Difference between revisions of "User talk:Rtrace"

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I'm considering cleaning up [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?198209 Chrétien de Troyes] titles.  He has five Arthurian romances, all in excess of 40K words.  ( I used Word to count the number of words in each story from an epub on gutenburg).  I believe that they should all be entered as novels, and then all of the variants need to be cleaned up to point to the 5 original Old French base titles.  You've PVed a [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?810463 collection] which would become an omnibus if I'm correct.  I've also reach out Linquist for comments [http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Linguist#Arthurian_Romances_of_Chr.C3.A9tien_de_Troyes here].  Any concerns/thoughts? [[User:Taweiss|Tom]] 11:46, 7 May 2022 (EDT)
 
I'm considering cleaning up [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?198209 Chrétien de Troyes] titles.  He has five Arthurian romances, all in excess of 40K words.  ( I used Word to count the number of words in each story from an epub on gutenburg).  I believe that they should all be entered as novels, and then all of the variants need to be cleaned up to point to the 5 original Old French base titles.  You've PVed a [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?810463 collection] which would become an omnibus if I'm correct.  I've also reach out Linquist for comments [http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Linguist#Arthurian_Romances_of_Chr.C3.A9tien_de_Troyes here].  Any concerns/thoughts? [[User:Taweiss|Tom]] 11:46, 7 May 2022 (EDT)
 +
 +
:Hi Tom
 +
:Actually, I only did a secondary verification of the collection.  I did pose a [[ISFDB:Help desk/archives/archive 33#Chrétien de Troyes Arthurian Romances|question]] back when I entered that record, but didn't get much in the way of a response.  The issue here is that the original works are poems in old French and the translations are usually done as prose.  We have a policy to not change length due to translation (e.g. novella translated as a novelette) and to keep the length of the parent title.  We don't have the original poems listed (there may be [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2494082 one]).  It may be worth re-posing the question more simply than I did i.e. How do we want to treat prose translations of poems?  --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 07:31, 10 May 2022 (EDT)
  
 
== Princess of All Lands ==
 
== Princess of All Lands ==

Revision as of 07:31, 10 May 2022

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 click HERE 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. Ron (Rtrace)

See

for older discussions.

Histories of King Kelson - missing Appendices

There are three missing appendix titles in The Bishop's Heir, The King's Justice, and The Quest for Saint Camber. Would you mind if I add them? Phil 10:07, 1 January 2022 (EST)

No concerns at all. Please proceed. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:09, 1 January 2022 (EST)

Hejja Cover

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?289474; cover art was re-used for Red Dust (1981), credited to Attila Hejja on SFE. --Username 13:11, 1 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks. Next time, it would be helpful to give the author of the other source or better yet, a link. We have several items with that title, as does SFE. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:08, 1 January 2022 (EST)
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5186432; I made an edit crediting where I found the artist's name; you're the PV so I thought before the edit was approved, which probably wouldn't be any time soon with the way things are going these days, I would let you know first to forestall the usual complaining about not checking with PV first before making any significant changes. Now that you've done it, I guess I can reject my edit, right? --Username 17:45, 1 January 2022 (EST)
You hadn't mentioned that you had submitted and edit. I did check the queue to see if there were edits to something called "Red Dust" but found none. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:50, 1 January 2022 (EST)

Saint Camber and Camber the Heretic

There five missing appendix titles in both Saint Camber and Camber the Heretic. Would you mind if I added them before I PV? Phil 14:40, 2 January 2022 (EST)

I wouldn't mind at all. Please proceed. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 15:05, 2 January 2022 (EST)

Katherine Kurtz missing component titles

Would you mind if I add the missing Appendix titles to the following books: The Harrowing of Gwynedd, King Javan's Year, The Bastard Prince, and In the King's Service? I also want to remove the "Volume III of the Heirs of Saint Camber" portion of the the title for this pub of The Bastard Prince to match current ISFDB standards. Thanks! Phil 11:25, 3 January 2022 (EST)

That's fine. Please proceed. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 11:54, 3 January 2022 (EST)

St. Patrick's Gargoyle

Would you mind if I add the missing Afterword on page 231 of St. Patrick's Gargoyle? Phil 08:51, 4 January 2022 (EST)

I wouldn't mind at all. Please add it. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 09:26, 4 January 2022 (EST)

Lightspeed, June 2015 Special Issue

Hi, Ron. You and I have verified two versions of Lightspeed Issue 61 http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1876076. I'd like to figure out and document what's different about the "Limited Edition" that was distributed at the 2016 Locus Awards. The only difference in our listings are (1) the page count (426 vs 440), (2) "Limited Edition" on the cover of my PV'd, and (3) my pub note about full-color illustrations. Please confirm whether your copy has color illustrations (e.g., in the Artists Gallery), and whether it actually has 14 more page after page 426. If it does have more pages, what's on them? Thanks. Markwood 17:26, 9 January 2022 (EST)

Hi Markwood
The page count for my copy is using the method for counting the number of pages for magazines. See the opening paragraph here, "For magazines, the rule is to use the actual page count - including the cover." The last numbered page is 422 with 10 pages after counting the cover as pages. Before page 1, there are 8 additional pages, including the cover. That's how I got to 440. The Artists Gallery in mine is in black and white. I've actually got an audio version of this issue as well, which I really should add. Hope this helps. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:01, 9 January 2022 (EST)

From the Earth to the Moon and All Around the Moon

You verified this pub against Reginald1/3 and OCLC. The format is given as HC, but OCLC doesn't support or deny this. The other book in the publisher series is tp and a contemporary Burroughs book has a catalogue at the back which states it is paperbound. Any problems if I change this format to 'tp'? ../Doug H 10:27, 14 January 2022 (EST)

That's fine. Reginald has it as paper. I must have missed it when verifying. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:35, 14 January 2022 (EST)

Ring Shout

Hi Ron,

I am about to verify the hardcover of this one and as you have verified the audiobook, I have a few questions:

There is no comma after the "or" on the title page (and Or should start with a capital letter after that ":". I'd think as all subtitles)
Where is the subtitle coming in the audiobook from? There is no title page, the cover does not have it. If they read it as part of the intro, that should be in the notes IMO...

What do you think? Annie 11:17, 14 January 2022 (EST)

First, this isn't precisely a subtitle, but rather an alternate title. And the it is read that way at the beginning of the audio book. There was --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 16:56, 17 January 2022 (EST)this discussion a while back. I standardize alternate titles much like we do with subtitles with the following format: <Main Title>; or, <Alternate Title>. Anecdotally, this is how I see them most often reflected in printed works. Of course, with an audio book, you can't hear the punctuation. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 12:04, 14 January 2022 (EST)
Looks like a subtitle to me on the hardcover and there is no punctuation anywhere on that page... :) But either works so I will add some notes and leave it as is for now. I'd also add a note in the audio book that "The alternative title is not printed on the cover but is read at the beginning o the recording". Any objections? Annie 12:12, 14 January 2022 (EST)
No objections. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 13:06, 14 January 2022 (EST)

Laver

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?767248; Not the same guy as the old horror/ghost writer, but this guy: https://www.jameslaver.net/actor. Also, the cover image seems to be dead. --Username 15:42, 16 January 2022 (EST)

Corrected. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 16:56, 17 January 2022 (EST)

Susan's Demon Cat

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?338771; You recently added these 2 novels, and a note that Reginald says the later novel is a retitling of the earlier. It says on the cover of the later novel "previously published as Demon Cat" (easier to see on Goodreads' copy), so it is a retitling. --Username 11:15, 17 January 2022 (EST)

