228 Messages
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5K Points
Ongoing issues with troublesome 'unknown' season label for known specials
There is an ongoing problem with the label 'unknown' for series specials which do not form part of a specific season. Less experienced editors, more often than not, seem to add the specials onto the beginning or end of seasons which they clearly do not form part of, in some instances in fact the specials aired years after the season which they have been stuck onto has ended.
A solution would be to introduce a new label 'specials' which would mean all of the specials (like Christmas and charity specials etc.) could be listed under, rather than under the current label 'unknown' which is open to misinterpretation and causes confusion as well as extra work.
The label 'unknown' is an immediate invitation for less experienced editors to 'correct' this and tag specials onto seasons erroneously, thinking they are 'tidying' or helping where this is definitely not the case.
This has happened on countless occasions on many British sitcoms I have edited and as such I have had to reverse these edits on scores of occasions. I have requested that the episode number/title be 'locked' but by and large either this has not occurred or perhaps there is currently no facility for imdb staff to lock this(?)
Other websites including for instance BBC/ITV/Channel 4 etc. already list their sitcoms in question with all of their relative specials, as just that: specials, and not as ordinary episodes tagged senselessly onto full seasons complete with a season/episode number. DVDs also list specials separately. imdb needs to do the same.
If we had a separate label for specials this problem would be resolved and no longer crop up in the future. The pages concerned would also be much clearer and allow users to view a list of all specials in date order rather than have to search through all of the seasons to which these specials clearly do not belong.
A solution would be to introduce a new label 'specials' which would mean all of the specials (like Christmas and charity specials etc.) could be listed under, rather than under the current label 'unknown' which is open to misinterpretation and causes confusion as well as extra work.
The label 'unknown' is an immediate invitation for less experienced editors to 'correct' this and tag specials onto seasons erroneously, thinking they are 'tidying' or helping where this is definitely not the case.
This has happened on countless occasions on many British sitcoms I have edited and as such I have had to reverse these edits on scores of occasions. I have requested that the episode number/title be 'locked' but by and large either this has not occurred or perhaps there is currently no facility for imdb staff to lock this(?)
Other websites including for instance BBC/ITV/Channel 4 etc. already list their sitcoms in question with all of their relative specials, as just that: specials, and not as ordinary episodes tagged senselessly onto full seasons complete with a season/episode number. DVDs also list specials separately. imdb needs to do the same.
If we had a separate label for specials this problem would be resolved and no longer crop up in the future. The pages concerned would also be much clearer and allow users to view a list of all specials in date order rather than have to search through all of the seasons to which these specials clearly do not belong.
Peter_pbn
Champion
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14.2K Messages
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327.8K Points
5 years ago
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dale79
228 Messages
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5K Points
3 years ago
More than 3 years later, this still hasn't been resolved and I continue to have to revert edits from people who think they are tidying by sticking the specials onto the end of series broadcast possibly years before.
0