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Trivia

  • Trivia
  • What sort of things might not be accepted?
  • How do I remove a trivia item?
  • How should I format my trivia item?
  • Tracking your contribution

  • Trivia

    Trivia should be interesting (to at least one other person as well as you) and relate to the title. One way to think about your potential Trivia item is, "Could it ever be the answer to a question on a TV quiz show?" If the answer is yes, and we don't already have it listed, then please submit it.


    What sort of things might not be accepted?

    1. Your opinions: Please do not include personal opinions and try not to use subjective descriptions ("in this great movie...", "Chaplin's superbly comic performance...", etc).
    2. Rumors: Unsubstantiated rumors cannot be accepted, although some early casting rumors can be interesting - so long as they're documented and verifiable (please include a link to your sources wherever possible).
    3. Anything inflammatory and/or potentially defamatory . If you are submitting trivia about controversial topics, please quote the sources and include appropriate context.
    1. 'Gutter press' scandal and gossip.
    1. Low entries in movie lists - we're happy to accept items along the lines of "This movie was voted #3 in Such-and-Such's Top 1000 Movies poll", as long as it's a list compiled by a major website, publication or TV show. For other polls we may choose to list only those titles in the Top 10 (so "Was voted number 83..." won't be listed).


    How do I remove a trivia item?

    Is it interesting?

    To ensure that the most interesting information is also the easiest to find we have introduced voting on trivia. When you click on a trivia item, you get the option to vote whether the item in interesting or not. We use this data to rank trivia items so that the most interesting rise to the top and those which users don’t find interesting fall to the bottom.

    If you think a trivia item is 'irrelevant' or 'not interesting', rather than submit a delete request, please vote the item down.

    Removing Trivia

    Please only submit a delete request when the item in question is factually incorrect or an exact duplicate of another on the site.

    1. If it is incorrect please try to include evidence, or at least explain why, in your delete request.
    2. Delete requests that simply say, "This is wrong/incorrect, " will not be accepted.
    3. If you are deleting a duplicate, please delete the one with fewer votes.
    4. If the item with fewer votes is written better or contains more information, please submit a correction to improve the item with more votes, then delete the duplicate with fewer votes.

    How should I format my trivia item?

    Your submission has a much greater chance of being processed quickly - and a much greater chance of being accepted - if you follow the basic rules listed below. If your submission does not take these rules into account, it will likely take a lot longer to be processed, and may even be rejected:


    1. Hyperlinks

    • If you mention a person or a title (movie, TV series / episode) that is also listed on IMDb, you must use the [link=title number or person number] to automatically create a hyperlink to the relevant page. (Please do not use any HTML coding - it won't work.)
    • People: Start with [link=, followed by the nconst]. You can retrieve the person number, also known as the nconst, from the URL of a person's page. For example:
    • [link=nm0000288] becomes Christian Bale
    • Titles: Start with [link=, followed by the tconst]. You can retrieve the title number, also known as the tconst, from the URL of the title's page. For example:
      [link=tt0076759] becomes Star Wars
      
    • Note: There is no need to create self-referential [link=title number or person number] links, i.e. links to the title that the submission is actually attached to. Usually "the film", "this film", "the movie" etc. is sufficient.
    • Please click on this link for a more detailed explanation of the [link=title number or person number] notation.


    2. Style & Grammar

    • Do write only in English.
    • Do keep your submissions short and easy to read.
    • Do write all submissions in the present tense.
    • Do not use ALL CAPS.
    • Do not use chat-speak or text-speak.


    3. Spelling, Punctuation & Formatting

    • We use standard US punctuation and spelling.
    • Any item where spelling and/or punctuation (missing spaces after punctuation, proper names in lower case, etc.) is so bad that the item would have to be extensively edited before publishing is likely to be rejected.
    • The correct way of denoting decades is 1920s or '20s - not 1920's or 20's.
    • For bulleted lists, start the lines in the list with " - " (i.e. space, hyphen, space).
    • For paragraph breaks, use a double newline.

    4. Cameos

    • Be careful to take a look at the cast list first - by definition a cameo is an uncredited appearance, but many apparent 'cameos' and uncredited appearances are already listed. Please use the following formats:
      CAMEO([link=nm#######]): man hopping on one leg in the rain.  
      DIRCAMEO([link=nm######]): woman on bicycle.  


    5. Director Trademarks

    • Many directors always include certain elements in their films and this is the place to point them out. The trademark keyword(s) should be short and to the point, and should be consistent with other entries for that director. Please use the following format:
      DIRTRADE([link=nm######]): [trademark keyword]: optional explanation
      
      DIRTRADE([link=nm######]): [flying]: the last scene of the film takes place on a hot air balloon
      DIRTRADE([link=nm######]): [shooting on film, not digital]
      


    6. Plagiarism

    • Do not copy entries from other publications, either offline (books etc) or online (Wikipedia etc.). We cannot republish copyrighted text.


    7. TV Episodes

    • If your submission is specific to a particular episode, please submit it under that episode's title page, not the title page of the series itself.


    8. Spoilers

    • Please try not to include anything that reveals key elements of the plot at all, but if you can't avoid it, begin your item with:
      SPOILER:
    • This tag will then be recognized by the database and automatically placed beneath a SPOILERS! warning, so that anyone who does not wish to know what happens can avoid reading it.


    9. Timestamps

    • Timestamping a trivia item where possible is encouraged, but the format must adhere to strict rules.
    • Please use the format (at around xx mins) or (at around xh xx mins).
    • Additionally, to account for regional variations and alternate versions, please round down the timings using the following thresholds:
    • 00:00:01 - 01:30:00 -> down to the nearest minute, eg 01:16:35 would become (at around 1h 16 mins)
      01:30:01 - 02:59:59 -> down to the nearest 5 minutes, eg 01:47:24 would become (at around 1h 45 mins)
      03:00:00 and over -> down to the nearest 10 minutes, eg 03:28:15 would become (at around 3h 20 mins)
      

    Tracking your contribution


    You can now track the status of your Trivia submission and if it has not been approved, we'll tell you the reason why.

    If you are using the mobile apps, mobile website or desktop website you can access this feature via the 'Track your contribution' button, which has been added to the submission email receipt. Additionally, if you are using the desktop website, you can also use the 'Track Contribution' button now found in your contribution history page.

    Clicking this button will take you to IMDb Contributor, our new contribution specific site where you will be shown the status of your request.



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