The note actually says that Reginald only suggests a new title by virtue of the assigned numbers. He usually explicitly states "retitled" which was not done in this case. Regardless, I've made the variant relationship. You could have done that yourself. I also included that it was per the cover in the moderator notes. Thanks for finding the relationship. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 16:56, 17 January 2022 (EST)
Yes, I could have done it, but first, 1 of the few things I'm not good at here is varianting, as I've mentioned many times, and second, I didn't want to hear the usual complaining about changing info without checking with other editors first. If you'd uploaded a better cover, like the one on Goodreads, the info about "previously published as" would have been clear. Also, don't forget to sign your messages. --Username 18:08, 17 January 2022 (EST)

J. Brian Clarke death date

This tweet says he died on Dec 17th, not Jan 17th. I don't know how reliable they are, and/or how likely they are to have made a typo, but I did note that all the other reports that I'd seen (example) don't give an exact date. As such, I'm loathe to alter your edit - it seems a bit odd that his death wouldn't become public knowledge until exactly a month later - but did you have a source with an exact date? ErsatzCulture 10:55, 18 January 2022 (EST)

EDIT: I see Locus has Jan 17th, so it seems more likely that Twitter account made a mistake ErsatzCulture 11:08, 18 January 2022 (EST)
I saw it on File 770, but they didn't have the date. I did search and found it on Locus. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 12:46, 18 January 2022 (EST)
Thanks - I'll take this as an object lesson in researching things thoroughly before hassling people on their talk pages :-) ErsatzCulture 14:16, 18 January 2022 (EST)

Eric Brighteyes

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?20909; I added cover image to Saga of Eric Brighteyes and it was just approved, I checked it out, saw the price was wrong, then saw that you PV'd another copy but it was entered as just Eric Brighteyes, with different cover artist, no intro from Dart-Thornton, etc. So 1 edition is probably unnecessary, but who knows where the $3.95 came from because PV of that edition doesn't respond anymore. I'm going to delete my cover because it's already on the other record. --Username 11:13, 20 January 2022 (EST)

Hebe

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?877033; You added this recently, but in this case the Conway name was on the Collins edition instead of Elsna. I added cover image and then later changed the name; I don't know if you need to variant it to the other name or whatever. --Username 21:59, 25 January 2022 (EST)

I'm going to have to undo those edits. Both Reginald and the linked Worldcat record indicate a Collins edition published using the Conway name. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 06:54, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Swfritter's application for self-approver status

When you have a moment, could you please review Swfritter's application for self-approver status? TIA! Ahasuerus 09:19, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Inverted World

Hi Ron. I noticed that there are two almost identical first printing pub records for this title here and here, except for the price. Since you're one of the PVs, can you check your copy and let me know (if) what the price is on (the back of) your copy? If your copy confirms £7.99, then obviously my copy can't be first printing of this edition, so then I'll have to update my PV'd record and have it as 'unknown pub date'. Thanks, MagicUnk 08:26, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Eh, oops, I just noticed that the ISBN's are totally different too. Sorry... But since there's that price difference, I'm wondering about the publication dates - any suggestion as to which one might be incorrect (if at all)? MagicUnk 08:28, 27 January 2022 (EST)
I've double checked mine and the data is correct. I noticed that yours doesn't have a number line whereas mine has the full number line. Given the lack of number line and higher price, I would speculate that yours is a later printing, but I don't think we can identify which one, or the actual printing date. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 09:45, 27 January 2022 (EST)
That's what I thought so too - I'll be adding a note explaining the pub date uncertainty & change to 0000-00-00. Thanks for checking! MagicUnk 12:18, 27 January 2022 (EST)
I've updated my PV'd record - and while doing so, I noticed that Amazon has cover with and without additional text just below the title. Does your copy has the small font text too? Thanks! MagicUnk 07:55, 28 January 2022 (EST)
It does. PeteYoung uploaded that scan, I assume from a copy he had at the time. In any case, the cover of my copy matches the scan. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 09:22, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Standardized fanzine title

Hi. I came across this edit which essentially drops the year from the publication name. While I have absolutely nothing against this I thought the standard convention was Title, Date or Title, Issue Year if date isn't known? I don't mind dropping the year when dealing with running issue numbers but wanted to check before I go back and do that to a recently uploaded magazine. Cheers /Lokal_Profil 14:17, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Yes, that's correct. The template that cover this is here. Specifically the bullet titled "Missing or variant dates". The preferred format is <Title>, <Date>. However, if there is no date, issue number can be substituted. There is no mention of a mix of issue number with part of a date. I do realize that there are a number of examples that don't follow these formats and I try to clean them up when I encounter them. I did look at the scan you provided and then went through the exercise of entering "Årg" in a translate app thinking perhaps it was an abbreviation for August. If Google Translate is to be believed, it is "Year" in English. In any case, that template is the reason for my correction. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:01, 27 January 2022 (EST)
Did the fanzine have separate issue numbers per year (starting with issue 1 every year) or was it using continuous numbering? I'd agree that we do not need the year if it is the latter but if the numbering restarts every year, the issue number is really "5-6, 1957" and not just "5-6". Annie 18:24, 27 January 2022 (EST)
According to this excerpt from his SFWA obituary, "Star SF Fanzine" was published between 1955 and 1957, so ... maybe? Hopefully Swedish archives have more details. Ahasuerus 19:35, 27 January 2022 (EST)
P.S. I see that the issue has been transient-verified. Hopefully it is still available and has enough contetx to resolve the issue. Ahasuerus 19:40, 27 January 2022 (EST)
Thanks for the reference. I'd missed that note at the end of the page. Based on this I'll revise some of my other titles. "Årg." is an abbreviation for "Årgång" which can rougly be translated into Year/Volume/Season depending on the context. So hear this is an indication that the issue was released in year 3 of the fanzine. The numbering seems to be continous, and not per year, per this fanzine inventory I found.
I removed my verified flag for this and one more. I have, for now, the scanned versions but not the paper version (so cannot guarantee some page isn't missing). Flags were the result of me getting confused sinc3 I was also entering some ebooks where the digital file is enough for the flag. /Lokal_Profil 07:00, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Eight (?) Tales

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?282264; I did an edit which replaced cover with Fantlab's since it's clearer, then noticed 1 of the stories was missing so I entered that, too; also, FantLab's photo of the front flap has what looks like a sticker with "$5.00" on it (covering the original $4.00?). So if you have any remarks about any of this... --Username 21:06, 27 January 2022 (EST)

I see that Hauck removed a title back in 2017, which may account for the missing story. Perhaps he thought is wasn't genre. In any case, I've approved your edit. The $4.00 price is correct. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:36, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Belknap Book

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?282324; I fixed the title since it's the same as the much later reprints, as can be seen on FantLab's title page. --Username 20:09, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Lazer Tag

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=lazer+tag&type=Series; You added 1 of these, but there's already 1 here with different series title, so it's up to you which you think is the right one so they can both be in the same series. --Username 09:52, 30 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks. "Laser Tag Adventure" is how it is listed both on the cover and in Worldcat. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:00, 30 January 2022 (EST)

Updating Amazon images

Per this Community Portal discussion: I got Jungle Tales of Tarzan. I can dig out one for Autour de la Lune, but it was a photograph in a library. Let me know if you cannot update this one. ../Doug H 23:07, 31 January 2022 (EST)

Updated. I just re-save the amazon image. However the wrinkles in the coating appear to match that of my copy. I recall that I used to upload scans to amazon before we had the ability to do it here, so that may actually be my copy. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:41, 1 February 2022 (EST)

Dupin

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?282168; fixed title and added better cover from FantLab. --Username 12:34, 7 February 2022 (EST)

Say Au R'voir

Yeah, I did check with PV: http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Chavey#Shiel_Title. As for the word "but", it's spelled upper and lower case all over ISFDB in titles, so I took a guess as to how it should be. This book is non-genre, anyway, and Shiel was a little girl lover, so I'm not too chuffed if this edit doesn't get accepted. --Username 10:03, 9 February 2022 (EST)

You may have notified Chavey of what you submitted. But as your note in the submission indicated, you were working from the cover title. You need to ask him whether the comma appears on the title page. The title on the cover is irrelevant unless there is no title page. You also need to wait for a response before submitting the edit. I would have held it, except for your change in capitalization. Please see this template under the "Case" bullet. I'm sure you are able to find instances where the capitalization is incorrect, but that isn't a reason to introduce new incorrect data. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:50, 9 February 2022 (EST)

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - Editor

Hi.

