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Moderator Availability (edit)

Moderator	Current Availability	Time Zone
Ahasuerus – Talk	Daily. Mostly working on automated submissions and the software.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Alvonruff – Talk	Daily. Working on a major overhaul of the isfdb infrastructure, staged at isfdb2.org. Self-moderating only.	US Central (UTC-6)
Annie Yotova: Annie - Talk	Most days, wildly varying hours. Leave a message on my page if you need me.	US Mountain/AZ (UTC-7)
Chris Jensen: Chris J - Talk	Available sometime everyday.	Pacific (UTC+12)
Desmond Warzel: Dwarzel - Talk	Most days, wildly varying hours.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Dirk P Broer: Dirk P Broer - Talk	Self-moderating only.	Netherlands (UTC+2)
Jens: Hitspacebar - Talk	Self-moderating only.	Germany (UTC+2)
JLaTondre - Talk	Intermittent, mainly evenings.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
John: JLochhas - Talk	Intermittent, mainly evenings and weekends.	Germany (UTC+2)
Kraang - Talk	Most evenings	CDN Eastern (UTC-5)
Dominique Fournier: Linguist - Talk	Off and on most days, with occasional blackouts (like now); can help on French or other outlandish titles.	France (UTC+1)
Marc Kupper: Marc Kupper – Talk	Low but not quite zero	US Pacific (UTC-8)
MagicUnk - Talk	Intermittent. Occasionally going into an editing frenzy.	Belgium (UTC+2)
MartyD - Talk	Sporadic, but most days.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Mhhutchins - Talk	Self-moderating only	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Nihonjoe - Talk	Weekdays. Sometimes evenings and weekends.	US Mountain (UTC-6/-7)
Pete Young: PeteYoung - Talk	Most days, although time zone frequently varies.	UK (UTC)
Ron Maas Rtrace - Talk	Most mornings and evenings.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Rudolf: Rudam - Talk	intermittent	Germany (UTC+2)
John: Scifibones - Talk	Most days, some evenings,	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Willem Hettinga: Willem H. - Talk	Sporadic, and self-moderating only. I try to visit this site most days.	Netherlands (UTC+2)

Currently unavailable

Dcarson (Dana Carson) - Talk - Not seen since 2021-02-20 (marked inactive). US Eastern (UTC-5)

Blazer & Soulseer

Been adding a number of items and now have been going back to fill in the other versions (hc, audio etc). However I had two items Blazer (Records 3422931 & 1046102) & Soulseer (Records 3422929 & 1046101) where the publication date was not what I originally put in and I had to fix it. I don't want to continue with these two until they are updated. Figured out what happened, the autofill. It tried to get me on another one but I caught it in the act. aardvark7 (talk) 15:13, 1 March 2025 (EST)

I don't see any current edits from you in the list of submissions awaiting approval, so it appears this has been done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:13, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

Question of policy

I usually like to add the cover image to the database as outside links can be broken or changed. Many times the tp, hc and ebook all seem to have the same cover. If you try to add all, even with different titles, the Database comes back as says its already on file. I guess you could copy/paste the file link to all the entries but what is the proper policy/proceedure?? aardvark7 (talk) 15:20, 1 March 2025 (EST)

If they all have the same cover (make sure, as there can sometimes be subtle differences, especially with ebook covers), it's perfectly fine for them to all use the same cover image that's been uploaded to ISFDB. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 10:55, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Phishing Email

A caution, I received the following email titled: Fwd:Purchase summary on 03 March 2025 by Jeffery Juniper, addressed to the isfdb moderators group email.Rkihara (talk) 15:07, 3 March 2025 (EST)

There's a group email? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:22, 3 March 2025 (EST)

There was a Gmail-based one a long time ago, but it has been inactive for the last 10+ years. Apparently someone is trying to abuse it. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:49, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Mick van Houten (Houton)... Error Somewhere?

I have recently made several edits relating to K. J. Parker's Colours in the Steel. The last of these edits has been approved so I was looking through all the related records to check everything looks ok... but it does not. I made this submission to make cover artist Mick van Houton an alternate name of Mick van Houten. I'm sure this looked ok after approval but now, Houton's record does not state "Used As Alternate Name By:" and Houten's record does not include Houton in the list of "Used These Alternate Names:". However, "Colours in the Steel (1998) [only as by Mick van Houton] " does appear in Houten's list of Cover Art.
The plot thickens because, looking at the Raw XML View of my make alternate name submission, Houton had record number 394693 but he now has record number 395554.
As there is no edit history for authors, my investigation has ground to a halt. Could a moderator please look into this and advise what has happened? Teallach (talk) 18:43, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Mick van Houton needed to be made and alternate name for Mick van Houten. I've taken care of it.

I see what happened now. Look at the Coverart record edit history for Colours in the Steel. Zapp decided your change was incorrect. He reverted the credit back to Mick van Houten. This effectively deleted author 394693. One minute later, he reversed his change. The software created a new Mick van Houton author record, number 395554. This new record had to be made an alternate, which I have now done. I assume, Zapp did not communicate with you as required. John Scifibones 19:15, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Your assumption is correct. Zapp did not communicate with me. I have issued another post on his talk page. Teallach (talk) 18:33, 4 March 2025 (EST)

R A Garnett

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?395865; Initials need a space between them so as to fit with other works by the artist and not lose bio info; I left PV a note about uploading a real cover (and adding the price). --Username (talk) 10:13, 4 March 2025 (EST)

Fixed here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:18, 4 March 2025 (EST)

Authors with extraneous spaces in disambiguation date ranges

(Posting this to Moderator noticeboard, given that only mods can alter author names; will happily repost to Community Portal and/or Rules and Standards if this is considered non-trivial or needing wider discussion)

I noticed on the Authors Born On This Day section of the homepage that there's a record for "Gordon Cooper (1927 - 2004)". Help:How_to_separate_two_authors_with_the_same_name doesn't explicitly say how these disambiguation year ranges should be entered, but having spaces is (a) inconsistent with how they are formatted just to the right of the name on that section, (b) probably much less common than the spaceless-version and (c) debatably less aesthetically pleasing.

Here are links to all the author records that have these spaces in the author name field, if it's deemed preferable to remove them:

ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:13, 6 March 2025 (EST)

Checking the database, I see that we have 258 author records which use "(YYYY-YYYY)" to disambiguate author names. I agree that we should make the 11 "(YYYY - YYYY)" authors listed above use the "(YYYY-YYYY)" pattern. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:06, 6 March 2025 (EST)

All fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:22, 6 March 2025 (EST)

Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 22:32, 6 March 2025 (EST)

Thanks both! ErsatzCulture (talk) 05:01, 7 March 2025 (EST)

LRR

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?66264; I've been adding archived links to some Third Alternative issues today and Simpson's story has an "&" in its title as does the TTA anthology cover while The Weird anthology titles it with an "and"; since the Silver Web issue was edited by a co-editor of The Weird I assume it has "and" there, too. So US is "and", UK is "&". Probably an unmerge and variant would be in order. --Username (talk) 19:21, 8 March 2025 (EST)

Frank Edwards

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?21323; Story author almost certainly not the same as the Edwards who wrote a bunch of "non-fiction" UFO books and other similar stuff. --Username (talk) 09:20, 10 March 2025 (EDT)

I submitted a differentiation (but you could have done it also, Username!). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 02:32, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

But then wouldn't author info have been lost, Stonecreek? Isn't that why mods need to change names, Stonecreek? I know you're not a mod anymore so maybe you should leave it to one of them, Stonecreek. --Username (talk) 07:42, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

If it's just splitting the works between two authors with the same name, so there are some works with each, then no author info would be lost. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 10:53, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Robert Black

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?188821; While adding info for some of his books I stumbled on the fact that Death Angel is not by Holdstock; https://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/7211/robert-black-death-angel. The late Black needs a separate record. --Username (talk) 00:05, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

I agree. I've changed it to be by Robert Black (III) as I don't know if it's one of the three other existing Robert Blacks. I removed the variant title, too. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:34, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

High Hunt

Looking for something entirely different, I came across the 1986 cover of High Cross (Record # 17039). I also came across another cover that looks to have the same number (32887)but has a cover price of $4.95 also giving the cover artist of Cliff Miller (www.murrayewing.co.uk/mewsings/2025/03/01/high-hunt-by-david-eddings/_). Other than this also being a Ballantine book, I don't know when it came out. Should I add it?? aardvark7 (talk) 13:11, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

If it's not in the database, yes. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:37, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Uploaded wrong image

Sorry uploaded wrong image for the above title. Can this be deleted/removed? Location: https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:THCMPLTCHD1998.jpg
ReadingMovies (talk) 14:04, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:36, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Mad Max 2 Translation Help

I have made my first attempt to add a translated work and followed the wiki advice page. Main source is this Internet Archive page which shows a 13 digit barcode for a 1983 book which I entered as is, but of course this has flagged up for being a pre 2005 work with wrong ISBN. Is this still ok or should I have used the shorter ISBN say from WorldCat (although this is not on the printed book)? Many thanks for your help. | ReadingMovies (talk) 19:10, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Perhaps the number at the bottom of the barcode section is an "EAN", i.e. a European Article Number aka International Article Number. The linked Wikipedia article says that EANs began using the "978" prefix for books in the 1980s, but I don't know if they were already being used in France in 1983. Hopefully someone with more experience with French books will chime in and clarify. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:30, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

You are probably right regarding the EAN. I have checked other J'ai'Lu pubs and they all appear to have ISBNs starting with "22..." which this pub has under WorldCat. Should this edit gets approved I will change the ISBN to the shorter one on WorldCat. The main editor of the J'ai'Lu pubs appears to be one Linguist, so I will leave a message on their talk page for help. |ReadingMovies (talk) 19:56, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

159 pages; last page is unnumbered. --Username (talk) 19:43, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. I have no access to all the pages. I will correct it in a further edit. |ReadingMovies (talk) 19:56, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

The submission has been approved. The following changes have been made as per the discussion above:

Changed the ISBN value to "2-277-21533-3"
Changed the page count to 159
Turned the translated title into a variant of the 1982 original.

