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For the old discussion about the development of this template, see this page

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This is a template to generate links to Internet Movie Database. This template should be used exclusively for PEOPLE.

If you need to link a movie, use Template:imdb title instead.

Contents 1 Instructions 1.1 Example 2 Talk 2.1 Piped link? 2.2 New Category 2.3 Format 2.3.1 imdb logo 2.4 Logo 2.5 name attribute 2.6 Interwiki 2.7 Format change with Imdb logo 2.8 Proposal for new template layout 2.9 Fun little external link icon 2.10 Add icon 2.11 Links & formatting 2.12 class="plainlinks" 2.13 name = Name 2.14 IMDb Icon

[edit] Instructions

1. Go to imdb.com and search for the person you want
2. Click on the correct link to go to the person's page. Be sure you're getting the right person
3. The page URL should look like http://www.imdb.com/name/nm#######, where "#######" indicates a number.
4. Copy ONLY that number (be sure to remove the "nm" and to keep all the zeros)
5. Add to the external links section the text:

{{imdb name|id=#######|name=Name}}

where "#######" is the number you've copied, and "Name" is the person's name

[edit] Example

1. Searching for "Jack Nicholson", you'll reach this page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000197/
2. Copy "0000197" and then write:

{{imdb name|id=0000197|name=Jack Nicholson}}

The result is Jack Nicholson at the Internet Movie Database

Note that, since this will almost certainly go on the external link section, you should add a * before the template text to include it as a list item.

If you still have any doubts or questions about the use of the template, go to my talk page — Kieff | Talk 03:45, Sep 13, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Talk

Add any discussion about this template here, as a new section.

[edit] Piped link?

Acording to Thorpe, the IMDb article is located at The Internet Movie Database, not the Internet Movie Database [1]. The other IMDb template, {{imdb title}}, links to The Internet Movie Database. Shouldn't {{imdb name}} have the piped link removed to maintain consistency? ♫ Bitch and Complain Sooner ♫ 14:50, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

There's a mirror-image discussion of this at Template talk:Imdb title#Linked text. Per the comment there, unpiping the link on this template is probably the best way to make them consistent. —Whouk (talk) 08:10, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Depiped. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 08:25, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Category

This needs to go into Category:Film templates. Lady Aleena 22:05, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Format

I want to alter the template to include a link to IMDb. I propose:

[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm{{{id}}} entry on ''{{{name}}}''] at the [[Internet Movie Database]]

producing something like

• Entry on Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Internet Movie Database

I propose a similar alteration to Template:imdb title. Any objections?--Phil | Talk 11:46, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)

I like it. --Ponder 12:56, 2004 Sep 21 (UTC)

Well, I too thought that when I first proposed this template, but Nunh-huh said something important [2]: "it would be better if it were all formatted as an external link instead of an internal link to Wikipedia's IMDB article and an external link. We don't really want 100s of articles pointing to our Internet Movie Database". And he's right. Would be wrong to directly connect all movie and actor pages to our IMDb article, because the what links here page would be overloaded.

But, there's a solution for that. We could create a redirect page to IMDb on an article Internet Movie Database references, and then we link to this page on the template. This way, all links to IMDb with the template would be under the same redirect page, and that way it'd be easier to differ from these template links to normal ones. What you think? — Kieff | Talk 03:20, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] imdb logo

Image:Imdb mini logo.gif Image:Imdb mini logo.gif

Well I thought it was a good idea, some editors changed it a bit. However, I dont believe it was a resource hog, considering it was only 537 bytes, and several of the stubs have images. Oh well. Who 18:23, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Logo

Seeing as there was never any consensus that the logo should be removed (it was removed by one editor) I have reverted back to the version with the logo. Any opinions on this matter are welcome, but please do not remove the logo until a consensus is reached. Nick Catalano (Talk) 23:34, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Unfortunately it is a resource hog and I agree with that editor. This has been in discussion for quite some time. See here for links to reasons and discussions why. K1Bond007 03:02, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

The link you gave does not provide reasons or disucssions. Please explain why this image should not be present? Mperry 22:36, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Because it implies that Wikipedia is endorsing IMDB. Rhobite 01:51, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

How does the image imply that but the link does not? Mperry 03:18, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] name attribute

I propose we replace the {{{name}}} attribute with {{PAGENAME}} this proposal also includes changing Template:Tvtome person.

See full proposal.

<>Who?¿? 22:04, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Interwiki

When the meta:interwiki map gets updated, we can change the link to [[imdbname:{{{id}}}|{{{name}}}]]. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 07:32, 2005 August 27 (UTC)

ex: Jack Nicholson Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 02:23, 2005 August 28 (UTC)

I disapprove of the use of an interwiki link. It means you don't get an external link icon. This is confusing. Unless there's some way to get an external link icon, this should just use an external URL. I see no "abstraction" merit in using an interwiki link here - this template itself provides a central point to control the URL format. --KJBracey 17:25, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't see a problem with that – after all, it is in the "External links" section, does have a (slightly) different colour than the rest of the text, and the text does say what the link is. People aren't as stupid as one might think, you know… ;-) Jon Harald Søby \ ^{no na} 15:11, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

It's not that people won't figure out what's going on, it's just that a lack of consistency lowers the perceived quality. (And are they different colours? I'd never noticed). There is a clear convention on Wikipedia for external links to have an icon, and as such a link without an icon will be initially assumed to be an internal one. As a casual Wikipedia user, I was puzzled for quite a few days as for what the strange significance of the lack of icon was, until I figured out that it was just an implementation side-effect.

