Update IMDb-info on an iCM-page

[joachimt]

Since yesterday everyone has the ability to update IMDb-info on iCM-pages. If you see a missing runtime, director, genre or AKA or something is wrong like a messed up title or name, you can update that info yourself. Note that you can't edit info, you can only make iCM extract the info from IMDb. For more info read this post.

How does it work? Go to the beta-page of a movie. Click the button with the three dots. Click "Update info".

If anything doesn't work like you would expect, feel free to ask here for help.

You can't fix duplicates yourself, so if you find any of those, you still need to report them. You can post them here.

[Ebbywebby]

Runtimes and AKAs seem like the fields with the most gaps that can be filled in.

In the beta world, there are currently about 4172 pages of films, TV episodes, etc. without runtimes. Or about 208K individual items. Not so long ago, there were 4213 pages. I wonder how low this tally could go, if everyone makes an effort to fill in their own checks (or favorite unofficial lists) with missing runtimes? (But of course, new pages with empty fields get created all the time....)

Warning: There are many, many pre-1910 film snippets without runtimes, and they're rarely update-able. Futile.

[Ebbywebby]

I just fixed the titles of what must have been 350-400 episodes of some anime series called "One Piece: Wan pîsu." Because of ICM's problem with accents, every episode was identically identified as just "One Piece: Wan p."

Another extra-good "accent error" that I recently fixed: four Victor Sjöstrom films that were credited to "Victor Sj."

[joachimt]

Great work, EW!

[shugs]

Couldn't this be automated somehow? It seems like never-ending work.

TMDB has the changes API for recently changed data (https://developers.themoviedb.org/3/cha ... hange-list) , if ICM is ever going to use it as a data source, and IMDb has the datasets (https://www.imdb.com/interfaces/) which maybe could be used.

[joachimt]

Couldn't this be automated somehow? It seems like never-ending work.

TMDB has the changes API for recently changed data (https://developers.themoviedb.org/3/cha ... hange-list) , if ICM is ever going to use it as a data source, and IMDb has the datasets (https://www.imdb.com/interfaces/) which maybe could be used.

We've talked about this in the past. It would require running a program that regularly hits the button for every moviepage on iCM. Marijn said it would be too heavy on the database to do this for everything. Another option would be to do such a thing only for certain filters, like recent movies or movies with a certain amount of checks.

[shugs]

We've talked about this in the past. It would require running a program that regularly hits the button for every moviepage on iCM. Marijn said it would be too heavy on the database to do this for everything. Another option would be to do such a thing only for certain filters, like recent movies or movies with a certain amount of checks.

Yeah, that indeed sounds like overkill. Well, here's to hoping IMDb becomes more developer friendly in the future.

[Ebbywebby]

We've talked about this in the past. It would require running a program that regularly hits the button for every moviepage on iCM. Marijn said it would be too heavy on the database to do this for everything.

Well, what about doing it JUST ONCE, rather than "regularly"? It wouldn't be a perfect, eternal solution, but it would correct thousands of glitches.

[joachimt]

We've talked about this in the past. It would require running a program that regularly hits the button for every moviepage on iCM. Marijn said it would be too heavy on the database to do this for everything.

Well, what about doing it JUST ONCE, rather than "regularly"? It wouldn't be a perfect, eternal solution, but it would correct thousands of glitches.

I'm not sure if this is something that can be done easily. Maybe Marijn even need to built something for this. Not sure if it would actually work as well. Doing it once would still create a huge queue.

One thing that comes to mind is writing a script for this. I guess it wouldn't be hard for someone like mjf to write a script that let's you enter a list of beta-urls and it automatically hits the button on those pages one by one. There has to be some time between two hits so the queue won't get stuck. I'd have to ask Marijn if he thinks iCM database could handle this.

[Ebbywebby]

[I'm not sure if this is something that can be done easily. Maybe Marijn even need to built something for this. Not sure if it would actually work as well. Doing it once would still create a huge queue.

One thing that comes to mind is writing a script for this. I guess it wouldn't be hard for someone like mjf to write a script that let's you enter a list of beta-urls and it automatically hits the button on those pages one by one. There has to be some time between two hits so the queue won't get stuck. I'd have to ask Marijn if he thinks iCM database could handle this.