Please feel free to tweak it further. Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 08:49, 13 March 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for finishing the edit. I was aiming to add the variant link in stage two - saved me the trouble. Discovered this edition when adding reviews for this edit. Will add review link when approved. I will leave the "tweaking" to a PV as I only know as much as the Internet Arch link. Many thanks! |ReadingMovies (talk) 08:58, 13 March 2025 (EDT)

Change to publication verified by absent member

I am changing the format of this publication of The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny from PB to HC. Faber rarely did PB, they did the previous and following books of the series in HC and the image suggests HC. The sole verifier (Biomassbob) is deceased. ../Doug H (talk) 15:11, 13 March 2025 (EDT)

Graphic Novel Question

I'd like to ask for additional opinions of this submission which I've put on hold. Our policy page defines speculative fiction to exclude graphic novels. However, I am aware that many graphic novels have been allowed in the database (e.g. this series). Our policy does allow for non-speculative book length works published by author's above the threshold. I've looked at the Amazon preview of this graphic novel and Le Guin is the main author credit on the title page. Although, the title page also states "Adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham". The copyright page bears Le Guin's 1968 copyright for the text. Since Fordham has an illustrator credit, I have to assume that he altered the text in some way. However, I checked the first few pages and they appear to be text directly from Le Guin's novel with significant excisions. Would others recommend approving this submission? I am aware of other problems with the submission, i.e. It's doubtful that it is novel length; the use of Roman numbers for unnumbered page count; the content on the unnumbered pages being listed only in notes and again with Roman numerals that aren't present; not marked non-genre (though if graphic format is not speculative by our policy, all graphic format works would be non-genre). What are other moderators thoughts on this? Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 17:44, 17 March 2025 (EDT)

I do think it'd be includable: surely Le Guin is as important for us as Gaiman. But if it's only of shortfiction length and Le Guin is the one credited, I think it should be entered as a CHAPBOOK and then varianted to a parent including the artist as co-author. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 02:46, 18 March 2025 (EDT)

I think it is comparable to this Octavia Butler graphic novel. That means Fred Fordham should be co-author, no separate interior art title is needed and certainly no varianting to the original novel. The Amazon preview (titlepage) has the title as "A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel". Perhaps our policy of the graphic format should be re-evaluated. --Willem (talk) 08:19, 18 March 2025 (EDT)

I would definitely include it. Did Fordham write any of the content, or only abridge it? If he only abridged it, I wouldn't list him as an author, but I would note that in the Title note and Publication note. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:28, 18 March 2025 (EDT)

uploaded wrong cover

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:CRWFLLCDCV2021.jpg

Can a mod please delete this cover. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:08, 19 March 2025 (EDT)

Deleted. FYI; the correct image can be uploaded without first deleting the wrong image. Simply use the "Upload a new version of this file" link. John Scifibones

cheers i've not got the cover for that book, the uploaded cover is for a different publication (2nd printing). Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:37, 19 March 2025 (EDT)

Mozart

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?100697; Should he be deleted? He has no contents. --Username (talk) 18:06, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

My guess is that there's a review somewhere that connects to it. Yes, it looks like it's this review. It would be awesome to have some sort of link or something on the profile that showed those. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:10, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

And here's the review (bottom of second column on p.99, continuing at top of p.100). It mentions Mozart, and makes some comments about the opera and its music, then discusses how much better the English translation of the lyrics by Auden and Kallman is compared to the original German lyrics. So, it's a bit of a review of both the music by Mozart and the translation by Auden and Kallman. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:21, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

Reviews of ineligible works are supposed to be entered as essays, not reviews. If this is just for the music, then it should be an essay. If the lyrics were published as a book, then the book would probably be eligible and should be entered. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:28, 21 March 2025 (EDT)

It's a fantasy opera, so it's definitely eligible if it's published in some fashion. The question is whether the review is of the book or of the opera. Having read the review (link above), it appears to be a review of both the music by Mozart and the translated lyrics published as a book. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:36, 21 March 2025 (EDT)

Mark Joseph

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=mark+jose&type=Name; First 2 guys are the same; archived link I added to Mexico 21 says his first novel was To Kill the Potemkin. He also has a Wikipedia page. --Username (talk) 19:50, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

Updated. They are all at this one now. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:06, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

eBooks

Are there different types of eBooks and do we care?? I am coming across eBooks (Barnes & Noble) that have an ISBN number but no ASIN, but the same title from Amazon (Kindle, has an ASIN but no ISBN. How should these be entered?? aardvark7 (talk) 16:21, 1 April 2025 (EDT)

Depends if they are really different. Barnes and Nobles book will never have an ASIN in their system because this is an Amazon only number. Kindle books often have both ASIN and ISBN (even if Amazon makes the ISBN almost impossible to find - it is often at the end of the book so even Look Inside does not help). In general, if they are the same book but just in different format (epub vs mobi and so on), we add just one book with the ISBN and ASIN and any other identifier added to it and add the sources we have in the notes. If they are materially different, we record both as separate entries. Most publishers use eISBN (which does not exist in theory but is very much used in practice) and use it across all their formats - showing it or not depending on what is needed... Annie (talk) 18:16, 1 April 2025 (EDT)

wrong cover

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:LNGCLDNHLL1966.jpg

can a mod delete this cover please its the wrong one for this edition - Faustus (talk) 14:05, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

Done. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:16, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

Variants

I need other eyes to look at the 2 next-to-last messages on Dirk's board, am I missing something, I'm trying to merge Can These Stones Speak with Can These Stones Speak? because a copy of Sweet Singers was uploaded and it has the question mark, too, also John R. Pierce is J. R. Pierce in the Hale Nova 1 just like the others, a lot of these false variant name/title things were added years ago, I've fixed a lot of them, these are acceptable and understandable, right? --Username (talk) 18:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

How so "false variant name/title things"? Just because you find another name or title in one of the editions, every name or title has to be changed in all editions to the one you have in hand?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:38, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Can I have a list of these merges to check if the same mistakes have been made before?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:39, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Username wants to merge variants with title records that have a variant title and/or author, and does not seem to be able to grasp the difference between a title and a publication.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 20:23, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

I'm still not getting it. Leaving aside the name merge for a moment, the title merge seems very obvious to me. The Sweet Singers has the title of the story with a question mark at the end so all titles should be, after my edit, in the same record with a 1953 date. It might help if someone would approve the Nova 1 and Sweet Singers edits I made and actually search inside the archived copies to see that the name is J. R. Pierce in Nova and the story in Sweet Singers has a question mark. I've done countless merges of this type of thing, some other editor(s) long ago adding many false variants because they were going off sites like philsp.com, I suppose, where they lump stories by an author under one name and/or have many title (and other) errors, which have been approved so I'm not sure what's wrong in these cases. I'm trying to get all instances of the story under J. R. Pierce and all instances of the Dickinson title in the record that has the question mark. How else to do that if not merging? --Username (talk) 01:28, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

That is exactly what I did and I reported to you that my Sphere copy has J. R. Pierce (as has the Delacorte, check archive.org).--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:29, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

And the Dell too.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:33, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

OK, I see my Nova 1 edit adding an archived link was approved; it's a recent upload with no borrowing allowed (and for some reason for the last few days clicking on searched pages of books on Archive.org won't take you there unless it's the front/back covers or the first few pages they offer in the preview, hopefully this is temporary and not a new policy they've implemented). Contents page seems to be missing (or maybe there wasn't one) but searching for Pierce gets 1 hit for John R. Pierce in his bio while J. R. Pierce gets 1 hit on the story's title page. On the plus side while looking into all this I found 5 other archived links for various books in the Nova series (1 of them the retitled Outdated Man) so I've added those in edits and also discovered that the note in the title record for the abridged Hale edition of Nova 1 is wrong because there were actually 4 stories removed, not 3, so I'll have to fix that, too. --Username (talk) 02:22, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

re the Can These Stones Speak? case: Dirk, you said "There are five publication records under the title record, only the 1963 one (the variant) has a question mark in the present database" on your talk page. Unless something has changed since you made that comment, you got it backwards. The Can These Stones Speak? variant is in 4 publications. The Can These Stones Speak parent is only in one publication (1953). If the 1953 publication also had a "?", then the merge is correct. Searching the IA scan [1], shows it does have the "?". -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:11, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

The IA scan has an interesting note My thanks are due to Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons for permission to reprint “‘’'The Sweet Singers ”? which first appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine, and to John Leng and D. C. Thomson Ltd. for permission to reprint ‘‘Can These Stones Speak?” which first appeared, under a different title, in The Scots Magazine.. What would have been that title?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:57, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Good catch. Based on the note, it is more likely that it appeared under a totally different title than simply the absence of the question mark. The question mark absence is more typical of secondary sources. Either way, we can only go with the data we have. I unrejected the merge, accepted it, and then added a title note stating the prior publication with an unknown title & date. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:53, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

It is the form of the rerquest: "Merge these" without any explanation about the former canonical and variant titles. I am not an approval machine.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 20:28, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Yes, Username's communication manner (both style and clarity) is problematic, but that doesn't make the submission wrong. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:59, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

re The Higher Things case: This merge also looks valid. The John R. Pierce version is only in one pub. The IA scan (which Username added in another edit) shows that pub actually uses J. R. Pierce[2] like the other versions. Username's merge kept the J. R. Pierce so it would only have changed the one pub that needed changing. However, the resultant title record would have need to have been revarianted back to a John R. Pierce parent. I probably would have done an unmerge and then merged the new record to the variant in order to keep the existing parent but either way works. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:24, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Usernames'rejected merge would have removed all J. R. Pierce instances for this title, just because he found one John R. Pierce for the Hale SF edition.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 20:28, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

