User talk:Biswas

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Important!

This editor is no longer actively participating and is unlikely to respond to messages left here.

If this user is the sole verifier of a publication record, please:

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Welcome!

Hello, Biswas, and welcome to the ISFDB Wiki! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

Please be careful in editing publications that have been primary verified by other editors. See Help:How to verify data#Making changes to verified pubs. But if you have a copy of an unverified publication, verifying it can be quite helpful. See Help:How to verify data for detailed information.

I hope you enjoy editing here! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will insert your name and the date. If you need help, check out the community portal, or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Mhhutchins 19:32, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Zahir

I have your submission wishing to add an issue of a magazine titled Zahir. Are all of the stories speculative fiction (sf, fantasy, horror), or is this a general fiction magazine? There are a few more problems as well with the submission, but those can be easily fixed once we've determined if the issue qualifies for inclusion in the database. Thanks. Mhhutchins

Through my research, I discovered this website, and it's apparent that it's a speculative fiction magazine. I accepted the submission, but are making these changes:
  1. Added "Winter 2005" to the title (to disambiguate different issues)
  2. Changed "trade paperback" to "tp", the standard entry here on the ISFDB
  3. Added "$" before the price to indicate US dollars (also ISFDB standard)
  4. Changed the dates of all of the contents to 2005, assuming these stories are original to this issue and that they would have the same date.
If you have any questions or comments about this record, you can post them here. Just select the "[edit]" function and an entry form will open for you. Add a colon (:) for each section to separate my comments from yours. Sign with four tildes (~~~~) and the system will automatically add your user name and date the entry. Any further information about ISFDB submissions can be found on the help pages which are linked about. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 18:18, 19 December 2010 (UTC)
I added the issues through 2007 from Locus information - see here. If you own more than just contributor's copies, please help us out with checking the data. BLongley 19:53, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

Entering magazine issues

When entering issues of magazines, please place the date of the issue in the title field so that the records of each issue can be distinguished from the others. For example, the two issues of Lost Worlds were both entered with the same title, so I changed the title of the first to Lost Worlds, December 1992 and the second to Lost Worlds, July 1994. If these are not monthly dated (let's say "Winter 1992" or "Issue #4"), please update the records. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:36, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Penny Dreadful

Hi. I don't know if you entered all of those other Penny Dreadful issues, but I've placed them into a series and merged the titles into year-based groups and have set up a basic Magazine:Penny_Dreadful page, linked from Magazines. Feel free to edit any/all. Thanks for contributing! --MartyD 12:24, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I've been adding those issues. I'm new here and didn't even know about series or year-based groups. But your edits look great!! I still have a few issues of this magazine to add. Will additional entries automatically show up in the series box? Thanks again! Biswas 19:35, 3 January 2011 (UTC)
Yes, they will eventually. The Title record (once the new issue addition has been approved) needs to be put into the "Penny Dreadful" series. But what we do for magazines is merge all of the year's individual titles into a single, year-wide title (as I have done with the entries you submitted so far). If you add an issue for a year not represented yet, once the addition is approved, edit the title (in this case, to be "Penny Dreadful - yyyy") and give it "Penny Dreadful" as the series. Then it will appear in the lists. I couldn't find a help entry, but Help:Entering_non-genre_magazines#Steps_to_take is a pretty good explanation (although ignore the "only SF content" parts -- a magazine for horror is a "genre" magazine, and we'd record all content). If you try it and need help, ask on the help desk or on any moderator's talk page. --MartyD 11:53, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Date of The Nocturnal Lyric

Was this issue dated in any way other than the year? Mhhutchins 00:38, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for catching that! Yes, the front cover says "Fall/Winter 2004." So I assume I should change the title to read "The Nocturnal Lyric, Fall/Winter, 2004". Is that correct? Biswas 02:04, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Untitled poem

In the case that a poem is untitled (as in this pub), it's a good idea to give the first line of the poem as in "Untitled ("There once was a man from Nantucket")". This makes sure that later untitled poems by the same author won't get merged accidentally. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:18, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

Will do. I only have the table of contents pages for some of these early issues, but I know the editor of this magazine and will ask him for the initial lines of untitled poems.Thanks! Biswas 01:51, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

The Iconoclast

I can find no evidence that this is a speculative fiction magazine. The little I was able to find online (a submissions guideline) indicates that it accepts "Avant-garde, Free Verse, Haiku, Light Verse, Traditional". Are the issues you've entered special sf issues of the title? Mhhutchins 21:26, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

I forgot to add: if this is determined not to be a genre title, we do accept the submission of records for non-genre magazines, but only the spec-fic portion of the contents should be entered into the database. Mhhutchins 21:29, 11 January 2011 (UTC)
The Iconoclast is an interesting magazine. Part traditional spec-fic (fantastic fiction and poetry), part spec-fic in the broader sense (pieces that "speculate" & ask "what if"). Rather hard to classify! I think this is Phil Wagner's intention, though--he's the editor of The Iconoclast--to push the boundaries of speculative fiction (hence the name "The Iconoclast"). It is definitely not a general literary magazine. Not sure where this leaves the magazine as far as the isfdb goes. Please advise. Thanks! Biswas 17:59, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
From your description, it's clearly a spec-fic magazine and will remain as entered. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:50, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Noting sources

When either updating current records or adding new pubs into the database, you should record the source for your data in the note field, unless you are working from a pub in hand and intend on doing a Primary Verification of the record. Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:55, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

These are all my personal copies. Should I say that in the Notes section? Biswas 15:03, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Adventures of Maqroll

