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TheOldBill Blog

Arbitrary Rules and Inconsistency

Stats 22 April 2006

Commander in Chief Drama King - More than 10 favorite shows, at least 20% dramas. Space Cadet - More than 10 favorite shows, just 14% sci-fi. Swashbuckler - More than 10 favorite shows, just 12% action/adventure. Mr Clean - More than 10 favorite shows, just 6% soaps. Editor for a show guide. Trusted Contributor for a show guide. Contributite - This user has made at least 1 contribution. Side-kick'n Contributor - This user has made at least 50 contributions. Captain Contributor - This user has made at least 100 contributions. Cosmic Contributor - This user has made at least 500 contributions. Contributor of the Century - This user has made at least 1,000 contributions. Master of the Contributions - This user has made at least 2,000 contributions. Contributor Sensei - This user has made at least 5,000 contributions. Contributor Shogun - This user has made at least 10,000 contributions. Contributionator - This user has made at least 20,000 contributions. This user has one of the top 100 point scores in the community. This user has one of the top 500 point scores in the community. This user has one of the top 1,000 point scores in the community. This user has contributed over 500 message board posts. This user has over 50 journal entries.

Rank       : Commander in Chief Level      : 53 Percentage : 82% (+1)      Forum Posts :   830 (+4)
Submissions                Reviews Accepted   : 22280  (+34)  Shows       :     1 Pending    :     8   (+1)  Episodes    :     2 Denied     :   120         People      :     0 Total      : 22408         Total       :     3
Edited Guides              Trusted User 143 Shows                  3 Shows

Ruminations:

Well, the beta is now live. During beta testing, I used the beta to check scores and such, but went back to the main version to work on guides. Now that the beta has gone live, bugs and all, I cannot reach the episode guide without going through episode listings first (design fault), I cannot reach the contribute button from two-thirds of the episode pages (design fault), I have to get past an error page for every single cast member I search for and add to the guide (bug), and everything takes sooo long to load. And where have the hyperlinks to person IDs on the submission and moderation pages disappeared to? I liked those!

The staff now deprecate my use of the "do not use" tags on duplicate person IDs, so I will stop. It's a great pity that they are clamping down on this user-created initiative, but it appears that they choose not to understand what it is for. Users can identify duplicate and mis-spelled guides, we can flag them to staff, but noone is deleting them. Until such time as they do, it seems pointless to clean up person guides which can just become full of credits again because the average user is unable to tell at a glance which guide to use, and TV.com search engines invariably promote the most recent at the expense of the original.

Is this what they call a WYSIWYG editor? It is unhelpful to me in the forums to be told that every one of my posts is incorrectly formatted. Happily, one can ignore the message and publish anyway, but it was a nightmare trying to format this blog.

Levelling is working fine. We have been told that so often it must be true. So how come DebStitch cannot get a level increase? She may have fallen victim to the "cry wolf" syndrome, as many of us higher level users have been complaining about levelling when we have just failed to understand that some levels are harder than others, that there is a time lag between contributions being accepted and levels being applied, or we make unfair comparisons with the progress of others. None of this was helped by the fact that staff keep levelling shrouded in secrecy, that sometimes the system does get it wrong, that some system failures are corrected by staff and others are not, that some days contributions have gone completely unrewarded, or levels have been capped. I have no brief to campaign on behalf of DebStitch, and we have had our differences in the past, but she is far and away the most significant contributor on here and now seems to be permanently capped, no matter how much she contributes.

