted the countries in 2019 or 2020 for a stupid reason.

The rest I knew, and at first it looked like 02 moved to 19, but I also had 19s not related to images. In fact, that ruined my auto separating into images and the rest.

Hi @MAthePA​ -

Thanks for your patience.

Regarding the last two digits in submission reference numbers: these are internal system identifiers used for routing and processing purposes on our end, and they aren't something I can share details about or document publicly.

With that said, we're curious - you mentioned building your own instruments for archiving and analyzing your contribution history.  We'd love to understand more about what you're looking for that the current Contribution History page doesn't provide.  If you are willing to share that feedback I will pass it along to the appropriate team for future improvements.

Hi @Michelle,

Thank you for transmitting this information from space to us mere mortals on Earth. I'm out of words. They had started the Contribution History Beta over a decade ago, with no filtering, no paging, and it's still a beta which meets no minimum for prolific usability. The old beloved Update History is closer to the needs, and even search and filtering could be but none is implemented, and it still needs an indication that a submission has been processed. And they told you to tell the contributors that the team is curious of the obvious things?

I've made over 400,000 submissions so far, and maybe someday it will be interesting to see how many edits (1, 2, or 3 millions) they include, and how many declined, but IMDb doesn't provide any means for that.

Sometimes I need to see if I've made any edits to a concrete title or name page before (maybe last year, five years ago), and it takes a few seconds to know this, thanks to my submission database being offline. Is IMDb going to provide such functionality to contributors having all their history online?

@MAthePA​, you're very welcome.

I'm sure other contributors will find it useful, but I've never used the “Move category” feature because I don't find it practical for the way I audit the credits for a title. It only lets you move one entry at a time, and I'd have to keep a separate list of the credits I've already corrected/verified instead of processing all the names in one go, which is how I like to do it.

At first, I thought the different endings of the contribution number were just related to the type of data or the multiple templates of the update form, but now I must admit that Michelle's response has made me extremely curious to find out the real reason for the distinction. 

Perhaps this is the kind of information Col will share in 10-15 years in a book titled “Behind the Scenes. Fun Secrets You Didn't Know About IMDb.” 😊

One more:

21 is also Parents guide.