Difference between revisions of "ISFDB:Community Portal"

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(→‎Alison Scott disambiguation: why "(US author)" or any "(author)"?)
 
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{{Shortcut3|shortcut1=ISFDB:COMMPORTAL|link1=ISFDB:COMMPORTAL|shortcut2=ISFDB:CP|link2=ISFDB:CP|shortcut3=COMMPORTAL|link3=COMMPORTAL}}
  
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== David St. Clair ==
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== PVR ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?4619; He wrote a lot of dopey non-fiction books in the 70s and 80s about psychic powers and exorcisms and whatnot, but the etsy.com page I just found for his 1989 book Bloodline says he's turning his hand to fiction. Mine to Kill's Corgi ed., https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/91790613, says "true account" on the cover and the cover of The Devil Rocked Her Cradle on ISFDB also says "account". They're non-fiction (although the Bart ed. of Mine To Kill on ISFDB has different copy on the cover that tries to make it look like a novel) and so probably should be deleted; he's certainly not above-the-threshold. --[[User:Username|Username]] 08:55, 1 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=rosenkr&type=Name; Palie von is actually Palle von per contents page photo online, novel is not genre from what I can gather online, Palle Rosenkrantz story is not genre per online reviews, neither really belong here, didn't notice this until I'd already entered bio info for Rosenkrantz, cancelled my edit, I think both names should be deleted, probably other contents from 1960 omnibus and Martin Edwards anthology are not genre and should be removed, too (there's a note in the anthology's record mentioning this). --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 14:30, 2 November 2023 (EDT)
  
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== Reviews by Dave Langford (alternate name) ==
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== Rageot ==
  
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The summary bibliography for alternate name {{a|Dave Langford}} lists more than 100 Reviews.
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=rageot&type=Publisher; I have a PENDING edit fixing/adding stuff re: someone else's recent edit for a book published by Rageot and I noticed ISFDB has records for that name which was on the title page and the longer name, Rageot-Éditeur, which was on the copyright page. So really all books should probably be merged under one name. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:30, 3 November 2023 (EDT)
  
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And it does not display the note "Alternate Name. See: David Langford (or view all titles published using this alternate name)" that I expect to see.
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== Science Fictional Solar System ==
  
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Meanwhile, for David Langford, I see no way to "toggle" from the default view to one that lists only works we know to be published under that canonical name. Is that a feature we have lost? or (more likely, yes, of course) a phantom memory of some years-ago wishful thought? --[[User:Pwendt|Pwendt]]|[[User talk:Pwendt|talk]] 13:18, 1 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?32159; The UK HC & book club editions say Martin H. Greenberg on their cover, 2 eBay copies of book club don't show title page, does anyone own either edition who can verify what his name is on title page? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 22:28, 4 November 2023 (EDT)
  
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:When all titles under a pseudonym are already varianted to the canonical name, the page remains empty of titles and the software will display "Alternate Name. See: David Langford (or view all titles published using this alternate name)". If there are still titles not yet varianted, as with all these White Dwarf reviews, it will display only "Used As Alternate Name By: David Langford", so all these reviews will need to be varianted to David Langford. AFAICR I think it has always been this way. ;) [[User:PeteYoung|PeteYoung]] 09:23, 2 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Brad Steiger Stories ==
  
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:: That's right. Spot checking some of the "Dave Langford" reviews, I see that they come from recently entered "White Dwarf" issues, e.g. [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?897890 White Dwarf, December 1984], which was entered on [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pub_history.cgi?897890 2022-05-08]. They just need to be varianted. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:04, 2 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5805263; I didn't change the dates of Steiger's stories but I think they're both wrong. "Detroit", being a variant title, should have the date of this anthology, I think, and "Huntsman" should have a 1966 date as copyright page says. Am I right? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:01, 5 November 2023 (EST)
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:Yes, titles are dated per first appearance of that form of the title. Updates made. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 11:51, 5 November 2023 (EST)
  
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== Science Fiction Encyclopedia Links ==
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== Amazon WEBP Images ==
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I have been working on this project, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/edit/sfe3_authors.cgi. About half of the original task is done but many of the remaining entries are matches on pseudonyms and  I am not sure what is the best way to process them, if at all. [[User:Swfritter|swfritter]] 16:15, 1 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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: SFE's pseudonym stubs can still be useful as sources of pseudonym attribution, so I would link them on our side. If we have the same pseudonym on file, then I would add its SFE link under the pseudonym record. If we don't have the pseudonym -- which can happen for non-genre pseudonyms -- I would add it to the canonical name. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:19, 2 July 2022 (EDT)
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[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_results.cgi?USE_1=pub_title&O_1=exact&TERM_1=&C=AND&USE_2=pub_frontimage&O_2=contains&TERM_2=w%2Fwebp&USE_3=pub_title&O_3=exact&TERM_3=&USE_4=pub_title&O_4=exact&TERM_4=&USE_5=pub_title&O_5=exact&TERM_5=&USE_6=pub_title&O_6=exact&TERM_6=&USE_7=pub_title&O_7=exact&TERM_7=&USE_8=pub_title&O_8=exact&TERM_8=&USE_9=pub_title&O_9=exact&TERM_9=&USE_10=pub_title&O_10=exact&TERM_10=&ORDERBY=pub_year&ACTION=query&START=0&TYPE=Publication]; After I replaced one a few days ago and another one today I did a search and it seems most (all?) of the images with the weird URL Amazon switched to for a while are now broken. Is there a batch fix or will they have to be changed one by one (there's several hundred)? Most are not PV. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:09, 5 November 2023 (EST)
  
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::That was my inclination. It is kind of nice to see items disappear from the list after they have been processed.--[[User:Swfritter|swfritter]] 16:15, 3 July 2022 (EDT)
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: I see what you mean. There are 806 affected publication records, 30 of them primary-verified. I could create a script to change the URLs of the unverified pubs, then we could ask the primary verifiers to check their pubs. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:25, 5 November 2023 (EST)
  
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::: Keep in mind that, as the report header says, "this report lets moderators ignore SFE author URLs." Once you have a list of SFE author pages which we don't need to link to, please feel free to post it here and a moderator will "ignore" them. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 21:47, 3 July 2022 (EDT)
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:: I'm sure you've already got something that could be repurposed for this, but if not:
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:: https://github.com/JohnSmithDev/ISFDB-Tools/blob/master/tools/submit_edits_via_api.py
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:: You would need to update get_bad_pub_records() to pick up the affected records - plus any additional check to not pick up verified pubs - and the regex to fix them in the first line of generate_pubdate_imagefix()
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:: Then 'uncomment' the PUB_COVER_EDITS code in the __main__ section. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 05:01, 6 November 2023 (EST)
  
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Meanwhile, I am taking a little Covid break. Not severe, but I definitely have a little Covid fog.--[[User:Swfritter|swfritter]] 16:15, 1 July 2022 (EDT)
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:::: There have been quite a few scripts to mass change URL structures over the years, e.g. [https://sourceforge.net/p/isfdb/code-svn/HEAD/tree/trunk/scripts/amazon_urls_to_https.py this one from 2022]. I plan to use it as a template later today. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:17, 6 November 2023 (EST)
  
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: Sorry to hear that! Hopefully things will get better soon and it won't have any side effects. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:19, 2 July 2022 (EDT)
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:::I was adding an Amazon author image for Maggie Allen and the URL is weird so I did a search, [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_results.cgi?USE_1=author_image&O_1=contains&TERM_1=m.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FW&C=AND&USE_2=author_canonical&O_2=exact&TERM_2=&USE_3=author_canonical&O_3=exact&TERM_3=&USE_4=author_canonical&O_4=exact&TERM_4=&USE_5=author_canonical&O_5=exact&TERM_5=&USE_6=author_canonical&O_6=exact&TERM_6=&USE_7=author_canonical&O_7=exact&TERM_7=&USE_8=author_canonical&O_8=exact&TERM_8=&USE_9=author_canonical&O_9=exact&TERM_9=&USE_10=author_canonical&O_10=exact&TERM_10=&ORDERBY=author_canonical&ACTION=query&START=0&TYPE=Author], and these are also broken. I don't know if the batch will fix these, too. EDIT: This URL was fine, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5806113, which I got by searching for Amazon and the author's name in Google Images; however, on the author's Amazon page, https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Maggie-Allen/e/B00DXZNLOG, the URL is the broken one. I don't know what's up with all this but I'm sure someone else does. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:13, 6 November 2023 (EST)
  
