Quoting Staid S Barr:

Quote:
...
I understand that there is no need to enter BYs all over the place, but on the other hand, if a BY is in the database, what harm does it do?

Needed BYs don't harm.
Problematic is contributing one of these BYs.

Quoting Staid S Barr:

Quote:
However, the contribution receives about 50% No votes, with the argument that there is an unnecessary or undocumented BY.
I did not contribute any BY

You mean you did not add the BY yourself. Still the BY already was in your cast/crew database, else it would not have shown up in your contribution. If you can't document the BY, remove it and contribute again.

Quoting VirusPil:

Quote:
Needed BYs don't harm.
Problematic is contributing one of these BYs.

So what is the actual problem, other than that you (and many others) don't like it? Not arguing, just hoping to understand.

Quoting Staid S Barr:

Quote:
Quoting VirusPil:

Quote:
Needed BYs don't harm.
Problematic is contributing one of these BYs.

So what is the actual problem, other than that you (and many others) don't like it? Not arguing, just hoping to understand.

I would not have a problem with these, but as DJ Doena explained BYs are just allowed to distinguish two different persons (with the same common name). So these are not allowed, because there's just one person with this name. So I think the main problem is that those are not allowed by Invelos.
Now the problem is, if those unneeded, but accepted BYs get in a profile, everyone who downloads this profile gets the BY to his local database and has to remove it again, before contributing a profile. Also there can be problems with the Headshots.

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
... or if it already slipped through to invelos database... adding an unneeded birth year to any profile is against the rules as they are written...

It would good if those BYs that cearly slipped through wrongly would get deleted in the Invelos database, so the message with adding a new BY would warn the users.
As it is now, it is really a horrible situation: Nearly every time I contribute a profile with those in, I have to delete the BY local. And it always gets in, because of profiles the contributer, the voters and the screeners missed it.
Especially new profiles that get not voted by other users are often a source were they come in again and again and again and ....


Edit: The thumbdown is not for the contributors, because it's always hard to filter them out because of the missing notification. + The missing compare screen at new contributions.

Quoting Staid S Barr:

Quote:
So what is the actual problem, other than that you (and many others) don't like it? Not arguing, just hoping to understand.

It starts with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage hangs a banana on a string with a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.

If you're really interested, my reason behind it is this: If there's really just one actor by the name of Lorenzo Van Matterhorn (1973), the BY doesn't hurt anyone, it's just there, floating around.

But should I really need to worry about every actor and crew member when I add a new movie to my collection if they are mistakenly linked to another actor just because they share the same name?

The unfortunate reality (for now) is that actors and crew members don't have an ID of any kind that distinguishs them from one another. We only have 4 data items: FirstName, MiddleName, LastName and BirthYear. And as long as we don't have that ID I try to make my actors as unique as possible from the get-go.

So should I ever buy another movie with another Lorenzo Van Matterhorn (1977) I don't need to worry that they'll get mixed up accidentally.


But that's just for people like me who are actually interested in the actors and not just in a list of words that consists of random names with no meaning and is called "credits". (see, I can take a stab, too )

I understand your comment, Karsten. Understand one that I didn't come up with the BY idea, though at the time I thought it was a brilliant answer, it sadly quickly became apparent that were many BYs we could not obtain. We couldn't risk using a Roman Numeral system like someone else for legal reasons. The B Y seemed the best answer and generally still is a good one. But in Profiler it serves a very specific function, serving as a discrinibator. Can Ken change  it in the future...sure...will he?....I haven't a clue. Would I, if it were up to me...probably.