You are a PV for the Tiptree memorial collection, "Her Smoke Rose Up Forever", 1990 Arkham House edition. (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?16869)

In looking at my hardback copy (1990), I noted that the John Clute Introduction to that volume lists Jim Turner, publisher at Arkham House at that time, as the editor. I confirmed this against other sources such as the SF Encyclopedia.

I have submitted an edit to add this information to the Notes for the title record. As noted in the Template:PublicationFields:Author, editor should be added to the Notes for the publication and title records.

I will notify the other PV, MHutchins, as well. (Sorry, checking on MHutchins, his UserTalk page notes that he does not want to be bothered, I think)

Assuming that the contents of all editions of this are the same stories (I can see that the Introduction changes for Tachyon), I'll plan on updating all of the editions with Jim Turner as the editor in the Notes.

Let me know if there are any questions or concerns.

Thanks. Dave888 19:25, 11 February 2022 (EST)

I think that's mostly fine. I would recommend adding the note only where it is indicated in the book. I checked the Gollancz edition and it also has the Clute introduction. However the Audible Studios edition omits introductions, so I wouldn't add it there. You could check with the verifiers of the other editions. You could also add a note on the title record indicating Turner's editorship, though he is not always credited. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:38, 11 February 2022 (EST)

Fane

For Fane, would you object if I added the following before I PV?
Change page count to [8]+311
Add "First Timescape Books printing August, 1981" and the printer's key
Add essay title "Racial/Political Groupings on the Planet Fane" for page [7]
Thanks! Phil 10:04, 13 February 2022 (EST)

That's fine. Please proceed. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:38, 13 February 2022 (EST)

Lonesome Places

I added a brighter and better-framed cover to this, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?281784, but noticed 1 story's title is different; copyright and contents say "Sexton, Sexton, ON the Wall", not "IN". So can you check your copy? --Username 16:33, 13 February 2022 (EST)

It appears that the title was changed from its original magazine appearance. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 07:07, 14 February 2022 (EST)
Can I ask you a question which I've asked you before? Why, when I find brighter or cleaner or better-framed covers for books you PV'd, do you then upload to ISFDB's Wiki the inferior old image instead of the ones that I found? You said the last time I asked you, http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Rtrace/Archive14#Changing_Covers, that you don't like full covers; none of the 4 Derleth covers I just added were full covers. If you're going to suddenly decide to upload the covers could you upload the better ones instead? --Username 08:57, 14 February 2022 (EST)
There's recently been an effort to replace certain unstable Amazon covers. Rather than having go through this process in the future if other third party sites become unstable, I have a preference for images hosted by our site. The Cover for Mr. George is the same one that you linked to. I merely cropped it to remove the extraneous background. The image for Colonel Markesan had an odd color that did not match the actual jacket. I would have just uploaded the two fantlab images, except that they were both very small and I was able to find higher resolution images. I fail to see what your objections are to the new images. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:17, 14 February 2022 (EST)
Fine with me; you obviously put some care into doing these things so if you think the uploads are the best version possible then it's cool. --Username 19:39, 14 February 2022 (EST)

Hynd's Red Cat

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?70325; There's also this; same author, same publisher, but whether it's written exactly the same way on the title page is unknown. --Username 12:12, 17 February 2022 (EST)

It's definitely the same publisher and I've merged them. I've taken the shorter name as indicated on the archive of their website. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:44, 17 February 2022 (EST)

OCLC on 2 Oz books

Hello,

You copied the wrong OCLC ID on two of your verified (ISBN10 instead of OCLC): here and here. Thanks! Annie 13:39, 17 February 2022 (EST)

And this one needs its OCLC number ("v" looks like a copy/paste incident) and while you are there, can you also change "into" into "Into"? :) Annie 13:41, 17 February 2022 (EST)
Ahh, the dreaded cut and paste errors. All fixed. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:41, 17 February 2022 (EST)

The Nemesis of Terra

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?7534

Just noticed, cause I was about to add a translation, that this edition of The Nemesis of Terra should have 16 chapters instead of 15. Chapter 7 (only the title) is written twice. Is it worth a note? or should I just keep going, enjoying the rest of my day. --Spacecow 05:17, 20 February 2022 (EST)

It's an interesting point and I've no objection if you add a note. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:43, 22 February 2022 (EST)

The A-Z Guide to Babylon 5

Would you mind checking your copy of The A-Z Guide to Babylon 5 and see if the last printed page number is 309 with the single following unnumbered page being Appendix VI? That would make the page count 310, not 320+[8]. I don't think the unnumbered photo pages should be in the count either. Thanks! Phil 08:28, 22 February 2022 (EST)

I completely agree that the page count should be simply 310. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 20:51, 22 February 2022 (EST)

David Brin / Sundiver

I was just looking at the pub record for Sundiver and noticed that you have SVd it to Locus1. I'm a bit puzzled by this because it's a 1980 publication and the Locus Index does not start until 1984. Have you SVd this based on the Books Received column in the Locus print magazine? Does ISFDb policy permit this? Thanks Teallach 07:32, 24 February 2022 (EST)

No, that's actually from Locus1. When they list a reprint, they generally also list the first edition publisher and date. So, while there is not a full record for that edition, Locus1 gives "(Bantam 1980)" in each of the 5 editions listed in their 1984-1998 page. This is actually more data than what is in the Clute indexes which usually lists only the year, and sometimes country of publication. We wouldn't use Locus1 for items in the Books Received column. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 09:47, 24 February 2022 (EST)
I understand. Thank you for the explanation. Teallach 16:46, 24 February 2022 (EST)

Novelette Length

http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal#Word_Count; I wrote this recently; nobody responded, so I assume you didn't see it, but according to that site, it (barely) qualifies as a novelette. Also, I think that site could be very useful here for determining lengths; spread the word. --Username 10:11, 25 February 2022 (EST)

I'll approve it. However, I need to mention that you could have saved a lot of trouble had you just included your source for the length in the notes. As it is, you gave starting and ending pages that calculate to less than 20 pages, which is usually too short for a novelette. Further, you offered that it was "much longer than other stories" and "it's likely a novelette". The first phrase doesn't tell me whether it exceeds the boundary word count especially since several of the other stories in the magazine are vignettes which are quite short. The second phrase indicates that you were guessing. Given the ambiguity of those statements and after doing my own research that showed this as a short story in a secondary source, rejecting the submission is the only conclusion I could come to. You should not expect moderators to scour the message boards looking for posts. Especially if those posts don't even give the title that you are referencing. If you had the word count, adding that in the moderator notes would have been a better way to go. If you didn't have the word count, you should have waited until you had done more research before submitting the change. Even if you got the word count after submitting, you could have deleted your edit and re-issued it with a new Moderator note. We don't update records on what is "likely" especially when there is evidence to the contrary. I'm not sure about the site you mention, but pasting the text of the story into Microsoft Word shows a word count of 8,282 which is, in fact, a novelette. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:21, 25 February 2022 (EST)
Dude, I do hundreds of edits a week; if I trickled out a few now and then like many of the other editors here then I'd have the time to do what you suggested. I found that site after I made the edit, so I couldn't hop in my time machine and mention it in a moderator note; the message I wrote about wordcount.com was there for quite a while before you rejected the edit, so maybe mods should check the boards more often. I was told long ago by 1 of you that leaving a message on Community Portal is the best way to get it noticed. The time between approvals has been getting much longer lately, so even remembering an edit I did a few days earlier is challenging. Also, using Microsoft Word seems pointless since on the site I found typing a URL will almost instantly give you the word count (hence the name of the site) + other useful info. No need to further enrich the pockets of a woke joke like Bill Gates. --Username 18:45, 25 February 2022 (EST)