No, it would not. You are reading the merge backwards. It keeps "J. R. Pierce" (the green value) and removes "John R. Pierce" (the red value). -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:59, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Except that J. R. Pierce is the variant author name, so it will be replaced with John R. Pierce for the canonical title record.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 07:07, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Dirk, take a look at this Help section: How merge works. It is a relatively recent addition to the Help notes and is an excellent explanation. Teallach (talk) 13:46, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

JLaTondre, Would you dare unreject the merge and try to find out what it causes? Be prepared for a lot of repair work afterwards....--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:34, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Rejected it once again note the exact affected records.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:52, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

I unrejected it, merged it, and then varianted the result (as I said would need to be done above) to John R. Pierce. See the result where everything is fine. All solutions to solving required at least 2 edits (merge/variant, import/remove, add/merge/remove). But none break anything and require "a lot of repair work afterwards". -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:53, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

The result looks exact as I saw it eight hours ago, so what is preventing Username to start the complete circus yet again?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 13:05, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

It is not the same as before. The unverified pub that used to have it as by John R. Pierce now has it as by J. R. Pierce (matching the IA scan). The parent no longer has any pubs. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:23, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

This is the real parent record (not the +2 version), looking just like the previous parent record did: the canonical name (John R. Pierce) with all publications under it, including those of the variant name (J. R. Pierce) as variant title. So Username can again merge those two titles because he thinks one of them is a fake variant -don't say I did not warn you!--Dirk P Broer (talk) 18:05, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

I will make one last attempt, then I am going to drop it. As he states above, Username was fixing the issue where the one pub had John R. Pierce as the credit when it should really have been J. R. Pierce. The merge, following by a variant, is a valid method to resolve that. I have explained this several times and shown the difference in the database state pre- and post- change. Your link and my link are both the real parent. The +2 version shows that there is no longer a pub that has the canonical title. Username is not going to submit another merge as what he was trying to achieve has been achieved. If you still are not getting it, then maybe someone else can explain it better. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:50, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Please enlighten me, was a merge of the canonical title record and the variant title record the best procedure here, or could it just as well have been resolved with a simple 'remove title' and 'add title' to that specific publication? --Dirk P Broer (talk) 18:25, 15 April 2025 (EDT)

[3] -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:10, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Variants Again

For whatever reason the mod above has a problem with 2 of my edits and even after another mod explained they were both acceptable he's still complaining so what I'm going to do is do both of them over again and another mod can approve them. OK, I just made them. --Username (talk) 23:13, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

You should have waited for the discussion to be completed. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:01, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Look, I've had trouble with this mod and others incorrectly rejecting my edits for their own personal reasons. It wastes too much time trying to convince them otherwise so you, as the mod who said both were acceptable, could accept my new edits and end this whole thing. Every minute I have to reply on this board is time lost for making other edits. --Username (talk) 07:04, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

You might make use of the 'note to moderator' field to give the moderator more info, and you might be rightfully proved wrong, when it concerns variants.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 06:00, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Dickinson title and Pierce name merges have both been accepted by another mod so obviously my edits were correct in the first place; in the future don't waste our time with your incorrect rejections because you're mad about whatever and also read the link someone provided you about merging so this doesn't happen again in the future since, as a part-time mod these days, you may have missed some of the updated rules. --Username (talk) 08:49, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Can you try to explain to me why the present Pierce situation is so much better than two days ago?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 18:07, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

I've already explained above. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:51, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

chapbook conversions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2069447

I have just sent in the chapbook conversions for the seven books under this title. Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:36, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Approved, thanks for the heads up. John Scifibones 08:48, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Another chapbook conversion

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2520611

the 2 pubs under this title have been submitted for converting - Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:21, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Approved. Parent created, thanks for the heads up. John Scifibones 13:08, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

yet another chapbook conversion

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2764251

Just submitted these two for converting - Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:42, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

chapbook conversions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1708845

Another set of step 2 submissions. Faustus (talk) 08:26, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

You know that you do not need to post about these here unless you need some moderator help with them, right? Or am I missing something in these notices? :) Annie (talk) 20:44, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

I vos just obeying orders. Scifibones said that after the title is changed to short fiction then send in stage2 licketysplit and get him or another mod to do the honours "Try to get the publication conversion step processed relatively quickly." Gaz Faustus (talk) 22:49, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

Rick Rubin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?15984; Any idea what's up with the broken and deleted image? Maybe someone can upload another one. --Username (talk) 19:13, 20 April 2025 (EDT)

Scifibones deleted it almost two years ago. You should ask him why it was deleted as no reason was given. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:49, 21 April 2025 (EDT)

I don't remember the problem. A new image has been uploaded. John Scifibones 13:18, 21 April 2025 (EDT)

Popular Publications

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?76273; The Flying Saucer was an African publication, nothing to do with the much later pulp publisher, something should probably be added to its publisher to differ it. I added a 2013 link to the author which shows a photo of him. --Username (talk) 09:22, 26 April 2025 (EDT)

Additional Secondary Reference

I think Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Reference, edited by Keith L. Justice, would be good to add as a potential secondary reference to choose from. Thoughts? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:10, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

I am afraid I am not familiar with the book. Does it cover SF works that current secondary verification sources do not list?

(I should add that we implemented a bureaucrat-only menu option which lets you add new secondary verification sources a couple of years ago, so it should be trivial to do if we decide to add it.) Ahasuerus (talk) 15:14, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6242181; Copy was uploaded early in 2021, I added OL ID later that year, added archived link now. --Username (talk) 16:42, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

Approved, thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 20:06, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

Here's some images that show what's in it. Description and ToC. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:04, 30 April 2025 (EDT)

Oh, so it's a secondary bibliography, i.e. a listing/analysis of bibliographies and other reference materials. I can see how it may have information about certain obscure SF bibliographies not covered by our secondary sources. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:33, 30 April 2025 (EDT)

Yes. A bibliography of bibliographies, so to speak. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:33, 30 April 2025 (EDT)

(unindent) Another one that may be useful is Science Fiction Master Index of Names, compiled by the same person. If we do add them, I suggest "Justice (ref)" for the first one and "Justice (names)" for the second. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:31, 19 May 2025 (EDT)

I am looking at a scan of Science Fiction Master Index of Names. It lists thousands of authors and indicates which bibliographies and/or other secondary sources reference them and/or their works. For example:

Zahorski, Kenneth J. LTN 248, 252 SRB 66, 281

means that Kenneth J. Zahorski was referenced in Language of the Night (Le Guin and Wood) on pages 248 and 252 and in The Science Fiction Reference Book (Tymn) on pages 66 and 281. It's useful information, but how could we use it as a secondary verification source? Ahasuerus (talk) 10:06, 20 May 2025 (EDT)

It has three different indexes in it: the index of names, works index by author or editor, and a works index by title. The latter gives the full information (title, author/editor, publisher, edition (if any), and year of publication). The last one would be most useful as a secondary source, though the other two can be useful when trying to find an actual title (as in what the title of a work is), too. Granted, this isn't as much as many of the other secondary reference sources, but it has its uses. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:11, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

Oh, you mean "Works Indexed (Listing by title)" on pages 387-394? I can see how cross-checking our data against that list would be useful, but it's limited to 132 books. Is it worth creating a separate verification source for just 132 publications? (I am not necessarily against it, just wondering.) Ahasuerus (talk) 14:19, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

It seems to me like it could be useful. I don't know what anyone else thinks about it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:52, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

If (most of) the 132 pulications are already in the db, they could be verified now, once and for good, maybe adding a note like "data cross-checked against SFMIN". --Fantagufo (talk) 22:18, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

Earthlight

Earthlight Publication Record # 11832 . I tried to replace the cover as I found one that was face forward and not angled. I must have done something wrong as I can see the new one as well as the old one. (File:RTHLGHT1955A.jpg) The old one is taking preference and still shows in the record. Can someone fix this and tell me what I did wrong?? aardvark7 (talk) 14:34, 1 May 2025 (EDT)

Please provide the full link (URL) to the publication in question. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:49, 1 May 2025 (EDT)

Record URL https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?11832. Image link https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:RTHLGHT1955A.jpg (shows both images) aardvark7 (talk) 16:57, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Okay, all fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:52, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Some small corrections for ISFDB

I am an eagle-eyed reader but no skills in ISFDB editing, hoping a helpful moderator will make these corrections:

Under Reviews "Jean Rhys Revisited by Alexis Lykiard" is incorrectly listed under the original Ray Russell, should be changed to R. B. Russell's page (aka Ray Russell (1)), this review is in the TOC of R. B. Russell's 50 forgotten Books also I emailed R. B. Russell and he said this is his review

Gregory Norman Bossert, "With Frank and Lucinda Brewer at the East Pole" (from The Unquiet Dreamer, a Harlan Ellison tribute anthology) is a Medea story, a sequel to Harlan Ellison's "With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole" should be listed with the other Medea series stories if you don't have a copy of The Unquiet Dreamer handy to confirm this there is a StarShipSofa podcast of this story to listen to if you want to confirm, BTW this is a delightful story

Jeffrey Ford, when The Best of Jeffrey Ford collection was entered into ISFDB, two titles has typos creating phantom story title listings:

“The Empire of Ice Cream” is misentered as “The Emperor of Ice Cream” "At Reparata" misentered as "At Raparata" both of these stories should be fixed and merged

Angela Slatter the story "Swan Girls" is part of the Verity Fassbinder series and should be added to the titles listed I have read the story and it is definitely part of the Verity series, I would note this a "bonus story" in the paperback reprint of Corpselight, the second book in the Verity series

Lucy Sussex, The most recent stories in her short fiction listing are the same story, "The Inconvenient Visitors..." is the same story as "Inconvenient Visitors...;"

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by RogerSSS (talk • contribs) .

