@alexandrevryghem wrote:

Could it be possible to merge actors?

The issue that you describe in your example has nothing to do with merging actors! Instead, this issue is a result of adding persons incorrectly to tv seasons and/or episodes. Before I explain this to you par example, there are 2 general things in regards to this issue that you have to keep in mind:

1.) Currently, the editing system for and the display of episode numbers/characters for actresses/actors/crew on the TMDb website are both harmed by a few nasty bugs that makes everything more complicated for everyone. In short: it's a mess!

2.) Since there are several bugs at the moment, there is no "golden" solution to a given issue in this area at the moment -> which means solving any issue is by trial, error, and - after some time - experience.

You can find more general info about credit issues in the Contribution Bible here:

https://www.themoviedb.org/bible/people/59f747aa9251416e7100004a

For example Kevin Rahm has 40 episodes with no character name and 4 with character name.

Okay, this is a good example - let's fix this together, shall we? The first and most important thing for me is to always figure out how the person's credits were added to the data base in the past. Here's the TMDb person profile for Kevin Rahm:

https://www.themoviedb.org/person/97604-kevin-rahm

Currently, this page shows his credits for "Desperate Housewives" as follows:

2004     Desperate Housewives 
                (4 episodes) as Lee McDermott 
                (40 episodes)  

Now, the first thing I would do is to click on the links under "(4 episodes)" and "(40 episodes)":

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/episodes?credit_id=57edeeaa9251415ddb00046c&person_id=4bc8c895017a3c122d08db2d
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/episodes?credit_id=52572d2919c295731c05da1d&person_id=4bc8c895017a3c122d08db2d

Currently, the first page says "Episodes 4" at the top, but then lists 24 episodes - while the second page says "Episodes 40" at the top, but then lists 110 episodes. This is one of the bugs that I wrote about -> this bug often happens when an actress/actor was added as a regular for at least 1 season, but also as a guest star for at least a different season. Sometimes, contributors even add actors/actresses as a guest star when this person was already added as a regular for the respective season - which confuses the system even more (except for Travis, nobody can do anything against this bug at the moment).

Since I can't fully trust the display mode of these 2 pages/links above, I have to find a different way to solve the issue. In my opinion, the best solution in this case is most likely to find those 4 episodes in which Kevin Rahm was added with his character name "Lee McDermott" and change/fix those. The very good thing is -> it seems all those 4 listed episodes are in season 5! So, I would start at S5E1 here:

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/season/5/episode/1/edit?active_nav_item=guest_stars

then use my "right arrow key" on my computer keyboard to "surf" through season 5 until S5E24 here:

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/season/5/episode/24/edit?active_nav_item=guest_stars

while looking for those 4 episodes in which Kevin Rahm was credited as "Lee McDermott." It takes a while, but here they are:

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/season/5/episode/5/edit?active_nav_item=guest_stars
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/season/5/episode/6/edit?active_nav_item=guest_stars
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/season/5/episode/8/edit?active_nav_item=guest_stars
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/693-desperate-housewives/season/5/episode/10/edit?active_nav_item=guest_stars

So, now -> for each of these 4 episodes, you have to:

1.) delete/remove the line "Kevin Rahm - Lee McDermott" (click on the cross on the right side)

and

2.) add Kevin Rahm without (!!!) any character name (because that's what he's credited as for the other 40 episodes). Always important -> you have to add the person with exactly the same character name (in this case none)!

If you're lucky, and if you've done everything right, this will result in 44 episodes of Kevin Rahm added without a character name - it's "evened out," so to speak. Now, you can easily add the correct character name "Lee McDermott" to Kevin Rahm in any existing episode and it will change for all episodes at the same time!

If you're unlucky, it's one of the rare occurences of "ghost credits" with "(0 credits)." Years ago, it seems there was a problem with a merge procedure that affected certain person credits that are difficult to remove/delete. In some cases, contributors can fix those credits - in some cases, only moderators can do so. More explanation in the Contribution Bible.

Why don't you try it out? I fixed nothing for now and you can have a go at it!

PS: For a few days/weeks now I experience a short delay between my changes and the immediate display on the website. It's a bit annoying, but it usually updates within a minute or two.

I already did that for some other actors but it takes a lot of time and it changes the episode cast order so that's why I would like to make a feature request so that we can rename a character to the empty string even when he alrerady has been attributed the empty string character and that in the backend the credit_id are merged. (Or even beter when the error "This guest star already exists." is thrown that a new dialog box shows up when renaming any charachter that asks for confirmation to merge both characters)

@alexandrevryghem wrote:

so that's why I would like to make a feature request so that we can rename a character to the empty string even when he alrerady has been attributed the empty string character and that in the backend the credit_id are merged.

I misunderstood your post completely!

When you have a feature request, you should create a new thread in the section "Website Support" or "General" and you should use a title for the post that states: "Feature request: XYZ" - without linking it to a specific tv show. This way, other people are aware that this isn't a content issue report to a specific issue - but a more general suggestion from you. This would help immensely and reduce confusion.

and it changes the episode cast order

Back in March, it was pointed out to you that this is something Travis is aware of and is working on.

Also, in regards to persons/characters, Travis is apparently working on character pages and translations of person/character names:

https://trello.com/c/Zkd3Wu8K/51-create-character-pages
https://trello.com/c/qZSAok6d/90-support-translated-person-names
https://trello.com/c/n99Io25B/89-support-translated-character-names

When all these 3 things are implemented in the future, there will be a lot of changes of how to add persons/characters to tv episodes. I guess we have to wait until this happens - and then see of how this changes the way of renaming characters. Right now, I'm afraid there won't be any short-term fixes and you have to invest the time or leave it to other contributors to fix such issues.

I'm going to close this issue report - it's at the wrong place.