Bleach Wiki talk:Policy & Standards Committee

Common name - best name?
Hey everyone.

I've noticed that we've lately had a tendency to move pages from English titles to Romanji titles. I started a discussion about moving Chain of Fate, which Mohrpheus, Godisme and Lia already commented on.

As suggested I brought in Salubri and his reaction was that this trend is unwelcome, since most users will usually search for the familiar English term, mostly from dub anime. So the moves of Hell Butterfly→Jigokuchō and Artificial Soul→Gikon might not be the best policy. I suggest we make a clear policy as to how we name an article whose title has more than one known version.

I think the rule of thumb should be this: Give the article the title most users are likely to look for when they get into the Wiki for the first time, looking for information on the subject. That is because our auto-complete only completes the names of main articles, not redirects. This would rule out Jigokuchō, Gikon, Denreishinki and even Ōken, although the last one is debatable. WD  Converse  00:27, October 31, 2010 (UTC)

This is what i have been saying for a while. When it seemed we had a standard of moving items to the Romaji, I said ok only because I believed that this was the standard. People will be searching for the english names. If they want to learn the Romaji, we have translation templates for that but for the most part, we should be putting what people know as long as it is correct--God (Pray)  03:34, October 31, 2010 (UTC)

I actually prefer the Japanese names, mostly because the translations can be inaccurate. I understand that people and titles are out of the question, we can't go around the wiki changing all "captain" to "Taicho", but I think the articles look better with the Japanese names, and I feel some cases like the Denreishinki, what's the translation of that?. Of course, functionality-wise, yes, the English names are better. But the Japanese terms are the actual names, just like we use Zanpakuto and Shinigami. And the auto-complete doesn't work on certain articles BTW. I can never get auto-complete for Aizen because the second letter is an Ō, (finding his image gallery is a pain) but as long as there's a redirect for the English name, I don't see the problem to keep the original Jap for items and objects. As long as anyone can find the article, it should be fine Lia Schiffer   (Talk)  06:03, October 31, 2010 (UTC)

Lia's point is basically the perspective I've been seeing this whole thing through. Case and point, the Japanese terms are static, since they are derived directly from the raw source material. However, translations can vary greatly depending on who is doing them, most evident among the various scanlators that host the series. We accept Ju-Ni as our standard translation hub, but this causes inconsistency because not only can we not access older chapters, I don't believe the group even worked on the series that far back. Even our resident translator Adam has told us that there are many different ways to interpret the language that are all correct; the ones he suggests are often the ones that generally sound better. Asides from that, I'm not even sure how we can even gauge what fans consider the most "common" term. Mohrpheus  (Talk)  23:40, November 1, 2010 (UTC)

The point here is the perspective lia brings up is counter to what the site does. Yes Japanese is the prime point and will always be featured, though in some places it stands that they just dont make sense as the main tag line. Nobody in english knows of it or uses it, lets be honest no one is gonna look for the japanese version of the attack. But some just make sense over the english translation as well. The point here we can argue perspective to we are blue in the face but the fact is this is a english based wiki of a japanese based manga series and we have to walk a line. In light of that i think further moves or changes shouldn't be made there is a simple medium that we have currently some things are in japanese and thats fine others are english and thats fine alot of the series translations provide for these two points to exist. --Salubri (Talk)  23:57, November 1, 2010 (UTC)

My feelings are that anything that we all know by a universal english name, such as Hell Butterfly and such should be left in english. Basically if we have to go to the raws and find the japanese, then it should be in english. However, anything that has varying translations and is left in japanese in the translated manga, such as Getsuga Tensho, should be left in japanese--God (Pray)  02:53, November 2, 2010 (UTC)

thats also a good point.--Salubri (Talk)  02:55, November 2, 2010 (UTC)

If we can have the raws translated to the most accurate possible English translations, then I'm all for using them. Mohrpheus  (Talk)  03:03, November 2, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, accuracy in translation is important, but some English terms have been well established like Hell Butterfly, Artificial Soul and Chain of Fate. This far I agree with Godisme. However I do think we should decide on a policy about the titles of objects and stick to it. I can say from experience that having exceptions in the policy only leaves an opening for unending moving feuds, which forces us to lock the page. I must say I too feel uncomfortable with having some items named one way and some another, and so, as Salubri said, this is an English site and most users will search for the terms they picked up in English sources. If it's a voting thing I would vote for using the English terms which could be taken directly from officially subbed anime (since Ju Ni, apart from being problematic in use, is after all just another scanlation), or if there is none, supplied by our own A. Restling. On the other hand we can go with Romanji titles for all items and that's fine too, as long as we keep our redirects up to speed, it should work out OK. WD  Converse  22:51, November 4, 2010 (UTC)

Nwang
This is stemming from something that Salubri left on my talk page. He wrote,"Also might want to get into talks about possibly replacing Nwang2011 as he is rarely on and for the position he has he needs to be on more often then not". I cannot say that I have not noticed his absence. Personally, I have never had any interaction with Nwang so I do not know if he is just in a rough spot right now or what. I do not know what anyone else would like to do concerning the situation but I do feel it should be discussed.--God (Pray)  00:21, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

He was very upfront with us when he accepted the position. I.e. he made it clear that he was starting college and so didn't know how he would manage college and Bleach Wiki. He is on a fair bit during term break but it is true that during term he isn't on that much. Many others are in the same boat. Lia started college too and unless you graduated while I wasn't looking, you should still be lingering round in University of Pittsburgh (or was it Pennsylvania... I can't remember). I myself am on far less due to a new job etc. The point is that at the time, Mr. N (aka Nwang) accepted the vice-captain position reluctantly because we didn't have options. We can reshuffle the committee now, promoting more active members etc. But the situation remains that pretty much all of use have gotten busy and aren't on as much as we used to be. Tinni  (Talk)  00:47, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, we are all pretty busy. I would like to give Nwang the benefit of the doubt. I think no decision should be made until we have his say on it. I had not really thought of bringing this up until Salubri contacted me about it today. I would like to see what others have to say on the matter. I only want what is best for the committee and the wiki so if others feel that it is fine to keep Nwang as the lieutenant of the committee, I will have no problem with it. If others feel he should be replaced, so be it. I am about as neutral as you can get on the issue, I just thought I would bring it up.--God (Pray)  01:11, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

Honestly, due to my own recent inactivity, I cannot really offer too many opinions regarding Nwang's absence in fear of being hypocritical. All I can say is that he did warn us about this beforehand, and he was chosen regardless, particularly because of his past contributions. I'm against ejecting anybody from the committee, particularly because from a broad perspective, there's really not many candidates to replace anybody. It's difficult to find users that can dedicate themselves to the site, and it's even more difficult when a large portion of the staff has real life obligations to meet. I understand Salubri's view on the matter, but as it stands, there's really no way around it. Mohrpheus  (Talk)  01:38, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

I must say I have noticed this too. Nwang himself recently left me a message saying he does feel he's not contributing as much as he would like and also mentioned that schoolwork takes priority (which is, to say the least, more than understandable). Since, as Tinni mentioned, he did accept the job of VC a little reluctantly, I don't think he would be too offended if asked to step down. The more important question is, do we really have someone willing to step up to the plate and take over? Just to be clear, we're not talking withdrawal from the committee here, right? Just demotion from the VC post. WD  Converse  01:47, February 4, 2011 (UTC)

That was what I was thinking. I would in no way support removing him from the committee and I believe Salurbi was talking purely about replacing him as VC. I am going to leave a message for him asking him to join this conversation because as I said, I want for him to have a say before anything is done.--God (Pray)  01:58, February 4, 2011 (UTC)