Also, the icon is made more important by the fact that the template contains two links - one external and one internal. They should be vividly distinguished - it's not enough to say "it is in the External links section"; the other one isn't an external link!

My primary objection is that some sort of perceived behind-the-scenes "neatness" - ie using interwiki - should be ranked a lot less important than the user-visible presentation. If there's an easy way to use the interwiki and have the icon, then I'd be all for it, but if we have to make a choice – presentation is much more important. Maybe this discussion should be referred up to Wikipedia:Interwiki, where the use of interwiki as a general external link "template" is discussed. --KJBracey 16:00, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Format change with Imdb logo

• The template has been changed by User:SuperDude115. I have reverted the edit because I would like some discussion before such a radical change.
  

The proposed change switches from a text format to a table format and would require editing of most of the pages using the template, which I think is a pain. Hektor 21:02, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proposal for new template layout

What do you think of that, should you give that a try? --SuperDude 01:54, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

I oppose. IMDb is popular, but not very accurate. I created the template for IMDb because it has an extensive information on various movies, so it is useful, but I don't give IMDb that much credit to make a special "box" like this to it. It's just... well, too special. IMDb is just another site, you see, so a basic external link is all we really need. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 02:03, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

"Popular, but not very accurate"? Much like Wikipedia then :) Sounds like an ideal partner... But yes, I agree, I see no call to have any sort of special box, particularly one on every single film/actor page. It's just another reference source, and doesn't deserve anything more than a link in "External links". Indeed, for most articles, it will be one of the less informative links, below fan sites, official sites, etc. IMDb does get recognition enough to have a link to their Wikipedia entry on every link. --KJBracey 09:02, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

I oppose only because I think that the existing list item link is sufficient and fits well into the external link sections. The box does not fit well. — Mperry 16:50, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

With all due respect, IMDb's accuracy is much greater than Wikipedia's. That said, I also oppose because I think it looks a bit silly and would throw off some entries all throughout Wikipedia where the simple template has been used within dialogue.

[edit] Fun little external link icon

If you have a browser that shows the external link icon () then you can set any IMDb links to show its own icon ()

Check out m:Help:User style for more info on CSS selectors.

Edit your "User:{your login}/monobook.css" (replace {your login} with your username) and add:

#bodyContent a[href *="imdb.com/"],
#bodyContent a[href *="imdb.co.uk/"] {
        background: url(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/IMDb_external.png) center right no-repeat;
        padding-right: 13px;
}

Once you save the page, you may need to hold Shift and click Reload.

Please see help on m:Help:User style

Do you see it here on this plain link?
or on this interwiki link?

[edit] Add icon

For visibility the following icon can be added:


as is done in the Dutch version of this template. This would result in the following:

• {{{name}}} at the Internet Movie Database

Ilse@ 14:26, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Links & formatting

I want to put template:Imdb disambig on the template:imdb pages, inside the noinclude, so people can find what they need without having to dig into the talk pages. Any objection? —wwoods 02:05, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] class="plainlinks"

This is conceptually wrong, as I've stated about Template:Imdb title. Unless there's been some change to the style guides I've missed, external links need an icon. Doubly so if it's on the same line as an internal link. I don't know why these templates are now locked, but someone please change them back. --KJBracey 12:52, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree, it must indicate it's an external link. Furthermore, it disrupts anyone who has set a custom icon for links to imdb. Lastly, it wasn't discussed, nor changed two other imdb templates. —Fitch 20:39, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

See my responses on the Talk page for Imdb title. I also downgraded the protection on that Template to Semi-protection. Ëvilphoenix ^Burn! 01:51, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Why don't you downgrade protection here, too? —Fitch 14:18, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Done. I would have yesterday, but I got confused looking at the protect tab and saw that it was unprotected, but I was looking at the Talk page and not the Template itself. Duh. Ëvilphoenix ^Burn! 16:34, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

No problem. Sorry I sounded so confrontational, I should be more kind —Fitch 22:10, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] name = Name

What does that add ? It seems fine without it. -- Beardo 14:06, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

It was necessary before the MediaWiki code allowed for IF conditionalss. It is still useful in case you have a page title like "Name (actor)". You'd use the name parameter in order to strip the "(actor)" from the IMDb link. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 01:52, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. So it's not necessary every time - just when we want to refer to someone by a name different to the article title. -- Beardo 02:16, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] IMDb Icon

I think it'd look quite neat to have a little imdb icon next to the text. Like this:

John Doe at the Internet Movie Database

Does anyone have any objections to this? Lincalinca 14:29, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

• Sounds good. ehudshapira 01:33, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• I don't think it's needed. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 01:53, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
• Please, no. We've been through this before - read the talk pages for IMDb and title. KJBracey 15:04, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Can you point to the exact location? All I found was "it's only used to generate link". I don't see the harm, it's a small decoration that makes IMDb links easier to identify in a glance. ehudshapira 00:04, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

• I think it opens the door to have little icon decorations all over the place, which I think would be bad. If you would like to be able to identify IMDb links at a glance, I highly recommend the CSS alteration described at Wikipedia:IMDb#IMDb external link icon or just a few discussions above on this page. —Fitch 21:01, 1 November 2006 (UTC)