I may be lynched for this, but I can't currently see that the linking of actor names is ever really going to work.

Let me build a scenario here:

My name is Karsten Schramm. I am a very famous actor ( ). Since no  american can pronounce my name properly I changed it to Christian (Karsten is lower-german for Christian) when I'm playing in billion-dollar productions.

Unfortunately all the DVD entries in DVDProfiler are form a time where the entries have been copied from IMDb and all the entries list me as "Karsten" - in violation to the actual credits.

Now the first one begins to process all my 8472 DVDs. Credit Lookup Tool says most used credited as "Karsten Schramm" thus common name "Karsten Schramm".

He edits:
Profile: "The God-Emperor of the Universe", UPC 0-81547-118472
before: Karsten Schramm ... God-Emperor
after: Karsten Schramm [credited as: Christian Schramm] ... God-Emperor

He does this for a while until .... yes until when? At some point he has edited enough profiles that "Christian Schramm" becomes the most credited and thus common name.

Now what? He starts from scratch and does all the previous profiles again? WTF? Ping-poning at its best.


My proposition would be that the common name has to be something way more stable. As we don't have time machines somethings table would be that has already happened. We may not all agree but it has been settled that the common name has nothing to with what the real name of the actor is. It's just a common denominator to make the linking system work.

Why not take the common name from the oldest DVD in the database, the DVD with the earliest release date. I acknowledge that it's possible that someone enters a DVD that is older than the currently oldest - but it is way more unlikely.

And now I am leaving for the easter holidays and you can shred my idea to pieces. 

Quoting DJ Doena:

Quote:
Why not take the common name from the oldest DVD in the database, the DVD with the earliest release date. I acknowledge that it's possible that someone enters a DVD that is older than the currently oldest - but it is way more unlikely.

And just what if the Oldest DVD in the database got its credits from IMDb?

ow.  CRAMP!

I agree, Gerri. Compared what the Contributions were like way back when they have improved many times. But we can still get a lot better and it is going to take a concerted effort on the part oof everybody to wrestle the database into where it will ultimately be and extaordinary piece of work that will have NO peer. I could go on and on and write a very comprehensive piece, but I don't want to do that.

I will simply offer my congratulations to everyone that has aided in getting us toi where we are today and say onward and upward. While at least some of you seem not to understand why things are done as they are; there is a method to what appears to be madness ALWAYS.

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