Proposal:Remove banned characters

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Status: This page describes an active style guideline proposal and is not official.



Proposal number: RFC-294
Champion: Hawke
Current status: Unknown
Initial Discussion



This proposal updates Miscellaneous Guideline to the following:

Use of special characters

The use of certain special characters is preferred. Generic characters should be used only where it is clear that they are used on the release (e.g. typewritten track listings). Editors should replace generic characters with their more specific equivalents.

While there are several ways to enter these characters including various key combinations as well as copy and paste, you may find that it’s all too much hassle. In this case, feel free to use the generic equivalents. Other editors can edit to the preferred characters. However, be careful when making corrections, as the usage rules vary for different languages.

Apostrophe
A true apostrophe (’) is preferred in place of a typewriter apostrophe ('). Use ' only if it is clearly as it appears on the release, or if you can’t easily enter the preferred character.
Quotation marks
Use the mark that appears on the release. Use " only if it is clearly as it appears on the release, or if you can’t easily enter the preferred characters. Other common variations include:
single quotes
‘ and ’
guillemets
« » and ‹ › (note difference from < and >)
low quotes
„ and ‚ (note difference from comma: ,)
Primes
Use single prime (′), double-prime (″), and triple-prime (‴) where appropriate. Single prime indicates minutes and feet; double-prime indicates seconds and inches. Triple-prime is rarely used.
Ellipsis
Use the ellipsis character (…) instead of three periods (...), unless you cannot easily enter the preferred character.
Dashes, hyphens, and minus signs
Use the appropriate hyphen (‐), minus sign (−), em dash (—), en dash (–), or other dash as it appears on the release. If you can’t easily enter these characters, or can’t determine which is correct, use - (hyphen-minus) for en dash, hyphen, and minus; and -- for em dash and quotation dash. Other editors should correct these where possible, unless it is clear that the release actually uses typewriter-dash(es).

"Top something" Playlists

Bootleg torrents that are compilations based on playlists of charts authorities (like Billboard's) should not be stored in MusicBrainz as releases. These playlists are often copyrighted by their issuers.

Other Do-Not's

There's some guiding information available What Not To Link To. It is not an Official Style Guideline, but is information that should help while editing.