Bought a high turnover DVD - Rio - and was surprised to find the Australian DVD release was not in DVD Profiler's database.  So I found the US release and converted it to the Australian UPC, Location, Region, PAL, etc etc.  Checked everything against the actual DVD printed sleeve notes and added Disc IDs, and contributed the profile to help others in this eco-system.  How was that received?  Well....

Quote:
UPC Received Processed Votes Profile Status Image Status
Rio
9-321337-131504 Sep 30, 2011 Oct 1, 2011 Yes: 0  No: 0 Declined
Sources for one or more of the changes and/or additions were not submitted. Please include the sources for your changes in the contribution notes, especially for cast and crew additions.

FFS, I didn't change the cast and crew from the US profile I started with.  A simple compare against the title in another region would show this.  No wonder the Australian release wasn't there if you make it so hard for people to add contributions.  Change the software to track the history of a profile when edited and upload that with the contribution.  Or change the code moderators use to do a compare with other profiles for the same title in different regions to show differences.

Don't make it hard for us users to give back to the community.

</end-of-rant>

CubbyUps is right. Just try and resubmit with something in your Contribution Notes along the lines of what he suggested. That should work.

It is likely that the screeners made a mistake - that happens.

Or, it might be that your documentation needed to be just a bit more specific.

Since I don't know what you said in your notes, I can only guess that they were lacking something important. Often this happens in regards to Cast and Crew documentation.

When you copy the data (expecially Cast and Crew) be sure and say where you took that data.

For example "Cast and Crew copied from the same film in the invelos database UPC 00000000000".

You could add that you checked the data against the credits etc. The more specific you are the easier it is for the community and screeners.

I hope you don't get discouraged - declines happen to everyone. If the mistake is invelos', just resubmit it and tell them why you think they erred.

If you might have missed something, add or change it and resubmit with an explaination.

In both cases you will need to add the documention from the original contribution since the program does not keep track of that.

The important thing to remember is not to take "no" votes or "declined" contributions personal. They are important tools used to try and make the database as good as possible.

Quoting quog:

Quote:
Why?  The software allowed me to select a profile and edit it.  Why should I try to remember where it came from.

Because you're contributing information for other people to use, and they'd like to know its source.

---------------

Quoting quog:

Quote:
The software allowed me to select a profile and edit it.

Well, you can do locally whatever you want, but for the main database there are some rules, and they are there for a reason.

I strongly suggest that you read the contribution rules thoroughly before any further attempts to contribute.


cya, Mithi

Quote:
Change the software to track the history of a profile when edited and upload that with the contribution.  Or change the code moderators use to do a compare with other profiles for the same title in different regions to show differences.

That is the crux of my thesis.  People saying it's my responsibility to say where I got the info are only in-part correct.  Software is there to make it easy for us, not harder.  As someone who makes software for a living, I know what is involved in the whole process - improve the U/X (being the whole process from end to end) for all users.

Quoting quog:

Quote:
Why?  The software allowed me to select a profile and edit it.  Why should I try to remember where it came from.

Why?
Because the rules tell you so.
In your local database you can do anything you like with your data, but when you are uploading it a minimum of data authentication is required. And as someone who (among others) is cleaning up databases for a living I can tell you that the standards for documentation can't be high enough.

Anyhow you wouldn't even have to remember which profile exactly you took the data from. A mere "Cast and Crew data from already accepted US-profile" would have sufficed.

The software literally says: "Would you like to contribute this profile to the Invelos database?"

That's an open-ended question. You are under no obligation whatsoever to contribute, however if you choose to contribute there are Contribution Rules to be followed. The software will however perform as advertised if you only use local data.

As far as I'm concerned, the whole process would not be "better" if I'd be getting data from the central database that have not be authenticated in any way.