Puzzle in creating a new person

Morning_Star wrote:
This is one of those things that the more I think about, the more I think it may not be a big deal... but I'm still concerned enough to ask since I can't find it ever having come up here before.
Simply put: there are three episodes of War of the Worlds that have writers credited under pseudonyms. So the question is, is it appropriate to add them? I can't image why not, but again, I have to ask. And what about the gender? The names are gender specific, but it seems kind of pointless to bother. Is the gender option something I can leave blank in this case?
Again, this may be too much put into something that has an embarrassingly solution, but it is an anomaly and I'd feel better having someone give me the go-ahead.

Do you know the real names from those writers ? If so you could add them as an aka ?

cheers
Juan

I assume you mean add the aliases as AKAs? In whih case you add... the writer's real name to the episode page, and the alias on their person page.

The problem is that wouldn't identify them as an AKA on the episode pages.

I'd agree that the aliases should be separate people, no.

Gadfly wrote:
I assume you mean add the aliases as AKAs? In whih case you add... the writer's real name to the episode page, and the alias on their person page.
The problem is that wouldn't identify them as an AKA on the episode pages.
I'd agree that the aliases should be separate people, no.

Yeh, I would add the akas to the writers real names :)

In theory, if someone came along and said, "Hey, why isn't Cordwainer Bird listed as the writer, who is this Harlan Ellison guy that is here?" they'd enter Cordwainer Bird and Harlan Ellison would come up, and they'd make the connection.

That assumes that someone has attached Cordwainer Bird as an AKA for Ellison (I just did it). And the new contributor figures out that Bird is a pseudonym for Ellison. If not, the person trying to "correct" the entry would create a new person called Cordwainer Bird. Hopefully someone would come along later, realize they should be the same entry, and merge them.

I think I agree. If it's common knowledge who's behind a pseudonym, it makes sense to add it as an AKA to the person's regular entry, and link the credits to the same regular entry.

You know, I thought to include bit of info, but thought, "I'm going into too much detail again and will bore them" so I omitted it because I have a habit of assuming everyone is on the same page as I am. Proof I'm an idiot.

So, yeah, bollocks to the AKA idea because the identifies of the writers of those three scripts is unknown. I honestly can't even be sure it's three different people. I have a friend who was in good contact with the show's creative consultant - practically a showrunner - and even he never knew. So it's almost certain that an ID will never become public.

Morning_Star wrote:
You know, I thought to include bit of info, but thought, "I'm going into too much detail again and will bore them" so I omitted it because I have a habit of assuming everyone is on the same page as I am. Proof I'm an idiot.
So, yeah, bollocks to the AKA idea because the identifies of the writers of those three scripts is unknown. I honestly can't even be sure it's three different people. I have a friend who was in good contact with the show's creative consultant - practically a showrunner - and even he never knew. So it's almost certain that an ID will never become public.

oh. thats a bummer, if we do not know who is actually behind the "false" names, then it is hard to decide what to do.

cheers
Juan

I find it weird that this is a subject that's never come up. Those scripts were written during the WGA strike, so it's a wonder there weren't more cases. Then again, the names attributed to those scripts were obvious pen-names (based on the two main characters from 1953 film on which the show was based), so maybe they're the only ones that got noticed.

Anyway, I hope to get a resolution to this issue soon. I don't think it's a big deal to add them since that's the credits provided, but again, I have to ask.

Morning_Star wrote:
I find it weird that this is a subject that's never come up. Those scripts were written during the WGA strike, so it's a wonder there weren't more cases. Then again, the names attributed to those scripts were obvious pen-names (based on the two main characters from 1953 film on which the show was based), so maybe they're the only ones that got noticed.
Anyway, I hope to get a resolution to this issue soon. I don't think it's a big deal to add them since that's the credits provided, but again, I have to ask.

Well, if no one knows who is behind those "akas", then the only solution in my opinion is to go with the on screen credits and add them.

cheers
Juan

Yep, if it's not at all known who was behind those pseudonyms, the only thing we can do is add those names as separate person. In their biographies, you could mention the background story of the WGA strike :)

So I shall. I had some minor stuff to clarify, but putting info about they being pen-names should keep some confusion from stirring in the future.