005. Relations: Remakes
Imagine the scenario~ You have a drama/movie/tv show that came out in Japan in 1995. It's made from an original script and it's not based on any novel, book, or anything else. Then came the year 2010, and someone in Italy saw that Japanese title and decided it would be good to recreate that story, produce it using Italian actors, have the story be set in an Italian city, and have the actors use Italian language. After that, another ten years pass, and China saw that the Japanese title is very interesting and decides to also recreate the story, in the same fashion as the Italian team did. They will mix in a bit of their Chinese culture and costumes and it will be unique to them. In both of these cases, the Italian and the Chinese show is called a REMAKE, while the Japanese show is called an ORIGINAL STORY.
The Japanese title is the first and the original story. Nothing similar came out before that one. All the other titles that came out after the Japanese one are called Remakes. The original story is being recreated over and over again, using different means and ways, but the main concept, the main idea, in all the stories remains the same.
❌ You don't need to list all remakes on every title.
❗️All the remakes are listed ONLY on the first original title.
❗️A title that's a remake of another title, will only have the original title in their relations, connected to it as "Original Story". Nothing else!
Extra visualization with links:
Original Story = https://mydramalist.com/747-fated-to-love-you
Remake = https://mydramalist.com/9558-fated-to-love-you
004. Episodes: 1 > Episodes: 0
Ever saw an upcoming title that hasn't aired, yet, but has an episode count number as 1, or a title that's been airing for several weeks, but still shows an episode count as 1? Or have you ever added a new title and you skipped the episode count field, because it's not yet known how many episodes a title will have, but later when your newly added title shows up on MDL, it all of a sudden has an episode count of 1 instead of 0 or an empty field?
Answer: The system has a mind of its own.
❗️ When you add a new title and leave the episode count empty, when the title gets accepted to MDL, the system will add one episode to it.
❗️ When you add a new title and add an episode count of 0 episodes, when the title gets accepted to MDL, the system will add one episode to it.
❗️ When you try to delete the episode count and leave the field empty on an already existing title on MDL, when your submissions comes in, it will show as if you haven't changed anything. It will be an empty submission.
❗️ The system does not allow the episode count field to be empty.
❗️The episode count on upcoming titles that are already on MDL, can be adjusted to 0 episodes, if the exact episode count number is not known.
005. Floating Duplicates
This reason, that reason, other reason, there are many reasons why sometimes you find two pages with the exact same information. Be that a title that might have somehow ended up with three or four pages dedicated to it, or maybe a person, an actor, who has more than one profile on MDL. Some info might be the same, but some might not be. Either way, only one page should exist for one title, and one page for a person.
❗️ Duplicate pages should be reported by posting the links to the pages in this forum thread:
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/support/66711-duplicates
❗️ Pages should be reported for deletion after they've been fact-checked that they're really a duplicate and not just similar titles/people. If one page of the title shows that it's a drama and the other page shows that it's a movie, are you sure then that the title has a duplicate page, or is it just that maybe there are two versions of the same material?
❗️ Before reporting, the info from the duplicate page should be cleaned out. Meaning? Cast, crew, relations, genres, and tags should be removed from the duplicate page. Why? Because the info that doesn't get deleted will float around on titles' and peoples' pages. When you try to edit a person's cast list or when you try to edit the cast on some title, you will see these weird empty spots next to profile and poster images, which are not clickable. They're just empty. All those empty spots are from former pages that once existed and were eventually removed, but their info never got cleaned out so they exist in this secret universe.
❗️ Before reporting the page for deletion, first read the instructions on how to properly do it in the forum thread linked above.
❌ Don't report pages if you haven't submitted the necessary changes to both pages. Missing info should be transferred to the page that will stay, and other info should be removed from the page that will be deleted.
006. Doubling: Genres/Tags
Some things in life should be said twice, but writing the same info twice on the same page should be avoided. Just like a lot of other info on a title's and person's page, it should be shown and present on a page only once. Genres and tags belong to that category too.
❌ Don't repeat the same info in both fields. A theme either goes in "Genres" OR in "Tags". Not in both fields.
❗️A theme should be present ONLY once. Main themes go in the "Genres" field, and the minor themes go in the "Tags" field.
007. Synopsis Copy/Paste
Having a movie, drama, variety show, another movie, another drama, and one more drama all be adapted from the same source material, perhaps a very famous novel, does not automatically mean that the synopsis, character names, or even the gender of the main leads will be the same.
Why would someone decide to make another movie based on a particular novel, if someone before them already made a live-action movie based on that same novel?
Answer: It's because that person believes that they can make a different version of it, tell the story in a different way, portray it using a different scenario, maybe even change some things, and add some other new things. They could even make the main character a male, while in the novel they were a female, or maybe even have the main character die in their story, but in the novel the main character lived and had a happy ending. Lots of and lots of things could be different and yet the same.
❌ Don't copy and paste the same info on every page of every adaptation, just because if was adapted from the same source material.
