User talk:Anniemod/Archive2

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This is an Archive page. Please do not post here -- post in my main talk page instead.

Bulgarian Green Mars cover artist?

Hi Annie,

I was searching through the archives and found this old post of mine that went unanswered; given your background I thought I'd run it past you. Thanks! Albinoflea 15:11, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

The credit claims Петър Христов but he did a lot of cover designs in these years. So I cannot tell you if it is his original art or if he is just the cover designer. Let me do some digging and check with someone that has the book handy and may have more information. Anniemod 15:56, 10 November 2016 (UTC)
Thanks, I appreciate it!
It looks like the cover of Червеният Марс is a clone of a painting by David Hardy first used by Analog; it looks like Петър Христов is credited there as well, so perhaps something along these lines also happened to Зеленият Марс. Albinoflea
He got a credit for a lot of covers :) Let me see what I can find out. Might take awhile - I am at Windycon this weekend so won't be online to talk to people much Anniemod 06:39, 11 November 2016 (UTC)
No worries, no rush... enjoy the Con! Albinoflea 23:45, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction

In my verified copy of The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction it’s Lyuben Dilov, not Ljuben Dilov, please feel free to change it. Good catch. One day you're going to have to tell me how good this author is. I hope this helps. MLB 20:14, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Just submitted the change :) There was another copy of the omnibus verified with the name with "y" - thus me reaching out to check. He is considered one of the fathers of the Bulgarian Science Fiction. Our Asimov in a way (not a very good comparison because the style is different but...). He is worth reading - provided that one realizes when the stories are written Anniemod 06:37, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

Orbit

FYI, Fixer's internal database was updated with the latest backup earlier today. He has identified 56 AddPubs ISBNs for Orbit and will be creating AddPub submissions shortly. Once I have reviewed and approved them, I will update the Orbit list on User:Anniemod/ISBN Lists. Ahasuerus 22:38, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

Done. Orbit is now down to 144 ISBNs. Wiki history can be used to compare the new list with the original. Thanks for working on this publisher! Ahasuerus 23:37, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
Thanks. I will be back to entering these early next week when I am back home Anniemod 10:02, 13 November 2016 (UTC)
Enjoy the con! :) Ahasuerus 15:08, 13 November 2016 (UTC)
Quick question about these - Look Inside on a few I looked at say "Published by Hachette Digital" even though the Amazon page says Orbit. Which one should I record as the publisher? I started as Orbit but have a suspicion it should be Hachette Digital actually (with a note that Amazon.co.uk shows them as Orbit in the records)... See this one for example. Am I correct? If so, I will change the publisher in the 5 I already did after they get accepted. Anniemod 03:33, 16 November 2016 (UTC)
From the peanut gallery: Go with the Look Inside, as long as you're sure it's for that edition. --MartyD 04:12, 16 November 2016 (UTC)
It is the kindle edition for sure so yeah, I am sure it is the same edition. I think I will do some research on Orbit e-books in UK - I have a suspicion that all of them are farmed to Hachette Digital. Update to follow :) Anniemod 04:22, 16 November 2016 (UTC)
So... it will looks like all the UK based Kindle Orbit books carry Hachette Digital on their copyright pages as a publisher. I will proceed adding them this way (with a note on the publication for the publisher information and checking each of them when possible) Anniemod 23:10, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

(unindent) And Orbit is all done after untangling credited publisher for most of the Kindle editions. Whenever you have a chance, get me a list for another publisher? Meanwhile Night Shade is also done. If Fixer caught any more from any of the ones that I had already dealt with, please sent them over:) Anniemod 04:05, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred

Hi. FYI I submitted edit to replace the Amazon image of http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?588412. Markwood 23:06, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks! My scanner is still packed in one of the boxes after the move so could not scan the cover :) Anniemod 23:08, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

Amor

Hello, while approving your submissions for this fanzine, I've tried to order the lot by years (as seemed to be your intent). The result is here, hope it was what you wanted to do. Hauck 06:38, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

Yes. Thanks. :) Is there a way to do it while entering them that I missed? Could not figure it out so was planning to submit the title records edits and merging later. Anniemod 08:25, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
No, you've taken the correct path (either way, the number of submissions needed is quite the same). It's better to enter each issue individually and make the title changes and merging later, your intentions are thus clearer to a moderator. Hauck 14:29, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

"Stardust" fanzine

At your request, I deleted the Stardust fanzine wiki page. All data has been moved to the Stardust magazine pages. I added a full description for the series page, then added missing issues, covers, data, and contents for the issues themselves. Chavey 03:40, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. That looks great :) I was moving data from the page so it can get deleted (as all the others that had been deleted lately) and the only one listed was that one I added. I was planning on checking if I can find any more information later today :) Anniemod 03:48, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
I think I have all the data that's reasonable to add. Except for letters to the editor. Chavey 19:12, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
Yep, that's why I said that it looks great :) Thanks! Anniemod 19:15, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Submissions

Hello, just to say that I've varianted the Hearne ;-). I've also taken the liberty to normalize the Spiral / Quake omnibus by adding spaces around the "/" and deleting the "Omnibus" part of the title.Hauck 06:45, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

If you felt like doing the variants, that's fine :) My bad on the omnibus - I was wondering if I should leave the word there or not. :) Anniemod 06:47, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Capitalization in English titles

Hi. Be careful with capitalization in new, English titles. Anything short that is not a verb, noun, or pronoun is likely a candidate for lower case. See the "Case" bullet of Help:Screen:EditPub#Title for a list. There's no official standard for the first word of a subtitle; I capitalize it (as I would if it were the title's first word). Thanks. --MartyD 00:22, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Where it is different, it is because this is how the title page has it from Look Inside (or I missed it - it is always possible to happen). I will make sure to add notes when it needs to stay strange :). Anniemod 00:24, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
It is easy to miss when copying from a publication whose capitalization style is different from our standard. I know I have done it. :-) Normally, I would just fix it without saying anything, but there were several and I wasn't sure if you were aware that we impose our own capitalization standard as another exception to the as-it-appears-in-the-publication "rule". So now I am sure, and please do keep up the good work. --MartyD 00:46, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
Yeah, I know... :) But I might had gotten distracted today a bit while adding the books. Will be a bit more careful in the future. Thanks for fixing those I missed :) Anniemod 00:49, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Austra-Fantasy, Issue 1

Hello, I've approved your submission but the number of parts of the SERIAL should be indicated (if not, use ?) giving something along the lines of The Lost City (Part 1 of X). Hauck 07:31, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Done. ? it is. However, not all serials are indicated like that, see half of the ones here for example which were pointed to me as examples of how to do things... So I kinda presumed that both formats are ok. Sorry Anniemod 07:36, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
I was more specifically referring to SERIALs published in magazine not in chapbooks but as there's a specific cleanup report to find them: "Serials without Standard Parenthetical Disambiguators" (moderator only) I suppose that the tips that were given to you are not really in phase with the present rules. Hauck 11:30, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
I fixed that one. Will check a few more I worked on lately to make sure they look ok as well tomorrow. :) Thanks! Anniemod 11:37, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

"Non-major magazines"

Hi Anniemod,

I joined isfdb a few weeks ago to update some of the "nonmajor" magazines like Strange Horizons. I just found the Community Portal today and noticed that you had posted about this in August. Of the magazines you mentioned there, I only regularly read Strange Horizons and Clarkesworld and have started filling in the missing issues. Just letting you know that someone picked this up, for those two at least! Thanks Amoeba of horror 08:27, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the note :) I got a bit distracted with other things and never started on the magazines (and I was trying to find whoever was updating them before) so thanks for doing these two. I should start on the rest and get them added as well. I will leave these two to you. Do let me know if you need any help! :) I haven't looked at Strange Horizons lately - I really do not like the new site design :( Anniemod 08:35, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

More Marvels

More Marvel ISBNs have been added. They include related imprints like "Marvel Press", "Marvel Age", etc.

