[HN Gopher] The case of fake IMDB credits
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       The case of fake IMDB credits
        
       Author : HelenePhisher
       Score  : 320 points
       Date   : 2022-08-07 15:08 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (peabee.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (peabee.substack.com)
        
       | squeebie23 wrote:
       | I find it interesting that nowhere in the article did the author
       | write the name of the actor / musician he's referring to, it's
       | only highlighted in pictures. Maybe trying not to add to this
       | guy's SEO?
        
       | miyuru wrote:
       | The fake musician thing mentioned in the article is also used to
       | get verified accounts in Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well.
        
       | technothrasher wrote:
       | I looked my own name up on IMDB and found that I had starred in a
       | soft-core gay porn movie. I was intrigued, but somewhat
       | disappointed that I didn't remember any of it. Also disappointed
       | that it seems to have been the start and end of my illustrious
       | film career.
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | There could be others with the same name as you?
        
           | technothrasher wrote:
           | By Jove, Watson, I think you've cracked the case!
        
       | xaxaxb wrote:
       | I stopped IMDBing long ago and switched to Metacritic, which is
       | what I currently trust for anything entertainment-related.
        
       | russfink wrote:
       | More likely is that this guy used a service. Or, he could start a
       | service. Or he is the service, and this profile is his calling
       | card.
        
       | entropie wrote:
       | Maybe part of a scam, like Geo Slam who pretends to be a top
       | notch Hollywood producer which lots of connections to get money
       | (and vacations, and...)
       | 
       | Strg+f, german investigative journalists, made a nice story about
       | that case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KV8i2Q1TXU (german,
       | should have english subtiltes)
        
       | Cupertino95014 wrote:
       | Wait. You're saying I can make myself an actor in a major motion
       | picture? Hold my beer.
        
       | squarefoot wrote:
       | IMDB lost all my respect many years ago when they made clear with
       | their actions that they support fake reviews. When the problem
       | started to grow beyond the occasional vandalism, they still had a
       | very effective discussion section in which users soon began to
       | expose fake reviews. Their response? Of course remove the
       | discussion section! IMDB today has some use for their database
       | only; but they lost any credibility on everything else.
        
         | tailspin2019 wrote:
         | Yes their ratings used to be quite useful but it's the clear
         | that people have been gaming the system for quite some time
         | now.
         | 
         | I'm amazed to have just found out that they're owned by Amazon
         | (from other comments here). I can't believe I never realised
         | that.
         | 
         | I guess that the increasingly meaningless ratings and reviews
         | should have been a massive clue...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | MichaelCollins wrote:
         | Comment sections on many websites across the net got scrapped
         | around the same time. Ostensibly because some people use them
         | to say nasty things, but really I think it's about keeping the
         | masses consuming rather than creating. The corporations prefer
         | that creation of content and narratives be restricted to an
         | elite few, while the masses dutifully consume. At the end of
         | the day it's about protecting their bottom line.
        
           | dvt wrote:
           | > I think it's about keeping the masses consuming rather than
           | creating.
           | 
           | Not really sure I see this. Twitter, TikTok, Instagram,
           | YouTube, etc. base their entire _business model_ on the
           | masses creating content. Sure there 's a Pareto distribution
           | when it comes to creators vs consumers, but the platforms
           | certainly make money from (and encourage) both.
        
             | misnome wrote:
             | Right, it seems much more likely that if it isn't your
             | primary business model, it's just not worth the hassle?
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | rapind wrote:
           | > I think it's about keeping the masses consuming rather than
           | creating.
           | 
           | No, it's about moderation cost and preventing discussions
           | that can hurt their brand or partners or customers. Also SEO
           | spam whackamole.
        
             | nostromo wrote:
             | For prominent news sites, controlling the narrative was a
             | big motivation in removing comments.
             | 
             | Many journalists were open about how they didn't like how
             | comments would question the data or conclusions in their
             | articles. There were too many heckling comments from the
             | peanut gallery so they closed it entirely.
        
               | johannes1234321 wrote:
               | For controlling the narratives comments would be great:
               | rank agreeing comments up to show that many people share
               | the view.
               | 
               | However the reality is that moderating comments is a
               | pain. Too many people writing the most crazy stuff. It
               | doesn't take many "passionate" commentors to ruin a
               | section. One has to simply browse through Facebook
               | comments on any popular topic.
        
