Some time ago, I added the names of my family members to the Queue. Among others, the nickname of my sons (for the older: 亮亮). The definition I gave was "Julian (Spitzname)" where "Spitzname" is the German for nickname.

Now it popped up again with "Julian Spitz(personal name)" - so somebody touched the definition. That surprised me - I thought the stuff I add to the Queue stays "personal". If vocab is shared, that might be a problem, as I now of some quality issues with items I entered (e.g. I mixed up definitions once).

Ah, yes, if you add a word to the system through the Queue, it becomes part of the database. This is so that other users don't have to redefine the words. In the case of personal names, there is usually only minor risk of collision, but we still standardize all the user-submitted words.

Here, since Julian isn't standardly related to 亮亮, what we should have put is "Liangliang (a personal name)". If we didn't standardize it, then anyone else who wanted to learn the name 亮亮 for whatever reason would have it defined as "Julian". Does that make sense?

If it's just quality you're concerned about with the stuff you've added to the Queue, don't worry--we edit everything that goes through there. If it's a privacy issue, then oh dear, we hadn't thought of that. Thoughts?

Hi nick,
no, I don't see a privacy issue.

But it is good to know that definitions are shared - because from now on I won't add any definitions in German anymore, mark personal entries as such, and in general be more careful with what I add.

BTW: The "personal name" is fine - just the "Spitz" needs to be deleted, because that is not a proper name but a stange leftover from the German noun "Spitzname" (= nickname).