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Arabic Babelfished titles.




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AceWhatever



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:27 am Reply with quote
Sometime last year, I sent error reports concerning anime with wrong alternate Arabic titles, most of which are Babelfished.

None of the wrong titles were removed, and even more are popping up. I understand there's nobody on the staff who understand Arabic, but can't I help with this problem?

I don't want to go on another reporting spree if it'll be ignored.
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woelfie
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 02 Jan 2005
Posts: 380
Location: Belgium
PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:27 am Reply with quote
As a matter of fact, we're discussing this topic with the other staff members. We'll try to find a solution and hopefully come back to this soon.
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AceWhatever



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:15 pm Reply with quote
I'd like to give a great big thanks to the admins for finally purging those awful bablfished titles.

I will now proceed to report the new ones that have popped up.
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rti9



Joined: 08 Jul 2007
Posts: 1241
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:00 am Reply with quote
This is an interesting problem. I suppose very few ANN users can contest arabic titles. Death Note right now has four arabic titles. Should we just post them here so AceWhatever can check them? If no editorial support is available, wouldn't it be better to forbid all arabic alternate titles?
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:59 am Reply with quote
rti9 wrote:
If no editorial support is available, wouldn't it be better to forbid all arabic alternate titles?

We've discussed that matter.

Pros:
  • There are lots of Arabic users using this site (and to my surprise and humiliation, more than Chinese or Japanese users, probably even more than the latter two combined).
  • Many Arabic nations had anime introduced to general population much earlier than North America. I once visited an Arabic anime forum, and with English and Japanese titles here and there I could tell that users of that forum watch the newest anime as we do.
  • It is the very purpose of the Encyclopedia: to contain as much useful information as possible.

Cons:
  • Currently no staff member can use the language.
  • Error reports are either "[ABCDE] is wrong; should be [FGHIJ]," "see [URL]," or written in Arabic. None is useful.

Thoughts?
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AceWhatever



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:44 am Reply with quote
What about my reports? Were they confusing? I tried to follow the guidelines and this thread as much as possible when submitting reports.

I'd be more than willing to pick through submissions posted on this thread if you wish to take my word for it.

Given that this isn't a huge issue, am I wrong to assume that ANN didn't actively seek a staffer who is fluent in both English & Arabic?

EDIT: And yes, those 4 Death Note titles are excessive. The first one is just Death Note spelled with Arabic letters and the other three are just using different synonyms for the word notebook.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:07 am Reply with quote
AceWhatever wrote:
What about my reports? Were they confusing? I tried to follow the guidelines and this thread as much as possible when submitting reports.

Sorry, I didn't mean your reports. However, good error reports are few and far between (even in English).

AceWhatever wrote:
EDIT: And yes, those 4 Death Note titles are excessive. The first one is just Death Note spelled with Arabic letters and the other three are just using different synonyms for the word notebook.

All taken down. Three of them were submitted by the same person. Rolling Eyes
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AceWhatever



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:00 pm Reply with quote
I just noticed something strange when looking at Death Note's user ratings. Apparently some people rated it based on an Arabic dub, which I'm fairly certain doesn't exist even as a fan project though I'll look into it to be sure. It's probably subs but the submitter couldn't tell the difference.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:27 pm Reply with quote
AceWhatever wrote:
I just noticed something strange when looking at Death Note's user ratings. Apparently some people rated it based on an Arabic dub, which I'm fairly certain doesn't exist even as a fan project though I'll look into it to be sure.

I'm afraid that it's a problem that still plaguing the system, similar to "ratings before available" i.e. ratings have been given even the show is not yet available to general public. The latter problem happens quite often on sequels and remakes.



Not to mention subs and dubs that have been existing longer than most options but not even available in the pull-down menu....
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AceWhatever



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Finished a round of error reports from my public list. Thankfully there are alot less than the last time. Though if there's stuff not on my list anybody is free to point them out to me.

Now for the matter of Dragon Ball. The entries for the TV shows use the Arabic spelling of Dragon Ball plus English letters for the Z/GT parts while the movie entries use the literal Arabic translation of Dragon Ball while still using the English Z. Obviously it has to be either one or the other. The admins should decide this.
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist


Joined: 02 Jan 2002
Posts: 3794
Location: Montreal
PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2008 7:50 am Reply with quote
Oh no, the admins should definitely not decide this because none of the admins have any clue about Arabic. So you decide.

I'm not shrugging off responsability; I'm delegating it. Wink
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AceWhatever



Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Wed May 28, 2008 5:31 pm Reply with quote
Well, the matter of spelling vs. translation is a universal policy not restricted by language. I just never found a rule stating the consensus for this.

Either way, I just remembered that there was an Arabic dub for DB & DBZ that used the spelling for the title and not the translation. It even used the English Z, so we might as well go with that for the rest.

Hope that helps.
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