How to store meta-data on columns

Question

Let\'s say you\'re collecting insider info on upcoming superhero movie releases and your main Movie table looks something like this:

Table 1

Answer 1

My response may seem a bit too philosophical for SO. Bear with me.

I think that the "Source" column isn't subject matter data, but rather meta-data. It's really data about how we come to know some other bit of data. That makes it data about data, and that's meta-data.

Among the reasons why EAV causes the problems that it does is the fact that it intermixes data and metadata in a single row. There are times when I've deliberately done that myself, as an intermediate step towards a result I want to acheive. But I've tried never to intermix data and metadata in my deliverables.

I know why I never did that, but I can't explain it concisely.