While it is true to say that 95% of the data in my pedias is drawn from existing sources, there are many errors and omissions in those existing sources, that I endeavour to resolve - after all, the data requires validity in order to be useful to me. Since I don't completely trust any one source I always cross-reference all data. I appreciate that there will be all sorts of Pedia users using the software for other reasons, but surely I cannot be alone in wanting truthful data. I also appreciate that certain information cannot be firmly established (e.g. Theatrical Release - does one use year of completion, year of first festival screening, year it's properly distributed to theatres? In some cases all these years will be different!). However, If our data was shared, we would at least have the option to cross-reference and act upon that, whether we choose to or not.sjk wrote: Pool what data? Any of mine in DVDpedia that seems worthwhile enough to publicly share already came/comes from IMDb and Amazon. It's not like I've got anything new to contribute aside from bits of personal metadata of insignificant general interest.
Personally I really like the idea of sites like Discogs (and to some extent AllMovie/AllMusic.com though these sites are less user-upload-friendly) since they make use of web 2.0 user-interaction to populate their databases. Validation comes from user-enthusiasm and the fact that collectors share information and cross-reference between themselves. I have entered my vinyl albums onto Discogs myself, alongside entering them into my CDpedia, that's more than 700 entries including 60 odd original contributions. I have received feedback and additions from fellow enthusiasts about those original entries which I find useful and vice versa. However, I cannot face the idea of entering my whole music collection to Discogs (another 2000+ CDs, hundreds of singles, etc). That data already exists in my CDpedia, if I could share it, with a few keyboard strokes, that would be great. I know these sorts of facilities exist (eg genealogy sites/software offer exporting Gedcom etc).
I apologize for any ignorance I may display, though not a technophobe, I'm not up on the technological issues, I'm into databases for the data, not the technology. I also apologize if this post has mutated into an other feature request rather than extending the discussion above.
Most people won't go to the lengths you do - and indeed, for most people, the major appeal of DVDpedia will be that the data fields can be so easily populated from data held at IMDb. So any shared data, as SJK comments elsewhere, is fairly pointless as it is already data that anyone can access easily. The attraction of DVDpedia for me, and I suspect for thousands of others, is that it gives me a sort of personalised and enhanced version of IMDb, relating only to the movies I am interested in or own, in a self-contained way, and hopefully, soon, on an iPad. Plus the fact that I can customise the data in various ways which I cannot do if, for example, I set up a movie collection on IMDb itself - eg when I last saw a movie, when and where I bought it, if it one of my 'favourites', etc, not to mention linking my preferred review sites directly to the movie.