           | sizzle wrote:
           | Someone should build a dead simple extension that adds
           | comments back to every website.
        
       | bragr wrote:
       | There's a reason wikipedia classifies IMDB as an unreliable
       | source. Apparently Michael Madsen has a real problem with people
       | adding him to films in production in an effort to get financing.
       | 
       | https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-Michael-Madsen-Hates-IMD...
        
         | leephillips wrote:
         | That's hilarious. Wikipedia classifies IMDB as unreliable
         | because...anyone can edit its pages.
        
           | theamk wrote:
           | ..without public edit history, active moderators and useful
           | watch tools.
        
           | judge2020 wrote:
           | Wikipedia allows anyone to audit edits and raise issues if
           | things are fishy. IMDb allows edits but the history is only
           | visible to admins.
        
             | Eleison23 wrote:
             | IMDb is crowdsourced and accepts user data submissions.
             | https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/contribution-
             | info...
             | 
             | External users are not part of it. It's a "curated" model.
             | IMDb clearly stakes their reputation on accuracy and
             | comprehensive coverage. IMDb's TOS ensures that you
             | relinquish all copyright claims and grant them an exclusive
             | license to your content. IMDb won't cite their sources nor
             | attribute contributors. They own and control everything on
             | the site. Their rates for abuse and misinformation are
             | unpublished. IMDb is an opaque, black box.
             | 
             | Wikipedia has a similar model for protecting articles known
             | as "Pending Changes". Anyone can submit an edit to the
             | article, but the revisions and new data is held back from
             | the "front page" publication until approved by someone with
             | the proper user rights. Almost anyone in good standing can
             | obtain those rights, and it's 100% transparent. Every edit
             | is reviewable by anyone with Internet access, every edit is
             | attributed and licensed under CC-BY-SA. The servers,
             | editors, and bots track and tag vandalism and other forms
             | of abuse with public records. Verifiability is mandatory.
        
           | jwilk wrote:
           | Wikipedia is not considered reliable either:
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Wikipe.
           | ..
           | 
           | > _Content from a Wikipedia article is not considered
           | reliable unless it is backed up by citing reliable sources.
           | Confirm that these sources support the content, then use them
           | directly._
           | 
           | But, unlike IMDB, it's (supposed to be) verifiable.
        
             | chx wrote:
             | Except you can use obscure dead tree books as sources and
             | no one will take the effort to check whether the book
             | indeed says so. Use a book obscure enough -- especially in
             | a non-English language -- and it becomes almost impossible
             | to execute said check.
        
               | johannes1234321 wrote:
               | It depend so. The amount of trust I want to give. By
               | citing an obscure book I can judge the fact "hm, that
               | book sounds obscure, why isn't there some other source?"
               | and then decide how much weight I give to it.
               | 
               | And if I don't have the book at hand I can identify the
               | person who added the citation and can see what other
               | edits they did to judge their domain knowledge.
        
               | chx wrote:
               | No one does this. And Wikipedia myths spread to other
               | media until it's hard to pinpoint where it started.
        
               | stordoff wrote:
               | Sometimes referred to as citogenesis: https://en.wikipedi
               | a.org/wiki/Circular_reporting#Circular_re...
               | 
               | There is a list of known incidents: https://en.wikipedia.
               | org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_citogenesis_...
        
             | throwawayaug8 wrote:
             | According to Wikipedia Elon Musk is the founder of Tesla.
             | That's how reliable Wikipedia is
        
               | pvorb wrote:
               | Where did you read that? I highly doubt that such a
               | change will get approved.
        
               | marak830 wrote:
               | "The company was incorporated as Tesla Motors, Inc. on
               | July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc
               | Tarpenning.[13]"
               | 
               | No, it doesn't.
        
             | nostromo wrote:
             | IMDB is just as verifiable as Wikipedia.
             | 
             | It cites its sources. In fact, all it is a list of
             | citations.
        