Stats 20 April 2006:

Rank       : Commander in Chief  Level      : 53  Percentage : 81% (-)       Forum Posts :   824 (+6)
Submissions Reviews Accepted : 22246 (+2) Shows : 1 Pending : 7 (-2) Episodes : 2 Denied : 120 People : 0 Total : 22373 Total : 3
Edited Guides Trusted User 143 Shows 3 Shows

Stats 19 April 2006:

Rank       : Commander in Chief  Level      : 53  Percentage : 81% (-)       Forum Posts :   818 (-)
Submissions Reviews Accepted : 22244 (+3) Shows : 1 Pending : 9 (-2) Episodes : 2 Denied : 120 People : 0 Total : 22373 Total : 3
Edited Guides Trusted User 143 Shows 3 Shows

Not that it really matters a whole lot, but this week I decided to concentrate on updating my database for The Bill. This is the show that brought me to TVTome in the first place: I maintain the most comprehensive database to episodes, cast and crew for the show outside of the production compant, but my website has been somewhat neglected since TV.com launched and I have concentrated my activities here. When the database is updated, I am going to finish the TV.com guide for the show and will probably move onto the TVRage one, as there I can sort cast lists, insert character guides and do all the other things that I have on my site but that TV.com won't let me do. Not that I shall be abandoning this site. I maintain just the one show guide at TVRage, as I do at IMdB.com, whereas here I can dominate all the British show guides that interest me. (Mwah, ha-ha hahhh!)

Easy peasy

Stats 18 April 2006:

Drama King - More than 10 favorite shows, at least 20% dramas. Space Cadet - More than 10 favorite shows, just 14% sci-fi. Swashbuckler - More than 10 favorite shows, just 12% action/adventure. Mr Clean - More than 10 favorite shows, just 6% soaps.

Rank : Commander in Chief
Level : 53
Percentage : 81% (+1) Forum Posts : 818 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 22241 (+32) Shows : 1
Pending : 11 (-25) Episodes : 2
Denied : 120 People : 0
Total : 22372 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
145 Shows (+1) 3 Shows
Another editorship acquired: Gideon's Way.

Level 53.79

Stats 16 April 2006:

Drama King - More than 10 favorite shows, at least 20% dramas. Space Cadet - More than 10 favorite shows, just 13% sci-fi. Swashbuckler - More than 10 favorite shows, just 12% action/adventure. Mr Clean - More than 10 favorite shows, just 6% soaps.

Rank : Commander in Chief
Level : 53
Percentage : 79% (+1) Forum Posts : 818 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 22171 (+25) Shows : 1
Pending : 8 (-7) Episodes : 2
Denied : 120 People : 0
Total : 22299 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
143 Shows 3 Shows
Someone on the staff has been approving subs this holiday weekend. It was nice to get a line of acknowledgement in each PM, but I am perplexed by the animal noises! I caught the closing moments of an episode of Commander in Chief yesterday. Now I know why no mainstream UK channel picked it up!

Stats 15 April 2006:
Rank       : Commander in Chief
Level : 53
Percentage : 78% (-) Forum Posts : 817 (+6)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 22146 (+2) Shows : 1
Pending : 15 (-1) Episodes : 2
Denied : 120 People : 0
Total : 22281 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
143 Shows 3 Shows (+1)
That's the thing about being a Trusted User: you go for ages without any, then three come along at once! Apparently there was a beauty contest over at Doctor Who (2005) and I won. It shouldn't make any real difference, as Editor kennyljs always approved my submissions really quickly.

Stats 14 April 2006:
Rank       : Commander in Chief
Level : 53
Percentage : 78% (-) Forum Posts : 811 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 22144 (+1) Shows : 1
Pending : 16 (-1) Episodes : 2
Denied : 120 People : 0
Total : 22280 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
143 Shows 2 Shows
xGowronx has retired as Editor of Wire in the Blood in my favour, but I didn't gain the editorship when the CPs ran.

Level 53: Commander in Chief

Stats 13 April 2006:

Drama King - More than 10 favorite shows, at least 20% dramas. Space Cadet - More than 10 favorite shows, just 13% sci-fi. Swashbuckler - More than 10 favorite shows, just 12% action/adventure. Mr Clean - More than 10 favorite shows, just 6% soaps.

