Why does Robert Minkoff's filmography consist of playing the same uncredited character of Bit in everything?

IMDb's guidelines clearly state:

Valid Attributes

(uncredited) - No on-screen credit. For acting credits, this must include a character name or some kind of description

And yet Robert Minkoff has dozens and dozens of credits that all read "Bit (uncredited)".

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3211002/

Why does IMDb create and then ignore their own guidelines? Years go by and IMDb refuses to correct or clarify their policy regarding uncredited actors.

Any chance 2021 is the year IMDb does something about it?

Responses

jeorj_euler

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4 years ago

Why? Because whenever a policy change is enacted, often the existing data that pertains to the new policy is left unaffected. Given sufficient understanding of the way IMDb works, it is not so hard to figure out the reasons for certain kinds of discrepancies.

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jeorj_euler

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On a side note, I'm disappointed by how often the IMDb company declines to provide reasons for anything pertaining to the IMDb website. A lot of times, it is not necessarily that hard to provide an explanation. Now, if only we could be provided an analysis as to why the approved new genres cannot be implemented, that would be great and reasonable.

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— Jeorj Euler, an IMDb regular registrant

4 years ago

Peter_pbn

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The Wayback Machine shows Robert Minkoff's uncredited credits were added around ten years ago (his page May 2010). I don't think the uncredited guidelines were very different then. Here they are from January 2011, with the same note as today: "Submissions with an empty character field or with descriptions like "lead", "supporting", "featured", "background", "extra" or "bit-part" will automatically be discarded."

(edited)

4 years ago

Peter_pbn

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I found that he is also not credited in Four Friends (1981) and added the uncredited attribute. I could probably have deleted the credit, but I'll see if there is a conclusion to this thread.

(edited)

4 years ago

jeorj_euler

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Wow, Peter. Well, that sure is cause to believe that the vague character descriptions submissions slipped through somehow, but from a pedantic standpoint, it is within the realm of possibility that "bit" was interpreted as being different from "bit part", despite carrying the same meaning.

— Jeorj Euler, an IMDb regular registrant

4 years ago

jeorj_euler

10.7K Messages

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225.4K Points

4 years ago

On a side note, I'm disappointed by how often the IMDb company declines to provide reasons for anything pertaining to the IMDb website. A lot of times, it is not necessarily that hard to provide an explanation. Now, if only we could be provided an analysis as to why the approved new genres cannot be implemented, that would be great and reasonable.

This comment was created from this reply

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