ISFDB:Moderator noticeboard/Archive 21

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This is an archive page for the Moderator noticeboard. Please do not edit the contents. To start a new discussion, please click here.
This archive includes discussions from January 2017 - June 2017.

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Expanded archive listing



To all Moderators

I don't know if this is the place to do it, but Happy Holidays to all of the Moderators who have helped me out this past year. MLB 03:11, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

We are here to serve! <adds garlic> Happy New Year! Ahasuerus 04:09, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
Thank you, sir! And while we're at it, a happy and prosperous 2017 to all Editors! PeteYoung 06:45, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
Same to you! --Vasha 03:32, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores 2017-01-02

If there's an ignore function for the cleanup report "Container Titles in Publications with No Contents", then here's my list of the ones that need ignoring because they're omnibuses (i.e. no contents for the individual collections):

--Vasha 03:35, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

There is no way to ignore publications found by this report. An omnibus that includes collections/anthologies can also include the collections/anthologies' contents. That way you can get from individual short fiction titles to the omnibus publication. Ahasuerus 14:58, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
Well, being as I might as well make use of the list I compiled, I guess I'll import the collection contents to a few of those omnibuses. --Vasha 16:03, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Also, in "Multilingual publications", Critical Approaches to Isabel Allende's Novels and the two editions of Fae Visions of the Mediterranean can be ignored. --Vasha 03:35, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Done - thanks. Ahasuerus 14:58, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores on Japanese Titles with Latin characters

Please ignore everything on this list except for "Ozu No Mahotsukai". Everything else either has a submission to correct it or is actually using Latin characters in the Japanese title. Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:24, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

Done.--Rkihara 03:24, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-01-06

  • In Bulgarian Publications with Latin characters - both titles
  • In Russian Titles with a Latin Author Name - the two titles by Philip José Farmer
  • In Multilingual Publications:
    • Anthology "The Best of the Baum Bugle, 1961-1962"
    • Omnibus "The Marvelous Land of Oz"
    • Both Omnibus editions of "Siddhartha"
    • Omnibus "Opere III: nuvele, schițe și povestiri"
    • Omnibus "Die gottliche Komodie: Hölle"
    • Omnibus "De gedaant-wisselingen van P. Ovidius Naso"
    • Omnibus "Beowulf"
    • Both Non-fiction "Women"
    • Magazine "Star*Line, March-April 1989'
    • Magazine "Dreams of Decadence, Summer 2000"
    • Collection "Ulrich Haarbürste's Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm"

Thanks! Annie 03:43, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

Done. Ahasuerus 05:25, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

Jessie Wilcox Smith is "Willcox"

Jessie Wilcox Smith needs another L in her middle name. 'Wilcox' is common in library records and elsewhere, including our cited sources for the two contemporary works among three in the database (namely OCLC 1905 and Toronto Globe 1920). For those two works, however, I have located LC catalog records that do give 'Willcox' for the former https://lccn.loc.gov/05033663 and for the US ed. of the latter https://lccn.loc.gov/20022250 (we have the Canada ed., not found at WorldCat). Later I will add those to the publication Notes.

For the 2010 cover image we give no source (nor any source for the book). From illustrations in the Jessie Willcox Smith Little Women that are available at HathiTrust (most persuasive in comparison), I suppose that someone has identified the 2010 cover co-artist by comparison with a Willcox Smith cover illustration (none found in HathiTrust copies, where the artist is credited only as 'Willcox').

I have added a brief Author bibliographical note to the point [1].

--Pwendt|talk 20:00, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

Is it possible to change Author name globally rather than instance by instance? That would retain the person's ID number, and thus many incoming links, as well as save time. --Pwendt|talk 21:27, 29 January 2017 (UTC)
We had her listed under both "Jessie Wilcox Smith" and "Jessie Willcox Smith". Since all of the Wilcox ones are unverified, I have merged the two authors together under Willcox. -- JLaTondre (talk) 22:07, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-01-09

  • In Multilingual Publications:
    • Anthology "Jalada 02: Afrofuture(s)"
    • Anthology "Metamorphosis"
    • Collection "Dunkler Bruder Zukunft"
    • Collection "Lady White Snake: A Tale from Chinese Opera"
    • Magazine "Star*Line, Winter 2015"
    • Magazine "Strange Horizons, 2016 Fund Drive Special"
    • Omnibus "Elric: Swords and Roses"
    • Omninus "În anul 4000 sau O călătorie la Venus"

Thanks Annie 20:50, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

Done. --MartyD 12:56, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Author names to correct, 2016-01-09

What's the thinking about adding support for Latin-1 diacritics? I have doubts about the feasibility of having variant names both with and without the diacritic, since it would be a herculean task to check all publications (some of which are not easily available) to see which form is used and alter existing records to the correct one. --Vasha 04:02, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

I suspect that it was the main reason why the recently posted proposal to add support for Latin-1 diacritics had limited support. Ahasuerus 15:29, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

At any rate, you can change "Caitlin Matthews" to "Caitlín Matthews" and "Sofia Rhei" to "Sofía Rhei". I have checked all of their publications, and in both cases only one uses the form without the diacritic; I added a note to that one. --Vasha 02:32, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Addendum: Victor Conde --> Víctor Conde; I have made a note on his one diacriticless publication. --Vasha 04:02, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Done. Ahasuerus 15:19, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
Here are some original-alphabet names for entries in the the cleanup report "Publishers with Latin Names and Non-Latin Titles": Vivliopoōleio is Βιβλιοπωλείο; Zmora-Bitan is זמורה-ביתן ; Am Oved is עם עובד ; Even Hoshen is אבן חושן ; Ren Min Wen Xue Chu Ban She is 人民文學出版社 ; Shang wu yin shu guan is 商務印書館; Sommadhi is สมมติ ; Ruean Panya is เรือนปัญญา ; Sae wa Mulgogi is 새와물고기. Taibei Shi : Huang guan chu ban she is 皇冠出版社, and you can delete the part before the colon because that's just the location Taipei. Also you can ignore Futurefire.net in this report. --Vasha 06:23, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
Updated, thanks! Ahasuerus 15:27, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-01-11

And here comes today's batch. In Chinese Publications with Latin characters

  • Both "Lady White Snake: A Tale from Chinese Opera"

In Russian Titles with a Latin Author Name

  • Привратник / Шрам

In Multilingual Publications

  • Novel "Le Nibelungenlied: Édition partielle"
  • Nonfiction "Winkie Con 50"
  • Nonfiction "Maailman SF Käänöksinä: Bibliografia: Världens SF I Översättningar: Bibliografi: World SF in Translation: Bibliography"
  • Nonfiction "Kurz vor ewig: Kosmologie und Science-Fiction"
  • Magazine "Strange Horizons, 31 October 2016"
  • Collection "The Last Oblivion: Best Fantastic Poems of Clark Ashton Smith"
  • Collection "Selected Poems" (there is only one in the list)
  • Collection "Opus 200 Band 2"

Thanks! Annie 22:50, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Done. Ahasuerus 23:07, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! Annie 23:48, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

The Guardians of Time, publication 376237

I've submitted a cover artist credit to publication 376237 because I once saw the art that's shown in the publication's cover scan when it was up for sale on an art catalogue website. The publication is verified, but 1) The sole verifier is inactive so I'm not sure wether to add a note to their talk page, and 2) If all the data there is verified, there probably wasn't a credit on the printed book, and I'm not sure if it's okay to add something that the book itself doesn't confirm. I'm right at the bottom of the learning curve as I've never edited a wiki. Unicornlancer 03:51, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Well, the database isn't a wiki page but a self-developed tool (initially developed by Al von Ruff, with multiple enhancements). If you add a credit in such a case and give a source for it in the notes that'd be quite okay (I have added a note in this case). Thank you very much for finding this! Stonecreek 06:55, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-01-13

And today's cathc: In Multilingual Publications:

  • Magazine "Dreams & Nightmares, #97, 2014"
  • Nonfiction "El siglo de Borges. Homenaje a Jorge Luis Borges en su Centenario. Vol. I: Retrospectiva - Presente - Futuro"
  • Nonfiction "Malefic"
  • Nonfiction "SF Symposium = FC simpósio"
  • Nonfiction "The 47th World Science Fiction Convention: Noreascon Three"
  • Nonfiction "Transformations of Utopia: Changing Views of the Perfect Society"

That's it for now :) Annie 20:45, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Sorry about the delay. Done. --MartyD 12:04, 16 January 2017 (UTC)
No problem and thanks! One more - the novel "Mies joka oli Torstaina: Painajainen". Thanks! Annie 19:49, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
Done. Ahasuerus 19:54, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Publisher name correction 2017-01-18

Future Fire should be The Future Fire. They're always very clear about including the "The" in their name, as you can see from this page for example, where they indicate that their name should be abbreviated TFF. --Vasha 23:03, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

The above still hasn't been done; also, please change P. Djeli Clark to P. Djèlí Clark; I have added notes to publications without diacritics. --Vasha 20:35, 25 January 2017 (UTC)
Done and done. Sorry about the delay! Ahasuerus 03:19, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-01-20

In Multilingual Publications:

  • All 3 issues of the magazine "Der Rabe"
  • The 6 issues of the magazine "Perry Rhodan"

Thanks! Annie 17:47, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 18:17, 20 January 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! Annie 18:18, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-01-27

In Russian Titles with a Latin Author Name

  • Из «Жизни людей» - André Maurois
  • All 3 Philip José Farmer titles
  • Чудесный шлем - Michel Ehrwein
  • Пришельцы ниоткуда by uncredited

In Multilingual Publications

  • Anthology "Beyond This Horizon"
  • Collection "Le creature della Terra"
  • Magazine "Mithila Review, Issue 7"

In Publishers with Latin Names and Non-Latin Titles

  • Mithila Review

Thanks! Annie 18:46, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Done. --MartyD 03:16, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

Ignorances needed, as well as other criteria

Why do the following four illustrators of the same magazine (Grusel-Schocker) not show up as suspected duplicate authors? Crispero, G. Crispero, J. Crispero and G. Crispino. Instead the presented list is full of people that have mutually exclusive sex, art form and/or dates of birth/death.--Dirk P Broer 14:08, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

Are you talking about the "Suspected Duplicate Authors (monthly)" clean-up report? If so, that report is only generated once a month (as stated in the title) since it is processing intensive. Those magazines have only been added in the last couple of weeks. As such, those authors would not show until next month. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:39, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
That still does not explain why men are suggested as duplicate for women (or vice-versa), why authors are suggested to be artists or why dead people are suggested to be duplicates for living ones....--Dirk P Broer 20:32, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
I believe that the report is based only on name, nothing else - just a "typo-catcher" kinda of thing. Considering that we do not save gender anywhere and the author data is sparse overall, how is an automatic report to figure that these are differently gendered? Annie 20:35, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
That's right. The report checks the spelling and nothing else. If it finds a false positive pair, the reviewing moderator has the option to "ignore" the pair. Ahasuerus 21:03, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
The reviewing editor can't do much else than reporting it here or ignoring the list himself then.--Dirk P Broer 00:27, 29 January 2017 (UTC)
Right, only moderators can "ignore" author pairs. Once you compile a list of false positives, please post it here and a moderator will ignore them. Ahasuerus 01:11, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

Something wrong with John Berkey picture collection

I was going through the John Berkey pictures looking for variants to match to pictures I'll be putting up soon and I noticed something very strange:

Start from http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22975, click on *any* of the interior art pictures dated 1991 (including the King Kong ones), and it gets the same SF picture as Painted space.

