Style Guide/Sources

While the Internet is a wondrous tool that is full of information, its accuracy can vary from sources. These are sites we use to collect the data on news involving the Kamen Rider Series.
We do not list sites for fansubs here, as that has its own listing on the Style Guide and is not always a credible source of information due to possible translation errors. We also do not list Twitter accounts here, as like the fansubs that has its own section.
In certain cases, some of these sites can obtain info from other websites and they link to the source at the bottom of their posts. If so, then that site that originally contained the info should be cited as the source instead if it is in English. If they have translated the info from a Japanese or other non-English source or they are actually reporting it as breaking news for a site-exclusive story, then the website in question can be cited for pages.
==List of Official Sources==
*TV Asahi- The official broadcast channel of the Kamen Rider Series.
*The Asahi Shimbun- Japan's second largest national newspaper and a subsidiary of TV Asahi.
*Toei Co. LTD. The company that produces the Kamen Rider Series.
*Toei Hero- A site for Toei's Kamen Rider and Super Sentai properties.
*Kamen Rider Official - The official site of the Heisei Kamen Rider series, set up to commemorate the 20th anniversary.
*Kamen Rider Zukan - An official encyclopedia of the Heisei Kamen Rider series. Currently an ongoing work in progress.
*Ishimori Pro- The production company of the Ishinomori family. It is under the management of the sons of the late Shotaro Ishinomori, the creator of Kamen Rider.
*Televi Magazine- The official magazine on children's TV shows such as Kamen Rider.
*Kodansha Comics - The largest book and manga publisher in Japan. Kodansha is the primary publisher of Kamen Rider Spirits and several books and manga for the Kamen Rider Series, including certain re-prints of older manga. This site provides the wiki with images, information and ISBN numbers for books and manga.
*Hyper Hobby Magazine- Hyper Hobby Magazine is a promotional magazine made by King Record's publishing firm King Creative Amusement. The magazine posts information on toys and characters for TV shows including Kamen Rider for collectors and enthusiasts.
*Dengeki Hobby- A toy and hobby news site that does coverage of Tamashii Nations events, toy announcements and conventions.
*Hobby Japan- Publisher of the Detail of Heroes photobooks and the Uchusen SF tokusatsu magazine.
*Bandai Japan (Japanese)- The toy company responsible for some of the designs and development of the Kamen Rider Series and the toylines that spawn from them. Also has an official YouTube channel called Bandai Mania, which covers the company’s recently announced toys and their functions.
*Ameblo and FC2-Japanese blogging sites that contain the blog posts of actors, singers, idols and various other personalities in media. They can also contain statistics such as their place and date of birth, age, and who they work with for promoting their careers in their line of profession.
*Tamashii Nations - Official site of the Bandai collector's toy brands, including S.H. Figuarts, S.I.C. and Tamashii Web Exclusives.
*Wikipedia Japan - Not the most accurate of sources all the time, but it does give us some useful data that is credible.
*Tokusatsu Network- An English news blog founded by Paula Gaetos and run by Editor-in-Chief Nicole Amberhttp://tokusatsunetwork.com/about/, this site does interviews with actors and reports on the latest in toku news.
*Orends Range- An otaku culture-based news site founded by Ian Titular aka UkiyaSeed.
*Crunchyroll- A California based online streaming site, this company usually delves into the anime aspect of culture, but it does do news reports on okatu related material such as Tokusatsu.
*Japanator- The self proclaimed "Otaku's Companion", Japanator is a website that does news and reviews on anime, tokusatsu, and video games.
*Sci-Fi Japan- A Japanese film and Anime news and review site, formerly known as Monster Zero News.
*Igadevil's Kamen Rider Page- Igadevil aka Paul Sullivan, an American living in Japan, is possibly the most knowledgeable person on the subject of Kamen Rider and Ishinomori heroes. Despite a few setbacks and real life obligations, he continues his podcast and offers insight and info about the franchise that we in the west could not obtain outside of Japan. Also works with the Tokusatsu Network on occasion. (Inactive, Mr. Sullivan can be reached on his Twitter feed)
*Anime News Network- While this is an anime news site, it is one of the top three websites we use for data on voice actors due to its seiyuu database.
