Where do I know that actor from?

Like much of today’s internet, we take IMDb.com for granted. In December 2022, it was the 57th most popular website in the world, attracting 583.1 million visits from people seeking answers from the site’s database of nearly 1 million TV shows and movies.

🤔 But where did all of that information come from? It wasn’t just always… online. And studios don’t exactly provide massive spreadsheets titled “all_the_stuff.xls.”

Instead, IMDb, which launched in 1993, aka six years before Google and eight before Wikipedia, was one of the internet’s earliest and enduring efforts of crowdsourcing. To date, 100% of IMDb’s information has been collected and added by its users.

Though it isn’t exactly an egalitarian enterprise. Of IMDb’s 84 million total users, only a small percentage of “supercontributors” supply most of the data. For example, last year’s top ten users supplied 23 million pieces of data, or 5% of the total info on the site.

🎥 So, who are these people?... Wired Magazine recently profiled a few top contributors:

• Joe Wawrzyniak: The all-time leader in written biographies (over 3,000), Wawrzyniak focuses on early film stunt actors, niche horror writers, and dog actors.
• Les Adams: After digitizing his vast collection of 1930-1960s film sales brochures, Adams added 890,000 pieces of information, including almost 7,000 plot summaries.
• Ines Papa: The most prolific contributor of all time with 22 million additions, Papa is an enigma in the IMDb world; no one knows who he/she is, but many suspect foul play (automation).