Something is very wrong. KarenHunt 16:56, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

It is correct. The images shown for a title record are the images of the cover art for the pubs containing that title. In this case, those interior art pictures are all from the same publication (John Berkey, Painted Space). -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:20, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
I realized a few minutes ago that must be what was going on. They just don't point to the pictures themselves. (Still very startling...) KarenHunt 17:26, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

regarding "the shores of another sea"

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?47165 primary verifier's page says no longer active, post here. pretty minor, but... Notes says "'451-T4526-095' on the spine"; copy I'm looking at (appears to be the same as the pub above, first edition, printing, etc) actually says '451-T4526-075' on the spine. This would conform to what I believe to be the pattern where that last number matches the price of the book. So, shall I go ahead and change? Thanks. gzuckier 02:16, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

Yes, please. I'd say it's with a high likelylihood a typo by the PV. Stonecreek 06:04, 29 January 2017 (UTC)
ok thanks gzuckier 06:27, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

Author name to correct, 2016-01-31

Setsu Uzume should be Setsu Uzumé. As usual, I've made notes on diacriticless publications. --Vasha 01:29, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Since the shortfictions appear in pv'd publications it should first be clarified how the author's name is spelled there. Stonecreek 04:23, 1 February 2017 (UTC)
They're both on PodCastle, an online publication -- see it here and here. Verified by Dwarzel, who I've notified. --Vasha 06:29, 1 February 2017 (UTC)
Please do this now, thanks! --Vasha 16:42, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
Done. Hauck 18:28, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Possible disambiguation needed

I am about to add an anthology with a story by LA Knight. Now being as this author spells their name without periods in both of the web pages I've found for them (here and here) as well as in the anthology, that's how I'm putting it down. We do already have an L. A. Knight who's obviously not the same person. Does this call for disambiguation? --Vasha 23:35, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Cover art for Assignment in Eternity - Robert A. Heinlein.

Per note in Dragoondelight's mail, I would like to add the cover artist to this publication of Assignment in Eternity by Robert A. Heinlein. He is the only primary verifier. On my cover, I can read "(c) V. DI FATE 80". Additionally, I can replace the Amazon cover image with my own scan - which at the lower resolution leaves the signature unreadable, but locatable in the shadow of the left-most mountain. My cover is, however, a bit scratched and folded. Doug H 18:50, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Please proceed. Hauck 18:52, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
Submission approved, note that, as the credit is from signature, the canonical name should be used (I've made the change). Hauck 19:12, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

ATTENTION: How to date different titles

I'm putting this request here, because I think the intricacies of the consequences are to be thought of and deserve the attention of all moderators. Please read through this discussion. As hinted upon there I'd really think that different dates should be reserved to different works, that is, texts that are substantially different: completely revised, greatly expanded or abridged, and translations. The hint on the consequences in the discussion mentioned is one point. Another example would be the dating of Heinlein's By His Bootstraps, which is dated to 1941 in this collection, but would have to be dated 1959-00-00 as a consequence of the formulation: it was initially published as by Anson MacDonald, and only 18 years later under the canonical name. But 1941-00-00 would be right, one would guess! (especially the occasional Heinlein enthusiast).

The written rule originated in dating translation, was meant for those and is meaningful for them. For same works (regardless of pseudonyms, different spellings and maybe even different titles), it doesn't seem useful. Christian Stonecreek 14:41, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

I'm OK with the rule as I understand it: a variant is dated by the earlier known date of this particular variant combination of title and/or author and/or language (this to cover cases where the title is identical in more than one language and the same artwork is used), this applying to any type of item (including COVER and INTERIORART records). The only exception is when the canonical form of the title is not the first to have appeared, in this case the date of the canonical is set to the first publication date of the text regardless of its title. Hauck 16:04, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
I also prefer the current rules - so that it can be seen when this specific variant had been used for the first time - the date of the whole work is visible in the parent after all. This way if a variant (being it a new name altogether or a minimally changed one) is used in 10 different publications, you do not need to look at all the dates to see when it was used first. Using the same date as the parent will be a loss of data. Annie 16:20, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
I think the current system is preferable, but let me provide a little bit of background. Originally, we didn't display the year of the parent title in the Contents section of the Publication Listing page. For example, if you examine our Adventures in Time and Space record, you will notice the following line:
  • The Weapons Shop • [Weapon Shops of Isher] • (1946) • novelette by A. E. van Vogt (variant of The Weapon Shop 1942)
The line tells you that this novelette originally appeared as "The Weapon Shop" in 1942 and was reprinted as "The Weapons Shop" in 1946. Makes perfect sense.
In the past, "1942" wasn't displayed. Without it, the current dating system would cause confusion since it would look like this novelette first appeared in 1946.
As far as the Heinlein example goes, I think it is covered by the exception mentioned by Hervé:
  • when the canonical form of the title is not the first to have appeared, ... the date of the canonical is set to the first publication date of the text regardless of its title
Ahasuerus 17:15, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks, Folks! I think I have grasped it now. It was the example of a non-canonical title appearing first that set me off.
For the take on artwork: I still assume that an interior art that is titled as a cover art - and reproduced from the original - (say, The Left Hand of Darkness) would be dated as the original appearance? Stonecreek 19:08, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
On Herve's exception, I wonder if there should be an "exception to the exception". Marion Zimmer Bradley's Door Through Space was written in English, but wasn't published in English until 1961. While she was trying to get it published here, a copy was translated into German and published (twice) in German before the English publication. The German title is dated 1959. But the canonical title (in English) is dated by us as 1961. This may be an example of us doing too many things with variants -- I would think a language variant would not change the canonical title date, even though I think other same-language variants should. Chavey 02:48, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
Yes, it's a surprisingly common scenario. For example, Charles Sheffield's Convergence was delayed when Del Rey imploded in the mid-1990s. A Russian edition came out in 1995, two years earlier than the first English edition. There were so many Usenet queries in 1995-1997 that we had to update the rec.art.sf.written FAQ. Hence the following section in Help:How to enter foreign language editions:
  • If a work was written in one language, but a foreign language translation was published first, then the original language title should be considered the canonical title and the translated title should be considered variant title. The year of the canonical (i.e. parent) title should be set to publication year of the canonical title, not to the year of the translation (though the latter one was released earlier).
Ahasuerus 03:01, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
Aha! So we already have the exception to the exception enshrined. We should probably include that fact in the location of Herve's exception as well as in the "entering foreign language editions". (Which might better be called "How to enter non-English editions".) Chavey 06:57, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
Actually, Help:Screen:EditTitle already says "If the variant title is a translation but was published before the canonical title see the remarks on How to enter foreign language editions", so we are covered there. Re: the name of the Help page, it was a vestige of an earlier time when English was a privileged language. I have changed it to "Help:How to enter translations". Ahasuerus 01:08, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Corrections, 2016-02-08

Samantha Lafantasie should be Samantha LaFantasie. Also, in accordance with the usual practices here, I think Creative Alchemy, Inc. ought to be Creative Alchemy. --Vasha 00:22, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Done and done. Ahasuerus 00:31, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Time for a few ignores 2017-02-14

Can someone click ignore on the following pairs in Suspected Duplicate Authors (monthly) (I am checking some of them for at least a 5th time):

  • Amanda Hard/Amanda Ward
  • Dan Berger/Dan Burger
  • Doug Feaver/Doug Weaver
  • Elizabeth Pyke/Elizabeth Pyle
  • Estelle Faye/Estelle Frye - if you are born in 1978, you cannot have a story published in 1961... even in our DB
  • Gary Budden/Gary Budgen
  • Ian Bell (2)/Ian Bell (3) - and the other two pairs of split names under it (why the report even report these?)
  • Jen Frankel/Jon Frankel
  • Joan Cummings/John Cummings
  • Joan Young/John Young

