Basics
- Accuracy - ensure that information is correct. This doesn't mean you need to double-check whether the sound is really Dolby Digital for every entry. But if someone uploaded The Incredibles and the director is listed as "Steve Jobs", fix it.
- Completeness - add information where it's lacking. If an entry doesn't have a cast or only a few fields filled, update it as much as possible using one of the search sites (for movies, IMDb is usually a good bet).
- Proper Rating - in order to avoid complications with Apple down the road (in the App Store), we are not accepting X rated movies in the Doghouse. Any porn you find in the database, delete it. DVDpedia should automatically keep movies rated "XXX" from being uploaded but of course if the rating isn't set then entries might slip through. (This doesn't mean we're censoring DVDpedia - the IAFD plug-in will continue to work as usual.)
- Language - Doghouse entries are separated by language. You should only see entries in your language but if an entry slips through, you can correct its language setting in the 'Locale Language' column. If you do not know what language the entry is in, leave it for another moderator to take care of. You can find a full list of language codes here (use the 639-1 column).
- Copyright - if you see a summary or other information that's copyrighted, please replace it.
- UPC/EAN/ISBN - these are very important for searches using a scanner or webcam so make sure entries have the appropriate digits.
Style
- To avoid duplicates, we're proposing a certain style for titles. Anything that could be considered a subtitle should be separated by a colon (:) like this: "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy".
- In certain cases, a dash is also acceptable as in: "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" or "Babylon 5: The Wheel of Fire - Season 5".
- Articles should always appear at the beginning of the title as in: "The Mummy"; never "Mummy, The"
- Names should never appear in ALL CAPS. Please change "JOHN GRISHAM" into "John Grisham".
Images
- Images should be rectangular, i.e. no DVDs sticking out on the side.
- Make sure the language on the cover matches the language of the entry.
- The ideal cover image size is between 300px and 600px wide. 800px is the maximum width Doghouse will accept. Wider images will be stored but downsized to 800px width when requested in a search.
- Since these images are mainly for screen display and not printing, a dpi of 72 is sufficient for now.
- For Blu-Ray and HD DVD entries, matching cover images are prefered. For the regular DVD entry it can be either the movie poster or DVD cover.
Sample workflow for a moderator
- Go into the 'Doghouse: New' collection and let the 50 entries load (it's easier to work when the collection isn't loading in the background).
- Check each entry for errors or missing information. Editing an entry (adding or deleting information from it) will automatically mark the entry as approved. If you can tell from looking at the entry in the details view that everything is correct, use the 'Approve Selection' command under the Doghouse menu. Please note: using the 'Approve Selection' command will automatically remove the entry from the collection while editing it will not. However in both cases the entry has been marked as 'approved by you'.
- If you are unsure about information in an entry and don't know how to update it, don't mark it as approved and leave it for the next moderator to take care of.
- When you go into a different collection and then return to the 'Doghouse: New' collection, it will automatically update itself to display 50 new entries waiting for approval.
- Because we want to make sure that no entry slips through the cracks, the 'Doghouse: Approve' collection displays entries that have already been moderated once. However it will only show you entries that you haven't moderated before; it's a double-check.
For DVDpedia, entries are matched on title, director and media so there could be four different entries for one movie, in one language: the VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and HD DVD version.
For Bookpedia, entries are matched on ISBN so make sure all entries have one. If no ISBN is given, the match falls to title and author.
For CDpedia, entries are matched on title and artist. For Gamepedia, entries are matched on title and platform.
