User talk:Mjparker0

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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:

  • post only notices on the user's talk page concerning the addition of images and notes
  • post inquiries regarding any other changes to the verified record at the Moderator noticeboard

Otherwise, please post notices and inquiries only on the talk pages of the other primary verifiers.

Welcome!

Hello, Mjparker0, 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 21:19, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Naming uploaded images

Thanks for the recent upload for the cover of A Stone in Heaven. Because a title can be reprinted many times, and with different cover art, it's a good idea to select a unique name when uploading images to the ISFDB wiki to avoid duplicates in filenames. It's become standard practice among most image file uploaders to use the tag of a publication, which is a unique letter-number combination that the system assigns to all pubs. (This may not be pointed out in the upload guidelines as this is a relatively recent feature of the ISFDB wiki.) Using the tag will guarantee that there will not be a conflict in filenames. Again thanks for your contributions and I hope you continue to help build the database. MHHutchins 21:27, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

If uploading an image before the publication has been entered, a name of Title-Artist-Year can also serve the purpose of uniqueness. -DES Talk 21:49, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Uploaded images

I see you have uploaded several images recently. Thank you. Please do edit the image pages to add one of the Image License Tags, most probably {{Cover Image Data}} or {{CID3}} to each of the images you have uploaded. See Help:How to upload images to the ISFDB wiki for more detail.

Here are links to your recent images:

When using templates, the angle brackets ("<" and ">") should be ignored (not entered into the formula) as they're only there to indicate what goes between the bars ("|") and brackets ("{" and "}"). Otherwise the links will not work. MHHutchins 22:57, 7 September 2009 (UTC)
I have updated the template documentation to make this clearer. -DES Talk 14:56, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Entering British prices

I accepted your submission adding this pub but had to convert your entry of "60p" to "£0.60" based on ISFDB standards. (See this help page.) Thanks. MHHutchins 22:34, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

(The) Guardians of Time

I believe your submission adding the Ballantine first edition of this title is already in the database at this record. The only difference is the title on your submission is The Guardians of Time which is a variant of this title. Are you certain that the 1960 Ballantine edition had a "The" in the title? Thanks. MHHutchins 22:39, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

You're right - it is the same book. Not sure how I missed it. How do I delete the submission, or is that something you take care of? User:Mjparker0
It was probably missed because there was a latter edition published as The Guardians of Time. If you go to that title record, you won't see the Ballantine edition, because it was published as Guardians of Time. The first record is a variant so it will show only those publications with that title. The second record here is the parent so it will list all publications regardless of how they were titled or who they were credited to. Each variation in title or author credit is recorded as a variant. You don't have to delete the record, because the submission wasn't accepted. It was rejected.
BTW, you should use colons to indent your response in order to offset it from the previous comment. Each colon adds another indent. Also end each comment with four tildes (~~~~) which the system will automatically convert into your user name and time/date the comment. MHHutchins 14:20, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
See Help:Wiki Conventions for more details on wiki editing norms here. -DES Talk 15:07, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Easton edition of Infinity's Shore

I'm holding your submission updating this pub because you give Alan Clark credit as the cover artist. Does the publication explicitly credit him as the cover artist? Most Easton Press editions only credit the interior artist (for the frontispiece or illustrations), but not the designer of the cover. You can respond on this, your user talk page, by using standard Wiki editing procedures. Click on the edit link for the comment you wish to respond to, enter your response, and save page. Thanks. MHHutchins 22:44, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