More to follow... Annie 22:21, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Done and thanks! To answer your question about the two "Ian Bells", there are a lot of possible permutations. The code is already extremely computationally demanding, so it just reports what it finds and lets humans sort it out. At least I think all of our editors who work on this report are human... Ahasuerus 01:17, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Does the code for this report compare to transliterations, too? This might find some additional duplicates. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:33, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
No, not at this time. I don't know if we can realistically change the algorithm to catch "near matches" without killing performance.
However, we can create another cleanup report to look for authors whose canonical name is the same as some other author's transliterated name. I have already put together the requisite logic and it has found a few dozen author records that need to be set up as pseudonyms, e.g. see what this search finds.. Good idea! Ahasuerus 01:55, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
That works. I figured it would be especially useful at finding Japanese authors that were previously entered in Romanized characters, and may have since been added as kanji when someone didn't notice they were already in the system. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 02:12, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
True. My half-baked code also found a number of Japanese authors whose transliterated name and canonical name were flip-flopped, e.g. Katsuhisa Ōno. It looks like at least one of our editors is/was unfamiliar with the way transliterated fields are used. Ahasuerus 02:18, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
A person who is a native speaker of Japanese and who doesn't know the kanji for a person's name will search in Kana, since Kanji are not phonetic like Kana. For that reason I enter the kana for Japanese names into the transliteration field. It also tells a Japanese speaker how to pronounce a name, since most names in kanji have multiple pronunciations. If the transliteration field is for English only, let me know and I'll back them all out.--Rkihara 04:03, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
I don't think it's a big deal to enter the Kana version of a person's name as one of the transliterated names. However, the canonical name should match how the author is most commonly credited and in the case of a Japanese author it would be using Kanji. For example, we have Morio Kita as a canonical name and its Kana version (きたもりお) as a transliterated name. Instead we want the Kanji version of his name, 北 杜夫 (as per Wikipedia), as the canonical name and "Morio Kita"/"きたもりお" as transliterated names. Does this make sense? Ahasuerus 04:57, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
I do understand that, and I've looked up and replaced the Romaji with Kanji when I could find it. I haven't added any Japanese authors in Romaji, so if I entered a transliteration in Kana leaving the canonical name in Romaji, it was because I couldn't find the rendering in Kanji. I could guess, but there are 47 renderings of Morio and 22 for Kita in Kanji. Using the most common rendering is risky, since some authors like to disambiguate themselves.--Rkihara 05:14, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Oh, sure, if all we have is a Latin version of a Japanese name, we have little choice but to leave it as the canonical name and hope that one day we'll discover the Kanji version. However, the report that I put together a few hours ago also found a number of authors whose Kanji names we do know, e.g. Daisuke Satō -- 佐藤大輔 (as per Wikipedia).Ahasuerus 05:25, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
I think entering both Romaji and kana is good. That makes it more useful in many different ways. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:43, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
I also think that having the Kana for Japanese alongside the Romanized version covers all the ways someone will search for an author (Kana for an Japanese speaker, Romanized for non-speakers) and as such is a great idea. :) I also want to point out though that pronunciation has little to do with transliteration in some cases - его is never pronounced "ego" in Russian as a separate word (it is something like "evo" due to the language rules) but transliteration or it is "ego" because transliteration is a straight letters replacement defined for that language. Annie 05:07, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Right, pronunciation and transliteration are two different animals. Some language-specific transliteration rules take pronunciation into account -- e.g. "La Rochefoucauld" becomes "Ларошфуко" in Bulgarian -- but we mostly have to worry about Romanization rules, which are not affected by pronunciation. We have our hands full supporting competing Romanization systems :-) Ahasuerus 22:59, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Yes, Romanization is different from transliteration into phonetic languages. However this example is a transliteration for usage in a translation (the same way a lot of authors will get a Czech ending when published into Czech). In our transliterations here we are talking about transliteration into a foreign alphabet/writing system while keeping the original language (so transliteration of Ларошфуко when Bulgarian text is transliterated into Latin letters will be Laroshfuko regardless of the original - you are just writing the Bulgarian text in a different alphabet). It is still for Bulgarian readers, it is just a different graphical representation. Now, technically there is a rule that allows names to come back to their original forms but that would be if the transliteration is for a specific language (English or French) and usually ends up with double forms anyway. Annie 23:16, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
I had been fixing some of those on the Eastern and Central European authors - I think I've looked through all of them at least once in the last weeks. So it is not just Japanese :) Not to mention that we have someone that does transcription and not transliteration in the field (I need to follow up on that at some point). Annie 02:48, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Nihonjoe, advanced search based on language and sorting by family name makes finding some of those very easy. Like this query. As long as the Family name is set properly or close to properly, they group nicely :) Annie 02:48, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Next time you find an incorrectly entered transliterated name, could you please let me know? I should be able to scan the submission table and find the submitter. Ahasuerus 03:39, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Yeah, will do. It is more titles than authors lately and I usually leave the tab open so I can follow up, get distracted, forget and then remember hours later, after the tab had been closed for a long time. They may be old records from the early days of the feature. Next time will ping you as soon as I submit a fix for one of those:) Sorry - should have thought of that. Annie 03:48, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Here is one not from my usual languages but I remember seeing the family name and either fixing it or fixing one like that a few days ago and planning to check on that one later. The idea of these transliteration is to enable searching and that specific spelling is actually a transcription and noone will search with this string. We have titles like that also which I did not realize. I suspect I know who is the editor in these actually now seeing the ones on that page - she had been adding the Bujold titles lately. :) But a verification won't hurt if you can verify? 04:03, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
My take on it is that the important thing is to have at least one plain vanilla romanized version of each person's name on file. Once that has been done, there is no harm in entering additional versions which use more obscure romanization systems. Something like "tɕʰiʊŋ" may not mean much to most people, but it's harmless. Ahasuerus 23:07, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
So be extra careful when it is a new author but if the author already has most possible names, we are good. OK, that works for me :) Annie 23:18, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
I can understand heavy computing - they are low hanging fruit so no worries to have them off the report manually. I just wanted to see if there is an easy way to get them off the list :) Annie 02:48, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Double submissions

Hello, all my submissions appear twice in my pending edits, e. g. here. I must delete one of it. Can anyone tell me, why?--Wolfram.winkler 07:04, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Unfortunately, "submission duplication" is a technical issue which we have been unable to resolve. Once in a while a duplicate submission is created by the server and it has to be cancelled or rejected. It doesn't happen very often, but it's annoying when it does happen. Ahasuerus 20:50, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
Might be browser related. I had no problems until I switched from Firefox to Safari for editing. Now, maybe one out of twenty submissions generates a duplicate.--Rkihara 21:29, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
There may be something to it. Just for an information point: Firefox on both computers I am using, never had a duplicate created. (unintentional that is) Annie 21:36, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
It's a response time problem and the browser's being "helpful". If the site doesn't respond to the original form submission within whatever time limit the browser has in place, the browser cancels the request on its side (on your computer) and re-submits it. Unfortunately, there's no way to yank the request back from the server (no way to tell the server the original request is cancelled and, in fact, the server might have processed the request already and the delay may be in delivering the response back to the requestor), so the server gets a second one and processes both. Depending on the environment in which the ISFDB runs and on patterns of normal ISFDB activities (both in terms of editors editing and also in terms of system reports and maintenance, such as back-ups), this behavior is probably more likely to be encountered at certain times of day. Also, different browsers may have different timeouts (so, for example, FF might be more tolerant of slow responses, while Safari might be trying to be more responsive and so have less patience). --MartyD 13:43, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for the explanation! Ahasuerus 17:05, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
This is a feature of HTTP as it is stateless. The solution lies in giving the client a token it can pass back. The server then can merge/delete/coalesce identical requests (with the same token) when it makes sense (like when making non-idempotent requests like creating, deleting or updating things, etc.). Uzume 16:28, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks to everyone, for your informations.--Wolfram.winkler 16:31, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

"Titles without Pubs"

The following note has been added to the "Titles without Pubs" cleanup report:

  • INTERIORART and COVERART are temporarily disabled pending the completion of the language cleanup project.

Once the project has been completed (we are down to 1.23%!), the two title types will reappear. Please post here if this presents a problem and requires a reversal.

Also, it's been suggested that we add the three missing "short" title types (ESSAYs, POEMs and SHORTFICTION) to this report. Unlike the rest of the title types, these three will only appear if (a) they are pub-less and (b) they don't have a Note associated with them. (There will be some preliminary Wiki-based cleanup to identify and delete any "bad" titles which have Notes.) Would that work? Ahasuerus 15:34, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

I still have some reservations for using the presence of a note as the reason not to show it on the report. This will hide some legitimate orphans (for example in cases where a publication is removed/moved under a new parent and now a ex-parent (or an empty variant) that has a note is an orphan that needs deleting. We either need to come up with something a bit more specific or just put them on the report and rely on the moderators to ignore them instead of delete them when it is appropriate. The report will be big the first time they get added but once the existing ones are ignored, it should become manageable. Annie 17:50, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
Perhaps we could start with the subset that doesn't have Notes and then, once the data has been cleaned up, add the rest? Ahasuerus 18:37, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
I agree with Annie, let's see the whole lot and let moderators or contributors decide. Hauck 18:42, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
Well, we can start by adding POEMS -- there are only 164 of them -- and see how it goes. Ahasuerus 18:50, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
Poems are all clear language-wise so if you want to add all of them to the report (and the moderators will need to be careful for a few days on any request to delete a poem so we do not end up with someone helpfully deleting the lot by mistake), we can see how it looks like. My view is that we should never have a pub-less title with no notes (but notes do not mean they are good to stay). :) Annie 19:05, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
When I checked Shirley Jackson's bibliography a few months ago, I noticed that someone had added publess title records for a lot of her uncollected stories (drawn from some secondary source, I found it at the time but don't remember what it is now). I think they are all OK (being as we seem to have decided to keep her non-genre work in the DB). --Vasha 20:57, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
As long as they have notes on them saying where there were published or where the information is coming from, this is exactly what is getting ignored (and should continue being ignored) from the report - the legitimate pub-less records that are there to complete a bibliography :) Annie 21:00, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

(unindent) Cover art can go back in the report - all my followups during the cleanup are now finalized. Thanks again for keeping it out for a few days. Interior art will take a few more days. Did we agree above to also add the poems so we can start cleaning the ones that are really not needed? Annie 01:18, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

I think I'll wait until the INTERIORART titles are wrapped up. And yes, POEMs will added next. Ahasuerus 02:59, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
OKey. I will post back when I am done with all followups in the interior arts as well. Annie 03:20, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

(unindent) The COVERART/INTERIORART change has been reverted. Based on what I see on the development server, which is currently 31 hours behind the live server, the next nightly run will find 6+ art titles. Ahasuerus 21:38, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-02-21

The following ignores are needed:

Thanks! Annie 00:01, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Done. --MartyD 00:14, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! Annie 00:21, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Author name to correct, 2017-02-21

Chloe Yates should be Chloë Yates (spelled that way in all three of her publications) --Vasha 04:54, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Done. Ahasuerus 05:04, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Minor moderator review tweak

A very minor tweak: the word "CHILDREN" has been changed to "VARIANTS" on moderator review pages. Ahasuerus 18:39, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Replacing an image

An image was uploaded by a member that is no longer active. The image appears to be the art work for the magazine cover, rather than the cover itself. Is it acceptable to replace the image with a scan from the magazine cover? It includes titles, prices and UPC code. Doug H 20:08, 23 February 2017 (UTC) P.S. Is there any desire to replace Galactic Central images with scanned images? Doug H 20:14, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, we would rather have the actual cover image (in my opinion), especially as they may provide provenance for some of the data. --MartyD 02:38, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
p.s. I csn't answer your p.s. --MartyD 02:38, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-02-23

And today's roundup of needed ignores:

Thanks! Annie 01:30, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Done. --MartyD 02:34, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Author rename request

I would like to get A217758 renamed to: アネコユサギ (luckily this still affects no pubs as all listed currently are English translations and thus are under that pseudonym). Somehow a character got left out of his name and the first and last names were reversed. It is clear he is a Japanese author and most of his works are credited as such. See NDL NA 001156570. Uzume 18:38, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Done (or so I hope). Hauck 18:48, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
Thanks, Hervé. It looks good. Uzume 21:39, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Author name to correct, 2017-02-26

Salome Jones should be Salomé Jones. --Vasha 04:13, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Done. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:37, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-02-27

And here is the daily list of needed ignores:

Thanks! Annie 20:59, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Done. Ahasuerus 21:35, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Author name to correct, 2017-02-27

Diana Părpărită should be Diana Părpăriţă. --Vasha 01:02, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Done. Ahasuerus 01:53, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Publishers to merge 2017-03-02

Black Library and The Black Library. The former has been used here a lot more often, and is also the form used at the top of their web page. --Vasha 22:24, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 18:19, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-03-03

And in today's episode of our show:

Thanks! Annie 17:04, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 18:18, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

author name correction

ADÁL to Adál --Vasha 06:02, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 07:00, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-03-10

And today's list:

Thanks! Annie 20:10, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Done. --MartyD 12:26, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

Edit Award Bug

There appears to be a bug in Edit Award, resulting in the message below. I've tried the link on a few different types of awards and the behavior is consistent. 