I guess I don't have much sense of how long it would take the site to do 780,000 automated updates. What if the site went down one night for a few hours for "maintenance"? Would that be long enough?

How does the site add new movies and TV episodes as they're announced/released? There must be some sort of periodic IMDb parse, right?

Peripheral question: Is www.themoviedb.org's data fully trustable? I keep adding runtimes to IMDb, and I labor to find a couple of independent sources before I submit a given time. But can the TMDb be used as a confident, one-stop resource?

[Onderhond]

I wouldn't put too much trust in the TMDb data. I regularly add films there myself (to import them into Letterboxd) and there is no verification process to speak of.

[joachimt]

How does the site add new movies and TV episodes as they're announced/released? There must be some sort of periodic IMDb parse, right?

Just like any other title. Someone needs to add it.

[Ebbywebby]

How does the site add new movies and TV episodes as they're announced/released? There must be some sort of periodic IMDb parse, right?

Just like any other title. Someone needs to add it.

Wow, I did not realize this.

[Ebbywebby]

In the beta world, there are currently about 4172 pages of films, TV episodes, etc. without runtimes. Or about 208K individual items. Not so long ago, there were 4213 pages. I wonder how low this tally could go, if everyone makes an effort to fill in their own checks (or favorite unofficial lists) with missing runtimes?

Only 4041 pages now! Go...team?

[Lonewolf2003]

In the beta world, there are currently about 4172 pages of films, TV episodes, etc. without runtimes. Or about 208K individual items. Not so long ago, there were 4213 pages. I wonder how low this tally could go, if everyone makes an effort to fill in their own checks (or favorite unofficial lists) with missing runtimes?

Only 4041 pages now! Go...team?

Do you have an overview list? Or do you search or sort for runtime on iCM?

[Ebbywebby]

I'm not sure what LW means by "overview list." But the answer is probably no.

I just discovered something rather dismaying. I stumbled upon a March, 2017 forum post where I joked that there were "only" 190,189 items left in the database without runtimes.

Now, over three years later and after oodles and oodles and oodles of runtime updates, that 190,189 tally has "shrunk" to about...201,250?! Sigh.

[Lonewolf2003]

I'm not sure what LW means by "overview list." But the answer is probably no.

I just discovered something rather dismaying. I stumbled upon a March, 2017 forum post where I joked that there were "only" 190,189 items left in the database without runtimes.

Now, over three years later and after oodles and oodles and oodles of runtime updates, that 190,189 tally has "shrunk" to about...201,250?! Sigh.

I meant a list with all titles with missing runtimes. And I don’t mean an iCM list. Could also be a excel sheet f.e.

[Ebbywebby]

I'm not sure how to diagnose this, but it seems like there are a lot of silent-era movies that scarcely anyone has seen that IMDb lists as 50 minutes long. Feels like kind of a "whatever, it's probably about that long" fudge.

Random example: https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/16 ... eye+of+god

Or, look how many Henry King films are supposedly 50 minutes long.

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies?fi ... rt=runtime

I don't know where to mention this since it's not really a "bug"....

[joachimt]

Might be sloppy adding to IMDb indeed. Nothing we can do about it. Except if you want to find evidence on each one of them and change/remove the runtimes on IMDb that are incorrect.

[Ebbywebby]

Just came across three more, practically in a row. Zero checks, 50 minutes.

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/16 ... s+of+youth
https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/16 ... +rebellion
https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/17 ... e+fire+cat

3950 pages of no-runtime films left in beta ICM.

[Fergenaprido]

The other possibility could be that runtimes were more rigid back in the early days because it was determined by the length of the film itself (1-reel, 2-reel, 3-reel, etc.) and they probably wanted to use up an entire reel so as not to waste their investment, so the fact that so many are of the relatively same length doesn't surprise me too much. I could also be completely wrong, though

[Lonewolf2003]

Does anyone know a way or does anyone has an (Excel) list with every movie without a runtime?

Cause than we coule crossreference that with the masterlist, they are making here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=997 and look which movies do have runtimes on IMDb and are worth updating (manually). Cause manually updatting 4000 pages of movies, while most don't have a runtime on IMDb either is futile.

[Tim2460]

Ebby : you use

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/?sort=runtime&asc

For that stat ?

[Tim2460]

Hmmm going to the 3950 page decending as indicated by ebby the 02/08 then ...