Dr. Lao

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?226509; I've been doing Lao edits since you've been doing some, and this book's intro is the same as the 1982 one (I merged them), as noted on copyright page I saw on eBay while looking for artist's credit; didn't see it, but since Robert Giusti is the only artist with that name on ISFDB and did many covers around this time I credited him using his full name even though signature just says GIUSTI. EDIT: There's a George Giusti but he only did 2 covers 10-15 years earlier and art style doesn't look similar so I'm still sticking with Robert; maybe someone will find a portfolio or something online to verify. I anticipate someone telling me to enter Giusti and variant it to his full name; we'll see. --Username 14:53, 26 February 2022 (EST)

Belknap's Rim

https://fantlab.ru/edition138664; FantLab has a photo with an $8.95 price (later printing?), unlike the $7.50 entered by you; you may want to check your copy. Also, the cover image is brighter than the one from Amazon , so replacing it may be OK, too. --Username 12:26, 27 February 2022 (EST)

If you look closely at the Fantlab photo, you'll note that the $8.95 price is a sticker. The list price of the book is $7.50, which is what is shown in my copy. With the exception of the their standard Lovecraft collections, Arkham House rarely did second printings. They did occasionally raise the price of their unsold stock, which would be consistent with a sticker. However for this Long title, neither Jaffery, nor Nielsen, nor Joshi, nor Chalker/Owings mention a price increase. I've uploaded a new scan from my copy. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 15:29, 27 February 2022 (EST)

Farewell to Earth: The Original Ending

Hello,

Is the introduction here really a short story? Thanks! Annie 18:15, 2 March 2022 (EST)

Similar question for the Timothy Standish's title in The Tortuga Hill Gang's Last Ride: The True Story - I suspect that may be interior art? Annie 18:17, 2 March 2022 (EST)
Fixed. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:27, 2 March 2022 (EST)

Seabury Quinn Collection

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?251238; Made some changes based on FantLab; 1 story has "Saint Bonnot" instead of "St. Bonnot" on contents page, so you may want to check story's title page. --Username 12:51, 3 March 2022 (EST)

Corrected. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:49, 3 March 2022 (EST)

It's amazing you knew what I was talking about since I somehow added a link to your page instead of the book's record. That's been corrected. --Username 19:53, 3 March 2022 (EST)

You gave me the name of the story which appears in two collections that I own. I just searched the edit queue and found your pending edit. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 20:51, 3 March 2022 (EST)QED.

Supernatural Horror in Literature

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?297456; Since you're surprisingly the only person who's made an edit for this major work since it was entered here more than 10 years ago I thought you'd like to know about this page, https://fantlab.ru/edition159198, which reveals that Lovecraft's name is spelled in full on the title page, the index is on a later page than what's entered here, the 1973 Dover ed. on Google Books says it replaced the 1945 Foreword by Derleth but the introduction is by Derleth here, the cover art is probably by someone well-known in Lovecraft circles but doesn't seem to be signed, etc. I added the cover and the FantLab link but I'm sure more can be entered. If I find out more I can enter it, too. --Username 22:07, 3 March 2022 (EST)

I took care of correcting the name. You could have done that, but it is a three edit process for each the ESSAY and the NONFICTION records. I could guess that the artwork is Utpatel, but we'd need better evidence to add a credit. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 07:18, 4 March 2022 (EST)

The Gate Number

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?341736; Just for my own curiosity, what's the latest rule for paging mags? I see you changed # from 160 to 164. --Username 00:04, 5 March 2022 (EST)

Magazines have a different rule for page count which includes the covers. See this section in the help pages. Since the numbering starts after the front cover, it is the same as the Fantastic Universe example. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 06:31, 5 March 2022 (EST)

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2019

I changed the title 'Haldstead IV' to Halstead IV in your verified pub The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2019 while entering the 2020 Rhysling Anthology. The anthology Acknowledgments, SFPA website, and FictionMags Index all show 'Halstead IV'. Does this agree with your copy? If not, I'll change it back and variant the title. Thanks, John Scifibones 22:20, 5 March 2022 (EST)

I verified the spelling and your change is correct. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 07:22, 6 March 2022 (EST)

Deadly Freeze

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2308613; I added SF-Encyclopedia's cover to your entry, but there's another entry years earlier with bad Amazon cover and wrong publisher but includes month and extra WorldCat ID. So you may want to delete older record and keep yours after adding those extras; SF-Encyclopedia also says Susan Neale did the cover for this and Bruce Carter's Buzzbugs, but I don't see a signature on either cover and there's no other sites I can see that mention her as the cover artist for Deadly Freeze and only AbeBooks for Buzzbugs, which says she designed the front panel of the jacket, which is kind of vague. --Username 16:04, 6 March 2022 (EST)

Figures of Earth

Would you please look at your copy of Figures of Earth and see if the title of the essay on page xxv is actually "A Foreword"? Does page xxiii show "A Foreword" with a Latin quote and a dedication to Sinclair Lewis instead of the title "A Preface" as shown in the current pub record? That's how my copy reads. I believe the same title problem likely exists in the unPVed Canadian pub that shares the same catalog ID. I propose to edit the "Preface" title record used only by those two pubs and then merge it with the correct title sic.

I also want to add notes "First U.S. Printing: November, 1969", "No printer's key.", and "Ballentine Books edition printed from the Storisende Edition". Then I'll PV. What do you think? Phil 12:14, 8 March 2022 (EST)

You are correct and my copy matches yours. However, you shouldn't need to edit the title of "A Preface". You can simply merge it with the existing "A Foreword" title. You'll have to do an advanced search to find them both in the same search so they can be merged, but it's a single edit that way. The other changes are fine. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:36, 8 March 2022 (EST)
Thanks. I appreciate learning the timesaving steps. Phil 22:17, 8 March 2022 (EST)

The Cream of the Jest

For The Cream of the Jest do you mind if I replace "Stated first edition" with "First Printing: September, 1971" and "No printer's key"? Thanks! Phil 12:35, 8 March 2022 (EST)

I have no objections. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:38, 8 March 2022 (EST)

Fata Morgana

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?287540; Added artist. --Username 11:06, 14 March 2022 (EDT)

Exiles at the Well of Souls

For Exiles at the Well of Souls, do you mind if I change the page count to xii+337, add title "About Time ..." on pg [xii], and import missing titles:
Detail of Northern Hemisphere (map) (Exiles at the Well of Souls) on pg ix
Section of Southern Hemisphere (map) (Exiles at the Well of Souls) on pg x
Appendix: Races Referred to in Exiles at the Well of Souls on pg 331
About the Author (Exiles at the Well of Souls) on pg 337
Thanks! Phil 07:51, 15 March 2022 (EDT)

I'm fine with all these additions, with one small change: I don't think it is necessary to put page xii within square brackets. I think this falls into the case of "Unnumbered pages within a range of numbered pages" in this help page. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 11:15, 15 March 2022 (EDT)

Niteblade

Ron, I'm entering all the issues of Niteblade, I saw you verified Niteblade, December 2011. The price for that issue was $7.50, thought you might want to add it. Source. I plan on using Niteblade as the title, do you see a problem with changing those titled 'Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine'? thanks John Scifibones 19:17, 15 March 2022 (EDT)