<type 'exceptions.NameError'>	Python 2.5: /usr/bin/python
Sat Mar 11 10:40:21 2017

A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
 /var/www/cgi-bin/edit/editaward.cgi in ()
   52         help = HelpAward(awardType.award_type_poll)
   53 
   54         printHelpBox('award', 'EditAward')
   55 
   56         # Print appropriate message depending on whether this is a title-based award
printHelpBox undefined

<type 'exceptions.NameError'>: name 'printHelpBox' is not defined

No hurry on this for what I was trying to do. I worked around the error by deleting and re-adding the award that needed changing. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 15:50, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, my bad. It should be fixed now. Ahasuerus 16:11, 11 March 2017 (UTC)
Found another one in Link Award:
<type 'exceptions.ImportError'>	Python 2.5: /usr/bin/python
Sat Mar 11 19:25:22 2017

A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
 /var/www/cgi-bin/edit/linkaward.cgi in ()
   51         print 'Linking the following award to a title:<p>'
   52 
   53         award.PrintAwardSummary()
   54 
   55         print 'Enter the record number of the title that this award refers to or 0 to break the link:'
award = <awardClass.awards instance at 0x9b6aa6c>, award.PrintAwardSummary = <bound method awards.PrintAwardSummary of <awardClass.awards instance at 0x9b6aa6c>>
 /var/www/cgi-bin/edit/awardClass.py in PrintAwardSummary(self=<awardClass.awards instance at 0x9b6aa6c>)
  284         def PrintAwardSummary(self):
  285                 from login import User
  286                 from common import printRecordID
  287                 special_awards = SpecialAwards()
  288 
common undefined, printRecordID undefined

<type 'exceptions.ImportError'>: No module named common
Thanks (and thanks for the earlier fix). --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 00:40, 12 March 2017 (UTC)
It was a resilient bug, but I think I got it now. Ahasuerus 01:18, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

canonical name change

Here's advance notification that I intend to change an author's canonical name from Conzpiracy Digital Arts (about 12 publications 2012-2013) to Dean Samed (about 24 publications from 2014 to present). --Vasha 10:31, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Publisher name correction 2017-03-12

Light Spring LLC to Light Spring. --Vasha 15:26, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 15:41, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Change translator in "Wolfs Garn"

Hi. The translator in the PV'd Wolfs Garn should be changed from "Marianne Linckens" to "Tom Linckens" because all external data sources (DNB, chpr.at, Kurd Laßwitz Preis) credit Tom Linckens. Jens Hitspacebar 19:55, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

Hm, no one? According to the Inactive_user template: "post inquiries regarding any other changes to the verified record at the Moderator noticeboard". Though it'd be actually a lot easier if I just made the submission to change the translator and add some infos in the "Note to moderator"... Jens Hitspacebar 16:58, 21 March 2017 (UTC)
I have expanded the Note field and left a note on the primary verifier's page. Given his last name, I wonder if he may be related to the translators and have inside information. Ahasuerus 17:35, 21 March 2017 (UTC)
Thanks a lot. Yes, I wondered that too. Seems quite likely. Jens Hitspacebar 17:59, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-03-21

What, you thought I had gone away? :) Can someone zap the following:

Thanks! Annie 20:26, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Done! Stonecreek 20:33, 21 March 2017 (UTC)
Thanks a lot! Annie 20:36, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Canonical name change, 2017-03-22

Giving notice of my intention to change the canonical name of Marilyn Mattie Brahen to "Marilyn 'Mattie' Brahen" -- we have more titles under the latter form and it's also the form she uses in her online bios. --Vasha 05:51, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

User pages to delete

I created some working scratch-pages in the wiki which can now be deleted: [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11] --Vasha 06:13, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

For future references - for any page you do not want in Wiki, you can just add the Deletion template and someone will delete them next time they are deleting from the list :) Annie 06:16, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
Thank you! I searched the help but somehow didn't find that. --Vasha 06:18, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
Done. Hauck 06:58, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Cover Image

Hi, I was looking through your Damon Knight listings, and I noticed you have a lousy picture for the Damon Knight's Collection 10. I have a much better cover image, if you would like it. Please contact me by my email and let me know where/how to send it, if you would like it.

Hello, It'll be simpler to upload your scan by using the "Upload new cover scan" link here and follow the instructions that are in the welcome message that I've left on your talk page (see last bullet). Hauck 08:02, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Kay Hooper

I have a number of pure crime thrillers by Kay Hooper, has she met the borderline stage to list these? If not, that's fine, please just let me know. MLB 08:38, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

As there are none already listed, It should stay that way. Hauck 08:45, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
Okay, now I know. MLB 06:46, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

Proposed canonical name change: Paul (G.) Tremblay

Paul G. Tremblay hasn't used his middle initial since 2006 or so, and he's now a bestseller without it. If no one objects, I will make the change tomorrow.

BTW, Richard Chizmar hasn't gone by "Richard T. Chizmar" since 2001, but I can understand why no one changes his canonical name, since it would mean -- among many other things -- changing every issue of Cemetery Dance since 1988! I certainly am not going to tackle that. It's the worst canonical name situation I know of apart from changing Charles P. Baudelaire (60+ titles) to Charles Baudelaire (100+ titles). --Vasha 18:43, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

I changed the canonical name to Richard Chizmar. Chavey 03:41, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! Next to tackle would be Paul (J.) McAuley, maybe? --Vasha 04:24, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
...I guess not. Though McAuley dropped the J. circa 2000, and doesn't use it on his personal website, he has 600 titles with the middle initial and only 200 without, and Wikipedia is still using it. Is there anyone else who needs changing, though? --Vasha 04:52, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
John G. Hemry is getting close. Ahasuerus 13:28, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
91 titles as John G. Hemry; 59 as Jack Campbell. Paul J. McAuley has 781 titles; Paul McAuley only has 171. Chavey 15:13, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
Numbers don't tell the whole story; "Campbell" is the name used on the novels, and those are more visible and familiar than the Hemry short fiction; 3 early Hemry novels have also been republished as by Campbell. I say change it. --Vasha 15:34, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
It is done. --Vasha 15:30, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Finland publisher (Holger)(H.) Schildt(s)

Some submissions unify the name of one Finland publisher represented from 1927 as 2005 as "Holger Schildt", personal name that was no longer the corporate name in 2005, but there are to be only three publications in the database.

I have some notes --mainly in the three submissions, especially <a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?3375847">-- but I must depart. I submit many publisher updates, frequently with Wikipedia webpage links, but none this hour because there is no stable location; (Holgar) Schildt(s) database pages disappear when their only publication records are updated to change the publisher name. Right?

I understand the database works this way for Author and Publisher pages. (And so there is no stable ID number for authors and publishers, in one important sense.) Please correct me if I am wrong. In retrospect I should have fixed Holgar => Holger and waited for him/it to have a page.

Now I must run. --Pwendt|talk 23:19, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Ignore for Yamamoto Shūgorō

On the Non-Latin Authors with Latin Characters in Legal Names list, please ignore:

  • Yamamoto Shūgorō

Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:26, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

The report is not presenting an Ignore option. I've asked Ahasuerus about it. --MartyD 12:09, 25 March 2017 (UTC)
In general pseudonyms are not supposed to have legal names. In this particular case it turns out that "Yamamoto Shūgorō"'s (山本周五郎) legal name is 清水 三十六 (Shimizu, Satomu). I have removed the legal name from the pseudonym record. Ahasuerus 14:30, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

British Library BLIC links.

I got the initial link code from Mhhutchins over a year ago (this code: <a href="http://catalogue.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?&vl(freeText0)=BLIC&fn=search">BLIC</a>). The British Library recently made changes to their website that breaks these links. Changing the "catalogue" in the URL to "explore" appears to fix the problem nicely. The BLIC in the url is their "System Number" in the details section of the listing. Just FYI.SFJuggler 06:30, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

FYI: You can direct link to their records like this: <a href="http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=BLVU1&docId=BLL01BLIC">BLIC</a>. You have to replace "BLIC" with the record ID of course. Uzume 02:22, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
That's right, it's "explore" now. Also, I highly recommend the recently added {{BL}} template. One of the reasons templates are nice is that you no longer have to worry about URL changes. At the moment we have 1,258 notes that reference "catalogue.bl.uk". Changing all of them to "explore.bl.uk" would be a pain and there is no guarantee that we wouldn't have to do it again. If, on the other hand, we change them to {{BL}}, any subsequent URL changes will be addressed with a single change to the template. Ahasuerus 15:08, 25 March 2017 (UTC)
Noted. Will use the template from now on.SFJuggler 15:13, 25 March 2017 (UTC)
I am assuming (after a brief search) that BLIC=British Library Integrated Catalogue, basically the old name for their OPAC. I am curious if we also want to link to British National Bibliography (BNB), their national bibliography. For example, these both seem to refer to the same thing:
I ask this because National Diet Library (NDL) also has online access to both its library catalog and its Japanese National Bibliography (JNB; with identifiers called JP番号 or JPNO). There are usually significant (if subtle) differences between a national library's catalog and its national bibliography. A national library catalog is based on that library's current holdings and made available via an OPAC. A national bibliography is often based on legal deposit and covers different material. Here is an article that describes the differences for the British Library: ILFA » Activities and Groups » Bibliography » Use cases (in particular the last paragraph). Here is a list of national bibliographies known to MARC: National Bibliography Number Source Codes
On a different topic, can I get NDL templates for:
  • 'NDL': ('https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/%s', 'National Diet Library'),
  • 'JNB': ('https://id.ndl.go.jp/jpno/%s', 'Japanese National Bibliography'),
An you might consider:
  • 'BNB': ('http://search.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlSearch.do?vid=BLBNB&institution=BL&query=any,exact,%s', 'British National Bibliography'),
Thank you, Uzume 16:15, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
FYI: perhaps you would rather always request the English interfaces from NDL with URLs like:
  • 'NDL': ('https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/%s/eng', 'National Diet Library'),
  • 'JNB': ('https://iss.ndl.go.jp/api/openurl?ndl_jpno=%s&locale=en', 'Japanese National Bibliography'),
I also wonder about spelling those out vs. using abbreviations/acronyms. I notice we currently use acronyms for: ASIN, ASIN-UK, OCLC, LCCN, SFBG, and SFE3. Should we also use similar things for: BL, BNB, BNF, DNB, JNB/JPNO, NDL? Cheers, Uzume 16:43, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
The three requested templates have been added.
Re: the issue of using abbreviations vs. using fully spelled out name, I see it as a balance between brevity and familiarity. My assumption is that a significant number of our users -- at least the ones who care about our sources -- know what "OCLC" and "LCCN" stand for, but it's just a guess. I suggest starting a new Community Portal section and listing our template abbreviations and what they stand for in order to see if we need to spell them out. Thankfully, whatever we agree on will be trivial to implement. Ahasuerus 17:37, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks. I really need to revamp my ISFDB development environment. You might want to consider updating "BL" with the URL I gave above too: http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=BLVU1&docId=BLL01%s. The nice thing about this is that it links only via the BL OPAC system ID and links to the detail (vs. the search result). Sadly, I could not find a way to do the same with BNB and the BNB ID (though I can directly link to the BNB detail page via the BNB system ID but not the published BNB identifier) so currently the URL I gave you for BNB actually does an exact match for any field (but only in BNB and not BL OPAC) which is basically what the existing {{BL}} link does in BL OPAC. Uzume 22:23, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
Updated, thanks. Ahasuerus 15:29, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks. I found out you can search by ISBN (and it takes ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 but does not handle hyphenation). This could be good for adding to "Other Sites" via:
  1. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlSearch.do?vid=BLVU1&institution=BL&query=isbn,exact,%s
  2. http://search.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlSearch.do?vid=BLBNB&institution=BL&query=isbn,exact,%s
Notice, the first uses "explore" URL and British Library interface and the second uses "search" URL and British National Bibliography interface. I recommend the first since it aligns with the other national libraries we link to there (I added it to ISFDB:Book sources and grouped/categorized them). I am still looking for the search key for the BNB identifier Uzume 17:01, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
Added; thanks for the URL! Ahasuerus 23:16, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
When implemented we could always use the HTML tag, which will display the full name as a tool tip style hover element when you add the full name to the title attribute. Albinoflea 18:05, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
That might prove trickier to implement in the template code (we would have to add a title attribute value to the template entries; tooltips work because of the attribute which we are already using for transliterations on span entity tags) but the abbr entity tag would be appropriate (although we could just add the title to the existing a entity link tag we already use). Uzume 19:09, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
Good idea, implemented. Ahasuerus 22:51, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

