gromit82's profile
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Monday, January 13th, 2014 7:13 AM

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47

Implementation of new genres

Back in July 2010, there was a discussion about new genres to be added to IMDb. After a discussion, eventually the following five genres were approved by the IMDb staff:

Soap Opera
Erotica
Awards Show
Experimental
Lifestyle

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/165524169?p=3&d=167577501#167577501

In December 2010 and January 2011, contributors discussed definitions for each of the five new genres, which were in turn approved by the staff. 

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/176453004 (Awards Show)
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/176843542 (Erotica)
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/176800928 (Experimental)
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/175322002 (Lifestyle)
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/176453288 (Soap Opera)

On January 31, 2011, then-staffer jaimie-k wrote that he was working hard to make the implementation of the genres happen as fast as possible.
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/174139769?p=2&d=177533770#177533770

However, it has been almost three years since then, and none of the new genres have been implemented yet.

We haven't even gotten an explanation for the delay since May 2012, when we were told, "It is difficult to add new genres because it requires coordination across multiple sites, multiple mobile applications on multiple platforms and multiple languages."

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/198586611?d=199705646#199705646

But that explanation doesn't sound right, because regardless of what application we use to view IMDb data, the underlying data is still stored the same way. The IMDb App for iPhone or Android or Windows Phone needs to know where to display the genre for a film -- but the app shouldn't need to be reprogrammed just because there are more genres that can be selected from. We're not talking about adding a new field of data -- we're just talking about adding new values to an existing field of data.

Or to put it another way, the Country of Origin field is another field where there are a finite number of choices that can be selected from. Suppose that Scotland or Catalonia or Flanders or Quebec became independent and started producing films and television shows. It wouldn't take years to add those new countries to the Country of Origin field. It would be done pretty quickly after the first new title was submitted with an "Explanation for missing information" identifying the film's Country of Origin as not being listed in the drop-down box.

In short, on a programming difficulty scale, where creating a program that prints "Hello, world!" is a 1, and getting Healthcare.gov (the "Obamacare" website) to operate properly is a 10, implementing the new genres should be no more than a 3. The IMDb programmers have done some much more complex programming than that in the last three and a half years. Please have them go ahead and implement the new genres without further delay.

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3 years ago

This is my 11th anniversary bump of this idea; the five genres under discussion here were announced as having been approved on July 25, 2010.

I see that Col responded to this problem a few months ago, and apparently IMDb is somewhere on the road to making it possible to implement the new genres after the programmers made it impossible to do so for some reason. But I suspect that we are still some time away from seeing implementation of these genres.

I would like to thank the 37 people who have liked this idea, although for some reason this Sprinklr site doesn't allow me to see their usernames. In any event, though, I appreciate your support.

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@gromit82 

From

https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/implementation-of-new-genres/5f4a7a638815453dbaa6da98?commentId=5f4a7b888815453dbadc46b5&replyId=5f4a7df48815453dba4adaf4

IMDb Statistics
https://www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/

July 25 2021

Title Genres .........13,425,943

  • Drama: ...........2,284,638
  • Comedy:........ 1,691,632
  • Short:.............. 1,090,791
  • Talk Show:........ 998,132
  • Romance:......... 850,251
  • Documentary: 773,483
  • Family:.............. 655,591
  • News:............... 618,588
  • Reality Tv:...... 437,422
  • Music:............ 413,979
  • Animation:... 402,948
  • Crime:............ 358,672
  • Action:........... 328,938
  • Adventure:... 313,948
  • Fantasy:......... 274,871
  • Game Show: 268,131
  • Thriller:.......... 262,113
  • Adult: ............240,943
  • Mystery:....... 224,415
  • Sport: ............203,978
  • Sci Fi:............. 192,761
  • Horror:.......... 163,412
  • History:......... 125,029
  • Biography:.... 87,301
  • Musical:........ 79,309
  • War:............... 48,833
  • Western:...... 35,015
  • Film Noir: ..........819

http://web.archive.org/web/20180915000000*/https://www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/

.

(edited)

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I'm not sure why the Romance genre didn't make the 2018 list, but it was definitely on IMDb long before then. As shown at http://web.archive.org/web/20180819222145if_/https://www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/, there were already 428,395 Romance titles in the database as of Aug. 19, 2018. I'm guessing that the Oct. 8, 2018 list cited by ACT_1 just had an inadvertent omission.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010304112154/http://us.imdb.com/Guides/genres indicates that the Romance genre was in place no later than 2001. It predates some other existing genres, including Talk-Show, News, Reality-TV, Music, Game-Show, Sport, and History, Biography.

In fact, I think the eight genres I just mentioned were the most recent ones to be added to IMDb. And they were all in place before the poll to add new genres in 2010, which resulted in Soap Opera, Erotica, Awards-Show, Experimental, and Lifestyle being selected.

