User talk:Ahasuerus/Archive/2009

TOR Double #13

Added some notes to your verified pub TORDOB13 re:Canadian ISBN on the cover and copyright page; $C price and added a second artist with a note assigning the covers to the artists (Michael Böhme is credited for the Le Guin cover on that copyright page). Also that it is TOR Double #13. Cheers! ~Bill, --Bluesman 06:27, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I placed the submission on hold for your consideration. MHHutchins 19:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, folks, my copy matches what was added, so I approved the submission (and fixed a typo in Notes). Apparently I forgot to check the copyright page of the second half of the double when I verified the book :( Ahasuerus 23:09, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Moore & Kuttner's Earth's Last Citadel

Locus #201 (May 1977) confirms that this pub was published in April 1977. MHHutchins 03:54, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, updated! Ahasuerus 04:12, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

City

You may want to take a look at User_talk:MA Lloyd#City by Simak as it's a submission with the same ISBN and price as one of your verified publications but with a different date. --Marc Kupper|talk 07:03, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Queue backlog

The backlog is down to 3 items. Hopefully we won't uncover a crash should the queue get emptied. :-) --Marc Kupper|talk 23:16, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

It's down to two... --Marc Kupper|talk 23:21, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Go-go-gadget approv-o-matic! ;-) Ahasuerus 23:43, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Wow, approving submissions without having to scroll down the screen! What is this world coming to? :) MHHutchins 00:13, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Hopefully a kinder and simpler place. Now, just admit we don't really need "Wishbone" books... BLongley 00:20, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, even though they are not exactly our "core competency", they look a great deal like speculative fiction. And there are lots and lots and lots of them - see this meta-list... Ahasuerus 02:12, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

I recognized the names of at least two spec-fic authors: Brad Strickland and Michael Jan Friedman. Bill, be careful what you say it jest. It might just lead you down a wayward path from which it could take several days to find your back! MHHutchins 02:28, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm looking at the Adventures of Wishbone list and wondering if the Wishbone books are rewritten for younger audiences or do they just take the titles and write "similar" stories? I recognized Carla Jablonski and Nancy Butcher in there as specfict authors. Bill Crider rings a bell and yep, he's already in ISFDB. --Marc Kupper|talk 06:00, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

We seem to have amalgamated some Wishbone anyway, while losing the "Wishbone". e.g. here BLongley 22:51, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

That's my laugh of the day. Seems someone's doing some merging based solely on titles without regard to authors. Heck, I may have even done it myself! Let's leave it for awhile to see if any of our more astute editors catch it. 23:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Too true. BTW, at some point we will want to go over these folks' lists and reconcile them with our stuff. I have the site saved on CD (just in case), so there is no hurry. Tuck, Reginald-1 and Reginald-3 are much more important and we still have huge gaps there :( Ahasuerus 02:41, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Was that a less than subtle reminder that I'm not yet through the Bs in Tuck? :) MHHutchins 04:25, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh no, I know only too well how tiresome it can be to try to enter hundreds of pages from a reference book or an encyclopedia! Back when I tried entering Reginald-3, I stopped on page 2 :(

Still, I am concerned that at the rate we are going we will have most Heinlein/Anderson/Silverberg reprints cataloged while completely missing thousands of more obscure Titles. Your Hale project is a good example of how we can alleviate this problem, but I am sure there is more that we could do. Ahasuerus 16:46, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

[unindent] I was shocked by how many new title records are being created from the Hale project. Yes, they're 90% hack work, and published for libraries, but who knows how many of today's British writers first discovered sf in the stacks of their local library with books published by Robert Hale? Thankfully, librarians entered these as a series, making it easier to grab the records from OCLC. Next up: Dennis Dobson, and maybe soon into the Cs of Tuck! MHHutchins 17:14, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Genre publishers are easy to do with OCLC's help -- just click on "Advanced options" and then click on the publisher's name to see all books by that publisher. Non-genre publishers with significant SF exposure are harder to cover, but you can use OCLC's "Limit" option to select just the science fiction/fantasy/horror/etc, although you will have to depend on each record's "subject" classification, always a dicey proposition.

My big project at the moment is identifying genre bibliography sites on the Web and dumping them to CDs/DVDs/external drives so that if (or rather when) they disappear, we will have something to fall back on. I was working on Russian VTs last week, so I grabbed a monster Russian site (2.3Gb compressed) and then it promptly went off line, proving my point :) Ahasuerus 17:55, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Ray Brown and R. D. Brown

Hi there,

I tracked down the stories by the author Ray Brown and in the process I believe that R. D. Brown is the alternative name of Ray Brown on two of his stories.

I tried to edit the ISFDB entry, but no luck. I posted detailed information on my talk page, if you get the chance to update things. Thanks... --Allynh 18:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Mutiny in the Time Machine

You may see two entries from me to be approved. The first one my finger hit return, and I hit "back" to finish, so the second one has the more complete data.

I entered the Library of Congress number in the catalog line. Let me know if there is a different format.

And I mention that it is A Boy's Life Library Book in the "note" field.

Let me know if you need more information. Thanks...--Allynh 20:55, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream

Added nine interior art pieces to TSTSSTT1965, all by Gaughan and a note to that effect. The image link appears to be broken. ~Bill, --Bluesman 19:25, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Laumer's Retief: Diplomat at Arms

There appears to be two verified first printings of this title, each having a different price. Perhaps one was printed in Canada? Funny thing is, SFR#46 states the price as $2.75, maybe a compromise? Thanks. MHHutchins 21:18, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Finally found this unlabeled book -- and a good thing too since my copy is an undated second printing. Good catch, thanks! Ahasuerus 22:32, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Time Machine to the Rescue

I added the second book in the series. I could not find a good example for the information I placed in the Note field. Fix the note the way you think best and I'll try to copy the structure.

Plus, the Donald Keith pen name is the collaborative pseudonym from a father-and-son team, Donald and Keith Monroe.

I found this example of a similar collaborative pseudonym.

Title: The Cobweb
Author: Stephen Bury
Year: 1996
Variant Title of: The Cobweb (by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George )

Used As Alternate Name By: Neal Stephenson , J. Frederick George
Biography: Bio:Stephen Bury
Bibliographic Comments: Author:Stephen Bury
Pseudonym. See: Neal Stephenson , J. Frederick George

I could not see how to enter the Donald Keith information so that the books and the short stories linked up on the same page.

Used These Alternate Names: Donald Keith
Biography: Bio:Donald Monroe
Bibliographic Comments: Author:Donald Monroe

Shortfiction

Butterfly 9 (1957) with Keith Monroe [as by Donald Keith ]
Command Performance (1958) with Keith Monroe [as by Donald Keith ]

Plus - Should I enter the author blurb, describing the origin of the pen name, in the Biography or Bibliographic Comments for Donald Keith on the wiki page.

I also added information to The Boy Who had the Power by Jean and Jeff Sutton.

I hope to update the Sutton books and the A. M. Lightner. I notice bits of information missing.

Let me know if you need more information. Thanks...--Allynh 04:38, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Masters of Evolution/Fire in the Heavens

Added a parenthetical note to MSEVFIH1959 assigning the cover of Masters of Evolution to EMSH. ~Bill, --Bluesman 04:08, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Feel free to add me to your ever growing list of editors who trust your sig hunting skills implicitly :) Ahasuerus 04:11, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

It's the thrill of the hunt!! Where is Waldo? ;-) ~Bill, --Bluesman 23:56, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

PR#104: The Man with Two Faces-add/notation

This. [1] . I added "The Ship of Things to Come" an essay series that is pretty blah, but is present in most issues and one that Bob Hall was working on. I changed the page count to an actual page count as desired by B.H. for a magazine. I added the 441 designator to the catalog number to remain consistent with other entries. I re-ordered the notation to the same formatting as the others and get it out of total clutter status. I may be the only one to appreciate it, but having reached this point, I can actually see the ups and downs of the series by the notations. I must have missed mentioning something, but that's life, and apologies. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 12:56, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, thanks! Ahasuerus 16:34, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Space Chantey/Pity About Earth

Added the interior art pieces (also credited to the cover artists) to the contents of SPCHPAE1968 with a note. The image link is broken. ~Bill, --Bluesman 23:54, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

The second book of Fritz Leiber

Added the interior art by Gaughan to THSCZLBR151975. ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Miners in the Sky

Added Paul Lehr as the artist for MNRSNTHSKJ1967 as he is credited on the copyright page. ~Bill, --Bluesman 18:52, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

The Monster From Earth's End

Found a signature on the cover of MNSTREE1959, Muni left side, maybe 1 1/2" up, almost on the spine. That name rings no bells and gets no hits in the db. Put it in the field and a note. ~Bill, --Bluesman 22:29, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Planet Explorer

Added to your notes about PLNTXPLRRW1957 as this pub is listed in Currey (even though it's not the original "Colonial Survey") he does list as firsts anything with a different title or if revised. On the cover there are some initials just above and left of the man's right arm. They could be AHS, HS, or even SH if you look at them upside down. Rings no bells... any ideas? ~Bill, --Bluesman 23:51, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I am afraid not since I am not much of a sig hunter. Hm, is that better or worse than a Slan hunter? :) Ahasuerus 03:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

This site says "Scanlan" which would match the "S" but I'm not sure I believe it. We only have Peter and Paul, no A or H. And Peter did the 1989 edition according to OCLC. BLongley 18:38, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and Sig Hunters must be better than Slan Hunters. I haven't seen a single positive review for "Slan Hunter" yet. Sig Hunters get "a small amount of kudos" (as the BBC Magazine Monitor would put it) here. BLongley 00:44, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Space Captain/Mad Metropolis

Added the interior art pieces (one by Gaughan) to MDMTRPSPC1966 and a note. ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:01, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

War With the Gizmos

Found Powers sig. on the cover of WRWTHTHGZM1958, added that with a note. Just left of the "M" in "Murray". ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:39, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Boy, someone has been busy today! :) Thanks! Ahasuerus 03:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Green Eyes

I've approved Bluesman adding an image to your verified Green Eyes. --Marc Kupper|talk 18:12, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 18:47, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Earth's Other Shadow

Added an image to RTHSTHRSHD0000 Can you see if it matches yours? It matches mine but I have a third printing. ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:48, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

The cover is the same, thanks! Ahasuerus 14:11, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Held Fixer submissions for Hannah Howell anthologies

Would you like me take over those three submissions that you have on hold for these "paranormal romance" anthologies? I was working lower on the list and approved the same titles (but different editions, like this one.) I was even able to find the contents on OCLC. I also completed the Eugenia Riley titles that Fixer found, which led me to her webpage where I found a half-dozen more. Her specialty seems to be "time travel romance", a genre I've never even heard of. MHHutchins 23:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, please! As I wrote yesterday night, "Please feel free to process it (or any other submissions that I have on hold for that matter) as you see fit. There is nothing particularly unusual about my holds, it's just that I have spent the whole weekend wrapping up Russian vts (finally done!) and updating Fixer, so I don't have the energy to do more than crash and burn..." :) Ahasuerus 23:26, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and "time travel romance" has been gaining popularity alongside other flavors of "speculative romance": "vampire romance" (naturally) and other sub-species of paranormal and supernatural romance, "space opera romance", "cyberpunk romance" (a la the Shomi line), etc. Romance books have always sold much better than SF/F books (up to 7:1 depending on whose numbers you choose to believe), so once Hollywood taught romance readers to suspend their disbelief, we quickly got swamped... Ahasuerus 23:44, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Firebirds Soaring

I held this as "2009-03-05" is a bit tricky to add any details to. (If any Mods are truly psychic, let them speak now! Or yesterday, preferably.) Is Fixer overlapping with what Dissembler will do later? BLongley 23:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Fixer grabs anything speculative that it can find, which may be a mistake since any pub 6+ months out is likely to be incomplete or even erroneous. It may be prudent to delete and re-download everything for February and beyond, but I'll have to think about it.

As far as Dissembler goes, keep in mind that it doesn't download everything eligible, which was one of the reasons why I began working on Fixer. Ahasuerus 00:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

OK, I let it through but edited it to this to stop it appearing on far-too-many author pages. If Dissembler is working on Top 2% of authors only, this lot might slip under the radar. Is this a reasonable compromise, do you think? BLongley 21:18, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I am sure that's fine for now, but we'll have to come up with a more devious plan going forward, especially if Browse Nodes do go away. Ahasuerus 05:02, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Worlds Without End

Added a cover image to WRLDWTHE1964 and massaged the notes. ~Bill, --Bluesman 04:15, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 13:50, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Held submission changing a verified pub

I've placed this submission on hold for your perusal. Thanks. 21:09, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Good catch, approved - thanks! Ahasuerus 00:25, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

The Fourth "R"

Added a cover image to FRTHR1979. Found it when looking for the Ballantine cover, so I do not have the book-in-hand. Can you see if it matches your pub? ~Bill, --Bluesman 22:37, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

It sure does, thanks! Ahasuerus 00:31, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Brother to Dragons--adds

This. [2] . I added cover image and start page as I match your ver. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 14:09, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed, thanks. Ahasuerus 15:29, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Added cover credit

I add cover credit to your verified copy of Piserchia's A BILLION DAYS OF EARTH. My copy is trimmed so can see the artist's signature. Ken Barr by the way.Don Erikson 18:50, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Added interior art credit

I added interior art credit for Piserchia's DOOMTIME.Don Erikson 19:03, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Left a message on Don's Talk page. Ahasuerus 01:58, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Added interior art credit again

Me again. I added interior art credit for Piserchia's EARTHCHILD.Don Erikson 19:07, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Left a message on Don's Talk page. Ahasuerus 01:58, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Forerunner: The Second Venture

This. [3] . If you wish this image matched mine and if you agree you can add it. [4] . Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 13:56, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Added, thanks! Ahasuerus 04:02, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Mission To Universe

Added a cover image to MSSNTNVRSP1977 ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:50, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 02:11, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Vaughan Bodé interior illo?

My copy of Space Chantey says Vaughn Bodé for both cover and interior art.--swfritter 21:08, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed, thanks. 02:15, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

The Golden Grove

Added a cover image to GLGR1986 ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:55, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Trinity

Added a cover image to TRTY1988 ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:05, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Mutant

Added a cover image to MUTANT1963 ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:15, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

approved --Marc Kupper|talk 02:09, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Nine By Laumer

Added a cover image to NNBLMRGRLZ1969 ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:31, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

approved --Marc Kupper|talk 02:09, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Miners in the Sky [2]

Added a cover image to MNRSNTHSKJ1967 ~Bill, --Bluesman 03:38, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Other Side of Nowhere

Added a cover image to OTSIDNOW1964 ~Bill, --Bluesman 03:50, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

The Planet Explorer

Added a cover image to PLNTXPLRRW1957 ~Bill, --Bluesman 03:55, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Path Beyond the Stars

Added a cover image to THPTHBNDTH1969 ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:52, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

The Time Twister

Added a cover image to THTMTWSTRC1968 ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:56, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Other Worlds of Clifford Simak

Added a cover image to THRWDSMK271962 ~Bill, --Bluesman 21:42, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

I am not ignoring you, Bill, just don't have enough time to pull out the paperbacks and check :( This weekend, perhaps... Ahasuerus 04:04, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Cover verified and variant titles set for the "D."-less version of Simak's name. Ahasuerus 01:31, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Lensmen from Rigel

Given the current dithering over when to separate titles and when to add more notes, I'd like your views on this. Normally I'd just add this to your verified publication as it has the same printing number according to number-line, and check with you as to whether it matches. But I suspect the back cover is slightly different. It's stickered with the UK Publisher and price. Would you prefer a separate publication record (as the publisher has changed too) or shall I just add more notes to your publication? BLongley 22:59, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Checking my pub, I can't see anything different on either side of the book. If the only difference is the presence of a sticker, then I don't think we want to create a separate publication record for it. Ahasuerus 02:42, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

OK, cover and notes added. I'm not entirely comfortable about combining different publishers on a single publication though, but can readdress that later. (I just don't want them combined into "Transworld" for convenience at the moment.) BLongley 21:03, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

(Oh, and help currently says it's "from" rather than "From" - should we change that too?) BLongley 22:59, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Oh, that was just an oversight. I must have used "Add Pub" without thinking. Fixed now, thanks! Ahasuerus 02:42, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

I fixed the other Bantam pub. And found a couple more "Red Jacket Press" editions for each title in the trilogy. And added a cover to your Z-Lensman too, is that the right one? BLongley 21:03, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 02:45, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Reality Dysfunction [3]

Added a cover image to THRLTDSFNC1997 ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:33, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 00:14, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

SERIALs and dates

Thanks for the correction. Unfortunately, your note arrived while I was entering the last issue of The Arkham Sampler which contains the second part of that serial and for which I made the same error. If the whoever approves it doesn't catch it. I'll submit a correction when the entry is approved.--Rtrace 03:58, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

I accepted the submission, and the subsequent change. So it all looks good now. MHHutchins 04:23, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

An Alien Light [2]

Added a cover image to BKTG08494 ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:47, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 00:13, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Brain Rose