             | _trampeltier wrote:
             | A bit of topic. Does anyone know, why the english Wikipedia
             | site about the JFK movie does not talk about what was
             | fiction, what was true in the movie and what is unknow? On
             | the german page about the movie, they have a lot about it.
             | 
             | I understand there are differences in languages. But in
             | this case, in english, the most important information is
             | missing. So it's just a movie, all fiction?!?
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFK_(film)
        
         | starik36 wrote:
         | I was an extra in an indie film because a friend asked me to
         | help out. Lo and behold - I now have an IMDB page - presumably
         | the film producer added me.
         | 
         | Fast forward a year and now there are 5 films credited to my
         | name. I had nothing to do with 4 of them. I am unclear how and
         | why this is happening.
        
       | 7speter wrote:
       | I remember imdb being meticulous in its record keeping ~15 years
       | ago/before it got bought by Amazon (though its quality held up
       | for at least a few years after). I remember looking up details
       | for kinda obscure movies and talent, and my mind being blown when
       | info for either was listed. Now, it takes years to see the
       | filmography of a given actor from a streaming show.
        
         | politelemon wrote:
         | Side note, I'd really appreciate if you could close off your
         | opening (. I don't know where to stop reading with a lower
         | volume in my head.
        
           | 7speter wrote:
           | Thanks for pointing that out. I do it from time to time and
           | always try to catch myself but didnt this time.
        
           | whutsurnaym wrote:
           | Now you've added another one!!
        
             | jffry wrote:
             | ))
        
               | jwilk wrote:
               | https://xkcd.com/859/
        
               | drexlspivey wrote:
               | IndentationError: Unexpected indent
        
         | MichaelCollins wrote:
         | > _~15 years ago /before it got bought by Amazon_
         | 
         | They were bought by Amazon 24 years ago now, in 1998.
        
           | 7speter wrote:
           | Guess thats the Mandela Effect in action :). It was a lot
           | better for a time until maybe 2010 and went downhill.
        
       | UIUC_06 wrote:
       | Poor boys from India game a system that was set up by Rich Tech
       | Bros in Silicon Valley to fund their "family foundations" and
       | 20-room houses in Atherton?
       | 
       | I don't call it Outrage; I call it "Slumdog Millionaire: Part II"
        
         | robocat wrote:
         | I hate it when people create a false narrative to back up their
         | prejudices.
         | 
         | The beginnings of IMDB started in 1990 as personal files, soon
         | moved to Usenet with a few people managing different
         | information, then first on the WWW hosted by Cardiff University
         | in 1993, and the company was then incorporated in the UK in
         | 1996, and sold to Amazon in 1998.
         | 
         | https://www.theatreartlife.com/lifestyle/history-of-an-indis...
        
           | UIUC_06 wrote:
        
         | OnlyMortal wrote:
         | IMDB originated in Bristol in the UK. It was, so I'm told,
         | started by an ex-HP staffer from the HP site in Bristol, UK and
         | originally written in Perl.
         | 
         | Unfortunately, it was absorbed into Amazon.
         | 
         | Source: ex-HP staffer in Bristol.
        
           | cobbaut wrote:
           | IMDB originated on usenet. Someone mentioned a hot actress,
           | another person made a top three of actresses... a bit later
           | is was a top 100, and that is how IMDB started. Source: my
           | memory :)
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | You're using "Slumdog Millionaire" in the same context that
         | Indians here despise the movie for. Using it as a pretext for
         | focusing on the poverty in India as almost a fetishized poking
         | from the West (ironically by the British)
        
           | UIUC_06 wrote:
           | I haven't actually been to India, but I'm reliably informed
           | that there IS some poverty there. Is that incorrect?
        
             | svat wrote:
             | As someone wrote:[1]
             | 
             | > _Let's say I made a movie about the US where an African-
             | American boy born in the hood, has his mother sell him to a
             | pedophile pop icon, after which he gets molested by a
             | priest from his church, following which he gets tied up to
             | the back of a truck and dragged on the road by KKK
             | clansmen. Then he is arrested and sodomized by a policeman
             | with a rod, after which he is attacked by a gang of illegal
             | immigrants, and then uses these life experiences to win
             | "Beauty and The Geek"._
             | 
             | > _Even though each of these incidents have actually
             | happened in the United States of America, I would be
             | accused of spinning a fantastic yarn that has no grounding
             | in reality, that has no connection to the "American
             | experience" and my motivations would be questioned, no
             | matter how cinematically spectacular I made my movie._
             | 
             | [1]: https://greatbong.net/2008/12/29/slumdog-millionaire-
             | the-rev...
        