The two "Young reader" ISBNs which remained outstanding after the last run have been confirmed as prose works by WorldCat. Apparently at least one of them includes a short comic story as a bonus, but that shouldn't affect its eligibility. I have added them to the database and cleaned up the author. Ahasuerus 22:15, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks - that's why I wanted to do more research on them - I knew one of them had at least one graphic story (had seen it reprinted) but did not know what else is in it and the usual channels were not helping me last night :).
I will look at the new ones - at first glance I expect a lot better ratio of real works from these compared to the previous two batches. :) Anniemod 22:37, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

DC Universe question

When you get a chance, could you please confirm that Batman Tangles with Terror, Superman Battles the Billionaire Bully, and Wonder Woman Wrestles Circe's Sorcery are graphic novels? TIA! Ahasuerus 22:41, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Chapter books or early readers (the first of the series is not out yet so I cannot tell you which one). Queue 2 material. :) I'll make a note to look at them when they are out next year though to make sure that they are indeed prose and not graphic (all material I can find so far points this way). Anniemod 23:49, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
Thanks! Ahasuerus 00:56, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Series: Alexiad

Just to let you know - I started the Alexiad wiki page (I ran across 4 issues) and in the absence of the Series (doesn't get created until after the issue is accepted) I put the data there. I fully concur with its deletion. Doug H 21:32, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

We are cleaning up the wiki - the now automatic links that almost any object can have are getting removed so we need to migrate the data -- if there is too much data or special formatting, I am linking to the wiki page (and it won't be deleted); if it is not too much, I add the data to the series (this was one of the cases); if the series does not exist in the DB, I add it (adding all issues I can find in the process) (see Bobolings for example) together with all the details that I can find and more importantly, with all the data from the wiki page. Thus is the story of that deletion :) I did not even realize that the series page was so new - sorry, would have pinged you to let you know otherwise. Anniemod 21:43, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Kontakte mit dem Unbekannten: Neue phantastische Erzählungen aus Bulgarien

Hello Annie, can you help me again with variants and pseudonyms? Thanks Henna

PS: I forgot the sources [1][2][3] Henna 15:23, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Absolutely - will do this later today. Anniemod 16:06, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
I think all are done now :) Thanks a lot for the scans - they had a few mistakes compared to how the stories were named in Bulgarian editions (including 1 Russian title :) ) but they were very helpful in finding the correct titles :) Anniemod 23:09, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
Or almost done - someone overwrote a few of the updates - should be all done in a bit... Anniemod 23:15, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
Thanks to all of you for your help Henna 18:50, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Elle aimait trop le bal, c'est ce qui l'a tuée...

Hi, I think we just have encountered a problem associated with interior art: this piece is in my opinion clearly French (if art has any language associated, which I doubt: it has titles which may have a language, but this one is French I'd think). Stonecreek 05:08, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

But it is in an English book and used only there. So it may need a new English title eventually (Where did the French title come from?) but art in English books is English unless otherwise stated. Van Gogh's painting in a Bulgarian book will be Bulgarian. :)
If you want to keep it as French (and if it is indeed French because of lettering and so on), that is fine but add a pub note or a title note explaining why it is French and not English so it does not get changed:) Annie 06:10, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
The title is stated in the publication.
And it's just not true that a painting (created by a French artist) will become Bulgarian in a Bulgarian publication: it's still the same. It may be differently titled, but the art stays the same.
In this case: if we'd have the same piece of art reproduced in a French publication, we'd end up varianting it's French title categorized as English to the original French title. That's why I just rejected your submission: it's a painting by a French artist with a French title, so, if we assign any language to it, which else should it be then French? Stonecreek 14:55, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
I also added the proposal to disassociate any language from works of art (ergo to make it languageless) to the thread of 'Multilingual publications': it's really meaningless to assign a language to a painting by, say, Salvador Dali (who spoke only the language of surrealism in his works).
We had this idea way back, but it seems to have been lost along its way. Stonecreek 15:00, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
The language is for the record, not for the painting and it shows where the art is used, not how it was initially created... languageless will make a mess of different alphabets and records - French title in an English book probably looks fine; French in a Bulgarian one is weird. But that is a different story. Annie 19:18, 20 December 2016 (UTC)
Well, if the title is given in French in a Bulgarian book, we do record it as stated; if it's stated in Bulgarian we'd record that. We do record what's stated, regardless if we assign the name of a language to an item. Stonecreek 04:52, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

Haralambi Markov

Currently, Haralambi Markov has his language set to "Bulgarian", but all of his publications are in English. Do you know, has he published anything in Bulgarian? If not, we should change the language. (A problem with many international authors.) --Vasha 20:18, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

Yes, he had. Working mostly in English lately but he is a Bulgarian author with valid original publications in Bulgarian so I would leave it as a Bulgarian author. Annie 20:19, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

Occhi Aperti?

I approved this then realized that it might be wrong. Occhi Aperti translates as Eyes Open. Open Ears is orecchie aperte.--Rkihara 06:53, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Translation taken from the notes of the primary verifier in the publication containing it. I can see if I can look around and find any other evidence somewhere. Annie 08:17, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Bujold

