Hi,
there are corrections pending again.

The fact that it takes weeks to pass is unpleasant, to be honest. If there are more corrections being submitted than you can cope with, I suggest you let us handle the pinyin and traditional variants just like the definitions, namely let us have our individual corrections and a "shared as correction" checkbox for each part. We're mostly adults here; we can take this kind of matters into our own hands and really don't need all this nannying, i.e. your approval to study our words the way we want. Please think about it.

Agree - I would suggest pinyin corrections are made to the corrector's account straight away, and made to the wider group upon checking/approval - if this is done, weeks to correct is certainly faster than commercial dictionary error corrections, and so I think acceptable.

I think there also should be some flag-up to anyone with personal definitions etc. when the standard definitions etc. change, or perhaps even a flag-up of changes to all words in "My words" that change (bit like amazon flagging up price changes in books in your basket/wish-list) - I would certainly want to specifically see the changes to make sure I understand them/change my understanding of words.

Schnabelhund, are your corrections mostly tones (and is there a Taiwan factor to that) or traditionals - just curious, as I see a few tone mistakes, but don't look at traditionals.

Good idea ricksh, I'd also like the flag-up for changes!

I have sent many traditional variant corrections, but can't think of any that are pending right now. I send tones corrections either when they're legitimately wrong (e.g. 照相片 - zhao4xiang1pian4) or when I think that proper tones are widely accepted where Skritter only allows for neutral tones. What I do NOT ask for are pinyin changes that are Taiwan-specific, like 垃圾 (le4se4 in Taiwan), 頭髮 (tou2fa3), 餛飩 (hun2dun4).

Sometimes I send pinyin corrections where the tones are correct, e.g. (if I remember correctly) 人蔘 ren2sen1 -> ren2shen1.

I'm really sorry about this! I'm in the Houston airport getting ready to begin my trek to Shanghai, if that's any indicator of how busy I've been, not to mention how many elbows were twisted in order to even get my reservation made correctly (I'll spare the details).

Anyway, we're about to board, so I'll get to some corrections once I land in L.A. Life has just been crazy busy, and this is technically a part-time job; so there unfortunately have been periods when I've been less vigilant. Please be assured that this is only temporary!

We do greatly appreciate all corrections that are submitted, and I implement all correct ones that can possibly be implemented. I do receive a manageable enough number of entries as to render pinyin changes on the individual user side an unrealistic/impractical feature addition. For the most part, there is a clear right and wrong when it comes to the pronunciation of a given word in standard Mandarin, and this is what's reflected in our entries. In cases where I can only enter one pronunciation into the system, I err on the side of the most common pronunciation. Definition changes are for the most part extremely minor, so I'm not sure about flagging as a potential feature addition, either. Regardless, I'll be sure to bring it up at the next meeting and see what the rest of the guys think!

It's true that we don't due Taiwan-specific multi-character entries, but as far as for what you've mentioned or alluded to that comes to mind, 相片 is listed as xiang4pian4 in both Pleco and the 《现代汉语规范词典》. Wiktionary won't usually fly as a legitimate source in isolation, but I have decided to allow the full enunciation of the word 姑娘, despite having been unable to find any other dictionaries which list that.

Thanks again for your patience, guys!

Thanks for the reply, Evan.

"I do receive a manageable enough number of entries as to render pinyin changes on the individual user side an unrealistic/impractical feature addition."

But why would that feature be impractical?

"For the most part, there is a clear right and wrong when it comes to the pronunciation of a given word in standard Mandarin, and this is what's reflected in our entries."

My understanding is that for almost every word with the neutral tone at the end, it's also common to use the proper tone, and that the variation isn't purely regional but also a matter of personal preference. There also is no dichotomy of neutral and proper, but also all stages of in-between pronunciations. Many times, you can even hear the tone in the audio samples in dictionaries that only list the neutral tone variation, e.g. in http://www.iciba.com/女婿. This isn't as clear-cut as we want it to be. I think it's reasonable to enable the proper tones by default.

"相片 is listed as xiang4pian4 in both Pleco and the 《现代汉语规范词典》."

Yep, I meant to say that zhao4xiang1pian4 was the *wrong* pinyin and that I asked you to change it to zhao4xiang4pian4.

"Wiktionary won't usually fly as a legitimate source in isolation, but I have decided to allow the full enunciation of the word 姑娘, despite having been unable to find any other dictionaries which list that."

Please note that I'm not saying that the full tone variations of these words should be the norm, but that I'm just against treating them as *wrong*.
Is zdic a good enough source? Because that's where I look up these things most of the time. I thought it's impractical for the corrections because it's zh-zh.

http://www.zdic.net/c/1/32/78543.htm

One related thing I noticed is that (I think) when a word has no definition (i.e. says "placeholder") and any person enters a definition, that automatically becomes the default definition. Does this definition get checked, was thinking this may be a glitch if not.

Definition changes on a stopover - living the dream!! Hope you have a smooth journey, and get some down time too.

Hey man, I've just now been able to get any internet whatsoever since my last response, and my connection to Gmail is intolerably unstable--so we'll have to wait until my VPN security confirmation gets processed.

Dude, 不要緊! Do whatever you went to Shanghai for and take care of this when you're home. Enjoy your trip!

Well, I didn't know you'd be there for five weeks. Maybe you can find the time for the corrections in Shanghai after all ;)