Archive for March, 2010
Awards list – temporary closure
Our Awards list is one of the oldest and most complex parts of the database and it’s long overdue for an overhaul. Everything about the list, from the way you send us the information, the way we check it, the way we store it and even the way we display it, would benefit from some modernization.
It’s not a simple task but we’re suddenly in a position to give it that much-needed attention and we’ve had to make a tough decision about how to go about it. Upgrading things on a live website like ours has been likened to trying to change the tyres on a Formula 1 car while it’s still going round the track and so we’ve decided to simplify the process a little by temporarily closing the list. We estimate that the work will take 4-6 months, during which time we’ll not be taking any new submissions of any kind (including corrections) for the Awards list. No data will be lost and the existing information will still be visible on the site, you just won’t be able to add to it or change it for a while.
So, from 10.00 BST on Wednesday 31 March we’ll close the Awards list to new submissions. We’ll process everything that’s already been submitted, then we’ll start work on revamping the whole thing.
It’s only temporary, and it will make things better on this much-loved list.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, there’s a thread about this on the Contributors’ Help message board.
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Man and Superman
Posted by tim in Policy Change on March 4th, 2010
We view Superheroes and their alter-egos as two separate characters (as opposed to one character with two different names).
Sometimes, Superheroes and their alter-egos are manifestly distinct personalities – bumbling, clumsy Clark Kent vs. Self-assured, confident Superman, for example, and most of the time the alter-ego is literally playing a different character to disguise their superhero status. With this in mind, here is the updated Superhero character policy:
1. Unless otherwise displayed in the credits, character names for Superheroes and their alter-egos should be separated by a slash on the site (i.e. Bruce Wayne/Batman).
2. If the character names are displayed differently in the credits, the ‘as credited onscreen’ rule applies. Example: If Christian Bale is credited as ‘Bruce Wayne – Batman’, in the next Batman movie, then that is what will be displayed on the site.
3. If only one character name is displayed in the credits (either the Superhero name OR the alter-ego name), the ‘as credited onscreen’ policy again applies.
4. Where no superhero/alter-ego names are credited onscreen, one or both may be submitted.
5. In the rare cases where no screen credit exists in any capacity (i.e. both actor and character names are missing), one or both character names can be submitted with an ‘uncredited’ attribute.
It has also been agreed that alter-egos should have their own character pages. This will be implemented soon.