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:: Just on the subject of that report, could it be extended to look for SFE links associated with records other than authors?  [https://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/star_trek_picard This link] is currently at #1633 in the list, and I'd added it to [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?57687 the relevant series page] ages ago, but it still shows up in the report. I guess non-author SFE pages are less important to get in the database, but it would seem preferable to add them where relevant, rather than mark them as ignored, I'd have thought?
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:::: I have now manually fixed the "WEBP" author URLs. All but 2 were broken. Removing the "WEBP" part fixed all of them, although a few were "S" images, so they will be caught by the cleanup reports when they next run. I think it's safe to say that we should be able to removed "WEBP" from the affected cover scans programmatically. I'll work on it later today. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:13, 6 November 2023 (EST)
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:: (Although I do note that the SFE link on [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?34988 this series page] - which I'd previously moved from an author page to the series, as the author/editor in question now has a proper SFE page - doesn't show on the report, so maybe things are more complicated than I thought? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 13:02, 2 July 2022 (EDT)
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:::::Thanks. I added an image to Maxwell Alexander Drake's record and of the 4 images on his Amazon page (I think at least some people must be aware by now that only certain regional Amazon pages display all author images at the moment in the scroll bar or whatever it's called, Amazon.com and many others just show the main photo, and they seem to be getting fewer and fewer as time goes by; I find Amazon Canada and Amazon France are still good) 2 are WEBP and 2 are regular; it figures that the one I had to use wasn't as good as the others. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:33, 6 November 2023 (EST)
  
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::: There are a couple of things to consider here.
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=== Outcome -- WEBP images converted ===
  
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::: First, the ISFDB/SFE reconciliation report is supposed to be rebuilt nightly by scanning the SFE categories listed on [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/category/everyone this SFE page of "people" categories]: artist, author, critic, etc. Their [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/category/all full list of categories] includes awards, comics, fandom-related entries, films, games, etc. Once we catch up with the "people" categories, we can explore other categories. "Award" looks particularly promising. "Game" may also be of interest since we have quite a few fiction series based on game worlds.
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All 806 "WEBP" images have been converted. Please let me know if you come across any issues. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:17, 6 November 2023 (EST)
  
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::: Second, SFE's recent (October 2021) migration from HTTP to HTTPS required certain software changes on our side. Some were easy to implement, but others can't be put into effect until we upgrade our server. This means that we are working with an out of date version of SFE's data. (We'll be able to catch up once our server migration is finished.) Since I don't see https://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/star_trek_picard listed as part of a "people category", I assume that it comes from an older version of the SFE data. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 15:49, 2 July 2022 (EDT)
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== St. Martin's The Light Fantastic ==
  
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== Red Skel(e)ton ==
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https://colinsmythe.co.uk/terry-pratchett/discworld/discworld-novels/light-fantastic/; I was doing some edits for the few St. Martin's editions of Terry Pratchett's novels and I think this last one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?43074, doesn't exist. It should probably get the unpublished code for the date. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:46, 6 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?326759; Someone uploaded a copy of this anthology to Archive.org in 2015; the first author's last name was misspelled, and Supernatural Index where contents were entered from by previous editor spells it properly, so I assume it was just a mistake and I fixed it. More importantly, the title page seems to suggest the title should be Red Skeleton (or maybe Red Skel(e)ton), and it is Skeleton in many places on the web; what do you think? Also, there is much (creepy) interior art; does anyone know if it's also by the cover artist? --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:32, 4 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Untouched by Human Hands ==
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:I think it should be "Skeleton".  Note that LOC has it that way.  Also, if you look at the scan, both the title page and the running headers spell it Skeleton with the second "e" slightly lighter and dropped a bit, but still clearly "Skeleton".  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] 11:52, 4 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Yellow Mark ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5806259; Actual price was a bit different than what Tuck supposedly said but since Bluesman is gone if anyone else has the Tuck book and it really says 12/- then a note about difference on flap can be added after my edit is approved. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:38, 6 November 2023 (EST)
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: There is a price shown here:  www.ebay.com/itm/115568098201 [[User:Taweiss|Tom]] ([[User talk:Taweiss|talk]]) 22:07, 13 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5352499; Does anyone know if that URL can be fixed in order not to display that warning? I entered the other Sunset book by Jakes, Brak, with an Amazon cover that's not so good but at least there was one, but this audiobook's cover could only be found by me on Goodreads and it does start with an Amazon URL but mod apparently doesn't agree, although there are countless cover images on ISFDB with the same warning and yet their covers still display properly. I prefer to save uploading covers to Wiki for rare books, or those with badly scanned or damaged covers, neither of which applies in this case. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:53, 4 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Faerie Tale ==
  
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:I suggest you ping Ahasuerus.  It could be the validator needs a little tweaking.  It probably doesn't like the periods in the "compressed.photo.goodreads.com" part -- usually periods separate Amazon's formatting directives -- but that's just a Male Answer Syndrome WAG. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] 18:43, 4 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://archive.org/search?query=faerie-tale&sort=title&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22&and%5B%5D=firstTitle%3AF; While doing an edit for Raymond E. Feist (adding a note that he was born Gonzales, not Feist, and fixing his day of birth) I saw that, despite the dozens of editions of his great horror/fantasy novel Faerie Tale the only one archived is a Doubleday Book-of-the-Month Club edition which isn't on ISFDB! Open Library claims there are 2 previewable copies but whichever edition the other one was, it's gone now. So if anyone has one of those club indexes or wherever people get the dates/ID # from, you may want to enter this edition so at least there'll be one copy people can read easily. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:26, 6 November 2023 (EST)
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:I've added the BOMC edition [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?978095 here]. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:23, 7 November 2023 (EST)
  
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:: Our software currently recognizes one stable pattern for Amazon-hosted "S" image URLs: *.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/ followed by 26 letters or digits and ending with ".gif", ".png" or ".jpg".
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== Alan Burns ==
  
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:: The "S" URL linked above is "images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327999593i/9621932.jpg", which is very different from what's expected. Do we know if this pattern is supported by Amazon? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 18:54, 4 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?18958; I added cover image to Dreamerika a while ago and today added archived link to US Babel edition; SFE says "Babel" in New Worlds is an excerpt so I've added that word to the title. The issue now is SFE thinks all the other short stories are by a different Alan Burns (and probably the poems and essay, too). Does anyone know for sure? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:31, 7 November 2023 (EST)
  
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:::The link does work. I have never seen one like it. I spent a little quality Google time trying to find an alternative Amazon path for it, but I was unsuccessful.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] 07:19, 5 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Connecting books in an unnamed series ==
  
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:::: Oh, I know that it works, I am just wondering if it's officially supported. We've run into stability issues with unsupported Amazon URLs in the past -- "here today, gone tomorrow". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 09:00, 5 July 2022 (EDT)
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I'm currently adding two books where one is the sequel to the other, yet they are not part of a named series. Should I still add series to them (and if so what should I call it), or should I only make a not about it in the title note? /[[User:Lokal Profil|Lokal]][[Special:Contributions/Lokal Profil|_]][[:User talk:Lokal Profil|Profil]] 14:34, 7 November 2023 (EST)
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:What are the books? Can you provide a link to them? Or have you not added them yet? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:52, 7 November 2023 (EST)
  
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== "Publications with Invalid Page Numbers" updated ==
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:: One thing that we often do when two or more titles -- or two or more series -- are part of a larger, unnamed, setting is create a new series (or super-series) and use the word "universe" in its name. One example would be the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?42997 Baba Yaga Universe]. It contains 2 sub-series and one collection. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:05, 7 November 2023 (EST)
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::: This is only two books {{t|3244057|Domens dag}} and {{t|978127|Råttorna}}. Calling it a universe feels a bit  like giving it more credit than it is due =) /[[User:Lokal Profil|Lokal]][[Special:Contributions/Lokal Profil|_]][[:User talk:Lokal Profil|Profil]] 18:01, 7 November 2023 (EST)
  
