I searched the forum and didn't find anything relevant (IMO) so here is my suggestion.

I'd like to request some "cleaning up" in the associate name section. As of today, the associate name section covers
1) the original name as it appears on the cover of the manga,
2) alternate spellings of the romanization (the difference between 'ou' and 'oh' in Japanese romanization for example, but also romanization of English words such as 'Rabu' and 'Love'),
3) alternate translations of the title (such as A of B and B's A or 'the' vs. 'a', punctuation or not, etc.)
4) alternate titles in the different languages the manga has been licensed into.

Meaning, for some manga, the associate name section grow out of proportion.

So, would it be possible to make a separate entry for the original title? This should take only one line, if we stick to the original title as it appears on the book cover, whether it's kanji, kana or romaji, and its original punctuation (with the exception maybe of "unconventional punctuation" such as heart, diamonds, star, etc.).

And maybe also a separate entry for alternate titles in different languages, unless your policy is keep only American licence titles. In that case I'd like to suggest to write what *exactly* you expect as associate names in the 'edit entry' page so that people don't add up other languages' titles.


On the side note, this had already been addressed, but I'd like to +1 suggestions for alternate authors name as well. Especially for mangaka that have a different doujinka name, or mangaka that have different name depending of which demographic their manga is meant to (YUMEKA Sumomo/SAHARA Mizu, TSUDA Mikiyo/ZAOU Taishi, etc) or mangaka who have changed pen name at some point (UIDA Shiuko/KANO Shiuko...).
And there is also the issue of the different spelling of the same name (TOUJOU/TOHJOH,etc.), which is especially relevant when it comes to Korean mahwaga, since Korean language doesn't have a fixed romanization for proper names.

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Been there, read that

A volunteer worker?

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Far-off places with sweet sounding names.

If there were to be a new entry I suppose people would fill it up eventually.
I already clean up/add missing entries to pages when I know what's missing (or when I know where to search the answer) on the manga pages I read or might read, that is manhwa and yaoi.
I'm probably not the only one, I've seen pretty neat shojo pages and I'm sure there is some neat freak boys who clean up shonen pages.

Well, if it's too much work, at least more precise instructions of what is expected in the associate name.

"Associated Names
These are names this series *could* possibly be called when people add releases. Separate entries by newline"

This is a bit broad, isn't it?
Title in foreign languages or not?
With the language into brackets or not?
What about titles with ascii signs (hearts, stars and such)? Who is making searches including those?

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Been there, read that

We left it broad on purpose

You realize the search will go through if within the search you don't include any weird characters (but the title of the series does have weird characters)?

The different titles is mainly used for searching through the database, since some people know a series by a different name (take Fruits Basket or Hana Kimi). Even for all the different English translations, remember that some series (usually doujinshi or oneshots) are done by multiple groups, and they translate the title differently. So technically speaking, the more names, the better (as long as they are correct).

Series titles are also linked to the forum via bbcode with the [m][/m] tag, so having common spellings of titles is a good thing.

With that said, I've always wanted to divide the names in different languages somehow, but it's not exactly on the top of our priority list

As for a standardized main title, there is none. It wouldn't be fair for some series to implement one, as depending on the series history, the Japanese name may be more common or perhaps the officially accepted English translation.

And I'm confused by this:


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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Maybe if MU was to adopt specific way to represent romaji titles? Ie ō vs oh vs oo vs ou. They are all valid, but sticking to one as official MU would be the best, just decide which. Personally, I would avoid officially accepted English translation as it sometimes misses the mark.

Let's just try to be wikipedia and "each" do our share on the cleaning. Has worked pretty fine until now, I think.

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Far-off places with sweet sounding names.

Take Detective Conan for example:
Associated Names
名探偵コナン
명탐정 코난
Case Closed
Mästerdetektiven Conan
Meitantei Conan
Mesterdetektiven Conan
Salapoliisi Conan
Thám Tử Lừng Danh Conan

Should we leave it as it is, or add (Japanese), (Korean), (English) and so on?
I often edit those when I know another title for the series, but I'm never sure I'm doing it right. For example, I think I'm the one who added the Korean title for Conan, and I remember hesitating because I wasn't sure whether it was permitted or not, and useful or not.
Besides, I've seen titles in alternate languages disappearing, so I was under the idea that there were some kind of implied policy of not extending to much the associated names entry.

Anyway, I'm glad you're thinking of it even if it's not in your priorities

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Been there, read that

Some people only know the officially accepted English translation

Doesn't romaji already have its own standards though?...(I'm not too knowledgeable on this)

Secondary language translations for titles are allowed, and for now, we prefer not having the brackets to indicate which language it comes from

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Ah no, by "avoiding" the officially accepted English translation title, I mean not having them as main title. It is necessary to have them as alternatives.

As for romanji and its standards, there are many options, so it's the matter of picking one and sticking to it (again only in regards to the main title). Currently MU is heavily using wāpuro (for obvious reasons) which is not bad, but as expected it produces ambiguities.Traditional and Revised Hepburn would be ideal, as it has definitive rules, but not that many know it and it has circumflexes and macrons, so it's not exactly qwerty friendly. Therefore I think that if MU standardize some of the ambiguous parts of wāpuro it will be the best solution. (always speaking about the main title)


Did any of it made sense? At any rate, wiki has extensive article on ways to represent romaji: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaji and on wāpuro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapuro for anyone who might be interested.