Quoting skipnet50:

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The fim credits are merely RAW data as it is displayed On Screen and cannot be argued with, you cxan see it...it's right there.

A Dvdprofiler list of common names, elaborated by users and held beside the online database would also be RAW data. A choice was made for the source of data, and that choice is not the best to link all concerned profiles together, though this  is clearly a feature for which the program was conceived. The problem is not for Skip or Yves, or most users here for whom dvdprofiler is a hobby , and they can correct everything they want. But there are thousands of users that just want a program that works, and see that they cannot link properly actors with movies.

edit : just wrote quite the same thing as Tim at the same moment... 

Quoting T!M:

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Quoting Pantheon:

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I also see you re-editing profiles stating that your earlier work is now wrong because you have done further research of the CLT results have changed.

That's because it's, by it's nature, an ever-evolving beast. What's a correct entry today can easily need to be corrected next month.

And this is exactly why I think it should be optional to accept this data.

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And again: accepting the common names into your database won't hurt you

I have to disagree.

I'll try to explain.

If I have established that (and I'm going to make up this example!!!!!) Wanda De Jesús is the most common name.

Therefore all my profiles in which she appears show this entry:
Wanda De Jesús (Wanda De Jesus)

However, a few months later the CLT indicates the Wanda De Jesus is now the common name and someone else is updating a profile with these new results: I could then end up with:
Wanda De Jesus (Wanda De Jesús)

I then have Wanda De Jesús and Wanda De Jesus in my database again. In effect I go backwards as far as linking is concerned.

I also have to go back and correct all my other profiles to indicate that De Jesus is now the common name.

Total nightmare!!

Now....I obviously can lock my profiles to prevent my data being overwritten (and I do). But, if someone has done more Credited As work on that profile. Or they have added a missing cast member. Or correct a role. I have two options:
1. Accept the new and useful data but gain the new Credited As info that I don't want.
2. Refuse the update and lose the other valuable data.

I do not want to be revisiting profiles just to change credited as entries. I want to be able to choose ONE name and stick with it. I do not want it to be an ever-changing thing.

And...while I'm here and in disillusioned-rant-mode: there has been quite a few mentions of the 500,000+ users of DVD Profiler.
Well...what are they doing?
In the scheme of things my 5,000+ DVD collection is a drop in the ocean...but I still see an extremely small amount of full audit updates coming up for vote or download. I see very few people adding cast/crew to TV shows. And you are the only person I see doing credited as T!M.
Maybe I'm just feeling a little disillusioned at the moment but it seems like there are a few people who do all the work in this community while the others do nothing but take advantage.

Eg: Yesterday I bought Vantage Point (released 04/08/08) and 21 (released 08/09/08) and I did full audits on both.....and, in both cases, there were absolutely masses of information missing. So, these films have been out for 3 and 2 months respectively and none of the other users who own them could be bothered to do a full update. 21 didn't even have the correct covers.
For once it would be nice to download the profile for a new film I've bought and find that someone else has done all the work.

I do a hell of a lot of work on my profiles and I always upload it so others can benefit. So excuse me if I don't want my hard work ruined or corrupted by other users who can't be bothered to start with the credits (or stick to the contribution rules) to ensure that the CLT is right to begin with.

(NOTE: I'm fully supportive of partial contributions....it would just be nice if a few more people did the big work too!)

Unicus:

I agree 100%, though i suspect for many of the Actors and a lot of crew you and I both have a substantial "built-in" database that handles a lot of the crosslinking. Waiting for Doctors to figure out to implant mem chips and hard drives. Along with my 50KV keyboard zapper.

Skip

Quoting Unicus69:

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If I want to know what films a particular actor was in, that I might own, I look them up at IMDb.

Why? It's a prominently advertised feature of the program to be able to look at your collection by cast or crew member:

I personally would like to be able to use the crosslinking,  But I find the way DVD Profiler does it as cumbersome.  And to submit changes to the online community for common name can be a real nightmare.