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The cleanup report "Publications with Invalid Page Numbers" has been updated to look for invalid values after the pipe character. Once the report is rerun tomorrow morning, it should list 388 publications. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:32, 5 July 2022 (EDT)
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:::: Hi! If you can't find a naming of the series or a general theme, I'd suggest to use in this case the title of the first novel, like it was done for the two novels in [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?34751 this series]. (The second link you provided leads one to a piece of interior art ;-) ) Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 06:48, 8 November 2023 (EST)
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:::: If the two novels do share the same main character, there'd be the additional possibility to name the series after it, like it was done [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?19161 here]. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 07:10, 8 November 2023 (EST)
  
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== 2022-07-05 -- server problems ==
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::::: Thanks for the many suggestions! I'll go with the ''title of the first novel'' suggestion as the main characters are not given a last name (if memory serves) and Peter & Anna is way to generic =). Appologies for the erroneous second link (that was the pub-id not the title-id), the intended one is {{t|3244058|Råttorna}}. /[[User:Lokal Profil|Lokal]][[Special:Contributions/Lokal Profil|_]][[:User talk:Lokal Profil|Profil]] 16:53, 8 November 2023 (EST)
  
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The ISFDB server is currently experiencing system issues and "leaking" disk space. It appears to be the same problem that we ran into a couple of months ago and that had to be fixed by the hosting company. At the rate things are going, we will run out of space within a couple of hours.
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== Pied Pipers ==
  
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I have notified Al and hope that the issue will be resolved later today. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:35, 5 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1428017; I left Chavey a message about a city missing in their note about imprint on title page of Routledge edition (which I'd just added an Archive.org link to) but later saw that there was a more pressing problem; the title was wrong, missing a word and misspelling another. I later added another note about Warne edition also likely being wrong based on cover image. Looking further, I think the other 2 editions also have the wrong title; Rand McNally 1937 edition (Chavey's note says 1927, that may be yet another mistake) is on Archive.org and it says The Pied Piper of Hamelin on title page while there's no edit history for Harrap edition but notes are in Chavey's style. Problem is Chavey hasn't responded to any messages since May of last year. Any suggestions? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:28, 7 November 2023 (EST)
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:Their last activity in the database was on 2023-11-04, so only a few days ago. I suggest giving it a little more time for them to respond to the questions. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 11:33, 8 November 2023 (EST)
  
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: The server finally ran out of disk space around 5:30am this morning. The hosting company fixed the issue a few minutes ago. Everything should be back up. Please post here if you come across any problems. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 10:08, 6 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Geta ==
  
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== $5.95 ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?17102; I added a link to 1984-00-00 in a PENDING edit; 1985 2nd printing was edited by Hauck, hater of ISFDB, while RTrace cloned the 1984-06-00 but that date can't be right because the price is higher than 1985. There are 2 identical notes about name of publisher in 1984-00-00 and 1985 but neither was edited by the same person/people so some cloning/copying happened there, too. So publisher should either be Granada or Panther / Granada for all 3 and 1984-06-00 should either have a new date or all 0's for unknown; it also says TP, not PB, and likely has the same cover as the others so cover artist should be imported. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:48, 9 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Username#The_Summer_Meadows; Can someone look at this and approve my edit? I'm tired of arguing. --[[User:Username|Username]] 17:01, 6 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Arthur Barker Edition of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ==
  
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: It was approved very soon after I wrote this, but I think that was just in the normal run of things, not as a result of my message. I'm still curious about whether I was imagining things, or does anyone else see what I saw? There's no Delacorte PB and searching Google's copy brings up $5.95, right? --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:58, 7 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5809217; No idea why that obviously incorrect cover artist data was approved by a mod but I removed Kay and the word "Illustrations" from Litherland's credit. I assume the Amazon cover is the correct one because there's a few non-Amazon sites that show the same cover for that ISBN but the problem is Open Library has a 1985 date for the Arthur Barker edition (the only one out of 85 editions) but editor here has 1980 and ISFDB page for that publisher ends in 1980. This edition seems rare so if anyone owns it can you check to make sure date, price, page count (Open Library says 188, not 187), etc. are correct? I left PV a message but they don't seem to answer any questions. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:01, 10 November 2023 (EST)
  
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::I saw the $5.95, but I wouldn't have been able to figure out that the snippet was showing the price from a flap.  FWIW, a Google shows plenty of resellers calling it a hardcover, as well as a Reginald bibliography on [https://books.google.com/books?id=P8zW2AH6150C&lpg=PA382&ots=mn9E5SmOBl&dq=%22the%20summer%20meadows%22%20delacorte&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=%22the%20summer%20meadows%22%20delacorte&f=false Google Books] calling it "cloth".  An entry on [https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Summer-Meadows-Robert-Nathan-Delacorte-Press/18772435700/bd AbeBooks] calls it hardcover, talks about the dust jacket condition, and has some pictures, although the pictures do not include anything that definitively show the format.  So, given all of that, it seems likely Google Books' metadata is mistaken. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] 10:39, 8 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Letter From A Teddy Bear On ? ==
  
−
::: I happen to agree that $5.95 is the price for the hardcover. I agree because of information provided subsequent to the edit. However, the publication note still says only 'Price found in search of Google Books copy. I find that statement incomplete at best. Note, I did not reject it, I released it so another moderator could review it. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 11:14, 8 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:J-Sun#Letter_from_a_Teddy_Bear_on_Veteran.27s_Day; I doubt this editor will respond so if anyone else wants to say what the right way to do this is, chime in. I could have sworn this discussion took place much earlier but I see it was only last December and yet I added some weird image to my message, which I don't do, so not sure why I did that. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:46, 10 November 2023 (EST)
 +
:Varianted. Most common version used as parent per standard. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 14:26, 10 November 2023 (EST)
  
−
:::: https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/21/archives/new-novel-by-leland-frederick-cooley-607-pp-new-york-avon-paper-175.html; https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/01/archives/a-listing-of-recently-published-books-fiction-general.html. Yes, $5.95 IS the price of the hardcover. There's 2 mentions of it linked above. I saw those first, didn't want to enter 2 links, and found the price in the Google copy, which is preferable because I'm sure the New York Times was just as capable of wrong info as anyone else, but when you see $5.95 in print on an actual scan of a physical copy when you do a search on Google, you can't dispute that; pics don't lie. If you'd like to add those 2 Times links to the record so it's more complete, you're free to do that. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:30, 8 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Who Is Lewis Pinder? ==
  
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== John Farris birthdate ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?976273; MLB recently PV Signet PB and I just replaced faded Amazon cover with nice Bookscans cover but I can't find a cover for the HC anywhere. If anyone else can, can you upload it? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:29, 10 November 2023 (EST)
  
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It was pointed out [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1492 on Twitter] that ISFDB has [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1492 today as a birthdate for him], but [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Farris Wikipedia] (and also [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0268468/ IMDB]) has the 26th. I looked through the Wikipedia history and talk pages, but couldn't see anything that might explain the discrepancy, other than the possibility of confusion with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Farris_(poet_and_novelist) a different John Farris], but that one doesn't have any DOB info on Wikipedia, so that doesn't seem an especially likely explanation.
+
== Request to add German fantastic literature price:  ==
  
−
Does anyone know any more about this author, or is it something that will just have to be acknowledged in the note, but leaving the DOB field as-is.  Having a month and day-of-month of the same number makes me suspect the data here is more likely to be incorrect (e.g. typo or date format mismatch), but I don't think that's enough to justify changing the value in the field. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 14:23, 7 July 2022 (EDT)
+
Hi all,  
  
