Well, I see a lot of users on the forums are also confronted to the same problem I described in this thread and I'm also happy to see a lot of useful and good suggestions to resolve the matter in such a way that both the "WSIWYT" crowd and the "crosslinking" crowd are catered to.

The problem is, as I see it, that it would require a pretty heavy overhaul of the program and online database, something I'm afraid Invelos won't be able to look at in the near (or mid-distant) future.

So I think in the immediate future, it'll be up to us users to tackle the issue as good as we possibly can, while staying in the current context of the program's abilities and submission rules.

As such, specifically for Japanese (voice) actors, I would like to propose I start a master thread to do what is currently being done in the "Common Names" thread, but geared towards Japanese actors & crew only, with the following suggestions or info:
- what romanization system we all woud like to agree on using (for credits in native Japanese)
- A common name overview, with as name used for cross linking the name romanized according to the system we have chosen
- That info can then be used in conjunction with the credited as feature

Concrete example:
- common name: Shidou Nakamura (with Shidou in first name field)
- submission in Jet Li's Fearless profile: Shidou Nakumura, credited as Nakamura Shidou

I believe with this system we can greatly increase the crosslinking of Japanese actors while still abiding to the submission rules and the WSIWYT philosophy (since we put that in the 'credited as' field)

Sounds OK for everyone?

[edit]I misread[/edit]

Quoting Dr Pavlov:

Quote:
Taro:

it's not up to us, it's up to Ken, we can only deal with what gives at any given time. He is the program designer and we are the users. I am sure he listens to some degree but he is the only one who can make the decision on which way he wants to go and that decision is dependent on a lot more than what we might want as users.

The only reason i am saying this is because of your last line, my friend. It is ultimately NOT in our hands in any form. All we can do is fuss and fuss, i know this because I sat by and watched for five years as users, including me asked for more Crew data and then one day he gave it to us, not , perhaps in the formk that some anted but... there it is so, take a seat and recognize our limitations as users and be patient. He knows and he has lots of information, it is now for him to decide how, when and IF there will be anything implemented.

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OK, I see your point. So basically your suggestion is to wait until something comes from Ken's side, instead of we as users figuring out a temporary solution which is within the current rules. I can understand that and in fact it makes sense, as a lasting and thorough solution needs to be found, which ideally comes from the programmers themselves.

However, and I don't say this with any bitterness at all, this means I'm officially done submitting or correcting anything in the online database. The reason is simple: I don't want to put in hours and hours of work to correct, input and adapt Japanese profiles if the result will be that all will have been for naught, once Invelos's solution (if ever) sees the light of day. So for now, I'll stick to local input and this list:
http://taro.dommel.be/DVD/index.html
will stay exactly where it is for now: in Collectorz' Movie Collector. My goal was to transpose this part of my collection to DVD Profiler, but under the current submission rules (no clear rules on Asian names) and program limitations (no unicode support), it would all be work for nothing.

Quoting sugarjoe:

Quote:
Quoting Taro:

Quote:

Sounds OK for everyone?

No I'm afraid not, since this might be seen as a default on how to treat all Asian names. We still wait on Ken to tell us how to do it.

Sure, I'd welcome Ken's input on this. I know he's busy but it takes all but 5 minutes to write down rules on how to romanize Japanese names. That rule still being missing, especially with the lack of unicode support in the program, pretty much tells me that he doesn't care about people with Asian titles. Seriously, he doesn't even need to come up with his own romanization system, just pick one of the existing ones. How hard can it be?

Taro:

I would say that since this has been an ongoing issue for some time that are issues that Ken is lookinh at  that from his perspective make it far less than a 5 minute answer. The ONLY answer for the present time is to keep that information locally, there is nothing we can do about it that is within the Rules now, the closest would be the expansion of the CLT to allow for Native Name adjustments but even that takes a Rules mod and that could have an impact on whatever Ken may have in mind, There is much to consider

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