Added a cover image to BRRS1990 ~Bill, --Bluesman 02:03, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 00:14, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Alternities

Added a cover image to LTRNTSGLLK1988 and massaged the notes. Since the Ace PB it reprints has different artwork I removed the note about the photographic credits (the SFBC edition retains most of the PB's copyright page, but there are no photographs on/inside the jacket). Cheers! ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:10, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, thanks! Ahasuerus 00:11, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

House in November

Added a cover image to THHSNNVMBR1970 ~Bill, --Bluesman 17:01, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

That's the one! But I wonder where the price came from? The SFBC flyer? Ahasuerus 00:08, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Vortex magazine date.

re this discussion. I queried Contento and got no reply - although a couple of Fictionmag submissions I made went through. Applying a date to mags when there is data available to justify it is of some consequence because otherwise the titles in the pub will not sort correctly. This applies to pubs as listed in the editor series and also to serials, essay series, and other titles with dependencies. also, an interesting title now available on fictionwise from a 1943 issue of Super Science Stories.-swfritter 23:19, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes, it was very nicely done and remained my favorite unreprinted Kuttner story for many years -- until it was reprinted, that is :) Ahasuerus 00:03, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Stories are never as good if they are readily available.--swfritter 23:49, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

True, but in this case it stopped being my favorite unreprinted Kuttner story because it was no longer unreprinted :) Ahasuerus 03:47, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Changed date on verified

I changed the date on your verified 2nd Ace printing of Pratt's ALIEN PLANET. From 2/73 to 1/73 as per the copyright page.Don Erikson 23:30, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Oops, my bad! Thanks for fixing it! Ahasuerus 23:50, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Richard Marcinko / Rogue Warrior

Hi. Since your name is on the content policies, I figured I'd ask you. I see this Richard Marcinko "Rogue Warrior" pub. I have some other ones, but do they really belong here? --MartyD 02:55, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what Ahasuerus' schedule is and so I'll jump in. In summary - it's up to you. If you are familiar with the works and they are not specfict then delete away. I see that Rogue Warrior links to a co-author and if you start following the thread of co-authors you rapidly run into people writing military SF and SF. In looking at Richard Marcinko on Fantastic Fiction I'd say "no" to adding the rest of his works but ultimately it's up to you and how you want to spend your time. --Marc Kupper|talk 11:16, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the intercept, Marc! My "ISFDB time" has been very limited for the last week, so any help is greatly appreciated. Ahasuerus 05:37, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Note that you need to delete the publications first, wait for approval, and then you can delete the title records. --Marc Kupper|talk 11:16, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I didn't really mean I wanted to delete Vengeance (I don't have it to assess), but I have others I could add. Or not. I couldn't tell if that book has been allowed because it's deemed appropriate, if it just sort of happens to be there, or if this series in general is acceptable content. The ones I have strike me more as espionage / military thriller than anything else. I didn't want to compound what might be a mistake. --MartyD 11:27, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

From time to time one of us will run across large chunks stories or authors that don't seem to belong. Usually they are RPG or manga. Sometimes we also find that someone's gone to the trouble to divide a non-genre author into series, and otherwise made a clean bibliography. It leads to some hand wringing as deleting the stuff is also throwing out someone's work. With Richard Marcinko I don't have a problem with deleting away as it's clear no human has ever gotten interested. For 2004 and 2005 there are quite a few stories added to the database by a robot. I started ISFDB:Non-SF Cleanup 2004 which is a project to manually check the titles added by the robot. Once that's done I'll do the same for 2005.

A while ago I was in a used bookstore and in the clearance bin they had a bunch of books by Edward S. Aarons. Some of the titles and covers looked specficish and so I got them. I ended up constructing Series:Sam Durell as it turns out to be a largely non-specfic series. I could see doing something similar for some of these borderline authors. Again it gets back to how you want to use your time and if you view an author such as Richard Marcinko as "low hanging fruit" meaning you would not need tons of effort to fill out a bibliography.

Overall, we are inclusive. If someone feels a story is specfict then that's fine though I'm starting to think about ways to tag stories as containing specific elements vs. being based on specfict. --Marc Kupper|talk 07:30, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Ok. I will do as you suggest and delete it. Thanks for thinking about it and for the help. --MartyD 11:47, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Path into the Unknown

Added a cover image to PTHNTTHNKN1968 ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:38, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

The cover is fine, but I have changed "First Dell printing—November, 1969" to read "November, 1968". Ahasuerus 23:47, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

The Cosmic Computer

Your verified pub CSCM1983 lists Berkley as the publisher, but the note lists 'Stated third Ace printing.' I have this November 1983 publication. Front cover and Spine state 'Ace'. Title page states 'Ace'. Copyright page states "An Ace Science Fiction Book". It does go on to state that "Ace Science Fiction Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group". While it was ultimately part of the Berkley group, I would think this pub is more accurately listed as an Ace publication. If you disagree, I will clone your edition for another record. I also went ahead and added a link to cover art. Thanks. Kevin 03:03, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

I just checked and the publisher should definitely be Ace. I must have updated or cloned a pre-existing record when I verified the book and forgot to change the publisher. Fixed now - thanks! Ahasuerus 03:10, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

My edit to update the cover art will probably overwrite your fix. If you approve it, please edit it. If someone else approves it, I will recheck and re-edit it back to Ace. Thanks Kevin 03:14, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

I placed the submission on hold. MHHutchins 07:36, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Approved and corrected - thanks! Ahasuerus 12:31, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

First Cycle

I added cover art to your verified pub FRSTCCLDTX1982. Kevin 03:50, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 20:44, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

The Worlds of H. Beam Piper

I added cover art to your verified pub WHBP1983. Kevin 04:39, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 20:44, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

The Purity Plot

Added a cover image to THPRTYPLT1983 that matches my copy of what seems to be the same edition. --MartyD 12:32, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 20:36, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

The Dragon Lensman--additions/notations/ ? over Foreward essay/fiction?

This. [5]. I have the same copy, and added the introduction and foreword and notation. Problem possible with Foreword as I entered it as short fiction, but leave up to you. Unfortunately my 'lens' is buried in the current spending bills and has the blahs. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 17:13, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Boy, I sure missed a lot in this pub! I must have misplaced my lens that weekend...

As far as Kyle's fictional "Foreword" goes, Help:Screen:NewPub says "Occasionally something like an endnote will be set in the fictional world of the novel; these do not get indexed separately as they are regarded as part of the novel's text". However, in this case I think the inclusion of the Foreword as a separate story is justified since it's a summary of the history of Doc Smith's universe rather than a more traditional fictional prologue. Approved and massaged, thanks! Ahasuerus 01:41, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

I thank you. I have become more critical of 'entry' and 'exit' dialogues. Signatures push me, but I am highly inclined to show them when they give an added something for the reader. I presented it to show what I saw, and 'massaging' it bothers me not at all. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 14:16, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

The Castle Keeps

Hi. I added a cover image to your verified THCSTLKPSL1972 that matches my copy of the same edition. I noticed the entry uses the catalog #S2187 from the cover instead of the ISBN, even though the notes mention the SBN. Wouldn't it be better to use the ISBN instead? --MartyD 02:27, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed, thanks. Ahasuerus 02:30, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Emergence

Added a cover image to your verified EMRG1984 that matches my copy of the same edition. --MartyD 12:15, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, thanks! Ahasuerus 02:28, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Spacepaw -- price?

I have what appears to be a copy of your verified BKTG01821, 1st Tor edition, full number line, matching all of the details provided, except the price on my copy is $3.50 ($4.50 Canada w/the 53543-X ISBN). Would you check if the $3.95 listed is a mistake, or if I have a different edition? Locus1 agrees with the $3.95, but I have seen that its info doesn't always match the actual books.... Thanks. --MartyD 13:21, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

You are right, it's $3.50. My guess is that the publication record was originally created based on the Locus data and when I verified it, I neglected to change the price. Should be fixed now, thanks! Ahasuerus 18:13, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have had you stick in a note about the Locus1 discrepancy while you were editing it to save one go-round. I added a note to that effect and a Locus1 verification. --MartyD 18:51, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, approved! Ahasuerus 18:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

On hold magazine submissions

You have this one on hold. I have this one which is a webzine story. I would imagine you will be posting a message to the submitter's talk page and its content might apply to both submissions.--swfritter 23:26, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Since it deals with magazines, would you mind taking this submitter over? I am still not feeling well and trying to spend my limited resources on Fixer and a few simple chores... Ahasuerus 01:09, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Glad to.--swfritter 02:09, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 02:22, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

The Kindly Ones

I added cover art to your verified pub TKNDLNS1987 matching the copy of the same printing in hand - Thanks Kevin 22:32, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

That's the one -- it's kind of, um, hard to forget :) Ahasuerus 23:16, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding Cover Images

Well, I think I've fallen into a black hole. I followed the instructions thru step 10 with no problem. Then the feces hit the blades. What -exactly- does APPLY mean? That is, how is it done: link, cut/paste, etheric waves, an application form? The referenced page for selecting a license is devoid of ANY guidance for making a reasonable (or unreasonable, for that matter) selection among the 20+ choices.

In any case, I've created an image for the cover of Ellison's "Earthman, Go Home!" and stashed it on the wiki as RTHMNGHMKK1968.jpeg. The next question will probably be: "how do I find it again" once the question in the above paragraph is answered.

We can dispense with the question immediately above, I've found "Special Pages" and figured out what to do. Sometimes I think this is a big puzzle: fun, if you can find all the pieces. I may have found the answer to the question below as well, but would appreciate a direct reference. I see that some (perhaps many?) uploaders do NOT apply a license (from the questions/answers in "help desk"). If that's permissible, I'm going in that direction just for preservation of sanity.

The last question will undoubtedly be: what is the form of the URL for the wiki that has to be inserted in the isfdb to link the image? That is, what goes before the filename (server names/directories/slashie goodness).

OK, I've added the image link to the ISFDB as follows: "Image:RTHMNGHMKK1968.jpeg" (minus the quotes of course). That looked to be the format suggested by the "Upload files" page of the "Special Pages". I left out the double set of square brackets. I guess I'll find out if THAT was OK. Looked like meta-info to me, not actual formatting. If the info in the Help discussion gets archived, that won't be a good thing. If the next poor schmuck that tries this doesn't guess and go to the special pages, discovering the link format by accident, that won't be good either.

I'd feel like a complete idiot and fool if I didn't have my mensa membership card to remind me that I'm not.

Regards... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by DSorgen (talk • contribs) .

Looks like you've found how to insert images into Wiki pages: if you want to use them as Cover Images in ISFDB itself, you have to right-click on the image and find the full path, e.g. http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/3/3d/RTHMNGHMKK1968.jpeg in this case. Yes, the Upload does place it some arbitrary directory - you can't predict or alter that it seems. BLongley 19:32, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Interesting. Another undocumented "feature". Unless you know to right click the image and copy the address, the link won't work. The instructions state that simply placing "image:" in front of the filename will work. I think I can remember this one. --Dsorgen 02:31, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Cover Image for your verified "A Trace of Memory"

Uploaded an image[6] for Laumer's 1972 edition. Regards - --Dsorgen 02:54, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Beyond Infinity

Added a cover image to [[7]] ~Bill, --Bluesman 22:15, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Bob Shaw's Other Days, Other Eyes (SFBC UK)

I added the catalog number to this publication record based on info from this website, and stated so in the notes. According to that website, at this point in their history, the UK SFBC stopped placing the catalog numbers in the books themselves. I'm trying to establish some kind of pattern by placing them in our records. Thanks. MHHutchins 17:46, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, but I wonder if the price data is right? The Note seems to suggest that £1.80 was the original price, not the book club price. Ahasuerus 20:15, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Looking at other Gollancz editions in 1972, £1.80 would have been about the price for trade editions. The UK SFBC prices were on the average about half of the original trade edition. I wonder who placed that price in this record or the note. It's obvious that the price in the note refers to the Gollancz edition, not this book club reprint, so that price should be removed. MHHutchins 22:48, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I suspect that some well meaning editor read the Note, saw the reference to "£1.80", misunderstood what it meant and then decided to be helpful and put "£1.80" in the price field. I guess the only thing we can do is remove the price and clarify the Note... Ahasuerus 17:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

The Winds of Time -- cover image

I added this image to your verified TWNDSOT1959 that matches my copy of the same edition. --MartyD 01:53, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 04:18, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Knave of Dreams

I updated your verified pub KNVFDRMSWB1976 with cover artist, cover art, cover artist signature location, and I put the Ace 5-digit in notes while putting the ISBN in the appropriate field to activate the various bookstore links. Thanks Kevin 19:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, approved. Wish we had a way to link to bookstores without creating imaginary ISBNs, but oh well... Ahasuerus 20:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Iron Butterflies

Added cover art to your verified pub RNBTTRFLSH1980 Thanks Kevin 20:15, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Cross-checked and approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 20:26, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The Invaders are Coming -- cover image

I added this image to your verified NVDRSCM1959 that matches my copy of the same edition. --MartyD 11:49, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

The Aliens / Leinster -- cover image

I added this image to your verified THLNSVZQWX1965 that matches my copy of the same edition. --MartyD 15:36, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Naked to the Stars/The Alien Way

Added a cover image to [[8]] and massaged the notes a little. ~Bill, --Bluesman 22:28, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Added a cover image to [[9]] as well. Definitely an odd pub tag here. ~Bill, --Bluesman 22:42, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Man From Earth

Added a cover image to [[10]] ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:10, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Also an image for [[11]] ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:19, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

The Dragon Lensman Revisited---cover artist attributed

Afternoon!. I popped for some $.35 copies of "Doc" Smith and got a third Bantam printing. It attributes the copyright as 1983 to Bob Larkin. It is the same image and I added it to your ver's notes. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 20:36, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed, thanks! Ahasuerus 00:03, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Downloads?

Glad to see you busy again. Any idea why the downloads are not available?--swfritter 21:13, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

www.isfdb2.org is currently unavailable and, according to Al, it may remain unavailable for the foreseeable future. I try to download the master backup file (and a separate file for the cover scans) to a local hard drive and/or DVD every day, but we'll need to do something about backup availability going forward. Ahasuerus 21:24, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. It would be nice to have it on at least a monthly basis. I extract data for specific authors which I than import into Access so that I can make shopping lists which I can use to shop for pubs which contain stories that I am missing. That sometimes require doing a little cleanup work on the data.--swfritter 22:18, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Without the daily downloads it is also difficult to create navbars; I often have to do a little clean-up work before I can generate them by using a program that uses the daily downloads. I have also been using them to track down unverified pubs in a series - faster than looking at every issue. They have been very helpful to me in fixing up various types of data knowing that I would be able to run secondary checks the next day.--swfritter 00:55, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, all we need to host the backups is another Web site which could be used as a repository. I have e-mailed Al to see if there have been any changes over the last few days... Ahasuerus 02:23, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Obviously, a true backup needs it to be stored on another site: but to allow us to use the data offline I'd still quite like a download option even if it's from here. Is there any possibility of getting such made available again like it used to be? It doesn't have to be daily, but my last backup was 11th March and is becoming increasingly less useful. And the fact that this IS a database is the main attraction for me - I need to be able to get the data OUT, not just whack it around on a remote server. BLongley 20:41, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Ditto. I have the bulk of my collection in the database and was just getting ready to learn the API. A bigger concern - I want the database to live forever which means that in the extreme case that we cease to exist there will be something for future generations to build upon - the whole point behind Creative Commons as far as I am concerned. "Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally" as it says on their website.--swfritter 21:13, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the reminder! I certainly agree that we need to make our backups continuously available. I have set Fixer aside for tonight and I am now looking into various options that we may have. Stay tuned! Ahasuerus 22:38, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks.--swfritter 22:46, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

OK, we may be getting somewhere. Could you please try downloading this 2009-03-15 backup file and let me know if it's readable? TIA! Ahasuerus 02:31, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Works for me. Thanks! BLongley 13:08, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Me too.--swfritter 20:14, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

The latest backup file is now available here. The backup logic has been changed, so please let me know if everything looks OK and I will post the new URL on the appropriate Wiki pages. Ahasuerus 16:40, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

That works for me. Seems to generate reasonable Entropy stats as well. Except that I've spotted the big flaw in the verification counts - the percentages are completely invalid, it's counting multiple times per pub. No wonder it went up 10,000 per month. :-( BLongley 19:25, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

No problems.--swfritter 21:24, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Communipath Worlds

Added a cover image to [[12]]--Bluesman 02:36, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

And also to [[13]]--Bluesman 02:42, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

And also to [[14]]--Bluesman 03:02, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

And also to [[15]]--Bluesman 03:14, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Galactic Odyssey--added cover

Morning. This. [16] . I added a cover image and start page after matching my copy to your ver. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 13:43, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Shadowspawn

I added a cover image to your verified pub BKTG12830 --Rtrace 03:50, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Binary Star 3

Added a cover image to [[17]]--Bluesman 03:07, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Mutant Season

Added a cover image to [[18]]--Bluesman 03:08, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

The Night of the Wolf

I added a cover image to your verified pub THNGHTFTHW1972 --Rtrace 01:55, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

The Sinful Ones an expansion of You're All Alone?

