Thread:Gsimenas/@comment-34784383-20180517222223/@comment-6697950-20180518072923

While I wouldn't want to interrupt the heated argument, especially since it has reached a conclusion, even if not one where both sides are satisfied, since this message has been posted on my wall, I'll share my own two cents on the matter.

Why do we use Japanese naming order for Japanese characters on the wiki? Because that is the consensus the community has reached.

Why did we reach such a consensus? Each member who participated in the vote had their own reasons. Though, one of the biggest reason was probably the fact that the founding members of the wiki decided to use such a naming order and most of the articles were already using such a naming order by the time we had the vote, so choosing this option meant that we would need fewer changes on the wiki to standardise our articles.

Why did we have such a naming order used on the wiki in the first place? Probably because we only had fan translations back in the day and the fan translators chose not to westernise names for some reason. I wasn't part of the wiki at the time, so I can't really say for sure.

Other wikis choose to westernise names so why don't we follow their example? Because the guidelines of other wikis do not apply to ours. We have no obligation to follow the pack if our own community chooses not to do so.

Does our system make sense/is there any sensible reason to use it? Well, we don't need to figure out which of the names is the first and which is the surname. We just use names as they are written in the original. This is useful for the odd characters, like those with mixed Japanese/Foreign names, or people from other Asian countries. Other than that? Naming order choice is very subjective. Even in English documents the person's surname might be requested before their first name for whatever reason. Neither version is objectively better than the other.

Should we change how we do things? If there is interest in change from the community, we could at some point change our guidelines.

Can you just arbitrarilly change names on the wiki? NO, all naming changes must be approved by admins of the wiki or by community consensus. Any such changes without authorisation will be reverted on sight. If you want to change how we name characters, you'll have to get community support to change our guidelines first.