At this time there is nothing that can be done for the main online database. Some people are using fake birthyears for these occasions... but that is a local only solution of course.

nope it wouldn't Kathy... as you must use credited as and the most commonly credited for common name. So if the most commonly credited form for both names is Alan Parker... that is what would need to be used.

The best thing would be to have one with a BY and one without!
Kelvin

Quoting Rutan:

Quote:
The best thing would be to have one with a BY and one without!
Kelvin

Works locally of course... but don't work for the online.

Quoting Kathy:

Quote:
Quoting Rutan:

Quote:
The best thing would be to have one with a BY and one without!
Kelvin

You may be teasing but...why not? This is such a simple solution.

I've said it (many times) before and I'll say it again: never ever just add ONE birth year in your local database when you've got two people with the same name. Why not? Because the minute you find yourself having to restore from a backup for whatever reason at some point (if not some kind of crash, then maybe a move to a new computer), then name-with-BY and name-without-BY will automatically be lumped together into one name-with-BY entry, undoing all the work you've done to separate the two. That's why.

Case in point: if you have an "Alan Parker (1944)" and an "Alan Parker" entry, they will be merged into one single "Alan Parker (1944)" entry, without so much as a warning, when you restore a full backup.

Fake birth years are your friends, really. I'd venture a guess and say that there's probably not a single user here on these forums that should have a less than - let's aim low here - say a hundred fake birth years in your database. If you don't, that means that you're bound to have huge amounts of credits for entirely different people (with the same common name) incorrectly linked together.

Oh T!M why must you confuse me with the facts?!?

I knew it was too easy to work darn it.

No different then the middle initial... that other then locally it can't be done for the online if it isn't the most commonly credited form of his name in the credits.

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
Quoting Rutan:

Quote:
The best thing would be to have one with a BY and one without!
Kelvin

Works locally of course... but don't work for the online.

It does work online also. The problem is the linking/transfomring the program does at downloading such a profile. (See also T!M's post for the restore problem)

You need to do some little work on you local database to get this work.
One way would be to add a Headshot or any other pic to the actor without birth year. (At a full backu-up these get also saved.)
Or you've to add a fake birth year. (Not allowed to contribute) I suggest adding a fake birth year lower than the actor with birth year has in database, because online actors without birth year get transformed/linked to the local actor with lowest birth year.