See this discussion. Your verified pub has a page count of 176 for The Sinful Ones which, unless it is large print, should make it a novel. In the original magazine publication You're All Alone' is definitely a novella but is elsewhere also classified as a Novel in a variant relationship despite the short length. Contento has this note about the Baen edition: "The Sinful Ones (Baen 0-671-65549-3, Jan ’86 [Dec ’85], $2.95, 250pp, pb) Reprint (Universal 1953) fantasy novel. This edition follows the slightly revised 1980 Pocket text and has the 1980 afterword. The condensed version was published as You Are All Alone (Ace 1972)." Strangely enough that seems to indicate that the original novella was expanded into the novel and then condensed from the novel which would actually give us three versions?!?!! It looks to me like all You're All Alone versions should be merged as a novella and all The Sinful Ones should be treated as a novel which leaves us with this one which should be treated like an Ace Double - with one half being a bull-fighting novel by a non-genre author.--swfritter 16:31, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Hm, interesting. Let me pull out a few pubs and see what's going on here. Ahasuerus 23:11, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Nova 3

Added a cover image to [[19]] --Bluesman 03:22, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Also to [[20]]--Bluesman 03:31, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Currey verifications?

Is there a reason Currey verifications don't show on the Recent Verifications page? Every other source seems to get there. They do show up in the pub records. ??? ~Bill, --Bluesman 21:18, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Verifications have experienced strange problems for a while and your question prompted me to dig a little deeper. It turns out that the database is somewhat messed up and whenever there is a gap in the internal numbering of Verification sources, we have a problem. Here is how they are numbered internally at the moment:

1 - Primary, 2 - Clute/Nicholls, 3 - Clute/Grant, 4 - Contento1 (anth/coll), 5 - Locus1, 6 - Reginald1, 7 - Reginald3, 8 - Tuck, 9 - Contento2 (zine), 10 - Bleiler1 (Gernsback), 13 - Currey, 17 - Primary (Transient)

As you can see, the first 10 are sequential, but Currey and Transient are not. Some internal references to them are stored as 11 and 12 as opposed to 13 and 17, so some pages do not display them properly. I will contact Al and ask him to fix the problem when he has a moment. Thanks for the heads up! Ahasuerus 17:16, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Maybe he could add another Transient line? Seems that came up a while ago during discussions about absentee Primary Verifiers, so lots of pubs only have one current 'source' for questions. There seem to be a number of current very active editors that could easily spread that 'source base' out. Or an 'expiry date' on verifications..... ? ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:48, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

We are unable to add new Verification sources at the moment, presumably due to the software issues described above. Besides, since we have now found a discrepancy in the database, we need to fix it before we do anything else. The longer we wait to fix the underlying problem, the farther it may spread, which, in an extreme case, may result in losing all Verification data and/or making parts of the application unusable. I can't fix either the software or the database myself, so I am waiting for Al to get back to me. Unfortunately, he has been 99% unavailable lately... Ahasuerus 15:26, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Companions on the Road & The Winter Players--- check cover/ found other artist

Morning!. This. [21] . I checked my copy against yours. I do NOT think "Two Novellas" should be included on the title line. This is cover? [22] . It does match mine. Third problem cover artist. Cover image is a wraparound front to back. Signature "Lou Feck" left and below panties of woman on back cover. That is left bottom back cover. All up to you. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 14:16, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Agreed on all counts. Changes made and cover URL added. Thanks! Ahasuerus 15:37, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Looks good. I notice that you kept the other artist in notes for consideration and I like that. Never know for sure that one artist did the whole, part or just took credit. I have several that may have done cover 'design' but took cover credit. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 20:12, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that's entirely possible. Another scenario is that the cover art attribution may have been carried over from another Publication record during cloning.

Typically, when correcting a record and deciding whether to move the data that is being overwritten to Notes, I consider what the source and potential reliability of the original information was. If it was something as obvious as Amazon.com's (notoriously unreliable) page count, I just overwrite it. If it's something more unusual like a different cover art attribution, then I try to make a note of it. Ahasuerus 22:46, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Volkhavaar

I added a cover image for your verified pub VLKHVR581977 Thanks.--Rtrace 21:33, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 23:52, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

The Compleat Bolo

I added a piece of short fiction you missed in The Compleat Bolo. It appeared in both the volumes comprising this omnibus and was included here, but it isn't listed on the TOC or the Copyright page. I also added artwork that matches my copy in hand of the first printing. - Thanks Kevin 00:36, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Both confirmed, thanks! Ahasuerus 23:31, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Kevin 04:02, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Hideyuki Kikuchi

Ahasuerus, can you run fixer and find more by this author Hideyuki Kikuchi, translated from Japanese. The "Vampire Hunter D" series are illustrated but not manga or graphic novels. The rest of his work is unknown to me. Thanks!Kraang 17:10, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Checking Fixer's database, I see that there are 14 "Vampire Hunter D" books by this author on file, but they were all auto-suspended either because of the publisher, Dark Horse, or the comic/graphic Browse nodes and subjects associated with the books by Amazon. I told Fixer to override the suspension and they are now in the submission queue, ready for your approval. Just to be on the safe side, we may want to add a note at the Title level explaining that these books are honest to goodness novels. Thanks for finding them! Ahasuerus 23:22, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

After all the stuff I've deleted its nice to add something from a Japanese author back into the data base. According to the back of one of the books there are only 7 illustrations, not bad for a 280 page book! I'll also add the note about them being actual books to each title. Thanks!Kraang 00:42, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I have finished cleaning up the Vampire Hunter D records and confirmed that the rest of the Kikuchi titles in Fixer's database are manga. There is probably more work that could be done here, including setting up variant titles for the original Japanese Titles and cross-checking OCLC to get the correct page counts, but nothing urgent. Perfection is certainly desirable, but progress is OK too :) Ahasuerus 01:09, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I had to give up last night, needed to be up early on Monday. I figured the original titles would be in Japanese(characters), so if there is a link to some place that gives a translation into Latin characters I would give it a go.Kraang 02:10, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

It looks like some OCLC records have the original Japanese titles listed, but it's inconsistent. Wikipedia articles have some of the original titles, but their transliteration style includes so many non-Latin characters that it would likely do extreme violence to our software. I am sure there are other, more Latin-friendly, fan sites, though :) Oh, and the author's Wikipedia article also lists all untranslated Vampire Hunter D novels, which we may want to enter so that we have a complete picture of the series. Ahasuerus 04:01, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Masaki Yamada

Found another Japanese author that might have more SF Masaki Yamada[23]. I had a look at the Wikipedia site about the last authors upcoming works and many of the titles are in parts. It might be better to let them get published and then do a cleanup. If ten different people at Amazon enter the titles you end up with that may variants. In other words no standards.Kraang 00:35, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Fixer went sniffing and found 2 other versions of Innocence: After the Long Goodbye, so I submitted them just so that we would have complete coverage of this title. The rest of the Ghost in the Shell non-manga titles as listed by Wikipedia are apparently "light novels", so they are "in", but, as you said, sorting them out may not be easy since they come out in parts. Still, there are only 4 of them currently out (according to Wikipedia) and it looks like the last volume appeared in 2006, so we may want to enter/organize what's available. Ahasuerus 01:08, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

It turns out that we already had the other 3 linked Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex "light novels" (by Junichi Fujisaku) set up as a series, so I simply added a Ghost in the Shell super-series and it looks like we should be all set. Thanks! Ahasuerus 01:37, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Freebase.com and ISFDB data

Hi Ahasuerus, the company I work for, Freebase.com, is uploading data from ISFDB and I wanted to a) just let you know we were doing it, and b) see if there are ways we can pay ISFDB back in kind. Please email me at jeff at metaweb dot com if you'd like to chat. Thanks! Jefe 20:57, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Plague Ship ---check cover

Morning!. I trans ver as I had this also, but found it while looking for another cover of another printing. Here it is for your viewing. This. [24] with this? [25] . Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 12:40, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 23:28, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

The Beast Master --Artist?

Morning Again! This. [26] , I trans ver this and my opinion and one check by another is that it is Ken Barr. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 13:37, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up, I'll check it tomorrow! Ahasuerus 04:53, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Ken Barr looks about right. Credit added and Notes updated - thanks! Ahasuerus 22:06, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Man in the Tree

Scanned in a cover image of [[27]]--Bluesman 21:11, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Also an image to [[28]]--Bluesman 21:39, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Also an image to [[29]]--Bluesman 22:31, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Also an image to [[30]]--Bluesman 00:20, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Also an image to [[31]]--Bluesman 02:48, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

All 5 covers confirmed, thanks! Ahasuerus 21:25, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

334 unpublished SF Masterworks volume

This pub was never published by Gollancz, although an ISBN was assigned. That number still shows up on a lot of websites, so it would be nice to have it correct on this one. Perhaps changing the publication date to 8888 and adding a note that it was "abandoned". I placed the submission on hold to do some research and when I came back it had been approved. Just didn't want my work to be in vain. Here's one source. There is no OCLC record, nor any copies available through abebooks.com, so it's a good bet that it was never published. MHHutchins 03:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry about that, we were apparently working on this submission in parallel after I ran Fixer :( I was using this publication (along with a few other ones) as a guinea pig for exploring something else about Amazon UK submissions, namely the fact that many UK records do not specify paperback length, which makes it impossible to tell whether they are pbs or tps, and it didn't occur to me to check whether the edition ever appeared. 8888-00-00 sounds like a good solution and at least now I understand what Amazon UK means by "Abandoned" :) Ahasuerus 04:12, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Ace Dbl D-227

Added cover images (broken link) to [[32]]. Changed the note about the artist credit. ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:35, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Cover art confirmed, URL corrected from "hhttp" to "http". Ahasuerus 21:08, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

13 O'clock

Added a cover image to [[33]]--Bluesman 19:49, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 21:59, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Murder of a Wife

Added a cover image to [[34]]--Bluesman 23:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Apocalypses

Added a cover image to [[35]]--Bluesman 03:16, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Also to [[36]]--Bluesman 03:52, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Space Chantey [2]

Replaced the images for [[37]] and expanded the notes considerably. ~bill, --Bluesman 00:16, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 00:18, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Avengers 5

Added a cover image to [[38]]--Bluesman 01:06, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 01:23, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Big Show

Scanned in cover image for [[39]]--Bluesman 03:19, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Also added image to [[40]] Not quite clear enough to distinguish the dual ISBN/pricing data on the cover. --Bluesman 03:38, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Both confirmed, thanks! Ahasuerus 23:49, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Day Before Forever/Thunderhead

Added a note to [[41]] that Currey agrees with the publication date. He also says that "First Edition" is stated on the copyright page, which you would usually note. Not sure how Doubleday did later printings, if this is one? ~Bill, --Bluesman 04:02, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Nope, I just missed the first edition statement at the bottom of the copyright page. Oops! Fixed now. Ahasuerus 03:42, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Dinosaur Beach

Currey says the first edition of [this] pub has the code A—9.71 [C] on the copyright page. You should be able to fine-tune the notes. ~Bill, --Bluesman 04:27, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll check both hardcovers tonight. Ahasuerus 14:45, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Code confirmed, record adjusted, thanks! Ahasuerus 03:37, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Miracle Science Fiction & Fantasy

Noticed that you have the first issue. There is actually a replica edition of the second issue. Kind of interesting that the Amazon blurb states that there were three issues - every other source I am aware of lists two.--swfritter 18:49, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Aha, Adventure House to the rescue! :-) Updated, thanks! (And I am 99% sure that there were only two issues of the magazine since 1930s SF magazines were few and far between and have been thoroughly researched to boot.) Ahasuerus 00:39, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Enemies from Beyond

Added a cover image to [[42]]--Bluesman 00:03, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 00:27, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Infinite Cage

Added a cover image to [[43]]--Bluesman 01:04, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed. Ahasuerus 03:25, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

The Sinful Ones

I added a cover image for your verified pub THSNFLNSBR1980 Thanks.--Rtrace 02:59, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

The Duplicators / No Truce with Terra (Ace Double F-275)

I replaced a broken cover image for your verified pub DUPLTER1964 Thanks.--Rtrace 04:12, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Once There Was a Giant

Added a cover image to [[44]] Interesting cover! --Bluesman 04:54, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Added artist credit

I added cover credit for your verified copy of Schmidt's LIFEBOAT EARTH from artist's signature.Don Erikson 23:13, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Retief & Warlords

Added a cover image to [[45]] and did a Currey verification. This is the second one where you had clicked/entered an N/A for Currey, both on Laumer books.....??? ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:31, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Hm, I wonder if this is due to the internal verification bug that we discussed earlier? Either I was too click-happy at one point in time or I marked something else as "N/A" and the bug makes it appear as if it pertained to Currey. That would be bad... Ahasuerus 00:55, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

These are the only two I have found, out of probably 1000 Curreys. Not statistically noisome. ~Bill, --Bluesman 02:41, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Shape Changer

Added a cover image to [[46]]--Bluesman 02:39, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Also an image for [[47]]--Bluesman 03:18, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

And also for [[48]]--Bluesman 03:52, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

And one more [[49]] Seems a little dark? --Bluesman 04:17, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

It's imperfectly cropped, but it's not a big deal. I will check the rest tomorrow. Thanks! Ahasuerus 04:40, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Blind Geometer/New Atlantis [2]

Scanned in the cover images for [[50]]--Bluesman 03:07, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Star Hunter and Voodoo Planet

I added a cover image for your verified pub STRHNTRNDV0000 Thanks.--Rtrace 04:10, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Menace under Marswood---page count differences

Morning! This. [51] . I have the same edition, but my page count is 214. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 12:10, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Four-Day Planet and Lone Star Planet--John J. MacGuire?

Morning again!. This. [52] . I too have this printing, but I can find no mention of John J. MacGuire. I believe this has been noted before, but should the notes not so state? I must admit that even though there is data for this person, I have never really been sure that it was not a pseudonym of someone. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 13:24, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Hm, I'll have to check tonight. There have been so many cross-verification lately that I am torn between double checking my pubs (a somewhat time-consuming process when you double-stack 700+ books/bookcase) and working on the backups, Fixer, etc. Ahasuerus 14:46, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

No hurry. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 23:13, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Norton's The Beast Master

Locus #215 (October 1978) has a listing for your verified pub, giving the publication date as August 1978. MHHutchins 18:14, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Added, thanks! Ahasuerus 19:25, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Conjure Wife

Happened across an image for [[53]] Like the eyes! ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:23, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Yup, that's the one and it sure is a beauty! :) Ahasuerus 00:12, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

2009-04-25 download

Looks like it is actually the 2009-04-09 backup unless the newer backup has an older name.--swfritter 23:11, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Oops, used a wrong URL! Sorry about that; fixed now. Ahasuerus 23:16, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks!--swfritter 00:57, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

I think I spoke too soon. The link takes you Here. Maybe you won't get the same thing but I get a message that says "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below." How dare they say we lack style.--swfritter 01:21, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Hm, it turns out that making an S3 directory readable by everyone doesn't affect subsequently added files, so I need to change permissions every time I add a file. That's inconvenient, but at least now I know what's going on. Thanks for testing! :) Ahasuerus 01:25, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Got it this time. Thanks!--swfritter 16:53, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Aluminum Man

Scanned in an image for [[54]] and expanded the notes. The cover art on my copy must be shifted a little from yours as the entire signature is clear. Didn't change that part of the note as others may have only a partial signature. ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:01, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Also, keep in mind that if there is a pre-existing Author record that matches what you entered, then the software will use it regardless of any capitalization differences. In this case, "Powers Laz/org" already existed, so when you entered "Powers LAZ/org", it was automatically converted to "Powers Laz/org". We just have to live with this type of software-imposed "case regularization" and in many cases it's not a bad thing since it prevents typos like "HEinlein" from accidentally creating new Author records. Ahasuerus 00:12, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

I did not know that, but see how it helps. ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:49, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Second Book of Leiber [2]

Scanned in a cover image for [[55]]--Bluesman 01:47, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Shadows With Eyes

Scanned in an image for [[56]] and added the month, from Contento. As to the title, is 'with' one of the words we don't capitalize? Looks ... odd. ~Bill, --Bluesman 02:14, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

"With" is not on that list (which can be found in Help:Screen:NewNovel), so it appears in upper case even though it does look odd. We had this discussion a while back and I believe the opinions were divided. Ahasuerus 21:07, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, they were divided. Why "from" is in the list and "with" isn't does bemuse me. I practice my own quiet rebellion and don't complain when the "wrong" version is entered. It doesn't make any difference while searching. In this case though, I think Bluesman is saying the Title record is wrong, not the Publication record? BLongley 21:38, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I see! <sound of wooshing electrons> Thanks, fixed now :) Ahasuerus 21:45, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Changewar

Added a cover image to [[57]]--Bluesman 02:37, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Creatures from the Abyss

Scanned in an image for [[58]]and expanded the notes. --Bluesman 20:36, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Added an image to [[59]] --Bluesman 20:56, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

My copy doesn't have a dust jacket, so I can't confirm, but it looks reasonable (unless there was another edition with a different dj.) Ahasuerus 21:05, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Hot Spot

Added a cover image to [[60]], small, but clear. --Bluesman 22:15, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Ditto for [[61]]--Bluesman 22:25, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Very nice image for [[62]]--Bluesman 22:29, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

The Last Space Ship confirmed. Ahasuerus 00:39, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Fury

I added a cover image for your verified pub FRMBRHWTGD0000. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy without some rubbing on the cover. As it is the Amazon cover that I linked to is in far better condition than my own copy. Thanks.--Rtrace 03:17, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Cover matches, approved. Thanks! Ahasuerus 03:19, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Miners in the Sky [3]

Scanned in an image for [[63]] and fleshed out the notes. --Bluesman 23:39, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Also for [[64]]--Bluesman 23:52, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Added an image to [[65]]--Bluesman 00:01, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

A nice clean image for [Bluesman 00:29, 28 April 2009 (UTC)]

Fair image for [[66]] Shouldn't this be a collection? ~Bill, --Bluesman 02:24, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

I'll try to check the dust jacket tonight (you have been busy!), but contents-wise, it's a fix-up novel which incorporates 3 out of the 4 stories in the series. Contento lists all fix-ups as collections since he was mostly interested in capturing subsequent appearances of individual stories regardless of how much they were changed for book publication. Ahasuerus 17:17, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Dust jacket confirmed. Ahasuerus 00:39, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Time Tunnel

Added images to [[67]],[[68]] and [[69]] Did the second and third this morning before heading to work and forgot to leave notes. Apologies. --Bluesman 22:51, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

And a final Leinster cover!!!! [[70]] --Bluesman 23:37, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

The Book of Fritz Leiber

I added a cover image for your verified pub BKFFRTZ1974 Thanks.--Rtrace 02:59, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

New Moderator Help Additions...