Thank you for bringing these to our attention. In the future, if you are looking for someone to edit ISFDB content for you, please post on the Community Portal and solicit help from other editors. The moderators' job is to review and process edits submitted by community members, not to do the members' editing for them. It is also unfair to the community to "jump the queue" by having moderators do edits immediately that would normally be submitted and wait in line for moderator attention. All that said, I took care of everything noted above, except I could not find a source for Corpselight showing the inclusion of "Swan Girls" as a bonus story, so I did not add that to the reprint. If you have the book or are aware of an online source for the book that shows it, please visit the publication record, click Edit at the top right, scroll down to the "Regular Titles" section, click the "Add Title" button and add "Swan Girls" there. That addition can be merged with the existing "Swan Girls" record after the submission is approved. Thanks, and thank you for contributing. --MartyD (talk) 10:18, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

The Accident

https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:THCCDNTXFX1955.jpg; My image didn't replace the old wrong (US) one. --Username (talk) 16:38, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

The pub record has an Image URL for the other image instead of for the one you linked above. You would need to change that. It's a different scenario than replacing the image at the end of the link with a new version of that image (so following the same link gets you a different image than before). Here, you want to break the link to the other edition's image and make a link to a different image record. --MartyD (talk) 14:09, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

Publication records that shouldn't be included

What do we do with publication records that exist but which shouldn't be included? A couple of years ago, I was told by Anniemod that audio adaptations should not be cataloged and I have carefully skipped adding them. Most of them seem to have been published by GraphicAudio. Since then, I've occasionally come across publication records for adaptations such as this one. A quick look shows 157 publication records for GraphicAudio publications. What, if anything should be done about them? Thanks! Phil (talk) 08:01, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

Galatea in 2-D

My edit seems to be in limbo, but I've got nothing on my talk page. 'Galatea in 2-D' edit Can someone check? Thanks. --Glenn (talk) 21:52, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

The moderators seem to be permanently understaffed, so processing is taking a bit longer. Please be patient.

There also seems to be some missing data regarding the six unnumbered pages. What content do they contain? --Wolfram.winkler (talk) 17:41, 9 May 2025 (EDT)

The excerpt listed in the entry. --Glenn (talk) 17:55, 9 May 2025 (EDT)

I don't understand. --Wolfram.winkler (talk) 13:47, 10 May 2025 (EDT)

If you look at the publication record, there is an excerpt starting on page 258. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:29, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, I overlooked that. --Wolfram.winkler (talk) 17:04, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

I approved your edit. I also approved a subsequent edit that changed the page count from 263+[6] to 257+[6] based on the IA scan and the page numbering for the excerpt (which is given as [258]). -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:29, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

Another inactive editor

While reorganizing my books, I found a primary verification by BungalowBarbara. She hasn't entered anything since 2018, and unless she pops up again, I think that she can safely be listed as inactive. MLB (talk) 23:21, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

Tag added. For any obvious cases like this, you can add it yourself by placing {{inactive}} at the top of the page. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:34, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

Image delete

Please delete this image. It's for the wrong edition. Thanks! Phil (talk) 12:50, 6 May 2025 (EDT)

Done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:42, 6 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Phil (talk) 21:48, 6 May 2025 (EDT)

Image delete +1

Please delete the old image December 2011. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:21, 12 May 2025 (EDT)

And the January 2012 image here. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 07:16, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

As requested, John Scifibones 07:37, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks John! Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 08:34, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

Image delete + 47

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:THSHDWFWHB2017.jpg

another wong cover upload - sorry been out on the lash Faustus (talk) 19:24, 14 May 2025 (EDT)

Done. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 19:27, 14 May 2025 (EDT)

Author merge request

Please merge 400557 and 400553. Thanks --Auric (talk) 06:30, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

There is a period after Barbara (Barbara. K. Walker) in the credit for Nasreddin Minds the Door. If that period does not exist in your publication, you can edit the title record to fix the name and that will resolve it. If the period does exist in your pub, then we'd make Barbara. K. Walker an alternate name of Barbara K. Walker instead of merging. It would also be good to add notes to the title record that the period is per the pub and not a database error. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:50, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

Fools'/Fool's

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6261508; Title page of Walker edition shows its All Fools' Day so an unmerge/merge is needed; Coronet edition is actually All Fool's Day (see photo #10 here, www.ebay.com/itm/267232877830) so that seems to be the only one with that variant title. --Username (talk) 09:00, 20 May 2025 (EDT)

'Empty' author summary page

Gerald Wendt has no title entry; usually this happens, when there's a title reviewed we actually don't have in the database, but this doesn't seem to be the case. What other reference might it be? Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:49, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

The culprit is Green Vaughn Rivers's review of Gerald Wendt Atomic Energy and the Hydrogen Bomb. I found it by running an Advanced Title Search on "Reviewed Author is exactly Gerald Wendt". Ahasuerus (talk) 12:16, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

Several of the reviews in that publication should likely be turned into essays. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:14, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for your research! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 13:29, 21 May 2025 (EDT)

I've changed the reviews I think shouldn't be entered as reviews into essays. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:07, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

Erroneous flag for The Green Kingdom

Could everybody think about or check of having added the tag 'juvenile fantasy' to this novel, which turned out to be nongenre (thus contains no fantasy elements). Thanks, Christian Stonecreek (talk) 10:12, 22 May 2025 (EDT)

Anniemod is the one who added that tag, so you should ask her. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:47, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

Omnibus

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?2682; Most are by an Italian publisher but 3 in the 1990's are by a French publisher and there's a 2005 English one, too, so something should be added to separate the outliers. --Username (talk) 18:49, 26 May 2025 (EDT)

Rage of a Demon King

Hello Mods. Regarding this publication. A book seller has provided me with images of the hardback edition which shows the ISBN 0-00-224149-8 but the cover art is this and not the one as provided via Amazon - which incidentally I can't find either as the Amazon listing only shows the later image. The Wikipedia article for the book does show the cover art as currently displayed in the listing so it is something of a mystery. I've gone ahead and ordered the hardback copy the seller has so my question is - should I replace the Amazon art (as displayed via Amazon) since it is a different (the same as the tp / pb editions). --Mavmaramis (talk) 14:30, 4 June 2025 (EDT)

If you look under the image on the publication record, you will see "The displayed Amazon image is based on the publication's ISBN. It may no longer reflect the actual cover of this particular edition." That message will appear in cases where the Amazon image link may not necessarily be reliable. As you say, if you go to the Amazon page now, it displays the other image. It's possible the image displayed by the current link changed at some point or it was never the correct image. Go ahead a replace it with the image the book actually has. -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:09, 4 June 2025 (EDT)

Canonical name change needed: "Stewart C. Hotson" -> "Stewart C. Hotston"

"Stewart C. Hotson" has one story in a reprint anthology. Although the blurb for that anthology does use that spelling, when I look at the Amazon preview of the ebook publication, it has "Stewart C. Hotston" (note the extra "t" in the surname) on the copyright page, and "Stewart Hotston" as the author name in the chapter bookmark, the latter being the name this author generally uses.

In the absence of having a copy of the anthology to see what actually appears on the story itself, I *think* either the copyright page or ebook chaptermark name should take precedence over the name in the blurb, but I'm not sure which? If the latter, I can edit the story to use "Stewart Hotston", but if "Stewart C. Hotston" should be used, I think a moderator will have to edit the canonical name here. Thanks! ErsatzCulture (talk) 12:02, 8 June 2025 (EDT)

I have found a copy of the e-book edition. The title page and "About the Authors" both say "Stewart Hotston", so I think it's safe to assume that it's the name that we want to use. We can add "C." to the end of the "Legal Name" value since it's presumably the author's middle initial. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:42, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

Thanks! ErsatzCulture (talk) 10:11, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

Typhon Pact series

While entering the German editions for this series, I have come across a problem with the US versions. Some of them are listed in the wrong order. The Struggle Within is considered #5, Plagues of Night #6, Raise the Dawn #7 and Brinkmanship #8. I have put in submissions to change the current books in the series (#5 up) to their correct series number. The Khitomer Accords Saga gathers books 6 through 8 in one edition. This shows correctly only it has the books as #5-7 aardvark7 (talk) 13:00, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

W. W. Fenn

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?162372; http://jerryshouseofeverything.blogspot.com/2012/05/forgotten-book-more-great-tales-of.html; That Blogspot review reveals that there are 2 Fenns; if true, separation of the collections is needed. Twixt the Lights is on Google Books, search inside only, so I'll see about entering the page numbers for the numerous contents next time I sign on here if I can get them all before Google's limit for searching kicks in. Woven in Darkness seems rarer with no online copies I can find. --Username (talk) 21:03, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

don't know what's gone wrong with this cover upload.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36103

somethings gone tits up and I think it needs a mod to sort it out. i pved the first ed of this book and uploaded my own cover scan to replace the one which was a link to some site. in the cover image data its showing as being uploaded by mavmaramis and in the file history it says its mine and its got a different mavmaramis cover as a revert. the other cover is presumably for the later ed which mavmaramis pved but that book now has the same cover as mine. i must've cocked it up but i dont know how or how to fix it. - Gaz Faustus (talk) 23:37, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

I moved Mavmaramis' scan to the other pub and edited yours to get your name in (you can do that yourself (the edit button on the right side of the second line). All should be correct now. --Willem (talk) 07:25, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

cheers for sorting it out - do you know how my cover ended up on the other book? Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:14, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