You're correct. The artist listed is for the internal illustrations. How do I enter the internal artist instead of the cover artist. Easton Press didn't list who the cover artist was. User:Mjparker0
You can add interior art by clicking on "Add Title" under the Content section of the pub edit page. It will open a set of fields for a new content record. (DO NOT OVERWRITE any existing content records.) The first field is for the page on which the content appears. If the page is unnumbered you can interpolate the number by counting backward from a numbered page. (Or leave blank.) The title of the interior art is usually the same as the work which it illustrates, in this case, "Infinity's Shore". Leave the date field blank and the system will automatically date it the same date that's in the pub's header field. In the Entry Type field there's a dropdown menu where you'll choose INTERIORART. Leave the length field blank. In the Author1 field enter the artist's name. If there's two artists (for the same work) click "Add Author" and another field will appear for the name. If there's more artwork throughout the book you can add individual records for each piece, but disambiguate each work by adding [2], [3], etc after the titles. (See this book for example.) Recording each piece is not required, but it should be done if different artists have separate pieces that illustrate the same work. All of this is spelled out in more detail on this help page. MHHutchins 14:38, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
I accepted your submission in order to get the cover artwork in the record. You'll have to update the record to remove the cover art credit. Another thing: these books do not have a printed price because Easton will occasionally change the price. If you enter any information that is not in the actual book itself you should record in the note field the source of your information. If you paid $47.00 for the book note the date of the purchase (and that the price is not printed in the book.) Thanks. MHHutchins 14:54, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
A question or two before I accept the new update for this pub. You want to change the date to 1996-01-01. What is the source of the date? Easton Press ordinarily only copyrights their publications, and usually doesn't give a publication date. The Bantam Spectra (first trade edition) was published in December 1996, and Easton has a habit of lagging a month or two behind the trade edition. If you purchased it in December 1996 (according to your notes) then it's valid to give 1996-12-00 as the publication date if you were a subscriber to the series and received each volume as it was published. January 1 dates are usually suspect because some websites (like Amazon) use it as a default date when the month of publication isn't known.
Also, you added two interiorart content records for works by Alan M. Clark and Kevin Lenagh. The extension [2] is only necessary if there are multiple works by the same artist illustrating the same work. If two (or more) artists are illustrating the work, you can just use the title of the work. I'm sorry I didn't make that clear in my explanation about interiorart. You give the Clark record as page 0. If this is a frontispiece on an unnumbered page, you can just leave it blank. Recording it as Page 0 might raise some eyebrows. Thanks. MHHutchins 23:31, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Easton press edition of Brightness Reef

Since we already had Brightness Reef on record, the better way to record this would have been to navigate to the title record, and click "Add publication to this title". However, all is not lost. The newly created title can be merged. See Help: How to merge titles for details. I am going to do the merge this time, but will ask you to do it yourself if a merge situation comes up again (and they are common). A likely case where a merge is needed is if an anthology or collection is entered, where some or all of the contents are already on file. Then the newly created records must be merged with the existing ones.

Thanks for your contributions. -DES Talk 22:05, 8 September 2009 (UTC)


I have now approved and merged the record, and the result is here. Please check that it is complete and correct. Please consider verifying it if it is complete and correct, and you are workign from a physical copy. See Help: How to verify data for more details. -DES Talk 22:09, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Image:SFTD1991.jpg and image templates

When using an image license template, please do not retain the angle brackets from the template skeletons, as you did when uploading Image:SFTD1991.jpg.

You gave this as:

{{Cover Image Data3
|Id=<SFTD1991>
|Artist=<John Harris>
|Title=<Speaker for the Dead>
}}

While it should be:

{{Cover Image Data3
|Id=SFTD1991
|Artist=John Harris
|Title=Speaker for the Dead
}}

or even

{{CID3|SFTD1991|John Harris|Speaker for the Dead}}

I am sorry that the documentation was unclear on this point. i have now added a statement to the tempalte documentation that I hope makes this clearer. -DES Talk 23:16, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Recent cover additions

I have approved several recent edits of yours adding cover images to various publications. When such publications are have been primary verified, please remember to post a note on the verifier's talk page (or on his or her special verifications page if s/he has one) letting the verifier know of the newly added cover.

Also, when the cover artist is known, please consider using {{Cover Image Data3}} (or its shorthand form {{C3}}) in place of {{Cover Image Data2}} to automatically link the image into an artist category.

Thank you. -DES Talk 16:35, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

De Camp's The Tritonian Ring

You made a submission changing this pub from a collection to a novel. Is there any indication (table of contents, chapter headings, etc) in the book that there are four different stories making up the book? This could be a fix-up and the original stories may have been revised (even slightly) in order to create a novel. If there's no sign that it's a collection, there's more work that has to be done to clean-up the pub (and all the other publications of the title too). I'll hold the submission until I hear back from you. Thanks. MHHutchins 16:54, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I double-checked. There are no table of contents and there's nothing in the content itself to indicated a collection - just chapter titles that don't match any of the stories listed. MikeP 18:35, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
This may be just the novel of the same name without the other stories. Let me do a little more research. Thanks. MHHutchins 18:40, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
According to Tuck, the 1968 Paperback Library edition printed the novel only. Your 1971 PL edition has the same number of pages, so it must have the same contents. I accepted your submission, removed the other stories, and unmerged its title record from the collection, merging it with the novel's title record. Thanks. MHHutchins 18:53, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The Tower of Zanid

