Addicted2DVD: I think stuff up all the time that won't work, but if I'm fortunate I can enumerate enough aspects of the problem and the desired outcome to cause others to think up something better or that actually would work.

Quoting lasitter:

Quote:
I realize I've suggested something which would create more work. The second idea I had was about finding a way to spread that work around and increasing the number of volunteering contributors.

I get that we don't claim to be the biggest or the most complete information wise, but I did think we were focusing on accuracy.

I personally see having a major actress with her name spelled wrong as a big deal. It means that when I went to that "Camp" profile and clicked "Cast Information", Profiler told me that I didn't own anything else with that actress. That's big time inaccuracy, and accuracy is something I thought we were all about.

There are multiple sides to this issue:
1. Which actual actors are there in a movie
2. Which name is their common name ('stage name' as in used in the media) and which name is used in the film credits
3. What is the correctly used name in the DVD profiler cast list
(and also, which other movies DO you own. But I won't go into that one...)

On each of these sides there are numerous threads, especially in this Contribution discussion forum.

1. This may vary from country to country as some countries censor movies more heavily than others. By consequence, it may vary. Also, you can find threads about which people or groups to include in the cast credits or not: dancers, famous people in the extras, puppeteers, etc. Not all of them are listed in the main cast list in the credits.

2. You can find huge threads here in this forum on this one. Think of actresses going by their spouses name from a certain date onward, remarried actresses. Think of names spelled in a non-latin alfabet (from cyrrilic to hindi or chinese  or...). Etc. We can use the 'credited as' to work around blatant spelling errors and 'disguises', but it still gives rise to debates (think of the use of c instead of ç, a much debated and recurrent issue).

3. This is also a greatly contentious issue. For now some resolve is given by using the CLT system (see threads), but it is by no means perfect. Also, dividing a name into first/middle/last is causing a lot of extra problems, reflected in numerous threads. Should it be literally or by common understanding (as in last name = family name)?

I have taken sides on these debates many times, but I try a bit to refrain from it in this post. Point is, reaching a simple unique and correct (as defined by...) list of names isn't as simple as you'd think.
There are some rules, yes, and lots of clarifications in the forum threads (but not always reflected in those rules). But some contribute without ever seeing those rules and still get contributions approved, more did never take in clarifications reached in the fora and those also get approved from time to time. The pure volume of changes is prohibitive to expect the approval process to filter out all 'bad' submissions. It is not a perfect world out here...

In short, discussions are ongoing, nothing is really resolved. Invelos more or less once (IIRC) suggested in version 4 of the program the naming system could be revised, but that maybe is the reason we're now stuck on the next 3.x upgrade for years on end.

Patsa, agreed. Most recently by the discussion on 'gold' profiles etc. But that fell dead on the tracks as soon as actual work could start. Everyone (or most, at least) wants change, but who can and WILL do the effort?

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
Accuracy (to the actual credits) is what is important.

Important for you, probably... But this has strictly no importance for me and for most people who want a correct linking. What is important is the name of the real person who plays as an actor (actress). Why are obliged to use a name that doesn't exist just because a credit maker made a spelling mistake, or because contributors are not able to transform E to é, è, ê or e when necessary ???

I really don't know how the current system works.

I'm hoping / wishing that a single living person, no matter what he or she might be called at any given time, has some unique id or number in the cast database that is unique to that person like a social security number is unique.

Do we have anything like that?

If we had something like that, then you would see every instance of them. So like now when I click on "Cast Information" for Tom Cruise in "All the Right Moves" Profiler tells me that I have him in 41 titles in my collection.

Given that there really is only one Tom Cruise, and that we can't really clone him just yet, it should be possible for us to have a unique Tom Cruise ID that we can link him to, right?

Quoting iPatsa:

Quote:
In reality variations in film credits are famously infrequent.

If we talk about recent film, certainly. Older films, especially those that have gone through multiple copyright owners, can more often have different credits for different releases. Old Italian westerns, peplum and horror films in particular. Many other so called "Eurotrash" titles, too.

... and many, many more cases where a birth year is required, but unknown.

You can help to link them. Just go to the CLT to see what is the most common version of the name. Use that as the base name. And then put the credited name in the Credited as field. Then contribute that info (giving the CLT results) for everyone else to benefit from.

See the image below...

I clicked on a Meat Loaf credit... and it brought up both Meat Loaf and Meat Loaf Aday credits.



In the above... In Black Dog he is listed as Meat Loaf so is blank next to his role name. But in both BloodRayne and Fight Club as Meat Loaf Aday... as it says next to the role names.