OpenWeightlifting currently pulls data from federations without sanitizing lifter names. This creates entries that look both like STEINER Matthias (LASTNAME Firstname) and like Ewan Meston (First Last). Pulling data from different sources that use different formats is therefore likely to create conflicts that will have to be fixed manually during importation, or (as with OpenPowerlifting) later when lifters individually file corrections. Deciding on a preferred format is therefore useful and is likely to save a lot of manual work later-on.
OpenPowerlifting uses the First Last system when names use Latin or Cyrillic character sets. This is comfortable for the USA but somewhat uncomfortable for continental Europe. Since the IWF uses LASTNAME Firstname, and weightlifting is relatively centralized, my preference would be to keep their decision and convert other names to that format.
This implies writing a tool to check that names are in the proper format, which thankfully is relatively simple to do due to the capitalization rules.
OpenWeightlifting currently pulls data from federations without sanitizing lifter names. This creates entries that look both like
STEINER Matthias(LASTNAME Firstname) and likeEwan Meston(First Last). Pulling data from different sources that use different formats is therefore likely to create conflicts that will have to be fixed manually during importation, or (as with OpenPowerlifting) later when lifters individually file corrections. Deciding on a preferred format is therefore useful and is likely to save a lot of manual work later-on.OpenPowerlifting uses the
First Lastsystem when names use Latin or Cyrillic character sets. This is comfortable for the USA but somewhat uncomfortable for continental Europe. Since the IWF usesLASTNAME Firstname, and weightlifting is relatively centralized, my preference would be to keep their decision and convert other names to that format.This implies writing a tool to check that names are in the proper format, which thankfully is relatively simple to do due to the capitalization rules.