You submitted an edit to The Tower of Zanid to change the date to "1963-02-00" and replace the note "Later printing, without publication date or printing specified." with "Title Pages lists the title as "The Tower of Zanid" while the cover and spine list the title as "Tower of Zanid" Title Page also lists the Printing History as: Bouregy edition published September, 1958 Airmont edition published February, 1963"

Since the publication has been primary verified by User:Willem H., cahnges such as this should be checked with him. It may well be that your printing is different from his -- that there was a printing with no publication date, and a different printing with a stated February, 1963 date. In that case you should clone the existing publication and then change the date and note on the clone.

I have left a note on Willem H.'s talk page about this. Fell free to add any comments you have, here or there. I am holding this submisison at least until i hear from Willem H. or you or both. -DES Talk 17:14, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

User:Willem H. confirms that his printing had no publication date, and should not be changed. He suggests that your copy my be this earlier printing. What is the cover price on your copy? -DES Talk 22:52, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The cover price is $0.060 (as shown in the cover picture I uploaded) and the catalog number on the spine is SF2. I'm not sure why Willem's copy doesn't have the printing date on the back of the title page and mine does. I can scan it and upload it if you think it would help figure out what's going on. MikeP 15:01, 12 September 2009 (UTC)
One more thing - there is a printing code at the bottom of page 128 that says "5-73"MikeP 15:05, 12 September 2009 (UTC)
Please check this discussion for my response (and final solution) to the problem. My edit has been accepted, and the publication date is now May 1973. By the way, thanks for the coverscan, and indirectly for bringing this to my attention. I learned something from it. Willem H. 16:07, 12 September 2009 (UTC)
I am rejecting your edit as per the above comment, but your coverscan is vein used and your information did help improve the db records. if you think you have a printing that differes from the ones on file, feel free to enter a new publication of this title.Using the clone tool is probably the easiest way to do this. -DES Talk 21:03, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Changing verified pubs

Please read this section on the verifying pubs page to see what to do when making changes to verified pubs. I see that another editor has already mentioned this but it made have slipped your attention. Below the data information on each publication record there is a section called Verification Status. If there is a name in the first line ("Primary") that means this publication has been verified by this editor. It is a courtesy to notify that person if you plan to make changes. If the change is cosmetic (adding a cover scan, or additional notes) you can submit the change and then notify the verifier, some of whom have talk pages designation for such a purpose. If it is a more substantial change (any of the data fields) then you must bring the differences up to the verifier before you making the submission. Clicking on the person's name on the Verification Status list will lead you to their User page. Then click on the "Discussion" tab (if you're using the default skin it should be the first tab to the right of "User Page".) When you're on the discussion page click the "+" tab which will open up an edit window for your questions or comments. For further help on Wiki communicating go here. Thanks for your contributions. MHHutchins 23:56, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

You recently added a cover image to the verified publication Flying Dutch. In such cases please do send a note to the verifier, in this case User:Mhhutchins. There is a link to the verifier's user page in the verification section below the data for the publication, to make sending such a note easier. -DES Talk 17:35, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

The Door Into Summer

I have your submission which wants to change the catalog number of this publication and add a cover scan. (This is a verified publication and the verifier should be notified that you're adding the scan. See above.) You want to drop the number sign ("#") in front of the catalog number. We know that the publication itself doesn't print the sign. But looking through the database you'll find this symbol used on all publications that don't have ISBNs, but do have catalog numbers. The help page for entering pubs states "If there is no ISBN specified..., then enter the catalog ID provided by the publisher and prefix it with # as in #UQ1064." This symbol lets the system (and user) know that this isn't a malformed ISBN, which is the system default for the field. I'm going to accept the submission in order to get the scan into the record, but I'll re-edit it to place the "#" into the catalog number. Thanks. MHHutchins 00:04, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Currency entry

Please use the dollar sign ("$") before all prices that are in dollars. Thanks. MHHutchins 15:58, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Heinlein's The Star Beast

You added an image to this record noting that it is from the September 1984 Eighth printing. I noticed that the prices don't match. In fact, the cover scan shows $2.25 as the price and this 1983 record is $2.95. It's hard to believe that the price went down. Perhaps it's better to create a new record for the 1984 edition which I assume you used to scan the cover of. Thanks. MHHutchins 16:53, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

