leonard_david's profile
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Employee

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6 Messages

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240 Points

Saturday, November 4th, 2017 12:27 AM

Updates to TV Series Full Cast & Crew pages

As Col referenced in his post earlier this week, we're pleased to announce that we've added episodic information to the Series Cast section of the TV Series Full Cast & Crew page.  This means that TV Series Full Cast & Crew is now a one-stop shop that not only provides the number of episodes in which a given actor / actress appeared, but also shows the exact episodes in which the actor / actress appeared (with links to the episodes).  You can access the data by clicking on the down arrows to the right of the years (see screenshot below).  

You can access the particular's episode's full cast by clicking on a particular episode's link.  For example, clicking on the "Wrap Around the Clock" Family Ties episode for Micheal J. Fox will take you to the episode's page, which shows the entire cast for the episode.    

As part of this enhancement, early next week, we’re eliminating the old Episode Cast page.  If you had an Episode Cast page bookmarked, upon using your bookmark, you’ll automatically be redirected to the corresponding Full Cast & Crew page. 





5 Messages

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286 Points

7 years ago

I'm particularly concerned with the changes to the Episode List pages.  The Desktop version of the site seems to be following the lead of the Mobile site, in that one can no longer see a single page list of all of a show's episodes.  Instead, the user has the option of choosing from dropdown menus for either Season or Year.  
The single page list was incredibly useful when searching for an episode by name, using the Find function of your browser.  Watched a random episode of "The Joy of Painting" on Youtube and want to rate it ... but can't be bothered to search through 31 seasons, one at a time?  
There was also a single page list that could be sorted by User Rating, and that seems to be gone too.  Never seen an episode of "Friends" before and wonder which are the highest rated or most watched episodes before you decide to start from S1E1?  Can't do that anymore.
I hate to be cynical, but i believe this single change has increased IMDb's number of page-clicks exponentially, and this can only have something to do with ad revenue.  IMDb doesn't want the user to spend too much time on a single page -- they want clicks.  And i'm afraid they might soon find that those clicks will be to other sites.  It seems that IMDb doesn't care much anymore about user experience or usefulness of the site.  As a pioneer of the web, it carved out a truly magnificent corner for itself and became a monster lording over any competition that might have been.  It practically holds a monopoly on TV and film data ... and so, they feel that they can do whatever they want because the public has no choice but to accept it.  And it's a darn shame.

Employee

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66 Messages

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3K Points

7 years ago

Thank you for your continued feedback. Returning this functionality to the site is a priority for us and we are actively working on it. While I cannot give you a specific date when it will light up again, it is going to be sooner rather than later.

5 Messages

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286 Points

Thank you for your response.  To clarify, are you referring to the Full Cast & Crew page only, or also the single-page Episode List pages?

14 Messages

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460 Points

I'm very eager for this and hope the "sooner" isn't too far from now.  I am assuming you are referring to the "episode cast" listing where we can see the cast listing for an entire series.  I feel hopeful by your reply and appreciate the update!  Thanks for listening!

11 Messages

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438 Points

I second that. If you are referring to restoring the complete series episode cast list then thank you for listening.

614 Messages

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13.7K Points

Yes, the lack of the episode list at present is the biggest problem with the recent changes to IMDB. The sooner it is restored, the better. Th so-called replacement, which listed the number of epsiodes that each actor had appeared in, with the ability to open up to display those episodes, was a very poor substitute and not what contributors like me needed when checking submissions. Maybe use the old web page output as a specimen for what the new page should look like. I've got a few saved pages (display page, CtrlA to select all, copy and paste to a text file) if you need to see what information was previously present.

Apart from that, the new reference view page seems to meet all my needs - and of course it's updated much more quickly. Just one little niggle with it: the "credited as" attributes for companies are not being displayed, so it's necessary to do a dummy "update page" to confirm that the attribute is present, when I check each submission before moving it from my pending to processed pile.

Employee

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66 Messages

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3K Points

To clarify, I was specifically referring to the question about the single page of all episodes with sorting by vote/rating/date. It is this page we are working on right now.

Chris.

11 Messages

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438 Points

And cast I hope? GIven how useful this is.

614 Messages

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13.7K Points

So this is a list of every episode for every season, with its title, series.episode number, date, plot summary and cast in credit-number order, with those episodes being sortable by vote, rating or date (probably only date order will be useful to most of us, but feel free to add other sort orders).

Sounds good.

For reference, this is how it used to look (a copy from the web page and paste as text file) - for "Casualty" (1986), with a huuuuge chunk omitted:

Season 1, Episode 1: Gas
6 September 1986
When several patients start filtering into Holby hospital with similar burn wounds and all being tight-lipped about the details of their accidents, the staff become suspicious. Meanwhile, the medical personnel on the A&E ward are having to deal with managements justification of the night-shift routine which is under threat. Leaning slightly on the personal lives of the staff rather than the storyline contained within the episode, however, it was a decent pilot which sets up the interesting characters and their backgrounds nicely for further episodes.
    Bernard Gallagher    ...     Ewart Plimmer
    Derek Thompson    ...     Charlie Fairhead

    Brenda Fricker    ...     Megan Roach
    Julia Watson    ...     Barbara 'Baz' Samuels

    George Harris    ...     Clive King
    Christopher Rozycki    ...     Kuba Trzcinski
    Debbie Roza    ...     Susie
    Catherine Shipton    ...     Duffy (as Cathy Shipton)