The cover image was uploaded from your edition, and also linked to the other book, so when you uploaded a new image it changed both. --Willem (talk) 08:50, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

i was going to ask how and why the 2 different books were linked in that way but then i remembered Dennis Wheatley's solemn warning about not meddling with things you don't understand... - Gaz Faustus (talk)

If I recall correctly, storage space for scans was very finite in the past. Uploads were often used for multiple printings (with the same cover). These days space is not a big problem anymore, and each printing can have it's own scan. --Willem (talk) 15:14, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

Author name finetuning needed

Lydia Umkasetemba as to be found in this issue presenting speculative fiction written by African authors ain't a Polish language writer but a Zulu one. In addition, her name is spelled Lydia umkaSetemba according to Wikipedia. Would it be possible to change the name (and its assigned language) in one step for a moderator? Christian Stonecreek (talk) 05:39, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

Done. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:17, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

Thanks very much! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 09:45, 10 June 2025 (EDT)

Bibliomancy / bibliomanes

If possible, please mark the 3 publications here as "ignored". Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:54, 12 June 2025 (EDT)

They do not currently have an "ignore" link. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:39, 12 June 2025 (EDT)

Melvin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6281260; There is an artist named Melvin on ISFDB but he does German books so I think after approval that the Melvin for this book should have something added to make it a separate name as a variant of Melvyn Grant. --Username (talk) 19:39, 13 June 2025 (EDT)

Are you certain that it was not Melvyn Grant who did that cover art ? --Mavmaramis (talk) 16:27, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

That's what I meant; the Melvin already on ISFDB did German covers, this one is Melvyn Grant listed as Melvin so after approval this Melvin should be made a variant of Melvyn Grant. --Username (talk) 17:13, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Ahh I get you now. Yeah I think what you suggest would indeed avoid any further confusion. --Mavmaramis (talk) 05:46, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

Sadovski

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=sadovski&type=Name; Both records have about the same amount of info so someone should decide which is the parent and variant the other name and titles. --Username (talk) 23:34, 13 June 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, I did this. --MartyD (talk) 13:20, 19 June 2025 (EDT)

Submission pending for over a month?

Hello,

My submission for Walls of Shira Yulun / Waste Flowers (Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery) has been pending for over a month. Is there a problem with the submission?

Thanks,

MikePalumbo (talk) 10:13, 14 June 2025 (EDT)

Sorry about the delay! Approval times have been long lately, in part due to the multiple types of bot attacks that we have experienced. I have approved the submission and made the following changes:

Changed OMNIBUS to COLLECTION since the included titles are SHORTFICTION as opposed to NOVELS
Moved "Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery" to the Publication Series field
Adjusted the titles of the COVERART titles to match the title of the novella that each cover is related to
Changed the Format value from "pb" to "dos"

Hopefully the changes make sense. Thanks for submitting the data! Ahasuerus (talk) 17:22, 14 June 2025 (EDT)

4th estate

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?1884

I thinks this publisher should be renamed from Fourth Estate to 4th Estate. thats its name in the book i'm doing and the name on its website. Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:01, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

I think I'd noticed it before, and it felt like they'd maybe done some sort of rebranding from "Fourth Estate" to "4th Estate" at some point. Some cursory Googling hasn't been able to substantiate that, but did find a number of publisher pages where they use both variants of the name. My theory might be substantiated by this 1990 pub that indicates the copyright page says "First published in Great Britain in 1990 by Fourth Estate Ltd". ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:09, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

From archives of the HarperCollins website, they were referring to it as "Fourth Estate" through the end of July, 2014. Then in September, 2014, they began redirecting to a new page using "4th Estate" (although the changeover is incomplete -- the Imprints menu still lists it as Fourth Estate, and only changed later in the year). --MartyD (talk) 14:53, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Gaz, I have 14 pubs by Fourth Estate, the latest 2010. I don't think the existing publisher name should be changed. Enter your pubs as by 4th Estate, creating a new publisher name. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:11, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

These two verified pubs appear to require amending to 4th Estate: Annihilation & Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:23, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

might have geussed it was a name change - cheers Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:37, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Possible duplicate entry

Hello mods. This entry appears to be a duplication of this entry. --Mavmaramis (talk) 16:23, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Indeed. Since the more recently added duplicate has more information than the original, I have deleted the original record. Unfortunately, this loses Bluesman's original secondary verifications. As he is no longer active, I have redone them on the duplicate. --MartyD (talk) 07:42, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

I have some doubts about this. The notes state "Published 1998 by Bantam Press / Reprinted 1998". Could the other entry have been a first printing? And where does the month come from? --Willem (talk) 08:43, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

Well, nuts. I saw the November and read 1988, not 1998. I missed that this "duplicate" has the wrong date. I will restore the other one and fix the date on this record to be 1998-00-00 unless we can find the month. Thanks for catching that. --MartyD (talk) 11:51, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

@Mavmaramis, you should check the notes on your verified copy. I changed the date to 1998 (on the unique-to-this-edition maps as well, although I suspect they may be in the first edition, too). The note reads "Published 1998. Reprinted 1998." I'm guessing that first one ought to be "1988". --MartyD (talk) 12:08, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

I have hecked my physical copy. Date should be 1988 not 1998 (includuing the reprint date). I'll make the edit now. --Mavmaramis (talk) 14:30, 23 June 2025 (EDT)

Image delete.

Please delete the oversized/earliest image here. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 13:51, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

✓ Done! Done! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:33, 23 June 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Joe. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:13, 27 June 2025 (EDT)

Name Change

I input the wrong author name for the Dreamcaught anthology from Shadow Spark Publishing. I input Tim Rimer when it should be Tom Rimer. Any help in crorrecting this will be appreciated. Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Pendragon (talk • contribs) .

Approved. Additional comments on your talk page. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:19, 25 June 2025 (EDT)

can a mod please delete this cover wrongly uploaded

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:FRTLPWHZQM2022.jpg - Gaz Faustus (talk) 07:54, 27 June 2025 (EDT)

As requested, John Scifibones 10:31, 27 June 2025 (EDT)

Another David Curtis

Hi.

In referring to "Two-Handed Engine: The Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore", 2005/2006 Centipede Press, I saw that the editor is listed as David Curtis. I was able to confirm this myself independently. https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?270349

Looking at the ISFDB search for "David Curtis", two entries come up, "David Curtis" https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?14284 and "David Curtis (Aust)" https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?210049. That all makes sense.

Upon looking at the "David Curtis" entry, I came to the view that even this "David Curtis" entry is still made up on titles that below to two different people by that name.

One appears to be the David Curtis that:

1. Wrote the 3 short fiction entries from 1981 to 2009 2. Wrote the 3 essays from 2005 to 2011, all for Centipede Press. 3. Wrote the 6 reviews from 2011 at the bottom, all for Centipede Press.

Here is a link to the David Curtis of Centipede Press entry: https://www.centipedepress.com/authors/curtis.html

This David Curtis appears to be an editor and writer.

There appears another David Curtis who is an artist in the US. This David Curtis is responsible for the art listed at ISDFB between 2016 to 2023. Here is the link from the ISFDB "David Curtis" page that appears to pertain only to the artist. http://david-curtis.com/

I have made three attempts to confirm what is happening here. I have not had a response from any of them.

1. I emailed Centipede Press on April 16, 2025. 2. I emailed the "David Curtis" who works as an artist on June 12, 2025. 3. Using LinkedIn, I found another David Curtis who might be the same editor/writer in the same geographic area as Centipede Press, and sent them a message on June 23, 2025.

While there are individuals who are both authors/editors and artists, I do not think that is the case here for several reasons: 1. I have not found any obvious websites or other sources of information that substantiate that unifying case. 2. The eras of work for the two don't obviously overlap. 3. The photos at the two sites are not obviously the same person.

I would like advice as to how to deal with this at ISFDB. If there was iron-clad evidence confirming these were two different people, I would go ahead and follow the wiki page instructions at https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Help:How_to_separate_two_authors_with_the_same_name

Another choice would be for me to add a Note at the "David Curtis" page suggesting there is a substantial belief but not certainty that two different people are listed here.

I still believe there are two different "David Curtis" creatives here that should be separated, but I interested in direction and perspective on what is the helpful thing to do here.

Thanks. Dave888 (talk) 12:06, 28 June 2025 (EDT)

There's also Dave Curtis, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?200967, and a FantLab page which lists 2 Curtises, https://fantlab.ru/art28999, that cautions not to confuse them but ISFDB possibly did because while the book cover looks like a photo and is probably by the photographer mentioned on FantLab the letter in Black Gate is probably by one of the other Curtises. Bio on p. 4 of Twilight Zone where "The Man Who Couldn't Remember" appeared calls David Curtis a "Denver resident" and the 1992 story "Buffalo Ghosts" was published in a Colorado-themed anthology so those 2, at least, are likely by the same David. --Username (talk) 21:27, 28 June 2025 (EDT)

1) I see Centipede Press David Curtis graduated from the University of Colorado at Denver. There is certainly enough info in that Centipede Press bio to positively assign some titles to that identity:

He sold his first story to Twilight Zone Magazine in 1981. His stories have appeared in Questar, Night Cry, the anthology High Fantastic, and elsewhere. Non-fiction work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including The Bloomsbury Review. He is the editor of Two-Handed Engine: Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore.'

That page also lists The Weird Fiction Review #2 as his, but it looks like that means it's a Centipede Press publication in which some of his work appears.

2) The David Curtis artist site you found is also quite nice. We should be able to match some titles up by using that.