Hello, I was looking at the recent edits list, and there are some by you that are associated with books that I'm currently putting in (Bujold books written in Czech). I'm curious - are there things I'm failing to put in that you are fixing up for me? Just wondering if there are actions I'm failing to take that I ought to be doing.... Thanks for any help and/or explanation, KarenHunt 00:07, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Hello, any book title (or any author, publisher and so on) that uses characters outside of the Latin-1 group requires a transliteration for searching purposes - "Učedník války" will not be found if someone types "Ucednik" (sometimes people do not have the proper keyboards) but with transliteration in place, it will. So some of your Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Hungarian (the Latin-alphabet languages) and all of your Russian, Bulgarian and so on (the Cyrillic ones) titles need some help occasionally. If you click on the edit entry (this one for example), you can see what had been changed (it is green in the right column although due to how the form shows once accepted, you cannot see the old value). We have reports for the ones that lack transliterations and I am kinda monitoring all the Eastern and Central European languages ones - and just adding the appropriate transliteration. I was planning to drop you a note and got distracted. Let me know if I can assist with any of those at any time - my native language is Bulgarian. :) Annie 00:16, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
I could end up pestering you endlessly in that case! :) (I'm particularly wondering about the Bulgarian and Russian Bujold books, you see...) I was assuming those didn't need help since they use something like the Roman alphabet, but I can start putting the transliterations in now that I know. Thanks (also for fixing the title here), KarenHunt 00:21, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Any time - if it is Central or Eastern European, just ping me and I will see what I can do (I speak Russian as well and I can read bibliographies in pretty much all of the Slavic languages plus Hungaian) Not all of the Roman ones will need transliteration -- just the ones that have symbols that do not belong to the standards. For example there are 6 different "a" letters with different diacritics. 2 or 3 are treated as regular "a". The others - need transliteration :) As for the Bulgarian books - they are a bit of a mess as you know :) I am working on a few cleanup projects and then will be adding Bulgarian books in mass - so if you do not beat me to it, I may be adding them before you :) Annie 00:24, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
About a week from now I'd guess for me getting to the Bulgarian ones (I need to finish Czech, then comes Croatian, then Bulgarian. I'm going by "size" - smallest to largest, so Russian will be last of all.) Maybe we'll be putting them in at the same time... At least the newer Bulgarian books are easier to work with - the oldest ones have crazy ISBNs and the art work is ... startling. But the Russians went crazy with omnibuses, and they seem to have up to 5 publishers, and often three ISBNs, and there's no correlation between the number of ISBNs and any other information (number of tales in the omnibus, number of publishers, anything I can find). I'm glad they're more than a month from now because I'm going to have a lot of learning that has to happen first. Thanks, KarenHunt 00:32, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Welcome to the fascinating world of Eastern European publishing of the 90s. Uhm I mean the crazy world. Just ping me if I can assist or if I can help with chasing down some detail (and for Bulgarian books, I may even be able to get someone to look at the book). Annie 00:34, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks, that would help a lot! (There are 7 that I'm missing cover artists for...) I'll get back to you when the time comes, and thanks again, KarenHunt 00:41, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Curious about transliteration rules... My keyboard doesn't do any of the accents or circumflexes or umlauts - I've been cutting-and-pasting from web pages to get the names right. If part of the reason to put transliteration hints up is to help people with keyboards like mine, shouldn't the French and Italian and German titles and names get alternate forms as well? That would make for a lot of alternate forms, but I'm not averse to going through the Bujold ones for that. Also, when I see č or ž or š, should I offer two transliterations - one with c/z/s and another with ch/zh/sh (I've seen that done for a few books)? I realize this can get pretty complex with alternate forms for l,r,g,d, and I don't know what all else, but I've figured that for most cases, we just remove the diacritic and call it good. KarenHunt 12:54, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Depends on the language to some extent. If you feel like it, adding a second form does not hurt - I do it often when I transliterate Romanian - one form just removing diacritics, one spelling them a bit. The reason is that the DB does not use Unicode so a small and capital letter outside of the standard are not connected. For example if you search for вежинов, it will not find it. Search for Вежинов and here it is. And yes - to accommodate searchers with inappropriate keyboards. :) While for Latin letters, size does not matter. German, French and Italian are ok because their diacritics are part of the standard - see my note for the 6 forms of "a" above - the west European languages use the ones that are art of the standard. What you look for is how someone will search for the words. It will be either by dropping all diacritics or by changing them all to longer. thus my policy for two only no matter of how many diacritics we have. But just removing the diacritics and special characters for the Central European languages is fine. Annie 15:43, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
By the way - for Central European languages, unless if I am sure they need a transliteration (č always do, the various forms of a - not so much), I would wait for the daily reports to come out (generation starts at 1 am Eastern US time, by 1:30-1:40 am they are in place). The reports are here. The sections you are looking for are Titles: Transliteration and Publications: Transliteration. If there is anything that needs transliteration, it will show up in a report - none are still staying now so the Czech report is not there at all. If there is something, it will be there. And for languages that are not called out on their own - "Other Titles without Transliterated Titles" is the report to look at.
And talking about transliteration - it can be different across languages. The Cyrillic "х" is transliterated as "kh" in Russian and as "h" in Bulgarian (that's what a user of the language would expect). You can always add double forms on both if you want to of course :) I hope all that makes sense :) Annie 17:35, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Makes sense, though I don't think I'll succeed in following all the rules. I'll do my best when I can, though... Thanks for the link for clean up reports - I'll see what I can learn from it. KarenHunt 21:30, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
If you need assistance, just let me know :) Annie 21:38, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

U.S. state abbreviations

When working with locations in the U.S., it's best to spell out the state (and I would even include USA), much as we do for author birth locations. While I may live in MA and know what it means, some poor person in, say, Bulgaria might not. :-) --MartyD 04:08, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

I usually do when I am working on authors or publications. Did I miss to spell some out while copying (and updating) data during the Wiki cleanup today? I thought I fixed all of the ones that needed it but won't be surprised if I missed a couple. :) Plus if someone in Bulgaria cannot recognize the state code, they probably do not care which state it is anyway. More seriously though - sorry if I missed some. Annie 04:16, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
No, you didn't miss anything. My note was spurred by a submission adding a Nantucket address to a publisher records. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using MA, since technically what you added is a mailing address, but despite major linguistic and cultural disadvantages of having been born and raised in the U.S., I'm trying my best to fight U.S.-centricism (centrism?) where I happen to recognize it. So I changed it to spell out Massachusetts and figured I would mention it to you. --MartyD 15:24, 4 February 2017 (UTC)
Ah, an address. I usually leave it as is in addresses but add a "Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA" before that on a separate line. Emphasis on the usually. Will be more careful in the future :) Annie 15:48, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Turn to Ash, Volume 1

Hello, I just recently approved a change to magazine for this publication, which was initiated by this editor. I have put your submission on hold. Thanks, Christian Stonecreek 07:51, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I was clearing an editor / anthology mismatch between the publication and the title. It looked more like an anthology to me but if it is consistent now, that's fine. I'll cancel it. Annie 08:10, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Italian Discord in Scarlet

Hello Annie, IMHO the italian titles of Van Vogt's stories can be found here, I've put your submission on hold. Hauck 18:12, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Not really - it contains only the English names as far as I can see. I have a few more places I can look at to try to find them but it will take be a while. Unless I am really missing them somewhere on this page? Annie 18:43, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
Yes, you are ;-). Titles are Coeurl, I Riim, Ixtl and L'Anabis. Hauck 18:48, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
Doh. I knew I am missing something stupid. Someone here needs more coffee... Thanks for the note - I will get the magazine sorted out shortly. And get myself coffee :) Annie 18:52, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
No coffee at this hour in France, perhaps an infusion. Hauck 19:29, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
That works as well :) Thanks again for the help with these - no clue how I managed to miss them. Annie 18:01, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Suche Traum, biete mich

I see that you are in the process of changing the language of the stories in Suche Traum, biete mich from English to German. However, I suspect that we will need to change the titles as well. Since the publication has been primary-verified by Stonecreek, should we check with him? Ahasuerus 22:28, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