−
:The [https://prezi.com/8g0n6unlfd2g/john-lee-farris/ Prezi] page says "Born July seventh, 1936".  Judging by the edit history, that page is likely the source for our date.  See [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/dumpxml.cgi?3488752]. The "blackleatherrequired" site only has/had 1936.  Searching on https://www.missouribirthindex.com/ for Farris between 1935 and 1937 give "JOHN LEE FARRIS 07/26/1936".  While that's not an official Missouri government site, it looks fairly authoritative to me.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] 10:23, 8 July 2022 (EDT)
+
after adding the German "DSFP" award, I would like to add now the "Phantastikpreis der Stadt Wetzlar", another German fantastic price:
  
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:: Thanks for doing way more detective work than I could even have considered! I've updated the author record, adding a note about the contrary date in the Prezi. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 16:52, 11 July 2022 (EDT)
+
Translation:  The “Fantasy Prize of the City of Wetzlar” has been awarded since 1983. The prize is a literary prize endowed with 4,000 euros and is awarded annually for a novel. The prize honors works from all types of fantasy, from magical realism to fantasy science fiction, utopia and horror. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that the fantastic element - similar to Goethe's “Magician's Apprentice” - also allows real life connections to appear in a new light. The prize is awarded by the city of Wetzlar in cooperation with the Wetzlar Fantastic Library. The jury consists of literary experts from Wetzlar and the surrounding area who have a close connection to fantastic literature.
  
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== Long Dash ==
+
Source (in German): https://www.phantastik.eu/ausschreibungen-und-preise/phantastikpreis-der-stadt-wetzlar.html
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?24550; Not merged like they should be because of that dumb dash being entered 2 different ways. --[[User:Username|Username]] 15:21, 7 July 2022 (EDT)
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Forgot to sign it: [[User:Jannis|Jannis]] ([[User talk:Jannis|talk]]) 08:39, 12 November 2023 (EST)
  
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== Why Don't They Just Use Words? ==
+
: I do think it should be perfectly eligible. [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 07:06, 12 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?119003; So it turns out this dude, Brian Ames, wrote a ton of fiction including much that's not on ISFDB because it was published in literary/online zines, and had a weird old site, tendollardog.com, with a huge list (last archived link in 2009) of his works, so I'm going to add it here soon. I added links to 2 stories from mytholog.com, apparently a popular site once that ended in 2007 but is still archived online, but I just couldn't find that reprint of his All Hallows story "Several Appearances of Stuart" in Whispering Spirits, another once-popular online site that published PDF's of each issue, it seems, but changed their bloody URL so many times (Ralan says their old defunct site was whisperingghosts.com, which is weird because that's NOT THE TITLE OF THE MAGAZINE), including a Geocities site and a domain called dragynspice.com (*puke*). If anyone can extract any stories beyond the scant couple I found on Archive.org and can locate Ames' story, that would be great. The issue here, though, is that 1 of his stories was written using the old "write the title using graphics" BS, and in this case his 2002 story with the random symbols for a title was reprinted in his 2004 collection, but whoever entered it here decided to title it "grey blob". Now, I was going to variant, but changed my mind. So would anyone like to decide which title is more suitable and merge or whatever is needed? If you hover over the 2002 title it says "Circle with Vertical Fill". --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:07, 8 July 2022 (EDT)
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:: I agree that it appears to be eligible. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:41, 13 November 2023 (EST)
  
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== Blue Star ==
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::: Hearing no objection, I have created a [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/awardtype.cgi?115 new Award Type] and an Award Category for this prize. Please let me know if there are any issues with the new records, otherwise have fun entering the awards :-) [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:54, 17 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?28465; I added a sweet Amazon cover for the Moorcock book and decided to enter publisher's address since it's in a photo; that 2021 book obviously isn't the same as the 70's books, but all I see in every edition on Amazon is Crystal Star. So if anyone can actually find a title page that says Blue Star it could be changed in some way to differ it from the old publisher; if not, it just needs changing to Crystal Star. --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:00, 9 July 2022 (EDT)
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:::: Thats great! Thanks a lot Ahasuerus, I will add the books & authors of last winners of this price, and later link the price to their works. [[User:Jannis|Jannis]] ([[User talk:Jannis|talk]]) 05:16, 18 November 2023 (EST)
  
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== Peter (Andrew) Jones ==
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== Pro Se ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?26793; These are orphaned because editors didn't variant titles and name to Peter Jones, but it's not a guarantee that all are by the same Peter Jones, being a very common name, so if anyone knows for sure about any of them they should be made variants. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:41, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=pro+se&type=Publisher; If anyone knows whether these are all by the same publisher some altering to bring them under the same publisher name would be helpful. They publish pulp-style stuff in all genres; neither of the books on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=pro-se-press&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222016%22, are on ISFDB, Sushi Bar... likely has some genre-related stories, probably other eligible books by them out there. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 21:46, 12 November 2023 (EST)
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:While Peter Jones is a common name, Peter Andrew Jones is less common. {{A|Peter Jones}} is our canonical name for {{A|Peter Andrew Jones}} so extremely likely anything under Peter Andrew Jones is the same Jones. All the covers are consistent with Jones' style as well. I have varianted them. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 12:23, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== "Publications with Invalid Prices" tweaked ==
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: If memory serves, I used Amazon's Look Inside to look into "Pro Se" publishers/publication series at one point. Their books used a number of different forms of attribution and I couldn't figure out the logic behind it. Someone would need to do more digging to sort it all out. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:55, 13 November 2023 (EST)
  
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The [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/edit/cleanup_report.cgi?100 cleanup report "Publications with Invalid Prices"] has been tweaked to ignore legal prices like "£0.075" and "$0.125". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:16, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Cyrano and Jules Verne ==
  
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== 2022-07-10 -- more server problems ==
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https://archive.org/search?query=airborne+alan-c; I added 2 anthologies recently, imported genre stories into Skyriders in a PENDING edit, imported 3 genre stories (Kipling, T. L. Thomas, O'Flaherty) into Airborne but there's a couple of ancient excerpts (?) that are a problem. The Cyrano title doesn't match the one on ISFDB and there is no such title by Verne here. Searching for Verne title online only got 1 hit, https://www.mwbooks.ie/pages/books/307419/alan-c-jenkins/airborne-compiled-by-alan-c-jenkins, an Irish bookseller's page for Airborne. Typing a line of text from Verne's story got nothing online. I doubt this book found some long-lost Verne story so I assume it's just a novel excerpt. Does anyone know? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:41, 13 November 2023 (EST)
  
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The disk space "leak" which we ran into on July 5/6 is back. At the current rate we will run out of disk space in a few hours. I have contacted Al. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:18, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
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: Anna's Archive has a downloadable copy. According to the Acknowledgements page, the Cyrano title is a "passage from Other Worlds by Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Geoffrey Strachan". The Verne title is a "passage from ''From the Earth to the Moon'' by Jules Verne, translated by Jacqueline Baldick". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:15, 13 November 2023 (EST)
  
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: 7:15pm update. We are still leaking disk space, although slower than this morning. At this rate the server may run out of space either overnight or tomorrow morning. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 19:18, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
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:: The submission has been approved. The two titles discussed above have been added. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:38, 13 November 2023 (EST)
  
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:: After a couple of rocky hours between 4am and 5:30am, things seem to be back to normal. Fingers crossed. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 05:52, 11 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Bellows ==
  
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== "My Pending/Recently Approved/Rejected/Errored Out" lists tweaked ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?97465; I added FantLab photo in a PENDING edit, findagrave.com says Jeffrey, not Jeffery, and has "Kent" in quotes like it's a nickname but the grave says Kent Bellows, and what does the G. stand for? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:24, 14 November 2023 (EST)
  
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The following Web pages:
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== Bizarrocast ==
  
