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Quoting hal9g:

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Once again, an attempt is being made to divert this thread into a discussion on an entirely different topic.

This thread has nothing whatsoever to do with determining Common Names.

It has to do with entering "Credited As" names from the actual film credits into the appropriate field when the actual film credit is different than the name that appears in the actor list (the Common Name).  It makes no difference at all what the Common Name is.  If the actual film credit is different, it should be entered in the "Credited As" field NOT the Common Name field.

Maybe I'm just not seeing this clearly, but I don't quite understand how you can separate the two.

I don't understand how you can discuss the "Credited As" field without discussing what exactly an actor's "Common Name" is.  The "Actor List" you mention (as far as I understand it) is not a definitive list of "Common Names".  It's just a list of actor names currently in the database.  I see tons of duplicate names, some with initials, some without, some with middle names, some without, etc.  It's just a big glob of what people have entered so far, that we may or may not trust.  And actually, I'm not even sure if the "Actor List" I see is only of the movies I have in my database or whether it's a system wide "Actor List" of every movie entered in the system (and that determination actually has a huge bearing on my argument).

When using the "Credited As" field it makes a huge difference what the "Common Name" is because that's the name that should be entered.  Otherwise you risk breaking links to every other movie that actor has been in.

I'm new to this part of the process so this is one thing I don't fully understand just yet and this will help me alot with understanding how all this works.  Going back to the "Actor List" we see when entering credits.  If it really is a system wide listing of all actor's throughout the entire database then I see your point.  If a variation of the actor's name already exists, then use that as the Common Name and use whatever is in the actual credits as their "Credited As".  That's assuming the first movie they were ever credited in uses the most common name they go by, but I don't think it's that simple.  Especially because of the variations already present in the listings.  If the "Actor List" we see is somehow related to only the movies we own then there's a huge problem with that as the name's you see (or don't see) may effect the linking with other users databases.

-edit-
Okay, I'm a little slow in posting so part of I was thinking was answered.  I'm curious about the last part though.  Are we seeing the complete Actor List when editing the Cast/Crew in the profiles?  (Common sense tells me, yes, but it's better to ask and look like an idiot, then to just assume)

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The actor list you see is a list of actors in your local database.  It was populated by what you downloaded from the on-line, so it therefore contains names from the "wider community" but it also has names in it that you may have entered while creating new profiles.  However, it is not the "entire" actor list from the main database.

When creating a new profile, you are correct that you can essentially select whatever variation you prefer if there are multiple variations of a name in your actor list.  What you pick is up to you.  Once you upload it to the main database, it becomes the Common Name for that actor for that profile and may not link up to other profiles in the main database with different variations of that actor's name.  That's exactly why a standard is needed for Common Names.

For existing profiles, the "Common Name" field is already populated and probably links that profile to many others with that same actor.

What is happening is that people are auditing existing profiles and finding that the "Credited As" field is wrong because it matches the Common Name which is not how the actor was credited in that particular film.  Instead of just entering the actual film credit into the "Credited As" field, these users are changing both the "Common Name" and the "Credited As" name to match the film credits.  This essentially breaks any pre-existing links that the former Common Name was providing.  There is no reason to do this in order to get "as credited" itno DVDP.  Only the "As Credited" field needs to be changed.

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Quoting hal9g:

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The actor list you see is a list of actors in your local database.  It was populated by what you downloaded from the on-line, so it therefore contains names from the "wider community" but it also has names in it that you may have entered while creating new profiles.  However, it is not the "entire" actor list from the main database.

When creating a new profile, you are correct that you can essentially select whatever variation you prefer if there are multiple variations of a name in your actor list.  What you pick is up to you.  Once you upload it to the main database, it becomes the Common Name for that actor for that profile and may not link up to other profiles in the main database with different variations of that actor's name.  That's exactly why a standard is needed for Common Names.

For existing profiles, the "Common Name" field is already populated and probably links that profile to many others with that same actor.

What is happening is that people are auditing existing profiles and finding that the "Credited As" field is wrong because it matches the Common Name which is not how the actor was credited in that particular film.  Instead of just entering the actual film credit into the "Credited As" field, these users are changing both the "Common Name" and the "Credited As" name to match the film credits.  This essentially breaks any pre-existing links that the former Common Name was providing.  There is no reason to do this in order to get "as credited" itno DVDP.  Only the "As Credited" field needs to be changed.

I understand what you are saying, but that 'probably' concerns me.  For all I know, the current 'common name' entry, in my profile, is wrong and the correct common name is the name in the credits.  That 'unknown' is what concerns me.  Without a standard for 'common name' we may be, inadvertantly, leaving bad data in the main db.  At least with 'as credited' in both fields, we know the data is correct for that profile.

As I said, I understand what you are saying but I don't know that we can seperate the two fields. 

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I understand what you are saying, but that 'probably' concerns me.  For all I know, the current 'common name' entry, in my profile, is wrong and the correct common name is the name in the credits.  That 'unknown' is what concerns me.  Without a standard for 'common name' we may be, inadvertantly, leaving bad data in the main db.  At least with 'as credited' in both fields, we know the data is correct for that profile.

As I said, I understand what you are saying but I don't know that we can seperate the two fields.