released-in-xxxx-on-usa Keywords?

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So I noticed somebody has been adding "released-in-xxxx-on-usa" keywords.  I have multiple questions regarding this.

First of all, is this really a necessary keyword since that information is already easily available?  Secondly, why is it "on usa" instead of "in usa"?  Finally, why do many titles have this keyword for multiple years?  For example, why does the 1999 film Black & White have *both* "released-in-1999-on-usa" and "released-in-2000-on-usa" as keywords?  As has been mentioned countless times before, there is already rampant Keyword abuse.  This just seems to encourage worthless clutter so somebody can get credited for enough submissions to make the Top 250.  Or am I being unfairly cynical?  Thanks for the assistance.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165643/keywords?ref_=tt_ql_stry_4
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Brett Erik Johnson

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Posted 1 year ago

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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Brett -

To clarify the keyword text "on usa" verses "in usa", this is actually referring to the 'USA network' (a popular television station in the US), so the keyword is implying that the titles were released on that television network, verses  released in the US. 

Concerning these keywords you reported, "Released In 2000 On Usa" and "Released In 1999 On Usa", we are accepting of these keywords as they are a useful way to link titles and promote title discovery, which serves the purpose of keywords (to allow visitors of the site to easily search and discover titles). 

I hope this helps clarify!
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Brett Erik Johnson

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The downfall of the IMDb keyword section is complete.  So now everybody can add "released-in-xxxx-on-tbs" and "released-in-xxxx-on-tnt" and "released-in-xxxx-on-hbo" and do that for every major network in the world *and* multiple years are allowed on the same title so if a film is shown on a network during 15 different years then it can have 15 keyword entries for that?  Sorry to be so snippy but that is beyond ridiculous!  Also, you have that keyword for years before the USA Network even existed.  What a joke...

Thanks for the clarification.
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Peter, Champion

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It would make more sense to make sure that the planned upgrade of the company search in the Advanced Title Search lets users search for which titles were released on which channels and when.
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Marco

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It would make more sense to make sure that the planned upgrade of the company search in the Advanced Title Search lets users search for which titles were released on which channels and when.
I second this completely.
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Vincent Fournols

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Count me in...
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moodri

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I "third" this completely (unless you count Vincent Fournois as "thirding" it, in which case, I "fourth" it).
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gromit82, Champion

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Michelle: I want to support what the other commenters in this thread have written. There are numerous problems with the "released-in-XXXX-on-usa" keywords.

From the way they are used, it does not appear that they are meant to refer to the USA cable network. Many of the films were still in theatrical release at the end of the years in question and thus would not have aired on cable television in that year. For example, The Godfather: Part III (1990) was released to theaters on December 25, 1990, yet it has the "released-in-1990-on-usa" keyword.

In fact, there is even a film with a "released-in-1968-on-usa" keyword, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). There are also "released-in-1971-on-usa" and "released-in-1973-on-usa" keywords attached to other films. But the USA Network didn't even exist under that name until 1980 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Network).

So it seems much more likely that whoever is adding these keywords meant that these films were released in the USA, the country, as opposed to the cable network, during the years in question. But doing so creates problems of its own.

1. Saying that the films were released "on-usa" is ungrammatical. The proper preposition to use in this context is "in", not "on".

2. Furthermore, these keywords are, or should be, redundant to the Release Date section of the database. Currently, it's only possible to do an Advanced Title Search based on a film's first release date anywhere. But if IMDb wants people to be able to search for films released in, say, the USA in 2018 (whether or not those films were released in other countries in an earlier year), it should be possible to program the software to do such a search. After all, every Release Date listed in the database has a country attached to it already.

In addition, if IMDb wants to enable searches by television distributors and years, then the proper way to do so would be to expand the capabilities of the Advanced Title Search for Distributors, since all distributor entries in the database have years attached to them.
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi All -

Thanks for all your comments. 

Following-up on our flexibility to allow keywords for television networks, ideally we would like to have better Advanced Search options, however, there are no planned updates on the roadmap for this feature and it's unlikely that these kinds of options will be prioritized.  In the meantime, until the Advanced Search feature has this capability using keywords in this way is the next best option;  I would encourage you to post a new Idea thread within the Get Satisfaction community to share your feedback about listing these keyword types.

Concerning the mention that these keywords are in fact referring to the country USA and not the Television network, this usage is against policy and we would not allow these to be listed on the site, as such our editors have now removed the two mentioned keywords ("released-in-1999-on-usa" and "released-in-2000-on-usa"), if you are aware of others on the site that are listed incorrectly in this way, please request the removal through the online Update form (if there are hundreds it's acceptable to report these to IMDb staff here to remove manually). 

I hope this helps clarify!
(Edited)
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gromit82, Champion

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Michelle: I found the keywords in question by searching keywords for "released-in": https://www.imdb.com/find?ref_=nv_sr_fn&q=released-in&s=kw

Here are the problematic keywords from the list generated that way:

released-in-2000-on-usa (870 titles)

released-in-2001-on-usa (445 titles)

released-in-1999-on-usa (438 titles)

released-in-2002-on-usa (131 titles)

released-in-2006-on-usa (70 titles)

released-in-2003-on-usa (67 titles)

released-in-2005-on-usa (62 titles)

released-in-2004-on-usa (59 titles)

released-in-1998-on-usa (56 titles)

released-in-2007-on-usa (41 titles)

released-in-1997-on-usa (40 titles)

released-in-1996-on-usa (38 titles)

released-in-1995-on-usa (35 titles)

released-in-1993-on-usa (32 titles)

released-in-1994-on-usa (30 titles)

released-in-1990-on-usa (28 titles)

released-in-1992-on-usa (19 titles)

released-in-1989-on-usa (17 titles)

released-in-1991-on-usa (17 titles)

released-in-2009-on-usa (15 titles)

released-in-2008-on-usa (13 titles)

released-in-1988-on-usa (10 titles)

released-in-1981-on-usa (5 titles)

released-in-1984-on-usa (4 titles)

released-in-1973-on-usa (2 titles)

released-in-1985-on-usa (2 titles)

released-in-1971-on-usa (1 title)

released-in-1968-on-usa (1 title)

Even after the "released-in-1999-on-usa" and "released-in-2000-on-usa" keywords are removed, the other keywords still amount to 1,240 titles. So I am requesting that the staff handle these removals.
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi gromit82 -

Thanks for reporting these additional keywords, they have now all been removed and the changes should be reflected on the site shortly. Cheers!
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Marco

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Thanks for getting these keywords removed Michelle!
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