DramaWiki DramaWiki

Romanization of Korean names

First of all, let me welcome you to the team at DramaWiki. We are always in need of enthusiastic and dedicated contributors to maintain the site. So, thank you in advance for your efforts!

As you probably noticed, Romanizing Korean names can be very troublesome. There are many different systems used on different English language sites and by the artists themselves. DramaWiki has its own guidelines, which can be found at DramaWiki:Korean Personal Names Romanization Preferences. When copying information from other sites, be aware that they may use different Romanizing rules.

English Wikipedia and HanCinema are great resources, but they use variations of Revised Romanization with hyphens, both of which are different from our system. They aren't always consistent either.

A few common examples of these differences:

• An (안) should be Ahn
• Yeong (영) should be Young
• Hyeon (현) should be Hyun
• Seon (선) should be Sun
• Jeong (정) should be Jung
• Hun (훈) should be Hoon
• Hui (희) should be Hee
• Yu (유) should be Yoo
• Si (시) should be Shi

We try to be consistent, but not always successfully. You will likely find plenty of different spellings for the same names in the database. --FritzB (talk) 07:37, 12 July 2020 (PDT)

Thanks. So the revised romanization in brackets for Kwon Hwa Woon is in fact wrong as it should be Gweon Hwa-un or Gweon Hwa Un without dashing. --Vylmen (talk) 05:53, 14 July 2020 (PDT)

Strictly by Revised Romanization, Kwon Hwa Woon (권화운) would be spelled Gwon Hwa-un or Gwon Hwaun. On DramaWiki, we separate the syllables, so it would be Gwon Hwa Un. The Korean diphthong (ㅝ) is consistently spelled wo in pretty much all Romanization systems. --FritzB (talk) 06:19, 14 July 2020 (PDT)

Ok, but then the RR column of Dramawiki:Korean_Personal_Names_Romanization_Preferences needs an update as it states: ㅝ weo wŏ Use wo (Kwon Hae Hyo). And unfortunately, the unicode table also does it wrong. --Vylmen (talk) 06:31, 14 July 2020 (PDT)

I don't know why it is wrong in the DW guide, though Revised Romanization may have been changed since it was first officially adopted in 2000. It is a pretty new system. I'll update the DW table. Unicode actually predates the development of RR, so it is likely based on some other system.

The main the purpose of the site is to make information easy for users to find. There are plenty of commonly used spellings that don't follow any of the standard conventions (like music idol's stage names). Alternate spellings can always be included as Also known as: --FritzB (talk) 07:58, 14 July 2020 (PDT)

I don't plan to remember all this or decipher it case-by-case, so I'm writing a program to do it for me - this is why I need to know that the preferences that are listed on the above page are correct: the program should output the romanization preferred by DramaWiki followed by RR in brackets, so I can just copy/paste it.

However, there's another thing in the guide that doesn't fit: 권 = ㄱ + ㅝ + ㄴ = k/g + wo + n, meaning, this DW prefence should apply: 김 will always be romanized Kim, other than that, G will be preferred for initials and K for final. And unless initial and final are opposite of what I think they mean, the wiki is actually using Kwo and never Gwo (just put Gwo in the search bar and it will not suggest anything and plenty for Kwo, also plenty for Geu vs. nothing for Keu). --Vylmen (talk) 15:02, 14 July 2020 (PDT)

I see you added another exception for 허, which is fine with me, though I would make the default Heo (seems to be more commonly used than Huh).

You might wish to also add an exception for 여 as well. It is far more likely to be Yeo than Yuh. --FritzB (talk) 04:55, 2 September 2020 (PDT)

Also default to Seo instead of Suh for 서? --Vylmen (talk) 05:19, 2 September 2020 (PDT)

Yes, Seo seems to be much more common. --FritzB (talk) 05:21, 2 September 2020 (PDT)

Viki Original dramas

On the Viki site you will often see the phrase Viki Original, but this does not necessarily mean the drama was produced for Viki. What it really means is that Viki has purchased the exclusive rights to stream the drama. The same applies to Netflix Original dramas.

Streaming platforms like Viki and Netflix constantly battle with each other to get exclusive content. A few dramas are actually produced by streaming platforms themselves, but most are just normal TV shows that they have bought the exclusive rights to stream to their subscribers. The Category:Viki or Category:Netflix should only be used for webdramas that were never aired on any broadcast, cable, or satellite network. --FritzB (talk) 06:14, 23 August 2020 (PDT)

Gotcha. I was wondering why the Viki category was rather empty. --Vylmen (talk) 06:22, 23 August 2020 (PDT)

Yes, Viki has only produced one drama itself (that I know of): Dramaworld. They have also bought the rights for a few other independently produced webdramas that were never available on any of the usual Korean web streaming platforms (Naver TV Cast, Kakao TV, V Live, YouTube).

In recent years, Netflix has been producing its own Korean and Japanese language original dramas. Those dramas are only available on Netflix, even in Korea and Japan. --FritzB (talk) 08:12, 23 August 2020 (PDT)

Profile photos

I saw your recent works on uploading photo and they are much much better now!! Good job and thank you for reuploading them! Just to reconfirm if Cai Zhi Chen and Cai Zheng Jie are the same person? Coz i see same picture but different DOB seen. --Natokajun (talk) 22:32, 5 September 2020 (PDT)

Great catch, thanks! Picked the one above in alphabetical order. Corrected now. --Vylmen (talk) 00:34, 6 September 2020 (PDT)

Renaming image files

There is no need to re-upload an image file to change its filename. You can just use the Move tool to rename it. The Move tool is found under the More tab at the top of the page. --FritzB (talk) 07:11, 16 September 2020 (PDT)

It's not for mortals ;) (is for pages, not for File pages) --Vylmen (talk) 07:14, 16 September 2020 (PDT)

Ah, sorry. I forgot that was an Admin-only function. --FritzB (talk) 07:50, 16 September 2020 (PDT)

No worries, you're only trying to help. --Vylmen (talk) 07:56, 16 September 2020 (PDT)

Yang Jing

I don't see why head tilt is such a taboo. If its a personal preference of yours only, then you should leave it aside. The picture you tried so hard to change is used in all her official profiles. And the way you try to crop it is bad too, since it leaves only the head.

It's explicitly mentioned in the DramaWiki:Style guide#Imagery. Both the cropping and head tilt. For cropping I try to crop just below the shoulders, sometimes I might be a little tighter if the photo has no more vertical space left, but I try not to. Whether something is used in official profiles is not mentioned as a criteria and some (many) official profile photos conflict with the purpose and guidelines mentioned in that guide. It's not hard for me to change rotation and cropping - I have good software for it, cause I often alter imagery for web development. --Vylmen (talk) 00:44, 25 October 2020 (PDT)

I see. Then we have no choice but to use the initial cropped version, since I don't think there's any other picture available. Don't think the latest picture you uploaded is the same person either.

I agree that it was a little tight, cause I used the second image. I have one now that should be better. --Vylmen (talk) 00:55, 25 October 2020 (PDT)

What for you create so many pinyin titles for dramas with official english titles? If you can't read, you could just copy the chinese words in the search box.