I wanted to make a recommendation that you (or someone else with a decent amount of Wiki experience) write up a brief paragraph describing the differences to the Wiki side of things once someone gets hit with the blackjack. Two things I noticed right away are all the red exclamation marks on postings (by non-sysops maybe?) and the new 'block' link on posts... both of which appear in the recent changes list. I don't know what else has changed, yet, but a short paragraph primer on all the other items opened up would be nice, if not for me (I'm already treading water) then for the next person we through into the pool. Thanks Kevin 02:41, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Well, I have been a Wiki "sysop" since we began editing using ISFDB-2 on May 1, 2006 -- oh, look, our third anniversary! -- so I am not sure how it looks to non-sysops. We could create a test user and compare how different pages are displayed when viewed by moderators and non-moderators, but I don't think there is much more to it than the ability to block malicious users and the ability to see more "Special pages" in the "toolbox" area on the left. Also, keep in mind that we upgrade the Wiki software from time to time -- primarily to enable new features like the ability to upload images -- and each Wiki upgrade introduces something new, so any guide to the Wiki side that we might write would be obsolete after the next upgrade.

This reminds me, though, that we need to be careful when blocking malicious users, mostly Web bots (known as "malbots") which occasionally try to spam the Wiki with links to online casinos, porn sites, virus repositories and so on. The current version of the Wiki seems to block them flawlessly, but in the past, back when we were running an older version of the Wiki on a university server, we couldn't block at all since it blocked legitimate editors as well. If you see a bot posting Bad Things (tm), please let me know and I will investigate. In the meantime, I'll see if I can add a few sentences to the Moderator Help page - thanks! Ahasuerus 04:03, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

OK, a new paragraph has been added to Help:Screen:Moderator - hopefully it makes sense! Ahasuerus 04:56, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Looks good. I knew the power of the block and wanted it documented, but I didn't know if there were other pitfalls I might fall into. (And the block link is right next to the arrow link to jump into a discussion... - Thanks Very Much! Kevin 05:13, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Stepping on Moderator Toes

I hope I didn't step on your toes. I went ahead and rejected the two held submissions from Bluesman with the bad variant. It was documented on his talk page, you had commented in the discussion, and Michael has rejected the ones he put on hold, but not the two you held. That was one of the frustrating things being a non-mod was 'things' stuck in the queue. Being able to see the problem, I went ahead and unstuck them for Bill. Kevin 05:11, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

No worries, I was about to reject them when I was distracted by another submission. As Bill Longley says, "Oh, look, a butterfly!" :) Ahasuerus 05:22, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Wiki Protections?

As a Bureaucrat, you should have access to user permissions.

Guilty as charged! Ahasuerus 05:43, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I LOVE the fact that when I post in the wiki I don't have to solve a math problem anymore when I link outside the wiki. (In fact, you may not be aware of that hassle).

I was indeed unaware of the hassle. I recall Al experimenting with "Captchas" to thwart our friendly spambots at one point. Perhaps he enabled this functionality to prevent bots from posting links? Ahasuerus 05:43, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

When a non-sysop posts any link, even a template link back into the ISFDB, he is REQUIRED to solve a simple math problem (e.g. 77-8=__) in order to post the change on any page, even his own talk page IIRC. Could you please explore the wiki options you have and see if you can turn off this extra step for our regular non-mod Wiki contributors? Can we set up a 'trusted non-mod' account level to let Bill and Harry and Marty (off the top of my head) skip this extra step for every link they post? I know it was an annoying feature as recently as 26 hours ago for me. TIA! Kevin 05:20, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I can certainly see how it can be annoying, but all I have access to in the User Rights Management screen is a list of groups ("bot", "sysop", "bureaucrat") for a given user. Let me see what I can do... Aha, apparently marking an account as a "bot" account makes math puzzles disappear! I'll change MartyD's account and see if it works for him. Thanks!! Ahasuerus 05:43, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Kevin 05:58, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

One unintended consequence is that now in 'normal' view on recent edits, Marty's addition to the wiki are hidden. Every time You, I , or anyone looks at recent changes, we will have to remember to click 'Show Bots' on that page after loading it to see updates by him. (A good example at the moment is his talk page. He has updated it twice today, but you cannot tell from the normal view on recent changes). This may not be an acceptable solution, since I proposed finding a fix for those who have been active. We certainly don't want their activities hidden. Kevin 15:46, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Oh well, we tried! <undoes the damage> I assume that the right way to fix it is to change something in the Wiki settings. I'll poke around and see what I can find. Ahasuerus 16:50, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I imagine its the math puzzles which have stopped the spambots cold, so I don't think we should turn them off for unvetted accounts, but once someone proves to be human and participatory in the wiki, I do hope we can find a way to elevate them. Thanks Again!

Taku Mayumura or Mayumura Taku?

I found this Japanese author with two versions of his name, they appear to be both correct. Taku Mayumura[71] and Mayumura Taku[72]. This is the Wikipedia page on him[73]. It appears first and last names are interchangeable. Any ideas? Thanks!Kraang 02:36, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

My Japanese is virtually non-existent, but I suppose we will need to pick one of the two as the canonical name and Pseudonym the other one. Should we go with the one listed by Wikipedia? Ahasuerus 03:24, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Even Amazon displays it as "Taku Mayumura" same as Wikipedia. So we go with Wikipedia. Thanks!Kraang 03:24, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Sounds good! Ahasuerus 03:27, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

It's a cultural difference. In Japan, a person is identified by family name first, and given name second, while we do the opposite in the West, so Mifune Toshiro, becomes Toshiro Mifune. Interpreters usually flip the order of names in translation to the western convention, though not always.

We should probably decide which form will be standard, and add a note to the "Help" pages.--Rkihara 21:42, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Science Fiction: The Great Years

I added a cover image for your verified pub TGRTYRS11973 Thanks.--Rtrace 03:55, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Gryphon's Eyrie----- added cover/notation/del int. artitst/ add int. artist

Morning! This. [74] . After matching your ver to my copy, I added a cover image and notation. I submitted a del for artist "Mitchell" the signature name used on illustrations and put in "Judith Mitchell" as on copyright page. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 14:17, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Submission approved and the old Interior art Title removed/deleted, thanks! Ahasuerus 03:45, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

OCLC and Prices

I saw elsewhere where you confirmed a price at OCLC. How do I find that information on this example (I see the price on the BN link but that's BN Data) - Thanks Kevin 18:38, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

I don't think the public WorldCat interface exposes this information. I typically use the FirstSearch interface, which shows you everything that OCLC has on file. In theory, FirstSearch is only available to a subset of their paying customers, but at least one library makes it available to anyone via a gateway, so we use it while we can :) This is documented on the Sources of Bibliographic Information page, but we may want to clarify the wording. Ahasuerus 20:18, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Kevin 20:48, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

I also briefly updated Template:Worldcat_Access_links Kevin 20:59, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Good idea, but keep in mind that the price stated in an OCLC record is usually -- but not always -- the price listed in the book. As far as I can tell, it's the price that most libraries paid for the book when they purchased it from the middleman, which may have been adjusted for later printings and may have have been somewhat different than the retail price to begin with. Still, it seems accurate in about 80-90% of all cases. Ahasuerus 21:40, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Updated with some qualifications to the suitability of the price data. Thanks Kevin 22:36, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

I just noticed (now poking around some more) that the Barnes and Noble price link from worldcat, when the book is out of print, is showing the exact price that the backdoor into worldcat is reporting. Here is an example, where the BN Price is equal to worldcat (and an odd price point at $8.00) while the amazon reported price is the cheapest 'new' price from 'another seller'. More grist for the mill. Kevin 23:14, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Now that you mention it, OCLC records occasionally have "BN" or "BNP" mentioned in the price field. Hm... Ahasuerus 23:31, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

The Einstein Intersection--- printing dates in #19682

Afternoon! This. [75] . I just verified #19682 with four printings and dates, which I put into notes. Yours should be the "Third Ace printing April 1973". The First Ace printing is March 1967. The "Second Ace printing October, 1971" should be #19680, which I do not find. My ver is [76] . Hope this is some help. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 22:00, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Third printing updated and a new pub record created for the second printing; thanks! Ahasuerus 01:28, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Pamela Sargent's The Sudden Star

Locus #218 (January 1979) confirms that this appeared in January 1979. MHHutchins 19:58, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Updated, thanks! Ahasuerus 20:22, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Added artist credit

I added cover credit (Don Punchatz) to your verified Ace edition of Silverberg's NEXT STOP THE STARS from the artist's style and the the top half of artist's signature in lower left.Don Erikson 21:48, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Note added, thanks! Ahasuerus 02:40, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Added date & note

I added month to the years and while I was there added a note of 1st printing to your verified Avon edition of Simak's ALL FLESH IS GRASS.Don Erikson 05:00, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, not sure how I missed it! Ahasuerus 05:19, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

The Sign of the Moonbow --- artist Tom Barber

Afternoon! This. [77] . The artist signature is "Barber" identical to this at bottom right [78]. On the second he was credited as Tom Barber. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 22:46, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks! Ahasuerus 01:48, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Space Lords- Did I create havoc?

Morning? This. [79] . This is your verification. This. [80] is Hall3730. I approached the book from his version, and only added a cover image and replaced the publisher spine number of 511-01911 to X-1911 (the catalog number). Does your cover match? Is there some difference I can not find? Sorry for the mess. The problem is Bob likes to describe books with the publisher identifier, which works well with series printings like Perry Rhodan, because the lead publisher identifiers also changed, but I am pretty sure the standard is the catalog number. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 11:27, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

I must have missed Bob's verified edition when I entered mine. The cover and everything else match, so I will delete mine and update Bob's. Thanks! Ahasuerus 04:13, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Best of Walter Miller

Added a cover image to [[81]]--Bluesman 02:53, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed, thanks! Ahasuerus 03:38, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Orbitsville

I added a cover image to your verified pub RBTSVLL1976 Thanks. --Rtrace 12:37, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 03:36, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Please stop Fixer doing German submissions

They make my brain hurt. And probably have left the author pages in a bit of a mess. BLongley 00:37, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Answered on Fixer's Talk page since there is a fair amount of complexity in that area. Ahasuerus 02:28, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Prism/Crown of Infinity

Scanned in images for [[82]], added the interior art and 'pointed' the notes. ~Bill, --Bluesman 18:52, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Deryni Magic

I added a cover image to your verified pub DMGRMRE1991 Thanks. --Rtrace 18:59, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, thanks! Ahasuerus 19:02, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

Night's Black Agents

I added a cover image to your verified pub NGHTBLCK1978 Thanks. --Rtrace 20:47, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

Ambassador Without Credentials by Sergei Snegov

I know you've worked on some Russian authors in the past, and wonder if this is one of them. Don Erikson just updated this collection and added to a novel with the same title. Thought you might want to take a look at it. Thanks. MHHutchins 15:34, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up! I don't own a copy of this book, but I have other Raduga editions and they tend to have very few words for page. Checking the Russian language text, I see that it contains 34,000 words, which would make it a novella in our parlance even though it takes up 190 pages in the book. On the other hand Russian words tend to use more prefixes than pre- and postpositions, so it's possible that an English translation would be stretched out to 40,000+ words. Oh well, it's not a big deal either way, I'll just set up a VT for the Russian Title and add it to the series. Thanks! Ahasuerus 16:14, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

The Birthgrave

I added a cover image to your verified pub THBRTHGRV140 Thanks. --Rtrace 12:35, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

The White Serpent

I added a cover image to your verified pub WHTSRPNT1988 Thanks. --Rtrace 13:29, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

The Nets of Space

Added cover image to your verified copy of this title. MHHutchins 03:50, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

How dangerous a Fix Script can you cope with?

Sorry to hear about the ruffian bacteria, hope you get well soon. BLongley 21:11, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm looking at the issue of Variant titles being in series as well as or rather than Canonical titles. This has become even more apparent while testing "Add variant titles to series display" (which I added after you mentioned the need for it - couldn't find a feature request for it.) It's quite obvious to me that there's several series lost under the pseudonym - e.g. [83], and series which still have both versions in, e.g. [84]. And this means to me that a scripted fix is probably needed, the volumes are a bit too high for a manual project. BLongley 21:11, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

However, I'm nervous about unleashing fixes across the entire database, and having been testing at a series level so that I don't destroy or fix everything in one go and have to recreate test data. I'm wondering at what level the fix should eventually run. As I say, I've got a script for series-by-series fixing, but that is often so low a level it's not worth bothering you for. Author level should be possible, or parent series, or something that keeps it constrained a bit to be sure of its safety while still being useful. BLongley 21:11, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

As it would be you running it, I thought I'd check with you as to your comfort level before developing it any further. But feel free to take this to a wider audience. BLongley 21:11, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I am rather torn on the issue of SQL scripts. They can certainly save us a lot of time, but they also bypass the checks and balances that are currently built into the application. In general, I think that we are better off adding application features which would let our editors accomplish the same thing, e.g. we could add the ability to remove Pseudonyms rather than create a script that deletes duplicate pseudonyms.

In the case of Series, we may want to count the number of affected Titles before we decide what to do about them. I'd do the math myself, but I am still lying low. Ahasuerus 23:55, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Cover image added...

...to The Undying Fire. MHHutchins 18:03, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Exiles of Time

Added a cover image to [[85]]--Bluesman 23:10, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 23:16, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Lancelot Biggs

Added a cover image to the first trade and SFBC editions. It may be the same as for [this] pub which you verified. ~Bill, --Bluesman 23:43, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Can't tell, I am afraid, since my copy is dj-free :( Ahasuerus 00:10, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Operation Misfit by Price

Could you check to see if this was published under the Del Rey imprint? Thanks. MHHutchins 03:35, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Good catch - added. Thanks! Ahasuerus 03:44, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

White paper for Complete Novel (Serial)

Do you happen to remember where you might have had the most cogent and complete discussion? Perhaps we could spruce it up a little bit, create a separate document and place a link to it from the appropriate section in help.--swfritter 16:33, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Here are all the more-or-less relevant discussions I could find, searching the wiki for "Complete Novel" and for "Serial".

• Rules and standards discussions#(Complete Novel) in Webzines with Rule Hidden in 'Date'
• ISFDB:Verification requests#Against The Fall Of Night (novella == novel ???)
• Rules and standards discussions/Archive/Archive01#Work dates for books first published as serials
• Rules and standards discussions/Archive/Archive01#Serials display in Long Works Bibliography Fairly short, not really to the point
• ISFDB:Moderator noticeboard#Naked Came the Farmer
• User talk:Marc Kupper/Archive2#Serial in The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh
• Rules and standards discussions/Archive/Archive02#Question about serials Seems to be the discussion that led to the current state of the help on this question
• Rules and standards discussions/Archive/Archive03#Assigning Dates to Serials in Magazines Only slightly relevant
• User talk:Rkihara/Archive 01#Amazing Stories on hold "let's take a step back and review the underlying reasons for this approach to entering Serials"
• Rules and standards discussions/Archive/Archive05#First publication date discusses ambiguities and changes in help
• ISFDB:Community Portal/Archive/Archive12#The Trouble with Tycho What is a novel?