I've added the price and fixed the EDITOR record for that issue since it's the only one present for that year. I've no objections to your plan for the shortened name and adjusted the EDITOR record accordingly. I suspect that I picked up that issue on a freebie table at a convention. I've been known to do that solely for the purpose of being able to enter it here. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:41, 15 March 2022 (EDT)

The Return of Nathan Brazil

For The Return of Nathan Brazil, do you mind if I change the page count to ix+289+[2], add title "About the Author (The Return of Nathan Brazil)" on page [291], and add missing title:
Section of Southern Hemisphere (map) (The Return of Nathan Brazil) on page viii
Thanks! Phil 08:45, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

These all sound fine. I'll also take this opportunity to mention something I noticed with your edits to Exiles at the Well of Souls. For Roman numbered pages, it isn't necessary to add the piped sort page number (e.g. "ix|.09"). The software is smart enough to put Roman numbered pages in the correct spot. It may become necessary if there are bracketed or a mix of bracketed and unbracketed numbers as I'm not sure how they sort without experimenting. Regardless, adding the piped sorts, as you did, does no harm. Only letting you know that it's not necessary. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:22, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

Twilight at the Well of Souls

For Twilight at the Well of Souls: The Legacy of Nathan Brazil, do you mind if I change the page count to x+304+[1] and import missing title:
Section of Southern Hemisphere (map) (The Return of Nathan Brazil) on page viii
Thanks! Phil 08:55, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

These are fine too. Although, as I read this page, I think we can make the page count simply x+305. It's kind of an edge case since the unnumbered page is material after the novel, and that's not a scenario specifically detailed. So if you disagree, I won't insist and you can enter it as you propose. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:28, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

Sailors' Knots

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?418903; I added int. artist. --Username 11:04, 19 March 2022 (EDT)

Red Moon and Black Mountain

For Red Moon and Black Mountain, would you mind if I:
1. Change the title to "Red Moon and Black Mountain: The End of the House of Kendreth" to match the title page. That will likely mean an unmerge and variant sequence after approval since I can't tell what's on the title page of the earlier Unwin edition.
2. Change the page count to xvii+268 to account for the unnumbered pages that include the map on page [xvi] and [xvii].
3. Add title "Red Moon and Black Mountain: The End of the House of Kendreth (map)" by uncredited on page [xvi].
4. Replace note "Stated 1st printing. No number line." with notes "First Printing: March, 1971" and "No number line so first printing can be assumed."
Thanks! Phil 09:35, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

This all sounds fine except for #1 above. Go ahead and add the title to the publication record, but don't worry about unmerging. I don't think it's mentioned in the help pages, but when the only difference between publications is the presence or absence of a subtitle, we leave the title record without the subtitle and just add the subtitle to the publication records where present. I asked about this practice back in 2009 and the admittedly few responses agreed with the practice. I updated the second printing accordingly. Let me know when you've added the map, and I'll import into my copy. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:52, 20 March 2022 (EDT)
Actually we do have competing practices on subtitles currently in the DB - some works have them unmerged (and some editors work based on that rule), some have them merged and together (as per your description). We probably should have a R&S discussion to decide which direction we want to go into (I prefer unmerged and variants in this case for example - as we are a DB, making searches easier is always a good thing IMO and making a subtitle all but impossible to find on the title level does not appeal to me). 2009 was a long time ago -- and things had changed in the DB a lot since then. We need this kind of "a few old editors know that rule" things into the rules - one way or another. Just saying. :) Annie 20:51, 20 March 2022 (EDT)
Template:TitleFields:Title ad Template:PublicationFields:Title currently say:
  • Subtitles. If the title has a subtitle, enter it, with a colon and a space used to separate the title from the subtitle. For example, the 1986 edition of George MacDonald's "Lilith" has "Lilith" on the title page, and below that, in a smaller font, "A Romance". This should be entered as "Lilith: A Romance".
Checking the database, we find that Lilith is the main title and Lilith, A Romance [note the comma] is a variant title. Something is clearly wrong here.
I agree that we should have a Rules and Standards discussion to determine and then codify the current practices. I believe we normally drop "generic" subtitles like "A Novel", but I don't see it documented in Help. Ahasuerus 21:10, 20 March 2022 (EDT)
Yeah, the dropping of the generic "A Novel" and so on also needs to be codified as well -- not having these codified makes us not very new-user-friendly. In this case it is a regular subtitle - whose dropping on the title level while keeping on the publication level is not codified at all - although I know some editors do that... The comma in Lilith may be as shown on a title page -- if the fonts do not change, it may be a valid title for it. Annie 21:18, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

(<-) I'm still waiting to hear back from another active PV so I won't be making any changes until then - unless I can go ahead if the earliest active PV approves and I haven't heard from other, later active PVs? You should be aware that I also found the need to make the same title change for the SFBC pub. I have approval for that change from Willem H and am still hoping for a concurring timely response from Chavey.

After being told to unmerge and variant for several other titles, I have been consistently doing that so a definitive standard would be appreciated. Phil 22:39, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

I agree that having a discussion regarding generic subtitles would be a good thing. The help pages seem to be at odds with actual practice. However, that's not precisely the question at hand. The practice coming from the 2009 R&S discussion was that variant titles should not be created merely for the presence of a subtitle. My only concern about changing from the 2009 decision is that it will put more than 13 years of edits out of standards. These do not seem to appear in the cleanup report that I would expect ([1]). Given that the 2nd printing where the sub subtitle was just added does not appear, I would guess that the report lists titles (as opposed to publications) and the title presumably has already been ignored because it falls under the 2009 decision. If my supposition is correct, we would need to un-ignore the records in this report and then re-ignore those that are OK for other reasons. This would need to be done before we could determine the scope of the amount of work a change from the 2009 decision would create in order to conform to a new standard. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:07, 22 March 2022 (EDT)
The linked cleanup report looks for VT-alternate name mismatches and doesn't look at titles. For example, when it looked at Letter (Fantastic Adventures, March 1941): Letter from a Lady by Loretta A. Beasley, which is a VT of Letter (Fantastic Adventures, March 1941): Letter from a Lady by Loretta Adele Beasley, it noted that "Loretta A. Beasley" is not set up as an alternate name used by "Loretta Adele Beasley". Did you, by chance, have some other cleanup report in mind? Ahasuerus 09:55, 23 March 2022 (EDT)
Is this the report I was looking for? --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:07, 23 March 2022 (EDT)
That looks about right. Checking the database, I see 119 "ignored" records. I would be easy to "unignore" and reexamine them. Ahasuerus 10:18, 23 March 2022 (EDT)
P.S. One thing to keep in mind is that the cleanup report assumes that a title-pub pair is "OK" if the pub title contains the "title title" OR the "title title" contains the pub title. The logic also strips punctuation. Ahasuerus 12:52, 23 March 2022 (EDT)
I thought that 119 was too small. It seems that the report was designed with the 2009 decision in mind. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:49, 23 March 2022 (EDT)
Not really - more of a "find just the big discrepancies" report than a comprehensive one (the difference of punctuation had always required variants; this report ignores that as well). Possibly that initial implementation was done that way at least partially because of the huge number of publications with the series name as part of the title when the title records had been cleaned of it (and the job remained unfinished on the pubs level) or vice versa. As I mentioned - we need to have a R&S discussion and decide what we want to codify as the rule because at the moment we have both practices being used all over the place depending on who is handling. Annie 18:03, 23 March 2022 (EDT)
Luckily, I remember the decision making process which led to the current logic. At the time, an awful lot of publication records (and some title records) had their series name embedded into their titles plus, of course, there were subtitle mismatches. Due to manpower constraints, we wanted to clean up actual mismatches first, so we used "contains" as opposed to "equals" in the query logic.
After replacing "contains" with "equals" and rerunning the report, I get 10,030 hits. Removing "punctuation stripping" raises the number to 10,976. Some mismatches are due to lingering series names, e.g. "Battle Born (Dagger of the World Book 2)", but many are due to subtitles like "Tales of the Kingdom: 30th Anniversary Edition". The current logic also masks occasional typos, e.g. note the leading "3" in this pub's title.
I think we definitely need a Rules and Standards discussion about subtitles. If nothing else, we need to agree on and document the current standard. Ahasuerus 18:35, 23 March 2022 (EDT)

