Hi Jen,
When an IMDb Poll is based on a character list, it is problematic when a character is deleted in the list. This has happened for a poll that Jen created and has gone live.
There really needs to be a way to alert other users of IMDb that a character is being used in an IMDb Poll. One possibility is to include a note in the biography of character that the character is being used in and IMDb poll. Although this may work, it's a rather clunky solution and does not prevent the character from being deleted.
I would appreciate some suggestion from other IMDb users and IMDb staff on how to resolve this dilemma.
Here are the specifics related to the Paperboy character page.
This link (
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0473172/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t40) produces a 404 (page not found) error, which means that the character (Paperboy) has been deleted.
The specific character
Paperboy is played by
Joey Tushnet in
Better Off Dead...
(1985). The specific quote that Jen references is this one:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088794/quotes?item=qt0452201 (permalink)
Paperboy:
Two dollars!
This is from the
Better Off Dead...
(1985)
Quotes page.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088794/quotesWhen I look at the full cast of
Better Off Dead...
(1985), (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088794/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast), I believe I discovered why character Paperboy was deleted.
There are three paperboys listed in the credits respectively played by
Yano Anaya,
Joey Tushnet and
Sebastian Dungan. Each of these character are simply credited as Paperboy
without any additional information. None of these characters are main characters appear to be main characters. Likewise, the character name Paperboy is general enough that it could be a background character in many different productions.
I would appreciate thoughts from other IMDb users and/or IMDb staff whether characters with pictures and dialog but with general character name should ever have a character page.
Thank you, in advance to anyone in the broader community, who can provide guidance in this matter.
Peter, Champion
About your first point, there is actually a list of any live polls in which a character has been used on its character page. But this doesn't help if the poll is not live yet.
I have no guess as to why the character was deleted. I don't think there is a rule that minor characters or characters with generic names can't have character pages, though you may be right that it had something to with that.
Dan Dassow, Champion
Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about related IMDb polls being listed on IMDb character page.
Here is an example:
Poll: Myers-Briggs Personalities of Fictional Characters
Batman (representing INTJ (Mastermind)) is currently the top choice in that poll.
IMDb Polls listed for that character include:
-
Friday Face-Off: V vs. Batman
-
Myers-Briggs Personalities of Fictional Characters
-
Author's Favorite from the First 1000 Polls
-
Batman's "Batusi" vs. Vincent's Twist
-
IMDb Top 250 Characters
-
Superhero That Would Likely Be An Annoying Roommate
-
Top Messianic Character / Christ Figure
-
Movie wo/man in a mask
-
Classic Clothing - Movie Heroes!
-
BAT-RIDES
The polls listed on a character page are listed in random order. Since there are more than 10 polls in which the character Batman appears, only 10 are shown at a time. When the character page is refreshed, a different set of 10 polls are listed.Jen, Champion