I hope this list is helpful. -DES ^Talk 17:53, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Boy, we have discussed this topic to death! Thanks! :) Ahasuerus 18:22, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Please see Help:Use of the SERIAL type for my draft. -DES ^Talk 22:11, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

It's a good start, but putting it all together like that highlights just how convoluted this area has become. I'll try to see if I can rephrase it to make it a little more straightforward, but the it may not be an easy task due to the inherent complexity of the current rules. Ahasuerus 18:53, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Any improvements are welcome. Most of it is quotes from you taken from the various linked discussions, anyway. I think the actual rules are fairly clear, it is perhaps the justifications that are less so. I take it you think this isn't ready to link to from other help pages? -DES ^Talk 19:28, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Science Fiction: The Great Years, Volume II

I added a cover image to your verified pub TGRTYRS21976 Thanks. --Rtrace 03:02, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Bcrowell entry

I wonder if we should leave a temporary notation on the Policy Page so he finds responses?--swfritter 18:22, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I have left a note on his Talk page telling him about the move, so hopefully he will find it soon :) Ahasuerus 18:49, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I would actually have moved the discussion to Rules and standards discussions rather than ISFDB Talk:Policy, but anywhere was better than the main Policy page. -DES ^Talk 19:24, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

nasty dispute

Please look at this comment, my response and the whole discussion if you would. Was I really out of line here? I feel attacked for simply raising an issue of concern in what I thought was the proper forum, and stating my views as clearly as i knew how, without, i thought, any personal attacks whatsoever. Your views would be welcome. -DES ^Talk 21:18, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

ISBN linker

Google is getting rid of Google Pages and replacing it with Google Sites. Sites is nearly the same as Pages except that it does not support custom CSS nor JavaScript. I suspect Google had a never-ending battle with spammers.

It does mean that http://marc.kupper.googlepages.com/isbn will be taken down at some point. If it's ok with you, and you can upload new HTML pages, then I'd like to host this on ISFDB. If you can upload it then I'll clean up the styling so it looks like an ISFDB page. --Marc Kupper|talk 06:28, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Sure, I'll be happy to upload the tool to the live server. If it's just a collection of HTML pages and CSS files, I think I should be able to manage, but if it involves anything more complicated, I am afraid I may need an "installation guide". Ahasuerus 15:52, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I note thzt this seemas to link to the LZZZZZZZ images. Don't we want to discourage use of those unstable images? -DES ^Talk 16:22, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Ahasuerus, yes, it's a straight html file with no server-side work needed other than serving up the file. I'll start making an ISFDB version.

DES, unfortunately, the LZZZZZZZ images are the only ones with a well known name. I've never figured out how the 61ew1fFLj9L._SS500_.jpg names are constructed. It's possible the 61ew1fFLj9L is random or a base 62 counter meaning there is no relationship between an ISBN/ASIN and the images that may go with that ISBN/ASIN. As it is, I know of three classes of publication images on Amazon.

• The LZZZZZZZ style which is keyed to the ISBN or ASIN. These exist for the convenience of external sites that want to show an image as part of a book listing/link to Amazon.
• The ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/##########._SS500_.jpg style which is used when a dealer uploads an image as part of constructing a new Amazon record (either ISBN or ASIN). Both these, and the LZZZZZZZ style are the only ones returned when you do an AWS query. These two are also the only ones with tiny thumbnails visible in search results.
• The g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/xxx/xx/xx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.L.jpg style images which are used when a customer uploads an image. These do not show up in AWS or search results. The names are slightly less random, but much longer than the /images/I versions.

With server-side scripting I may be able to convert a LZZZZZZZ name into an images/I version. I see that for newer books Amazon supports the LZZZZZZZ name but when you look at the record it's only showing images/I names. The implication is that AWS would return the images/I names.

I'm not sure how active the project is but there's one around to download and save all of the off site images. If we find that an image has changed or been deleted then we have a version of the file that we can upload to ISFDB. --Marc Kupper|talk 17:32, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Maximum Effort

I added a cover image for your verified pub BKTG02535 Thanks. --Rtrace 03:55, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Bug 1892421

I don't think the current "fix" for this should be implemented. Please see my coments on the source forge listing before scheduling this for testing or implementation. See Also Bug 1743285, Bug 1743280 and Feature 2008485. Thank you. -DES ^Talk 13:13, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll take a look shortly! Ahasuerus 13:47, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree with DES - if we're going to work on changing Chapterbooks into what people actually want, this would be a backward step. BLongley 19:19, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Also see the end of ISFDB:Community_Portal#Implement_Chapbook_Title_Type, where I outline a planned set of steps towards the final goal. BLongley 19:34, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I should add that I converted two under-50-page "novels" to chap(ter)books today, as part of my work on the ISFDB:Non-SF Cleanup 2004 project. With current limited support these will need to be revisited after full chapbook/shortwork/shortbook suport is implemented, as will pretty much all existing CHAPTERBOOK records, i would think. I still think converting such to the extent possible now when I encounter them is better than ignoring them, and possibly not finding them later. -DES ^Talk 20:18, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

A search for NOVEL publications with a low pagecount is simple, they're not going to get lost if you leave them as they are. Whereas changing them now would be breaking the title_title/pub_title match. I'd prefer them left alone for now, and will see how much I can do on the coding front over the weekend. BLongley 17:30, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Fine I won't do any more until further notice. -DES ^Talk 18:18, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Depending on how many areas will be touched by making Chapterbooks a container (and changing it to Chapbook or Short Work etc), it may require a code freeze. I guess taking an inventory of all affected areas will be the first step... Ahasuerus

The first steps look fairly simple, and don't affect anything I'm aware is currently being reworked (CVS does make it rather easy to go do something and not find out it's being reworked by someone else as well until you've finished though!). What I'm looking at at the moment is quite a short list though:

* edit/editpub.py v1.4 (live) - Allow CHAPTERBOOK contents to stay as such by making them allowable as a content type.

* biblio/pl.py v1.9 (live) - Hide CHAPTERBOOK contents for CHAPTERBOOK publications like we do with other container types.

* edit/isfdblib.py v1.4 (live) - Allow addition of new CHAPTERBOOK content title-type to fix current misuses.

* edit/edittitle.py v1.3 (live) - Allow conversion to CHAPTERBOOK title type.

* edit/rmtitles.py v1.2 (live) - prevent deletion of CHAPTERBOOK contents from CHAPTERBOOKs.

I suspect that will give us most of the functionality we need (but I'm going to do a LOT more testing before I submit those changes, especially as I'm changing a general library), but if it all works it will leave me at the point where I need a decision on whether the next step is to leave the underlying data alone and hide the offensive phrase, or if we can eradicate it (which will need a change to some database constraints and a mass update of the offending records ("mass" meaning hundreds of records rather than thousands though) - and a decision on whether it's SHORTBOOK or SHORTWORK or something else we want in the end.) I'm quite happy to stop with those changes for now, and let people demonstrate what they intend to use them for, but that does make/keep the offensive phrase visible for a while. BLongley 20:59, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

After that, I suspect we'll need changes to (at minimum):

• common/SQLparsing.py
• common/pubClass.py
• biblio/common.py
• biblio/ea.py
• biblio/eal.py
• biblio/search.py
• edit/clonepub.py
• edit/newpub.py
• mod/ca_new.py
• mod/ka_new.py
• mod/pa_new.py

for modules that have some chapterbook support already, and we'll need to add such to modules like

• edit/edittitle.py

which don't have any yet. Which is why I'd prefer to split this change and do (at most) steps 1-3 together, before step 4 and/or 5. I'm not keen to rework all the step 4 and 5 modules twice, but I guess that comes down to your willingness to make database changes as well as code changes. BLongley 20:59, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Doing steps 1-3 first sounds like a solid plan. We should probably post our intent to fully enable "Chapterbooks" and make them containers on the Community Portal and also repost (selected areas of) this discussion on Talk:Development to make sure that all developers are aware of what's about to happen. As far as database changes go, my level of comfort is still on the low side, but it's been slowly rising, so we'll see where we are in a week or two :) Ahasuerus 21:17, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

OK, I'll concentrate on steps 1-3, and will keep them separate for now - you can deploy as many or as few as you are comfortable with. (1 still appears to me as "destroys data" and so needs fixing urgently, 2 is just cosmetic, and 3 could also do with a supporting script to either fix the data or provide a list of things that need fixing manually.) BLongley 22:27, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

I'll let you explain our longer-term intentions, but should have 1-3 ready this weekend. 4 and/or 5 will obviously take longer. BLongley 22:27, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

(Unindent) Changes committed - in the end I had to change 5 modules (as stated above) to get a nicely consistent set of editing tools: I think we can add, fix, change and not accidentally delete now. I've not tried to cover all display issues as the way people will want to use them is still a bit vague: and there may need to be some education about "CHAPTERBOOK" content titles and "SHORTFICTION" content titles not being the same anymore. (OK, they never actually were, but the software may have confused people over that.) I think I'll go look at examples of things that this allows us to fix next. We haven't really explained to the world why this is a good thing yet. BLongley 23:16, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Bill, I will be spending some quality time with these changes tonight... Ahasuerus 20:42, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

One thing that may not be clear is that I've not added "New Chapterbook" as an option along with all the other "New Novel/Magazine/Anthology/Collection/Omnibus/Nonfiction/Fanzine" options we already have. So just start with any of those and change the Publication type before submission. (Which is the loophole people have been using anyway.) It's simple to add the option, but until we settle on a name and provide some guidance on what it's intended for, I didn't want to make it too easy, or take over too many modules for amendment. BLongley 21:49, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

I didn't really get much of a chance today to find things that could be/need to be fixed with this, but some older examples that come to mind are the "Capra" chapterbook series, the Stephen Eley "Escape Pod" podcasts that we ended up making magazines, and there's lots of Chapterbooks from Subterranean Press. And "The Trouble with Tycho", of course. DES may have other suggestions to test with. I'm sure this is going to lead to a bit of a compromise between the Lengthists and the Bookists, and will see some SHORTFICTION elevated and some NOVELs demoted, and the ebookers and audiobookers may benefit most. So even if the functionality checks out, we should probably be ready with some examples of what it could be used for. I'm still tempted to use Chapterbooks for very small Collections and Anthologies and Poetry books, but that would probably need some Summary page display changes to satisfy everybody. Still, Marty seems to be getting into that now, we can cope with that if and when needed. BLongley 21:49, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

The thing that comes most to my mind are all the Project Gutenberg editions of single SF stories transcribed from magazines. Some of those have been entered here as chapbooks, some in other ways, and some, I think, not at all yet.

The "Statistics" page shows that we have 1338 chapterbook titles currently, and 53 chapoterbook titles, so most if not all of those 1338 need some sort of fix. After that the results of a scan for novels with less than NN pages, with NN set to perhaps 60, should be worth looking at. Not that all such should be automatically be converted to chap(ter)books, but some probably should, after human inspection.

I trust that creating more chapterbook titles and publications -- once this code goes live -- will not unduly hinder your planned steps four and five? -DES ^Talk 23:05, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

No, four and/or five (and I'd really prefer to do only one of them) are just renaming issues. Unless demonstrations reveal that we really want Chap(ter)books AND Shortwork/Shortbook or suchlike, in which case we'll need another step. But I'm not going to work on those until I see how people use the current and reenabled functionality. BLongley 23:30, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Duplicators/No Truce with Terra [2]

Scanned in individual images for [this], added artists for both covers. The 'illegible' signature is Gaughan and EMSH is on the other cover half way up, left edge, vertical. Notes to all this and interior art as well. ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:53, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 20:41, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Instant Gold

I recall reading, and greatly enjoying, this work in a much older publication than the one Fixer submitted and you have held. I don't have access currently, but might be able to get info in a few weeks -- would that be helpful? -DES ^Talk 19:26, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Sure, the more the merrier! Since we already have 3 1960s pubs for this Title, you will be either adding a new one or, more likely, verifying one of the existing ones. Ahasuerus 20:40, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

I didn't see that. I suspect it will be the Morrow edition -- It was surely a hardcover. -DES ^Talk 22:56, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Feature 2804561: Make Series Bibliography display of titles and variants consistent with the Summary Bibliography display.

Can I please ask for a delay on this? (As explained in email already, just want to make it more open.) BLongley 20:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

I've no problem with the intent - we should make the displays consistent. Eventually. But there are complaints about the "as by" display - it isn't clear when it's always "as by" as opposed to sometimes "as by". For instance, compare Brian Stableford's Daedalus Mission series and his Grainger (Hooded Swan) series. The former is always by "Brian M. Stableford" so the "as by" on the same line would be right, the latter is by Brian No-M with occasional Brian M. versions, and IMO should show that variation on separate lines. BLongley 20:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Before we make it consistent, I'd like people to decide which sort of consistency we want. As I don't think the current one is right, and mine isn't right either, but a contrast at least makes people look. So can we delay that change and just post examples of the differences for discussion for now? BLongley 20:52, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Here is my current understanding of how the notorious "as by" logic works (as mentioned in a recent e-mail):

Let's take a look at the Summary page for "Robert A. Heinlein". See how "Revolt in 2100" appears with [as by Robert Heinlein] at the end of the line? That's because we have 4 UK editions of this book which appeared as by "Robert Heinlein". Even though we also have a dozen editions of this book published "as by Robert A. Heinlein", as long as the VT and the main Title are spelled the same way, the software will display just one line for the Title. This is misleading and not what the original intent of this shortcut was -- the idea was that we would use the single line shortcut if (and only if) the Title has only been published as its VT. However, there doesn't appear to be a way to determine whether it's true or not without going to the Publication level for each Title, which can be quite time consuming when generating Summary pages for prolific authors like Silverberg and Asimov. I suppose we could add a Title level flag (which would be updated every time a related Pub was added/edited/deleted) to indicate whether this Title has only appeared as a VT, but that's a rather ugly and complicated workaround.

Having said that, I think that we want to make the behavior consistent first and decide how to change it later. It's hard enough to figure what the software is doing on one page; comparing different pages with different behavior is usually headache-inducing. Ahasuerus 21:00, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I have to disagree there. "Making it consistent" just hides the problem and makes people compare "what is" with "what may be". When it's a mere display issue I prefer we show the current discrepancies and invite comparison and/or improvements. Yes, it may be hard to improve, or even "get right", but I can't see any benefit from making people compare what we currently have with a theoretical change that will take more time to demonstrate than such a development actually takes, rather than have them compare actual results they can try out. BLongley 22:24, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Welcome to Mars

I added a cover image for your verified pub WLCMTM1967 Thanks. --Rtrace 22:26, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 22:41, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

database data fix needed.

Hi. User HellCold is getting a Python exception trace in the My Votes display due to a missing title. See ISFDB:Help_desk#My_Votes_page_has_an_error. Looks like title id 183093 is gone. I will log a bug on SourceForge and fix it, but deleting the offending record, which is useless anyway if the title's gone, should fix it quickly:

delete from votes where vote_id = 6233 and title_id = 183093 and user_id = 8689 and rating = 9;

(You of course should need only the vote_id). Looks like this was an old title (judging by the ID). I see no sign of it in any of the recent backups. I will poke around in the ancient ones and see if I can figure out what the vote was for.

While you're at it, you might do:

select count(*) from votes v where not exists (select * from titles t where t.title_id = v.title_id);

and see how widespread a problem it is. The back-up doesn't seem to have the contents of the votes table in it.