Rank : Commander in Chief
Level : 53
Percentage : 78% (+167) Forum Posts : 814 (+4)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 22143 (+2) Shows : 1
Pending : 11 (-1) Episodes : 2
Denied : 120 People : 0
Total : 22274 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
143 Shows 2 Shows
167% for 2 submissions? Shurely shome mishtake! The great relevelling: Phase II. All level 50+ users have been regraded in line with yet another recalibration of the senior levels. DebStitch is now 55 Bounty Dog, angelsxo is 54 Prison Warden and the rest of the 52s are Commanders in Chief. That is the least naff rank title I have had in months, so I may just rest here a while…

Level 52.10

Stats 5 April 2006:

Drama King - More than 10 favorite shows, at least 20% dramas. Space Cadet - More than 10 favorite shows, just 12% sci-fi. Swashbuckler - More than 10 favorite shows, just 12% action/adventure. Mr Clean - More than 10 favorite shows, just 6% soaps.

Rank : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 10% (+1) Forum Posts : 797 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21603 (+37) Shows : 1
Pending : 242 (+14) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21963 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
137 Shows 2 Shows
Just posting this to perplex and bemuse...
Stats 4 April 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (-) Forum Posts : 797 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21566 (+90) Shows : 1
Pending : 228 (-74) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21912 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
137 Shows (+1) 2 Shows
Another new show... The Protectors. The plan had been for TV.com to approve 150+ submissions on Monday, freeing me to submit 53 consequential amendments before bed. In the event, half of those submissions went unapproved. No chance of scoring 200 in any 24-hour period this week as the plan failed and I am away from home.
Stats 3 April 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (-) Forum Posts : 797 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21476 (+3) Shows : 1
Pending : 302 (+83) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21896 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
136 Shows 2 Shows
Stats 2 April 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (-) Forum Posts : 797 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21473 (+26) Shows : 1
Pending : 219 (+63) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21810 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
136 Shows 2 Shows
Stats 1 April 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (-) Forum Posts : 797 (+5)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21447 (+99) Shows : 1
Pending : 156 (-2) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21721 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
136 Shows (+1) 2 Shows
Another new show... Strange.
Stats 31 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (-) Forum Posts : 792 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21348 (+35) Shows : 1
Pending : 158 (+4) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21624 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
135 Shows 2 Shows
Stats 30 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (-) Forum Posts : 791 (+4)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21313 (+48) Shows : 1
Pending : 154 (+1) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21585 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
135 Shows 1 Show
Stats 29 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (-) Forum Posts : 787 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21265 (+27) Shows : 1
Pending : 153 (+4) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21534 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
135 Shows 1 Show

Level 52.09

Stats 28 March 2006:



Rank : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 9% (+1) Forum Posts : 786 (+3)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21238 (+204) Shows : 1
Pending : 149 (-130) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21505 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
135 Shows (+5) 2 Shows (+1)
A busy day yesterday, all in all. As you know, I have concentrated on expired British shows, but Monday saw the first broadcast of a 2006 reinterpretation of the classic A for Andromeda, by the people who brought you last year's The Quatermass Experiment, and the latest instalment of The Commander saga. With a new season of Murder City around the corner, and UKTV Drama churning out all those old police dramas, I had plenty to do just on shows that I edit! Then, of course, there was the usual activity on editorless shows over the weekend, albeit much scaled back. The upshot is that I had over 200 submissions accepted on Monday, and got another point. Oh, and some new shows, I'm afraid: Man of the World, Pulaski, The Sentimental Agent, The Wilde Alliance and McCallum, yet another show from Gowron, who was good enough to make me trusted user for her last show here, Wire in the Blood.
Stats 27 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 8% (-) Forum Posts : 783 (+2)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21034 (+29) Shows : 1
Pending : 279 (-9) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21431 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
130 Shows 1 Show
Stats 26 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 8% (-) Forum Posts : 781 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 21005 (+30) Shows : 1
Pending : 270 (+114) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21393 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
130 Shows 1 Show
Stats 25 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 8% (-) Forum Posts : 781 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20975 (+19) Shows : 1
Pending : 156 (+20) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21249 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
130 Shows 1 Show
Stats 24 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 8% (-) Forum Posts : 780 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20956 (+16) Shows : 1
Pending : 136 (+20) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21210 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
130 Shows 1 Show

