Discussion started here: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=513696#Comment1195610

Main kinds of contents:
- fiction, which includes movies & series. Can be animated or not, TV or not.
- non-fiction: documentary & "tv-shows" for things like top gear, reality shows, etc.
- music videos

I know that "TV show" is a bad name (it is a literal translation from French), but TV special is not better, it seems even less explicit to me... And something like that Alan Pardrige special should rather be somewhere with the series and TV movies than with the non-fiction stuff.
The main question is how to name that non-fiction not-documentary category, we'll see later where to put the case of a special fiction show.

Right, so your main intention is to seperate fiction and non-fiction?

So TV Special isn't specific enough? Well, the only thing I can think of is having the categories "TV Special: Fiction" and "TV Special: Non-fiction".

Personally I think it would be simpler not to worry about this and just group Top Gear, reality TV etc. under TV Series. If you're not sure whether something is fictional or not, just go to IMDB or ask the contributor.

Even though the terms "TV Show" and "TV Series" are mostly interchangeable in many parts of the world (I don't have a better name idea), antp has spelled out the intent for these two categories so many times in comments and in the forum that it shouldn't still be an issue.
(I would say an explanation of TV Show/Series should probably be added to the "Add a Movie" page)

For the Patridge special, TV Movie seems good enough to me.

It won't always be a perfect fit, but I don't think there are enough of these types of TV or Video releases to warrant a new category.

My two cents

TV Show is still not a good name.

The rules of what is accepted is very different between the usual fiction productions and the non-fiction ones (documentaries & "tv shows").
Also, the latter one is more a "case-by-case" decision of what is accepted or not: it is the limit of what we accept on the site, so I like to keep these separated. We made the error of including them at first, now by keeping them in separate categories it allows to filter a little more what we accept or not.

Maybe "talk/reality shows" ? Though that it does not seem to fit so well for stuff from that category...
http://www.imcdb.org/movies.php?titleMatch=1&title=&yearMatch=0&year=&movieType=- 9

Most straightforward thing I can think of is just to say it's Non-fiction - "Non-Fiction TV Series" or just "Non-Fiction TV".

I noticed someone listed the sitcom McHale's Navy as a TV Show (I've changed it to TV series) - see how some people have found this category name misleading.

^^ I like that idea, "Non-Fiction TV"

It fits for talk shows, reality shows, TV documentaries/news, and shows like Top Gear or Mythbusters.

Indeed, unless someone comes with a better name, I think it will fit well.

And what would we list something like that Alan Partridge program as? (which is a TV special and fiction)

By the way, last night I went through the list of TV series and changed some to "TV Show" (reality TV, documentary shows etc.). I've probably missed some, I just skimmed over the 21 page list and picked out ones that I recognised or could tell weren't fiction.

Why not "mini series", even if there is no "episodes" ? As it is for short things series-like but with less episodes.

Because it just doesn't make sense when there's no more than 1 episode. I can tell you don't want to bother making a category for TV Special so perhaps TV movie is the best compromise.

+1 for a Direct to Video category, which imdb also has - simply as "V".

I'm not sure about subdividing TV in too many categories. Why Non-Fiction TV when there's a documentary category? Top Gear is fine as "TV-Series" IMO, and talk shows and reality are not allowed anyway.

Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2227372/ is listed as "TV" which is perfectly sufficient. You could just change "TV Show" to "TV".

But for the few that are on the site, we should have a distinct category
And there is not only Top Gear: we have several car shows like that.



As I said, I do not see the point of having one more category for rare cases like that: there is not real interest of having these listed separately.
Same for direct-to-video: can't these be considered as real movies? The production of these is not so different...

I was just talking about a category for things like the Clarkson DVDs, I'd still keep the direct-to-video movies listed as movies.

Better late than never, I renamed "TV Show" to "Non-fiction TV".
For the French version I kept "Show TV" as (to me) in French it describes well that category.

Noticed these two programs got grouped in this category when they aren't non-fiction, but they still aren't a series:

http://www.imcdb.org/movie_138972-K-9-and-Company.html (pilot episode for a series that never got picked up)
http://www.imcdb.org/movie_252066-Triple-Scotch-and-Wry.html (listed as "video" on IMDB)

Oh well, instead of getting antp to create even more categories, I'll change K9 & Company to "Short Movie" (it must be about 30 mins or so) and with Triple Scotch and Wry, I looked it up and I can't tell whether it's a compilation video of sketches from the Scotch and Wry TV series and or a special video release with new material. This page http://www.allcelticmusic.com/music/62c92a84-f870-102a-8020-000f1f67beb1/Triple_Scotch_%26_Wry.html says it's 90 mins. For now I'll list it as "Movie Made for TV" (although it's direct-to-video)