Thanks. --MartyD 11:07, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

p.s. I logged this as 2815724 and assigned it to myself. --MartyD 11:34, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Offending vote record deleted and the total count of wayward votes is 14, so not too bad. Thanks for catching it, I'll comment on the main discussion page about the long term implications! Ahasuerus 01:04, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. If you want to delete them all:

delete from votes v where not exists (select * from titles t where t.title_id = v.title_id);

No need to preserve them -- until title deletion is changed, it's easy to create test cases.... --MartyD 01:46, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

I tried that line and got a syntax error back. Shouldn't it be select vote_id from titles t etc? Ahasuerus 01:58, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, Oracle's SQL lets you have the alias, but MySQL does not. It needs to be:

delete from votes where not exists (select * from titles t where t.title_id = votes.title_id);

You can use "select *" or "select count(*)" in place of "delete" to see what it's going to operate on. --MartyD 10:05, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll play with it shortly. I have been under the weather the last few days, so things have been rather slow on my side. Ahasuerus 04:10, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

r2009-07 biblio/common.py 1.17, 1.18

I saw that you had tested my Navbar update. Don't forget that this was a blocking change for Marty 2 updates ago, so he forked and then merged. You will need to flag biblio/common.py 1.18 not 1.17 as r2009-07. Cheers - Kevin 12:43, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes, that's the one being tested! Thanks for the reminder :) Ahasuerus 00:48, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Dynamic Science Fiction, August 1953

I added a cover to your verified pub: DNMCSCNCFX1953 --Phileas 18:39, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 04:09, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

biblioholics site

Could I get edit access to your biblioholics site to preserve non-SF bilbios, such as that for Tony Hillerman, before deleting them from the ISFDB? -DES ^Talk 20:54, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Certainly! Which e-mail address should I share it with? Ahasuerus 04:09, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Siegel AT acm [dot] org please. That address already has a google account. Thanks. -DES ^Talk 04:31, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Done! Hopefully it will work since I have never used this functionality. These technology/communications thingies are popping up all over the place, I wouldn't be surprised if they came up with self-propelled carriages or remote viewing apparatuses next... Ahasuerus 04:36, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

It worked. What will they come up with next? Farspeakers? Thanks. -DES ^Talk 05:05, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Hillerman offload done, see the page. -DES ^Talk 15:22, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Feature 2816520 and Feature 2807731

Just in case they look daunting - all the module changes are self-contained and independent, so pick as many or as few as you like. I just didn't want to split the feature too much (Wiki tables are a pain). BLongley 21:05, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

No worries, we'll get them all soon enough! :) Ahasuerus 22:15, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Feel free to point out modules I've missed - if they're not already involved in another change, they're simple. Yes, it makes it difficult to know when a feature is truly, finally, and completely implemented, but we're working forwards in the meantime. BLongley 23:21, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels

I updated your verified copy of this title, adding notes and cover image, then did another primary verification. MHHutchins 23:49, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Everything, up to and including the catalog ID, matches, except for the gutter code on page 752, which reads M27 in my copy. A later printing, I assume? Ahasuerus 01:43, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

I'll add that gutter code to the pub's notes. Thanks. MHHutchins 02:08, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

The Stolen Sun and Tramontane

You verified TSTLNSNTRM1979 which looks like a duplicate of THSTLNSNND1979 verified by Don Erikson. There is a difference between the two records in that you reported 1979-12-00 while Don has 1979-09-00. The September date is more likely to be correct. --Marc Kupper|talk 06:04, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Hm, yes, looks suspicious. I'll double check tonight -- thanks! Ahasuerus 15:33, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

It's September and I am not sure what I was thinking when I typed December. As always, I blame hobbits! Ahasuerus 05:51, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

SFBC edition of Earthblood

When you get a chance, could you see if there's a gutter code in your verified copy of this title? Thanks in advance. MHHutchins 05:35, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Let's see... Ah, yes, "H48" on page 253! Record updated, thanks. Ahasuerus 02:22, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Great! I've updated the SFBC listings for 1967 with the code. I think we've passed 75% in recording the gutter codes for the SFBC editions from 1958 to 1988. I'll check the exact figure later. Thanks. MHHutchins 03:28, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Not yet, but close. Of the 953 pubs published from August 1958 through September 1987, we have recorded the first printing gutter codes for 678, slightly more than 71%. MHHutchins 04:56, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Guild America or GuildAmerica?

Can you check your copy of The Reality Disfunction by Peter Hamilton is published by Guild America Books or GuildAmerica Books? It came up during this discussion. Thanks. MHHutchins 02:07, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

The stylized logo on the spine and on the title page can be interpreted either way, but the statement at the bottom of the title page clearly says "GuildAmerica Books". Ahasuerus 02:12, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

SFBC edition of An Alien Light

Can you check your copy of this pub and see if it carries the "Book Club Edition" slugline at the bottom of the front inside flap of the dustjacket? I'm trying to narrow down when this practice stopped. I have a January 1988 pub that has the slugline and a July 1988 pub that does not. Yours being a March release will help narrow it down further. Thanks. MHHutchins 01:09, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Slugline confirmed and Notes updated with the SFBC catalog ID from the back of the dustjacket. Ahasuerus 02:58, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch. That narrows it down to April or May 1988 as the first month without the slugline. (Kevin verified a May pub without it.) Of course, it's possible it depends on which printing plants were being used. MHHutchins 15:55, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology

Any idea why Dissembler and Fixer haven't picked those up? There seem to be several, going back a few years. Was there a ban on "Reading Fee" competitions or suchlike? BLongley 20:05, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Hm, I am not sure, but I will check Fixer's Amazon-specific database tonight and see what's up. He is hoarding dozens of thousands of records that we still don't have in the main database, but so many of them are marginal (library bindings etc) that we may be better off asking him to concentrate on library catalogs first. Either way, at the current rate of development changes, it will probably be a couple of months before I can get back to Fixer... Ahasuerus 20:12, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

No need to fix Fixer yet - I can add them manually if necessary, contents would be needed anyway. I just wondered why something so blatantly labelled with a "let me in!" type title wasn't here. Or maybe it was once. BLongley 21:00, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

It turns out that all 6 anthologies are in Fixer's internal database, they just haven't been submitted yet. As far as I can tell, there is nothing ineligible about them, it's just that the publisher is not very well known. They do list contents level data at their Web site, which is a good thing, but I wonder why they only list the first 5 anthologies while Amazon.com/UK list 6? Perhaps the 6th one was never published... Ahasuerus 07:57, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

In which case, there's four sellers I shouldn't trust. :-( BLongley 19:01, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Another set of anthologies of interest was LDSF - we only had the second. Fortunately the Mormons seem to be getting as organised as us. BLongley 19:01, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

The Best of John Sladek

Do you happen to be near or conveniently close to your copy of this title? There's been some uncalled-for merging of the parodies and I want to know if the credits in your copy actually match the record. (I've a strong suspicion they don't.) Those parenthetical author credits in the titles look strange. This is prompted by some submissions that want to create variants. I want to make sure that the records currently in the db are correct before going to the trouble of creating variants for titles that may not exist. Thanks. MHHutchins 05:17, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

This Sladek collection is rather convoluted, but luckily the data apparently hasn't changed since I entered it. As the Notes field says:

Except for the first two parodies of Poe's and Wells' works, "The Parodies" section that starts on page 165 attributes the authorship of the included parodies differently in the table of contents and on each title page. The former has the vowels in the names of the parodied authors replaced with asterisks. The latter gives made up names that are listed here in parentheses. The title of the Poe parody is "The Purloined Butter...*dg*r *ll*n P**" in the table of contents, but "The Purloined Butter. A Story by Edgar Allan Poe. Revised and Abridged by John Sladek" on the title page. The title of the H. G. Wells parody is "Pemberley's Start-Afresh Calliope...H.G. W*lls" in the table of contents, but "Pemberley's Start-Afresh Calliope or, The New Proteus by H.G. W*lls" on the title page.

I believe we discussed the best way to enter this mess back in 2007 and decided to go with the current approach, but we can certainly revisit it if there is a better way. (I'll just need to buy more Aspirin tonight! :-) Ahasuerus 12:18, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

I personally feel that adding those author credits to the title make it difficult for a reprinting to be established as a true variant title. Take for example "Solar Shoe-Salesman". Even though it's shown as "Solar Shoe-Salesman...Ph*l*p K. D*ck (Chipdip K. Kill)" in the record of my verified copy of Light Years and Dark it actually appears as "Solar Shoe-Salesman by Chipdip K. Kill" with John Sladek as the credited author. I can't recall if I verified the pub without realizing the titles were different, or if the titles had later been merged. Let me think about how to approach this title (along with two other parodies reprinted in the same anthology.) In the meantime, I'll keep the submissions on hold. It appears that the stories were first titled with asterisks replacing the letters in the names of the authors parodied, but reprinted later with the authors' names also being parodied ("H*g* G*rnsb*ck" became "Hugogre N. Backs".) Thanks. MHHutchins 13:55, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Sure, that's an understandable concern, take your time. For what it's worth, I can post a few sample credits later tonight when I am reunited with my library. Ahasuerus 14:25, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

I think I was the one that challenged them last time? I have The Steam-Driven Boy and Other Strangers and can check that in Unapersson's absence. (I must find time to go and Primary Verify all the books that I was beaten to when there was only one option, before I find all five now available are taken.... I want to be able to use ISFDB to generate my ownership list.) BLongley 18:59, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

It would be a useful feature, but Verification Sources are probably not the way to do it -- unless we implement a lot more sources :) Also, since we are limited to SF and SF-related material, any list based on our database alone wouldn't work for collections unless they are limited to SF and books about SF. At some point we may want to consider integration with LibratyThing, which seems to be well positioned in this area. Ahasuerus 19:26, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

The problem with Librarything is "Enter 200 books for free, as many as you like for $10 (year) or $25 (life)." 200 doesn't cover the "A"s. :-( I just want my own data back, at no cost. (Usually, I'd actually want paying if I gave them that much effort or data.) I don't particularly care that ISFDB won't tell me I already own all Desmond Bagley, Alistair MacLean, Ian Fleming, Ellis Peters, etc, books. It's the obscure SF stuff that I'm searching for I want. BLongley 20:32, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Well, it would certainly be a useful feature in a number of scenarios, e.g. when looking for a story in your collection or shopping at a brick and mortar bookstore, but we'll need to figure out the best way to implement it. Perhaps we could add an "I own this book" check-box in the Publication screen which would only appear if you are logged in? We could then let our users run queries or full blown reports against this new table, e.g. "Find all book length Titles that I own, along with any VTs and display it in printable/downloadable format" or "Give me a list of Pubs that I own which include the following story". (Naturally, we would automatically pre-populate the new table from the Verification table at patch installation time.) Ahasuerus 20:46, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

That would be nice, and i could see it tying into a recommendation system if we get more votes on file. I could also see "Find all full-length titles by Author X that I don't own." -DES ^Talk 20:54, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

700,000 ebooks from Barnes & Noble/Fictionwise - some must be s-f

Includes free books imported from Google Books. The ebooks are not available at Fictionwise yet. It looks like even the free Google Books will have ISBN numbers. I don't see anything that would identify genres so our robot might have a little problem digging out the s-f. I think the Fictionwise editions will be available in even more formats than B&N.--swfritter 15:40, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

There are various ways around this problem, e.g. you can use OCLC's xISBN service (500 records per day per free account) to find related ISBNs for ISBNs that we know are SF. It's not particularly pretty and it'doesn't proved as many data elements as we would like, but hey, it's free! :) Ahasuerus 17:13, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

"ISBN-13: 2940005412188"? That's going to give Marty headaches.... :-( BLongley 18:43, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

See FR #2823239 Support for 979- ISBN-13s. -DES ^Talk 20:31, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Exactly my point. "Bookland" has gone from 978 prefix to that and 979. 294 is something completely unexpected. BLongley 20:37, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Oops, i mis-read that. well we may need to support 294 also -- once we support anything beyond 978, we can probably just have a table of valid prefixes. -DES ^Talk 22:02, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Bizarre. Created a B&N account to get free ebooks. You have to enter a credit card number; they charge a penny to your credit card and then credit it back. Guess I will wait to see how the Fictionwise site is going to work. Can't imagine the credit card companies are going to to thrilled about this checkout method.--swfritter 21:36, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Oh they'll love it. B&N pays a transaction fee on that penny. Their FAQ says they do this as a way of identifying your account for future reference. But it also means your card is set up for automatic payment. possibly making it more tempting for you to actually buy things from them in future. -DES ^Talk 22:02, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

It's possible that they do not even process the credit card number. I think their software probably uses the credit card number for DRM purposes. That's how ereader works. Actually a better method than mobipocket which is device dependent. Amazon is even worse because pubs can only be read on a Kindle - they can't even be read on a computer.--swfritter 16:43, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I think they do process it, as their FAQ appears to warn readers to expect the transaction. As I understand the matter, processing a transaction (or a hold) is the only way for a merchant to confirm that a credit card number is actually tied to a current, valid account. -DES ^Talk 17:03, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

FR 2797936

I had a look at your changes, and they're fine as far as they go. However, I think you should also consider "jvn" and "nvz" - and definitely look at all the odd things we do with Omnibuses. BLongley 19:01, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Good point, I will spell out "juvenile" and "novelization", although eventually we will presumably want to move them to separate fields. As far as Omnibuses go, there are quite a few permutations of "/1,2", "/2-5", "/4,5,6", etc. Is there a more human-friendly format that we could use that you had in mind? Ahasuerus 19:26, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I've no special plan. We live with it in the summary pages anyway, so it's possibly not a problem, although it would be nice to have a general improvement throughout. BLongley 19:50, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

There's an oddity with some Serials too: not in the code, the data. Look at "The Fairy Chessmen" and "Frankenstein" for instance: the full title is used in the Storylen field. Is this some sort of legacy practice? BLongley 19:16, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Hm, they look like conversion artifacts (from the ISFDB-1 days) that need to be cleaned up manually. Ahasuerus 19:26, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Bug 2818651

I'd pass this one though. BLongley 19:27, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

"Pass" as in "approve" or as in "skip"? :) Ahasuerus 19:29, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

As in "approve". Your changes for Bug 2818279 and FR 2803247 both approved too. BLongley 19:45, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 20:25, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Fixes for Bug 1743274 and Bug 1950102 look OK too, but you're a bit inconsistent in the error message font size. Not enough reason to stop the change though. BLongley 20:57, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I'd have a look at common/SQLparsing.py 1.21 too, but for some reason Sourceforge wants me to remain at 1.15. :-( BLongley 21:19, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a "sticky" date or revision associated with your copy of common/SQLparsing.py, by chance? If so, you should be able to override the stickiness by using the command line CVS client and typing "cvs update -A SQLparsing.py". Ahasuerus 21:45, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

That worked, thanks! BLongley 22:12, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

As to the fix: it's a bit inconsistent. "No awards found for Michael Resnick" for Awards display rather than "Pseudonym. See: Mike Resnick" on "Summary", "Alphabetical", "Chronological". BLongley 22:12, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

That's how it works on the live server as well -- the fix was limited to fixing the apostrophe bug. Another bug report, perhaps? Ahasuerus 22:28, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Maybe a feature request - I've got no requirements document to check against, so it can't be a bug. ;-) BLongley 23:01, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Stopping the big purple errors when you try something like [86] is more of a priority, I think. BLongley 23:01, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Bug 2830005 "Award biblio doesn't redirect pseudonyms" and Bug 2830017 "Award biblio page displays data for wrong author" (it's not as bad as it sounds). Ahasuerus 01:35, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

Medusa's Children

Scanned in an image for [this] and added some notes. ~Bill, --Bluesman 22:45, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll check the book later tonight. Ahasuerus 23:42, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Everything matches except for the fact that the gutter code (J14) is on page 182 rather than on page 183, which I assumed was a typo and adjusted. Ahasuerus 05:26, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Good catch. Typo 'twas... ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:08, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Serial Title Parsing

It looks as though parsing somewhere after the "(" stops.--swfritter 16:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

I believe the "lexical match" logic stops after the first left parenthesis. Ahasuerus 17:57, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

In that case it will make it much easier for me to process something like this where serial episodes also have a separate sub-title. Will the conversion process also work the same way?--swfritter 16:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

The current approach, at outlined by Marty on Talk:Development this morning, is to use the same "everything up to the first left parenthesis" logic. There are 115 Serial records that do not have "(Part ..." or "(Complete..." in the title and we will need to review them manually:

select title_title from titles where title_ttype = 'SERIAL' and title_title NOT like '%\(Part%' and (title_title NOT like '%\(Complete%');

I hope it is also a known bug that serial episodes do not sort correctly from the title display as linked above. That is one ugly listing.--swfritter 16:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Hm, no, I don't think it's a known bug. It looks like the lexical match logic sorts all matching Serial records based on the title and not on the date. Chances are that the new VT-based approach will address this, but I'll create a bug report just to be on the safe side. Thanks! Ahasuerus 17:57, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

A number of those oddball serials are in Jim Baen's Universe. As above they have subtitles and the number of parts is not listed and probably not even known at the time the first episode is printed. The latest fixes are quite welcome since I will now be able to go back through those issues and sort things out.--swfritter 19:38, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

But no book publication so no VT situation for Baen's Universe. It's kind of tempting to think about about linking parts of serials with no book publication to a master title with type serial, something that would be doable now. It would certainly create a much cleaner bibliographic display.--swfritter 20:04, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Especially in a case like this where the author had two serials running at the same time.--swfritter 17:54, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

I wonder if it might be easier to handle this case with two Series? A parent title when there is no book publication might suggest to a casual observer that the Title has appeared in book form, especially if it's a Novel. Ahasuerus 18:49, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Tried it. Serials do not show up in a series display on biblio pages. See "The Man Who Was Two Men" on Ray Cummings page. See also "Around the Universe" which shows up in the serial section which I think would reduce the possibility someone would confuse it as a novel entry. I'll put this one on the back burner for now. I am trying to limit myself to about two hours a day and am not up for another extended discussion over a fairly simple issue. It would probably take forever to get an opinion as to what date should go in the placeholder: date of first part, last part, 00 for the month, or an average of the months, or the date of the middle part.--swfritter 13:34, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Not to prolong any discussions, but it would be relatively easy to add Serial(s?) Series to the biblio display, if that would help the situation any. --MartyD 10:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry about it for right now. There is not a huge amount of data involved and most of it is ancient. I would actually prefer the VT approach and may eventually suggest such an approach. Thanks.--swfritter 12:37, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Escape to Tomorrow

Added a cover image to [this]. ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:06, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

And to [this] ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:32, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

And to [this] ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:45, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

And to [this] ~Bill, --Bluesman 18:45, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

All 4 confirmed, thanks! Ahasuerus 19:09, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Serials - Always a new problem

The placeholder variant title for Manna actually had an award linked to it. Any way to get that to the actual title? I did a preliminary attempt to merge and did not notice that it was an option to retain the award linkage.--swfritter 14:27, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Awards are somewhat up in the air since Al was in the middle of polishing the new Award Editor page(s) when his availability took a dirt nap. I'll try a couple of merges on my local system tonight and see how it goes. Ahasuerus 14:40, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Something I could have tried on my local install - if the update to Fedora 11 had on my old notebook had gone well.--swfritter 15:37, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Stations of the Nightmare - Cover and questions?