I already did - here and we agreed that I should do that so we can clear the languages :) Annie 22:51, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
Sorry, I missed that discussion! Ahasuerus 23:28, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
No worries. I would not have touched something with an active PV without at least telling them I am doing it. Not when it is something as big anyway :) Annie 23:31, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Forever, Issue 24

Hi Annie, I added the Amazon cover to Forever, Issue 24. Uzume 05:22, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! Annie 22:26, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
I have some more questions with regard to Forever. I was considering making submissions for the other issues and I was wondering about naming. In your verified issue 24 entry you name the publication "Forever, Issue 24" vs. "Forever, #24" and the editorial as "Introduction (Forever 24)" vs. "Editorial (Forever, #24)". I notice most other magazines try to keep the issue grid tight with issue numbers just "#" and the number (vs. spelling out "issue" every time). The publishers website always specifies the editorial of each issue as just an editorial and does not label it as an introduction. Any thoughts on the matter (since you have a copy or at least one issue)? See Forever Issues. Thank you. Uzume 19:01, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
The cover says "Forever, Issue 25, Feb. 2017" for the newest issue - the date is on a separate line as usual for specifying dates. That had been the same since they started. No real copyright page being an ebook only publication but with the word there on the screen, so for me, the magazine is styling its numbering with the word Issue in the title and I would rather it stay this way. I'll fix the essay naming - my bad on these (they should match the name of the magazine of course). The magazine itself says "Introduction" in all the issues I have (which may be all of them - will check later) so this is definitely the correct way to add it despite the site (copy beats online content) :) Annie 19:11, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
I noticed the editorial always entitled "Introduction" in the Amazon "Look Inside!" for a several issues. Perhaps it is best I keep that naming then (despite the publisher's website always describing them as an editorial). I also noticed you did not include the section entitled "About the Artist and Authors" in the table of contents. The publisher's website does not mention that (and I cannot read the actual contents in "Look Inside!"). Thank you for looking into it. Uzume 19:17, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
Yeah, they are always called Introduction. Too short to be included (for the about essays) if I remember correctly. I'll look at them again. Annie 19:40, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
Typically the "about" essay at the end of anthologies and such things are sort of a pseudo-copyright page just listing works and original publication histories and perhaps a short blurb about the author for each entry (but let me know as you have the copy). Uzume 19:49, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

I found another issue with this pub record. According to Amazon "Look Inside!" @ ASIN B06W9KZH26, "The Muse of Empires Lost" is credited to Paul M. Berger not Paul Berger. I am going to replace T777161 with its parent T2151774 in this pub (let me know if you have an issue with that change). Thanks. Uzume 13:32, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

I let those changes through. If it's not appropriate, I'll do the restoration. Thanks. --MartyD 13:38, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
@Marty: Thanks. @Annie: I completed updating our records for the magazine. If you have other issues feel free to claim them with verifications (and change them too if necessary). Thanks. Uzume 14:03, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
That would be me copying the wrong ID for the import. Sorry - probably would have noticed one day - I remember looking at both:) As for other issues - that I do but I had not got around to them yet... :) PS: As for the about essays - I still think they are too short to be added as essays. I'll add a note that they exist in the publication though. Annie 19:13, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Luis Royo's "Women"

I am not sure I understand the situation with this edition. It says "Text in Spanish, English and German", but the language of the COVERART/INTERIORART titles is Spanish. Is it by design? Ahasuerus 00:32, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

It is one of those multi- language art book. We have a few of them over in the the multi-language report (a few others from his - I am just temporarily ignoring them). I usually go with the publisher main language for their art languages unless if someone already set it to something - then I just leave it in the list to think on it later... Any language assignment on those will send them into the report anyway and seeing all of them there may produce an idea how to handle...Annie 00:35, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
I would match the language IF the text is one language. In cases like that - any of the languages will do really. Annie 00:36, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for the explanation! Ahasuerus 00:41, 20 February 2017 (UTC)
It can be an annoying mess sometimes. :) Annie 00:43, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Bulgarian author to find name for

Hi, I noticed that there's still one Bulgarian author you haven't put in a canonical name for: Kalina Aïch. No doubt you'll tell me that you were just about to get around to it... but I thought I'd mention it in case you missed it. --Vasha 03:46, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Working on it already :) She never published anything besides this story so I am chasing some links lately. Her last name is not Bulgarian so I am figuring out how she pronounces it (which will determine how you spell it in Bulgarian). So I should either guess or find someone that knows - which is what takes a bit. Welcome to the fun of transcribing names into a phonetic language. I do need to send a reminder out though so thanks for the note. Annie 03:52, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
And done. Thanks again for reminding me to go and find a name for her :) Annie 02:39, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Great Space Battles

Hello Annie, after some doubts crept in my mind, I think that you should use this version as a template for varianting directly the french interior art to the original cover instead of using this less complete one. Hauck 19:02, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

But your French pages match Great Space Battles and not this version - the complete one has a LOT more short stories (18 compared to your 9) and your 9 match the one I am using as a base. And your variants came out from the ones I am varianting them under. If you are saying that they need varianting on their own before yours go under them, that will be a lot of fun... Annie 19:15, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
In fact the "novel" The Laguna Wars is split into chapters that were likely mistaken for short stories in this version. The order of the illustrations is the same so this artwork is this one (and really first published as the cover of Mirkheim). Hauck 19:20, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
I may be coming back with a question if I cannot connect the dots but what you are saying is that this and this are the same ones - the ones on page 11. So all of them need to connect together. Which will bring both your French variants and the unconnected English ones under the proper place. Did I understand you correctly? Perfect - I will get all of those connected properly then - I did not realize that they are the same set of pictures because even the English ones are not connected (not all of them anyway). Annie 19:23, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
Exactly. Hauck 19:26, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
OK then - I will go and create more variants and get all of them nicely connected. Thanks for letting me know. :) Annie 19:27, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Karazin: Meteorologist or Meteorurge?

I have approved the submission, but shouldn't the title type of the translation be ESSAY as well? Ahasuerus 00:32, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

It is already waiting to be approved over here... :) Annie 00:33, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
Found it a minute ago -- the perils of out-of-order approval :) Ahasuerus 00:34, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
I probably should have added the note to both submissions - messed up on the entry and did not feel like backing it up and re-sending it immediately again. :) Annie 00:36, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Rebellion of the Machines / Mutiny of the Machines

Just checking to confirm that these are two separate translations of two different stories by the same author. Ahasuerus 01:11, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Never mind, it looks like they are. Ahasuerus 01:12, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
Yup - This one and This one. Different text as well - I am looking at the book as I am typing. I will be adding notes to these ones later today - there are a few weird things like that... :) I typed it, might as well post it :) Annie 01:14, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Excerpts in Red Star Tales