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* [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/myrecent.cgi?0+I My Recent Edits]
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[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_results.cgi?USE_1=title_webpage&O_1=contains&TERM_1=bizarrocast&C=AND&USE_2=title_title&O_2=exact&TERM_2=&USE_3=title_title&O_3=exact&TERM_3=&USE_4=title_title&O_4=exact&TERM_4=&USE_5=title_title&O_5=exact&TERM_5=&USE_6=title_title&O_6=exact&TERM_6=&USE_7=title_title&O_7=exact&TERM_7=&USE_8=title_title&O_8=exact&TERM_8=&USE_9=title_title&O_9=exact&TERM_9=&USE_10=title_title&O_10=exact&TERM_10=&ORDERBY=title_copyright&ACTION=query&START=0&TYPE=Title]; I was going through the old horror webzine Rosewort, adding links (yes, I found ANOTHER D. F. Lewis story, "Aspen"), and the Ken Goldman story "Going Potty" had a dead link. Then I noticed that the Bizarrocast link in that story's record leads to a log-on page because the original site is gone, but the archived site hardly has any archived pages; I tried one from 2013, "How the Isle of Cats Got Its Name", and after waiting a long time for the page to load all I saw was Arabic (?) writing so even that seems to have been captured after the site was already dead. My link above searched for all title webpages with Bizarrocast in their URL and there's quite a few so if anyone knows whether there's a new site, say here. Otherwise, all those links should probably be deleted. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:16, 14 November 2023 (EST)
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* [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/myrecent.cgi?0+N My Pending Edits]
 
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* [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/myrecent.cgi?0+R My Rejected Edits]
 
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* [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/myrecent.cgi?0+P My Errored Out Edits]
 
  
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have been limited to the last 3 months for performance reasons. We may be able to lift these restrictions once we upgrade the database engine. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 19:16, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Book storage and moving boxes ==
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: For me the report "My Pending Edits" is suddenly empty --a change this hour, or nearly so-- without new listings atop "My Recent Edits".
 
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: The current number of pending edits by all editors (not held by a moderator) is 431, up from 426. --[[User:Pwendt|Pwendt]]|[[User talk:Pwendt|talk]] 19:20, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
 
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: Address bar displays ~/cgi-bin/myrecent.cgi?0+N (Pending) or ~/cgi-bin/myrecent.cgi?0+I (Recent). --[[User:Pwendt|Pwendt]]|[[User talk:Pwendt|talk]] 19:22, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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:: Let me take a look... [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 19:38, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
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When I packed my book collection for an interstate move last year, I mostly used the 1 cubic-foot book boxes sold by U-Haul. There were a total of about 135 boxes. I have just finished unpacking the last of them and no damage occurred to any of the books. I particularly liked that they stacked nicely and were easy to hold onto while moving them around. They were especially useful for moving and storing paperbacks. Since there always a need to put some books into storage, I recommend using these boxes. Cheers! [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 17:16, 14 November 2023 (EST)
  
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::: Fixed. The 3 month limit should only apply to the "My Recent Edits" page from now on. Thanks for reporting the problem! [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 19:49, 10 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Bloodlust and Fangers ==
  
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== Russian Warren ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?118655; Today I was adding links to any stories on the old Bloodlust-UK horror site that are on ISFDB and they seem to have redesigned the site some time after 2005 because there were a couple of links that had different URL's for the same stories. I did get quite a few links, including at least one that was published earlier on Bloodlust than what the note on ISFDB says and two by the same author that were supposedly original to one of her collections but were actually published on Bloodlust more than 10 years earlier, and was feeling pretty good about all that until tonight when I decided to see if the authors who got links had any other stories online nowadays, non-archived, and while looking for stories by Denise Sodaro this site came up, https://fangersinc.wordpress.com/tag/short-stories/, where they dumped most/all of the original site's stories without any note that I can see that these stories are nearly 2 decades old. I nearly cried at how much faster I could have added links from Fangers instead of trawling through the old site. Anyway, it seems they were collected in some recent Fangers anthologies; I feel bad for people paying money for these old stories that mostly shouldn't have been published the first time when online editors were hungry for content and would accept almost anything. However, there is one thing that could lead to something interesting; this guy, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?118655, seems to have plagiarized at least one story, "Jumpers", which I added a note to some time ago with an explanation of who actually wrote the story. His other ISFDB story is in an anthology that I read via Interlibrary Loan years before I was an editor here and I can't remember a word of it so no way to tell if that's original. Bloodlust had a story by Michael Steinberg, "Life, or Something Like It", but this Fangers site calls him M. O. Steinberg even though he was already using the M. O. name back when the original site was active so why he went by Michael is anyone's guess. I typed a line of text from "Life..." on Google but got no hits so I'm not sure if it's original or another plagiarism. So if anyone owns the anthology Dreaming of Angels and can read Steinberg's story or reads "Life..." and recognizes it as being by someone else, can you let us know? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 20:11, 16 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://fantlab.ru/art1391; I've been adding edits for various Jim Warren-related things, and that page lists a bunch of Russian books with his art, but many of the covers I recognize from other books, or, in the case of that "pair of eyes with a woman's face on top" cover, from the poster of the G. Romero/D. Argento 1990 anthology film Two Evil Eyes. All the English-language covers are credited on ISFDB, but several edits could probably be made from the Russian ones for people fluent in that language. The 1996 cover is from Stuart Friedman's Maniac, for example, while the first 1997 cover uses the hourglass art from R. Karl Largent's Black Death, but the woman in the background isn't on that cover, so maybe they stole from multiple covers at the same time for some of these books, although she appears on the back cover, too, so maybe she was some kind of Russian horror personality or something (poor late Richard Laymon is also on the back cover, with a photo that couldn't look any less scary for a horror author). A bonus is that some of these Russian entries include American covers that aren't elsewhere on FantLab, with some including the original art used for the covers. I have no idea why the Deathwalker cover keeps appearing under Stephen King's books, though. --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:10, 11 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Mark Powers - two different people ==
  
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: FantLab editors have done a great deal of work figuring out which artists' art has been "reused without permission" by Russian publishers. For example, consider [https://fantlab.ru/edition4725 this 2003 translation] of {{A|David Zindell}}'s [http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/title.cgi?21415 The Lightstone]. The cover is a fusion of paintings originally produced by Mónica Pasamón, Jerry Vanderstelt and Donald Clavette. It's a headache to sort out... [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 14:54, 11 July 2022 (EDT)
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Currently for [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22424 this author] we have a bunch of UK juvenile titles, and some Jim Butcher/Dresden Files comics. I'm reasonably sure these are two different people: [https://www.theshawagency.co.uk/mark-powers here] is the agency page for the former, and [https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Mark-Powers/202304451 here] a publisher page for the latter, with neither page acknowledging the other work.
  
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== Elvis Is Alive! ==
+
Unless anyone objects, I propose to split these off, probably making the second one "Mark Powers (comics)" unless there are better suggestions.  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 13:54, 17 November 2023 (EST)
 +
:I agree. [https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Mark_Powers This] is a page showing a pic of the ''Dresden'' comics writer. Definitely not the person shown in the two Twitter/X profiles on our author page. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:00, 17 November 2023 (EST)
 +
:: The Dresden Files comics should now all be switched over to the new author record.  Thanks for confirmation! [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 18:59, 19 November 2023 (EST)
  
