Correct pinyin usage

Crazy4You wrote: Actually there's a multi quote button and an edit button so you can not only respond to more than one person, you can also edit your posts. I'm not sure if the feature was fixed for newer users or not, though.

If it bothers you that much you can always edit yourself instead of complaining to people who added the drama and designed the site. Like Cityhunter mentioned, people use incorrect English all the time on an English based site and no one makes a big deal about it. It's not a huge deal about the pinyin issue, either. Not everyone has studied Chinese and understands what pinyin is. It's not just MDL that lacks the use of it, but rather sites all over such as Dramawiki. Yes pinyin is the correct form, but it's not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. People go by what they can find the information on, and the goal is to get as many dramas into the database. As I mentioned above, if it bothers you that much you can always edit it yourself....

Instead of being rude why don't you just try stating that it bothers you and you would like to see this fixed. Or even offer to help. Being rude just ticks everyone else off.

Korean dramas are the most popular, so obviously more people are going to be there to fix things that are wrong, etc. And there's really no wrong way to romanize Korean because of the fact that the sounds cannot be formed into English letters. 시 can either be written as "ssi" or "shi" or even just "si". Either way, not a big deal. Not as many people watch Chinese, Hong Kong or Taiwanese dramas. Not only that but the information on them is harder to find because of the lack of popularity. There's more information on Anime, too, in English, than Chinese/Hong Kong/Taiwanese dramas. There's a TON of dramas and movies out there, MDL is still working on getting them all in the database.

Exactly! I agree with everything you said twinnie! :)

cityhunter83 wrote: i am actually studying korean and there are multiple transliteration systems, mostly b/c the korean language contains sounds that are not made by any letter in the English alphabet. i'm sure Mandarin has simillar issues when it comes to romanization. i don't get nasty with people who use less than acurate romanization b/c i am secure enough in myself that i don't have to call other people names to make myself feel intelligent. i also wont demand perfection from others when i cant do so myself.

also, google translate and other such sites are often incorrect, using strict dictionary or outdated forms. take the drama title "he was cool" if you were to use the strict dictionay definition of that it would not mean the same thing.

It doesn't. Pinyin is the standardized transliteration system of Mandarin Chinese, made by the Chinese. Yes, it is a complete phonetic transliteration system, not only romanization - just so happens to use roman characters. Hence the very simple issue here. Actually it is a surprising issue, because I can (somewhat) understand that some people have never heard of pinyin, which makes it all the more unfathomable how they then manage to transliterate incorrectly. If they'd use Google Translate or similar to do the trick, this problem wouldn't exist! How they do it is beyond me, but they're doing it wrong.

Good for you that you are slack on demands when you yourself slack off, but every submission by me has had the correct transliteration and I've fixed it on a few. I just have this feeling I'm the only one who cares about correctness: all of the entries I've encountered have been transliterated incorrectly. That is why I'm raising this issue.

niurou wrote: I'm not complaining about English. Correct transliteration of Chinese and English are two different issues. GTFO my thread, pls.

Seriously, you are the rudest individual I have had the displeasure of coming across since I have been on this site. If I were the mods, I'd boot you in an instant. Then you could find some other website that catered to your arrogant, elitist needs. Or hey, you could actually put in some work on creating your own website, instead of whining and insulting people who put a lot of effort as it is into this site. And just cause you don't like the way Pinyin is used means we don't get to complain that you suck at English? I mean, this is an English based site, doesn't it seem like our complaints may be a tad more valid than yours? You don't like the way Pinyin is used? If I were any good at inserting gifs, I would add one of the world's saddest man playing the world's smallest violin so you could have a soundtrack to how horrible that must be for you. Instead, please enjoy this youtube video, jerk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVFBK9GhS5Q

i'm calling this one. the OP is obviously too {insert perfered adjective here} to have an intelligent conversation with. in fact this person is so {insert profanity here} that they dont realize how stupid it makes them look to harp on other people about spelling and grammar when they themselves obviously have problems with it. have you ever heard the saying that in every group there is an ass, and if you look around and you dont see the ass, then YOU are the ass? well my fellow MDLers, i think we just found ours.

Damn, why the hell did I have to read all that crap *goes to watch a drama*

hahaha... Oh my...

*sigh* I do love this song. :)

niurou wrote: I doubt your original sources are the actual Chinese sites, because they wouldn't have pinyin in the first place, am I correct? The incorrect pinyin usage is wide-spread, so just because some random place with some info happens to write Sǐshén Shaònǔ as Si Shen Shao Nu doesn't make it correct (actually nǔ is incorrect as well, but I don't know how to stack two diacritics atop each other in Windows, sorry, but Google Translate manages that). At least write words with multiple syllables together.

I'm well aware that vast majority of the people dwelling here don't give a damn about quality of this place, as is reflected in answers this thread is receiving. I might as well start keeping my own list offline instead of contributing here. Or whip out NetBeans & Dreamweaver to actually make a site that works and has a better community, as has been suggested.

Once again your rudeness seems to cause people to dislike you. Try chilling out a bit. If you ever do make a site that has correct pinyin usage your rudeness will scare away all the users.
Now onto your point, you're probably right about the incorrect pinyin usage (since afterall you supposedly study mandarin). The issue is widespread, as on every single site ive been on they use the same method we do. If you want this to change, you could go through the Chinese languaged dramas/movies and edit it one by one.