Many people only know a franchise by its English name, but some don't even have an official English name / title. What should be our policy on that?
I'd personally prefer the romanized Japanese and a tag synonym from the English one.
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This was briefly discussed in the commitment stage: discuss.area51.stackexchange.com/questions/2941/… I think that both should be allowed since some people may know the international title and some don't. Perhaps Pokemon or Dragon Ball doesn't have that problem, but think of Zero no Tsukaima (The Familiar of Zero in english). Most people should know the first while others should know the second, and both should have the opportunity to reach it.– IkzerDec 11, 2012 at 22:06
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The question is not about what is allowed (We already agreed that both should be allowed), it's about which should be synonymous with which.– Madara's GhostDec 11, 2012 at 22:09
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Sorry, I didn't understood. In that case, i'd preffer the same: the japanese as title and tags for synonyms.– IkzerDec 11, 2012 at 22:19
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3 Answers
For starters, we shouldn't just let anyone use any language they want for the tag names. We need to be consistent. Having some series tags in Japanese, and others in English is just confusing. We should strive to make things less confusing, not more. I think we can all agree that being consistent with language use is an easy way to make things less confusing.
Second, I think we can all agree that we should have a primary tag (to be consistent), but also have a synonym in the other language so that users searching for either language can find their questions. Remember, this is all about making things less confusing for the users.
Finally, the language we should use for the primary series tag should be the English name of the series, and the Japanese name should be a synonym. There are two reasons for this, the first being that the official language of Stack Exchange is English. I don't see any reason to use the Japanese name when we're all going to be typing in English.
The second, more important, reason, is to make things easier for users. Although I'm sure a sizable portion of our beta user base will be familiar with both the Japanese and English names of the series, this isn't going to be true for the community at large. After all, when you first starting watching anime did you have any idea what the Japanese name for any of the series you watched was? Probably not (assuming you're not from Japan). With this in mind, it makes sense that your average user will be searching for the English name, and not the Japanese name. So going with English just makes more sense. Remember, we want to make things less confusing for users, not more.
EDIT: In situations where the series doesn't have an English name going with the Japanese one is the obvious (And only) solution.
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And for series which don't have an English name, I'd be okay with keeping it romanized Japanese and if it gets and English name, we can always just synonymize that.– XeoDec 11, 2012 at 22:30
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What about shows who's English names are largely unknown, but the romanized Japanese name is dominant? I'd say we need some leeway here. Pick whichever is dominant in the wild. Dec 11, 2012 at 22:34
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2A good example is Hana Yori Dango, where both titles are fairly well-known to audiences on both sides of the ocean, thanks to the drama serieses in Japan and Korea. Or Full Moon wo Sagashite. Or Yuu Yuu Hakusho, which is sometimes called The Poltergeist Report in the U.S., incorrectly.– user74Dec 11, 2012 at 22:49
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We should always use the English name when possible to be consistent, as I addressed in my post. If we start making exceptions to this rule before long half the questions will be tagged with the english names, and the others the Japanese ones. It'll just be confusing for users./– WipqoznDec 11, 2012 at 22:54
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1I would actually argue the opposite. For non-US people (and not just Japanese), the Japanese name is usually more familiar than the English name. I did not even know until recently that Meitantei Conan is known as Case Closed. Feb 18, 2013 at 9:00
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"After all, when you first starting watching anime did you have any idea what the Japanese name for any of the series you watched was?" – ...Yes, mostly because legal anime streaming wasn't a thing at the time, so watching any anime that wasn't currently airing on TV basically meant finding it on the internet, where series often were only listed by their Japanese names. :P I agree with the post, though.– V2BlastFeb 3, 2022 at 16:46
It really heavily depends.
I think that for most cases, the English name should be the main. Although we won't start calling pokemon as pocket-monsters.
It depends on the level of popularity of the English name against the Japanese, and how it was translated originally.
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It's a shame nothing came of this. I have no idea if these tags are talking about Attack on Titan or a highschool harem romance without obvious titling. Nov 5, 2015 at 22:07
Here's my idea:
All types should be allowed. But we may need to pick a primary and synonymize all the others to it.
As for which we pick, I think that will depend on which one is most well recognized. (which may be different for each series) So I suggest we let multiple tags propagate first. And after a while we synonymize all the less used ones to the most used one.
Pros:
This will keep things organized and together. So we don't get the questions split across 3 different versions of the same tag. When someone enters any one of the tags, it'll auto-correct to the primary.
Cons:
It may be difficult to search for if the primary tag does not match what people are searching for.
So suppose we synonymize: senjou-no-valkyria to valkyria-chronicles All questions about that Anime will be tagged valkyria-chronicles, but searching for "Senjou no Valkyria" may not yield the question.