The price given for this pub appears to be rather high for a "pb" (mass market paperback). Could it be a trade paperback (entered as "tp"). Same thing with this pub. And just to double check: are you certain that these works qualify for entry into the database? I could find no source that overtly pointed out any spec-fic content. Most just indicate adventures and travels on sea and land. Here is a list of work is allowed into the database. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:04, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for catching this! Yes, these are all trade paperbacks. I've been entering magazines and forgot about the pb/tp distinction for novels. I'll correct. Biswas 15:07, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Alvaro Mutis is considered a magical realist. He is a contemporary of Gabriel García Márquez. Maqroll travels the world having adventures, most of which are magical in nature; the writing style is magical realism. Biswas 15:09, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

The Tartar Steppe

Again, I could find nothing spec-fic about this title. Even Amazon, who is very liberal about categorizing anything close as fantasy. Mhhutchins 02:09, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

I checked OCLC and they gave an ISBN 0879239921 and 21cm size, which would make it "tp" instead of "pb". Is this the same as your copy? Mhhutchins 02:13, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
Yes, it is the same as my copy. I'll correct to tp. Thanks. Biswas 15:11, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Buzzati is considered a magical realist by many, a fabulist by others (he also wrote science fiction and fantasy.) The Tartar Steppe is his most famous work. In style and tone it is often compared to Kafka's The Castle and the resemblance is almost eerie! For more info on Buzzati see this website Biswas 15:22, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Dreams & Nightmares, #57, 2000

There are duplicate records for this issue. One will have to be deleted and all of the content records will have to be merged. I've already started merging the content records. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:12, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Dreams & Nightmares, #72, 2005

Might the author of "Lust Sulks: A Sin-quain" actually be "Marcie Lynn Tentchoff"? BLongley 18:32, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that was a typo. I will fix. Biswas 21:30, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for checking - we rarely know whether the typo is in the publication or from the editor. BTW, thanks for taking on such a big project - it's not one I'd ever get round to. BLongley 23:30, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Penny Dreadful

I see you are adding notes about prior publication of entries. Many of these would be better covered by merging the titles with the existing entry. Use the "Check for Duplicate Titles" on the authors and that should show you where we have the titles already. If we don't, then it might show us where we're missing earlier publications and we can hunt them down. BLongley 18:41, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Dreams & Nightmares page count

The ISFDB standard for magazine entry ask that the covers be counted as well, so it's not likely that a magazine would have an odd number of pages. Many of the issues of this title give the page count as 19. Could you be using another method other than the standard to arrive at this figure? Thanks for looking. Mhhutchins 17:46, 28 October 2012 (UTC) 

       Wasn't counting the cover so it should be 20 pages. I'll fix. Thanks for catching this. Biswas 15:39, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Aoife's Kiss, December 2012

Hello! Since we usually don't include graphic novels i tranformed the REVIEW of Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire into an ESSAY titled Review of the graphic novel Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire (as review it wouldn't have a title to automatically connect to, so it doesn't make sense to include it as a review: this is ISFDB standard practice). Thanks, Stonecreek 19:53, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Dreams & Nightmares #94

I accepted the submission to add this record, but the publication date may have been mistakenly formatted. The system automatically defaulted to "0000" meaning "unknown". I corrected it to "2013-00-00" based on the title field, but if you know the actual month of publication please update the record. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:27, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Dreams & Nightmares, September 2012

I have your edit to change the title of Dreams & Nightmares, September 2012 to "Dreams & Nightmares, #93, 2012" on hold. This publication has been primary verified. When editing a primary verified publication, you need to notify the primary verifier (in this case User:Rtrace) as the verification states they have compared the current entry to the actual publication (doesn't mean they don't make mistakes). Please post your suggested change at Rtrace's talk page. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 00:53, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

The Irreal Reader

I have your submission add a publication of this title, and will accept it. There are several areas which will need to be fixed, and I'll do that for it. The authors' names should be given using standard capitalization rules. They should not be given in all caps, as that is a book designer's choice, not theirs. Also, several of the pieces appear to be excepts, which should be entered as just SHORTFICTION without a length designation, because they're not really short stories, regardless of their length. There are also a couple of content titles which were repeated. I'll remove those from the publication and delete them from the database. Also the review should just give the title of the book under review, not the title of the review. I'll fix that as well. Please keep these in mind when making future submissions. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 23:15, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

One last thing (I hope): you should give a space between initials, so "G.S. Evans" should have been entered as "G. S. Evans". Mhhutchins 23:16, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Dream International Quarterly, #29

Even though it's not been primary verified, I'm assuming you entered the data for this record. I just accepted a submission from a new editor changing the author credit of the poem on page 49, Untitled ("The moon"), from Debra Anne Chapman to Lorraine Crouch. Was I correct to do so? Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 18:09, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Dreams & Nightmares, #96, 2013

I have accepted an edit to Dreams & Nightmares, #96, 2013 changing the title of the poem on page 8 from "... Pines: ..." to "... Opines: ...". This is consistent with the FictionMags Index. If you return, please double check this. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 21:20, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

A Betrayal and Other Stories

Hello, and thanks for adding this item! However, I changed the format to tp, referring to the sizes stated at amazon. I also added some items, but stopped in the middle, because it occurred to me that some of them might actually be poems or the length (short story, novelette) were not known by me. You are invited to correct any mistakes and add the remaining pieces. Thanks, Stonecreek 15:08, 13 June 2018 (EDT)

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