My bad. There was no price in the record and I typed it in wrong MikeP 17:14, 19 September 2009 (UTC)
I'm confused. This record is dated 1983-08-12. Are you updating this record from your copy which is dated September 1984? Or do you think this is the same printing? Again, it would probably be better if you create a whole new record based on the book you have in hand. MHHutchins 17:34, 19 September 2009 (UTC)
I updated the original record since it has the same ISBN as my copy. If you think a subsequent edition deserves it's own record, I'll be glad to create one. The original record had only the ISBN and publish date - no price, no artist, no cover, no edition information. Not sure where the info came from - nothing is credited. - MikeP 15:35, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
Publishers often continue using the same ISBN when reprinting. If you notice that the dates are different it is best to create a new record. Changing the data to match your book only overwrites the previous info which may have been for another printing. From the way you describe the record as you first encountered it, it was probably a stub record that someone created based on secondary sources and was unable to complete the fields. It's possible that Ballantine had printings of this title in both 1983 and 1984. But at this point, it's best to go ahead and change the date to match your copy, and then do a Primary Verification so that if the 1983 printing pops up, someone will know where to ask questions. Thanks. MHHutchins 15:57, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Shortcut template for images

I edited the template you placed on this image from {{Cover Image Data2|Id=BKTG05930 |Title=Time for the Stars}} to {{C3|BKTG05930|Ondre Pettingill|Time for the Stars}}. Notice that it has almost the same number of characters but provides more information. Adding the cover artist to the image helps to populate the artist's wiki page linking all of his credits. Use this template {{C3|TAG|ARTIST|TITLE}} if the artist is credited. Use this template {{C|TAG|TITLE}} if the artist is not credited. Of course, replace TAG, ARTIST, and TITLE with the actual data.

And again, you must notify verifiers when you update verified pubs. Communication among editors can't be stressed enough. To avoid the chaos of every editor doing their own thing, we have to maintain a certain level of standards. They don't seem to be too difficult to follow, but if you feel they are, please let us know. We're open to listening to all points of view. That's what I mean about communication. The database is built by the voluntary efforts of people like you (and me), and your contributions are much appreciated. Thanks. MHHutchins 18:10, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Easton Press Stranger in a Strange Land

You submitted an edit to add a cover image and a price to an Easton Press edition of Stranger in a Strange Land. But there is no currency symbol on the price. What currency is this price of "42.25" in? I have the submission on hold pending your response. -DES Talk 19:32, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Sorry - it's $42.25, which what I paid for it back when I had a subscription to the Easton Press "Masters of Science Fiction" series. MikeP 15:34, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
Remember what we talked about in a previous post: if the price is not printed in the book (Easton's aren't) you should provide the source of your info in the notes field. Thanks. MHHutchins 15:59, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
I have approved the edit, and added the dollar sign and a note on the source of the price. Please check the result and correct or verify it if you would. Thank you. -DES Talk 17:22, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Images

Greetings! You left a note for me, Bluesman, about adding an image to a Heinlein pub. The template you used was {{Cover Image Data2 |Id=BKTG05899 |Title=The Puppet Masters}}. I left off the brackets so it would show properly. There are shortcuts to this that involve less typing and do exactly the same thing. "C" by itself (no quote marks) = Cover Image Data2; the tag can be put in without needing "Id=", same for the title. The short version would be {{C|BKTG05899|The Puppet Masters}} . Less typing. Also, since the artist is known, that can be added as well. C becomes C3 and the artist's name goes between the tag and the title. Thus {{C3|BKTG05899|Barclay Shaw|The Puppet Masters}}. This same template can be used for multiple artists as well. The C becomes C3-2 for two artists and C3-3 or -4 for three or four artists. Thus {{C3-2|BKTG05899|Barclay Shaw|Mjparker|The Puppet Masters or {{C3-3|BKTG05899|Barclay Shaw|Mjparker|Bluesman|The Puppet Masters}} and so on. Just an FYI. Cheers! ~Bill, --Bluesman 15:40, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Please note, the opening double curly braces {{ and closing double curly braces }} must be used around all template calls for the to work -- that is how the software knows that something is a template call. ({{Cover Image Data2}}, {{C}}, and {{C3}} are all templates.) I have edited Bluesman's note above to show the braces. Please be sure to use them when tagging any images in future. -DES Talk 17:08, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Personalization in notes

I accepted your submission adding an image and notes to Common Threads, but have a suggestion to make. When using "I" in notes you should always identify yourself so that users will know who wrote the note. Just add your user name to the notes. Even better, if you plan on verifying the pub, the notes should state "No dust jacket, ISBN or price on the verified copy, which was priced at $60 in 1995 when ordering from Blue Moon Books directly." I wonder if perhaps you have a limited edition, because the price currently for the record is the same shown in the Locus database. MHHutchins 16:49, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Image:CMMNTHRDS1995.jpg

You recently uploaded Image:CMMNTHRDS1995.jpg, but it seems to be completely black, with no picture. Perhaps there was an error in scanning or in choosing which image file to upload.