I see that there are 2 excerpts in Red Star Tales: "Rays of Life (excerpt)" and "Those Burdened by Evil (excerpt)". You have varianted the first one to "Лучи жизни" and you would like to variant the second one to "Отягощённые злом, или Сорок лет спустя (отрывок)". I am not sure either approach would be optimal. In the first case we have linked an excerpt to the work that it was excerpted from. In the second case we would create a "phantom" Russian title, which, as far as I can tell, does not exist. My current thinking is that the approach taken in the case of this title may be better - leave it unvarianted and add a note explaining where it came from. What do you think? Ahasuerus 01:30, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Different cases actually. "Лучи жизни" is a part that had been published on its own see here with this name (it on its own is already an excerpt from a longer work). So I had not varianted into the full work in Russian but into what it really is. So I think that this one may need some notes but it is ok. The English title has the word excerpt for it but from what I can say, it is the full Russian excerpt.
For the second one: I am planning to take another look in all the excerpts in that book and yes - I probably should not have created the phantom Russian title in the second case... I wondered for a bit and decided to giveit a go, see how it looks and if it does not look ok, fix it. Annie 01:38, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
OK - cancelled the wrong one, new one is in the queue now. Will take a look at the whole work one more time tonight. And will add more notes everywhere :) Annie 01:50, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
And fixing the third one that is there as well. Thanks for the help on this one :) Annie 01:53, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
Looks good, thanks! However, if "Rays of Life" is a complete translation of "Лучи жизни", then I don't think we need to use "(excerpt)" to disambiguate it. Granted, the latter is an except from a novel, but it has a different title, so a note explaining the relationship between the story and the novel should suffice. Ahasuerus 02:03, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
It is there in the book on the title page of the story which is what we are using as a base to what to specify, right?. I will add yet another note I guess. Or if you think that removing it but adding a note it is there will make it clearer, I am fine with that. I really dislike excerpts this evening :) Annie 02:05, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
I see. If that's how it's stated in the ebook, then I agree that we should keep it. Oh, and one more thing. The parent title's note says "The date of the entry is the first time it was published in a magazine". However, it looks like it first appeared in an anthology. Ahasuerus 02:08, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
I am typing faster than I am thinking again. I thought I changed that to anthology before submitting. Oh well - fixed again (plus added link as I was there anyway. I'll also add a note to the English title explaining the excerpt word over there... I will look through all those notes again later today or tomorrow - I tend to check my own notes a few times in cases like that. Annie 02:13, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 02:30, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks again for the help on this one. Annie 02:57, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Sorting out the Markovs

The newly minted author/pseudonym mismatches report flagged Georgi Markov (1929-1978) earlier today. As far as I can tell, he (co)wrote only one SF books, The Right Honourable Chimpanzee, so his working language is English.

Yes, this is his only work relevant for the DB. Annie 19:46, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

The other Georgi Markov is an artist who has done work for Clarkesworld. Would you happen to know if he is also active in Bulgaria? If so, we may need to change his canonical name, set up a pseudonym, etc.

This one can stay with the English name until I connect him with one of the other Georgi Markov artists (Name is pretty common - not as common as Smith in English but close enough). Not sure if he is a new one or an old Annie 19:46, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Finally, we have Haralambi Markov, who describes himself as a "a Bulgarian critic, editor, and writer of things weird and fantastic". However, the magazine and Web sites that he mentions are all English. Would you happen to know if he has published SF in Bulgarian? Ahasuerus 15:55, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

He does have Bulgarian works - essays for sure, not sure about stories (although there may be at least one). I need to see which of the magazines will be above the cut and which won't because this will determine what is eligible. It will take a while though. So if you want to set it to English, that's fine. It is reversible after all. Annie 19:46, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for looking into this "maze of twisty little passages, all alike"! I think we are OK for now, please take your time with the Markovs. Ahasuerus 20:13, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Ekaterina Zagustina et al

I have approved the submission that made Russian Ekaterina Zagustina's working language. However, if she is going to be a Russian author, we probably need to make "Катерина Загустина" her canonical name and create a VT. What do you think? Ahasuerus 01:59, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Working on it - I thought I submitted the variant as well but apparently not. :) This is why it is only a language and all the links were in the moderator note. Annie 02:49, 28 February 2017 (UTC)
Actually I did about 2 hours ago. It is waiting to be approved :) Annie 02:49, 28 February 2017 (UTC)
Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 03:42, 28 February 2017 (UTC)
Shouldn't it be Екатерина instead of Катерина?--Rkihara 17:26, 5 March 2017 (UTC)
Well, her Web site says "Катерина Загустина (katjafaith) - фотохудожник, иллюстратор". Given the number of Katheryns, Katharyns, Katherins, Catharines and Cathryns out there, I don't think we are in a position to complain :-) Ahasuerus 17:56, 5 March 2017 (UTC)
I tend to trust people's sites - if they want to call themselves in a way, let them be. The dropping/adding of "E" at the start of this name is pretty common with this name. It's more likely that her Russian name on the site is the correct legal spelling but who knows. I am keeping an eye on the last name though - if she pops up with another spelling, the dots will get connected. Annie 15:14, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
Keep in mind that we use the most frequently used form of the credited name as the canonical name. On the other hand, a Web site may use a different form of the authors/artist's name for any number of reasons. It could be a shorter/alternative version of the person's name ("Bob" vs. "Robert"), a nickname ("Cat" vs. "Catherine"), etc. However, in the absence of actual Russian credits, we have little choice but to use what's stated on her Web page. Ahasuerus 16:46, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Publisher names in Fixer submissions

If you find in Fixer submissions (most recent things that say just "Data from Amazon as of...") that a publisher name should be different, drop him a note about it on his talk page. He's usually quite receptive to change suggestions. :-) --MartyD 01:57, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Most of the ones his handler added had been fine - only 5 escaped with the wrong one - there are a lot more added by Fixer that are with the proper one. I would add a note if you think that will be useful. Annie 02:02, 2 March 2017 (UTC)
Or maybe someone else fixed the others. Oh well - note left. Annie 02:30, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Fixer 2017-01

OK, I have added what's currently left of Fixer's 2017-01 catch to your "ISBN Lists" page. There are a few curveballs, e.g. "Michael White" is actually "Michael White (UK)" in the database. Also, as you have probably discovered by now, "CreateSpace" is not a real publisher. The only way to find the real publisher (assuming there is one specified) is to check Amazon's Look Inside.