*HeroShock- A French tokusatsu news site, covers events of Bandai that take place in Europe or breaking news on tokusatsu.
*The Internet Archive Also known as "The Wayback Machine", this San Francisco based library site is a project to archive the Internet as it evolves. This is our last resort when show websites get torn down and are unable to be loaded. However, it does have limitations such as lack of plug-in support for some archived pages. But it is better than having no data at all.
===What is NOT an official source===
*YouTube: Aside from the Tokusatsu Network's channel and Toei Co Ltd.'s Youtube accounts, we do not use this as a credible source. Rumors and fake videos spread like wildfire here so misinformation is a recurring problem. Another one is its instability with web video, as the site's flawed copyright Content ID system terminates videos very quickly due to faulty software and the lack of a human element to monitor it to tell a pirated video from a official news or review post. 
*Other Streaming Sites: Due to Toei's somewhat hostile attitude towards the Internet and the sharing of information or content, Content ID software on other stream sites are just as notorious for eliminating video. While not as fast or faulty as Youtube, somehow, someday that video you think is a great source of info will be terminated and be an empty broken file on our wiki. There are exceptions to this as far as official sources, but usually, Toei wins the argument against fair use and they get shut down, making non-YouTube streaming sites a useless folly of a resource.
*Certain Web Forums: Some internet forums are simply just gossip filled, thus trusting information is not often found. Web discussions often contain fan bias and the magazine scans they have are often watermarked by sites such as ModXToy, rendering the image useless to our wiki. There may be a rare case or two where they can be useful but we try to avoid any mishaps caused by faulty info by double checking.
*DeviantArt: While this is a rare occurrence, we have had one or two problems in the past of people mistaking cosplay photos for actual images of the heroes. Another minor problem we sometimes had was the theft of art via transfer of an image to an editor's desktop without paying the artist or asking permission to use it.
*Fansubs: As stated above, while fansubs are a vital tool of necessity in obtaining data and have their own list on the Style Guide, the translation errors they sometimes have on spelling and pronunciation are hard to ignore. This may sound contradictory, but we have had edit warring in the past over sub group translations. It is also because, and we cannot stress this enough, they are technically in a legal grey area and some fansub groups have a nasty tendency to collapse or stop working altogether.
*Social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr should not be cited unless either the thing being cited is a photo, the account is official, or the owner of the account is a trusted source (such as CraneJoe or Burgundy Ranger). Anybody can register an account on those websites, which means that anybody could post false information. When using photographic sources on these sites, cite the photo itself by uploading it onto the Wiki, not the person posting it.
*IMDB: It's user editable, like a wiki, but edits tend to go unchecked - actors being added to cast lists when they're not actually in an upcoming show or movie, for example. And they don't cite sources, unlike Wikipedia.
*URLs: They're notoriously inaccurate. For example, this: http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/drive/roy/hart/ - note the end part, /roy/hart/. The actual spellings should be /roi (as in Roidmude) /heart/.
*Blogs: While they are a great source of information, they should not be the immediate source editors should cite, and only serve as a way for readers to conduct their own research on article topics. If that blog is the only source where you're finding the information, chances are it is mostly fake. 
*Power Rangers NOW: Guilty of posting fake news. Specifically reposting this brainstorming speculation article as an announcement of a new tabletop game.
*Illuminerdi: Guilty of not citing their sources properly and do not conduct proper research before publishing their articles. Specifically, they have posted fake news about a potential MMPR and Zenkaiger adaptation crossover and Hasbro no longer adapting Super Sentai after Dino Fury concludes. 
*Premium Bandai: Due to updated geographic restrictions, links to Premium Bandai are not be accessible in certain regions without the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN).https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2022/02/notice-regarding-premium-bandai-and-merchandise/ Links to blog sites with information and images from P.B. (i.e. figsoku, LadyEve, TokuNet, Tokunation) are fine.
==References==
Category:Style Guide