IMDb thoughts

[tahnan]

I don't want to complain about the IMDb, but...no, wait, yes I do.

It was nearly fifty years ago that Tom Lehrer explained that "the reason most folk songs are so atrocious is that they were written by the people". I think the IMDb is a terrifically useful site, but that perhaps some of its user-created content could go away without any real loss. For instance, there are now, if you missed it, pages for movie and TV characters. These can be useful; you might in fact want to know which people have played Superman. Of course, it gets silly rather quickly, as with the entry for, say, Baltimore State Forensic Hospital Caretaker.

Ultimately, though, the problem at this point is that we're deep into user-submitted territory here. And thus you get the following bio for Jack Sheridan, a character from second-season "Charmed":

Jack Sheridan, a cheeky charmer, was Prue Halliwell's inorhodox rival in the arts trade but gets employed in Rex Buckland's Auction House and becomes her partner, clearly into her but finding her extremely hard to get, yet succeeds becoming her boyfriend for a short period of time in season 2. He and his twin brother, Jeff, play a game whenever they find interest in a girl, checking out the female "merchandize". He and Prue date separate for good when she quits her job at Bucklands.

I'd tell you how many basic grammatical errors there are in that brief paragraph, but frankly I lost count.

You also get the rather unfortunte effect that, according to his IMDb page, Professor James Moriarty is a character from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987).

So, yeah. Perhaps there's a point at which the Wikipedia, anyone-can-contribute model just doesn't really work.

Comments

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I am now tempted to cut and paste, with mild editing, the entry for "Jack Sheridan" into the character history for "Baltimore State Forensic Hospital Caretaker".


Cheeky charmer....

[cnoocy]

I have my own issues with Wikipedia, but I don't think the weakness in IMDb is the fact that anyone can contribute, it's the fact that they don't have the same facility for fixing data as they do for adding it. In a Wikipedia model, those errors could disappear as soon as anyone noticed them. In the IMDb, they have to wait for someone on staff to find and fix them.

[canadianpuzzler.livejournal.com]

You are aware that Sir James Moriarty being a Star Trek: The Next Generation character (albeit in only two episodes) is factual, right?

Elementary, Dear Data and Ship in a bottle, to be precise.

[devjoe.livejournal.com]

While this is true, the problem is that Star Trek: TNG is the source listed directly under the character's name that is supposed to represent the character's typical or most well-known appearance. It's not a big deal on the page Tahnan linked to, since the list of Sherlock Holmes movies is there. But the movie/TV show in this position also appears in character search results pages, without the big list of Sherlock Holmes movies under the character. So instead of listing any of the numerous Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Moriarty, which would more easily help anybody whose memory is less good than ours, it gives the impression that he's some random Star Trek character.

[jon88.livejournal.com]

IMDb has gone all to hell since they "renovated" it last year, at least as far as television cast listings are concerned. On many shows, the main page doesn't list the regular actors; they are to be found only on the individual episodes' pages. And those pages are horribly inconsistent. Not every appearing cast member is included, but some non-appearing regulars are (e.g., both James Saito and Tom Amandes are listed with the cast of this week's "Eli Stone," but neither was present; Tom Lenk of "Buffy" fame was listed in the guest credits but is missing from the list).

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure; I love those episodes. (I love Moriarty as a character, which is what took me to that page in the first place.)

But "Moriarty was in (two episodes of) ST:TNG" and "Moriarty: character from ST:TNG" are two very different things.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I'm never quite sure how that "typical or most well-known" thing is chosen; I suspect it's actually "largest box office", which they hope is the best approximation. Hence Judi Dench (http://us.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=judi+dench) is from Casino Royale.

I suppose that ST:TNG might have higher DVD sales than any given Holmes movie, especially when limited to those that Moriarty appears in. But it's silly.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

If it's this week's episode, the IMDb may be a little behind on getting the information there. They do, though perhaps imperfectly, include a "credit only" (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0533439/) note for non-appearing regulars.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Potato/potahto. If you don't have the facility for correcting errors, don't use a system in which errors are easily introduced.

[cnoocy]

I would still argue that the faults of the two systems are different ones. IMDb has not enough editing, while Wikipedia has too much.