L

19 Messages

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274 Points

Saturday, August 6th, 2022 6:45 PM

Closed

Solved

Incorrectly credited and credited and credited...

Over the last year or so, someone has been crediting me as a Puppeteer / Muppeteer on over 100 old projects. I am not, nor have I ever been a Puppeteer / Muppeteer. I was successful a couple of months ago in having IMDb remove these credits, after much frustration and two hours of individually having to delete each credit for project and episodes. Then, a few weeks later, they added them all back and then some! I now have a credit for a show, credited as "Langley McCrea". I don't know who this person is. They do not have an IMDb page, and I can't find anyone by that name in a Google search, Facebook, Instagram, etc. IMDb continues to say that I can't provide proof that I was not a Puppeteer / Muppeteer on these projects. What more proof do you need other than the fact that I HAVE NEVER BEEN A MUPPETEER  OR PUPPETEER IN MY LIFE!!!!!!  This is so frustrating. Remove these stupid credits NOW. Do your job. Track down this "Langley McCrea" and fix the issue. Give them their own page because obviously they've worked hard for it!

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

2 years ago

At this point, seems like IMDb should contact whomever is doing this and tell them to stop. 

Prior post: Falsely credited

My guess is this all may stem from this title, on which it looks like you actually did appear uncredited in a Muppets movie, as "Security Guard (uncredited)":

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158811/reference/

I'm guessing someone who adds data to various Muppets and puppets titles mixed up the unique "name" ID for your IMDb listing (nm1105676) with another person.

(edited)

1.7K Messages

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22.9K Points

Or it could be just pure vandalism (I personally find this more likely)

As I said in previous thread, when OP posted this problem, I checked a handful of productions his name was added and none of them had his name credited.

Staff shouldn't think they might belong to someone else with same or similar name. Just now I checked this episode too where OP is added with (as Langley McCrea) attribute: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7852182/fullcredits/

There is no Langley credited in the episode, no Langley McArol, no Langley McCrea. These are the only "Utility Puppeteer" credits in the episode:

Artie Esposito, Sean Johnson, Dorien Davies, Christine Papalexis, Sarah O. Sarang, Warner Adachi, Liz Hara

And they were already listed with their order numbers correctly. The recently added "Utility Puppeteer" credits without order numbers are all wrong. This would also mean OP is not the only one affected by the same vandalism. The vandal probably randomly adds incorrect credits to a lot of people. OP is probably only one of the affected ones.

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@mbmb​ I saw your theory about vandalism, and I admit it is increasingly likely at this point. 

The theory I posited was a slightly different one. Rather than mixing up similar sounding names, perhaps the contributor simply got the unique name ID (nm1105676) mixed up with another person.  This is possible, especially if the contributions are being added via bots, scripts, or similar automation or software assists.

(edited)

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22.9K Points

@keyword_expert​ Yeah I understood your point, I just said it and checked the episode because the OP is trying to find who "Langley McCrea" is when in reality they just doesn't exist and not credited either.

(edited)

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@mbmb​ Good point. I was forgetting about that part. For someone to just completely make that name up does not seem like an accident.

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@keyword_expert​ Yes exactly, your theory that a bot going haywire is possible too but a bot probably won't make up names. At this point only staff could tell I guess.

19 Messages

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274 Points

2 years ago

Thanks for all the feedback. How do I get IMDb to remove those credits? They seem to ignore my requests after the first removal (then they added them and more back 2 weeks later).  

2.7K Messages

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47K Points

@lmcarol​ IMDb staff typically do not respond in this forum on the weekends, but rest assured they will see this post and take care of it in a few days. 

Employee

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17.6K Messages

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314.4K Points

2 years ago

Hi lmcarol -

I have now removed the reported invalid credits.  I have also taken internal steps to help catch and prevent this issue from reoccurring.

Cheers!

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22.9K Points

@Michelle​ I can see other damages to the database by same vandal are still not touched. For example, like mentioned above, all unordered "Utility Puppeteer" cast entries here are also fake: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7852182/fullcredits

I can trace a lot more by going from this limited data and abilities. I don't understand why an IMDb employee can't do that when you should be able to see everything. I'm sure you would not lose anything by deleting everything added by same user as it's clear they are doing nothing other than vandalism.

(edited)

19 Messages

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274 Points

@Michelle​ Thank you very much!

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22.9K Points

2 years ago

@Michelle Did you delete the unordered fake "Utility Puppeteer" cast entries from this example? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7852182/fullcredits

I can see the vandalism was not dealt with looking at the "Additional Muppet Performer (uncredited)" entries here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3268828/fullcredits/

Like I said, I can trace these and more with little info and abilities, why an IMDb editor with all of their admin abilities can't do that?

(edited)

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47K Points

@mbmb​ Where @Michelle said "I have also taken internal steps to help catch and prevent this issue from reoccurring," that probably means she has either emailed the vandal and told them to stop, or put the vandal on probation. 

But you are correct that all past vandalism from this vandal could and should be reversed. Perhaps the problem is that it might not be immediately obvious which of the contributions from this user are vandalism, and which are legitimate. While you, @mbmb, are a very discerning contributor who is able to easily detect some or all of the vandalism, what if the vandalism is only 5% of the vandal's contributions, while the other 95% are legit? In that hypothetical scenario, should 100% of the contributions be undone, or should staff be required to sift through all of it? If that is what is going on behind the scenes, there are some tough choices here.

(edited)

Employee

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5.6K Messages

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58.9K Points

1 year ago

Hi! 

Sorry for the late reply, we had identified users and cleaned a lot, but there were so many accounts doing this that cleanup was pending, I have now taken some time to clean as much as I could. If you see any remaining fake puppeteer credits let me know! 

Cheers!

19 Messages

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274 Points

@Bethanny​ Thank you. It's all been handled, except for one legitimate credit they took away from me and refuse to give it back because the scene was completely cut in reshoots. Upset about that one, but I'm letting it go because I'm tired of arguing about it.

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22.9K Points

@Bethanny​ I think there's a possibility that some innocent users were caught in the crossfire here.

For example, checking the example page mentioned here a few times: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7852182/fullcredits

I see all "Utility Puppeteer" credits were removed, but as I mentioned only the ones without an order number were from the vandal (quoting myself: "recently added "Utility Puppeteer" credits without order numbers are all wrong"), the ones that were not recently added and had order numbers were correct (Artie Esposito, Sean Johnson, Dorien Davies, Christine Papalexis, Sarah O. Sarang, Warner Adachi, Liz Hara, Patrick Johnson) and the users added them were most likely innocent users.

(edited)

Employee

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58.9K Points

@mbmb​ Yes, yes they did, all fixed.

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@Bethanny​ Great, there is one missed (Patrick Johnson's credit with the order number 24), that was correct too and the contributor of that was most likely innocent too.

Employee

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5.6K Messages

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58.9K Points

@mbmb​ That one was reinstated too, it probably just took a little longer.

Cheers!