Live Poll: Favorite Film Buff

@Jessica​ Thanks, it's done and it was added late, but it couldn't have been sooner.

@RezaKJoi​ Reza, there's no such thing as late here. : )  None of us get paid to do this so do things when they're convenient for you. Also, the poll admins know that internet availability has been inconsistent for you. If you're ok, we're happy. 

@RezaKJoi​ 

Thanks. Please also edit the title in your list:

Favorite Film Buff

@RezaKJoi​  Oh, and the list is up to 16 now so I guess you don't need this anymore:

I had to narrow it down to just 10.

The poll really looks good, by the way. It has developed nicely. 

@Jessica​ Thank you for paying attention to everything carefully, it's done.

@rubyfruit76​ I’m glad you think the poll looks good. I’m just sorry, I didn’t quite understand what you meant when you said I don’t need this anymore. I think I must have forgotten something.😁🤦‍♂️

@RezaKJoi​ 

Since there are 16 options you don't need this line: I had to narrow it down to just 10.

And please edit #14: Robin from - Stranger Things

@Jessica​ I understand, I’ll fix it. Thank you.

@RezaKJoi​ Reza, sorry I wasn't more clear. And Jess, thanks for clarifying. 

By the way, Reza: this poll looks great. You've developed it so nicely. And what a fun topic. 

@RezaKJoi​ 

Regarding the edit in option 14, you have the word "from" which is not used for any of the other options. I suggest either removing it or adding it in the other options.

@rubyfruit76​ Thanks for your help, you were absolutely right

@Jessica​ I’m really sorry. You told me once, and when I saw the dash I thought item 14 was correct. I assure you everything is completely fine now. Thank you very much.

@Breumaster​ Good characters and poll, Breu! Somehow I think I must have missed this one back in 2021 and it's a good one so Thanks for the reminder!  And Cecilia (Purple Rose of Cairo) -- yippee! : )

@Breumaster​ Thanks for your help, but your poll needs to go live, I think this is the second time my suggestion has unintentionally been similar to yours, I apologize if I've offended you.

@RezaKJoi​ 

No problem. It already is live since 4 years. It went live on 2021/06/14

It's no problem, when there are other characters on the list. Then it could be seen as a second part.  It's always good to ask the guy who had the idea first. I also made a second part of another idea after asking the guy who did first in another case. He was ok with it, so I did. If you want to make a second part of it, then do. I'm ok with it.

@Breumaster​ Thanks for the great feedback! You have some excellent ideas for polls

@rubyfruit76​ 

Thank you for your help. For now, I've only added your third suggestion, which had a link to an image. The internet hasn't returned to its previous state yet and the speed is slow. I'll probably add the options tomorrow or in the next few days by searching and finding the image. I will also search for Juno.

@RezaKJoi​ I'm sorry that I didn't provide links to photos for all of them. I usually do but I remember that day I was in a hurry so I just wanted to get the names down before I forgot them. Here are some images if you want to add any of these characters:

Robin from 'Stranger Things'

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/mediaviewer/rm1579577345/?ref_=ttmi_mi_24_4

Jerry and Mike from 'Be Kind Rewind'

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0799934/mediaviewer/rm2616821249/?ref_=ttmi_mi_7_1

(This one may not crop well but don't worry about it: we'll let you know if it doesn't.)

Juno from 'Juno'

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/mediaviewer/rm2583118337/?ref_=ttmi_mi_4_1

@rubyfruit76​ Thanks for your time, it's been added, great.

@Jessica​ Thank you. I rewrote the text; I'm not sure whether it still has issues or not. I'll send it to you now

You're probably a film buff if you're reading this.

As a film buff, who is your favorite film-buff character?

@RezaKJoi​ ,

Thank you for your patience.

The IMDb Poll Admin tool gives an error message whenever it encounters non-ASCII characters. Until this deficiency is address by IMDb, characters that are perfectly fine in IMDb lists may not be acceptable in IMDb polls.

Google analyzed your list. This text contains a few specific types of non-ASCII Unicode characters, including invisible "formatting" characters often found in web data.

Non-ASCII Characters Found

Detailed Breakdown

• Zero-Width Spaces (U+200B): These are invisible characters. They are frequently present in IMDb lists (often appearing immediately before a character's name in a list item). In your text, they appear at the start of almost every character name line (e.g., ​Abed Nadir).

• Accented Characters: The name Léon uses the Unicode é, which is standard for the name but technically a non-ASCII character (ASCII only covers the basic English alphabet).

• Smart Typography: The apostrophe in Dawson’s Creek is a "curly" or "smart" apostrophe rather than the standard straight ASCII apostrophe (').

Cleaned ASCII Version

If you need this text to be strictly ASCII (for a database or a system that doesn't support Unicode), here is the version with those characters removed or replaced:

4. James Van Der Beek Dawson's Creek (replaced curly apostrophe) ... 12. Jean Reno Leon - Leon: The Professional (replaced é with e)

Here is the precise location of every non-ASCII character in your list. I have used brackets [ ] and bold text to make the invisible characters visible for you.

1. Zero-Width Spaces (U+200B)

These are invisible formatting characters. In your text, they occur immediately before the character names in the numbered list. If you were to backspace once at the start of these names, you would hit this "ghost" character before deleting the first letter.

• 1. Danny Pudi **[​]**Abed Nadir

• 1. Jamie Kennedy **[​]**Randy Meeks

• 1. Michael Pitt **[​]**Matthew

• 1. James Van Der Beek **[​]**Dawson Leery

• 1. Thomas Mann **[​]**Greg Gaines

• 1. Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran **[​]**Randal Graves

• 1. Adam Scott **[​]**Ben Wyatt

• 1. Salvatore Cascio **[​]**Salvatore "Toto" Di Vita

• 1. Christian Slater **[​]**Clarence Worley

2. Accented Characters & Special Punctuation

These are visible but do not belong to the standard 128-character ASCII set.