I hope this experiment with help us find ways to offload more of Fixer processing and free up more of my time for development work. <fingers crossed> Ahasuerus 05:39, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

I'll clear those in the next few days. Yeah, I am careful when I see that the author is a split one and I check other works to see if I can figure out who they really are. And I know about CreateSpace - very annoying. Annie 05:50, 2 March 2017 (UTC)
And now I am very confused :) I went to see how earlier entries of something are entered and found this from last year (and Fixer's fingerprints all over it). It has the publisher as "CreateSpace" (and we have a boatload of books under this publisher including well into 2016). So should I add the rest of the series with the same publisher or should I follow the current rule and use the Author name instead? (I lean towards using the author name as a publisher)
And at the same time - we seem to have some added with the author as a publisher and some with no publisher at all (for example in case they are CreateSpace or independently published (I check earlier books in the same series so at least we are consistent inside of a series). What is the preferred way? I did a couple of each (to match earlier in the same series) but decided to stop and ask - and will fix whichever are now wrong. Annie 00:02, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
In the past, Fixer merrily credited "CreateSpace", leaving it to the approving moderator to change the credit if needed. Then we had a number of discussions, most recently ""uncredited" publisher" and "What counts as a publication for an e-book?". Around the same time we also discussed the fact that the "use the self-published book's author" standard wasn't working work too well for co-authored books, but I can't find that discussion at the moment.
At that point Fixer realized that the currently documented "author's name" standard and the proposed "uncredited" standard are equally iffy for Amazon-originated books: Look Inside doesn't show all pages, so the fact that you can't find the publisher doesn't guarantee that it's not listed somewhere. And so he simply stopped populating the Publisher field, leaving it to the approving moderator to decide what -- if anything -- should be entered based on what Look Inside shows. At least that's his story and he is sticking to it! :-) Ahasuerus 00:26, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
I remember the discussion about the multi-authors - I think I even participated in it. Then I should proceed based on gut feeling and whatever I feel like I want to use when I cannot see something in Look Inside - if someone complains, they are welcome to fix whatever they want to fix. I'll go add the remaining books. :) One of those days I will attack those CreateSpace monstrosities and see if I cannot send them to their proper place (in terms of publishers) Annie 00:38, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

EDITOR is confusing?

Hi Annie. In a number of your posts to the community portal you mention that the EDITOR title type is confusing (or elude to it not being straightforward at least). I am curious what you find confusing about this? I wanted to start a discussion on this topic and wanted to get (and understand) your input first. I wonder if you mean this is confusing in how magazines are defined (because I do not find the editorial credits confusing but never liked how we defined magazines and always thought they should be pub series vs. our current magic EDITOR title series but I have never been able to sell that—at least not enough to get consensus to convert to such). I believe at least a part of our problem also stems from design issues related to arbitrary separation of concepts, e.g., some bibliographic indexes/catalogs do not separate publishers from other types of authorities (like authors, editors, artists, illustrators, etc.). Thank you. Uzume 13:49, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

It is confusing being in the list. Think of a new editor, just joined and trying to add a collection/magazine. They look at a list and they do not see the word they expect ("article"), they do not see "introduction" or anything like that. They see "essay" (which has a very specific meaning outside of ISFDB) and they see "editor" and "non-fiction". It is very easy to assume that editor is short for (or representing) editorial (aka something written by the editor of the edition) - and non-fiction for everything else. And from the messages I see being left around people's walls, I am not the only one that finds them confusing (not anymore for me - been here long enough to get a grasp of it but they were a bit weird at the start.)
As for magazines definition - not really confusing there. Our policy of lumping all issues from an year together takes a bit to get used to but other from that, it is obvious when you are creating a magazine that the main entry is EDITOR and it gets created for you. Annie 15:24, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
There is an FR to "Disallow pub/title mismatches when adding/editing publications":
  • Disallow pub/title mismatches when adding/editing publications. For example, an OMNIBUS publication can contain NOVEL, COLLECTION and ANTHOLOGY titles, but can't contain EDITOR titles. Conversely, a MAGAZINE publication can (and must) contain one (and only one) EDITOR title but can't contain OMNIBUS titles.
I plan to start working on it once I finish adding the current round of warnings. Ahasuerus 17:26, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
That will help a bit I think. Removing non-fiction and editor from the list will be even more helpful - the only cases where you need either of them is if someone removes them from the record by mistake. Allowing them when editing the title but not on content may be clumsy but will help a lot on cutting the confusion. Just thinking aloud here. Annie 18:19, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
The exact same thought had crossed my mind -- is it technically possible to offer different lists of options under different circumstances? EDITOR and NONFICTION will rarely be necessary. --Vasha 22:49, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
Not only is it possible, but that's exactly how the software worked in relatively recent past, at least on NewPub pages! Unfortunately, it confused new editors who didn't understand why certain title types only appeared on certain edit page. Damned if you do and damned if you don't... Ahasuerus 23:07, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
Should be very easy to explain - you do not see it because there is no way for you to add it inside of this type. But then I suspect there is some obscure story about how people can get confused anyway... :) Annie 23:12, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
I hope that a detailed pop-message with an explanation of how EDITOR titles work will be more informative. I also plan to add other pop-ups, e.g.:
  • CHAPBOOKs missing SHORTFICTION/POEM titles
  • NOVELs/CHAPBOOKs with container titles in the Contents section, etc.
I guess we'll find out how well they will work soon enough! Ahasuerus 00:09, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
If my daily job is any indication, popups are getting ignored (and then a second verification ignored) and then the person complains that someone deleted their data. Let's hope they are more effective here. :) Annie 00:19, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
The planned pop-ups will work like the currently existing pop-ups, i.e. the browser won't let you submit the data until validation succeeds. Try creating a NewPub submission without a title and you'll see :-) And if the editor tampers with the browser and sends the submission to the server anyway, the server will refuse to accept it and yell at the editor! Ahasuerus 00:30, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
We have popups now? I do not think I had ever seen one. :) Ha. Learning something new every day. Annie 00:33, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

List of Magazines

You said you might be able to put together a Wiki page with a schedule/calendar of when to check magazines for new issues (and completion notes for issues that have appeared). I've gathered together schedule data for currently active magazines here. There's 89 of them (whew) and I'm sure I've missed a few.

One thing I don't know is which webzines are eligible for the database because of awards -- is there a list somewhere?

So if you need help with next steps, let me know. --Vasha 16:12, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, then the paying job got a bit crazy and I was off this weekend. Happens sometimes. Will probably get around it some time this week. As for the webzines - most of them are not eligible unless if they are also awards eligible. You may want to post the list of the ones that you are not sure over in the Community Portal and get some opinions :) Annie 16:15, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
The way I was thinking the "schedule" part of this would work, being as some of the dates are uncertain, is that the month a forthcoming issue is listed would be a suggested time to check for it (late in the month). If it hasn't arrived, the user just moves the notation to the next month in the schedule. I think the notes in my list are sufficient to come up with an idea of when is the earliest the issue could be expected for almost all of the magazines. --Vasha 16:40, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
One thing to note is that we have a Wiki-based Magazines page. It has been largely superseded by the database-based Magazine Directory, but the latter still links to the former. The data that you have compiled looks very useful; you may want to consider moving it to the Magazines page.
We can also create another database-based view of the Magazine Directory which will list all existing EDITOR series. There are only 2,145 of them at the moment, so it's still manageable. (The primary view of the Magazine Directory is more sophisticated since it also includes individual EDITOR titles whose names do not match the series name.) Ahasuerus 17:10, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
Which is all good but won't help with tracking where we are with the entries for the year (but it will help with what is eligible I guess)... this is what I am coming up with an idea about :) Annie 18:23, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
I do not think we need to catch dates - months will be more than enough; even quarters. Splitting the magazines into groups based on how often they are supposed to publish their issues and building tables around that should do the trick :) Annie 18:23, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
I was planning on going through the list ounce a month, to keep the amount of work manageable. So there should be a single list of all the ones that publish monthly or more often. The rest might be divided up by which months they are to update in (quarterly Jan-Apr-Jul-Oct, quarterly March-Jun-Sep-Dec, semiannual Apr-Oct, etc.) --Vasha 20:36, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
You are very optimistic with the schedules of a lot of the smaller magazines (and when they finally do publish something and not) :) Annie 20:37, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
Indeed -- that's why I said it's a schedule to CHECK for updates, not necessarily a schedule to find them. Since each entry includes a link to the magazine website, checking will be fast. Vasha 20:51, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
I think maybe the page should include the following design elements for each mag: name of the magazine; link to a page or pages to find updates; in monthly grid form, a schedule as I said; a list or table of existing issues with notes or codes for work to be done; a link to the DB series page. If you can design that, I'll take care of populating the data. --Vasha 21:03, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Tiempos Nuevos en Fairmont High

