How to Add or Edit Characters

[Aranneas]

Alright, thanks for clearing that up.

[Dreador]

Originally Posted by Kari5

I haven't seen both of them, but this might be a special case (usually OVAs don't come first) because the tv series is much larger and the OVA is somewhat like a pilot(?)?
(I'd like another mod'd opinion on this)

I've watched both and the OVA was quite popular by itself well before the series. It also spawned manga and games based off it so I would be fine with it being either as main.

I think I generally do stuff chronologically if they start off in a OVA/Movie then a series spawns off it the OVA/Movie is still their main as it's the original work. But stuff like episode 0's / pilots / previews I would stick with the series.

[sothis]

The reason we don't have proper guidelines to follow for when marking the main anime/manga is because it's not very important for one to be set as the main over the others; this information doesn't effect the actual character entries on the site.

that being said, its important to be consistent as much as possible, because what 'main' affects is the 'related characters' section. related == has the same 'main' marked

[mussolini]

Originally Posted by sothis

*The first name you input is the 'Main' name - use the most well-known name for this one

*'First' and 'Last' are based on the western definitions

How am I supposed to interpret this when a character is known only by surname?
I want to edit an entry, as it has the character's last name in the "first" box, but I thought I should check that there's no convention or anything about listing the surname as "first" if no given name is known. The first quoted point is ambiguous; does it mean that the name entered first will be taken as the "main name" for the character and used as the page title, or does it mean that the name we put into the "first" box should be the name by which they are most often called? I'm guessing the former, but I still thought I should check.

[sothis]

a general rule of thumb is that if there's only a surname, it goes in the first name field. the first name field should never be blank, but the last name field very likely may be.

in easy cases, like John Smith, john goes in first name, smith is in last name - by western definitions i mean what was just written, instead of Smith John

in most other cases, things go in the first name field and last is blank. 'Dr. Jones', 'The Wrestler', 'Smith' (if we dont know the other name), etc

main name should be the legal name, basically, except in rare exceptions. so if someone's name is John Smith and they are commonly called Johnny in the anime, John Smith is still the main name (first line of the names in the submission form), 'Johnny' is added as an additional name, as 'nickname'

there are cases when we don't follow that exactly - for example, you don't find out the last names of the characters in angel beats till later on, so it's kind of spoilery. for that reason, we only list the first names, and the first/last name combos are set to 'searchable'.

i know i gave way more info than you were asking for, i think the simple answer is that if only the last name is known, it should indeed go into the 'first' field. that's mostly because of formatting - last name is automatically capitalized in the page title, etc

[Aranneas]

if it's a confirmed surname, then it definitely goes in the last name field. if no other monicker is given you should probably use a western honorific, either mr. or ms. as appropriate, in the first name slot.

[Aranneas]

Originally Posted by sothis

a general rule of thumb is that if there's only a surname, it goes in the first name field. the first name field should never be blank, but the last name field very likely may be.

wow. turns out I was 100% wrong on that one

[mussolini]

Originally Posted by sothis

i know i gave way more info than you were asking for, i think the simple answer is that if only the last name is known, it should indeed go into the 'first' field. that's mostly because of formatting - last name is automatically capitalized in the page title, etc

I thought it might be something like that. Cheers for the speedy response.