    Robert Pugh    ...     Andrew Ponting

    Lisa Bowerman    ...     Sandra Mute
    Colin Fisher    ...     Brenner
    Roger Ostime    ...     Norman Parker
    Phil McCall    ...     Starchy Harris
    Emma Vansittart    ...     Dannie Bennett (as Emma Watson)

    Trevor Cooper    ...     Ralph
    Al Ashton    ...     Robert Palmer
    Juliette Grassby    ...     Mrs. Jones
    Madeleine Nash    ...     Sophie Jones
    Brian Haines    ...     Mr. Cartwright

    Nancie Herrod    ...     Mrs. Price
    Roy Evans    ...     Relative
    Helen Gwyn    ...     TV Journalist
    Graham Cole    ...     Junior Doctor (uncredited)
Season 1, Episode 2: Hide and Seek
13 September 1986
A young girl arrives on A&E after being knocked unconscious by a passing train. Her half-sister alerts the ambulance and accompanies her to Holby but refuses to talk as to the reasons behind the apparent attempted suicide attempt; but some clever coercion from staff member Clive King uncovers a family issue which could have been the cause. Meanwhile, a spot-check at the hospital by a member of the DHSS uncovers some interesting information when porter Kuba Trzcinski speaks without thinking.
    Bernard Gallagher    ...     Ewart Plimmer
    Derek Thompson    ...     Charlie Fairhead

    Brenda Fricker    ...     Megan Roach
    Julia Watson    ...     Barbara 'Baz' Samuels

    George Harris    ...     Clive King
    Christopher Rozycki    ...     Kuba Trzcinski
    Debbie Roza    ...     Susie Mercier
    Catherine Shipton    ...     Lisa 'Duffy' Duffin (as Cathy Shipton)

    Robert Pugh    ...     Andrew Ponting

    Lisa Bowerman    ...     Sandra Mute
    Colin Fisher    ...     Brenner
    David Simeon    ...     Bob Bates

    Zelah Clarke    ...     Ruth White
    Alan Coveney    ...     Jonathan

    Andrew Hall    ...     Richard
    Karen Seers    ...     Debbie Clark
    Sophie Millard    ...     Jackie Clark
    Christopher Ashley    ...     Mr. Clark
    Niven Boyd    ...     Phil Jessop
    Tracy Harper    ...     Rosie Jessop
    Sonia Woolley    ...     Roz Plimmer

and so on, for every season, up to

Season 32, Episode 11: Episode #32.11
4 November 2017
    Neet Mohan    ...     Rashid Masum
    Crystal Yu    ...     Lily Chao
    Michael Stevenson    ...     Iain Dean
    Jason Durr    ...     David Hide
    Charlotte Salt    ...     Sam Nicholls
    Amanda Mealing    ...     Connie Beauchamp
    Amanda Henderson    ...     Robyn Miller
    Azuka Oforka    ...     Louise Tyler
    Jamie Davis    ...     Max Walker
    Jaye Griffiths    ...     Elle Gardner
    William Beck    ...     Dylan Keogh
    Chelsea Halfpenny    ...     Alicia Munroe
    Catherine Shipton    ...     Lisa 'Duffy' Duffin (as Cathy Shipton)
    James Wilby    ...     Archie Grayling
    Abigail Cruttenden    ...     Sadie Holm
    Paul Warriner    ...     Clint Holm
    Catriona Yuill    ...     Rhonda Washbrook
    Keith Drinkel    ...     Roland Polly
    Dave Wong    ...     Richard Heng
    Buckso Dhillon-Woolley    ...     Madia Masum

(that's when you pulled the plug on the old episode cast list)

Employee

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66 Messages

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3K Points

My apologies, my post was on the wrong thread. The page you are referring to is not the one I was referring to.

14 Messages

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460 Points

So you are NOT bringing back the episode cast page that so many of us want returned, the one that lists the series by season and includes the entire cast on one page?  Why?  Can you give us a good reason why this page was removed in the first place?  I just don't understand.  It was already there, full of the information we need, and IMDB removed it, making the use of IMDB much more difficult for us.

Employee

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66 Messages

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3K Points

My post was intended to be a reply to Bill McLaughlin's question about the single page that contained all episodes. Please see Col's post here https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/upcoming-changes-to-several-imdb-features-du6man1opd5q0 that talks to the changes that have been made.

Thanks,
Chris.

614 Messages

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13.7K Points

Yes, yes, yes. That thread describes what has changed and gives very good reasons why you needed to rewrite code. But nowhere have I seen an explanation that satisfies me of why the functionality - the web page of information - has been removed, irrespective of the code needed to produce that output.

Why was it not possible to write new code that produces the same episode_cast page that we have always had, with the list of episodes and all the associated cast, all in one place with no need to click to expand sections?

Yes, you've given us other features, but I do hope you aren't labouring under the misapprehension that these replace the traditional episode_cast page or in any way satisfy our needs.

I would be very interested to hear why this page is no longer available, either using the older code to generate it (which I appreciate has legacy issues) or using brand-new code that is easier to maintain.

You're giving us all sorts of things that we don't need, but not the single thing that we do want and need.

31 Messages

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794 Points

7 years ago

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled I just noticed that when I select a specific episode in an actors list of episode....

Hi, I just noticed that when I select a specific episode in an actors list of episodes they appeared on in a TV series I am taken to the main page for the series. Who made up the specs? What useability, if any, was tested? Who, if anybody, in the user community did you ask? This is very annoying because it interrupts the flow of research. Please fix.