The Movie Database Support

Hello I have discovered that Alternative Titles legitimately using the Hong Kong Character set have been deleted. As a multilingual former resident of HK, where English language is official, I can attest that many of us use the Asian extended ANSI character set ':' to allow filenames to be named using the colon character. While the character is similar, it has a different kerfing BUT is allowed by DOS, Windows, Linus and Mac OS to be used in actual filenames. We have been doing this for MANY YEARS. It allows a convenient method to allow media titles and legal documents to be saved with accurate appearing filenames. It is a simple elegant solution to clumsy workaround substitute characters.

Since the kerfing is different, its regular spacing looks odd if used exactly like the regular US ANSI colon. Hence the need to add the seemingly duplicate appearing English title as an alternative so media libraries can retrieve the entry correctly from TMDB. For example, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and 'Star Trek:The Next Generation' are not the same. The first would not be allowed as a filename, the second would be, BUT in actuality the words 'Trek' and 'The' while visually separate are really one unbroken string of text as the ':' has a blank space built into the character. Because of this peculiarity, titles are not recognized unless a separate entry is made using the ':' and its built in spacing.

I cannot speak for others in HK and Asia that are using this method but I do know from life experience it is a VERY common and common sense way to name Western language files this way when needed. The population and geographic placement of English users in Asia is VERY VERY LARGE. I and my friend had been adding these filenames with HK country and explanation fields for the mods and users here to understand the significance of the entries, and for the convenience of users in Asia and others that use or might have picked up on this method.

I can only ask that this method be recognized as a legit solution for people to use here on TMDB, as well as recognizing that many others in/from that part of the world that do not know how to participate or communicate with TMDB are probably dismayed that their filenames are no longer recognized. I might even suggest that one of you try this method yourselves with a test file and see how well it works.

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@SoCalGG said:

Hello I have discovered that Alternative Titles legitimately using the Hong Kong Character set have been deleted. As a multilingual former resident of HK, where English language is official, I can attest that many of us use the Asian extended ANSI character set ':' to allow filenames to be named using the colon character. While the character is similar, it has a different kerfing BUT is allowed by DOS, Windows, Linus and Mac OS to be used in actual filenames. We have been doing this for MANY YEARS. It allows a convenient method to allow media titles and legal documents to be saved with accurate appearing filenames. It is a simple elegant solution to clumsy workaround substitute characters. Since the kerfing is different, its regular spacing looks odd if used exactly like the regular US ANSI colon. Hence the need to add the seemingly duplicate appearing English title as an alternative so media libraries can retrieve the entry correctly from TMDB. For example, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and 'Star Trek:The Next Generation' are not the same. The first would not be allowed as a filename, the second would be, BUT in actuality the words 'Trek' and 'The' while visually separate are really one unbroken string of text as the ':' has a blank space built into the character. Because of this peculiarity, titles are not recognized unless a separate entry is made using the ':' and its built in spacing. I cannot speak for others in HK and Asia that are using this method but I do know from life experience it is a VERY common and common sense way to name Western language files this way when needed. The population and geographic placement of English users in Asia is VERY VERY LARGE. I and my friend had been adding these filenames with HK country and explanation fields for the mods and users here to understand the significance of the entries, and for the convenience of users in Asia and others that use or might have picked up on this method. I can only ask that it be recognized as a legit solution for people to use here on TMDB as well as recognizing that many others in/from that part of the world that do not know how to participate or communicate with TMDB are probably dismayed that their filenames are no longer recognized. I might even suggest that one of you try this method yourselves with a test file and see how well it works.

How come you dont use any paragraphs?

paragraphs... done.. smh... how come you don't use apostrophe's?

@SoCalGG said:

paragraphs... done.. smh... how come you don't use apostrophe's?

because it doesnt hinder the readability of my sentence.

lacking paragraphs does hinder the readability of your post though.

well, I edited the post as you suggested anyway.. but you still missed your apostrophe ;)

@SoCalGG said:

well, I edited the post as you suggested anyway.. but you still missed your apostrophe ;)

And you incorrectly used yours.

;) I get confused enough going between English and English...

softpillow

You made objections to my lack of paragraphs, and I promptly edited as you suggested. So may I ask, does our HK English Asian Hybrid methodology make sense to incorporate here? I am frankly surprised others in the European and American English speaking world have not picked up on this as a solution for the inability to use the UK - US ANSI colon in DOS Windows etc. filenames. It allows maintaining accurate representation of media names without using other characters as workarounds. If you examine other Asian film and TV releases, the extended character set colon is commonly used in the official releases of those titles in Chinese Japanese Korean Malay etc so it is not as if we are introducing something completely unheard of here

@SoCalGG said:

softpillow

You made objections to my lack of paragraphs, and I promptly edited as you suggested. So may I ask, does our HK English Asian Hybrid methodology make sense to incorporate here? I am frankly surprised others in the European and American English speaking world have not picked up on this as a solution for the inability to use the UK - US ANSI colon in DOS Windows etc. filenames. It allows maintaining accurate representation of media names without using other characters as workarounds. If you examine other Asian film and TV releases, the extended character set colon is commonly used in the official releases of those titles in Chinese Japanese Korean Malay etc so it is not as if we are introducing something completely unheard of here

Im just a user here not a moderator. I didnt say I had a solution or answer to your question, I just gave a suggestion on how your post could be improved so you may have a greater chance of someone helping you out/make it easier for whoever wants to help you out to understand what youre saying.

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