Morning! This. [87]. Please check this cover image as I became a little confused with the discussion at Willem H.'s. [88]. I do have a different issue and I believe you told me something that is contrary to what I see in this novel. As I read the copyright page the stories were printed serially, no mention of changes. My problem is why add Part 1, Two, 3, and Four. I thought Book 1 etc was not any good, so what makes part, and irregular number spelling work out? The parts are even differentiated by font from the actual story title. I think in this case the parts add nothing, especially as they were dropped for the last story. IMO is of course not a rock but it does seem very odd. Thanks, Harry --Dragoondelight 13:44, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Good questions! I will check the book tomorrow and get back to you then. Ahasuerus 01:47, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

OK, I have the book here now. The first thing that we need to address is the fact that the cover claims that this edition is the "first publication in novel form". I have looked into it and there is no consensus among bibliographic sources re: whether the stories were rewritten for book publication. The Locus Index lists the second printing as a novel and doesn't mention the constituent stories while the original Contento index lists it as a collection. Clute/Nicholls lists it as a collection without any comments, which implies that the stories were reprinted without any significant changes, so I decided to keep it as a collection rather than change it to a Novel. I have updated Notes with the sources of my information.

The second issue is, as you noted, the fact that the individual stories are listed as "Parts", which is how they originally appeared when the stories were published in Roger Elwood's Continuum anthologies in the early 1970s. The publisher was presumably happy to keep "Parts" in the story titles to make it look like the customer was buying a novel rather than a collection of linked stories, although the spelling was changed from Roman numerals words "One", "Two", etc to Arabic numerals in a few cases (sloppiness, I assume). Since the stories originally appeared with the word "Part" in the titles -- I don't have the Continuum series, but that's how they are listed by OCLC and Contento -- I figured that I should keep "Parts" in the titles of the original stories. The question then was whether I should:

1. drop "Parts" in the titles of the stories in the book publication and create VTs that way
2. enter the titles exactly as they appeared in the book, i.e. using Arabic numerals, and VT them that way
3. merge the titles with the originals and not worry about it

I didn't like option 1 since it implied that the titles in the book didn't have the word "Part" in them, so it was a coin toss between options 2 and 3. In retrospect, it may have amounted to a lot of hair splitting, but it seemed like a fascinating problem at the time :) Ahasuerus 21:48, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

I think both Mike Hutchins and I have the "Continuum" books, if hair-splitting is needed. I think Mike verified the Star editions and I just followed his lead - but that was back in 2007, when the rules seemed SO much simpler! BLongley 22:06, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Well since you have a connection to why "Parts" are used, why not just note that it was a continuation from the original source (even if it was poorly done)? Since you have it as it is now, tracking the 'oddities' of the "part" presentation is probably more important than making them cue up to a rule which does not necessarily serve the best purpose in this case. Thus, thorough notation of the "part" parentage explains it best? This would make futute editors aware of the oddities. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 22:33, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Good point, Notes updated, thanks! Also, the original titles used the words "one", "two", etc rather than Roman numerals as I wrote at first -- sorry, a bit under the weather at the moment. Ahasuerus 23:34, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

The Wildings of Westron - added cover/interior illustration credits/notation

Afternoon! This. [89]. I added a cover image, illustration credits and notation after matching my copy to your ver. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 20:47, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed and approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 21:01, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Warriors of Day

Scanned in an image for [this] and noted the artist's signature is on the cover. ~Bill, --Bluesman 16:23, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Well spotted, thanks! Ahasuerus 16:28, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Night of Delusions

Scanned in an image and expanded the notes for [this] ~Bill, --Bluesman 22:34, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed/approved, thanks. Ahasuerus 00:29, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Book of Andre Norton

Scanned in an image and expanded the notes for [this] ~Bill, --Bluesman 00:22, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Dying Inside

Scanned in an image for [this] ~Bill, --Bluesman 18:33, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Beyond the Imperium - Added cover image

Afternoon! This. [90]. I added a cover image after matching my copy to your ver. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 22:44, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 22:50, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Convergent Series (Niven) - add cover

Afternoon! This. [91]. After checking my copy to your ver, I found and added this image [92], which matches mine. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 21:11, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 22:42, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

The Path of Unreason - add cover image/start page

Morning! This. [93]. I added cover image [94] and start page after matching my copy to your ver. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 13:25, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed/approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 16:29, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Merges

Thanks for doing those Dickson merges for me. I did plan to do them once the approval went through. --MartyD 19:19, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Oh, that reminds me that I still need to create FRs based on the Community Portal discussion earlier this month :) Ahasuerus 19:35, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

The Biggest Game

Just found this variant of itself - I think we've lost a "Keith Woodcott" variant there. You seem to know how to search past submissions, can you tell how this happened? BLongley 21:37, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

The "submissions" table is part of the full 5Gb backup file that I download nightly and then purge every week to create our "externally available" backup file. I'll restore the full backup some time tomorrow and see what I can find... Ahasuerus 21:56, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I'll be rebuilding the backup file tomorrow and will check the submissions table before I drop it. Ahasuerus 19:23, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Nelson (S.) Bond's Exiles of Time

I just handled a submission that removed the middle initial from the hardcover of this title, and check to see how the paperback was entered. The cover doesn't include the "S" in the name, but does the title page? Thanks. MHHutchins 05:07, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

There is no "S." anywhere in the book. I updated the pub when I cross-verified it, but somehow managed to miss the lack of the middle initial :( Ahasuerus 13:48, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks. Ahasuerus 19:32, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Added cover artist

I added cover credit for verified [95] from the book THE ART OF RICHARD POWERS by Jane Frank and made a note of it.Don Erikson 21:39, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 19:32, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Unauthorised Tarzan

Found covers for the series, all verified by you. BLongley 15:20, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, confirmed! Ahasuerus 19:21, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Home From the Shore

Expanded the notes somewhat for [this] ~bill, --Bluesman 06:37, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Added cover credit again

I added cover credit for verified [96] from the book THE ART OF RICHARD POWERS by Jane Frank and made a note of it.Don Erikson 19:31, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Earth's Last Citadel

I added a cover image you your verified pub RTHSLSTCT1977. Thanks. ~Ron --Rtrace 05:49, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks! Ahasuerus 05:52, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

All Hallows 43

Thanks for setting me straight on that. For some reason it doesn't look like any of the SHORTFICTION entries that comprised the rest of the issue (up to about page 300 or so) made it to the final listing. Do I need to re-input those? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sdtullis (talk • contribs) .

Fixes

I think you're setting new turnaround records.... I still had the Ward Moore summary up displaying the old behavior; refresh, and MAGIC! --MartyD 02:10, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't start worrying about it until you see a fix deployed before you submit it :) But I do need to take a break for a day or two. Sleep would be nice. Ahasuerus 02:17, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Sleep. The bugs and missing features have been there for years and will still be waiting for you tomorrow. --MartyD 02:21, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

New SF line from Manga publisher

I was adding some new Japanese authors and discovered VIZ Media LLC[97] which in the past only did comics and manga now has an SF line[Haikasoru]. Found one of the books today at Indigo and the spine uses "Haikasoru". Amazon listed the publisher and not the line name. Here's the mention on Wikipedia[98]. They only have four or five books now, but if it takeoff we could miss a lot. Can we add them to the search bot and not draw in all the manga?Kraang 03:30, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up! Fixer wasn't aware of this publisher, so he wasn't blocking it, but Dissembler may be blocking it when Al runs periodic Amazon.com scans. It's probably best to leave Al a message on his Talk page, which I believe he checks from time to time. Thanks! Ahasuerus 03:54, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

recent changes to Help:Screen:Publication -- primary verification

In your recent edit to Help:Screen:Publication, in addition to several very helpful changes about what a pub record includes, you changed ("primary" means the publication itself) to "Primary" verifications are done against a physical copy the publication. One reason why the word physical was not used in the previous version, or at least why i didn't change the existing text, was the possibility of making primary verifications of an ebook. Ebooks, of course, are not "physical" in the same sense that paper publications are. What do you think of "Primary" verifications are done against an actual copy of the publication. plus adding a link to Help: How to verify data? -DES ^Talk 19:03, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Sure, that makes sense. I didn't think of e-books because, well, I suppose because I hardly ever use them. I am sure one of these days I'll check out all of these 21st century gizmos :) Ahasuerus 19:21, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Foreign Language Support

I read the note you placed on my talk page concerning the merges that I've been doing of the records from Ernesto Veggeti's Italian and French language submissions. Do you have a suggestion about what we should be doing in the meantime with these submissions? Or perhaps it might be best to ask him to hold off until full support for foreign language work is implemented? These entries have taken up so much of my time lately that the thought that it all might be for naught makes me slightly nauseous. I wouldn't want to discourage Ernesto, because I appreciate the effort it takes to enter these pubs, especially for an editor that doesn't have English as his native language. (He's more communicative than many English-speaking editors!) I personally feel these entries add much value to the database, and hope that they can be fully integrated. I will accede to any procedure that you, as senior administrator, feel would be best for the database. MHHutchins 06:49, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Keep in mind that Ernesto keeps his bibliography in a database and he knows how to export it to a text file, which we could then use to create submissions via the Web API at our leisure. The only reason we haven't done so yet is lack of programmer time, but if manual data entry has become a chore, it may be worth considering.

Perhaps we should ask Ernesto how many magazines he still has to enter. In the post linked above he mentioned that he planned to do 20 a day for 90 days, so that would add up to 1,800 magazines and we have only done 219 so far. If we have another 1,600 issues to process, then the Web API method becomes much more attractive. That should also make User Preference/beefed up language support less urgent and give us time to do them right. Ahasuerus 16:00, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

We've actually integrated more than 400 issues, and I think the total number would be closer to 3000. Urania has more than 1500 alone. Some of the other periodicals only contain a single novel and appear to be more like a publication series than a magazine. Those might be easier to enter as novels. MHHutchins 19:32, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

That's pretty common in certain European countries where publishers have a consistent numbering scheme for catalog IDs, so they become more prominent in the minds of readers and collectors -- think the original DAW numbering scheme on steroids. It also means that a book may arguably belong to two "publisher series", e.g. when Wilson Tucker's Time Bomb was published by Ullstein, a German publisher (as Zeit-Bombe), the publication statement was "Ullstein-Bücher Nr. 3140", but it was also a part of the "Ullstein 2000" SF series. Oh well, we'll sort it out when we implement Publisher Series. Ahasuerus 19:58, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

I can't see that it will be all for naught, we're building the relationships between English titles and Italian reprints and recording the Italian titles in notes: there will still need to be a further step in associating the Italian titles but hopefully when the data is here then the work can be spread around rather than having it rely on one submitter. (And one moderator! MHHutchins) But I'm not sure what Foreign language support is planned - are we going to have variant titles for shortfiction that can be suppressed via user preferences, or something more drastic?

That's the general idea, but the details are yet to be worked out. I have a laundry list of issues that we need to address before we can do it (well). Ahasuerus 19:58, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

I'd be quite happy to switch off the original French titles when looking at Jules Verne for instance. (And the French have probably metricated "20,000 Leagues" into "111,120 kilometres" by now anyway. ;-) ) BLongley 19:04, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Suppressing original (as opposed to translated) foreign language titles may not be easy or even desirable. Take a look at the first Alice title on Kirill Bulychev's page -- what should the software use as the canonical title if you suppress the original Russian title? Ahasuerus 19:58, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

As far as I'm concerned, "Any". "First English" would do so long as I can see the other English titles too. BLongley 20:18, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Well, it would be possible to find the first English Title and make it the de facto canonical title on the fly, but it may require quite a bit of additional coding. Would you also like to have untranslated foreign language originals suppressed if the user deselects "original language" in User Preferences, thus limiting, e.g., Pierre Barbet's bibliography to 7 English Titles? I can see how it could be useful once we enter the rest of Barbet's (numerous) titles, which may make it hard to find English translations. Ahasuerus 21:25, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

And see my comments on Paleo - sometimes the Foreign titles are more English than the English ones, and I'd hate to buy them on that basis alone.BLongley 20:18, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

That's certainly a legitimate concern, but the good news is that we will be assigning a language code to all Titles as part of our improved foreign language support, so these things will become more obvious. Note that it doesn't have to be an English title to be misleading -- Lem's Solaris is known as Solaris in German, French and English and there is currently no way to distinguish between different translations. Ahasuerus 21:25, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

I leave the problems of multi-lingual European's choices of languages up to you, I'm going to stick to English when I use the database, and however much I like the author I think I'm going to give up on completing bibliographies when they're translated. I did start on Edmund Cooper translations but rapidly ran out of patience. BLongley 20:18, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

There are a few different target audiences here. The first one consists of people who know multiple languages "well enough to read fiction for pleasure". There are quite a few people who belong to this category in parts of Canada/US, northern and central Europe, Israel and a number of other places. The second target audience consists of authors, academics and fans who are interested in all' works by certain authors, including translations -- see your Edmund Cooper example above. Finally, there are completists who want the database to be as complete as possible even if they can't benefit from it personally. (Completist bibliographers? Shocking, I know!) Ahasuerus 21:25, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Avoiding apparent self-variants

To avoid cases in which a VT parent and child become identical in both author and title, now that all title changes go through the Title change code, rather than the edit pub code, would it be possible to:

1. Have the edit title code could check if the title is a VT or the parent of a VT, and
2. if so, whether the change would make the parent and child have identical titles and authors.
3. If this occurred, the editor or the mod, or both, could be given warnings/notifications.

I am consulting you on this before even logging it on SF as a feature request, because I'm not sure if it is technically feasible, and if it is a problem either with coding or performance. -DES ^Talk 19:32, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

It's probably doable, but there are concerns about legitimate variants. "The Hounds of Tindalos" has four Collections under that name at the moment, but some might have valid reasons only explained in notes. Warnings yes, rather than an outright ban. But explaining why it's possibly not advisable to merge is not necessarily easy. (Different notes are not uncommon - one may say do not merge A with B and the other will say do not merge B with A.) BLongley 19:45, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

I suspect that the easiest way to implement a safeguard like that would be to add a moderator warning to the approval screen. Ahasuerus 04:19, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Improper deletions

I just made a foolish error. I was working on the ISFDB:Missing Editors project, and i found a number of entries that were basically just a title and a date, no contents listings, no name of an editor, etc. So I deleted them, with a deletion reason of "no useful content". Then I wondered just why there were so many of them, and I did a google search of isfdb.org for the name of the next one on my list to delete. I found that it was listed as a publication for a work of shortfiction. It seems that if there is a missing editor record and a single content item on a magazine, the content item is not displayed (or sometimes is not, i haven't tested for all possibilities), but is shown if you edit the pub record.

Before I noticed this i had deleted 17 magazine record that I probably should not have deleted.

Can you restore these from backup? They are the items listed as "Deleted" on ISFDB:Missing Editors: i.e. pub record numbers 57982, 58193, 58918, 58919, 58920, 58921, 59109, 59455, 59456, 59493, 59494, 59495, 59536, 59616, 59617, 59618, and 59619.

If this is not feasible, i can probably restore most of them from cached google searches, but that would be less solid.