Level 52.08

Stats 23 March 2006:



Rank : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 8% (+1) Forum Posts : 779 (+5)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20940 (+163) Shows : 1
Pending : 13 (-93) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21071 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
130 Shows (+2) 1 Show
Well, they are clearly running on a different 24-hour cycle for calculating activity than the 24-hour period between levellings. Again, I had fewer than 200 accepted between levellings: again, I got 1%. TV.com staff continued to rampage through editors' queues: it didn't matter what I submitted to yesterday, it was approved. At one point I decided to make a whole load of subs to the show with the MIA editor, so I would still have a nice little stockpile. It wasn't until I finished that I realised staff had now approved the entire backlog, along with everything I had just submitted to the show. (For some reason, I got no PMs for most of the stuff approved by staff yesterday.) As an experiment, I submitted to shows with active and even on-line editors. TV.com approved these too. At one point, I had only two outstandings - my most recent - as against the 371 I had on Monday. I also got two more shows, based on contributions over the weekend: The Baron and Touching Evil, another show from the lovely Gowron!
Stats 22 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 7% (-) Forum Posts : 774 (+5)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20777 (+255) Shows : 1
Pending : 106 (-209) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 21001 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
127 Shows 1 Show
Another fit of apoplexy here! I had 255 submissions accepted between levellings, and got no reward again. 53 of these were accepted while I was off the PC, but even if levels ran late on the Tuesday, 202 of these were made between the levels running and me going to sleep. As you know, I have been trying to "game" the levelling system by making sure that I have either very few subs accepted, or over 200. I have been using a variety of methods to achieve this. One is to concentrate on submissions to editorless shows from close of play Friday until after the day starts on Monday, ensuring that a whole load are approved on either the Monday or Tuesday. Another is to stockpile essential changes to my own shows until I need the points, generally the Monday or Tuesday that TV.com staff approve my weekend subs. Another is to approve my own queued submissions for shows I gain editorships for on either a same day or next day basis, according to what suits. Another is that, since January, I have quietly been submitting to a show that has hundreds of episodes with missing actor/writer/director credits and synopses, but not reporting the editor as MIA. TV.com handled very few of my submissions until quite late on the Tuesday. I had planned to hold off on approving 98 submissions to The New Adventures of Charlie Chan until the next day, but TV.com kept dipping into the queue to approves these subs, and did a whole batch from the show with the MIA editor. As I approached 100 subs I decided to clear my own queue, but TV.com again approved a whole load of subs really late in the day. I was teed that I ended up with far more than 200 subs. Little did I know it wouldn't be enough...

Level 52.07

Stats 21 March 2006:



Rank : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 7% (+1) Forum Posts : 769 (+6)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20522 (+105) Shows : 1
Pending : 315 (-56) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 20955 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
128 Shows (+1) 1 Show
OK, now I am officially puzzled. I was a little surprised to see that so few (17) of my submissions were looked at in normal office hours yesterday, bemused when someone approved a barrowload after 1800 PST, taking me up to 100 approvals, too late for me to make up the shortfall before (local) bedtime, and seriously eating into my ability to score 200 the next day. Now I see that, with just 105 approvals, I got 1%, when 200 wasn't enough for an increase last week!
I got another editorship (The New Adventures of Charlie Chan), with some more in the queue. Sorry!
Stats 20 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 6% (-) Forum Posts : 763 (+2)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20417 (+4) Shows : 1
Pending : 371 (+79) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 20906 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
127 Shows 1 Show
Stats 19 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 6% (-) Forum Posts : 761 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20413 (+8) Shows : 1
Pending : 292 (+121) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 People : 0
Total : 20823 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
127 Shows 1 Show
Stats 18 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 4% (-) Forum Posts : 761 (-)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20405 (+25) Shows : 1
Pending : 171 (+44) Episodes : 2
Denied : 117 People : 0
Total : 20694 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
127 Shows (+1) 1 Show
Another new show... Second Sight, pinched from Gowron, who has abandoned us for the Dark Side!
Stats 17 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 6% (-) Forum Posts : 761 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20380 (+78) Shows : 1
Pending : 127 (-) Episodes : 2
Denied : 118 (+1) People : 0
Total : 20623 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
126 Shows 1 Show
Stats 16 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 6% (-) Forum Posts : 760 (+6)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20302 (+54) Shows : 1
Pending : 127 (+33) Episodes : 2
Denied : 117 People : 0
Total : 20546 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
126 Shows 1 Show
Stats 15 March 2006:
Rank       : Guzzlefish!
Level : 52
Percentage : 6% (-) Forum Posts : 754 (+1)

