[WikiEN-l] Another rule literalism problem

[Wily D]

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 3:59 AM, Ken Arromdee <arromdee at rahul.net> wrote:
> Talk:Tetsusaiga
> Talk:InuYasha#Naming_Conventions
>
> Summary: in the Inuyasha series, a sword is named the "Tessaiga".
>
> The English licensor made a mistake in the translation, calling it
> "Tetsusaiga".
>
> One person insists that because that is the official English translation,
> the article *must* be called by the incorrect name; moreover, since we don't
> have a reliable source for the name being a mistake, we can't even treat it
> like an incorrect name.  (Note that hiragana in Japanese is phonetic and the
> name lacks ambiguity.)
>
> I can see how the rules can be read that way, but this is clearly being
> mindlessly literal, secure in the knowledge that the wrong result is In The
> Rules, so nobody can stop it.
>
> And the same guy has been at it for years; here's one from 2004:
> Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_for_Japan-related_articles/tessaiga .
>
This doesn't seem to be a case of rules literalism;  The official
article naming convention says put things at their common English
language name, not correct name or official name or any of that.

WilyD