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"John Farris' 2004 collection from Babbage Press, [84], is rare, with only 2 copies on Worldcat. I ordered it from interlibrary loan a few years ago so it definitely exists, but I noticed it had no page #'s entered on ISFDB, and couldn't find anywhere online that shows the contents page so I could enter them. However, in searching I stumbled across the fact that it was reprinted under a different title in 2020, https://www.amazon.com/No-Sin-Unpunished-John-Farris-ebook/dp/B08G892JNN. So anyone with an Amazon account who can access the entire e-book may want to enter all the info on ISFDB; there's a few stories in there that are hard to find anywhere else. Also, if anyone owns the Babbage edition (HA!) it would be good to enter the page #'s, too."
+
== Twitter changed to "X/Twitter" ==
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The above was cut-and-pasted from a message I left sometime last year (I knew I had written about this book before but couldn't find it until I searched for the title), and today after seeing John Farris' birth date fixed by others here I decided to do some edits for his books, which surprisingly are still missing many editions/have incorrect or missing info. While doing so I came across a single copy of Elvisland on eBay, with a welcome photo of the contents page, so I've entered the page #'s. However, in typical Babbage fashion their proofreading was crap, and the next-to-last story has a page # lower than the story preceding it. Also, WorldCat had a page count much lower than entered here, and an ancient review on sfsite.com agreed, so I fixed that, too. So now someone needs to verify from an actual copy if all the page #'s and the page count are correct. Anyone? No Sin Unpunished hasn't been entered by anyone yet, either, and I see that 1 story from 2005, "Bloody Mary Morning", was not in Elvisland and the title story seems to be original. EDIT: I saw on IMDB that Farris was involved in a movie 2 or 3 years ago titled No Sin Unpunished which was based on his story "Horrorshow", so if anyone enters the e-book they should check to see if it's mentioned anywhere that the title story is not original but simply a retitling of that old story. --[[User:Username|Username]] 21:30, 11 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Bad Voltage ==
+
I am seeing more and more references to "X" instead of "Twitter". I have changed the way third party links appear on bibliographic pages from "Twitter" to "X/Twitter" to reflect this. It's a trivial change, so we can always tweak it again if the name changes. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:46, 17 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?6372; I just made some edits moving Potter's credit over to the second entry, replaced the unstable cover image, fixed dates, etc., so there's really no need for the first entry anymore. Not sure why it was entered because other entry was done in 2007, a couple of years earlier. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:50, 12 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Darrell Awards ==
  
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== Goldsteins ==
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https://web.archive.org/web/20120908050157/http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~timgatewood/sf/darrell/DarrellWinners_Categories_96to12.pdf; I came across that while looking for something else entirely and since some here like entering new awards and this doesn't seem to be on ISFDB I thought I'd link it in case anyone wants to enter it if it's eligible. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:49, 19 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=goldstein&type=Name; Steve, Steven L. and Steven Lawrence Goldstein all seem to be the same guy. --[[User:Username|Username]] 18:03, 12 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Final Frontier Cover ==
  
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== Return of the Living Dead ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?13334; I noticed there was a Greg and Gregory Brodeur here, made Gregory an alternate, made variant of one of his essays and merged 3 into 1 for the other essay (a variant will need to be made of that result after, I think), noticed 1st printing of Final Frontier '88 US PB was on Archive.org so added a link, finally noticed BORIS VALLEJO is credited for a foreign edition but not for any of the others even though they have the same art, Bluesman who was PV of 2 editions is long gone so if active PV of US PB agree with PV, Welo, that added art (they didn't mention where they got it in their notes) then cover credit can be added to all with date of US PB. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:00, 19 November 2023 (EST)
 +
:The German translation states Boris Vallejo as cover artist on the copyright page. But, i wouldn't take this as given for every other release without another source to verify. At the time the german publishers weren't the reliablest for infos on the copyright pages, they had sometimes wrong infos (copied from previous pubs, but not correct). I've stumbled over a few wrong ones over time. [[User:Welo|Welo]] ([[User talk:Welo|talk]]) 12:31, 1 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
https://archive.org/search.php?query=return-of-the-living-dead%20russo&and[]=mediatype%3A%22texts%22; Someone uploaded that Hamlyn edition a few days ago, but in Hamlyn's typical fashion there's no indication of what printing it is; they just liked releasing the same book with different covers. I'm sure Brit PB experts will know. Also, that Undead book revealed the sweet cover art credit on the back cover, so I entered that in the e-book edition (TP was never entered here). More importantly, I saw here, https://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/2325/return-living-dead, the suggestion that Russo re-wrote the book after the 1985 film version came out, so that version may be a novelization, but writers at that Vault link seem confused about whether the Hamlyn edition with the cover recently uploaded was the rewritten version or whether it was the Arrow edition, and both the Hamlyn on ISFDB and the Arrow have the same page count, which seems unlikely if he re-wrote the book. So there might be some further investigation needed. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:12, 12 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== SFWA Bulletin ==
  
−
== Rewrite of submission review pages underway ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?951170; I was doing Bruce McAllister edits and there's 1 Bruce McAllaster credit here (along with a correct spelling elsewhere in it) but SFWA.org says McAllister so probably a misprint by PV. Also, Gatherng should be Gathering, Nores should be Notes, etc. If anyone can see a real copy all of those can probably be fixed. I assume there are many other mistakes in the other issues of this bulletin since the same PV worked on most/all of them. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:11, 20 November 2023 (EST)
  
−
The way the ISFDB software displays submission review pages is a holdover from an earlier era. The code is convoluted and inefficient, which makes it hard to add new features or fix existing problems.
+
== Book of Ballads Dates ==
  
−
I am currently in the middle of a rewrite which will require multiple patches to complete. If you see submission review pages behaving in wrong or unusual ways, please post your findings here. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 10:08, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Ofearna#Book_of_Ballads; Does anyone agree with me that the 2004 contents should be November instead of October? They say they're original to this book in their notes. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:39, 21 November 2023 (EST)
  
−
: I just tried to edit the DAW publisher page (see item below) and on clicking submit on the edit page, I'm linked to [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/mod/submission_review.cgi?5363605 which just says "Moderator privileges are required for this option".  (NB: this is just to submit an edit, not to self-approve it.)  Sidebar says I'm logged in as me. (This was around 15:45 BST (GMT+1) if you need to trace any logs) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 10:49, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Lecrivain ==
−
: EDIT: I see that my 2 attempts to submit this (5363603 & 5363605) do appear in my Pending Edits page, so the edits have been accepted, and (presumably) submission_review.cgi is bombing out after that point.  If I click on one of those edits, I can see the detail (view_submission.cgi), but when I click on the self-approver view link, I go to submission_review.cgi and the same error as previously mentioned. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 11:03, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: Thanks, investigating... [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 11:23, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=the+last+swan+prince&type=All+Titles; 2017 zine has no period after the C in her name, 2020 webzine does, story's title page will need to be seen to determine if 2017 really doesn't have it, then there should be a merge or a variant. Her other story in that zine doesn't have a period, either, according to ISFDB. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:25, 21 November 2023 (EST)
  
−
::: I have patched the code. Could you please give it another try and see if it fixed the problem? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 11:44, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Ormazoids ==
−
:::: I've just submitted a new version of the edit to the DAW page, and was able to accept it as part of the regular self-approver workflow.
 
−
:::: Something that I only just noticed, is that there seems/seemed to be some weirdness with the diffing logic on view_submission.cgi.  If you go to https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5363605 , it doesn't show any changes.  DON'T CLICK ON THE XML LINK FOR THAT EDIT!!  If you look at my slightly earlier attempt at that edit https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5363603 it was also not showing any changes.  However, I clicked on the XML view to see if that had my edits, which it did, but when I went back to the submission view, those changes were now showing in the diff.  I assume there's something behind-the-scenes that explains that, and presumably the lack of anyone else reporting problems means this hasn't had wide impact, but editors, especially self-approvers, might want to double check their edits have been properly processed?  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 11:58, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
::::: This is odd. Submission review pages and "Raw XML dump" pages are not supposed to affect each other; they load data directly from the database. I have looked at the linked submissions and couldn't see the differences between the view_submission.cgi representation of the data and the dumpxml.cgi representation. I am not sure what could be responsible for the behavior that you described :-( [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:11, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5816628; Since PV is deceased if anyone wants to add/fix anything mentioned in my note to mod, feel free. EDIT: Seems logical UK edition would have been first for a Who book so title date should probably be 1986-00-00 unless anyone can determine exact UK date. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:56, 21 November 2023 (EST)
  
−
:::::: It looks like my second submission lost my edits (due to somewhat-known back button behaviour on edit pages), which would explain how things look right now.  Hopefully this is all solved - I've done a couple of AddPubs in the mean time, and they were both fine. {{unsigned|ErsatzCulture}}
+
== Patterns of the Fantastic II ==
  
