Letter From The Encyclopedist

I've been known to complain explain from time to time that Encyclopedia editors are perpetually overwhelmed by the quantity of new title submissions and error reports that are still waiting to be processed. The sheer numbers involved are demoralizing for the editors. When it takes an hour of research to confirm a moderately complex error report, it's easy to see how anyone would be discouraged when reminded that "3759 error reports have been made". And with new reports being made daily it's not merely an endless task, it's also ever-expanding.

The situation is also discouraging for contributors, who can feel as if their error report or new title submission has simply vanished into a black hole, never to be seen again. I can really sympathize with that feeling, because it's the very feeling that drove me to create the Encyclopedia in the first place! Once upon a time, I tried to submit information to the IMDb about one of my favorite anime titles. After weeks and then months passed without the information appearing on the site or any other feedback, I figured I'll make my own database, where people can submit information instantly, take that you lazy IMDb bastards! Except now the shoe is on the other foot...

There's still the audits (which I consider a moderate success) to validate genres and themes. I haven't ironed out the rough spots yet, but more pressing matters have forced me to put that on the back burner for a while. Although I plan to eventually use audits as a general way of peer-reviewing the contents of the Encyclopedia, in the meantime we need a stopgap solution to the ever-increasing pile of error reports and title submissions.

So I'm calling for your help to handle the error reports. I've created a public list of all error reports so that you don't have to hunt through the Encyclopedia pages for little red icons. If you use and like the Encyclopedia, please contribute your time to research those ambiguous and hard-to-crack error reports. Editors can then resolve them more quickly and the whole Encyclopedia will feel cleaner.

The same call for help applies to newly submitted anime and manga. I've outlined a straightforward procedure so that anyone can help us validate if submitted titles belong in the Encyclopedia or not. If editors can make the approve/reject decision based only on the research done by users, it should seriously bring down the time it takes for titles to be approved.

I don't expect all this will make the editors' work a piece of cake, but hopefully it should bring their task to a survivable level.

The Encyclopedia Needs You!
Help With:
Error Reports / New Anime / New Manga

By the way, the links to all these pages and more can be found by clicking on the Encyclopedia tab.