               | UIUC_06 wrote:
               | It would probably be a flop in India, but I'm not the
               | best person to judge that.
               | 
               | I think depictions of the US in overseas movies are
               | pretty much as silly as that, though. Everything takes
               | place in very rich or very poor parts of NYC or LA.
               | 
               | As for "I would probably be accused" -- maybe in India.
               | In the US it wouldn't even rate a review.
        
             | jlg23 wrote:
             | No, that is not incorrect; but there also is much more.
        
               | UIUC_06 wrote:
        
         | RC_ITR wrote:
         | IMDb was founded in Cardiff England.
        
           | helsinkiandrew wrote:
           | There's a thousand Welshman looking for your blood now.
           | Cardiff is in Wales.
           | 
           | Initially was called the Cardiff Internet Movie Database (it
           | was hosted at the university of Cardiff)
        
             | wyldfire wrote:
             | For the majority of my youth, I had assumed that England,
             | Great Britain and the United Kingdom were all aliases for
             | the same place. Thankfully I never had occasion to reveal
             | this error to UK folks who might be alienated by it.
        
             | yesenadam wrote:
             | Not only _in_ Wales but is the capital. (source: am Welsh)
        
             | RC_ITR wrote:
             | I mean hot take, but the whole "United Kingdom" concept is
             | sort of pointless.
             | 
             | Either confirm to international norms, or accept that no
             | one outside your borders cares.
             | 
             | There's a reason why the only major organization that
             | respects the distinction is the governing body of the
             | national sport.
        
               | UIUC_06 wrote:
               | Not being from the UK:
               | 
               | It's not really pointless. Scotland is way different from
               | England, and I haven't been to Wales but I think that is,
               | too.
               | 
               | As for Northern Ireland: I don't even need to cover that
               | one.
        
         | briandear wrote:
         | Except it's lying. Slumdog actually had the talent.
        
         | superjan wrote:
         | Where is the outrage you are referring to?
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | mkl95 wrote:
       | IMDB created a Top Rated Indian Movies section to mitigate spam
       | [1]. However some obscure Indian movies make it every now and
       | then into the regular Top 250 list.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.imdb.com/india/top-rated-indian-movies/
        
       | nickphx wrote:
       | What do you get for doing that though?
        
         | shmde wrote:
         | The person doing it gets money and the person taking the
         | service gets fake verified clout.(could lead to future gigs,
         | shows)
        
         | edent wrote:
         | "Don't you know who I am? Google me!"
         | 
         | Works equally well in job interviews, dates, and getting in to
         | clubs.
        
           | drexlspivey wrote:
           | I just put "2006 Times Person of the Year" on my resume
        
       | goldcd wrote:
       | I think Subhankar has a good future ahead of him writing copy and
       | press releases for startups.
        
       | TedShiller wrote:
       | You can see the same effect on Quora
        
       | sharmin123 wrote:
        
       | wenbin wrote:
       | This kind of happens in the podcast world as well.
       | 
       | Many people/companies create fake podcasts and submit to all
       | podcast directories / apps. The main purpose is to do blackhat
       | SEO - links in the rss feed will be syndicated to podcast
       | directory sites / apps.
       | 
       | In fact, any "directory of something" sites will be gamed if user
       | created contents are allowed, e.g., directory of movies /
       | podcasts / local businesses / books...
        
       | xwdv wrote:
       | Will a knowledge panel on google help you get verified on various
       | social networks? Or does anyone here have connection$ for getting
       | verified on social networks?
        
       | dav_Oz wrote:
       | I remember the imdb-ratings on movies from India were also
       | absurdly high, I brushed it off as a cultural thing back then;
       | but unfortunately [0] the rigging seems to be norm on imdb across
       | the board (not limited to India).
       | 
       | [0]https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/the-
       | kashmir...
        
         | rurban wrote:
         | Indian fake ratings are a big thing, but from my own experience
         | collecting good ratings, I can attest that keeping fakes out if
         | the system is a big effort, and it cannot be done manually. I
         | implemented a complicated but fair statistical system to keep
         | fake ratings out from my site. But I'm only doing the top 3
         | film festivals, not all the crap. The manual blacklist is still
         | huge.
         | 
         | In the west the biggest offender is A24 btw.
         | 
         | And to be fair to the Indian movies: The top Indian movies are
         | usually better than the best western movies. But we didn't have
         | top Indian movies for almost over a decade now.
        