The Robot Megapack

I just submitted the contents for The Robot Megapack and accidently listed a story by Fritz Leiber as a story by Richard Wilson. Bah!! If accepted I'll correct this. MLB 07:09, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

All set. I processed the correction you submitted and merged it. --MartyD 01:30, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

At the Edge

Hello, I'm sorry to be rude but such a record falls way below our standards: non-standard page numbers, disambiguation not made, unlinked reviews, numerous unregularized authors (AC Buchanan instead of our A. C. Buchanan, interviews with unheard-of credits ("Contributors", "Ragnarok Publications"), ISBN-12 (sic), extra "EDITOR" records; all this without the contributor being notified of his/her mistakes. It would be nice that such problematic submissions be more attentively dealt with. I know that database quality and consistency are sometimes low on some moderator's agendas but in this case, it's a bit too much. Hauck 09:52, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

So is the moderator that allowed that record in going to fix it (and discuss with the contributor) or should someone else go and mop up after them and fix it? I don't mind fixing it but if the editor does not know it was wrong, we will see more of these... Annie 16:47, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
If you could see the other cleanup reports, you'll cry! I've never seen so much "active" reports and never found the db in such a sorry state (just see the 40 records in this report). As I said above the problem is twofold: 1) some submissions are accepted and left "as-submitted" without either being corrected or without the contributor be coached, 2) some self-moderations are done without any regards for the alarms triggered. Hauck 17:26, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
I can imagine by just seeing the ones I can... As for all those Lontars - they were magazine ->anthology conversions - I am not touching them for now - maybe whoever did them will fix the yearly records and break them as well? Or I am just still too naive... One of those days I will get annoyed enough and just fix the things again... Annie 17:42, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
PS: The book is this one - for whoever end up fixing the mess, this is the reference. I even see a serial over there. Although someone had worked from a copy of the book (and did not verify?) - or got the pages elsewhere :) Annie 19:07, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
Here's the original submission for At the Edge. Albinoflea 19:28, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

(unindent). OK... that had been around long enough. Any objections to me fixing it? Any issues with a non-moderator leaving a note to the editor explaining how the site works and why things needed to be changed? Annie 22:55, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Someone fixed it today so nevermind :) Thanks to whoever that was! Some author work left only. Annie 06:15, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Library software ?

I recognise that this is not part of the ISFDB remit, but I hope that someone can point me in the correct direction.

I own about 15,000 SF books (and several thousand non-SF books), and having recently retired, decided that I have the time to enter them into a library database. I drafted a schema to help me think about my requirements, and started researching library software. Then I came across the ISFDB, and discovered that your schema met, and exceeded, my requirements. Not wishing to reinvent the wheel, I came up with a number of questions. I couldn't find answers on any of the noticeboards, so I hope that a moderator can help me.

1) Do you know of any library software product that closely matches the schema you have implemented? The commercial products I have found seem singularly unable to handle anthologies and collections.

2) Do you know of any library software product that utilises the getpub.cgi API to retrieve publication data? For my library, retrieving data from the ISFDB would be clearly superior to products that merely use Amazon or Google books.

3) Has the ISFDB development team ever discussed extending their remit to develop an interface where an individual could record their personal library?

4) Failing any positive resolution to (1) or (2), I will be thinking about whether it is worth writing any library software for my personal use. Do you allow third parties to copy your schema, and if so, what would you want me to include in any source to acknowledge your intellectual property ownership?

Many thanks, Brian Flatt

I am the current developer/administrator, so let me take a shot at it.
1) I am afraid I am unaware of commercial products that would support similar functionality. Especially, as you noted, on the anthologies/magazines/collections side of things.
2) Not that I know of, but a library or another third party bibliographic project would probably find it easier to download our backups from ISFDB Downloads instead. Our backups are publicly available and so is our software. Anyone can set up a copy of the ISFDB locally -- see the "Installation and Setup" section of the ISFDB Downloads page.
3) There is Feature Request 162 to Allow marking books as "owned by me" and searching. However, we are going to implement Feature Request 897, Re-do primary verifications, first. I have another 163 ISBNs that I need to enter into the database and then I can start working on it. Once implemented, the new functionality will let us have as many "primary verifications" as necessary. A user will be able to mark all of his or her publications as "verified", which, for most practical purposes, is the same as "owned". We'll also need to beef up our searches to support things like "limit this search to publications/titles that I own". If you can think of any additional functionality that may be useful, please post your suggestions here.
4) As per Creative Commons License, the ISFDB schema is available under the Creative Commons Attribution license. The ISFDB software is available under the BSD license. As long as you use it for a personal project and not to conquer Mars, I don't think it should make any difference.
HTH! Ahasuerus 01:40, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
The closest software I've found is Delicious Library, though it's only available for Mac OS X. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:00, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb canonical name

I think I've worked out a method that would allow me to change any canonical name, even one with a very complicated bibliography, in just a few hours, as long as a moderator was on watch to approve edits as I made them (without that, the page would be left in a messy half-done state for a long time, possibly days, since there are many successive stages of the process that need approval). I would like to test out the method on Megan Lindholm, now much better known as Robin Hobb. Which moderator(s) would like to volunteer, and when would be a good time? I could be available tomorrow after 6 PM US Eastern Time, for example. --Vasha 23:28, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Addendum: I have had a look at Baudelaire and that one would actually be super-easy due to the fact that the current canonical name, Charles P. Baudelaire, only occurs in English-language editions. Any objection to my changing that to "Charles Baudelaire"? --Vasha 03:32, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
If you do work on this, remember that there will also be 39 award records which have to be re-linked from Lindholm (or a parent title by Lindholm) to Hobb (or a parent title by Hobb). Chavey 05:33, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
And the eventual interviews... Hauck 06:03, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
Yes, I have a plan for correcting the links of awards, reviews, and interviews, and for transferring notes, and even tags; and for making sure that the new records are still in a series if appropriate. --Vasha 12:22, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
Is there an outstanding issue with awards and reviews linking to VTs? I thought the last round of fixes (ca. 2014) made everything work seamlessly.
As far as tags go, in most cases they are transferred to the canonical title automatically, but I have seen some operations (unmerges?) leave them behind. Synopses have to be transferred manually pending the implementation of FR 743. Ahasuerus 13:27, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
When changing a canonical name, some records in the new name will have been attached to a record in the old name which is a mere placeholder. So you break the variant relationship and discard the placeholder. Some reviews may have been linked to the placeholder and that will have to be corrected. And tags will not be automatically transferred, either. It's mostly a matter of checking thoroughly after breaking the link to make sure everything is attached to the proper variant, the one that will be kept. --Vasha 14:22, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
Actually, I have figured out a way around that-- after breaking the variant relationship, change the name on the placeholder record, then merge them. So much better than transferring things manually. --Vasha 15:05, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
I accepted a bunch of submissions, but I'm afraid I've run out of time for the evening. --MartyD 03:04, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-03-30

The daily roll-up:

Thanks! Annie 20:04, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Done. BTW, the report that shows juvenile/adult title mismatches doesn't support the "ignore" functionality. I have set the "juvenile" flag for The Hobbit. Ahasuerus 21:20, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
Oops - my bad on that one then - I usually do look for the flag notification but I guess I presumed wrong here. I will go check if any other variant now need the flag as well. Annie 21:22, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
And done - approvals needed (or all of those would have showed up on the report tomorrow - made one mistake like that at some point, now I am following up as soon as a parent gets changed :) ) Annie 21:25, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 21:30, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Author name to correct, 2017-03-31

J. T. Gill should be JT Gill. --Vasha 19:39, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 19:46, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
Why? Isn't our standard that in cases like that we add the dots and spaces? If that is not the case anymore, can someone please update the help so I stop untangling names like that? And if a name does not follow our rules, we need a note in the author I think explaining the situation. Annie 20:05, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
I've seen a few like this one where the first name is not made of initials. Hauck 20:16, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
Ah, in that case I guess it makes sense. Thanks! Annie 20:32, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
Well, I never know what the initials stand for, if anything. I just go by (1) Does the author use periods when writing their own name on their website and so forth? (2) Is there a clear majority one way or the other in how their name is printed in publications? If the answer in both cases is "no periods", then that's what to use. Easier than quizzing the author about what the initials stand for, which they may not want to say! --Vasha 22:44, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
Oh, I understand. The problem is that this means that if someone is adding a collection/anthology that have 10 of those, they need to look up each of them in our DB to see how we might have entered them already instead of following the standard rules :) And small presses love to use initials (and skip dots even when the authors have them) (when not going for middle names that is). Annie 22:55, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
It is, indeed, annoying, but it's just part of due diligence to check whether someone's middle initial or two initials are in the database with or without periods. If it's printed otherwise in your publication, you make a note. I understand that this is going to cause some duplications in the database, though -- where someone missed that we have an author "Jane J Doe" and put in a story by "Jane J. Doe". Isn't there a cleanup report for that? For finding suspiciously similar names?--Vasha 23:02, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
Only if they have exactly 1 letter different - it won't catch these two because such fuzzy searches are not that easy to pull off - what is suspiciously close for human eyes is not that close for an algorithm. I tend to search by family name and scan the list to look for these when I am adding but when some publishers manage to use P.D. in the text and PD on the backcover and full name in the content (the one on the story wins of course) but it is confusing for new editors)... :) Annie 23:15, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
No question about that... --Vasha 23:25, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Publisher clarification

There are two publisher records, Gollancz (1928-2017) and Gollancz / Orion (1999-2016). It was in December 1998 that Orion acquired the Gollancz imprint which had formerly been the venerable publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd. Shouldn't all publications from 1999 onward be filed under Gollancz / Orion?

