Topic: Correcting/Changing Names in Tags

Posted under Tag Alias and Implication Suggestions

Because I like Friendship is Magic, and because I tend to be anal about organizing data, I've been going through the MLP posts and trying to make sure that no characters, species, etc get missed in tagging. With some of the minor characters (Philomena, Owloysius, Doctor Whoof, etc) I'll find single instances where an incorrect or questionable spelling has been used (e.g., Phylomina instead of Philomena), which obviously keeps the tag from showing in a search for the character. I've been resolving these by replacing the minority spelling with the majority spelling, or in the case of Owloysius, who had four posts with four different spellings, I've standardized them on the spelling that seemed closest to the RL name Aloysius.

Having done that, it belatedly occurs to me to wonder if that was a good idea. If people type in a search for Owloysius using, say "Owlicius", they're going to get nothing now, whereas with both versions of the name present on the post, they could have gotten one hit, and then clicked on the other version of the name to see more. The downside to that is that you could end up with a large number of names for each character on a given post. What's the right way to do that?

Updated by SnowWolf

Personally, I don't see a problem with what you've done :) It's something I'd do myself if I had a lil more time and patience.

though you do present a quandry... but there's no reason to have 6 tags on a picture to try and figure out one character's name spelling... and having a bunch of alias's for a minor background character likewise seems to invite clunk.

here's the thought I had: Use the wiki. Have a list of characters in the show on the friendship_is_magic page, and then on each character page include also any odd spellings.

So, for Twilight's Owl, I might have a blurb like:

Twlight Sparkler's pet owl. He is male and has brown feathers. First seen in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". Other spellings: Owloysuis, Aloysius

Updated by anonymous

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