Alex again here with some Doghouse stats. The Doghouse, our new data repository for the Pedia programs, is growing nicely:
We are nearing the 100,000 mark for DVDs in our database. This is a great milestone.
We have more than 140,000 books already, awesome.
61,000 CDs, guess people don’t use those too much anymore.
But only 6,000 games. Where are the gamers out there, stuck playing the best solitaire app they can find on their phones? Or maybe there just aren’t that many games to begin with?
Here’s where it gets interesting:
Directors in our database: 23,000. Wow, that’s a lot of directors.
People in movie credits: about 360,000. Ouch! This includes actors as well as other jobs that usually appear in credits at the end of a movie.
Geeky fact: we have a table that associates the credits with the movies and this table has 1,612,713 entries in it. That’s over One Million and a Half (capitals awarded for such a big number).
There have been 500,000 contributions from users like you and 200,000 have been matched to entries already contributed. The search rate is looking quite good with 80% matching on DVDs. But we are looking at raising that number every day.
Ok, right now you’re asking yourself, why is he boring me with all these numbers and stats? Is there nothing better on YouTube? The reason is simple: all this is only possible thanks to your contributions. The people who have taken the time and effort to submit good data and the moderators who are painstakingly and lovingly checking and fixing entries. And, of course, the great efforts of the wonderful people here at Bruji *self-pat on the back* and maybe a dog biscuit.
Seriously though, without user contribution we wouldn’t have a database for us to all benefit from. But, as the old adage goes, “garbage in, garbage out”. The data is only as good as the entries that are submitted. So if you’re submitting to the Doghouse, please try to have as good and reliable data as possible, this will benefit us all and make the database grow faster since our moderators will have a bit less work and can concentrate on more productive activities like watching Monty Python videos.
And if you search and can’t find something, be sure to contribute to the Doghouse after you’ve added it to your database (preferably including the UPC at the back of the item).
Interesting search facts:
One of the most failed search terms was “Pirates of the carribean”, notice the misspelling, it should be “Caribbean“. Also “Real Steal” which should be “Steel”. So if the movie you are searching for is not there, check your spelling and try again. If you’re not sure of the spelling and don’t have IMDb handy, try different spellings or just one word “Pirates”, though this might produce too many hits, in which case, try a combination of the title and a main actor (remember to set the search window limit to “None”): “pirates johnny depp”. Or title and director: “pirates gore” (for Gore Verbinski). Above all, have fun, don’t get frustrated, it’s a database not a mind-reading app (yet).
Speaking of fun, want to watch a movie with Johnny Depp in it and not sure which one? Use DVDpedia to get all the Johnny Depp movies (set the limit to Credits) and sort the search by Release. You’ll discover a bunch of movies you probably didn’t know or forgot existed. Or you’re a fan of David Cronenberg (and who isn’t)? Same deal: limit to Director, search “David Cronenberg” and start watching from your favourite source (if available).
Right, I’m off to the dungeon, have fun with the Pedias.