         | yes_no wrote:
        
           | hackernewds wrote:
           | This seems like one of the widest tangents to an unrelated
           | (even if important) topic I've seen on HN :)
        
             | hef19898 wrote:
             | Hoenstly, the recent trend of specifically created accoubts
             | posting shit like that under everything even just remotely
             | India related is troublesome. Especially since it either to
             | paint any, slight criticism as being anti-Hinu and anti-
             | Modi or to paint Indians as victims of cololianism (true,
             | but no excuse to do whatever you want and usually used
             | totally out of cont!xt) or those evil Muslims (using the
             | same made up shit Islamophobs in the West use). HN is no
             | place to spread propagabda of any kind, would be nice to
             | keep it that way.
        
           | guesswho_ wrote:
        
         | humaniania wrote:
         | After Amazon bought IMDB it became more about advertising for
         | movies and less about being a database. Same thing as when
         | Warner Bros and Universal Studios (via its parent Comcast)
         | bought RottenTomatoes. Now everything brags about it's RT
         | rating when it's coming from 2 movie studios...
        
           | 411111111111111 wrote:
           | RT at least still has viewer ratings. You predictably can't
           | sort by them but it's at least an indicator if the reviewer
           | and viewer score are on completely different heights.
           | 
           | And you've got trakt.tv now too, not sure if anyone owns that
        
           | cobbaut wrote:
           | > After Amazon bought IMDB it became more about advertising
           | for movies and less about being a database.
           | 
           | Yes, but several years later, since Amazon bought IMDB back
           | in 1998!
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | >less about being a database
           | 
           | I do really like the "X-ray" feature in Amazon Prime, which I
           | assume is partially powered by IMDB. I miss it when using
           | other services like HBOMax, Netflix, etc.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | nick9847 wrote:
       | Is the Apu trilogy good for real?
        
         | AlbertCory wrote:
         | I'm very proud to say we did show that in the Google Cinema
         | Club, and in fact we had a professor from UCSC who specializes
         | in Ray films come and show it and answer questions. He knew Ray
         | personally.
        
         | mrwh wrote:
         | It's been many years since I last saw it, but I remember the
         | first film in particular as being wonderful, yes. Hopeful and
         | sad and luminously shot.
        
         | abruzzi wrote:
         | yes, but 'Distant Thunder' is my favorite from the same
         | director.
        
         | js2 wrote:
         | https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-apu-trilo...
        
         | leephillips wrote:
         | It's a classic series of Bengali films, widely adored.
        
       | jwilk wrote:
       | > the edits are not reviewed effectively either
       | 
       | But when I tried to fix typo in the cast list of a movie, my
       | submission was rejected:
       | 
       | > _Your contribution has been declined. We have been unable to
       | verify your contribution. Unfortunately we were unable to accept
       | your submission as we were unable to verify the information
       | provided._
        
       | tyingq wrote:
       | I wonder how many people have successfully bootstrapped acting
       | gigs this way. Perhaps not the guy in the example, as his various
       | poorly written bios expose him. But surely there are people that
       | are better at this game.
        
         | netsharc wrote:
         | Why even bother with getting an acting gig where they'll figure
         | out you can't even act? Just fake the fame (is it fake if
         | Google says it's real?), and get free meals, etc (hah, I guess
         | Instagram was the platform for this a while ago).
         | 
         | There are people like the fake heiress Anna Sorokin who faked
         | being wealthy, who's even getting movie deals after being
         | caught, but never admitting to being wrong (this statement not
         | checked for accuracy, I just noticed an interview where she
         | seems to be claiming it's all been a misunderstanding). The
         | world's a funny place.
         | 
         | A Formula 1 racer got his career started when he got himself a
         | lift with 2 bosses of 2 different teams - each of them thought
         | he was friends with the other guy. He talked his way into a
         | driving job, but of course, once there, he had to show he could
         | race.
        
         | cubancigar11 wrote:
         | Seo is a fair play and I don't see why we are so quick to blame
         | young people. It is Google that should be blamed for making
         | themselves more important than they deserve to be.
        
           | Mo3 wrote:
           | This is not SEO, it's fraud and deception.
        
