45 Messages
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1.3K Points
Naming people in photographs
It is almost useless to list names of people in photographs because there is no means of knowing who in the photograph has that name. Surely it is common sense to list the names in the order from left to right of the people in the photo?! For example, in the attached screenshot, who is who? NO correlation between names listed under the photo and the order in which they appear!!!
Vincent_Fournols
2.4K Messages
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81.2K Points
7 years ago
To help you on this one: ?, Lelouch, Costa-Gavras, Loach (?), Mungiu, Campion, ?, Lynch, Polanski
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peter_hoare_bd9ojyvhxgm56
6 Messages
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132 Points
7 years ago
Dear Col
I have this week registered with IMDb and raised what I consider an important question in a message to the Help Desk: why is there no logic in the ordering of names underneath a photo of a group of people? The names are written in no logical order which means that a viewer has no idea who is who in the photograph.
I received this cryptic reply from your Help Desk:
"Currently names are listed in order of how long they have been in the database based the their nconst number."
What on earth is an 'nconst number'? And what relevance does this have in telling viewers the identity of persons in group photos?
It is common practice in any published medium involving text and photos of two or more people, be it in print or online, to list their names in a left-to-right sequence as they appear in the photo.
Doubtless millions of visitors visit IMDb daily or weekly, yet they are unable to identify people in photos because of the jumbled way names are listed underneath. Common sense says there is a clear lack of intelligence in writing names under photos if we can't know who they relate to?
This only happens on IMDb. Look at any newspaper, magazine, article, etc in print or online, and common sense is used in making sure that names are attributed, usually in a left-to-right sequence.
It amazes me that IMDb has not corrected this unbelievable anomaly ages ago. And that, as evidenced in the response by one of your staff, there is not even any hint of awareness concerning the complete irrationality and uselessness of this aspect of the site.
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