(edited)

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@gromit82 

? ? ?

I may have deleted Romance formatting it with the dots

I deleted the above ooooppppsss

(edited)

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@gromit82 

You wrote:

I see that Col responded to this problem a few months ago, and apparently IMDb is somewhere on the road to making it possible to implement the new genres after the programmers made it impossible to do so for some reason. But I suspect that we are still some time away from seeing implementation of these genres.

Yes, your summary is accurate and we are indeed nearer, yet still some time away.  Just to clarify: "impossible" is too strong a word, and it is more like "impractical" given the complexity of making changes to multiple old software systems which are scheduled for retirement vs. how the time could be better spent replacing the old software and, as a free side effect, then just being able to add the genres much more easily in the new software.  It's an age-old dillema and there are times when it is worth fixing the old software, however, this is not one of them. 

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@ACT_1 Actually, "Romance" was indeed omitted from an IMDb statistics list in 2018; see http://web.archive.org/web/20181025134724if_/https://www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/ (Oct. 25, 2018), which lists the then-existing genres as follows:

Title Genres

  • Drama 1,330,188
  • Comedy 1,145,459
  • Short 770,198
  • Documentary 529,741
  • Talk_show 509,938
  • Family 406,228
  • News 377,795
  • Animation 274,750
  • Reality_tv 258,115
  • Music 250,383
  • Crime 238,295
  • Action 219,170
  • Adventure 184,283
  • Game_show 183,602
  • Thriller 168,697
  • Fantasy 154,471
  • Adult 153,743
  • Mystery 148,355
  • Sci_fi 136,252
  • Sport 119,347
  • Horror 106,104
  • History 78,323
  • Biography 62,817
  • Musical 54,242
  • War 33,423
  • Western 31,274
  • Film_noir 811

This was obviously just an error since the Romance genre existed on IMDb at that time, but it wasn't ACT_1's error.

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? ?

Mon Oct 8 2018

IMDb Statistics
https://www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/


Title Genres

• Drama........... 1,330,188
• Comedy........ 1,145,459
• Short................ 770,198
• Documentary... 529,741
• Talk_show...... 509,938
• Family............ 406,228
• News.............. 377,795
• Animation....... 274,750
• Reality_tv....... 258,115
• Music............. 250,383
• Crime............. 238,295
• Action............ 219,170
• Adventure..... 184,283
• Game_show.. 183,602
• Thriller........... 168,697
• Fantasy.......... 154,471
• Adult.............. 153,743
• Mystery......... 148,355
• Sci_fi............. 136,252
• Sport............. 119,347
• Horror........... 106,104
• History............ 78,323
• Biography....... 62,817
• Musical.......... 54,242
• War................ 33,423
• Western......... 31,274
• Film_noir............. 811

web.archive.org /20180915

Sun Jul 25 2021

IMDb Statistics
https://www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/


Title Genres .........13,425,943

Drama: ...........2,284,638
Comedy:........ 1,691,632
Short:.............. 1,090,791
Talk Show:........ 998,132
Romance:......... 850,251
Documentary: 773,483
Family:.............. 655,591
News:............... 618,588
Reality Tv:...... 437,422
Music:............ 413,979
Animation:... 402,948
Crime:............ 358,672
Action:........... 328,938
Adventure:... 313,948
Fantasy:......... 274,871
Game Show: 268,131
Thriller:.......... 262,113
Adult: ............240,943
Mystery:....... 224,415
Sport: ............203,978
Sci Fi:............. 192,761
Horror:.......... 163,412
History:......... 125,029
Biography:.... 87,301
Musical:........ 79,309
War:............... 48,833
Western:...... 35,015
Film Noir: ..........819

Thu Feb  9 2022

IMDb Statistics As of Dec 2021
https://www.imdb.com/pressroom/stats/

Genres: ...... 14,305,353

Drama:  ..........  2,431,574
Comedy: ........  1,791,103
Talk Show: ..... 1,098,007
Short: ...............1,075,829
Romance: .......   885,435 
Documentary:  813,508
News: ...............   774,677
Family:  ............   705,741
Reality TV: ......   474,639
Music: ..............   439,534
Animation: .....   428,417
Crime: ..............   372,583
Action: .............   342,552
Adventure: .....   330,677
Game Show: ... 295,440
Fantasy: ............  287,451
Thriller: .............  270,152
Adult: ................   258,503
Mystery: ..........   234,408
Sport: ................  215,176
Sci Fi: .................  200,987
Horror: ..............  172,071
History: .............  138,304
Biography: .......    91,577
Musical: ............    90,692
War:  ..................    50,138
Western: ...........    35,356
Film Noir: ..........        822

(edited)

286 Messages

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3 years ago

"Performance" for recorded theatre shows, they are currently in feature film category, most of them. :/

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3 years ago

We're now up to eleven and a half years that we've been waiting for the new genres.