Given those two things, my advice is don't worry about resolving everything. Start with those you can identify and make separate David Curtis entries for them. Roles and location can be used for disambiguating, and you have links, pictures, FantLab, and perhaps other details to flesh out the identities/records. Leave the main "David Curtis" undisambiguated for now; you could add a note that the specific David Curtis identity for things credited to it have not yet been resolved. Once things are better separated, we can figure out what we want to do with the rest, as well as any canonical name adjustments we want to make.

As for the Dave Curtis records: The Dave Curtis responsible for the over on House of Small Shadows is definitely someone else (he's in the UK). I see MLB is PV for Black Gate, Summer 2007, so you could ask him to check if the magazine has any additional identifying information for him (e.g., location). Perhaps that one needs to be split out, and possibly it would be an alternate name for one of the David Curtis identities. --MartyD (talk) 07:53, 29 June 2025 (EDT)

Titles remove

Could the following pubs be removed from here: 377390, 839657, 425612, 8366, 608509, 306310, 841158, 647928, 377510, 306309, 940097, 306312, 1017745, 35973, 36489, 335184, 46800, 1059731.

I think these also qualify for removal (I can't find specific guidance for this cover/slip-case scenario): 269417, 994815, 176581, 286692.

I've varianted the 3 cover art titles in these 2 pubs: 967807 and 967806. Are they correct as they are? If they are, these 2 can also be removed. (Again, I can't find any guidance for the treatment of multiple, separate works on one cover.)

Thanks in advance. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:54, 29 June 2025 (EDT)

Any response would be appreciated. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 08:38, 7 July 2025 (EDT)

While the Ace doubles or other 'dos' publications seem to be okay to be removed from the list, others aren't as easy to decide. After all, we only list the artwork on the front as cover art, and I do think that for example slip-cased editions don't fall into the category of having two front covers. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 10:14, 7 July 2025 (EDT)

I'm responsible for the 4 publications in the second bullet. Christian, if you don't want a slipcase or traycase cover to be listed as COVERART. How would you want them reflected? While we have special designations for endpapers and the reverse of the dust jacket, there are none for slipcases. Using the cover field seemed most logical to me and in all cases the slipcase cover has been identified either in the publication notes or with disambiguation. For the Wellman 2 volume set, I also think 2 COVERART items are appropriate. We have a special way of reflecting page counts for multi volume sets, it again seems to me that having multiple COVERART items is appropriate.

For the second bullet, I don't think it's appropriate to have separate COVERART titles for portions of a single cover. Nor do I think a variant relating the composite cover to its constituent parts. In fiction, we do not treat fix-ups this way and do not link the stories that make up the fix-up. For ESSAYS, we do not allow SERIALs even when an essay is serialized. I think the best course here would be to reflect the original sources in the notes for the composite COVERART title.

To sum up, I believe multiple COVERART records are fine when there are arguably multiple covers (dos-a-dos, different artwork between any of boards, dust-jacket and cases), but I don't believe we should used them for parts of a single cover. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 18:43, 7 July 2025 (EDT)

another cover cock up

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:WNDPNBLLHR2016.jpg

can a mod please delete this cover - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:37, 30 June 2025 (EDT)

✓ Done! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:49, 30 June 2025 (EDT)

adding reviews I've done for several books

Sorry folks, but I'm mystified as to how to go about properly adding multiple reviews I've done (Tunnel in the Sky, Space Vulture, Fleet of Worlds) to the database.

A bit of hand-holding would be appreciated.

Steve —The preceding unsigned comment added by Steve davidson (talk • contribs) 16:02, June 30, 2025‎

Reviews are entered as content titles in the publications where they appear. Provide the details on one of your reviews and I'll get you started, John Scifibones 16:17, 30 June 2025 (EDT)

For example, this issue of Leading Edge Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy has four reviews (three standard reviews, and one review entered as an essay since it's of a title not eligible for inclusion). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:04, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

Basically, we need to know in which publications these reviews appeared and a little information about the review: title of the magazine or other venue, issue #, cover date of the issue, title of the reviewed work, and then the page number where the review started). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:15, 3 July 2025 (EDT)

Joe, I answered him here before you ever saw this thread. I cautioned him about posting in multiple locations.John Scifibones 16:22, 3 July 2025 (EDT)

Yes, I saw that, too, when you answered there. I answered here so if anyone saw this and had the same question they would know what to do. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:29, 3 July 2025 (EDT)

Author Merge

Hi, I'd like to request that Rachel Edidin be merged into Jay Edidin, as the latter is his preferred and legal name.--Filbi (talk) 19:52, 1 July 2025 (EDT)

Hi, we do this as a pseudonym / alternate name relationship (Rachel Edidin as an alternate name for Jay Edidin). I have submitted the necessary edits: 1) 'Make Alternate Name' & 2) variant the titles by Jay to ones as by Rachel. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 02:41, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

Approved! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:56, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

Another author merger needed

Hi! It seems Amman Sabat was erroneously added for the webzine 'Phano', and needs to be merged with Amman Sabet: the magazine's web site states the latter name as editor. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 07:50, 3 July 2025 (EDT)

Also on their X/Twitter page. Merged as requested, John Scifibones 09:40, 3 July 2025 (EDT)

cover delete please

sorry another cock up.

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:VMPRHNTRDM2021.jpg

As requested, John Scifibones 09:26, 3 July 2025 (EDT)

The Shattered Chain

Regarding the cover art for this. Could someone edit the cover art title record [4] for this edition from Melvyn Grant to Peter Andrew Jones. Thanks. --Mavmaramis (talk) 03:45, 4 July 2025 (EDT)

Done (unmerged, changed, varianted and deleted the old image). --Willem (talk) 04:31, 4 July 2025 (EDT)

Scott O'Neill

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?110413; I added a link to a review of Martian Sexpot which detailed how bad it is, then noticed there's a story under author's name that's about 60 years later than the rest; coincidentally, it was published in a zine titled Martian but it's actually this guy, https://x.com/wererooster, so if a mod could unmerge and add a (I) to the guy and include the X link in his record that would be great. --Username (talk) 11:44, 7 July 2025 (EDT)

Looks like the (I) name already existed in the db. I've fixed this title so it's pointed at the correct person. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:50, 7 July 2025 (EDT)

Andy Grieser

This looks like a stranded author name - 385550. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:53, 9 July 2025 (EDT)

He is there because of this review, for which we don't have the corresponding title. The latter sounds as if it'd be eligible, but I'm not 100 % sure of it. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:40, 10 July 2025 (EDT)

I don't know. Based on what I can find, it's about people who believe they are vampires or who like to live as if they were vampires. Nothing remotely speculative as we define it. I'd even suggest changing the review to a standard essay since it's about a book that isn't eligible (at least from my view). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:20, 10 July 2025 (EDT)

Ah, thanks. Cleanup report #8. Is creating the publication the only way out here? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 05:33, 10 July 2025 (EDT)

No, if the book ain't eligible, I guess the review should be removed & deleted, and replaced by an ESSAY. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:33, 11 July 2025 (EDT)

All I've read online indicates this book contains nothing speculative and so isn't eligible. Unless anyone thinks otherwise, I'll change the review to an essay. Thanks to both of you for your help. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 11:21, 11 July 2025 (EDT)

Seeing no objection, I've made the change to an essay. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 22:05, 27 July 2025 (EDT)

Down Again

So I guess the site is being attacked by bots again? Judging by the fact that this morning when I was on for a few hours until 12 it was fine but when I got back on between 4:30 and 5:00 it's slow and there's timeout errors constantly. Is anyone working on fixing this? There's currently 1,710 pending edits, about 1,260 of which are mine. --Username (talk) 19:09, 10 July 2025 (EDT)

COPAC replaced by JISC Library Hub Discover

The COPAC site is completely gone now, so we should probably update the database for External IDs as well as this template. See this blog post for the details. New site is here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:53, 11 July 2025 (EDT)

Sorry, I missed this section when it was posted :-(

Checking Wiki history, I see that I looked into this issue back in September 2021:

As previously discussed, the UK/Irish union catalog COPAC was retired some months ago. Its replacement, Library Hub Discover, doesn't recognize COPAC IDs and, as far as I can tell, doesn't have permanent IDs of its own, at least at this time.

I have changed the name of the ISBN-based link in the navigation bar from "COPAC" and "Library Hub Discover" and added the word "(defunct)" to the name of COPAC's External ID Type. At first I considered removing COPAC External IDs, but the mere fact of their existence is informative -- it indicates that the publication's existence was confirmed at some point in the past. Besides, it's possible that Library Hub Discover, which clearly tries to be backwards compatible with COPAC, may start supporting these IDs again. Ahasuerus 12:00, 16 September 2021 (EDT)

As far as I can tell, Library Hub Discover still doesn't have permanent identifiers that we could use to link to their records.

At this point, 6 years after COPAC's retirement, I am not sure how useful its defunct identifiers are. My original reason to keep them, i.e. that the presence of a COPAC ID "indicates that the publication's existence was confirmed at some point in the past", still seems solid, but many publication records with COPAC IDs also have other External IDs or have been primary-verified. Perhaps we could create a report that would look for pubs that:

have a COPAC ID
do not have other External IDs
are not primary-verified
are not secondary-verified (?)

That should narrow it down to a (hopefully) manageable set of publication records which we could then verify against OCLC or other third party Web sites. Once it's done, we could remove COPAC IDs.

