Timeframe keywords

Many new keywords have been added (recently, I think) starting with timeframe-:

https://www.imdb.com/find?s=kw&q=timeframe

We already have other keywords for decades, centuries etc. to indicate the setting, just without the word timeframe.

I tried to delete a few that I thought were misapplied, but was declined. I'd like to know if these keywords were added by IMDb, and if IMDb has any preferences with regard to the use of such keywords?

A specific question is about TV series that stretch across decades. For example, Saturday Night Live has has six decades and two centuries added. I'm not sure this tells the user anything that wasn't already obvious. But also, I'm not sure if this usage is in keeping with the guideline that says, "Keywords submitted to the TV series page should be relevant to and describe the entire series."

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Michelle

Employee

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18.2K Messages

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321.3K Points

4 years ago

Hi Peter

Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, those keywords prefixed with "timeframe-" were added by IMDb staff, as we are working to make our keywords a bit more standardized and structured to aid title discovery. We have actually just published an update to our keywords submission guide. In short, we are now specifying that if a keyword describes the timeframe the plot is set in, then it should match one of the values we have now specified in the guide, which are all prefixed with "timeframe-", e.g. "timeframe-1950s".

Regarding SNL - those existing items are correctly aligned with the new policy, as the timeframe of this series crosses multiple decades.

Cheers!

(edited)

18

bradley_kent

1.7K Messages

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28K Points

4 years ago

By the way, SNL has often has sketches set in caveman times, medieval times, the old west, all the way to the future and the far future. These are plot timeframes, too!

(edited)

0

hurdy_gurdy_man

60 Messages

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1.4K Points

3 years ago

May I know exactly what is wrong with a simple keyword "1980s" that it has become necessary to complicate it with a redundant "timeframe" addition? When you mention "1980s", that means the narrative takes place partly or fully in the 1980s. It's perfectly understood by anyone and everyone. Why fix something that isn't broken?

1

keyword_expert

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47K Points

@hurdy_gurdy_man Since nobody else has yet responded to your questions, I will give it a shot. I am of course not the one who came up with the "timeframe-" keywords in the first place, but whomever that person is, here is what I think they might say.

First, adding "timeframe-" as a prefix matches the counterpart "year-" keywords, which have been in use for years (no pun intended). Those are good keywords, because for example they distinguish keyword like "3000" from keywords like "year-3000." And since most people are in the habit of using "year-" for these keywords, it's not too much to ask of people to also use "timeframe-" for decades and similar keywords.

Second, as documented by contributors like @Peter_pbn in this thread and others, some people were using the "1980s" style keywords not to denote the time period when the plot of the movie or show is set, but rather to denote the time period when the movie or show was produced or released. This approach was the exception, but there are indeed some cases like this. The examples that Peter gave were The Lion King and Game of Thrones, where people added keywords from when those titles were released (not when they were set).

On that second point, adding "timeframe-" to the beginning of the keyword should avoid that mistake in the future. There will be little room for confusion that a keyword "timeframe-1980s" is set in the 1980s (not released in the 1980s).

With all of this said, I think the natural next step is for the "1980s" style keywords to be merged into the "timeframe-1980s" style keywords. Otherwise, it makes very little sense to have two separate sets of keywords, just as you have noted.

I previously posted an "idea" thread raising the idea of merging these two sets of keywords into each other. Eventually I will post that as a formal proposal (unless anyone makes a persuasive argument that such a mass merger should not be done).

But before I do that, we first need to make sure that the "timeframe-" keywords no longer enjoy special protections from deleting and editing. As long as those protections are in place, I would not want to "lock in" a mass merger of the "1980s" style keywords into the "timeframe-1980s" style keywords, because that would mean that incorrect keywords could not be easily deleted. IMDb staff have said they are looking into the problems that everyone has been having with deleting "timeframe-" keywords, but we haven't heard any updates in a while.

(edited)

3 years ago

Bethanny

Employee

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5.6K Messages

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58.9K Points

3 years ago

Hello all!

As you may already know this has been updated, the timeframe prefix is no longer necessary and we're slowly processing through the timeframe- prefix removal.

Cheers!

2

adrian

Champion

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3K Messages

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72.5K Points

@Bethanny

We may need some updates on timeframes. I've been trying to add categories to existing keywords when I edit a title. There was one with "prohibition-era" or something similar but that would not be accepted as a timeframe which it should be.

3 years ago

Bethanny

Employee

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5.6K Messages

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58.9K Points

@adrian Hi!

I have passed this on to the team in charge for consideration.

Thanks!

3 years ago

Peter_pbn

Timeframe keywords

Michelle

bradley_kent

hurdy_gurdy_man

keyword_expert

Bethanny

adrian

Bethanny

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