User talk:Ahasuerus

See User talk:Ahasuerus/Archive for discussions prior to 2024.

PLEASE NOTE: If you're writing to inform me that you've either added a COVER IMAGE or NOTES to any of my VERIFIED PUBS, please follow THIS LINK and add it to the bottom of the list. A link to the pub record would be appreciated. Once the pub has been reviewed, I'll remove your note from the list. Thanks!

Corrupted publication record

I saw this one on one of the cleanup reports. The software will not allow corrections. Do we need to create a new publication record and delete this one? John Scifibones 08:53, 27 January 2024 (EST)

Could you please clarify what you mean by "the software will not allow corrections"? The External ID field had a very long URL (instead of an ID), which distorted the display in some browsers, but I could still access the "Edit" link by scrolling to the right in Firefox. I then found the right PORBASE ID and replaced the long URL with it. It seems to have fixed the issue. Does it look OK now? Ahasuerus (talk) 10:28, 27 January 2024 (EST)

When I entered the correct PORBASE ID, It reverted back to the incorrect previous link when looking at the Proposed Publication Update Submission' screen. As a result, I cancelled the edit. Not sure why that didn't happen to you. Regardless, it is correct now.

P.S. It probably was allowing the change but the proposed changes column was likely off my screen. Thanks, John Scifibones 12:37, 27 January 2024 (EST)

Oh, I see. I vaguely recall experimenting with HTML tables to ensure that they wouldn't do this at some resolutions, but I think I ran into various technical issues and catch-22s. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:44, 27 January 2024 (EST)

Human-Machines

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?17511; Archive.org cover has a price sticker so you may want to find another image to replace the unstable Amazon one that's there now. --Username (talk) 18:22, 2 February 2024 (EST)

Updated, thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:33, 2 February 2024 (EST)

Hidden World

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5884849; PDF, cover, Mantong. --Username (talk) 23:14, 7 February 2024 (EST)

Approved, thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:56, 8 February 2024 (EST)

Deryni Magic Question

Hi Ahasuerus -

Annie has posed this question on my talk page. I found that original edits may may have been yours back in 2006. Could you take a peek when you have a moment (and if you can remember why you did something 18 years ago!). Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:18, 13 February 2024 (EST)

Done. Thanks for the ping. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:49, 13 February 2024 (EST)

What we enter in the "Artist" field

Ahasuerus: The table 'What we enter in the "Artist" field' which you created in your post 11:33, 19 February 2024 (EST) under this thread is very useful. It is much easier to follow and understand than the wording under bullet point "Artist" in Template:PublicationFields:CoverArt. I recently referred to the table for a separate issue about cover artists here.
Could you please add the table to the help page. Teallach (talk) 17:04, 24 February 2024 (EST)

Thanks for the reminder! I have been sick most of the last week and didn't want to touch Rules and Standards discussions until I was back up to 100%. Once I feel better, I'll make sure to check on the R&S page that it's OK to add the table to Help. Thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:50, 24 February 2024 (EST)

No problem. There is no hurry. I am sorry to hear you have been unwell and wish you a speedy recovery. Teallach (talk) 12:47, 25 February 2024 (EST)

Thank you! Ahasuerus (talk) 13:20, 25 February 2024 (EST)

Image backups

Hi,

I see you updated the downloads page to note that image backups are being redone. This reminds me of something that's puzzled me for a while, and which I meant to ask you about months (years?) ago.

Am I right in thinking that when those zips are generated, it's not an incremental backup style thing where you just need to download the changes/deltas, but rather that they are completely regenerated, and that you'd have to download the full set of zips to have an accurate and complete collection? I vaguely recall that at some point in the past, I'd been downloading the zips in a fairly leisurely manner over a period of days/weeks, and had got maybe 80% of the way through them, and then the zips were regenerated, and I assumed that I had to restart the set.

Would it be possible to have a bit more information on the download page about how they work? NB: I haven't actually ever done anything with the zips I downloaded - I rarely run the full Apache website locally, which I imagine is the main intended use case for the image backups - but I always thought they had the potential to be the foundation of an interesting project. Thanks! ErsatzCulture (talk) 04:35, 5 March 2024 (EST)

That's right: the images hosted by Google Drive are a complete copy of the images hosted by the live ISFDB server. I have added a few more details to the description. Does it make more sense now? Ahasuerus (talk) 14:31, 5 March 2024 (EST)

Thanks. What you've added makes sense, but it's still not clear (to me at least) from the text there that the directories all get updated when new zips are created. Are the 0-9/a-f (and the 2 digit subdirectories) just arbitrary hex digits, maybe the first digits of a checksum or something like that? (That question is slightly rhetorical; I imagine I could find the answer out for myself if I looked through the source code.)

If the tarballs had date suffixes, similar to the database backups, then I think that would make it more obvious that the full set needs re-downloading. However, I guess the downside of that is that it would break any existing tooling for downloading the image backups, and that if you weren't careful you might end up with multiple dated tarballs and/or image directories. ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:25, 5 March 2024 (EST)