             | NoSorryCannot wrote:
             | A lot of what is labeled and sold as "SEO" might as well be
             | diet fraud. Plagiarism, false advertising, astroturfing,
             | etc. It certainly isn't just letting the Google bot know
             | what your website is about.
        
               | tyingq wrote:
               | I agree, though I think it's fair play to try and do
               | things that the Google algorithm likes...but are not
               | directly related to quality.
               | 
               | Say somewhere in the bowels of their ML pipelines,
               | features that get scored include things like _" has a
               | favicon.ico and it's unique and not seen elsewhere"_.
               | Well, then doing that isn't really fraud to me. It's just
               | adding "proxies for quality" so you aren't dinged for not
               | having them.
        
             | cubancigar11 wrote:
             | Ummm, this is SEO? Because it is a hack from google's algo?
             | This is exactly my problem with the "hackers" here and the
             | article's author - conflating the action with content. He
             | finds an unscroupolous usage of that hack and generalizes
             | without any effort that all of it is fraud.
             | 
             | It is not okay to glide over the 'young people' part and
             | generally not being empathetic to those trying to beat the
             | market. If it is fraud, which is a crime, are you
             | suggesting these people should be sent to jail? Because if
             | not then you shouldn't use the that word. Words have
             | meaning.
        
               | theamk wrote:
               | I would love to have a way to punish people for
               | submitting knownlingly bad information to publicly
               | editable databases like IMDB (note I don't care about
               | Google, it is IMDB that should be protected)
               | 
               | Jail is too much, but it woukd be nice to have a fine of
               | some sort, because "poisining the well" for everyone is
               | really not cool.
               | 
               | (in practice any such system would be abused a lot, so we
               | are probably better off with status quo.. but in the
               | ideal world we'd punish those people)
        
               | cubancigar11 wrote:
               | Right. We can achieve heaven if we just punish every sin.
               | Not trusting almighty Google's algorithm is just too much
               | sacrifice the good people are making.
               | 
               | Promoting publicly editable database as authoritative is
               | high bar we must achieve at the cost of just banning
               | juvenile behavior.
        
           | josephcsible wrote:
           | Making up lies about yourself to make yourself look better
           | than you really are is "fair play"?
        
       | nslzk wrote:
       | I'll never get tired of saying that we need two separate
       | internets, one for the west and another for the east.
        
         | gameshot911 wrote:
         | That's an intriguing idea... I'd be interested if you care to
         | expand upon it!
        
           | nslzk wrote:
           | Well that's the gist of it... make it so easterns can't
           | access western websites and other internet services and vice
           | versa.
        
             | jimnotgym wrote:
             | What outcome did you have in mind?
        
       | joostshao wrote:
       | it harmful for indian film growth, evently. it is also happen in
       | china, with real account to post a high score to bad movie,
       | somebody can get money from this event.
       | 
       | create fake data by fake account or sub account, someone even
       | have no watch the movie in theater, just post low score, it make
       | people angry
        
       | croes wrote:
       | Reminds of this "Man fools security to backstage at a Peking Duk
       | gig by changing the band's Wikipedia page to describe himself as
       | a family member"
       | 
       | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3345074/Man-fools-s...
        
         | walrus01 wrote:
         | Now imagine where he could get to if he had a high-vis vest and
         | a clipboard
        
           | Strom wrote:
           | A great strategy but has its limits. Just a few weeks ago
           | some guys tried a rather good version of this strategy in
           | Estonia to sneak into a Rammstein concert. Not only did they
           | have high-vis vests, but one of them also had high-vis pants,
           | both of them had working gloves and they were carrying a
           | ladder. [1]
           | 
           | It didn't work out though, they didn't get past security. I
           | think one of the major flaws in their attempt was that they
           | arrived too late, thousands of regular people were already on
           | the premises. They should have come early in the morning.
           | 
           | --
           | 
           | [1] https://f7.pmo.ee/Rur-
           | qzbdJAu0h_EKSRoidSHPFsg=/1536x0/nginx/...
        
         | andrewfromx wrote:
         | Changing a wikipedia article to get past Security is literally
         | an episode of Mr. Robot Season 1.
         | https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/62560-mr-robot
        
         | Eleison23 wrote:
        
         | chrisseaton wrote:
         | Is 'to backstage' a verb?
        
