15 Messages
•
370 Points
Suggestion to improve submission forms for contributors
As a contributor for imdb I've continued to noticed a major occurring problem when correcting data. Too often many fans (or the individuals themselves or their agents who update their own profiles) will 'select all' when adding credits to a Television Show title via the Click --> to select from a set of episodes; even when the actor, actress or crew member did in fact NOT work on all episodes selected.
It's unfortunate that many people have abused this simple feature because they either don't care about accurate data or have a poor memory (or are too lazy to research) concerning which actual episodes and the total number they worked on.
My suggestion for the imdb staff is to consider one of the following to help reduce errors that need to be corrected by contributors like myself in the future:
Option #1: Get rid of the 'select all' episodes option. Each credit should instead be added individually to each specific episode page.
I understand this will be more time consuming if the individual has in fact worked on dozens or hundreds of episodes but in my opinion it's not worth it for the few who would actually benefit from 'select all' vs the vast majority of people who only worked on a specific number of episodes throughout a season or the entire series run.
Also worth noting that if each new episode is updated week to week, the amount of work to submit a new form every week isn't really all that demanding.
e.g. If an actor worked on a TV series that was 50 episodes long a contributor would only add a new credit once a week for 50 weeks vs. letting it all accumulate and then having to submit 50 forms all at the same time. Basically if a contributor doesn't want to fill out a lot of forms at once, they should update each individual episode as soon as possible (after it airs)
Option #2:
If Option #1 is seen as too unreasonable at the very least I think the imdb staff should consider including a 'warning' when the 'select all' episodes is used.
Similar to how there are warnings included when someone uses the 'Order'
e.g.
This credit has warnings, you must acknowledge each one before this credit will be accepted.
In order for the contributor to proceed they have to checkmark the warning boxes
'Warning understood, go ahead anyway.'
I believe there should also be a
'Warning understood, go ahead anyway.'
whenever someone uses 'select all' episodes
Maybe something like...
This credit has warnings, you must acknowledge each one before this credit will be accepted.
Of course someone might proceed to submit incorrect data anyway but a extra warning might help stop some abusive submissions which is better than preventing none at all.
It's unfortunate that many people have abused this simple feature because they either don't care about accurate data or have a poor memory (or are too lazy to research) concerning which actual episodes and the total number they worked on.
My suggestion for the imdb staff is to consider one of the following to help reduce errors that need to be corrected by contributors like myself in the future:
Option #1: Get rid of the 'select all' episodes option. Each credit should instead be added individually to each specific episode page.
I understand this will be more time consuming if the individual has in fact worked on dozens or hundreds of episodes but in my opinion it's not worth it for the few who would actually benefit from 'select all' vs the vast majority of people who only worked on a specific number of episodes throughout a season or the entire series run.
Also worth noting that if each new episode is updated week to week, the amount of work to submit a new form every week isn't really all that demanding.
e.g. If an actor worked on a TV series that was 50 episodes long a contributor would only add a new credit once a week for 50 weeks vs. letting it all accumulate and then having to submit 50 forms all at the same time. Basically if a contributor doesn't want to fill out a lot of forms at once, they should update each individual episode as soon as possible (after it airs)
Option #2:
If Option #1 is seen as too unreasonable at the very least I think the imdb staff should consider including a 'warning' when the 'select all' episodes is used.
Similar to how there are warnings included when someone uses the 'Order'
e.g.
This credit has warnings, you must acknowledge each one before this credit will be accepted.
- Please confirm this person received a major credit on this title.
An order number of 1, 2 or 3 indicates this person was billed in that position in the on screen credits. Please confirm this is correct by selecting the option to ignore this warning. If you do not know their position in the credits, please leave the order field blank.
Please note: This is the order of billing within a title -- you cannot change the order of credits in your filmography; it is determined automatically.
- All other cast credits for this title are unordered so far.
Are you sure you know the correct final cast ordering as listed in the on screen credits?
In order for the contributor to proceed they have to checkmark the warning boxes
'Warning understood, go ahead anyway.'
I believe there should also be a
'Warning understood, go ahead anyway.'
whenever someone uses 'select all' episodes
Maybe something like...
This credit has warnings, you must acknowledge each one before this credit will be accepted.
- Please confirm this person worked on all episodes you have selected for this title.
Of course someone might proceed to submit incorrect data anyway but a extra warning might help stop some abusive submissions which is better than preventing none at all.
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