Hijacking Trivia on Disney Animated Classics

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Someone has been hijacking the Trivia pages of some of the animated Disney classics like Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Cinderella. There are a host of irrelevant tidbits that are more suited to a history course rather than the films themselves or the production of such.

For example, this is one tidbit from Fantasia, which seems better suited to a biography about Beethoven:

The "Pastoral Symphony" and other Ludwig van Beethoven
works released in 1808 helped improve their creator's reputation and
contributed to a conflict between musical patrons in 1809. Beethoven had spent most of his musical career in Vienna and financially depended on the patronage of the city's upper class. Some of his works earned him considerable rewards, but his income was far from steady. In January, 1809 he received an offer of permanent employment by Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia (1784-1860, reigned 1807-13). His patrons in Vienna, led by Archduke Rudolf of Austria (1788-1831), counteroffered a permanent contract and an annual payment of 4,000 florins. Beethoven's financial prospects at the time were the best of his career, and he was able to secure a decent contract with his Viennese patrons.


Here is another from Fantasia, which is suited better to a Greek Mythology class:

The name "Dionysus" for the god Bacchus, featured in the "Pastoral Symphony" segment, had a disputed etymology in antiquity. A popular etymology derived the name from the mountain "Nysa", where the god was supposedly born and raised. However, ancient writers identified this mysterious mountain with locations in different countries, ranging from west in Libya (Africa) to east in India. It might not have existed at all. Another explanation was that the name derived from "nusa", an archaic Greek term for "tree". This etymology derives from the writings of philosopher Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC). Modern writers have instead suggested that the name has an etymology from languages other than Greek. For example, some connect the name to the city Nesa, an Assyrian and Hittite center in Anatolia. The Hittites called their language "nesili" ("the language of Nesa").

There are numerous examples of this kind of irrelevance on this and the other aforementioned Disney classic pages. As far as I am concerned, this information does not belong here. Problem is that I have been tagging them for removal and they just keep popping back up. Looks like someone has chosen to hijack these pages for their own gratification.

Staff, please be on the lookout for people like this. I used to enjoy coming back to the Trivia sections for these Disney classics but I am now turned off by this nonsense.

Thank you.
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Frank

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Posted 2 years ago

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Jeorj Euler

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Hi, Frank. Thanks for opining. Of the two items you've presented, I agree about the first one but not the second one. By the way, this is by no means a serious problem (like libel, copyright infringement or so), so there is no need to be angry. The world does not revolve around any one particular person, I mean. (We'll see how many "me too" votes this topic receives nevertheless.) Please understand that the presence of trivia items like the ones you're complaining about are much more likely to be common in the wake of the situation with title FAQ pages, the mechanism to edit or expand upon FAQ items being under construction ("coming soon"). While the IMDb site authorities shall value your and my feedback, they may not necessarily acknowledge being "on the lookout for people like this" as a significant duty of theirs. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck in locating or identifying, and subsequently deleting or trimming down trivia items that stray too far from the subject material of the movie, television series, television episode, video, video game or person to whose IMDb page they are applied.
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gromit82, Champion

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Frank: For what it's worth, I agree with you that both of the trivia items you quoted don't seem relevant to the film Fantasia. However, under IMDb policy as currently stated, that does not mean that they are supposed to be deleted. (Those items did have to get accepted in the first place, after all, so somebody on the IMDb staff must have thought they were okay at some time.)

The policy currently states: 
If you think a trivia item is 'irrelevant' or 'not interesting', rather than submit a delete request, please vote the item down. ...
Please only submit a delete request when the item in question is factually incorrect or an exact duplicate of another on the site.
So I recommend voting such items as "not interesting".
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Frank

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I'd be interested in knowing why Jeorj disagrees with the second one while gromit82 agrees. I believe there should be some sort of consensus. As far as the world not revolving around one person, the contributor seems to think it does because they seem to have the need to share their knowledge of ancient history beyond the films for their own gratification. I don't feel that this is the place for that. It's called the Internet Movie Database for a reason, not the Internet Ancient History Database. The only people who would likely be interested in this are history buffs, professors, and students, not casual viewers. These tidbits take away from the focus on the films and their production and waste considerable space and time.

I will certainly vote them down if that is the appropriate avenue.
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Jeorj Euler

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I might have simply been thrown off by the remark "suited better to a Greek Mythology class", implying that the item does not belong anywhere on the site, which very well may be the case. Since/If no part of the movie addresses the meaning or origins of the names of the elements within the movie, then the trivia item effectively has nothing at all to do with any part of the movie, and in such a way that trivia is not on topic to begin with rather than merely straying off topic. At least, the body of text is structured in such a that a watcher of the particular movie can, by simply reading the first sentence, immediately recognize its lack of substantive relation to the content of the movie: "The name 'Dionysus' for the god Bacchus, featured in the 'Pastoral Symphony' segment, had a disputed etymology in antiquity." We can read that and wonder, "So what if the etymology was disputed thousands of years ago?" Thus, I see your point. The key is that a person needs to have seen the movie (and remembered it) to recognize the problem, and there is no guarantee the submission reviewers have any familiarity at all with all the subject matter that is funneled through the system on an hourly basis. The appropriate team can investigate the matter to determine if the contributors responsible for the questionable trivia items are merely spammers. The site is no stranger to falling victim to spam, so this possibility is not far fetched.