Ace D-13

Hi Ron, I was looking at the covers for Cry Plague! / The Judas Goat (Ace D-13), which is shown as verified by you. You cite the cover artist for Cry Plague!, and indeed I see "Marchetti" on the artwork. The flip-side is non-genre, so perhaps the cover artist would not usually be entered. But I noticed that there is a signature at the bottom left, stacked vertically in red lettering, which is difficult to read. However, I make it out to be "De Soto." I'm thinking this is probably Rafael De Soto, who as a well-known genre artist should probably be cited, assuming it is he. Can you read the name on your copy with any more certainty than I can on mine? All the best, Ldb001 01:46, 21 March 2022 (EDT)

Sorry, but even with reading glasses and a magnifying glass, I can't make out that signature. I've no objection if you are fairly certain that it is De Soto. Other editors may object because it is non-genre art, but I would not. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 07:22, 21 March 2022 (EDT)
I managed to make a high-res scan of the signature with some enhanced contrast. Despite the stippling pattern, I think it's convincing that it's "DeSoto" although there is what looks like a II after the name. I can't imagine what this is; sometimes he would put a two-digit date with his sig, but it doesn't appear to be that. All the best, Ldb001 12:00, 21 March 2022 (EDT)

D-13_signature.JPG

Prince of Annwn

My copy of [[2]] states "First Printing: November, 1974", not "First Edition: November 1974". Does yours? --Glenn 03:32, 22 March 2022 (EDT)

Mine agrees with yours. Feel free to correct it. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:38, 22 March 2022 (EDT)

Bill Johnson

I'm not sure how to report this, but since you updated Bill Johnson's page for his death, I thought I'd reach out to you. Heroes & Friends [3], the novel listed for Bill Johnson ([4]) was actually written by a different individual named Bill Johnson, not the Hugo Award-winning author. Shsilver

Thanks. I changed the other author to Bill Johnson (I). It's really just a matter of changing the author name on the one title record and two publication records for that one novel. Thanks for pointing it out. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:44, 23 March 2022 (EDT)
I did an edit for Dakota Dreamin', fixing a few dates so they match the book's date and adding a couple of catalog ID's. I also entered a new SF book, Combat Poets of Maya, from 2004 that is actually by the other Bill Johnson. Sf-Encyclopedia.com has both that book and the one mentioned above as by the late Johnson, so maybe a mod here can get in touch and ask them to remove them from his page. --Username 10:51, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

The Night People

Re: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?889672, all books with the maple leaf, and there are many, are still listed on ISFDB as by Pocket Books. Pocket Books (Canada) only has 2 Richard Rohmer books, because he really was a Canadian author who published in Canada. The logo in the upper corner of Exxoneration just has the standard kangaroo, no maple leaf. Publisher should be changed back to Pocket Books. --Username 10:46, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

I disagree. The maple leaf contains the words "Published in Canada". Whereas the publisher of the US as shown in Worldcat, lists only New York as a city. I've no doubt the two publishers are related, perhaps even with the same parent company. The fact that they share logos is immaterial. Unfortunately, the only data we can find about the Canadian publication is that cover scan. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:21, 24 March 2022 (EDT)
I'm confused. There are very many Pocket Books with that maple leaf on the cover (I replaced several John Russo novel covers recently because prior editors just uploaded whatever covers they found on Amazon without noticing they were Canadian) but none of them were entered here as (Canada). They are Pocket Books with slightly higher prices that have a "C" in front of them, and maybe a note saying "printed in Canada" if the editor chose to mention that. If you think every Pocket with a leaf on the cover should be (Canada) that's a big can of worms you're going to open, because it would mean not only changing dozens, maybe hundreds of records, but also needing editors to check every single Pocket publication from the 70's onward (when I think the leaf first appeared) to verify which covers are American and which are Canadian, since the wrong Night People cover was sitting there for a very long time without anyone noticing. Maybe this should be discussed on Community Portal. EDIT: While checking the Edit History I found out that I apparently am the one who entered the Canadian cover about a year ago! Mhhutchins entered the book way back in 2012, and I can only assume I replaced his cover because it wasn't very good but somehow missed the leaf, or maybe since this was fairly early in my editing days I didn't know the difference yet. So this whole discussion was inadvertently started by me making a mistake. Hooray for stupidity! --Username 19:11, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Edd Cartier

Hi, Ron. Checkout this Edd Cartier illustration in upcoming Heritage Auctions sale https://fineart.ha.com/itm/edd-cartier-american-1914-2008-stardust-probable-interior-illustration-ink-and-crayon-on-board-10-x-13-1-4-inches/a/8069-71201.s. I believe it's likely from the July 1952 'Astounding' you PV'd (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?57521). If you can verify that, I'd like to share the info with Heritage so they can include it in the artwork's provenance. Markwood 12:23, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Yes, it's on page 149, though with a different orientation. There's a scan of that issue available. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 12:30, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Lovecraft Letters

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?270245; Added link to https://archive.org/details/lovecraft-h.-p.-selected-letters-v-1934-1937-arkham-house-1976, and fixed slight error in preface #. --Username 15:44, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

The House of Souls

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?45877; I fixed the page count of your House of Souls PV, being off by 1 because of no number on last page, and noticed there's another edition here. It says omnibus unlike your PV which says collection and says "do not merge", but it's the same book. 5 different editors worked on it, none recently, but I have a feeling they should be merged. Also while checking this I found there's a 2014 Tartarus edition on ISFDB which says "do not combine" because editor (Anniemod) wasn't sure of the contents, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2640178, so that's another merging possibility. --Username 19:23, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Zlata Černá co-author of Tales of the Uncanny

Based on the edit history of this pub, I think you might have created/worked on this author record earlier this year?

I noticed on the today's birthday's section of the homepage that there were dupe entries for "V. Černý" and "Václav Černý", and when I went to clean that up, I found that all three authors have dupe entries: full names from an English collection (the aforementioned pub), and initial+surname from a story in German.

I've just merged the two Černá entries, making the full name the parent record, but when I went to copy the more detailed info from Z. Černá, I noticed there's a big discrepancy in the birthdate - 1932-10-07 for the former, versus 1905-00-00 for Zlata Černá. If you did work on that author record, any idea where the year might have come from? (The other author entry does have 2 external links, but neither work for me, so whether it is more correct or not, I dunno - but a very quick Google search on "Zlata Černá" does seem to back up the 1932 date.

Via the OCLC page linked for that pub, they also agree on 1932. There's also a Reginald3 reference, but I assume that's only useful if you have the physical volume?

