I think we may need some stricter rules on the birth year. If you casually add birth year to a profile and contribute it, and people casually votes yes, the existing link on that actor can be broken. Example:

Some time ago, a user contributed a title (I don't remember which one) and added birth year 1955 to Bruce Willis (didn't seem necessary, but what harm could it do?). When I downloaded it to my DB, ALL profiles featuring Bruce Willis now featured Bruce Willlis (1955). Great. Now another user have contributed a totally different profile, following the rules and Bruce Willis is entered without the birth year. So what happens when I download that to my DB? I have one profile with actor Bruce Willis and six with Bruce Willis (1955) = a mess. The link is broken and this actor that shares name with no other (as far as I know), now have two different entries in the database.

Morale: Don't use birth year unless you have a VERY good reason!

I think we have to state very clearly in the rules that birth year is not to be used unless there is a documented conflict with another person in the DB. Now, the rules just state:

It is generally not necessary to add birth year for actors as you add them to DVD Profiler.

A bit too loose for my taste.

/Mikkel

Hmm, maybe I have to look at my updates again then. I would have sworn that they were different 

/Mikkel

Quoting Gendji:

Quote:
Which profile was that? Checked my DB but i only have one Bruce Willis in cast list, with Birth Date.

As I said I don't remember, but a good guess would be that the one contributed with birth year would be the one you have? Which profile do you have (title+upc) with Bruce Willis (1955)? Do you have other titles with Bruce Willis without (1955)?

/Mikkel

John, I think Bruce made substantially more than 8 movies. To my understanding the Cast is stored "per profile" online (otherwise spelling variation wouldn't be there). So, unless you have that movie where the profile was changed to contain Bruce Willis' birth year, your local database won't change. Only if you download a profile with a Birth Year in it, will the software locally play the matching game and try to keep the linking in tact.

Quoting Gendji:

Quote:
Quoting mikl:

Quote:
Quoting Gendji:

Quote:
Which profile was that? Checked my DB but i only have one Bruce Willis in cast list, with Birth Date.

As I said I don't remember, but a good guess would be that the one contributed with birth year would be the one you have? Which profile do you have (title+upc) with Bruce Willis (1955)? Do you have other titles with Bruce Willis without (1955)?

/Mikkel

Like i said, all movies i have (13 with Bruce) have Bruce Willis with 1955 as Birthdate. If i look at my Cast List (edit->cast and then the list on the left) , no other Bruce Willis is listed, just the one all my Profiles with Bruce in them, refer to.

Since i haven't contributed any movies with Bruce in it, to the online DB, nore do i fill in Birthdates myself, i have no clue how i got the Date. Must be from updating after i went to version 3.0.

The Date being in there itself, doesn't cause any link problem for me.

OK, sorry mate. Misunderstood you - thought you said one profile.

Well, I guess I'm seeing ghosts here. The linking's working fine although I'd still say that people should keep the birth day updates to a minimum.

/Mikkel

Seems to be working.

15 profiles with Bruce Willis (1955) and it is the only Bruce Willis in my cast list.