Hello, I've approved your submission but wonder about the publisher that you gave ("Vernor Vinge") the copyright to FiccionBooks that is visible on amazon may point to either this publisher or that one even if ISBNs don't "match". What are your thoughts? Hauck 18:54, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Caught it before I saw your message - my bad. Copy/paste mishap. I went for the author name (as self-published) then saw it in the Look Inside and went to change it and apparently did not. Should be fixed now. Sorry. Coffee seems to be needed again. Annie 19:07, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Check for Duplicate Titles

Based on your note on Memento Mori, where you gave your to do as "Need to check all authors to see if someone needs merging and/or varianting once accepted", are you aware that there is a "Check for Duplicate Titles" on the publication listing that will find all exact dupes for that pub? The note made it sound like you were planning on using the ones on each author's page. -- JLaTondre (talk) 22:34, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Actually - I had forgotten it is there - so thanks for the reminder! :) I will go through all different authors anyway (to see if they have anything else still needing to be done - varianting into a canonical name for example - too many authors here to do it while submitting) but yeah - that should pull the 7 or 8 that I think are duplicates faster. I just could not be bothered to keep track of them for import later and just added them (majority of them being new stories). Thanks again! Annie 22:37, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
Yep - that made it easier :) Now chasing some other misspelled titles in the authors from this anthology - some of them to stories that are not even in this one. Annie 22:50, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Look Inside tip

I saw your note on the submission of Unbound II about the back cover not agreeing with the pages you can see. I have found that if Amazon makes "search" available in the Look Inside (it does not always do so), sometimes if you search for the title or author, the search results will give you enough of a snippet to work with, even if the page itself is not visible. --MartyD 03:24, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the note :) Yeah, it helped in a few other books where I had doubts on spelling or did not like something in the content (and wanted to verify with the page) - Look Inside search, Google Books search inside (whatever they call it), search through authors pages to see if I can cross-reference - I use all of them if it will help me get the full content. In this case it does not yield anything useful - or not useful enough to complete the content anyway. :( I have it in my TO DO list to try to find more about that specific anthology. Some of the self-published (even if they claim otherwise) books are... challenging. This one more than most. Annie 03:33, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Very minor additions to "The Hanging Tree"

I have made very minor additions to the Notes for The Hanging Tree. Added link to archived publisher's page on first line of Notes. Added myself as second Primary (Transient) verifier at end, since there isn't a way to do that in Verifications. Next - to actually read it! BungalowBarbara 01:31, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the note :) Have fun reading it - it did drag for a bit for a second there but then a major shift in the series occurred again. It's one of those series that I really enjoy. Annie 17:19, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

W. C. Roberts pseudonym

Hi, Annie. I have rejected your submission to remove the pseudonym as per the auhor's statement. Thanks, Christian Stonecreek 17:36, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Ah, that I missed. Guess someone need to do all these variants then - because the works are just sitting there now. Shouldn't it be the other way around considering where the more works are (and they are the more recent ones)? Annie 17:37, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for varianting the rest of the bunch! Christian Stonecreek 10:07, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

Тени минувшего

Thanks for finishing the work on Тени минувшего ! I had to leave urgently for Belgium during the weekend, and didn't have time to finish… Linguist 20:59, 13 March 2017 (UTC).

No worries - if I see something that needs fixing in the Central and Eastern European languages, I am more than happy to help with it. These popped in a report - so I did not even have to chase them :) Annie 21:01, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Господину Г. Дж. Уэллсу (whatever that means)

Hello, in such cases, we usually just create a variant title with only the canonical name changed. We have somme examples of texts in french by english authorsd that were never published in english like this one that is specific to the french editions. Hauck 08:23, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

I am pretty sure this one was published in French first - the guy did not know Russian. Which is why I did not do the same as with the omnibus... But leaving it like that just so we clear the author name is fine with me :)
PS: It means: "To Mr. H. G. Wells/Mr. H. G. Wells (as at the start of a letter)". It is a dedication of the novel from the author to Wells. I usually would not even add these as essay but Linguist (I think) did (probably because the Russian source indexed it) and after fixing it (you accepted the fix earlier today), I was trying to get it off the page. :) Annie 08:28, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
1) It's perhaps a "direct" translation as are the AEVVs, 2) the fact that the title was in the cleanup report is another symptom of a creeping "carelessness" of moderators that I evoked and that led me to stop doing the housemaid chores. I've rejected the submission and created the variant. Thanks for stepping in after me in the exploitation of the cleanup reports, it's not very glamourous but quite interesting if you want to learn the usual trapfalls. Hauck 08:37, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
I'll remember for next time - no ovethinking - either I have the title and use it or I do not and just clear the author name disrepancy. Sorry for making more work for you today.
As for the cleanup reports - I've been working on the cleanup reports almost since I joined - you were just beating me to most of them due to the time difference :) They are mostly fun -- even if I need a break from some of the longer things (the wiki-cleanup for example). Someone needs to make sure that mistakes and errors do not multiply and make the DB useless. Annie 08:55, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
PS: What is AEVV? Annie 08:56, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
A. E. Van Vogt ;-). Hauck 08:59, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
We call that "brain is really not working at 2 am" and pretend I did not just ask this. And I am off to bed. :) Annie 09:01, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Help with the magazine table

Hi Annie. I'm not real experienced with using wiki table syntax (most of what I know is due to spending half an hour reading the Wikipedia tutorials), so I hope you can help with a couple problems that came up while constructing that magazine table. 1. How can I set the cell border properties universally instead of repeating them for every cell? 2. Why is all the text boldfaced (unintentionally)?