Apologies in advance if this is nothing to do with you or you have no recollection of it ;-) ErsatzCulture 12:30, 26 March 2022 (EDT)

Moreover, I somehow got the feeling that this is really an anthology instead of a collection: OCLC describes it as 'Thirty-one tales of ghosts, monsters, evil spirits, and other manifestations of the supernatural from various parts of the world.' (I came to this thread also via the double birthday entry.) Christian Stonecreek 13:01, 26 March 2022 (EDT)
Yes, that's all from Reginald3. Unfortunately, it doesn't give as many biographical details as Reginald1 and 2). It gives the birth year as 1905 and lists no death year, so presumably they were still alive in 1992. Reginald also lists the book as a collection. He does classify anthologies separately. I don't know if Reginald's definitions of collections and anthologies are exactly the same as ours. However, until we can verify the contents, I'd recommend leaving it as Reginald lists it. As far as the birth date, we can go ahead and change it. I would recommend a note as to the source of the 1932 date and that Reginald3 lists it as 1905. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:33, 26 March 2022 (EDT)
Thanks - I've made all 3 "initial" authors variant to the full name entries, and made a parent variant title for the German story that uses the "initial" authors. Have added the note you suggested re. date of birth. Hopefully that's all that needs to/can be done on this for now. ErsatzCulture 14:42, 27 March 2022 (EDT)

333

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?283634; FantLab says 450 copies; does your copy say so? --Username 20:00, 27 March 2022 (EDT)

There us no colophon or limitation statement. Nor can I find anything by scanning the introductory essays. However, Chalker/Owings gives the same count for the paper edition. I'll add a note. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 07:14, 28 March 2022 (EDT)
There's a copy of Arno's edition, https://archive.org/details/333bibliographyo0000craw, which isn't linked on OL, in case you can find anything useful in it to enter here. --Username 13:34, 28 March 2022 (EDT)

Frontier Cthulhu

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?208093; Did a few things for this using Archive copy, including correcting page count which was off by 20+ pages. --Username 13:14, 2 April 2022 (EDT)

Cover scans

Hi, Ron. One of my primary verifications has been changed this year, your edition of 1980 Pocket Books Charmed Life [5]. If I understand the record in Image namespace, you provided a scan where we had none previously --probably by scanning a book only weeks ago. The image is at least satisfactory for my eye and brain, yet only 44KB. Looking around I see others routinely provide .jpg files with size 50-150KB. How do you produce them, and condense them if that is what occurs on a second step?

Trying the local public library self-serve flatbed scanner this week, and also two years ago with a different hardware brand, I get much-too-large files. What the library names "Standard", "High Resolution", and "Photo" quality --three settings that users cannot modify (self-serve by choice from fixed options), I have sizes such as 600-800, 1200-1600, and 6400KB. By eye, quality is no better than what other editors routinely provide here. --Pwendt|talk 19:16, 3 April 2022 (EDT)

Hi Pwendt
I use a couple of different methods for finding cover scans to upload. I don't recall specifically what I did for Charmed Life, but I may have taken either the Amazon image that we had previously, or I found another one by searching online. I then saved the image locally and re-uploaded. That seems consistent with ending up with an image of 44KB. If I'm unable do find a suitable image online, and if my own copy is in adequate condition, I do have a scanner at home. I tend to scan at a high quality and large image, but will then use IrfanView to crop the image and resize to a maximum of 600 pixels (usually height). I also use the RIOT plugin with IrfanView which allows me to set a maximum file size of 150kb. The tool is freeware as is the plugin. If you end up with a file from your library scanner that is too large, the tool will allow you to resize and compress to get things within our standards. I'm sure there are other products that do the same thing. This is just the one I use. Hope that helps. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:40, 3 April 2022 (EDT)
Pardon my intrusion, but the "Cover scans" caught my eye. It is even possible to use Windows Paint to rescale. I'd only recommend it for the odd image, it doesn't seem to do proportional scaling, just absolute. ../Doug H 22:36, 3 April 2022 (EDT)

Ship Who Sang

From the same page you linked: "The official date of conversion to decimal currency was Feb. 15, 1971"; this book was published in April 1971, after that date, so the pound price I entered is correct, and the decimal in note was also correct. Also, the Zelazny book from the same publisher was published in 1970 but has the pound price entered and the decimal price in the notes; that one actually needs fixing. --Username 12:51, 5 April 2022 (EDT)

It's still a little muddled as the source of the April 1971 is not documented and the format of the pre-decimal price lacks brackets as described in our template. I've started a discussion on the community portal to figure out what to do with this record. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:17, 5 April 2022 (EDT)

The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders

For The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders, would you mind if I replace "Stated 1st printing" with "First Printing: December, 1971" and "No printer's key" before I PV? Thanks! Phil 14:59, 8 April 2022 (EDT)

That's all fine. Thanks for asking. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:00, 8 April 2022 (EDT)

Her Majesty's Aberration

In Astounding Science Fiction, March 1948, "Her Majesty's Aberration" (page 126) was shown as credited to L. Ron Hubbard. I changed it to René Lafayette (one his alternate names) based on the Internet Archive scan. This issue was found by Sylvar. Letting you know as the unmerge will not show up in the changed primary verification list. -- JLaTondre (talk) 10:18, 9 April 2022 (EDT)

Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:20, 9 April 2022 (EDT)

Hy(-)Brasil

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?284523; I made changes to some dates and notes in an edit; also, I don't see a hyphen in Hy-Brasil on the title page, but there is everywhere else in the book, so I don't know if that warrants a title change. --Username 12:36, 11 April 2022 (EDT)

New Terrors

https://picclick.com/New-Terrors-Omnibus-313479482175.html; Title is Omnibus of New Terrors, followed by 2 pages of contents; they didn't use the individual titles of the original books here. The only place New Terrors Two appears is on the title page of the original 1980 anthology, as I entered in my edit. --Username 12:06, 12 April 2022 (EDT)

OK, I've approved it. This would have been useful information to include in the Note to Moderator. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:22, 12 April 2022 (EDT)
It would have been, except I didn't think to look for it until you asked me because omnibuses don't usually include separate title pages for the previously published books they contain, otherwise they would have called it New Terrors 1 and 2 instead of Omnibus. EDIT: This, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1008222, is the only ISFDB record that still says "2"; needs changing, too? --Username 18:42, 12 April 2022 (EDT)
Depends on how it is stated in the review. You should contact the active verifiers. It should be changed as "New Terrors Two". However, if it the review lists it as "New Terrors 2", then a note also needs to be added stating the discrepancy (see this help template. My experience differs from yours. Nearly all omnibuses that I've seen have title pages for each contained work. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:06, 12 April 2022 (EDT)

Aldiss / The Making of an Epic

I recently created a new pub for The Making of an Epic which you approved. I always check records I have edited/created after the sub has been processed to make sure everything looks ok and, in this case, all is not well. I entered "Brian Aldiss" in the Author field (that's how it appears in the pub) and I was expecting the ISFDb software to recognise that this is an alternate name for the canonical "Brian W. Aldiss" and link everything up correctly. But it hasn't; the author record for Brian W. Aldiss does not list the new pub. Furthermore, the author record Brian Aldiss only lists this new pub. This is alarmingly wrong as there are dozens of other pubs as by Brian Aldiss. I cannot figure out what has gone wrong. Can you look into this for me please? Thank you. Teallach 17:40, 12 April 2022 (EDT)

You were absolutely correct to enter the author as "Brian Aldiss" as it appears in the publication. Unfortunately, it is not an automatic process to link up the record you created to Aldiss' canonical name. This is a two step edit. For the second step, you need to navigate to the title record for the publication that you just created. You can get there by clicking on the link following "Nonfiction Title:" about mid-page (which will take you here). You can also get there by clicking on the title on the Brian Aldiss page. On the title page, you need to look for the Editing Tool on the left hand side titled "Make This Title a Variant". This will open up a page with two options on it. Option 1 is used when the parent title already exists, which is not the case here. Option 2 is what you want which will create a new parent title. The form is prepopulated with data from the existing record. You'll want to change Author 1 from "Brian Aldiss" to "Brian W. Aldiss" and then click the Create New Parent Title button. After that edit is approved, things will appear correctly. The book will be listed in the Brian W. Aldiss bibliography and it will show that it only appeared using the name Brian Aldiss. Please give it a try and let me know if I wasn't clear about a step, or if you have any other questions about the process. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:20, 12 April 2022 (EDT)
Ah, I understand. I am familiar with making variants for a different pub name but this is the first time I've come across a case like this where it's the same or new pub name but alternate author name. Useful to know; it's all part of the learning curve and I'll know what to do in similar future cases. I've submitted the edit. Thanks for your help and the explanation. Teallach 19:08, 12 April 2022 (EDT)
I've approved your edit. Looks good. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:12, 12 April 2022 (EDT)

Τζην Μαρτς < Gene March < Patrick Dearen, Al Kinney, Jr.