Also, I corrected the tag by adding the needed opening and closing brackets. please see my comments in #Images, above. Thank you. -DES Talk 17:27, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

The book cover is black, with no dust jacket. Just the title, author and four symbols down the right side can be made out - MikeP 22:47, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
I see. If you look at the page, you will see that on the wiki the title, author and symbols are not very visible. I tried downloading and enhancing, but not to much effect. You might want to try re-scanning with different brightness and/or contrast settings, and perhaps a higher quality factor on the JPEG options. Up to you, of course. -DES Talk 23:14, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Held submissions for notification of changes to verified pubs

Submissions to add images to the following pub records are being held until you notify the verifier: Wild Country, A Deeper Sea, River of Dust. I went ahead and approved the submissions adding images to my verified pubs. If you are in a position to do a Primary 2 verification on any of these pubs, I will accept the submission without the notification to the other verifier. Please read How to verify data. Thanks for your cooperation. MHHutchins 03:21, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Sorry about the confusion. I hope you've had a chance to read my email. MHHutchins 01:53, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
I did read your email. I'll send the notifiers throught the ISFDB wiki in the future MikeP 18:06, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

semi-automated cover image uploads

I notice that you have been using the emi-automated cover image upload feature. I hope this makes uploading cover images easier.

However, you still need to edit the publication record after you upload the image, and enter the image URL, just as we used to before the semi-automated upload feature was made available. otherwise the uploaded image is not actually displayed on the pub record.

There seem to be 8 images you uploaded that need this step. To fix them:

  1. Open the image wiki page (from the list below)
  2. Click on the link just below the image, or the image itself, to go to the image file page (displays only the image, not the description)
  3. Copy the URL (address) to the clipboard
  4. Click the back button
  5. Click on the link to the pub record in the Description line (first line of the "Fair Use Image Data")
  6. Click on "Edit this Pub"
  7. Paste into the "Image URL:" field.
  8. Click the "Submit Data" button.

The images that need attention seem to be:

In future, when uploading a cover image via the "Upload cover scan" link from a publication, after the upload is complete, you must follow steps 2-8 above, except that if you have kept the publication record open in another tab or window, you can skip steps 4 and 5, simply switching to the proper browser window or tab.

I hope this is helpful. Please indicate if this outline is clear. -DES Talk 22:29, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

pretty clear, now that I know it's "semi-automated" and not "automated". I'll spend some time today doing cleanup. Thanks! -- MikeP 14:28, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
You're entering the URL of the image the page is on, rather than the URL of the image. E.g. use "http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/f/f7/BSTMSTR1967.jpg" instead of "http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Image:BSTMSTR1967.jpg". BLongley 14:42, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
Sorry - it's early here. I still need to get some coffee. I'll cleanup my cleanup;^) -- MikeP 14:46, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
It's OK, I've done your existing submissions for you, just remember for future ones. Thanks for editing. BLongley 14:50, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Star Guard and image sources

On this pub of Star Guard by Norton, you replaced an amazon image by an image uploaded to the ISFDB, which is good. However, You retained the note "The cover image is from Amazon ISBN 0441075991", while the image page Image:STRGRD1966.jpg, has the default source indication "Source: Scanned by User:Mjparker0". If you in fact scanned a copy yourself, the note in the publication record should be edited to say so. If you uploaded an image copied from amazon (which is perfectly acceptable), the image page Image:STRGRD1966.jpg should be edited so that the "Source=" line says something like "Copied from amazon.com" or "Copied from [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441075991 Amazon page]" (the second form adds a link).

In either case the image page and the pub record will match.