−
== DAW ownership ==
+
https://archive.org/search?query=%22patterns+of+the+fantastic%22&sort=title; Copyright page says December 1984, title page says 1986 in roman numerals, ISFDB says May 1985. If anyone knows what's the deal here they may want to add the link where appropriate and fix dates if needed. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 00:22, 23 November 2023 (EST)
 +
:The title page date is on a sticker that has been applied after printing. That sticker also has "Borgo Press". So it could be Borgo was selling copies for Starmont House or they made a photographic reprint and stuck their sticker on it. May 1985 is the date Locus1 has so that might have been the source for the {{P|287993|ISFDB record}}. Rtrace has secondary verified it with Clute/Nicholls and Reginald3. I will ping him to see if either of those might has some info to shed light on the situation. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 07:53, 23 November 2023 (EST)
 +
::Neither {{Reginald3}} nor Clute/Nicholls mention Borgo.  The former has a 1985 date while the latter has 1984. {{P|283739|Chalker/Owings}} has the 1984 date. {{P|320234|BP 300}} has 1985.  This is probably due to the difference between copyright and publication dates.  Also from ''BP 300'', Borgo acquired Starmont in March 1993 after having purchased Starmont's Contemporary Writers Series in 1991.  If I had to guess, the sticker is likely a cancel of the Starmont publisher and perhaps the 1986 date is due to a typo (VI vs IV).  With that scenario, the sticker was likely added sometime after 1993 when Borgo purchased Starmont.  Chalker/Owings does note that the purchase included Starmont's back stock.  Regardless, if we decided to add a new publication record for the Borgo cancel of Starmont, I don't think we can date it exactly and I'd recommend using the unknown date.  Hope this helps. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 09:13, 23 November 2023 (EST)
 +
:::I made the following changes:
 +
:::*Updated the Starmont House editions with the stated publication date as per ISFDB standards. I also included a pub note on the secondary source dates and a statement that it was likely not out until after the stated publication date.
 +
:::*Cloned an undated Borgo Press edition with a statement regarding Borgo Press buying Starmont House backstock & the uncertainty of the Roman numeral date's meaning.
 +
:::*Added the contents.
 +
:::--&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:21, 25 November 2023 (EST)
  
−
DAW has just been bought out by a Chinese publisher - [https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/89841-astra-publishing-house-acquires-daw-books.html paywalled PW story] [https://twitter.com/clarkesworld/status/1547214646574292993/photo/1 PR statement in Twitter thread].  Whilst reading up on the background behind this, I note that [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?43 the publisher note] states "DAW is currently a division of Penguin Group (USA)".  Whilst I might have edited that to switch to the past tense, as far as I can tell, that's isn't/wasn't a true statement?
+
== Philip K. Dick Reader ==
  
−
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAW_Books Wikipedia] says "Although it has a distribution relationship with Penguin Group and is headquartered in Penguin USA's offices in New York City, DAW is editorially independent and closely held by its current publishers, Betsy Wollheim (Donald's daughter) and Sheila E. Gilbert."
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1365790; I cloned an 11th printing and publisher is Citadel+Kensington like 2016 but cover is same as 1997 which says publisher is Citadel Twilight; does anyone own a 1st printing who can say whether it says Twilight or if 1997 should be changed to Kensington? Twilight books had a certain bluish look about their covers and they say Twilight on the cover which this book doesn't. Per note on ISFDB Twilight ended in 2000 so it's possible it was a Twilight book and it was only mentioned inside. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:46, 24 November 2023 (EST)
−
* The acquisition statement linked above also says they were a private company & were "partnered with and distributed by PRH"
 
  
−
Anyone care to edit that note accordingly?  (As someone on the other side of the Atlantic from where DAW operates, I don't feel knowledgeable enough about them to change things.) FWIW The bit about them being a division of Penguin seems to have been in since before 2010/the edit history records. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 10:33, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== ASIN ==
  
−
: I suspect that "partnered with" can cover a variety of arrangements. I also note that the press release [https://www.tor.com/2022/07/13/daw-books-acquired-by-astra-publishing-house/ quoted by Tor] says:
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?966441; Clicking US ASIN leads to a different magazine; I don't know if that happens often or not but I thought I'd mention it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:07, 24 November 2023 (EST)
−
:* ...we will be the sole SFF imprint of their company (a first for DAW).
 
−
: which seems to suggest that they considered themselves a Penguin "imprint" prior to being purchased by Astra Publishing.
 
  
−
: Given this ambiguous language, I think we'll want to quote the sources of our information about the prior ownership structure explicitly. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:01, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
: There are two ISFDB records sharing the same ASIN, "B0CDQWPL1Z":
 +
:* [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?966441 Dark Hall Press Cosmic Horror Anthology]
 +
:* [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?966438 Savage Realms Monthly, August 2023]
 +
: Their respective Edit Histories show that the 2 pubs were manually entered by the same editor on the same day. Most likely it was a copy-and-paste error. I have corrected the erroneous ASIN; thanks. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 21:17, 24 November 2023 (EST)
  
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:: I've now expanded the note in [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?43 the DAW entry] to reword the stuff about the Penguin relationship, and to add that Betsy Wollheim & Sheila Gilbert had been running it after the senior Wollheims, and to note the Astra buyout.  More than happy if someone else wants to take a crack at tweaking it further. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 12:27, 16 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Salt Is Not For Slaves ==
  
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== Bill Gates ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=salt+is&type=All+Titles; I can't find a copy of 1931 Ghost Stories issue where it says E. W. supposedly, can confirm it's G. W. in Book of the Living Dead (added link in a PENDING edit from OL-only no-search copy). --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:19, 25 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?150983; I remember adding that appropriate photo a long time ago, but today came across this randomly and the name seems weird. Why is there a period after the III, and shouldn't III be after the other names? --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:02, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Rustin Parr ==
  
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== Richard Powers Portuguese Cover? ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?36131; Title was entered in 2011, I've made 3 edits (one in each of the last 3 years), and only today noticed the title was wrong; it's Confession, not Confessions. Fixed that in a PENDING edit and while doing so noticed there are 2 foreign editions, https://archive.org/search?query=%22rustin+parr%22+stern&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222000%22, in case anyone fluent wants to enter those. I also have an edit adding UK Boxtree 4th printing of The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier by the same author; there is a HC book club (?) edition of the Onyx edition on Archive.org but I didn't bother with that. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 21:29, 26 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/titlecovers.cgi?16229; I imported the Galaxy edition's cover art to the 2 Wildside editions, but that Regresso edition clearly uses some of it while adding a stupid-looking green bird or whatever that is. So I don't know if Powers' credit belongs in that, too. --[[User:Username|Username]] 17:47, 13 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Khaw & Kadrey's ''The Dead Take the A Train'' ==
  
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== Psychos Page Count ==
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Re. [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3070028 this title], I propose deleting the pub dated 2022-09-27. That was the original publication date, which was pushed back a full year. I have added this detail to the notes for actual pub when it was released (2023-10-03), so the earlier pub record is now redundant. Any objections from anyone? [[User:PeteYoung|PeteYoung]] ([[User talk:PeteYoung|talk]]) 07:43, 27 November 2023 (EST)
 +
: Would it not be better to make [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Template:PublicationFields:Date the pub date 8888-00-00], rather than deleting the record?  That way the ISBN is still in the database in case anyone else tries adding it in future? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 08:36, 27 November 2023 (EST)
 +
::Yeah, that sounds sensible. Done. [[User:PeteYoung|PeteYoung]] ([[User talk:PeteYoung|talk]]) 15:49, 27 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?35077; I've been replacing unstable covers for Robert Bloch books and the HC edition of this has just been replaced with a cover that actually looks a lot better, but I think I recall asking about the page count some time ago; is the HC really much lower than the Pocket editions or is HC the same and someone got the wrong info from some website? Someone here may own a copy. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:51, 14 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== ayaz daryl nielsen ==
  
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== PLEASE upgrade ISFDB to SSL meaning https: ==
+
Are there any objections to using lowercase for [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?162023 Ayaz Daryl Nielsen]. I have never seen him credited any other way. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 09:01, 27 November 2023 (EST)
 +
:Hearing no objections, the change has been made. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 10:31, 3 December 2023 (EST)
  
