General information
What is omdb?
omdb (open media database) is a free database for everything to do with the medium of film. There is no fixed editorial team behind omdb, but a large number of voluntary film enthusiasts who provide and maintain the content. Anyone can add or edit information on omdb, even without prior registration. Film is understood in its entirety. The blockbuster has its place in omdb just like the sitcom, the Documentary or the university graduation film.
Who owns omdb?
omdb is a non-commercial project and is not owned by any company or person, but by the general public. All content on the site is published under both the Creative Commons License and the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyright). The database thus represents a contribution to free knowledge on the Internet. omdb consciously distinguishes itself from commercial providers of similar information and would like to provide film data independently and objectively.
omdb was developed by a group of web developers, journalists and film freaks from Berlin. The rights to the name, the servers and the omdb domains belong to Benjamin Krause, one of the developers of the platform. A suitable legal form for the operation of omdb is currently being discussed, the formation of an association is likely.
How is omdb financed?
omdb.org was a private initiative and is still financed exclusively privately. The running costs currently only include the rental of the servers. Since the project was founded in December 2005, omdb has always pursued the goal of creating a platform for free knowledge on the Internet. Therefore, advertising banners or commercial interests are completely avoided. Of course, omdb is also happy about donations, more about this under Support.
Who is responsible for the content of omdb?
All articles and also the basic data for the movies are written or entered jointly by all users of the omdb. omdb is therefore a joint effort by many people. Each article can be written, improved and supplemented by anyone (you can also change and supplement the entries in omdb – more information on this under Help:BecomeAuthor). So there is no fixed editorial team that enters the information. Anyone can and may change everything without asking questions.
Individual information can be locked by special users. In omdb jargon we speak of “freezing”. This information can no longer be changed afterwards. The aim is to mark certain relations as checked and unequivocally correct. You too can be part of this editorial team that checks and freezes information. Join the discussions on the mailing list Content-en.
How can I contact omdb?
All ways to reach the omdb team can be found under Contact.
Can I use the omdb-data?
Provided that the license terms are observed, omdb data can be used. See also Help:DataDownload
Participate
As a beginner, where is the best place to ask questions?
The easiest way is to ask your questions in the Forum, you can find more contact options under Contact.
How can I participate?
It’s great that you’re interested in working on omdb! You can start straight away! (A registration would be ideal, see Help:BecomeAuthor, but you can also do without.) It is up to you where you want to get involved. Many users first search for their favorite movies. Is your favorite movie not yet in omdb? Then you should definitely put it on! Simply click on the orange button at the top left. You can find more information on adding a movie under Help:AddNewMovie. If the movie already exists, you can help to expand the omdb page about the movie, e.g. by entering all the actors, checking and expanding the plot keywords, expanding the article about the movie, etc. More information at Help:EditArticle .
Why should I join omdb?
omdb is a free movie database and not a company. All data in omdb are placed under free licenses, i.e. they can be freely used by anyone at any time. In order to be able to build up such a freely accessible and freely usable database, omdb, like Wikipedia, is dependent on a film-interested community that is involved in building and maintaining the database. The project lives from your commitment and your interest!
What are the advantages of a registration?
With the free registration you create a permanent user account at omdb. This is not absolutely necessary – you can use a large number of functions without registering – but registration has a number of advantages. This gives you your own user page where you can introduce yourself and link your favorite movies. You get the option to upload photos to omdb. You can vote on categories and keywords. In addition, your user name is displayed in the version history of the omdb instead of your IP address, other users can contact you more easily and ask questions. A hierarchy of user rights for unregistered and registered users can be found at Help:UserRights. To register, click REGISTER in the top menu bar.
Do I have to use my real name when registering?
No. You are free to choose a username. However, names of institutions, companies or prominent persons are not permitted. You can provide your real name in a dedicated field during registration, but it is not mandatory. In any case, you must provide a current email address at which we can reach you.
How can I change my username?
To change your username, please send an email to info@omdb.org.
Add new movies
How can I add a new movie?