Thoughts? Ahasuerus (talk) 13:59, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

A report may be useful. It's kind of irritating that they replaced a real database with one that only displays things based on search results, with no way to intuitively link directly to a record. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:30, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

OK, I have created FR 1649, "Create a cleanup report of COPAC External IDs", to address this issue. Since it's a low priority FR, I don't expect I will be able to get to it until November 2025 at the earliest. I am currently working on the Fixer migration project, which has to be completed before November due to Microsoft dropping Windows 10 support in October. I'll also need to coordinate with Al who is working on the Python 3 migration. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:17, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Gegen die Zeit

Gegen die Zeit (Title Record # 3486703) is a German translation of the David Mack book Desperate Hours. (Title Record # 2237064) Normally I would ask that Gegen die Zeit be made a variant of Desperate Hours. However I get a flag because it seems like the ebook for Gegen die Zeit came out one day before the English Desperate Hours. I am courious as to what to do. Goodreads, Amazon.de, isbn.de all have the German version coming out a day before the English. aardvark7 (talk) 14:45, 14 July 2025 (EDT)

Don't worry about it. This happens often, and the English version is probably using Amazon dates, which are notoriously unreliable. Additionally, release dates are somewhat amorphous in most cases, as books can (and do) often go on sale prior to the publisher's intended release date with very few exceptions (such as really big releases like the Harry Potter books had for the last few titles). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:08, 14 July 2025 (EDT)

Miscredited cover artribution.

Cover art for this credits Ian Craig but it is the same illustration as this credited to Terry Oakes. --Mavmaramis (talk) 12:19, 22 July 2025 (EDT)

So do we know who it actually belongs to? Annie (talk) 12:19, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

The Last Dragonlord - Image Deletion

Hi.

Sorry for this error. Can this image be deleted please. Added in error to wrong pub and it already exists elsewhere too. Many thanks.ReadingMovies (talk) 14:16, 22 July 2025 (EDT)

✓ Done! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:25, 22 July 2025 (EDT)

Author Names with an Unrecognized Suffix

Could someone mark "Royal Air Force Song, World War II" to be ignored here. BanjoKev (talk) 00:09, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Done. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:33, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Also, it's been over a week now since I edited the other two names but they still appear. Can anyone tell me why? Thanks, --BanjoKev (talk) 00:09, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Sherman Brown, 3rd and Peter, aged 11 still exist in the database as alternate names -- see this list and this list. I have "ignored" them on the cleanup report so they won't be appearing on this cleanup report anymore. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:33, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for attending to those entries. Do take it then that even when any entry is edited it only disappears if a Moderator "ignores" it? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:15, 27 July 2025 (EDT)

Zombes

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2427792; I added the correct tag; how do you remove the wrong one (probably added by Vasha77 who's not here anymore)? --Username (talk) 10:46, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Marked the misspelled version as a private tag (which won't remove it completely but will remove it from the normal view and is the best we can do). Annie (talk) 12:18, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

At one point I added a moderator-only option to remove erroneous tags. If you click View Tag Breakdown, the last column in the displayed table should be "Remove". Ahasuerus (talk) 12:56, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

I can see the menu but only bureaucrats can remove :) Annie (talk) 11:46, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Ah, I see. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:20, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Do you want to kill this tag? Annie (talk) 11:46, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Dead and buried. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:20, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Rob Caswell

Hi folks! Hey, Question, under Rob Caswell Author Record # 118058 Why are there 2 entries for "Long Shot" when one is book, other is e-book Same for "All That's Left" There is a single record (1861658) for Long Shot with both entries. Same for All That's Left (1899025) But under the artist's name, they show up as separate items. All of the other entries are tied together, just these two stand out. aardvark7 (talk) 12:22, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Rob Caswell. Because they had not been merged when they were added. When you type the artist name as opposed to cloning a record or importing the cover, the system creates a new record for that cover (or any type really) and these then need to be merged post approval. I've merged them now but feel free to just submit a merge request when you see more of these :) Annie (talk) 12:51, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Blank Page

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?272160; PV back in 2008 decided the blank page should count as an extra page, other 2 copies here don't, should I change it to xxi? I already made an edit correcting "alpabetic" in the notes. --Username (talk) 08:53, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?194147; While adding archived link, LCCN, and cover image for the HC I saw that the title was wrong so I corrected it to "on"; maybe they changed it for the TP or, more likely, since neither copy has been edited here since 2008 nobody noticed it was wrong. No archived copies, though. --Username (talk) 09:03, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Two Swords

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?946066; PB PV is apparently not answering my questions on his board because he's mad about something so I checked Google Books copy and it is "The Tale of the Two Swords" there but checking A Winter's Magic on Amazon there's no "The" so if one of you could let PV know and then unmerge and variant the title that would be good. --Username (talk) 19:19, 28 July 2025 (EDT)

wrong cover for Merlin's Apprentice

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:MRLNSPPRNT2006.jpg

can a mod delete this cover please - Gaz Faustus (talk) 21:02, 30 July 2025 (EDT)

✓ Done! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:52, 1 August 2025 (EDT)

Mara

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6323068; A story title in this edition is "Red Cap of the Mara" which doesn't match this title, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1029517, and the author doesn't match this one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1451884, where it's likely the PV just entered the name wrong, a very common occurrence. So if anyone can get a hold of the 1976 zine maybe they can verify author and title and variant/modify as needed. --Username (talk) 11:03, 31 July 2025 (EDT)

Suspiciously similar cover art

This cover by Peter Knifton is suspiciously similar to this cover as by Terry Griffiths. --Mavmaramis (talk) 11:45, 31 July 2025 (EDT)

Looking at the other examples of each artist's work here, I'd lean toward the actual artist being Knifton. It just looks like something he'd make. Griffiths' art has a different feel and style to it (though we only have three other examples of work credited to him here). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:18, 31 July 2025 (EDT)

This Tumblr post also leads me to believe it's Knifton's work. Also, based on the back cover shown here, it looks like this book may not be genre. It seems to be a non-fiction book examining theories of extraterrestrials and "space gods" in a (pseudo?) scientific way. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:32, 31 July 2025 (EDT)

It could also be the same used as interiorart in this Omni magazine, credited to Knifton. Maybe @Spacecow could check? --Fantagufo (talk) 17:58, 31 July 2025 (EDT)

It is definitely the same art as that interior art (I have a PDF of that issue), and it's specifically credited to Knifton there. I've changed the reviews of the two ineligible Ronald Story titles to be essays, deleted the two ineligible Ronald Story titles and associated publications as not eligible for inclusion, and varianted this cover to the previously-published INTERIORART in Omni. I think that covers everything. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:50, 1 August 2025 (EDT)

Star Trek

I have been entering the German editions of the Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers books then attacking them to their English counterparts. Unbesiegbar 1 (3494745) is the German varient of Invincible: Book One (903363). I am having two problems. First the English top version was entered as a serial Invincible: Part One of Two (Part 1 of 2) (3050602) Next when I tried to make my German into the Variant, instead of attaching to 903363, it wanted to attach to 903363, Coverart for Rogue Golem. I am in a quandry as to what to do. The Invincible Book 2 is the same serial. As an FYI all of the sources I find list Invincible Part 1 as Book 7 and Invincible Part 2 as Book 8. They are both listed as Book 7 here. Others are Wildfire Part 1 as Book 23 with Wildfire Part 2 as Book 24 and The Demon Part 1 should be Book 35 and Part 2 as Book 36. Interphase is correct with Part 1 as Book 4 and Part 2 as Book 5 aardvark7 (talk) 13:12, 1 August 2025 (EDT)

For the first one, you need to variant it to 1022796 if it contains both parts 1 and 2. If it's split into two parts like the English version, then variant both German part 1 and German part 2 to 1022796 as well. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:26, 1 August 2025 (EDT)

Psychopomp

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6324999; I corrected the obvious misspelling and noticed that this used to be Fantasy Magazine, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?26751, the link of which now defaults to Psychopomp, so I don't know if some change is needed to the Fantasy link or a note is needed to connect the 2 records here or something. --Username (talk) 10:41, 3 August 2025 (EDT)

Blackwood Preface

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6325992; The Blackwood preface is not on contents page and has no number on its single page; I wasn't sure what to number it because it would seem to make sense for it to be p. xi as it follows p. x of the foreword but it is followed by a blank page and then the first story's starting page is 11. Any thoughts? --Username (talk) 17:54, 4 August 2025 (EDT)

I don't know that anyone else will agree with this advice, but.... I think you can't win here, because the Roman page numbering is incorrect, off by +2. Since the preface is part of the introductory material, I would use the next number in that page range. If the numbering were correct and the preceding pages were numbered v - viii (as they should be), it would be natural to derive "ix" for this page. So I would go with "xi" in this case, from the initial page range. We can't help that the numbering is incorrect. I would document the mistaken numbering in the notes. That would also explain the Pages of "200" with no additional range, since the pages with Roman numerals fall within the total 200 page count. --MartyD (talk) 16:41, 5 August 2025 (EDT)

I'd second that advice. Make sure the note explains the inconsistency and use the derived number from the numbered intro pages. Annie (talk) 14:31, 6 August 2025 (EDT)

OK, but someone has to approve my edit first so I can enter the note since if I make another edit now it will delete my note from the first edit, I think, unless someone fixed that problem sometime. --Username (talk) 17:50, 6 August 2025 (EDT)

This submission has been approved. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:14, 6 August 2025 (EDT)

PR 3338: Erroneous file uploaded

Good morning (well it's so over here): Could please someone delete this file, which was accidentally uploaded? Thanks in advance, Christian Stonecreek (talk) 06:34, 6 August 2025 (EDT)

Deleted. Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 06:36, 6 August 2025 (EDT)

The Broken Sword

Hello Mods. I picked up a copy of this. My copy differs from the one already in the database - comapring the copyright page to the one that appears on the archive org link my copy retains the copyright page from the Sphere 1977 edition. Copyright page has "First published in Great Britain in 1973 by Sphere Books Ltd. Reprinted 1977". It omits "This edition published by Orbit Books 1992" and has "Sphere Books Ltd. a division of Macdonald & Co (Publishers) Ltd" with a London address (same address as the archive org copy). It has the same cover art. Do I clone a copy and make notes or edit the existing entry with notes relating to the phyical copy I have ? --Mavmaramis (talk) 16:59, 7 August 2025 (EDT)

You can go ahead and clone the existing one, then make the changes to the clone before saving it, according to the differences. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:59, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

sorry mods...