There must be a way that it can be done, that would not be so over burdensome to get it right, that would actually make since to use.  Now mind you, I understand that you are not going to be able to please everybody, but there seems to be a consensus that it doesn't work the way it is (at least very well)

The one thing that I do know, is that we need to establish a fixed target for the "common name".  The system, at least the way it was implemented, established a target that is not stable, and probably won't be for years. (Maybe use there full proper name?) Something has to be done.

Quoting Unicus69:

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Keeping track of loaned DVDs is a prominently advertised feature as well.  I don't loan out my DVDs, so it is of no use to me.  Is it of any use to you?  Just because something is a 'prominently advertised feature' doesn't mean it is important to everyone.  There are a lot of features I don't use...and I am not alone.

For the record, I use Profiler to keep track of what DVDs/Blu-rays I own.  I don't care that I can add headshots, or have image galleries, or custom genres, or cast linking, or any number of other features.  All I care about is that the data is correct for each DVD I have in my collection...and, again, I am not alone.

When I want to know what an actor has stared in, it is because I am watching something with them in it.  I already know what I have, so searching my collection is pointless.  IMDb, on the other hand, will tell me everything that actor was in so I can see what I don't own and might want.  Make sense?

That's not how you initially described your habits though. You said "If I want to know what films a particular actor was in, that I might own, I look them up at IMDb." (bolding mine) You don't have to use every feature that the program offers, but in the sentence of yours which I initially quoted, you are using IMDb for something the program already does. I didn't understand why, so I asked.

I don't use the loaned feature since I don't normally loan DVDs, but if I did, I wouldn't use an application or website for DVD loan tracking other than DVD Profiler since DVDP already has that functionality.

Quoting m.cellophane:

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That's not how you initially described your habits though. You said "If I want to know what films a particular actor was in, that I might own, I look them up at IMDb." (bolding mine) You don't have to use every feature that the program offers, but in the sentence of yours which I initially quoted, you are using IMDb for something the program already does. I didn't understand why, so I asked.

My bad.  Now that you have pointed it out, I realize that my fingers didn't type what my mind was thinking.  What I meant was..."If I want to know what films a particular actor was in, including those I might own, I look them up at IMDb."

I apologize for any misunderstanding my fingers may have caused. 

Quoting CharlieM:

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Skip,

I think you missed my point.  I never said anything about eliminating the need for documentation.

The problem comes down to the issue of "common name".  There are so many discussions about what is right and wrong.  And with the raw data being inaccurate in a lot of places, the current system breeds arguments and inaccuracies.  If there is a way of stating what will be established as a common name (a fixed target) that could be established with proper documentation (actors website as an example), then we could move forward, with data that would be useful to a lot of people.

With todays system, it could actually be years before it is useful.  A credit of Bill Smith or Bill D. Smith is a common name, even though Bill D Smith is credited wrong in 20 titles and really should be Bill Smith.  But to truly correct that, those 20 titles would have to be corrected and submitted for correction and approved. Then we could finally establish a true "common name" under todays system.

I don't know how to accomplish this.  Any system that would be put into place would obviously require documentation (proof).  There has to be a a more sensible way of doing it.

I agree wholeheartedly, Charlie. It will be many YEARS.

Had it been me I would have developed a simple association system.

The current system works like this Robin Wright=Robin Wright Penn AND Robin Wright-Penn

The system as I would have built it

Robin Wright=Robin Wright Penn=Robin Wright-Penn

This sets up NO priority name, thus whatever name you choose to search on will give you the same listing of films. The list could be prioritized based on tghe Searched Name or all kinds of different ways. WE would still need to provide documentation that the various names are indeed the same person. But how many are in the Online has become irrelevant. We can of course continue trying to solve the existing problems but this kind of system would in useable from Day ONE.

Skip<shrugs>