Is there a policy that Mr or Mrs in character names should be followed by a period even if there is no period in the credited cast of characters?
I removed a few periods while editing a cast list, but while all edits have been approved I noticed that the periods have been retained.
#190920-204915-087000
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8266310/...
I removed a few periods while editing a cast list, but while all edits have been approved I noticed that the periods have been retained.
#190920-204915-087000
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8266310/...
Peter, Champion
Posted 10 months ago
Jaime, Employee
Adrian, Champion
I've always thought that the period should be added whether in the credit or not. I felt it fell under a similar case as "Please use standard English capitalization rules". We enter character names/descriptions capitalized regardless of how they appear in on-screen credits. Proper English would dictate the period after abbreviations like "Mr", "Mrs" or "Dr".
But "proper English" varies depending on what part of the world you're in. I'm pretty sure there's a British/American split on this one, with one insisting that periods should always be used for Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc, and the other insisting that Mr, Mrs and Dr are only correct without it. In IMDb terms, that may mean that the 'correct' answer depends on the production country of the title in question?
No PhilG, only as stated by staff and the guide. As SEEN on screen only applies.
Adrian, Champion
I suppose you are correct, Phil, that there could be differences between British and American English. I've always felt IMDb operated under American English rules. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other on this one.
Ed, it wasn't my intention to contradict Jaime or the guide, I was simply addressing Adrian's point. However, you should be aware that the 'as seen on screen' rule is riddled with so many exceptions that it sometimes feels like a challenge to find a case where it actually applies. Punctuation and capitalization in character names are among the exceptions.
Adrian, I can't find any specific references in the guide right now, but I think you're probably right that there's a preference for American English in general. Character names are one of the few areas of IMDb that respect a production's original language though, and I wonder if policy considers variants of English to fall under those rules or not? I'd be interested in the answer to that (in general terms, not specifically for this Mr/Mrs/etc issue), but like you I'm not overly concerned about it.