(This is a separate question than what to do about the books before that date, some of which are under "Gollancz" and some under "Victor Gollancz". I know those books are going to cause unsolvable conflict between the two schools of thought "record exactly what's on the title page" and "unify under a single name".) --Vasha 02:45, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

AFAIC, after my alarms on the subject of publishers were ignored, I wash my hands of what is happening now. Just think that we now have the 10 following couples of publishers:
  • 1 Abrams Abrams Books
  • 2 Altair Australia Altair Australia Books
  • 3 Dystopia Dystopia Press
  • 4 Echelon Press Echelon Press, LLC
  • 5 London London Books
  • 6 Peter Owen Peter Owen Publishers
  • 7 PointBlank Point Blank
  • 8 Serial Box Serial Box Publishing
  • 9 theExaggeratedPress The Exaggerated Press
  • 10 Xlibris X Libris
Just because not paying attention to "New Publisher" warnings. Hauck 06:20, 1 April 2017 (UTC)
Actually, "Altair Australia" is a different publishing division than "Altair Australia Books"! (There's a note.) The others, it should be possible to fix IF people want to. I'm going to go ahead and remove that "LLC", anyhow. --Vasha 15:19, 1 April 2017 (UTC)
Would someone please edit these to remove the LLC? Thanks! --Vasha 16:48, 1 April 2017 (UTC)
Done. Hauck 17:17, 1 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! There's a bunch more...
And to get back to the original question, any objection to splitting Gollancz / Orion off from (Victor) Gollancz? --Vasha 21:11, 1 April 2017 (UTC)
Also, a question about something the Wikipedia article doesn't explain. In the years 1999-2001, we have a bunch of books recorded as published by Millennium / Victor Gollancz. Wikipedia seems to imply that Gollancz and Millennium were separate imprints of Orion at that time. Can anyone explain what publishing situation this dual designation refers to? Vasha 22:36, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Two more canonical names to change

Daniel Fabiani to J. Daniel Stone; Boukje Balder to Bo Balder. In the latter case, that bibliography shows that Balder has only published four stories in Dutch, none of them recently, so I think her canonical language should be English. --Vasha 02:03, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

I think the first ain't meaningful, since Daniel Fabiani seems to be his legal name, there is no vast overhang of his use of the pseudonym, and no one knows if there'll not be a time when he gives up on it; the second should be discussed first with primary verifiers and/or Dutch editors & moderators. Christian Stonecreek 05:16, 2 April 2017 (UTC)
I've asked Willem; who are other Dutch editors? I'll be glad to do whatever he or they decide. --Vasha 06:18, 2 April 2017 (UTC)
Okay then. Christian Stonecreek 09:33, 2 April 2017 (UTC)
Okay by me too.--Dirk P Broer 14:19, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
I will change Bo Balder's name and leave the language as it is for the momement. --Vasha 19:26, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Note that before ascending to the next stage, there is still some cleaning to do, regardless how tedious it is: here, here, here, here, here, here, here (and logically here) or there. Hauck 06:43, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing those out; I've either corrected them or asked PVs to correct them. What is wrong with this one, though? Vasha 07:20, 2 April 2017 (UTC)
It's a variant of this which is a variant of itself so it shows up on the infamous "Variant Titles of Variant Titles" report. Hauck 08:12, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

One more: in accordance with this bio, changing Augusta Li (3 titles) to August Li (7 titles). --Vasha 19:26, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Author name correction, 2017-04-03

Felix Guattari should be Félix Guattari. --Vasha 19:46, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. --MartyD 01:12, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

Ignores for a few 2017-04-04

On Japanese Titles with Latin characters, please ignore everything but "Ozu no Mahotsukai".

On Japanese Publications with Latin characters, please ignore both titles.

Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:49, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, I just noticed this. I think the reports now have different contents. Would you confirm which ones should be ignored? --MartyD 01:10, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
The 38 below on Japanese Titles with Latin characters:
  1. あなたもアメリカSFが書ける
  2. あなたもアメリカSFが書ける
  3. ようこそ書店大賞の夕べに (Part 4 of ?)
  4. サンリオSF文庫総解説
  5. ドミノ倒し (Part ? of ?)
  6. ミステリーズ!, #57 February 2013
  7. ミステリーズ!, #57 February 2013
  8. 南極点のピアピア動画 (Part 1 of 2)
  9. 南極点のピアピア動画 (Part 2 of 2)
  10. 星窓 remixed version
  11. 末弥純画集 Wizardry
  12. 末弥純画集 Wizardry
  13. 末弥純画集 Wizardry
  14. 1932 Drug & The Dominos
  15. 1932 Drug & The Dominos
  16. 1932 Drug & The Dominos
  17. Cop Craft
  18. Cop Craft
  19. Cop Craft
  20. Cop Craft 2
  21. Cop Craft 2
  22. Cop Craft 2
  23. Cop Craft 3
  24. Cop Craft 3
  25. Cop Craft 3
  26. Cop Craft 4
  27. Cop Craft 4
  28. Cop Craft 4
  29. Cop Craft 5
  30. Cop Craft 5
  31. Cop Craft 5
  32. Cop Craft 6
  33. Cop Craft 6
  34. Cop Craft 6
  35. S-Fマガジン - 2008
  36. S-Fマガジン - 2010
  37. S-Fマガジン - 2011
  38. S-Fマガジン 1960年02月号, #1
This set is done. --MartyD 12:39, 8 April 2017 (UTC)
All 14 below on Japanese Publications with Latin characters:
  1. サンリオSF文庫総解説
  2. ミステリーズ!, #57 February 2013
  3. 末弥純画集 Wizardry
  4. 1932 Drug & The Dominos
  5. Cop Craft
  6. Cop Craft 2
  7. Cop Craft 3
  8. Cop Craft 4
  9. Cop Craft 5
  10. Cop Craft 6
  11. S-Fマガジン 2008年 04月号, #624
  12. S-Fマガジン 2008年 05月号, #625
  13. S-Fマガジン 2010年 02月号, #646
  14. S-Fマガジン 2011年 08月号, #664
Thanks!. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 07:20, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
The second set is done, too. I took the liberty of ignoring 長岡秀星の世界・Part 2 while I was at it. I hope that's ok. --MartyD 12:42, 8 April 2017 (UTC)
Yup, thanks. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:39, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Changes to To Visit the Queen

Hi, I have a copy of To Visit the Queen and wish to make changes to this already verified record. The note on the primary verifier's page says to post that information here. I will be updating the image URL to a more stable link (the image is the same). I'll be adding to the Notes about the Epilogue and the LCCN. I will also be importing contents from the mass-market paperback version. OK? BungalowBarbara 02:18, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Yes. -- JLaTondre (talk) 20:58, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Reminder

Please note for this message :

Please don't use the edit submissions for comments, requests, etc. It should only be used for actual edits. If you have a comment, etc. then please post them at ISFDB:Community Portal (as a new topic by using the "+" symbol at the top of the page). Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 23:40, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Everything sent in had to do with edits. Sometimes it is not straightforward and a little detail is needed. If this person would pay closer attention then you will find that message policing of this kind is usually not necessary. Maybrick 20:39, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

But they were not edits. They consisted solely of notes to the moderator. Edits would actually change a field. My comment was not meant as criticism, but as advice explaining how the site works and how you can be more effective. -- JLaTondre (talk) 20:50, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

I don't assume to change anything. I leave that to the moderator. You'll just have to get used to the way some of the public does business.Maybrick 21:13, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

That's not how our system works. If you would like to add, update, or improve a record, we're willing to look at your suggestion and incorporate it when appropriate. However, we don't have "employees" who do work as assigned. All of us who donate our time here have our own pet projects that we're working on, usually lots of them, and we're not going to stop those things to go work on a project that you're interested in. And, apparently, a project that even you aren't interested in enough to do the work associated with your suggested changes. Chavey 03:11, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
Once in a while we get e-mail corrections from users who don't feel that a minor change or two justify spending the time to learn the ISFDB editing interface. That's understandable and moderators usually make the requested changes on the user's behalf.
However, this model is only sustainable for occasional edits. Once the number of submissions exceeds "a few", it becomes unmanageable. Ahasuerus 04:57, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

My edits are usually infrequent and I haven't had a problem so far at the database. In fact my submissions have gotten reasonable attention. I focus on 20th Century since all that data at least should be accurate which I think it is at an increasing rate so eventually not much time will have to be devoted to it. One problem I guess deserves the noticeboard because the edit is not clear-cut. This collection :

Publication: Frost Publication Record # 277792 [Edit] Authors: Donald Wandrei Date: 2000-00-00 ISBN: 1-878252-42-9 [978-1-878252-42-5] Publisher: F&B Mystery Price: $29.00 Pages: xi+306 Binding: hc Type: COLLECTION Title Reference: Frost Cover: Les Edwards

contains some of the stories from a Clues crime series. Yes the cover looks supernatural but unless the stories are, or the investigator uses some kind of science or tech gadget to solve the cases, then this should not be listed with the speculative. If it is than it should be listed as a series. No one seems to have read the book or any of the stories to help better and I don't intend to, but I am just pointing out the situation with this one because it is crowding down Wandrei's Short Fiction list. Maybrick 20:48, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

We do list the publication here because Wandrei for us is 'above the threshold'. And we do assume that the contents are mildly speculative until somebody has proven otherwise. I am at work reading some other authors' works to see which titles are speculative, one of them being Kurt Vonnegut (building upon the work of others, of course). For him we also list all of his works (for he is also 'above the threshold'), but try to group his non-genre items at the bottom of his summary page. But 1) it does take some time to read (sigh!) and 2) it's not always easy to get hold of all the works written by a specific author. Stonecreek 03:39, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

OK. Is there any reason for not listing these Frost stories as a series since that at least is confirmable?Maybrick 23:03, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Ignores for a few more Japanese titles, etc.

