Would really love to be able to search by character name. A lot of clips in youtube do not give the drama name or actor name but you can get the character name - it isnt easy to find a drama by character name in google so i was wondering if you could make character names searchable On MDL? 

thank you! 

8votes
 Sher1264:
A lot of clips in youtube do not give the drama name or actor name but you can get the character name

The clips usually only allow you to recognize the actors' faces, but they don't provide their names (real or reel) in the video. If you're thinking of searching for the character's name from the clip here on MDL (kisskh) after implementing such a feature, it seems nearly impossible. Most clips are cut from somewhere and uploaded elsewhere without any accompanying info or description.

That said, the suggestion is a good one. Wikipedia follows a similar approach—famous English shows often have individual pages for their fictional characters, but this is typically reserved for highly popular shows.

We are still working on our characters database. Hopefully, we will be able to add it later. @Aster I don't think @Sher1264 mean searching character name in clips.

You can use Google to search for character names on MDL. Just type the name of the character followed by site:mydramalist.com

 mjf314:

You can use Google to search for character names on MDL. Just type the name of the character followed by site:mydramalist.com

It seems that this separate page for characters already available, but it can only be accessed through search engines and not directly through MDL. I recently searched for the fictional character Jung Da Jeong from 18 Again (2020) using a search engine and discovered that this character has a dedicated page on MDL. Moreover, you can update the entire information about this fictional character using the "Edit This Page" option.

It seems like this feature has gone unnoticed. All that's needed is to integrate it into MDL's search algorithm. Alongside the existing options for "People," "Articles," "Dramas," "Movies," "Specials," and "TV Shows," there should also be an option for "Characters."

https://prnt.sc/LA694k3l340l  

When searched through MDL's search, there is no direct or exact indication of the character, but you can find the drama where the character is mentioned. For example, the drama appears as the third result in the list. So, while it isn't an exact search, it does provide some related results. 

https://prnt.sc/mkF88W1iCnmC 

edit : i also notice that not every fiction character has separate page

 ASTER:
It seems that this separate page for characters already available, but it can only be accessed through search engines and not directly through MDL.

You can't access it through MDL search, but you can access it through the drama page, if you go to https://kisskh.at/52941-eighteen-again and click the name of the character in the Cast & Credits section.

 ASTER:

The clips usually only allow you to recognize the actors' faces, but they don't provide their names (real or reel) in the video. If you're thinking of searching for the character's name from the clip here on MDL (kisskh) after implementing such a feature, it seems nearly impossible. Most clips are cut from somewhere and uploaded elsewhere without any accompanying info or description.

That said, the suggestion is a good one. Wikipedia follows a similar approach—famous English shows often have individual pages for their fictional characters, but this is typically reserved for highly popular shows.

In youtube you can sometimes get the character name by either listening well or reading the transcript - spelling may vary but you can get the gist of it. But just throwing that name into google doesn't always help because even putting the name and then Chinese drama character after it, it will still pull up every chinese drama actor or actress with that name first then on to asian people  who are not actors - so finding the name of a fictional character takes a lot of digging and typing the search in many different ways and even then, sometimes, you just cannot find it. 

 Ji-N:

We are still working on our characters database. Hopefully, we will be able to add it later. @Aster I don't think @Sher1264 mean searching character name in clips.

Yes, i am talking about searching a character name in order to find out what drama the character is from - when watching youtube clips, sometimes that character’s name is the only thing you have to go on because they dint give the actor’s name nor the name of the drama - but there have been times i have been able to dig until i found the title of the drama and sometimes i just give up because no mater how many different ways i google it, i just cannot find that character name - which leaves me windering what the name if the drama is. LOL i hope that isnt too confusing. 

Best way to do that is reverse image search by using Google

 Ji-N:

Best way to do that is reverse image search by using Google

This never works. I still can't find over 100 dramas because image search never works in google for Chinese people. 

 Sher1264:

Yes, i am talking about searching a character name in order to find out what drama the character is from - when watching youtube clips, sometimes that character’s name is the only thing you have to go on because they dint give the actor’s name nor the name of the drama - but there have been times i have been able to dig until i found the title of the drama and sometimes i just give up because no mater how many different ways i google it, i just cannot find that character name - which leaves me windering what the name if the drama is. LOL i hope that isnt too confusing. 

Yes! Exactly! Just to find the drama name by the character. Simple adding to the advanced search. Anyway there is a separate line for main leads and their character names in each drama page. So the database shouldn't be a problem in reality. 

There's no need for a separate page for each character. Just an option in advance search. Also that would be great if users would ve able to add tags to dramas because in many dramas tags are inappropriate. 

 ASTER:
i also notice that not every fiction character has separate page

I've seen a handful of characters with the blue colour indicating a link, but only in older series. I assumed that had been abandoned because of the amount of data it would add to implement it fully. The scale of it is eye-watering - even if it's limited to main roles, that's still a minimum of twice the number of dramas. Less info per page, but still.

And if it goes beyond the name/actor/series basics already in the database (however it's implemented, there will be user demands for MOAR!!!) to something like character descriptions... those won't be easily evidenced or verified. Also rather subjective and more fodder for Comments and Forum wars. Don't envy the mods if that comes to be. So hopefully basics.

Even though I know exactly where I'd begin with something like that myself =D


But this:

 Ji-N:
We are still working on our characters database. Hopefully, we will be able to add it later.

So my assumption was wrong. Ok. Personally though, I think it would be a far better use of resources to bring in Vietnam. The site can't do everything and external search engines (site:mydramalist.com + name) already get us to title, actor and review pages. IMO that's plenty.

 Solnyshko:
Yes! Exactly! Just to find the drama name by the character. Simple adding to the advanced search. Anyway there is a separate line for main leads and their character names in each drama page. So the database shouldn't be a problem in reality. 

Are you searching by site:mydramalist.com along with the character name? That should do exactly what an internal search would do - search this site specifically and nothing else. If you can't do it via a site:mydramalist.com search, you probably won't be able to do it internally either.


 Solnyshko:
image search never works in google for Chinese people. 

Internal image search would be dependent on someone having uploaded that particular screen shot to MDL. Adding in some sort of facial recognition is a monumental ask.

Why are you not asking the video creators directly? Not wanting to give your data to YT, not having the language skills to ask? For the latter you just need to find someone who can translate a standard request for you which you can copy/paste. Even if the creator doesn't reply, someone else probably will.