If you have any other suggestions for improving the design or coding, I'd love to hear them. Thanks --Vasha 01:18, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

I am not that great with tables either (and then I found an example table here and am utilizing it for everything I need ( see for example - I love it because it changes the color when you are on top of a line. :) Let me see what I can come up with the issues on your table. Maybe this one will be a better example than mine?
I think that it is all in bold because it believes that every line is a title line. Let me look into it. Annie 02:03, 19 March 2017 (UTC)
Also, since you know your way around the wiki: where should I file and index this page, and where should there be links to it? --Vasha 17:21, 19 March 2017 (UTC)
Sorry I was mostly out yesterday. Where it goes will depend on scope -- do you plan to just track magazines or do you want to add anthologies and collections at some point. For the magazines, I would think that this may be overhauled and a new page created under it for each year - and I see you are already updating it. If you are going for all stories, then adding a new page that then gets nested here is probably a good idea. Something like http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Stories_2017 for example? Not sure really - I guess a place will just need to be picked up. :) Annie 19:08, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
I am trying to think of a good way to track anthologies, but that will have to be a separate project from the magazines. --Vasha 20:15, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
The only collections and anthologies that are relevant are the ones with new content (2017 new stories). So.. maybe an alphabetical list of tables (table per letter - similar to the magazines list) where each table is: "Name, Editors, link" and then 3 status columns "added to ISFDB" (probably adding a link to the title record at this point?), "content added", "lengths fixed"? Annie 20:24, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Actually, I think it would be better to have it ordered by date, like I have it in this list. I don't know how to replicate the effect of having the current date at the top of both the "new" and "forthcoming" sections of the list. It puts the focus on the things that need attention most recently; and you can move items from the top of one list to the top of the other when their publication date arrives. A particularly clever coder would be able to create a table where there is an automatic moving marker for the current date! Even better, one that would hide items that are particularly far in the past or the future unless you clicked to expand the table. --Vasha 21:06, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Harder to find if it is already in the list if it is order by date. Even if you have the book in your hand, you cannot say what the publication date is. So as interesting as the by date look will be, it will not be very functional. Annie 21:48, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
So, not being able to do that, perhaps I should just replicate those lists in table format. Column 1: Title. Column 2: editor/author. Column 3: links to ISFDB publication records, to be color coded the same way as the magazines. Column 3: actual or expected publication date. Column 4: Multiple links for data (Amazon, publisher, etc.) Column 5: notes.
What do you think? It would be simpler, certainly, to have only a single table (in date order); but then there would be a lot of not-current things to scroll past until you got to the current ones. --Vasha 21:06, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Single table is fine - I was just thinking about having smaller pages to edit. But I really do not like the idea of ordering it by date. In Magazines, it is clear and logical. For anthologies and collections - order by title or editor name makes more sense Annie 21:48, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Here is a mockup of what ordered by date might look like. (And it's still doing that all-boldface thing even though I simplified the design somewhat... I still don't know why.)
You certainly have a point that it's easier to find a single item if it's ordered by title. But I, on the other hand, am more interested in finding what needs attention in the present month. Again, we should have a dynamic design where you can switch between date-view and title-view! Failing that, though... Let me think some more. There must be a way to reconcile those two needs. --Vasha 21:54, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
12 columns for the months? Then when you look you go down the column? And when a new one is found, it is easy to see if it is already on the list. Annie 21:57, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Oh yeah, good thought, take a leaf from the book of what I did for the magazines. I would want to reduce the amount of other data, then, so the table's not ridiculously wide. --Vasha 22:03, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Look at your mockup and let me know what you think :) I simplified it... a lot. The bold was because you were telling it that each line is a title line. :) Single edit so you can reverse if you do not like it and I can look some more. But I think that this is good enough? Annie
As fo rnumber of sources - we can easily put notes and sources in one column. And the 12 columns will be very skinny (single character or color). So that should not take too much space. Annie 22:09, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

(unindent) OK, so border in the table properties sets borders for all cells; how do I tell it to collapse the borders? would that be bordercollapse="collapse"? But I still don't understand the title thing. --Vasha 22:33, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

When you start the column with ! before the |, you are telling it "this is title, bold it and here is some other stuff". See what I did in your table - it is cleaner and easier to add lines this way - you do not need to add the format to each column on each line. Just add the needed colors when it is a specially colored one; otherwise just add the text. Why do you want to collapse the borders? Annie 22:37, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
The rows that have style properties set do have ! before the |, why aren't they titles? As for collapsing, I just like the look of it better. Do you like it better without? --Vasha 22:42, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
They are - that is why they are in bold... That is what is causing them to get bold. And yes - I like it with non-collapsed borders better - looks less... strict. And makes the colored fields more visible - at least to my eye. Annie 22:44, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Aha, I found how to apply CSS styles to cells in wiki syntax! you just separate your cells with || instead of |; the style goes after the first pipe, the text after the second. --Vasha 22:54, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
And there it is -- I think it'll do fine. --Vasha 23:09, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
Looks good! Annie 02:26, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Duplicate ISBNs

Hello Annie, Dandelion and the Box of Illusion and Hollyhock and the Christmas of the Swans seem to have the same ISBN. IIRC you entered them (and I approved them), can you have a look at your sources? Thanks. Hauck 07:49, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

A copy/paste mishap that I missed - either copied from the wrong line or pasted twice without coping in the middle and did not catch it when looking at it. Submitted the correction for the wrong one. Thanks for the note. Annie 08:11, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Der Traumsender

Hello Annie, can you help me again with variants and pseudonyms? I've scanned the sources. Thanks Henna 18:01, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Yep - will do them tonight Annie 18:42, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
Submitted. Sorry for the delay - travel. Annie 16:26, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
Thank you very much. Your sorry is not necessary, it is never urgent. Счастливого пути! Henna 18:20, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Anar

FYI, it turns out that Anar is an Azerbaijani author. Ahasuerus 17:18, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Yeah. Realized that when I saw your updates. Probably would have realized that on a review. Thanks for fixing it! Annie 17:22, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
Sure thing! Ahasuerus 17:27, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Fixer's "public" system

BTW, would you say that Fixer's "public" system is ready for prime time? Anything else that we may want to tweak before we announce it on the Community Portal? Ahasuerus 17:27, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Instructions on how to work a list :) You do not want someone to just go and submit the list as is and without connections, looked up data, content (sorry, but if the content is Amazon look Inside or on a publisher site, it should make it in) and so on just because they do not understand the goal. Let me try to take a crack of writing some ideas/how to later (a changed version of what I posted earlier) today (traveling this week so my schedule is a bit crazy) Annie 17:31, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
No hurry! It occurs to me that we may want to convert this section of Help:Screen:Moderator into a standalone Help page. We could then flesh it out with additional information based on your (and other editors') experience. Ahasuerus 17:47, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
Probably a good idea. And transform it - so it is clear that this is about the initial submision (aka - sending it with the idea that a moderator or followup submissions will fix it is just a problem waiting to happen). Annie 17:59, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
Perhaps we could split the section in two. Some sub-sections are only relevant in the context of Fixer's submission, which I plan to continue since many e-AddPubs require no manual massaging. For example, the "Notes Issues" sub-section doesn't apply to "public" submissions. Ahasuerus 18:09, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
Let me take a better look this evening from my hotel :) Annie 18:14, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Vacation

I am going to be mostly away for the next 2 weeks - I may reappear now and then if I get bored but until April 22, I will stay as far away from computers as I can. If there is something that needs a somewhat timely looking at (such as new Bulgarian titles that need attention :) ), please send me an email using the email function here - I will be picking up mail most days and can login. Annie 21:25, 7 April 2017 (UTC)