I apologize for the trouble. -DES ^Talk 00:54, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

No worries, mistakes happen! Let me restore the last backup and pull them up... Ahasuerus 00:58, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

OK, I have restored the backup locally and found the reason why these Titles were not displayed. The Publication Listing script doesn't display the Contents section if there is only 1 "non-Cover Art" Title associated with the pub. It works well for Novels and contents-less Collections/Anthologies/Omnibuses, but it doesn't work for Magazines without an EDITOR Title. Let me see what I can do about restoring the data... Ahasuerus 01:08, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. -DES ^Talk 01:37, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

All done, I think. There were a few non-genre essays by Arlan Andrews, bu I doubt that he is prominent enough to record his non-genre articles published in non-genre magazines. Ahasuerus 03:01, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

The War with (or Against) the Yukks

In my copy of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Galaxy the copyright page and the table of contents have this story as "The War with the Yukks", making it the only pub with this variant. On the story's titlepage however it's "The War Against the Yukks". According to the rules (help:screen) we should take the title from the heading on the page where the work begins. Is it ok if I change the title? (and add a note of course) Thanks, Willem H. 18:08, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Good catch! We may want to check with the other verifiers first, though. Ahasuerus 20:11, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm OK with the change! ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:13, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I submitted the title change, after asking Swfritter about the first publication here. Also notified Bluesman. Thanks, Willem H. 20:04, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Forgot to add a note about this. Will have to wait until the first edit is approved. Willem H. 20:15, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Both submissions approved, all yours! Ahasuerus 20:36, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Note added and titles merged. Willem H. 20:43, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Changes to your verified pub Two Views of Wonder

This pub. Faulty Register credit to Joe Gores instead of Joseph N. Gores. Also, changed all stories to publication date of the anthology. Of course, some of these have been reprinted since so I could not change them from within the pub. Oh well, the trade-off is worth it. Thankfully I already updated a ton of pre-50's mags with the unfortunate exception of Weird Tales.--swfritter 15:47, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I must admit that I have found the new inability to mass-change dates in a Magazine or Anthology a bit of a pain, when the magazine was entered with year-only, or the Anthology was the first paperback and we need the hard-cover edition. It seems less of a concern with Collections, but at times I do wish for a "I know what I'm doing!" over-ride. BLongley 21:27, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

We could create a cleanup project to do 2 things:

• Write a script to find all magazines with "January", "February", etc in the title and no month data in the Year field. The script would either correct the dates automatically or create a Web page for humans to review first.
• Write a script to find all Titles which have no month data (YYYY-00-00) and first appeared in a YYYY-MM-00 or YYYY-MM-DD pub. The script would then change the Title dates automatically. Ahasuerus 03:31, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

New image site and associated FR

If you have a chance, please have a look at ISFDB:Community Portal#Another source link for images (amazing site!) as I think a code change is needed to credit this site properly. -DES ^Talk 20:56, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up! I have been very busy lately, but I should be able to get this (and a few other things) deployed this weekend. Ahasuerus 22:25, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Noting that caused me to create FR #2885005 Image site table, but this is hardly top priority. -DES ^Talk 20:56, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Is it a duplicate of FR 1962009, perchance? Ahasuerus 22:28, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Oops. I did look for a duplicate before logging but missed this. I've marked the new FR as a dup and closed it. -DES ^Talk 22:42, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I notice that we have several categories in the SF traker for FRs that affect various interface elements, but none for FRs that involve changes to the db structure. Perhaps we should. -DES ^Talk 22:42, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Drinking Sapphire Wine

I added the frontispiece and a note to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 13:47, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed, thanks. Ahasuerus 23:53, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

Valley Beyond Time

Scanned in an image for the first printing of [this], shown [here] and by your description in the notes of the second printing, seems to be the same for both covers. Didn't add it to your verified record so you can check first. ~Bill, --Bluesman 21:13, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed and added. Also updated pub Notes to explain that the title as it appears on the cover of the second printing is free of the zebra stripes. Wonder if they were able to save money by excluding the stripes?.. Ahasuerus 23:51, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

An unfortunate byproduct of relatively low-res scans (moire effect). I can get rid of them by doing a higher-res scan and then increasing the compression which still brings the file in under the 150kb limit but doesn't re-size the image to below 600pdi. Need some specific software. See posting down a few... ~Bill, --Bluesman 19:40, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Twilight Zone

Can you have another look at what Reginald says about this? The second story is not credited to La Salle. BLongley 19:42, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Will do! I have noticed a few errors in Reginald's coverage of Badger and other downmarket UK publishers from the 1940s/1950s. It was a poorly researched area in the 1970s when he published his first volume. Ahasuerus 19:53, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, forgot to check earlier :-( Here is what Reginald says: "Twilight Zone. Badger, London, 1959, 158p, Paper, Coll. [includes a short story, "Point of No Return", by Max Chartair, pseud. of John Glasby]." Ahasuerus 03:11, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Is it really a collection if there are different pseudonyms used within it that only after research all turn out to be the same person? BLongley 21:33, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Well, sometimes it's a magazine, as in Supernatural Stories, No. 75. When the choice is between a Collection and an Anthology, I suspect that both options have potential for confusion :( Ahasuerus 03:11, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Title page is for La Salle, so the Max Chartair content could be considered a small bonus to a La Salle Novel. BLongley 21:33, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Hm, yes, I suppose it could be seen as a bonus story. There may be a benefit to keeping the container Title a Collection to help distinguish between the two versions (which is what Reginald did), but it's a toss-up. Ahasuerus 03:11, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Image 'stitching'

Saw this comment on Bill Longley's page:" In many cases, you have to download the scanning/OCR'ing/etc software from the manufacturer's Web page. There are also many free programs that will kindly re-size images for you if that's all you need to do. Ahasuerus 01:57, 14 November 2009 (UTC) "

Any ideas of software (for a MAC) that will enable stitching images together so I can fix all the ACE Doubles separated ones? Tried that site but everything seems geared to a PC. Thanks! ~Bill, --Bluesman 19:36, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, Bill, I am afraid I am as Mac-illiterate as the next guy :( Ahasuerus 22:07, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

(Just so I can be "the next guy" - ) I don't know either. But I'm tempted to buy a Mac as a Christmas present to myself, so may have some opinions by next year. In the old days I had as many bad experiences with Macs as I did with Windows NT ("Sad Mac" and "bomb icons" versus "BSOD") so it's taken a bit of time to get over the memories, but I'm tempted to try again. Anything to avoid more packing or unpacking.... BLongley 23:07, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I've had only PCs and you couldn't pay enough for me to go back. The MAC froze only once right after an update and that's been it in nearly two years. Apple does seem to have a part of that annoying Microsoft mentality that "If it hasn't been changed recently it's about time it was!!" A small price to pay. ~Bill, --Bluesman 21:03, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm a Mac guy, and I've used PCs for years at work, so I have some experience with cross-platform solutions. Canon cameras come with a program called "Photostitch," which runs on both Macs and PCs. You can probably download a copy off of their site. I don't think you need to enter a serial number to use it, but it may check to see if you own a Canon camera. On the subject of resizing images, if you own a copy of Photoshop Elements (Mac or PC), you can buy an add-on called Elements+ ($12), which restores functions from CSE and adds more than a few extra. One of them allows you to batch resize images by specifying dimensions or total size in pixels.--Rkihara 21:45, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Moderatorhoodshipdom

No more math quizzes!! :-) --MartyD 21:00, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

See, there are side benefits after all! :) Ahasuerus 21:49, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I'd forgotten we'd introduced such - I was blackjacked long before that feature came in, I think. It might be useful to make that an option even for moderators, as I could probably do with such a check at times when moderatorialising seems an easier option for de-stressing than sleeping or eating... BLongley 23:48, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Hall3730

Saw your comment on his talk page and he was here just a couple of days ago, edits 1268063 & -64. FYI ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:59, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

I noticed that as well, but I guess Bob didn't get a chance to stop by the Wiki. I believe he does a lot of travel, which may explain his sudden appearances and disappearances. Ahasuerus 23:15, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Hell's Pavement

On my copy of this pub the signature of the artist (John Berkey) is clearly visible. I uploaded this coverscan, added the artist and adapted the notes. Thanks, Willem H. 11:41, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Eight Fantasms and Magics

Added an image to [this] and took the zeroes off the OCLC#, as they have no records that start with a zero and using a number that does lead with one gives a null result. Unfortunately, using the correct record # gives 1122 results...... The record, [here], makes no mention of a derived or other ISBN. Was the note intended to be stated a little differently? ~Bill, --Bluesman 23:08, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Hm, I am not sure. I wonder if they had the derived ISBN listed at one point and then realized that 1969 was too early for ISBNs (at least in the US) and removed it? In any event, I have removed the note. Thanks! Ahasuerus 23:13, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Moderating Automated Submissions

Glad to see some updates there at last! Even a new section is good, although some of the current ones probably need more urgent attention. One small point - Data Thief submissions are in no way special and can be approved/reviewed/rejected by any mod. They're bulk updates based on recent backups (I daren't run them off old backups unless it's a very obscure area unlikely to have changed). And I doubt I'll get back to that any time soon, so this is a very small point. I'll probably ask for improvements in the Web-API (and may have to code them myself) before Data Thief does much more than mass-submit some edits on my behalf. BLongley 00:43, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Ah, I didn't realize that Data Thief's submissions were fair game -- please feel free to correct any misstatements! Ahasuerus 04:09, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

CJCherryh Collected Short Fiction

Can you look at [[99]]. Was going to do an edit and got a very strange screen. Does his mean the record is corrupt or it just won't display now? Can it be fixed or does it need replacing? Thanks! ~Bill, --Bluesman 03:41, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

It's that error that I posted about over on the Community Portal a few hours ago. Working on it right now :) Ahasuerus 04:06, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Looks much better now, doesn't it? :) Ahasuerus 04:30, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Just LOVELY! --Bluesman 20:07, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Publication Tag gone

I'm not sure when it went, but I see that fields like "Bibliographic Comments: Publication:WRLSSGXTKQ2009" are now "Bibliographic Comments: Add new Publication comment". I used to use that Pub Tag entry quite a bit - it's needed for Import Contents for instance. I agree it doesn't have to be exactly where it was, but I do think Pub Tags should be visible in the publication entry rather than have to extract them from the URLs. (I probably have the same complaint about title record numbers that we need to use in other edits, but those haven't recently disappeared.) Can we have these references restored please? BLongley 01:56, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Sure, we can put it back. I typically use URLs for all my import needs, so I never thought of the "Bibliographic Comments" link as the source of tag data. The wording was changed to distinguish between "Add" and "Edit" as per a recent Feature request and it didn't occur to me that the tag would be missed.

Would you like it to be added to the same link or displayed separately? Ahasuerus 03:03, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

A separate plain-text field is usually easiest to copy the data from, copying from a hyperlink or part of a field makes it trickier to select with the mouse. The same goes with title references - I often pick up the "?" in the URL as well, and that does funky purple Python things in Link Reviews and such. BLongley 12:19, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

I second the motion! I use that tag a lot, as well! ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:08, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

I have re-added the tag on my development system and was going to deploy it to the live server once I coded interior art indentation. However, the latter looks like a bigger can of worms than we originally realized, so I will deploy just the tag change tonight. Ahasuerus 20:21, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Done. Under Windows, double clicking on the tag highlights the tag and ignores parentheses. Hopefully, it will work the same way on the Mac. Ahasuerus 02:32, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Like a charm!! Thanks! ~Bill, --Bluesman 03:38, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Even though a double-click doesn't pick up the parentheses, it does pick up a 'space' at each end, which has to be deleted or a search won't work. At least on my MAC.... ~Bill, --Bluesman 02:00, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Are we talking about "(CLLCTDSHRT2004)" next to "Edit existing Publication comment" on this page? There are no spaces around CLLCTDSHRT2004 under Windows using either Firefox or Internet Explorer. Moreover, there are no adjacent spaces in the underlying data which the ISFDB server sends to your browser, so I am not sure why your browser displays spaces. I wonder if it's a Safari thing?... Ahasuerus 02:52, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

For any I've 'clicked' on so far. Must be a Safari thing, and it's not always spaces at both ends, either. Always in front, sporadic at the end. Not a big deal. Thanks for looking! ~Bill, --Bluesman 23:59, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Title Merge

Have a [submission] regarding a story, one version of which is in [this] pub, the other [here]. In the digest it's 9 pages, in the paperback 66. Unless the print is extraordinarily different, seems like the story has been expanded at least. I'm not sure if they should be merged or done so with some notes, or re-title the second larger version appending (revised) or what. I've held the submission, and a few others from the same editor. I can deal with the others but really don't know what to do/say/advise on this one. You verified the paperback so you have one source I don't. Thanks! ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:05, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

The first thing that comes to mind is that magazines sometimes split stories into two or even more chunks, e.g. the first part may appear on pages 10-22 and the second one on pages 79-120. We only record the first page of the story, so it's not always possible to tell how long it is by looking at the page numbers. Since Swfritter has verified this issue, he may be able to double check it quickly. If not, I believe I have the mag in my collection, but finding it may not be trivial. Ahasuerus 20:26, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

I had not thought of the split. Comes from rarely dealing with magazines. The mag had the story as a novelette, and Baen does use larger printing to explain the extra page count. Locus lists the paperback version as a novella, but that can be changed after. I'll approve the edit for now. Much thanks! ~Bill, --Bluesman 20:54, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes it is split. Now documented although this is so commonplace in magazines that is really not an anomaly.--swfritter 16:48, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

97 page magazine?

Possible with ezines but a physical magazine? --swfritter 16:39, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I verified that issue in December 2006 before we decided on a "magazine page counting" standard, so it's probably 98/104 pages. I'll check it tonight, thanks! Ahasuerus 17:52, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

So a standard that included an odd-numbered page count for magazines was being considered? That can happen with books but I am still trying to figure out how that could be done with magazines unless only the last page with content was to be counted. Some pages are assumed to be in another dimension?--swfritter 17:45, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

It's been a while, but I suspect that I used the last printed page number just like we do with books. I can't seem to find this issue at the moment, though :( Ahasuerus 01:39, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Found it! 100pp rather than 96pp as claimed by Tuck. Ahasuerus 03:58, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Contento lists it as 100pp. If the page numbering does not start with the cover he usually lists the pagecount as 96++. If Tuck is consistent we can probably add four pages to any of his entries.--swfritter 15:58, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Bibliographic notes prompt is great. It certainly seems like the notes, as done here, are a more appropriate place for what is currently commonly entered in pub notes. And now that it easier to find them . . .--swfritter 16:39, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the Wiki is not a part of the ISFDB application or of the publicly available database backup, so it's inherently less stable and I am hesitant to move "permanent" data there. If we lost our current server or even the isfdb.org domain, we could rebuild the application quickly, but rebuilding the Wiki would likely take much much longer (depending on resource availability.) Ahasuerus 17:52, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

It would be nice to have a separate bibliographic notes field in the db so that we could use the current notes field for information that is of interest to the casual user. But there is so much data already entered. Same with the bibliographic data for authors. It would be nice to have a durable portable place to record pseudonym information.--swfritter 17:45, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Yup, more database fields are on my list of things to do! Once they have been added, we won't have to worry about the Wiki side and the database side getting out of sync whenever the canonical Author name/canonical Title/pub tag change. Ahasuerus 01:39, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Don't rush it. The magazine editor series is already creating more work for me. Star Trek had a five year mission which ended at three. I'm almost at the three year mark. I might have to fulfill the original Star Trek goal.--swfritter 15:58, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

I just realised I will hit the 3 year mark in just over a month. Why do I feel there's more work still to do now than when I started? BLongley 20:25, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

We might have to take a three hour tour. We will never get off of this island.--swfritter 20:36, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

I've never experienced Gilligan's Island. It seems to be one of the few American Cultural experiences not exported to these shores. It might be on one of the obscure channels I don't subscribe to, though. Or maybe one of the ones I do subscribe to but don't watch. I've just been forced to upgrade to digital TV as of today, and now have 60+ channels even though I've gone for the cheapest package. The quality doesn't seem to have improved from the days when I had just 4. And there were only 3 when I was growing up... Channel 4 was a nice addition, Channel 5 passed me by completely. I think I only have TV for times the internet is unavailable. BLongley 22:31, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

The Labyrinth of Gedref

You can reject Fixer's submission, I only just noticed it and had already added it manually. Along with all the other Merlin novelizations I could find - it seems the BBC have quite a hit on their hands, there could well be a lot more to come. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the authors for the forthcoming ones, only the already-published. BLongley 18:44, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, rejected! Ahasuerus 20:34, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Geocities

Any idea what's happening with the sites there? I've had to update a few author web-pages and thought they'd all gone now, but http://www.geocities.com/rpcv.geo/other.html seems to be still up. I think you asked about which ones were worth saving at one point? BLongley 00:43, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

According to the parent page, "This site is not going anywhere. Yahoo has been rather vague about the details, but apparently, if you have been paying for your site, your site will get switched over to their new Yahoo service (which is not free, hence the demise of all free Geocities sites)"

Of course, the main attraction of the Geocities service was that it was free, but apparently a few people were paying for the ability to surpass the 15Mb/hour bandwidth limit and perhaps other benefits. Ahasuerus 01:42, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Babel 17 - changed publication month

Morning! This. [100]. I changed the publication month to agree with this on copyright page "Bantam edition Febrary 1982" as per my copy match to your ver. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 14:00, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Confirmed/approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 04:48, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Tags

I think we need "zombies" added as a popular tag, judging by recent submissions. Did Fixer search on that deliberately today? BLongley 19:00, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Zombies have become more prominent lately, but they still do not threaten vampires' pre-eminence. Most of the overnight zombie submissions came from "Living Dead", a small press that Fixer found as part of his researches. I'll describe the recent changes to Fixer's logic in more detail over on the Moderator Noticeboard shortly. Ahasuerus 23:48, 24 December 2009 (UTC)