On the Japanese Titles with a Latin Author Name list, please ignore all entries except for the following:

  • オズの魔法つかい by Rin Yamazaki
  • オズの魔法使い by Satura Inoue
  • サイバーパンク年表 by uncredited
  • タンポポ by Masayuki Sawata
  • ラスト・ダンス by Makoto Mizuse
  • レンタルボディ by Kunio Kamezawa
  • 世界SF大会開催リスト by Nemuko Morino
  • 光の次に来るものを by Sadanori Wakino
  • 地球の長い午後 (cover) by Shumio Kakuta
  • 中継ステーション (cover) by Shumio Kakuta
  • 子宮の館 by Hajime Murata
  • 愛よ、ひとつに by Eiji Taniguchi
  • 所有せざる人々 (cover) by Shiro Tatsumi
  • 日本SFファンダム史ー『宇宙塵』を中心としてー by Noriko Ikeda
  • Ozu no Mahotsukai by Akitsuga Yokota
  • 窓 by Hajime Murata

Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 07:12, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. I did not see 中継ステーション (cover) by Shumio Kakuta in the list. --MartyD 12:35, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

Please correct the name of this publisher

I accidentally entered 日本放送出版 instead of 日本放送出版協会. Please correct it to the latter. Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:48, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. -- JLaTondre (talk) 21:12, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:47, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Editing of verification sources

The Reference Table Editor has been disabled while I am working on redoing primary verifications. Ahasuerus 21:21, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

Two author namea to correct, 2017-03-11

D. K. Mok should be DK Mok, according to the author's own usage and the preponderance of publications, including all the novels. Lucky Mckee should be Lucky McKee. --Vasha 22:09, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Canonical name change: David Cowperthwaite

David Cowperthwaite used that name in his activities as an editor in the 1980s and early 1990s, but wrote fiction under the name John Gale then and ever since. Certainly the latter must be better known. John Gale is the name he uses on his blog, too. --Vasha 02:59, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Hearing no objections, I'll do this change tonight. --Vasha 18:30, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
I take it that all those publication records as by David Cowperthwaite, without titles (as the titles are now under publication records as by John Gale), can be deleted by someone with the rights to do so. At the moment they show up on the report 'Pseudonyms with Canonical Titles'.--Dirk P Broer 09:02, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
Actually, the way I handle those publess titles is to change the name on them to the new name and merge. That's because they may carry information like series that shouldn.t be lost. Vasha 14:07, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
I believe these have all been approved now. Albinoflea 21:40, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Japanese to ignore 20170411

On the Japanese Titles with Latin characters report, please ignore:

  • にっぽんのえ―加山又造 vs. 長岡秀星
  • にっぽんのえ―加山又造 vs. 長岡秀星
  • 長岡秀星の世界・Part 2
  • 長岡秀星の世界・Part 2
  • 長岡秀星の世界・Part 2

On the Japanese Publications with Latin characters report, please ignore:

  • にっぽんのえ―加山又造 vs. 長岡秀星

Thanks in advance! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:08, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 18:11, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Publisher name to correct 2017-04-14

Jabberwocky Literary Agency should be JABberwocky Literary Agency. --Vasha 09:42, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 10:36, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
Could you do the two above, then? --Vasha 11:51, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
Yes. Hauck 12:34, 14 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! Vasha 15:26, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Please remove the space for these Japanese names

ヤマグチ ノボル and 暁 なつめ. Thanks in advance! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:48, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Done (or so I hope). Hauck 05:43, 15 April 2017 (UTC)
Looks good. Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:10, 15 April 2017 (UTC)

The Gold Key and The Green Life

This publication P318317 is in the queue with contents from The Supernatural Index that I need to proofread and merge, with some note added at the Title record.

The lead item in publication Notes as submitted is "Collected and edited by Elizabeth Sutherland, in two parts The Gold Key and The Green Life".

Title:Type and Publication:PubType have been COLLECTION. I think they should be either OMNIBUS (of two collections that were not previously published) or ANTHOLOGY. It is part one and part two that are two COLLECTIONs as I understand the manual.

--Pwendt|talk 16:06, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

The authors have been George Macdonald, Fiona MacLeod (as COLLECTION). I think that should be retained as OMNIBUS or changed to Elizabeth Sutherland as ANTHOLOGY.
If I understand correctly, the appropriate Type and Author changes can be submitted as one TitleUpdate. Right?
From the Summary Biography perspective, we should hope this book is listed for Macdonald and MacLeod, and the listing of three Essays contents is adequate for Elizabeth Sutherland (new to the database). This consideration supports OMNIBUS or the current treatment. --Pwendt|talk 16:48, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

Author name to correct, 2017-04-21

K. G. Schmidt should be KG Schmidt. --Vasha 05:11, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 06:39, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Publisher name to correct 2017-04-24

Karoshi Books should be Karōshi Books. --Vasha 21:45, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. -- JLaTondre (talk) 01:50, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Ignores needed 2017-04-26

Can someone ignore the following records:

Thanks! Annie 16:37, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 16:48, 26 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! Annie 16:54, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Strange Horizons changed the name of the author

I received a request from an author to change the name of the author on the story that they published. As this author goes into the professional world, they want to use their true name only for professional purposes, and use a pseudonym for their writing. At present, their #2 hit on Google under their true name is to our bibliographic entry. Since they are trying to protect their 'true name' from Google, I am not using that name in this posting, and I encourage others to do the same. You can find them as the author of "The Kiss" in Strange Horizons 2010-03-15. Now here's what makes this situation different from the other similar requests we've turned down: At the author's request, Strange Horizons has change the name of the author on the story to the alias that the author prefers! So while our listing for Strange Horizons gives the correct bibliographic data for the publication in 2010, it is no longer an accurate statement of the authorship as that publication exists now. (General problem with online publications: What happens if the online pub changes the name of a title or the name of an author??) So the author would like us to update our entry for this issue of Strange Horizons. Any objections if I do so? Chavey 13:36, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

Of course then there will be a secondary issue of whether we list the author's true name on the author record for the pseudonym. Chavey 13:38, 27 April 2017 (UTC)
I would also give the same answer as you for online publications, we should record the latest set of data (and perhaps add a note about the change). To be frank all this paranoia seems quite surrealistic as we're likely not talking about multi-million dollars deals or sex tapes (but perhaps will L***** ******* be the next Rowling...). Hauck 14:16, 27 April 2017 (UTC)
As to what to do in general about changes to webzines, I would say keep the original publication data, with a note. (This is what I did with issues of Fireside that changed when the website was redesigned.) But as for the privacy request, I don't know. --Vasha 14:21, 27 April 2017 (UTC)
Hauck comments on a certain "paranoia" in such a request. The author in question works in pediatrics; the story is about a Goblin more-or-less seducing an underage girl. The United States is particularly paranoid about things vaguely sexual and underage girls, and those outside the US might not realize just how extreme that paranoia is. Thus I am personally inclined to agree to the request. To allow someone who really wants to know the true name, my inclination is to provide a link in the notes to the Wayback Machine's copy of the original Strange Horizons publication, which that person can follow, but Google's search engine won't follow. Chavey 15:14, 27 April 2017 (UTC)
"This story was published under a different author name in its original appearance (<link>archived</link>); in 2017, at the author's request, the magazine changed the credit to what is given here." Or words to that effect. Give a more specific reason than "author request"? --Vasha 15:30, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

(unindent) There are certainly good reasons why some people choose to use undisclosed pseudonyms for different lines of work. For example, George H. Scithers (1929-2010), a well-known US fan and editor, was an officer in the US military until his retirement in 1973. At the tail end of his military career he published a pornographic gay SF novel Hung in Space (1969) as "Felix Lance Falkon". He used the same pseudonym when he edited a non-fiction (and very explicit) art book A Historic Collection of Gay Art in 1972. In later years he wrote numerous erotic/pornographic gay S&M stories, which reflected his interest in torture, castration, "snuff", etc. He also drew a fair amount of gay erotica of the same type, some of it as "Felix Lance Falkon" and some (apparently) as "Graewolf". Any and all of the above would have been sufficient to court martial him for "conduct unbecoming" if he had not used pseudonyms. It even remained a potential issue in retirement since -- at least in theory -- he could be recalled to active duty and court martialed. (In the mid-1990s he posted some of his S&M stories on Usenet without realizing that he was using his normal e-mail address. Luckily, no one noticed.)

That said, there is a difference between using an undisclosed pseudonym up front and adopting one after the fact, which is why we handle them differently.

As far as the Wayback Machine goes, their policy is to delete site mirrors upon request, so they are not necessarily a reliable solution. My current thinking is that it would be best to fully explain the attribution history of this story in notes. Ahasuerus 17:22, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

To "fully explain" the attribution, if I understand your meaning, would still expose the author to a Google search on their professional name finding this record, which is what they would like to avoid. Chavey 22:19, 27 April 2017 (UTC)
Sort of, but not exactly :-)
Let's consider the current situation. When you do a Google search on this author's name, you get 15 pages worth of hits. That in and of itself is not a big deal since the references to the story do not begin to appear until page 11. The only exception -- and the issue that the author is trying to address -- is that our Summary page currently appears as the second link on the first page. So, why do we rank so high while Locus and other Web sites that mention this story are ranked much lower?
The answer is that we put author names in Summary page titles. Titles are a very big deal in the world of search engines and anything in the title is automatically promoted to the top.
Now, suppose we were to do what I suggested earlier: change the attribution in the publication and expand Notes to explain that the story was originally published as by X, but the attribution was subsequently changed to Y. As soon as we do that, our Summary page for "author X" will disappear. Once Google re-scans our database, it will delete the now-defunct Summary page from its cache and adjust the rankings to relegate us to the end of the line, along with Locus et al. Hopefully it will solve the immediate problem while preserving the integrity of our data :-) Ahasuerus 02:32, 28 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for the detail! I've changed the attribution as indicated, including a note at the Strange Horizons publication that further details are available at the page for "The Kiss", then put the author's true name there. I'm also trying a trick on that title page to see if adding a "robots - noindex" tag keeps the story out of Google's searches. If that's successful, it might be an idea that could be a compromise for other situations that have come up. Chavey 04:25, 28 April 2017 (UTC)
I suggest that instead of saying "subsequently changed" you give the date of the change as close as you know it. --Vasha 15:39, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Remove image

Can someone delete http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Dick_topf.jpeg please? Jens Hitspacebar 10:18, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 10:28, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Bill Warren(s)

Hello, can the person that approved the submissions clean up the problem with the titles listed here there is probably some unfinished task (IMHO the original author should be set to "Bill Warren (artist)"). Thanks. Hauck 09:11, 30 April 2017 (UTC)

Publishers to merge, 2017-05-01

Both The Feminist Press and The Feminist Press at CUNY refer to the entity whose full name is "The Feminist Press at the City University of New York". I think they could be unified under the shorter form because I don't believe there's another Feminist Press. --Vasha 04:35, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 06:37, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Canonical name change: Arlan Andrews, Sr.