You passed over one of my Tuesday submissions, and I use it to review the matter of transitive Alternate name relations, vs Variant title relations, at ISFDB:Community Portal#Alternate of Alternate name; vs Variant of Variant title.

By the way, there I used a link to your User page. Do we have an arrangement that "pings" you when you are named with such a link?

Also by the way, I think there is a wiki device to target [ISFDB:Community Portal, item 173] but I don't know it. Do you? --Pwendt|talk 12:51, 15 April 2022 (EDT)

Yes I probably shouldn't have skipped that one. My concern at the time was that it looked like the edit would have no effect. We don't get many remove variant name edits, so I'm not as familiar with moderating that type of edit as others. I'm sorry that I didn't realize what was the edit was trying to do. At this point, it appears that Annie has taken care of things. The edit I skipped is no showing as invalid, so I'm going to "hard reject" it. If there is still a problem with the names you are trying to link, let me know and I'll try to help to get them sorted.
I'm unaware of anything that triggers a notice when a username is mentioned in the Wiki. I do get a notice when you post on my talk page, but not otherwise. I may catch it though as I have many pages in my watchlist including the Community Portal.
I think you did target item 173 correctly in your first paragraph. You also could have added a friendly name with a pipe i.e. "...Variant title|this discussion]]"
Thanks, and let me know if I can help further. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 17:50, 15 April 2022 (EDT)

Novacon 17 Special pub series

Hi, I've just been working on the contents of a recent-ish anthology of (mostly) stories previously published for Novacon, and in the process I noticed that there's a "Novacon 17 Special" pub series (of one pub) separate from the main "Novacon" pub series. This seems to be down to an edit you made last year, changing it from "Novacon" (assuming I'm interpreting the edit history correctly).

I don't have any direct familiarity with any of these Novacon pubs, but there's now a #17 gap in the series. The other gaps for #12 and #13 [*] are mentioned in the pub series note, so maybe there should be a similar mention of #17 if it's considered separate from the main pub series?

[ * There are also gaps for #41-49, but it looks like I'm going to be researching those as part of populating the content for the aforementioned anthology, at least in part...]

Thanks!

UPDATE: I see SFE has a complete (?) list, which does have #17 as part of that series, FWIW. ErsatzCulture 17:08, 16 April 2022 (EDT)

Sorry. I'm not completely certain why I changed it. It may have been because the series is listed with the full name, including number in Worldcat. Regardless, I've changed it back. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 08:02, 17 April 2022 (EDT)
No worries, thanks. ErsatzCulture 16:55, 17 April 2022 (EDT)

Greyfax Grimwald

For Greyfax Grimwald, would you mind if I import the title "Greyfax Grimwald (maps)" [6] for the maps that start on page 5? Thanks! Phil 08:28, 19 April 2022 (EDT)

I wouldn't mind at all. Please do. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 09:28, 19 April 2022 (EDT)

King Solomon's Mines; Allan Quatermain

Hi, Ron. I have submitted numerous Title Update for the H. Rider Haggard series. Some assign OMNIBUS or COLLECTION(*) to series Allan Quatermain without reporting the series numbers (the Contents field?).

Two of those, with Note to Moderator "9th of numerous" and "10th of numerous" include correction "Alan"=>"Allan" in the title. --both with Note to Moderator that "I intend to consult Rtrace".

  • Series numbers are 18, 15 (9th of numerous) and 15, 18.
Are you asking because the order of the novels differs between the two publications? If so, I wouldn't give it too much thought. We don't have the contents sorted in either publication, so the order in which they appear is not enforced. We could force them into the order that the titles appear on the cover, but we'd still end up with the two publications showing the titles in different orders.--Ron ~ RtraceTalk 22:02, 30 April 2022 (EDT)
  • The latter contains adapted texts.

Maybe the variant relation should be questioned.

Adaptations are a little tricky and the cover scan and the note about the publication containing adapted editions appears to have been added after the two titles were connected. Tuck, which was my source makes no mention of adaptation.--Ron ~ RtraceTalk 22:02, 30 April 2022 (EDT)

On the other hand, we have another OMNIBUS of the same series Contents #15, 18; with update in the queue from a couple hours ago as "6th of several". With its one publication PVerified.

  • Its title contains unspaced slash "/" where you use spaced " / ".

Front cover image shows division in two horizontal panels, bottom panel for the first of its contents and top panel for the second. --not bound back-to-back with two front covers.

This one definitely appears to be a duplicate of the one you marked "10th of numerous" above. The two publication records should be combined. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 22:02, 30 April 2022 (EDT)
  • (*) Where a Haggard COLLECTION contains a novel, we say, I ignored that issue. Do we permit both COLLECTION and OMNIBUS given one genuine novel in the contents?
I'm not sure that I understand this question. There is some leeway in the rules for classifying a book as a Collection when it contains a novel, especially if the other contents are otherwise uncollected stories. The ones being discussed above are clearly OMNIBUS publications. Is there a specific example that prompted this question? --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 22:02, 30 April 2022 (EDT)

This note is not ideally organized. On one count I have four questions (bullet points).
Now I must go spend the rest of the month eating and drinking. --Pwendt|talk 21:29, 30 April 2022 (EDT)

Answers inline above. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 22:02, 30 April 2022 (EDT)

Quick Question

Ron,There are multiple unsourced first publication citations in the submission queue, should I be approving them? I always note the source in mine. John Scifibones 08:47, 1 May 2022 (EDT)

Generally no. You can do your own research and approve after you've verified, but other moderators may question as to why you approved something. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:37, 1 May 2022 (EDT)

The Prophet of Akhran / excerpt

Any chance the 'Death's Gate' excerpt in [7] is actually 'Dragon Wing'? (I'm cloning a 7th printing). --Glenn 18:23, 6 May 2022 (EDT)

Arthurian romances

I'm considering cleaning up Chrétien de Troyes titles. He has five Arthurian romances, all in excess of 40K words. ( I used Word to count the number of words in each story from an epub on gutenburg). I believe that they should all be entered as novels, and then all of the variants need to be cleaned up to point to the 5 original Old French base titles. You've PVed a collection which would become an omnibus if I'm correct. I've also reach out Linquist for comments here. Any concerns/thoughts? Tom 11:46, 7 May 2022 (EDT)

Hi Tom
Actually, I only did a secondary verification of the collection. I did pose a question back when I entered that record, but didn't get much in the way of a response. The issue here is that the original works are poems in old French and the translations are usually done as prose. We have a policy to not change length due to translation (e.g. novella translated as a novelette) and to keep the length of the parent title. We don't have the original poems listed (there may be one). It may be worth re-posing the question more simply than I did i.e. How do we want to treat prose translations of poems? --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 07:31, 10 May 2022 (EDT)

Princess of All Lands

Changed page count of this Russell Kirk collection from 228 to 238 based on copy someone recently uploaded to Archive.org. --Username 12:31, 7 May 2022 (EDT)

The Tower on the Rift

For The Tower on the Rift, would it be OK to:
Add essay title "Glossary of Characters, Names and Places (The Tower on the Rift)" on page 643
Add essay title "Guide to Pronunciation (The Tower on the Rift)" on page [659]

Thanks! Phil 07:50, 8 May 2022 (EDT)