james_johnston_4d5h8woi6a7ga's profile

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Wednesday, December 13th, 2023 12:36 AM

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Request an enhancement to how series episode links work

I would like to request an enhancement to the way links to other IMDB pages in such places as trivia, goofs, etc. work. Specifically, the way a link to an episode of a series is generated/displayed. Currently, a link to an episode of a series simply displays the episode title. In many cases, the episode title does not provide any context (meaning there is no indication of the name of the series in the link). For example, I submitted the trivia entry below to the Harry Belafonte (nm0000896) trivia page:

When he signed in as the mystery guest on What's My Line? (1950), episode Harry Belafonte (1955), he signed in as 'Harry Belafonté'.

If I had not specifically included the link to the series name, the entry would have looked something like:

When he signed in as the mystery guest on Harry Belafonte (1955), he signed in as 'Harry Belafonté'.

Without the inclusion of the series link, the entry makes little sense, unless the reader puts the pieces together and realizes the context. Confused readers would have to click on the link to the episode to understand that the reference is to an episode of ‘What’s My Line?’, and then probably click on the link to the series main page to get more information on how the game worked (if they had never encountered the game). The link to the ‘What’s My Line?’ main page makes that sequence one step, instead of two.

I would like to see some intelligence built into the links. For normal Name and Title entries, the standard link should be used (same as the current link). However, any time a series episode link is included in some entry, the resulting link that appears in the displayed entry should have either one or two links, depending on the link’s context. For a link to an episode within the current series, only the link to that episode should appear (same as the current link). For a link to an episode of a series that is different from the current series, the link should have two entries – a link to the main series and a link to the specific episode.

For example, here is a trivia entry for the ‘Star Trek’ (tt0060028) episode ‘Whom Gods Destroy’ (tt0708489) – one of the spoilers:

This is the second of 4 times in which a shapeshifter imitated Captain Kirk. It previously happened in The Man Trap (1966), and would happen again in The Survivor (1973) and later still, in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).

Note that there are three links to various titles: one link to another ‘Star Trek’ episode (‘The Man Trap’ [tt0708469]), one link to an episode of ‘Star Trek: The Animated Series’ (tt0069637) (‘The Survivor’ [tt0832428]) and one link to a movie (‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’). For this entry, I would like to see something like this:

This is the second of 4 times in which a shapeshifter imitated Captain Kirk. It previously happened in The Man Trap (1966), and would happen again in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) : The Survivor (1973) and later still, in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).

Note that the first link stays the same, since ‘The Man Trap’ is another episode of ‘Star Trek’ (same as the current series). The second link now includes the series title in addition to the episode title, since the episode ‘The Survivor’ is part of another series entirely. The third link stays the same, since it is not an episode of a series.

This enhancement would help users understand the context of series episodes better. While I am recommending that the series name be included only in external series references, there is a case to be made to include the series title in all links to series episodes. In other words, the reference to ‘The Man Trap’ in the example would be preceded by a link to the series ‘Star Trek’, even though ‘Star Trek’ is the current series. I recommend that the IMDB user community be polled to see which option they prefer – or even if they don’t like this suggestion.

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