To add a new movie to omdb, you should first use the search function (top left) to check whether the movie has already been entered into the database. If this is not the case, you can use the orange button at the top left to “Add new movie”. You’ll see: it’s very simple. First enter the title of the movie. Please make sure that you enter the original title of the movie, you can add the title in your language later. If the title is similar to titles already available in omdb, these will be listed briefly. A query will ask you to confirm that the movie to be added is not in this list. Then you get to an empty movie page that you can fill step by step. You can find help for the individual steps under Help:AddNewMovie.
How can I enter a new series in omdb?
Same procedure as when adding a new movie (see the question above). When you get to the blank movie page, you can edit the movie data on the right. Then simply select “Series” under film type! To learn how to add individual seasons or episodes to a series, see Help:EditMovieSeries.
What is a movie series?
A movie series is a group of movies produced together (e.g. Star Wars) or movies that are perceived by the public to belong together (e.g. James Bond movies). These are often sequels that were produced due to the great success of the first part and manage with the same or similar character repertoire. A movie series is created like a movie in omdb and then the movie type “Movie series” is assigned under “Edit movie data”. Individual movies can then be assigned to this movie series. How this works is explained under Help:EditMovieSeries (lower part!).
Edit articles
How do I create a new article?
Does the subject of your article already have its own omdb page? Then simply click on the “Edit article” button on this page and start writing in the wiki editor. At the end click on “Save changes” and the article will be created. See Help:NewArticle for tips on the different types of articles in omdb, and Help:ArticleGeneral for general tips on well-written articles.
You can only write about films, people, companies, etc. that have already been added to the database! If, for example, your favorite actor is not yet in the database, his o her name must first be added to a movie (possibly a new one to be created), see Help:EnterCastFirstTime. Only then does the person get his or her own page in omdb. The same applies to articles about companies, genres, keywords, etc.
How can I change an article?
All short descriptions/abstracts (the bold text at the beginning of each omdb page) and all articles in omdb can be edited at any time. To change a short description, simply click on the small button below “Edit short description”. For well-written abstracts, see Help:Abstract. To make changes to an article, click on the button under the article “Edit article”. You will then be taken to the wiki editor where you can change the text. See Help:NewArticle for tips on the different types of articles on omdb, and Help:ArticleGeneral for general tips on well-written articles. By the way, older article versions are saved and can be viewed in the version history of each page.
How do I create links to other omdb pages in an article?
You should link to other omdb sites whenever you mention in an article another movie, actor, production company, genre, etc. that already exists in omdb. If you want to link to other omdb pages in the text, you can simply use the third button from the right on the wiki editor’s toolbar. The button is labeled “Link to another omdb page”, you get to the wiki editor by clicking on “Edit article”. A search dialog will then open in which you can search separately for movies, characters, people, production companies or categories (genres, keywords, etc.). Once you have found the relevant entry, click on it in the list. Further information is then displayed on the right. If it is the correct entry, click on the “Insert” button and then close the dialog. There is then a link in the text, which is only displayed within the wiki editor as code in square brackets. If you save the changes to this article and thus return to the normal display of the page, this code will be displayed as a link. You can find more information on setting links, also to pages external to omdb, under Help:FormatLinks.
How and when do I delete an article?
If part of an article needs to be deleted, you can click on the “Edit article” button and simply delete the corresponding text passages in the wiki editor. Please be very careful when deleting text, especially if the text is not your own. If an article is of poor quality, it should not be deleted, but rather improved. If the text is good but appears in the wrong place (e.g. an actress’ resume within a movie she starred in), please copy it to the correct place (the omdb page about that actress) and then delete the passage from the movie page. If an article infringes copyright (for example, if a user has copied extensively from a book or website), it should be deleted. In this case you should also send an email to info@omdb.org. If you are not sure whether an article should be deleted, write an email to info@omdb.org then we can discuss it together. In any case: When deleting texts, please be sure to give a detailed explanation for the deletion in the “Summary” line!
Your question was not answered?
If your question hasn’t been answered, please check the Help first. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there either, you can also send your question to info@omdb.org.