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Yes, three quarters of a score has seen the persistence of a particular technical difficulty.

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2 years ago

Today marks the 12-year anniversary of when IMDb announced that it had selected the five new genres for inclusion in the database (July 25, 2010).

As the years go by, it seems less and less likely that the staff will ever get around to adding these genres in our lifetimes. Therefore, I suggest that if any contributor here passes away, their ghost should go to the IMDb offices and haunt the staff until they finally assign someone to program these genres into the software.

(edited)

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Also, we are now up to 39 votes in support of implementing the new genres. Unfortunately, I can't see the names of the supporters ever since this site moved to Sprinklr, but I want to say that I do appreciate your support.

(edited)

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@gromit82​ 40 votes now!

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2 years ago

I still support this post.

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@keyword_expert​ 12 years, incredible.

Follow the IMDb Polls in Facebook and Twitter

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And it shouldn't even be about only these particular 5 genres (which I also support), but about overall genre and feature flexibility, so that more genres and similar features can be added in real-time.  If the current system doesn't make it feasible to implement something as simple as additional genres, then it needs to be redesigned/fixed so that it can.

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Shape: I agree, because I don't think that the five genres approved in 2010 were supposed to be the last ones ever approved. If there had been a procedure in which to implement those genres at the time they were approved, there might have been some consideration to choosing a few more genres a few years later. But since the process is twelve years behind schedule, that's hardly in the works now.

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@gromit82​ Exactly. There are certainly other genres that are needed, and I'm sure would have been requested in followup comments/threads if the community thought it would be worth the time to make the requests and also not detract attention from the original one that's still idle.

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I hope everybody who (still) supports this issue will vote for it and/or post about it. It's unbelievable it's taking so long.

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The fact that this is the third message board system on which I've had to campaign for the implementation of the new genres suggests ... well, I don't know what it suggests, but probably not something good. (First the IMDb Contributors Help message board, then Get Satisfaction, and now Sprinklr.)

When these new genres were first promised, Prince William was still single and Volodomyr Zelenskyy was known mostly as the co-star of the Love in the Big City movies. 

(edited)

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1 year ago

We're now past the 13-year mark on implementing the five new genres, which were announced on July 25, 2010.

I don't know what the problem is. I thought all the back-end programming that was supposed to make it possible to add the new genres was completed a while ago.

Could we please get a comment from the staff?

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@gromit82​ The work on the tech migration is not yet complete, sorry. We have completed the majority of pages by traffic volume, but there are still many page types left to go (including advanced search which plays a major role in genre driven pages / links).

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Thanks, Col.

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@Col_Needham​ Thanks at least for the reply.

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1 year ago

  • Please add "RELIGIOUS" as a genre.
  • It's critical to honestly disclose when a program has an agenda or propagandizing.
  • It's unfair to exclude it for the sake of those who seek the genre as well as those who seek to avoid the genre.
  • It's unfair to imdb users to force anyone to try to figure this out by reading dozens of comments searching for clues to ascertain whether something is religious by manually searching for words like "islam," "christian," "religious," or combinations thereof.

(edited)

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Like many other words used to describe the subject matter of a film, Religious is better suited as and has already been used as a keyword/tag.  It also isn't an actual existing film genre, just a descriptive adjective.

(edited)

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On streaming platforms, the "religious" category is better known as "faith and spirituality". Which sort of helps account for the fact that many religious themes or events can be found outside of the ecclesiastical houses, seminaries, monasteries and temples.

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1 year ago

Since some of the older threads have disappeared in recent weeks, I'm bumping this one to ensure that it never gets expired before it is actually resolved. I'm not expecting an actual response right now.

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[@gromit82​ ... Idea threads are never expired]

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@Col_Needham​ Thanks, I didn't know that.

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I sort of inquired about that before, and Col explained that closed threads that are too old and also no longer relevant are either made so that they;re only visible to the people who posted in them if not deleted entirely, so that more recent or more important threads are easier to track. As near as a I can tell, idea thread stay up util they've been either long implemented or not open for consideration. I've noticed that a large portion of the threads I've created over two years ago or so are no longer visible to the public, or in some cases return HTTP error 404 for me. I might have to start one, maybe two, of them over, because they weren't ever actually resolved to my satisfaction an thus may elicit additional inquiries from me.

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7 months ago

I'm bumping this thread because I haven't done so since December.

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5 months ago

Today is July 25, 2024, marking the 14th anniversary of when the IMDb staff announced five new genres to be added to the database:

  • Awards Show
  • Erotica
  • Experimental
  • Lifestyle
  • Soap Opera

And, as I've noted many times before, these genres have not yet been implemented, and we have no idea when that will happen. 

Will these genres make it to their "sweet 16" without being implemented? That's only two years away. I guess we'll have to wait and see.