How to remove them quickly:

• For the visible ones: Simply re-type the ' in "Dawson's" and the e in "Leon."

• For the invisible ones: Place your cursor at the very beginning of the name (e.g., right before the "A" in Abed), press Backspace once. If the cursor doesn't move but "eats" a space, you've deleted the Zero-Width Space.

I realize that this is complicated. If you have questions, please ask before making any edits. I do not want you to become frustrated in making the edits.

@dan_dassow​ Thank you very much for your help and the time you spent.

I’ll try to read the text a few more times so I don’t run into problems before making any edits.

I just have one question: I remember that the first time I wanted to create a poll, I had trouble with the titles, and you suggested a website to me (I’ll send the link).

Is there a website that can adapt or align texts with the acceptable version required by the site?

If not, I’ll try to create a formula using artificial intelligence to filter my writing based on that, so I don’t run into any issues.

https://capitalizemytitle.com/

@dan_dassow​ 1- To be sure, I deleted the first letter of all the names and retyped them to ensure there’s no space before the first letter.

2- I used simple letters like e.

3- I retyped the apostrophes.

I hope it's correct.

@RezaKJoi​ 

I think there is a zero-width character before Salvatore "Toto" Di Vita.

@Peter_pbn​ I've cleared the text before 'Salvatore "Toto" Di Vita' again, I hope there's no problem now, thanks

@RezaKJoi​ 

Hi, Reza. Chat-gpt says:

Problem area

“Léon: The Professional (1994)”→ The é is not an ASCII character (it is Unicode).

@RezaKJoi

Leon: The Professional (1994)

(This line is ASCII-conform. Just copy and paste, try again.)

@Breumaster​ 

é is not actually a problem in polls. For example it is used in today's Best Sound Oscar poll.

Besides, Reza already removed é from his text since Dan said so.

Be careful when you copy titles from IMDb, because the site itself isn't ASCII-conform, I've copied all your options up to down and put it into chat-gpt with further line ... input into chat-gpt:

Please check for ASCII compliance (except “Added,” the date, and the first number with the title, e.g., “12. Jean Reno”):

Danny Pudi in Community (2009)

1. Danny Pudi Abed

Nadir - Community 

Added Jan 6, 2026

Jamie Kennedy in Scream (1996)

2. Jamie Kennedy

Randy Meeks - Scream

 Added Jan 6, 2026

Michael Pitt in The Dreamers (2003)

 3. Michael Pitt Matthew - The Dreamers

... (the rest of the options)

Then I let it check. Leon was the only fail detected.I don't know if all AIs do have the same quality to check this. Dan does it with Gemini. It also works fine.

@Peter_pbn​ 

Peter, I've re-checked it with chat-gpt. It detects the same problem. I did it with the list like it is online.

@Peter_pbn​ 

P.S.: 

I often have the problem that IMDb doesn't withdraw my changes. That happens pretty often. So I do now re-check with chat-gpt for every time I did changes on a list, because it simply isn't safe until it is safe! I think it's silly that a huge site like IMDb uses non-ASCII-characters, but demands it from its users. :(

... and then doesn't change, when you've changed it! :((

When you use an image from a movie, the title is displayed, but that has never been a problem.

@Peter_pbn​ 

When you use an image from an movie, IMDb itself uses the title which might not be ASCII-conform. It might be a difference if IMDb uses it or the user puts it in.

Last times I often had the problem that I inserted titles IMDb writes to its images and then it didn't work, because they weren't ASCII-conform. I guess that comes from all the changes they made on the site in the last times. In earlier times it might have been no problem to insert non-ASCII-characters.

Btw.: I had the same problem with writing reviews last times. I always have to check, if my reviews contain non-ASCII-characters. That's going on my nerves!

IMDb should cut all the dumb changes that sabotages the site. I don't like that. :(((

@RezaKJoi​ ,

Thank you for your patience regarding most non-ASCII Unicode characters causing problems for the IMDb Poll Admin tool.

Zero-Width Space: This occurs before the names: Abed, Randy, Matthew, Dawson, Greg, Randal, Ben, Salvator, Clarence.

The following has the items in your list without the zero-width space. I've include the name of the actor and the number in the list to make it easier for you to update your list.

Favorite Film Buff

1. Danny Pudi

Abed Nadir - Community

2. Jamie Kennedy

Randy Meeks - Scream

3. Michael Pitt

Matthew - The Dreamers

4. James Van Der Beek

Dawson Leery - Dawson's Creek

5. Thomas Mann

Greg Gaines - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

6. Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran

Randal Graves - Clerks

7. Austin O'Brien

Danny Madigan - Last Action Hero

8. Adam Scott

Ben Wyatt - Parks and Recreation

9. Salvatore Cascio

Salvator "Toto" Di Vita - Cinema Paradiso

10. Christian Slater

Clarence Worley - True Romance

11. William Gao

Tao Xu - Heartstopper

12. Jean Reno

Leon - Leon: The Professional

13. Woody Allen, Jenny Nichols

Jenny - Crimes and Misdemeanors

14. Maya Hawke

Robin - Stranger Things

15. Yasiin Bey, Jack Black

Jerry and Mike - Be Kind Rewind

16. Elliot Page

Juno - Juno

@dan_dassow​ Thank you for your help and time

I will copy and paste the text you posted without any additional comments

I have never encountered such a problem before, I will try to check my polls in the next few days so that I do not encounter this problem again and in the future I will reject all my new polls through a specific, simple and efficient filter, although it takes a little time for me to create something like this, but after creating it I will be sure that my surveys will be without any problems

@dan_dassow​ Thank you for your help in creating the poll.