❌ Don't copy and paste the same synopsis/character names/genres/tags the previous adaptations had onto the new announced title or any other title that was adapted from the same source material.
❗️Names, stories, scenarios, and even main character genders could all be different in each adaptation, as each adaptation is still a somewhat unique story.
008. Full Broadcasting Time
Calendars on MDL are tricky little things. They work in mysterious ways, and despite the many flaws they might have, they still prove to be useful and really come in handy when you want to see when the next episode of your favorite drama will air.
❌ When you're adding the broadcasting time, don't just add only the hour.
❌ The system can't calculate the time properly, if you leave the broadcasting time like 08:mm AM.
❗️When adding broadcasting days, BOTH the hour and the minutes need to be added and adjusted properly.
009. Repetition of Names
Much like everything else on MDL, but in life too, there is no need to repeat the same information in every possible field that you find on a title's or a person's page. MDL's search engine is a smart little fellow. It will find your desired title or person even if their native name or main name is only added once in the native name field or at the top of the page as the main name. The search engine is smart, so have a little trust in it.
❌ Don't repeat the name of a title in the AKA field, IF it's already written in the Mostly Known As field.
❌ Don't repeat the name of a person in the AKA field, IF it's already written in the Stage Name field.
❌ Don't repeat the name of a title/person in the AKA field, IF it's already written in the Native Name field.
❗️When you're adding the main name of a title/person, ONLY add it in the top field, Mostly Known as / Stage Name.
❗️ When you're adding the native name of a title/person, ONLY add it in the Native Name field.
❗️MDL's search engine will find the title/person regardless of how many times one name is repeated and regardless if it's written in the Mostly Known As field, or in the Stage Name field, or in the Native Name field, or even in the AKA field.
006. Native Name = Stage Name
Some fields are self-explanatory, while others are not so much. But the one that gives the biggest headache of them all is the Native Name field for people. Is it the birth native name or is it is the stage native name or perhaps it's the English name? What goes there?
Answer: (Current) Stage Native Name
❗️Native Name field for people works the same way as the Native Name field for titles.
❗️ Native Name should match the exact same name you see at the top of the page, in this case, it should match the name you see above the person's profile image.
❌ The Native Name field is not meant for the birth native name. That one goes in the AKA field.
010. Main Role Trivia
Everyone likes a little trivia about their favourite story and especially about their favourite characters. You want to know as many details as possible, and sometimes you want to know all that information before you even start watching a particular show. That's where synopses come in play. They describe the premise of the story and mention all the necessary details about the main characters, so repeating all of that information in the character fields of the cast list will just be redundant and quite unnecessary. The main roles are main roles for a reason; they will continue to show up to bother you from the first minute of episode 1 all the way to the last minute of the last episode. They won't run away and they will be there for you at all times~!
❌ Don't add any descriptors (i.e. job position, family relation, tribe, age, etc.) in the Main Role character field after the character's name.
❗️The Main Roles' character fields in a title should contain ONLY the name and/or nickname of the character, nothing else.
❗️ Supporting, Guest, and Bit roles can contain some descriptors after the character name, but it should free of spoilers and should not to be too long or have too many trivia details.
011. Title Year
It's nice when you want to fill out as many details as possible in every field you can find, when adding new titles, but sometimes you need to pull the breaks and double check if what you're adding really needs to be added in all those fields. One such case is adding the year in the field where is says "Mostly Known as". The "Mostly Known as" field, as the name itself states, is meant for the name of the title. It doesn't mention any year there, so there's really absolutely no need to write the year in that field.
The year will automatically show up next to the title name on the main page, if you've correctly added the year in the "Start Date" field in the "Release Info" section. If there's no year in that field, then there won't be any year shown next to the title name either. This kind of case happens with announced titles where the release date is not yet determined and confirmed by the production staff.
❌ Don't add the year in the "Mostly Known as" field.
❗️The year will automatically show up next to the title name if there's a year added in the Start Date field in the Release Info section.
007. End of Broadcasting Time
If you ever played with adding a calendar to one of your favorite shows, you might've came across a peculiar little thing that happens when you try to fix the air time on the last episode on the list. And what that might be? Well, unlike all the other episodes where you can add that the episode aired after 11PM, on the last episode in the list, you can't choose the hour 11, nor can you choose the minute 55.
❗️If an episode aired at 11:55 AM/PM, you can add that air time to every episode in the calendar, except the last episode on the list.
❗️The only way to get around this is to go to Primary Details section, add an extra episode [no need to click 'Submit'], go back to Release Info section, add that extra episode in the Season field, and then fix the air time of your desired episode. After you fix the air time of your problematic episode, go back to the Season field and remove that fake episode you added. When you're done with that, click Submit to send it for approval.
Make sure to also go back to Primary Details section and remove the fake episode from there too.
