IMDB

[Ulrich Plate]

True:

> We can all do this.  I often add material when I find it missing though
> don't have the time to do anything thorough or extensive.  The routine is
> familiar:  If we all added one entry then there would be several hundred
> right there.

Tokyo is having an indoor day, the snow is piling up outside my window,
nowhere to go in this weather and nothing better to do today: Mind if I
explain the routine to those who haven't done it yet?

First of all, you need to register with the IMDb. This is necessary to
enable the database manager to verify entries and reject everything that
doesn't come from people they can track back, and also permits you later to
use the shortcut (updates via e-mail) that only works if the sending ID
matches the one you registered with them.
http://us.imdb.com/register/register should do the trick, if you don't mind
cookies, they'll recognize you next time.

By the way, the complete guide to adding and correcting data on IMDb can be
found here:

http://us.imdb.com/Help/Classes/Senior/adds

But for starters, try this:

Let's say you've discovered that the credits for "Brother" (2000) don't list
Yohji Yamamoto's costumes. You browse for the movie, find it
(http://us.imdb.com/Details?0222851) and will see a button labeled "update"
at the very bottom of the page. Click on it, register if you haven't done it
yet, and let the IMDb guide you through the four steps of the procedure. The
last step checks if the name you enter appears somewhere else on the
database already and - in case it does - asks you if you really want to
enter this information. In our example, my entry looks suspicious to them
because "Yamamoto, Yohji" so far only was listed as an actor, not a costume
designer (true, prior to this they only had one record from him, Wim
Wender's 1989 documentary about him, "Aufzeichnungen von Kleidern und
Städten"). If you insist that yes, this is the right guy, you're done, and a
few days later your corrections will appear in the online database (after
staff verification).

But that's not a good way to do bulk updates, of course. As I said, they
have an offline update service you can submit data to without having to go
through the interactive scheme explained above. And it only looks cryptic if
you've never seen the guts of a database before, but is actually very easy
to handle. If somebody had a bright idea how to excerpt all the creditable
information in Aaron's reviews etc. with a simple click on the mouse button,
I'd gladly re-format and upload it all.

Can't believe they forgot Yohji Yamamoto... :-)
Cheers
Ulrich Plate