While we're at it, we can add the following fields to names:

Title (Sir, Senator, Dame, etc)
Prefix (Mr. Mrs., Madame, Mssle, etc.)
Suffixes (Jr., Sr., III, M.D., PhD., etc)
Professsional affiliations, (A.C.E., PMP, etc.)

I'm sure that we can come up with a few more if we really give it some thought. 

Touchy, touchy.

It was not meant to be amusing, but to point out that the problem is much larger than just Titles.

We need a holistic approach to solving problems with the database, instead of narrowing in on a single symptom.

Personally, I believe that the "credited as" functionality of the program can solve all of these problems IF we had a different system for determining the "Name".  Using the most commonly credited name clearly opens up a can of worms, especially since the current database is so unreliable and because it has been interpreted that "credited as" can only be used when there are variations in the way someone is credited.

Quoting hal9g:

Quote:
the problem is much larger than just Titles.

Hal is of course absolutely correct. I don't disagree per se with using "the most commonly credited name", but to make that work, we do really need a few standards. Not more than absolutely necessary, though, I think that with a few simple rules on entering prefixes, suffixes and titles, most of the issues could be fixed.

Quoting Martin_Zuidervliet:

Quote:

"Do not enter union/guild affiliations (such as A.C.E. and B.O.E.), titles (such as Sir, Senator, Dame), prefixes (such as Mr., Mrs., Miss) and always use a comma in front of the suffixes Jr. and Sr."

I am given to understand that we do not enter union/guild affiliations even in the Credited name field.
Would you exclude prefixes and titles from the Credited name altogether
or
would you have Credited names with them but Common names without them?

Quoting T!M:

Quote:
I could go either way - don't really care. As long as we're all on the same page, I'd be absolutely fine with either method.

Me too.

Quoting T!M:

Quote:
Quoting Martin_Zuidervliet:

Quote:
"Do not enter union/guild affiliations (such as A.C.E. and B.O.E.), titles (such as Sir, Senator, Dame), prefixes (such as Mr., Mrs., Miss) and always use a comma in front of the suffixes Jr. and Sr."

Include "Dr." and we're good to go. If only - wishful thinking - Ken would indeed add such a line to the rules. That little bit of consistency would make things so much easier.

Quoting EnryWiki:

Quote:
I am given to understand that we do not enter union/guild affiliations even in the Credited name field.
Would you exclude prefixes and titles from the Credited name altogether
or
would you have Credited names with them but Common names without them?

I could go either way - don't really care. As long as we're all on the same page, I'd be absolutely fine with either method.

The problem with using affiliations in the "credited as" field, is that that form of the name would quickly become the "most common occurence" in the lookup tool, and would become the default "Name".  Is that really what we want as the "Name".

Not me!

Quoting T!M:

Quote:
Quoting Martin_Zuidervliet:

Quote:
"Do not enter union/guild affiliations (such as A.C.E. and B.O.E.), titles (such as Sir, Senator, Dame), prefixes (such as Mr., Mrs., Miss) and always use a comma in front of the suffixes Jr. and Sr."

Include "Dr." and we're good to go. If only - wishful thinking - Ken would indeed add such a line to the rules. That little bit of consistency would make things so much easier.

Quoting EnryWiki:

Quote:
I am given to understand that we do not enter union/guild affiliations even in the Credited name field.
Would you exclude prefixes and titles from the Credited name altogether
or
would you have Credited names with them but Common names without them?

I could go either way - don't really care. As long as we're all on the same page, I'd be absolutely fine with either method.

Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
A single name field.

That is also something that I've always supported. A single name field, combined with improved search possibilities of course, would fix those endless parsing debates. Apart from the problems I outlined here, parsing is the only other big issue I seem to run into every single day. Anyway, even with a single name field we'd still be in desperate need for some standards with regards to prefixes, suffixes and titles, though...