002. New Staff + Episode Timestamp Rule
1️⃣ As many of you have noticed there have been some slight changes in the approval staff team. (Little reminder, the approval staff team is the team that checks your edits and submissions for titles and people)
In the past six months we got six new people on board to help our little team with all your submissions, and though you might've already encountered them one way or another, let's still welcome them formally to the team.
- Milisia = https://mydramalist.com/profile/milisia
- lucy_lu = https://mydramalist.com/profile/lucy_lu
- Gwilthyunman = https://mydramalist.com/profile/Gwilthyunman
- NoirRoseHeart = https://mydramalist.com/profile/NoirRoseHeart
- adrien = https://mydramalist.com/profile/adrienn
- MusicalVeggies = https://mydramalist.com/profile/Suegarbaby
They're all here to help us, but also to help you all with your submissions, so play nice. Feel free to ask questions when you're unsure about something and let's all work together to make the database grow bigger. (:
On that same note, we also want to mention while we got six new people, we're also going to say goodbye to one old team member.
Hide Your Heart = https://mydramalist.com/profile/hideyourheart
She's been with us through thick and thin and now she's going to focus more on her dream job, so wish her the best of luck, 'cause we all believe she'll do amazing with it all.
That said, try to now re-direct your questions about submissions to the other staff members and have her focus on some other stuff. (;
2️⃣ Now, as for our second announcement, we have a new submission rule to share with you.
❗️ The approval staff will no longer accept any submission which contains only a link to a show's episode without any timestamp or explanation where to find the information you're trying to change or submit.
❗️ A submission without a timestamp and/or explanation will be automatically rejected.
Please do not ask us to watch an entire 60-min or 90-min episode just to confirm if a tag/genre is applicable to that title, or if a certain actor appeared in the show. Spending an entire hour and a half, or even longer than that, on a single submission just to verify one single change is not efficient, and we do not have time to check 400+ submissions like that every day. Even if we had more people on the team, this kind of way to verify a source is not reasonable, as we have other submissions to check as well, plus, most importantly, we all have lives outside of MDL.
So please, to avoid future rejections, make sure to include a timestamp and/or explanation when you give a link to an episode as a source in all your future submissions.
Guidelines:
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/support/17285-guidelines-editing-and-submitting-new-dramas-movies-and-actors
012. Synopsis with Actor Names
It's one thing to include the names of characters in a synopsis, so you can read the plot and get a glimpse on what to expect from your next drama you plan to watch. It also helps you remember the names of the most important characters so you can quickly identify them when they show up on screen. But including also the names of the actors in the synopsis, to explain who plays which character, is not necessary.
Adding the names of actors, as well as the names of crew members, in the synopsis is redundant, as all that information is readily available in the cast & crew list tab. It also makes the synopsis hard to read as it doesn't flow nicely from one word to another, with too many names scattered all over the place, and half of the stuff is in brackets, making it even harder to piece the sentences together. Lastly, it makes the synopsis needlessly too long and filled with unnecessary trivia stuff, which can all be found elsewhere.
❌ Don't add the names of actors in the synopsis.
❌ Don't add the names of the crew members in the synopsis.
❗️The synopsis should contain only the information about the show's plot and nothing else. Trivia stuff does not belong in the synopsis box.
013. Matching Streaming Links and MDL Options
Let's mix and match stuff, but not with streaming links. If you want your streaming link to be seen by all users on MDL, including you, and, most importantly, actually have that streaming link work properly when you click on it on the title's page, then you should match the streaming site with the exact streaming option on MDL.
Also, you don't want to fool and anger thousands of other users on MDL when they click on the link and it leads them to a completely random website which isn't even a streaming site where they can watch the show.
❌ Don't add random websites, like Twitter, Instagram, news sites, and other similar websites as streaming links.
❌ Don't choose a random streaming option on MDL to add your streaming link, if the service option is not available on MDL.
❌ Don't mix up streaming options; i.e. adding TencentVideo (YouTube) link under the TencentVideo (腾讯视频) website streaming option, and vice versa.
❌ Don't add related YouTube channels to one single YouTube streaming option on MDL; i.e. adding MangoTV Sparkle, or 芒果TV大芒 MangoTV Short Play, or 芒果TV热播综艺 MangoTV Super Variety YouTube channel link under MGTV Drama Channel (YouTube) streaming option on MDL, and vice versa.
❗️The streaming link you add should match the exact streaming option available on MDL.
❗️The YouTube channel on MDL should match the exact YouTube channel you added.
❗️If the service option is not available on MDL, request the new streaming site through the Google form here.
008. Related Titles
One would assume when you connect a title from one page it would automatically connect it back on the other page. Sadly, that doesn't work like that on MDL. Every edit needs a little extra care and a little more love.
❗️If you add a related title (Adaptation, Remake, Parent Story, Compilation, etc.) only on one page, that same title will not show up anywhere on the other page to which you connected this title.
❗️When adding any kind of related title on one page, you have to add that title on the other page too.
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