           | wyldfire wrote:
           | You should read this like "man fools { security-to-the-
           | backstage }" not "man fools { security } in order to
           | _backstage_ ".
        
             | chrisseaton wrote:
             | But in British English 'security to backstage' would
             | usually be 'security for backstage' or 'backstage
             | security'.
        
               | wyldfire wrote:
               | I think that US English writers/readers would also find
               | the latter the most common term for that noun phrase. I
               | think the most likely explanation is that the
               | writer+editor(s) did not choose the words well to
               | describe the situation.
        
               | mpclark wrote:
               | This is a headline, not British English ;)
        
           | fsckboy wrote:
           | in English it's relatively common to verbify. If you figure
           | out a reliable way to get backstage, you can thereafter
           | backstage whenever you want.
        
           | pigtailgirl wrote:
           | -- Well you're from Cheshire - and that's the DailyMail - so
           | you tell us! =) --
        
           | aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
           | security to backstage = the security personnel protecting the
           | entry to the backstage area
        
       | waspight wrote:
       | I have always wondered about the ratings. It seems to me that all
       | movies below 6 is trash. Has this always been this way? One would
       | imagine that a 5 star rating would be ok since it is right
       | between 0 (bad) and 10 (great). I guess some kind of inflation in
       | the ratings is going on, but how is such things prevented in
       | these kinds of ratings over time? Is it even possible to prevent?
        
         | duckmysick wrote:
         | L'equipe, a French sports newspaper, sticks to the traditional
         | interpretation of the 1-10 scale when rating players'
         | performances. In football (soccer), they rate all players on
         | both teams who played enough minutes, so there's at least 22
         | ratings per match - 5/10 being average and 10/10 being truly
         | exceptional.
         | 
         | Since the late 80s they have given only a dozen or so perfect
         | 10/10 ratings. Almost half of them was given in the past five
         | years, so I guess inflation creeps up everywhere.
        
           | zaik wrote:
           | Maybe today's football players are simply performing better
           | than players from the 80s?
        
         | ScottEvtuch wrote:
         | I think the false assumption you are making is that the
         | "average" movie is good. There are a lot of trash movies out
         | there.
        
         | dhosek wrote:
         | I tend to view 1-10 ratings differently than 1-5. 1-5 is more
         | like (American) letter grades where 3 stars equals a C and is
         | average. On a 1-10 rating, it's more like percentages so 9-10
         | is an A, 8-9 a B, 7-8 a C, 6-7 a D and less than 6 an F. I've
         | seen elsewhere that at least one aggregator does similar to
         | convert between 1-10 scales and 5-star scales so I think that
         | this is a common unspoken assumption of the relation between
         | the two scales.
        
       | radiojasper wrote:
       | "Besides being an Actor, he tried his luck in acting and
       | singing."
       | 
       | I thought I was cross-eyed for a second, but it really says
       | exactly that. [0]
       | 
       | [0] reupload as substack URLS are daunting to say the least:
       | https://jasper.monster/sharex/Ygg0w8VuhP.jpg
        
       | personjerry wrote:
       | Anyone know how to replicate this to get a knowledge panel for
       | startup-building clout? Asking for a friend
        
       | usremane wrote:
       | Man creates internet.
       | 
       | Internet helps man.
       | 
       | Man creates spam.
       | 
       | Spam destroys internet.
       | 
       | Spam destroys man.
       | 
       | Spam rules the world.
        
       | HelipadSweeper wrote:
        
       | ndriiu- wrote:
        
       | ndriiu- wrote:
        
       | bredren wrote:
       | > In a world where your online clout is everything...
       | 
       | It's a long arc, but I think we are bending away from this.
       | 
       | It's harder than ever to convincingly be a competitive content
       | creator.
       | 
       | Going from largely Insta photos -> tiktok forced non-linear video
       | editing / performance on fast trend cycles.
        
       | chevman wrote:
       | Happens everyday all day in BigCo land!
       | 
       | You think those execs really did all those things they said they
       | did?
        
         | groffee wrote:
         | "Single-handedly managed the successful upgrade and deployment
         | of new environmental illumination system with zero cost
         | overruns and zero safety incidents."
        
           | cromulent wrote:
           | Light-bulb changing embellishments, and also outright lying
           | about their qualifications.
           | 
           | https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/management/telstra-
           | shou...
        
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