Spoiler

???

[Ebbywebby]

Ebby : you use

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/?sort=runtime&asc

For that stat ?

No, I did specify that I was talking about beta ICM. Here's the threshold now:

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/un ... &page=3886

[Ebbywebby]

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/un ... ime&page=1

Bud Fisher has 310 directing credits, and only FOUR of them had runtimes. That may be a record. I don't have the patience to investigate all the IMDb pages, though I did add a time for "Ups and Downs."

[Ebbywebby]

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/14 ... cky+na+dne

I just found a good error. This film is an omnibus, but only two of its five directors were credited on ICM. I think it's because IMDb lists two directors and then "3 more credits." I wonder if any other omnibuses have the same problem.

Also, there was something strange going on with Jan Nemec. His credits were split up, somehow. You'd click his name on one film and get 24 credits. But you'd click his name on another film and get only 20 credits (with all his official checks omitted). I "updated" his checks, added "Heart Beat 3D" (not previously on ICM) and this seemed to fix everything. Now, I think every Nemec film page links to all 26 of his credits.

[Ebbywebby]

I wonder if any other omnibuses have the same problem.

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/12 ... ccaccio+70
https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/94 ... e+in+citta
https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/73 ... +vingt+ans

The first three I tried had the same problem. Fixed. Ouch.

[Ebbywebby]

Finding more cases already. Even "New York Stories" and "Dead of Night" weren't right.

[AdamH]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/tormenta/

Title and year are wrong.

[Ebbywebby]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/tormenta/

Title and year are wrong.

Adam, do you realize you can do these updates yourself now?

In other news, I just went down this list and blindly updated every film with two listed directors. Boy, did that make a huge difference. LOTS of credits added. Look what happened to the "ABC's of Death" films!

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/lists/325 ... nthologies

[AdamH]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/tormenta/

Title and year are wrong.

Adam, do you realize you can do these updates yourself now?

Thanks, done. Now, I realise there's actually a duplicate. When I added URLs from IMDb to an iCM list, the first one imported. The first one has 1 check, the second has 0. Beta fixed the name and year of the first one.

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/thunderstorm-1956/
https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/thunderstorm/

[Lonewolf2003]

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/tormenta/

Title and year are wrong.

Adam, do you realize you can do these updates yourself now?

Thanks, done. Now, I realise there's actually a duplicate. When I added URLs from IMDb to an iCM list, the first one imported. The first one has 1 check, the second has 0. Beta fixed the name and year of the first one.

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/thunderstorm-1956/
https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/thunderstorm/

Fixed

[Lonewolf2003]

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/14 ... cky+na+dne

I just found a good error. This film is an omnibus, but only two of its five directors were credited on ICM. I think it's because IMDb lists two directors and then "3 more credits." I wonder if any other omnibuses have the same problem.

Also, there was something strange going on with Jan Nemec. His credits were split up, somehow. You'd click his name on one film and get 24 credits. But you'd click his name on another film and get only 20 credits (with all his official checks omitted). I "updated" his checks, added "Heart Beat 3D" (not previously on ICM) and this seemed to fix everything. Now, I think every Nemec film page links to all 26 of his credits.

Thanks for fixing the Nemec problem. Let's hope it's correct now.
And for updating all those films with multiple directors.

[AdamH]

Adam, do you realize you can do these updates yourself now?

Thanks, done. Now, I realise there's actually a duplicate. When I added URLs from IMDb to an iCM list, the first one imported. The first one has 1 check, the second has 0. Beta fixed the name and year of the first one.

https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/thunderstorm-1956/
https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/thunderstorm/

Fixed

Thanks

[Ebbywebby]

Finding more cases already. Even "New York Stories" and "Dead of Night" weren't right.

Even "Grindhouse" was missing names. No Tarantino, even!

[Ebbywebby]

The update button doesn't seem to working in the past day-ish.

[Fergenaprido]

The update button doesn't seem to working in the past day-ish.

Looks like it's fixed now. I just updated a few films that wouldn't update for me yesterday.

[Ebbywebby]

Yeah, it's better now.

[Ebbywebby]

Here's the threshold now:

https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies/un ... &page=3886

[11/10 edit]
https://beta.icheckmovies.com/movies?so ... &page=3529