Arlan Andrews has more publications by "Arlan Andrews, Sr." now. --Vasha 14:57, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

The note for Andrews reads like a PR blurb. Maybe it should be toned down?--Rkihara 15:19, 1 May 2017 (UTC)
I did actually submit a change removing those encomiums! Will whoever posted them try to change it back, though? --Vasha 19:09, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

author name correction, 2017-05-01

Seamus Sweeney should be Séamus Sweeney. Vasha 19:44, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

And another: D. J. Tyrer should be DJ Tyrer. I have checked just about all of those publications! --Vasha 04:10, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
Done. Hauck 06:36, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Canonical name change: Peter Rawlik

The majority of Peter Rawlik's fiction is credited to "Pete Rawlik". --Vasha 19:02, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Publishers to merge, 2017-05-11

Unsung Stories / Red Squirrel and Unsung Stories. I don't think there's any reason to have the parent company of the imprint listed. --Vasha 23:07, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

Done (merged to the simpler one, IIUC). Hauck 07:16, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

Please ignore these Japanese titles

On Japanese Titles with Latin characters, please ignore the following:

  • 狼と香辛料 (18) Spring Log
  • Elements
  • Re：ゼロから始める異世界生活 3
  • Re：ゼロから始める異世界生活 4
  • SFアトランダム(1)—FORRY・4Eのことども—
Done (1 left). Hauck 07:20, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

On Japanese Titles with a Latin Author Name, please ignore:

  • All entries with an author of "Toi8".
Done. Hauck 07:24, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

On Publication Series with Latin Names and Non-Latin Titles, please ignore:

  • Dragon Magazine Special
  • Novaコレクション
Done. Hauck 07:27, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 23:14, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

Publisher name to correct 2017-05-13

Hellbound Books should be HellBound Books. --Vasha 20:38, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Fixed. Albinoflea 20:42, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Baen Webscription ebooks

Baen Books has been selling eBooks on their web site. They don't use ISBNs but instead have "SKU" numbers. Unfortunately, people have been adding publication records to ISFDB and using the Baen SKU numbers in the ISBN field without prefixing them with #.

Apparently manufacturers are allowed to invent their own SKU numbers. SKU numbers are not regulated nor standardized. The good news for Baen is unlike ISBNs they don't need to pay someone for each number used. Unfortunately, Baen seems to be using SKU's that are the same as ISBNs for earlier editions of a title. They are also using numbers previously used by other publishers such as Ace, DAW, etc. See A.+Bertram+Chandler for an example of their titles.

I have no idea why but one or more people are also converting Baen SKU numbers into ISBN13s prior to adding them to ISFDB. For example, a search for ISBNs starting with 9780879 includes:

Matilda's Step Children2007-12-00A. Bertram ChandlerBaen978-0-87997-845-7$4.00ebookwebsubscriptionSKU 0879978457
Star Courier2007-12-00A. Bertram ChandlerBaen978-0-87997-834-1$4.00ebookwebsubscriptionSKU 0879972920
The Anarch Lords2007-12-00A. Bertram ChandlerBaen978-0-87997-653-8$4.00ebookwebsubscriptionSKU 0879976535
The Big Black Mark2007-06-00A. Bertram ChandlerBaen978-0-87997-726-9$4.00ebookwebsubscriptionSKU 0879977264
The Last Amazondate unknownA. Bertram ChandlerBaen978-0-87997-936-2$4.00ebookwebsubscriptionSKU 0879979364
The Way Back2007-12-00A. Bertram ChandlerBaen978-0-87997-352-0$4.00ebookwebsubscriptionSKU 0879973528
To Keep the Ship2007-12-00A. Bertram ChandlerBaen978-0-87997-827-3$4.00ebookwebsubscriptionSKU 0879978279

All of those were originally DAW books ISBN10s (published in the 1970s and 1980s). The link in the title column is to ISFDB's pub record for the Baen Books eBook edition.

This note is a heads up that:

  1. Ideally people adding these also link to the source on Baen's web site.
  2. That as it's an SKU and not an ISBN that the number be prefixed with # in the ISBN/Catalog # field. It's Baen's catalog number.
  3. That people should not be converting SKU numbers into ISBN13 values.

--Marc Kupper|talk 23:45, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Errol Le Cain

There is one work in the database by Errol LeCain, COVERART T1007122 primary verified transient by User:BLongley who is bannered no longer active with us.

I submitted TitleUpdate to change the name [12], following Wikipedia Wikipedia, LCCN n79-061362, LC and WorldCat library records for one new collection in the queue [13] (with illustrator credit as "Errol LeCain", which I'll fix later).

(BLongley's record does not give a source for the cover artist credit.)

--Pwendt|talk 00:46, 18 May 2017 (UTC)

That seems like the correct thing to do. Chavey 04:45, 20 May 2017 (UTC)

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

I think that our "Vintage Crime / Black Lizard" publisher names should be changed to "Vintage Crime/Black Lizard"; this is how the name of the imprint appears in books, and it is not an imprint and its parent, the way that " / " is usually used here. Currently we have Vintage Crime / Black Lizard / Vintage Books, Vintage Crime / Black Lizard / SFBC, and Vintage Crime/Black Lizard / SFBC. 

: Thanks for doing this. --Vasha 18:02, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Author names to correct, 2017-04-21

James Robinson Planche to James Robinson Planché, and J. R. Planche to J. R. Planché. Thanks! --Vasha 00:40, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Done. -- JLaTondre (talk) 01:26, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Publisher Haikasoru

Can someone merge Haikasoru and Haikasoru / Viz Media. If I am reading the rules correctly, we should use the impring / parent name although either way works for me. Thanks!Annie 03:56, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

That could get tricky. The problem is we have 20 verified pubs under Haikasoru scattered over several years. I'd want to be certain that Haikasoru was never a standalone company. For example MM9 (2012) is for the tp edition. There's an Amazon Look Inside of the Kindle edition which has "Haika" over "soru" on the title page. The copyright page has that Haikasoru is published by VIZ Media. I'd want to check all 20 verified pubs before making the change.
Also, should it be "Haikasoru / VIZ Media" rather than "Haikasoru / Viz Media"? The company seems to use VIZ though https://www.viz.com/company-about does not explain how the name came about. --Marc Kupper|talk 08:42, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
They were officially launched in 2009 as a series that grew into an imprint. So all of the books under both publishers above had always been in the imprint. Not sure about the VIZ/Viz. Never existed as a separate publisher. Annie 10:02, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
PS: I do not mind defaulting on the shorter one (everyone but one PV seemed to prefer that) but then what is the point of our rules about the imprints :) So what is next - get all the PVs together and try to find out what is preferred? Annie 18:09, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
When I verified MM9 I accepted the default at the time which was for "Haikasoru", although the copyright page does add "Published by VIZ Media, LLC". I'm not troubled either way which one we adopt, but I do think they should all be under one name. At the moment we use "Haikasoru" mostly for the tp editions and "Haikasoru / Viz Media" predominantly for the ebook editions (similar to the way we split "Gollancz" and "Gollancz / Orion" for their SF Masterworks publications). Also, I think it should be "VIZ" as opposed to "Viz" – their Wikipedia page uses both but the company's website (e.g. their 'About' page) predominantly uses VIZ. My two cents. PeteYoung 22:26, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
"VIZ" isn't an acronym, though, and we tend to normalize other capitalization. Tor uses "TOR" a lot, but we don't use the all caps version. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:44, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
The reason I asked is because I ended up with one of the books in my hands and decided to clear this up before I verify it (so I can verify with the correct publisher) :) Thanks for chiming in! Annie 22:30, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
They have never been separate companies. Haikasoru is actually not a company. It's not surprising that Viz doesn't have any separate entries since they publish mostly manga and anime, neither of which we include here. Haikasoru is their imprint for novels. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:44, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Cover artist for Super Science Novels Magazine, May 1941

This verified publication (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?60764) has Morey listed as cover artist. The artist is not credited in the magazine, but the cover has a clear signature "Gabriel H Mayorga" on the artwork. I'd like to change the attribution for the cover to "Gabriel Mayorga." Thanks, Ldb001 00:38, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 06:28, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
Thank you! Ldb001 19:34, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

canonical name change : L. S. Silverthorne

Time to change L. S. Silverthorne to Lisa Silverthorne. --Vasha 02:52, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Change note in Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis category

Can someone please change the note of the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis category Beste Grafik einer deutschsprachigen Ausgabe to:

Best artwork first published in a German-language publication. Artwork which has been published in a non-German publication before the German publication is not eligible for a nomination. Superseded "Bester Grafiker" in 1993.

Thanks, Jens Hitspacebar 18:11, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

Done. Hauck 18:22, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

New Moderator nomination

(Moved to the Community Portal as per the standard process. Ahasuerus 14:57, 18 June 2017 (UTC))

Publisher name merges and edits

We have records for both Pyr and Pyr / Prometheus. I see no reason to list the parent company of this imprint (there was never a time when it was different), so please merge these as "Pyr". Thanks --Vasha 12:11, 21 June 2017 (EDT)

Also, per discussion, please merge Apex Book Company into Apex Publications, keeping Publications. --Vasha 07:05, 22 June 2017 (EDT)
Done! Stonecreek 06:46, 1 July 2017 (EDT)

Typos

I submitted the contents for Analog Science Fiction and Fact the July-August 2017 issue, and like a total idiot I misspelled Don Sakers name. If accepted, I will then correct this idiocy. Sorry. MLB 00:26, 25 June 2017 (EDT)

Accepted and fixed after that. :) Annie 01:14, 25 June 2017 (EDT)

Fleetway / Sexton Blake Library

Among five books, this publisher has two Publisher pages: Fleetway Publications / Sexton Blake Library and Sexton Blake Library. One of the books under the first of those has Sexton Blake Library as the Publication Series, so it's entered as "Fleetway Publications / Sexton Blake Library (Sexton Blake Library #458)."

I would suggest the two Publisher pages should be merged as simply "Fleetway Publications," since (as with digest series in other countries) "Sexton Blake Library" is indeed the Publication Series and not an imprint or publisher. Fleetway is named on the covers. If a moderator can change those Publisher pages, I'll add the Publication Series to the individual books that need it (none are Primary Verified). MOHearn 13:47, 30 June 2017 (EDT)

None of those are verified and from what I can find, I agree with your analysis. Let's give everyone a few more days for objections (due to the long holiday weekend in the USA) and I will proceed and get them sorted out. I will also ping the secondary verifier to see if he has a reason to keep them that way (some of the verifications are not in online sources so I cannot check and I would rather ask) :) Annie 23:59, 4 July 2017 (EDT)
Currey lists the publisher a couple of ways: Sexton Blake Library Fleetway Publications Ltd for the Moorcock title and just Fleetway Publications Ltd for the Tubb one. If they were lesser known I doubt the series/publisher would even be on here. None of the books are anything but mysteries. At the very least they should be non-genre. No preferences here. --~ Bill, Bluesman 14:41, 6 July 2017 (EDT)
If they are mysteries, should we just nuke them from the DB and solve the issue that way? Or are those in the "above threshold" case? If they are, I can certainly add the non-genre flag while reworking the publishers... Annie 15:38, 6 July 2017 (EDT)
According to SFE3: "The World-Shakers! (1960 chap) by Rex Dolphin (see Peter Saxon) – was a UFO tale. Another – Caribbean Crisis (1962 chap) by James Cawthorn and Michael Moorcock – was Moorcock's first novel." Ahasuerus 15:42, 6 July 2017 (EDT)
Thanks! In they stay then with no flags (for now). I will rework the publisher and the publisher series to get them all together then based on MOHearn's proposal. Annie 15:45, 6 July 2017 (EDT)
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