Should episodes under actor be ordered by name or date, perhaps?

@MAT13 wrote:
I dunno if this is a bug, but looking at this page...

https://www.tvmaze.com/people/308781/astrid-deinhard

...episodes listed are ordered neither alphabetically nor by their release date. They are rather mixed which is pretty confusing. Shouldn't there be some order to it at least?

They are also not ordered by the date they were added to the database either. Not sure how that randomness is determined.

Personally, having them ordered by the date they aired would make most sense, imho. But any order would be better than this :D

There is actually an order.... Look at the years the shows premiered.

edit. And well,your example doesn¨t help, :P Those are several different types of credits, mostly for Specials instead of regular episodes.

edit: Crazy amount of specials for that show, btw......

What do you mean my example doesn't help? Look at the list below... it is not ordered by title nor date. I am talking about ordered episodes under the show, not about ordering shows. Episodes don't seem to be ordered in any way. Or I am missing how they are ordered.

Episode S03 Special: Reading Comments: War Stories We Didn't Get to Tell (Apr 13, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Out of the Foxholes 022: Taiwan Under Occupation, Axis Solidarity, and U-Boats in the Mediterranean (Apr 22, 2021)

Episode S04 Special: Spies & Ties 08: Pumping Hitler with Female Hormones?! - Crazy Plots of the Early CIA (Sep 8, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 07: Spycraft and the Special Operations Executive (Aug 12, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 06: The Abwehr: The Trojan Horse in Nazi Germany (Jul 20, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 05: Poland's Forgotten Spy War against the Nazis (Jul 6, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 04: The Red Orchestra - The Nazi-Soviet Spy Dance (Jun 30, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 03: Sam & Erwin Part 2 - Do the Nazis Have Atomic Bombs? (Jun 8, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 02: The Greatest Spy Story Almost Never Told (May 4, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: The Royals at War (Apr 27, 2021)

Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 01: Sunny Beaches, Fascist Leaders, and Nazi Spies (Mar 17, 2021)

This could be because of specials, in which case it needs to be fixed, look at this role for example...

https://www.tvmaze.com/characters/126635/only-fools-and-horses-rodney-trotter

...you can see that episodes where that character appears are listed like this...

Episode 1x04: The Second Time Around (Sep 29, 1981)

Episode 1x05: A Slow Bus to Chingford (Oct 6, 1981)

Episode S01 Special: Christmas Crackers (Dec 28, 1981)

Episode 1x06: The Russians Are Coming (Oct 13, 1981)

Episode 2x01: The Long Legs of the Law (Oct 21, 1982)

Episode 2x02: Ashes to Ashes (Oct 28, 1982)

...notice that S01 Special is added between 1x05 and 1x06 even though it's release date is after 1x06. So how is this ordered?

There is some bug in regard to ordering specials, perhaps.

Right, this code was never updated to account for significant specials. Will look into it, thanks for the report.

Okay. Thanks David.

Should be fixed! All looks good now, right?

@david wrote:
Should be fixed! All looks good now, right?

Nope. Nothing's changed.

Look at this link... https://www.tvmaze.com/characters/126635/only-fools-and-horses-rodney-trotter

Episode 1x04: The Second Time Around (Sep 29, 1981)
Episode 1x05: A Slow Bus to Chingford (Oct 6, 1981)
Episode S01 Special: Christmas Crackers (Dec 28, 1981)
Episode 1x06: The Russians Are Coming (Oct 13, 1981)
Episode 2x01: The Long Legs of the Law (Oct 21, 1982)

Special 01 should come between season 1 and 2, not between 1x05 and 1x06. I tried hard-refreshing in case it was cache problem, but it doesn't appear to be.

Right, I only fixed the sorting on the person page, not on the character page. Updated!

@david wrote:
Right, I only fixed the sorting on the person page, not on the character page. Updated!

Right, you fixed it on character page now, but you haven't fixed it on the person page either.

Look at this... https://www.tvmaze.com/people/308781/astrid-deinhard

Episode S03 Special: Reading Comments: War Stories We Didn't Get to Tell (Apr 13, 2021)
Episode S04 Special: Spies & Ties 08: Pumping Hitler with Female Hormones?! - Crazy Plots of the Early CIA (Sep 8, 2021)
Episode S03 Special: Spies & Ties 07: Spycraft and the Special Operations Executive (Aug 12, 2021)

You can see that these aren't ordered by date either.

Looks like specials do get sorted when you compare them to regular episodes, but they don't get compared to other specials and hence don't get sorted.

@david 

Here's another strange thing I just noticed on a person page... https://www.tvmaze.com/people/61309/alexander-folk

Notice that he is credited in various episodes of "Murder, She Wrote" as different characters. But those are also listed randomly and not in chronological order.

Look below, you can see below appearances are neither listed by episode airing date, nor by character name alphabetically, nor by role type (guest or co-star), nor by season/episode number. Basically, no order of any kind :) Not sure if this is something that happened due to recent update or if it existed before I just didn't pay attention to it.

Perhaps they are sorted by the date they were added to the database.

Murder, She Wrote (1984)
Guest starring as Cook
- Episode 2x14: Keep the Home Fries Burning (Jan 19, 1986) [Co-Star]
Guest starring as Painter
- Episode 8x01: Bite the Big Apple (Sep 15, 1991)
Guest starring as Hargrove
- Episode 3x14: Murder in a Minor Key (Feb 8, 1987) [Co-Star]
Guest starring as Delivery Man
- Episode 5x09: Something Borrowed, Someone Blue (Jan 8, 1989) [Co-Star]