Thank you for your contributions. -DES Talk 16:28, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Sorry - didn't see that note at the bottom. I edited the note and added the info that I replaced the image with an actual scanned one MikeP 18:57, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
No problem. Again thanks. -DES Talk 19:18, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
Edit approved. Since you have the actual book, you may do a primary2 (or primary transient if you are not going to keep the book) verification if you choose to. -DES Talk 19:24, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
FYI, the four tildes signature is a wiki function, it doesn't work on database records. I manually changed it to your user ID on thid pub record. -DES Talk 19:24, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

More Held submissions for notification of changes to verified pubs

I am holding you submitted changes to The Sioux Spaceman and The Stars Are Ours! pending your notification of the primary verifiers of your changes. If you are able to become a 2nd primary verifier on either pub, I will accept that in place of notification, although notification is still a good idea. -DES Talk 19:33, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Done; How hard is it to add an automatic update notification to the publication verifier anytime a record they verified is changed? You're getting automatic notification as a moderator when a record is changed. It can't be too hard. It's a pain enough to scan and upload the image without going through the hassle of creating a custom notice every time you upload the picture - MikeP 20:51, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
Sorry for the butt in. Actually the use of messaging helps to establish cohesion between individual efforts. It is a pain sometimes, especially if a verifier is gone missing, but it serves to keep people in contact. Feel free to read the myriad of problem resolutions that everyone goes through. I really appreciate someone scanning new images in and replacing broken links. I suggest you make a request for a change in the programming, but frankly as a layman I have noticed that there can be numerous conflicts in changes, not to mention changing how people do things. Good Work! Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 21:15, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
Automatic notification has been discussed recently. (See ISFDB:Community Portal#Image upload issues.) It is not trivial to implement, because it requires making two disparate software applications (the database and the wiki) work together. The database (more accurately the interface to the database) is custom-written (by volunteers) for the ISFDB, but the wiki software is not -- it is the same MediaWiki software application that powers Wikipedia and a good many other public and private wikis, and we have only limited kinds of control over it.
Furthermore, there is the question of getting the correct information into an automated notification. When it is simply a matter of no-cover-image -> cover image, the matter is fairly simple. But when an existing image has been changed, or there have been significant changes to the notes or other fields of a pub record, it takes a human (Unless we can run this on HAl9000) to leave a msg indicating what has changed and why. I'm sorry you find the msg a hassle, but sometimes significant problems are discovered or prevented through these notifications. When the change does not match the verifier's copy, it may indicate an error by one editor or the other, or it may indicate that there are actually two similar but non-identical publications.
With practice it takes only a few clicks and keystrokes to leave a notification. My routine (there are other possibilities) goes something like this:
  1. Notice that the pub I am about to edit is verified
  2. Middle-Click on the link in the "Verification Status" section that leads to the verifieer's user page, to open that in a new tab.
  3. Click on the "Discussion" tab to get to the verifier's user talk page.
  4. Click on the "+" tab at the top to create a new section.
  5. Switch back to the pub record, and copy the title
  6. paste the title into the subject line of the new msg
  7. Switch back to the pub record, and copy the tag or record # from the URL.
  8. Paste that into the edit box.
  9. Add a {{P}} template around the tag ({{P|<TAG>|<Optional title or description>}}).
  10. Add a very brief msg like "Added cover image to" or "added pub month to" or "OCLC Page count doesn't match, can you re-check" or what ever.
  11. Click save.
That sounds like a lot of steps but it becomes routine pretty quickly. Still if we are able to implement an automated or semi-automated notification, we will. -DES Talk 22:42, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

The Stars are ours! - cover image not showing up

Morning! This. [1]. The cover art is not showing properly, I am not proficient with our display methods, so I am absolutely no help. I hope you are still editing here. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 16:13, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

It's because the URL was for the page the image is on [2] rather than of the image itself, [3]. Fixed now. BLongley 16:26, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
Thanks for the Fix. Harry. --Dragoondelight 16:43, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Changing tags of periodicals

I rejected the two submissions which wanted to change the tags of the pub records for two issues of Analog. This should not be done for various reasons, the chief one being that it would break the link between the record and any page that links to it from the wiki pages that uses the tag in either the URL or the link template. The tags are used in the links on the wiki magazine index pages which link individual issues to one page. It's possible to change the tags, but then you would have to change all the pages that link to the record as well. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to find these links (not even sure if a search on the wiki will be able to find urls.) Other than the aesthetics of having all the tags following a certain pattern, was there any other reason why you wanted to change the tags? Most tags are created automatically by the software to make sure that no two records have identical tags. It's possible to create a tag when you first create a magazine issue record, and it will override the system creating one for you. Still, not a good idea unless you first check to make sure that the tag hasn't already been assigned to a previously created record. Thanks. MHHutchins 22:53, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