Submissions Reviews
Accepted : 20248 (+1) Shows : 1
Pending : 94 (-1) Episodes : 2
Denied : 117 People : 0
Total : 20459 Total : 3

Edited Guides Trusted User
126 Shows 1 Show

Improved Searches... and Duplicates!

In the last few days, the good people at TV.com finally fixed the search engine: hurrah! I am really chuffed! Unfortunately, I can now see the full extent of the duplicates problem. Finding duplicates is like shooting fish in a barrel now. I had successfully been adding "do not use" tags to duplicates in the range to 373963 after clearing them of credits, but for every duplicate created at TVTome there are three or four created here. For two show guides, almost every entry is a duplicate - the contributor/editor in question appears not to have known how to search for existing IDs. Regarding which one to choose: there are no absolute rules reagarding the order in which duplicates appear and, frustratingly, some actor IDs appear in different orders in a manual search than they do in the Search for Actor field in the Add Stars page. However, testing over the past few days suggest that, in general, the older, TVTome created IDs appear last in any search. I believe this is because the system looks for best matches, and most TVTome IDs do not have separare entries in the First Name and Last Name fields. However, afenla points out in the forums that, after searching for an actor to add, you can right-click in the Add A New Guest Star section and view source. This shows the ID number for each listed option, allowing you to compare with the manual search results and find the correct ID. By way of illustration, searching for "Garfield Morgan" now yields the following results: Garfield Morgan Garfield Morgan Garfield Morgan - do not use Garfield Morgan The first, 396089, was entered with a blank space between names, so the system did not pick up on the match with 384725 and created a new ID. Because of the "space-as-middle-name" bug, it now has two blanks. The second, 384725, is affected by the "space-as-middle-name" bug. It was created by the system because it did not match either of the legacy TVTome names, neither of which had First Name or Last Name attached. The third, 201047, was created for show 1408. (I don't know why, but almost every cast entry for that show had a duplicate ID in the 200*** series at TVTome.) This used to be one of only two hits until the search engine was fixed, so I tagged it to stop people assigning credits to it after twice clearing it of credits. The fourth, 16741, is the original and best. I deal primarily with old British dramas, a relatively shallow gene pool of actors. As things stand, I now find that one in every three attempts to add a cast member yields a duplicate ID in the range 373967 up, generally from one of three shows. Each takes a while to investigate and correct and, frankly, if there are more than two possible hits, it is impossible to correct an entry in a show edited by someone else with any degree of confidence that you are adding the correct entry. Beyond that, I continue to flag duplicate IDs with "do not use" tags. However, now that there are hundreds of incorrect person IDs listed at Add Stars, it is inevitable that duplicates will attract additional credits, even after they are cleared. There is an extensive list of duplicates in the forums: hopefully the staff will start clearing the duplicates one day! Note: TVTome IDs: up to 372591 TV.com IDs (double space): 372597-410906 TV.com IDs (correct format): 410909 up TV.com IDs from 373967 up are now searchable If in doubt, use the last listed ID in any search