I am currently in a discussion about the common name for Rebecca Romijn.

I see many problems with having a "common name" for a person.

First of all - how can we trust that the people that submit data to the DVDP database are providing it accurately, and aren't copying, etc?

Second, if there are many names for one person, it will be a lot more difficult to locate the person in the DB - or you will be confused and not knowing if it's the same person or different persons.

I think this needs to be considered and I do not like the current rule(s).

If it was my DB, I would just have one entry for each person.

Why not use iMDB a bit more? I trust that site more than I trust that all people here always contribute in a correct and accurate way. And actually look at the credits after (or before) the movies.

No wonder some actors or crew are in a majority if people don't read the credits properly, because they copy from other profiles or they "assume" that a name is spelled in a certain way, because that is how they have mostly seen it.

Anyway I still wish that every person in cast and crew only had one entry in the DB.

And for that, it is the most convenient to use iMDB, which most of the world is used to anyway, and most people rely on it. Because so many use it.

Legal reasons? Care to specify?

IMO DVDP and iMDB should cooperate in some way.

I personally bought and use DVDP to have a clean DB without X numbers of entries for the same person.

Not because I like to debate whether a cast or crew person should be spelled a particular way.

Personally, I use and trust iMDB in most cases. And where I don't, I don't use a "common name" - I use my common sense.

Everything can be made better. But I DON'T see how that can be achieved by using "common names" - because that makes the DB full of crap.

Quoting MikaLove:

Quote:
Why not use iMDB a bit more? I trust that site more than I trust that all people here always contribute in a correct and accurate way.

And for what reason exactly??
IMDb is, as DVDProfiler, a user generated database.
It's even worse: Most of the errors the CLT (Credit Lookup Tool), which is the authorative source for the common name, produces, result from IMDb infested profiles in our database.

So, "No", I don't trust IMDb on Cast and/or Crew data. I may use it as "a" source, but not as "the" source.

I agree with you, that many problems arise from the common name, and not the less is a correct linking, it's just that I'm quite sure that as long as the staff (cast and crew) is credited with varying names in different movies, every system will have it's pros and cons. And correct linking will always be the main problem, not for the Top 1000, who are usually quite well referenced, but for the mass of supporting roles, where, no matter which system you pick, you will always have difficulties to find sources for John Doe being identical or not to John A. Doe.

So, with the current situation, I prefer "our" common name as the lesser of all evils, because it at least gives me the credited name. Whether a crosslink will be needed or not, is merely a question of correct usage of the CLT. Not more not less.

@goblinsdoitall:
Let's not, again, confuse iMDB and their cast & crew listings, with A: how the list is in the actual movie and B: how iMDB lists a cast or crew name in their respective main profiles.

Honestly, I don't tolerate the DB to be "infested" with misspelled names or several instances of one and the same person. I think it's something to work against.

Using the CLT will not solve anything in the VERY long run. Because how and when do we, if ever, agree on which name to be used?

It's a lot of work with no result.

Quoting MikaLove:

Quote:
@goblinsdoitall:
Using the CLT will not solve anything in the VERY long run. Because how and when do we, if ever, agree on which name to be used?

It's a lot of work with no result.

with the CLT it is not a matter of agreeing... it is a matter of using the most credited form whether we agree with it or not. The only way you can bypass it is if you can prove the CLT to be wrong. Which I have seen many threads do... I even have done it myself.

Sure it is a messy situation... but I definitely think it is better then the mess coming from IMDB. (IMHO)

Quoting MikaLove:

Quote:
Legal reasons? Care to specify?

IMO DVDP and iMDB should cooperate in some way.

IMDb charges a licensing fee to use their content.  The fee starts at $15,000 per year and goes up from there.

In addition, why should IMDb cooperate with Profiler when they offer a similar product called MyMovies?

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

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"Today, for the example with Rebecca Romijn, no one is calling her "Rebecca Romijn Stamos". No one sends mail to her with that name on the envelope. "

That is worrying about the real name... we don't care one way or the other about what her real name is. We go strictly by the most credited form... per Ken's decision. Is that the best decision? Who knows... but it is what we were given to work with. And only Ken can change that.

This should also change in time as she gets more credits with her 'real' name.

Quoting samuelrichardscott:

Quote:
Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
"Today, for the example with Rebecca Romijn, no one is calling her "Rebecca Romijn Stamos". No one sends mail to her with that name on the envelope. "

That is worrying about the real name... we don't care one way or the other about what her real name is. We go strictly by the most credited form... per Ken's decision. Is that the best decision? Who knows... but it is what we were given to work with. And only Ken can change that.

This should also change in time as she gets more credits with her 'real' name.

It definitely can... it can change back and forth over and over again depending on what name she uses from this point on into the future. Say she remarries in the future. then it could change again. As long as we go most credited form it will always be a moving target.