The reasons for changing the tag was purely ascetic. I'm adding the tags to the publications to my personal library database and using a consistent naming scheme would make that a lot easier. I'm not sure why the algorithm for creating the tag name would suddenly change from one issue to the next. It seems to me that once set up, it would continue unless someone or something intervened to change it. What database software does your version MediaWiki use? MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite? It should be pretty easy to write a query to search all records for a tag and change it (i.e. a global 'find' and 'replace'). But it's not my project so I don't know what effort would be involved. I'm not trying to disparage the tremendous work you guys have done putting this into place - it's an outstanding accomplishment and I hope to contribute my little piece of it. MikeP 15:42, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
The generation of Publication Tags has changed over the years - I'd guess there's been at least three different versions so far, and I've comparatively recently added a fix for the latest version when it started creating duplicates. But when we have them, people start using them, and when they start getting used it becomes dangerous to change them - not because of internal links, but external links to our publications. And even the ISFDB Wiki pages are "external" - we can't do mass updates there. Even mass updates internally are unlikely to happen, as we have only one active person that could do such. Unless you want to change the Publication Tag of something you entered yourself, recently, I'd recommend leaving them alone. BLongley 22:35, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Answering the rest of your questions: we're on an ancient version of MediaWiki, and we use MySQL. You can download our database and try it out for yourself - "global find" is possible then. "Global replace" is not possible, but if you use our submission APIs then you can at least submit all such changes for moderation. Not recommended for "ascetic" reasons along though, we're mostly a bit over-worked anyway. But thanks for editing, and commenting! BLongley 22:35, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Notifying primary verifiers of changes in pub records

This has been brought up several times before, but it cannot be stressed enough. You MUST notify the primary verifier on ALL pubs that you wish to change. It's one of the foundations of maintaining the integrity of the verification system. Without it, verification becomes worthless. I'm aware that you have voiced an opinion about the effort involved in such notifications. Taking the issue to the community page may bring it to a larger forum for discussion. Most active editors have created varying levels of notification, which can be easily accessed by clicking on the user name listed on the Primary line of the Verification Status table of every verified pub. I accepted the submission which added the cover image link to my verified pub, and will accept the one adding an image to Napoleon Disentimed which was verified by Dragoondelight. I will place a message on his page asking him to look at the image to confirm that it is the same as the pub which he verified. Primary verification of a pub record is not being proprietary. No one owns a record. It's simply saying "I have this pub and am willing to answer any questions concerning this record for which I have verified the current data." Sometimes it can be a hassle, but it's a responsibility that many of us have taken on. Thanks for your cooperation. MHHutchins 23:20, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Silly me. I was naive enough to think that when I clicked on the link to "Upload Cover Image" for a Pub that not only would it create the appropriate tags, IT WOULD ACTUALLY PLACE THE URL TO THE UPLOADED IMAGE INTO THE RECORD FOR THE PUB! How hard would it be to add this automatic step to the process? I actually uploaded the images back on Dec. 18 and notified the verifiers at that time that the images had been uploaded, thinking that was the end of it. When I checked the pub records yesterday and saw that the images still weren't there, I finally went back and re-read the Wiki help on uploading the images to find out that I still had to go back and edit the pub record to add the image URL. This process is more time consuming than it has to be and more confusing than it should be. MikeP 15:42, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
It's possible to automatically create a submission with a new URL at upload time and we had a discussion of this issue when the upload functionality was implemented, but the results were inconclusive. The problem is that the submission would be created first and the Wiki upload would happen second. If the editor decides to cancel the upload, there would be no way to cancel the submission from the Wiki side and no way for the approving moderator to tell what happened and that the submission should be rejected.
Having said that, we have since enabled editors to cancel pending submissions on their side, so perhaps the issue is no longer as significant as it was originally. Let me play with the code a little... Ahasuerus 22:43, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Afternoon! I just verified that it was correct. One of the reasons, I appreciate knowing of the correct image is there is I keep a record of the completeness of verifications I am involved in. I appreciate your efforts. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 00:04, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

The Earth Remembers

Hi, I uploaded a coverscan for this publication, and by doing so I discovered that you had done so earlier, but had not placed it. I hope you find my scan prettier, otherwise you can change it back.--Dirk P Broer 15:56, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

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