...got another cover that needs chucking. Gaz Faustus (talk) 20:55, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:LFRDHTCHCC1969.jpg

✓ Done! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:55, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

Interior art titles

Following up on this conversation could a Moderator please mark ignored the 4 titles here. Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 07:12, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

Done. --MartyD (talk) 07:50, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Marty. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 08:17, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

PC

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6329653; I'd like to have this approved so I can import contents. --Username (talk) 17:44, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

Done. --Chris J (talk) 20:46, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. I imported all stories on ISFDB; if anyone is aware of any of the other stories being genre-related they can add them. --Username (talk) 21:13, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

Paul Bunyan Fights the Monster Plants

I'd like my 2 Bunyan edits approved so I can import art/short story into TP and mark it as a juvenile which I forgot to do. --Username (talk) 10:43, 11 August 2025 (EDT)

✓ Done! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:34, 11 August 2025 (EDT)

Bantam Press vs Bantam Books (UK)

Hello mods. Some guidance would be helpful in regards to UK editions of this publisher that have "Bantam Press" on the dustwrapper and title page and where the copyright page states "Bantam Press" but notes it as being a division of Transworld Publishers and giving three addresses. Should I assume that they are indeed Bantam Books (UK) and not Bantam Press ?--Mavmaramis (talk) 23:56, 11 August 2025 (EDT)

I would record the publisher as it is on the title pages, and then add notes to the various related publisher pages pointing to the other related publishers. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:05, 12 August 2025 (EDT)

South-Mountain Magic: candidate for deletion?

Can a second pair of eyes have a look at this publication? Seems there are no speculative elements in there, merely an account of late 19th century folk magic on South Mountain. Didn't to a very thorough search, but reading through these pages I couldn't find any elements that warrant inclusion. There are recounts of stories though. Enough to include? Regards, MagicUnk (talk) 09:03, 14 August 2025 (EDT)

It seems to be a combination of nonfiction with speculative fiction stories mixed in here and there, based on the several pages I read. I'd lean toward keeping it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:47, 14 August 2025 (EDT)

A Question of Blood

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6332614; I'd like to have this approved so I can import contents. --Username (talk) 18:10, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6332624; Also this one. --Username (talk) 18:23, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

✓ Done! For both. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:38, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. I imported half-a-dozen stories for A Question of Blood; Secrets has more than that to import but the first story is a problem because it identifies "Bash Tchelik" as by Alan Garner while ISFDB says unknown. What should be done? --Username (talk) 23:38, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Add it as a new title in the contents, with Alan Garner as author. After that submission is accepted and the Garner-credited title created, we can variant the unknown-credited title to it. --MartyD (talk) 08:07, 16 August 2025 (EDT)

Adding an External ID source

Should US Copyright registrations be considered as an External ID option, such that it is added to the drop-down menu? It would bring consistency of appearance to entries with Registration Numbers. Its Detailed Record View offers some bibliographic info (in line with existing External IDs), if that helps persuade consideration. TobyJames (talk) 19:30, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Do you have an example link or two so we can see what they look like? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:37, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Psychic Phenomena

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?463290; It's PV but probably doesn't belong here; it's "non-fiction" 70s psychic/tarot nonsense. Delete? --Username (talk) 11:13, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

I'd say it's out of scope. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:07, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

Henry Kuttner / Fury - Deletion of Introduction

I am working on Henry Kuttner / Fury (1966). This pub and the 1963 printing are the only two that contain the essay: Introduction (Fury). However, this Introduction is fictional and forms part of the novel. This is noted in the first edition. I have just re-read the Introduction and concur. Hence I will remove it from both the Mayflower-Dell pb's, delete it and add appropriate pub notes and a title note. Excluding myself, there are five PVs across the two affected pubs but all are inactive or pretty inactive hence this post to inform moderators. Teallach (talk) 18:37, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

Proposed image uploading help

Fellow mods, please review this brief thread Cover replacement failed (?). I propose to update the re-uploading section to reflect my suggestion. Immediate benefits:

Editors will no longer need to ignore a warning message.
Moderators will be alerted to changed wiki pages allowing us to review the wiki page for accuracy as well as remove no longer necessary images.

Comments or objections? Thanks for your attention, John Scifibones 07:01, 20 August 2025 (EDT)

Clarifying things to make the process simpler seems like a good idea to me. Do you have proposed wording changes for review? And if we are going to change the help page(s), it may be good to have this discussion over on the Rules and standards discussions page. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:34, 20 August 2025 (EDT)

There is no rule or standard change to debate. This is simply a explanation of how to best utilize the software as it exists today. My single post, in the above thread, outlines the procedure. John Scifibones 15:33, 20 August 2025 (EDT)

We have a lot of uploaded images that are used for multiple publications with the same cover image. When you use the suggested method, it will change the image for all these pubs. When I change a cover image, I always check if it links back to the right publication. The new method can be added to the existing helptext, but should not replace it. --Willem (talk) 03:39, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

I agree with Willem. The suggested new method will cause unintended consequences. The current method tends to be safer - though not perfect either. You could still be uploading on top of an image that is shared, but typically when there is sharing that is wrong, it is usually the publication that is reusing an image that is wrong. I also agree with Nihonjoe that this topic is better suited for Rules or Community Portal. Moderators don't have sole say on how the help & processes work. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:43, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

The same "problem" you refer to occurs regardless of the method used to upload the image. As far as where best to have the discussion, this was Ahasuerus's suggestion. Whether the help wording is changed or not, editors can choose which method they prefer. John Scifibones 18:29, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

Let's try an example: A hardcover and a trade paperback of a title are published with the same artwork. A scan is uploaded for the HC, and also used for the TP. Now you want to upload a scan for the TP. Using the existing method, you get no warning and have to change the url. Using the new method, you go to the uploaded HC scan, and change that to the TP scan, thereby creating a wrong image for the HC. That is not a "problem", that's a problem. You asked for comments or objections remember? --Willem (talk) 05:59, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

I know the wiki software shows when an image is used on the wiki. I wonder if something could be done to the ISFDB database software to "trick" the wiki into showing which database items are using a particular image? It might have to be done using an extension we build for use here on ISFDB. This would allow the wiki pages for each image to link to the entries in the database that use the image, thereby allowing people to see if a particular image is being used for more than one publication. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:24, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

(unindent) Thanks for clarifying the two different scenarios!

I have reviewed the code behind Publication display pages. As luck would have it, it should be trivial to enhance the software to retrieve a list of the publication records that share the displayed ISFDB-hosted image. Once the display software has the list, it should be able to act intelligently, specifically:

If the displayed image is not in use by other pubs, then the software would display a link to the re-upload page. The displayed text would be be something like "No other publication records use this image. You can upload a new version of the cover scan [here]" (where "[here]" is a link.)

If, on the other hand, the displayed image is in use by other pubs, then the software could display a message along the lines of "2 [or 1, or 3, etc] other publication records use this image. You can see them listed [here]. If you [upload a new cover scan], it will be used for this publication only. If you choose to [overwrite the current cover scan with a new version] instead, the new version will be automatically used by all publication records that share this image. Make sure that you choose the right option." (Of course, we will tweak the message before we implement the change.)

Would this work? Ahasuerus (talk) 21:55, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

Yes, that would be great. There would be three cases though:

Image is only used by the current pub - link to re-upload page.
Image is used by multiple pubs and image is not at current pub's publication tag (upload would not overwrite it) - link to current upload page
Image is used by multiple pubs and image is at current pub's publication tag (upload would overwrite it) - link to re-upload page

The last one is the only that would cause the issue of changing other publications so it is the only one that needs a warning. I think the first two can continue to use the current message ("Upload new cover scan"), but link to different pages. Only the last one needs a warning. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:24, 23 August 2025 (EDT)

Oh, I think I see what you mean. To be safe, let me make sure that I understand scenario #2 correctly. Suppose we have a publication record whose publication tag is X. It also has an image whose URL includes publication tag Y. In addition, there is another publication record whose image URL also includes publication tag Y. You are saying that clicking the "Upload new cover scan" link (as it currently exists) would create a Wiki page for X, so there would be no conflict with Y, right?

If so, shouldn't we check if the Wiki already has an image for X (instead of Y) since an upload would overwrite it? Ahasuerus (talk) 20:55, 23 August 2025 (EDT)

Correct & that would be a good additional check as well. Sometimes images get uploaded, but never added to the pub. However, that could be the case even if the pub's current image is not from the wiki (say an Amazon image). -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:13, 24 August 2025 (EDT)

David West

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2924354; Shouldn't interviewee be David West (II) who has a story in the same zine and not merged with pseudonym of David Stacton who died decades earlier? --Username (talk) 10:38, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

It's possible this may be David J. West, who writes sword and sorcery all the time. I'm checking with him to see if it's him. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:22, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

I did a little more digging, and it definitely is David J. West. I've varianted it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:27, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

cover to delete

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:CRRDCMBRHG1953.jpg

can a mod delete this wrong cover please. cheers Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:03, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

✓ Done! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:44, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

@@ Line 878: / Line 878: @@
 :: If so, shouldn't we check if the Wiki already has an image for X (instead of Y) since an upload would overwrite it? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:55, 23 August 2025 (EDT)
+:::Correct & that would be a good additional check as well. Sometimes images get uploaded, but never added to the pub. However, that could be the case even if the pub's current image is not from the wiki (say an Amazon image). --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:13, 24 August 2025 (EDT)
 == David West ==