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Hi... I don't know where else to post this... I'm John T. Cullen (John Argo, Jean Cullen) and I have been active on the Web since 1996. I have had a number of websites up for more than 20 years. In the past few years, I finally figured out how to apply SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to my websites. That changes the domain names from http: to https: and it is a major, important upgrade. I am shocked that the ISFDB domain name address (https://www.isfdb.org/) has not yet been upgraded. PLEASE! it is so easy to do, and so important. ISFDB is a tremendously important resource to all of us in this business, including authors, editors, and webmasters to name just a few. PLEASE somebody start working on this issue... it will only take a few hours to install & make active. Thank you! JTC anchor site: https://www.johntcullen.com
+
== Eichner ==
  
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: Yes, it is important, because of all the intellectual property theft from China and elsewhere, to make even the most casual site protected, much less a major site like this one. I'm not a mod, but I'm sure someone will heed your advice soon. Also, your author photo was blurry and a hat covered part of your face, so I replaced it (pending approval) with a "John Argo" Amazon photo of you, hatless, wearing a colorful shirt and holding a glass of champagne outdoors. Where was that taken? It looks lovely; I wish I was there now. P.S. Don't forget to sign your messages here by clicking the next-to-last symbol on the row above. --[[User:Username|Username]] 08:39, 15 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=m.+eichner&type=Name; While adding links and other stuff to E. Everett Evans books I noticed Eichner shows up twice as an illustrator and I assume those are the same people which would mean a variant is needed. Also, Eichner's birth date is off by 10 days from Wikipedia and most sites seem to agree it's 9, not 19, so the day may need changing. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 00:38, 30 November 2023 (EST)
  
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: Glad to hear that you find the ISFDB database to be an important resource! The site administrators are very much aware of the need to upgrade to HTTPS and have been working on it since late 2021. Unfortunately, it's not a straightforward process since our site uses complex software. It took months of work to upgrade everything and we are now testing the results on our public-facing test server, [https://isfdb2.org/ isfdb2.org]. There is no ETA at this time. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 11:02, 15 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Disabling the Synopsis field for Variant Titles ==
  
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== Macrae Smith ==
+
Back in April 2022 "Make This a Variant Title" [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive52#Make_Variant_and_Synopsis_data 2022-04-30  was modified] to move VTs' Synopsis data to their parent titles. A new cleanup report, [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/edit/cleanup_report.cgi?328 Variant Title with Synopsis Data], was created at the same time.
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?577858; I did some edits for Macrae-Smith Company books, and there was one Co. entry, the one linked above, which I added Archive link to and fixed the publisher's name, but there's no dash between the words so I entered it that way. Online photos of title pages of the other books by them online suggest that someone saw dots between the words in publisher's name and thought it was a dash. So if anyone can verify that all half-dozen Macrae-Smith books on ISFDB have no dash then they, plus book linked above, will all be under the same publisher. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:27, 15 July 2022 (EDT)
+
The original plan was to:
 +
* clean up any titles found by this cleanup report (1,600+ at the time)
 +
* confirm that there were no scenarios where a VT needed to have Synopsis data
 +
* change "Edit Title" to disable the Synopsis field for VTs
  
−
== Marie Belloc Lowndes Titles ==
+
The first step was never completed, so the process stalled. I have now processed/corrected around 50 (out of 1546) affected title record. It is as we suspected. Most just needed their synopsis data to be moved to the parent titles. Some needed two synopsis entries reconciled. A few were in error, e.g. there was Notes data in the Synopsis field or vice versa. A few Synopsis  values were using a language other than English, which is explicitly not allowed in Help.
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?19896; Her collection is actually titled IN Terror across all editions so I fixed that, but 1 of her novels contains no Out in the original Brit ed. (title page on Google) so changing that would require unmerging and such, in case anyone wants to do that. The Timmy novel seems to have the same title in all editions, because there's a not-on-ISFDB Doran American ed. on Archive.org with the same title. --[[User:Username|Username]] 00:55, 16 July 2022 (EDT)
+
Based on the above, I think it's safe to change the software to disallow entering Synopsis data for VTs. If there are no objections, I plan to work on it over the next few days. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:03, 30 November 2023 (EST)
  
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== Leisure Trade Paperback?!? ==
+
:Will this block adding a synopsis to a serial title? In at least [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3129077 this case], each of the serial titles is a separate novella that could justifiably have its own synopsis. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 21:57, 1 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?50607; This book didn't have a cover until I added it and got it approved today, but the mod then made their own edit changing format to TP. Leisure was a low-rent paperback publisher, they didn't do trade paperbacks. I just did an advanced search for Leisure Books and TP format and out of nearly 700 books by the publisher a grand total of 2 books came up, this one that was just changed and a $1.50 Charles Berlitz Atlantis non-fiction book, which is also likely not a TP. --[[User:Username|Username]] 15:00, 16 July 2022 (EDT)
+
:: That's right, the proposed change would prevent Synopsis values from being added to SERIAL titles. I don't think it should cause significant issues since semi-standalone SERIALs are rare and could be handled the way we handled {{A|George Lowther}}'s [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?16699 ''Superman'']:
 +
::* Chapters 1-2 describe Superman's planet of origin, Krypton. Chapters 3-5 deal with Clark Kent's childhood with his adoptive parents. In chapter 6, Clark goes to Metropolis and gets a job with the Daily Planet. The remaining eleven chapters deal with a mystery involving ghost ships and Nazi spies.
 +
:: [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:53, 2 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== "Adult" Book Notes ==
+
:::That's what I thought. Hmmm. I don't think that would work in the case of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3129077 Last Stand] since each of the installments (Episodes) are approx. 20,000 word novellas which have differing focus characters within the pseudo-TV series framework and the summaries should be more than a couple of words each. I'm not convinced it is truly a serial anyway. [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Anniemod Anniemod] set this up initially and I've been following suit since. I could just as well see this as a series called <i>Last Stand</i> with the individual novellas as normal Chapbooks/Shortfiction titles. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 12:52, 2 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pub_history.cgi?651649; So some time ago I added price to this book with a note, then added Wikipedia page, then added at least one of those external ID, and recently I added a note about the face on the cover not being some random art but rather the male star of the film, and then made another edit about there being 2 film photos on the back cover. From past experience ISFDB can't handle entering new info in an edit if the same field had info entered in a previous edit that hasn't been approved yet, as can be inferred from the fact that a mod approved the edit with the face info but then the photo info edit was left hanging for a while, with whoever looked at it probably wondering why this guy wanted to erase the info he previously wrote, which of course I had no intention of doing. I even tried to trick ISFDB this time because when I entered the first edit I did so on a separate line in the note box, but for the second edit I placed the info on the same line as my price info done some time ago. It didn't work. So now I've had to enter another edit adding back the erased info about the face. Is there a way to enter info without it erasing previous info? I sometimes find new info to enter while a previous edit is still in the queue, and don't like to wait for the first edit to be approved because it often takes so long to get to it in my usually very long list of edits that by the time it's approved I forget to enter the next set of info. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:28, 16 July 2022 (EDT)
+
:::: If they have different focus characters and different plots requiring different synopses, then I agree that they sound more like linked stories than a serialization. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:09, 2 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
: Submissions operate on a "field-by-field" basis. Only ''changed'' field values are recorded when submissions are created. For example, suppose I create two Edit Publication submissions for the same publication record. We'll call them Submission A and Submission B. Submission A changes the price value from "$5.99" to "$7.99". Submission B changes the Catalog ID value from "D-272" to "D-273". Since only these two changed values will be stored in the submission records, the two submissions won't overlap and can be approved in any order.
+
:::::I'm the only PV for these. On deeper examination, I believe they are linked stories, not serials. I'm going toss a note to Annie and then convert these from serials to shortfiction, unvarianting the titles, and grouping them under the series <i>Last Stand</i>. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 07:37, 3 December 2023 (EST)
  
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: On the other hand, if Submission A changes the price value from "$5.99" to "$7.99" and Submission B changes it from "$5.99" to "$8.99", the approval order becomes important. Whichever submission is approved ''last'' will trump the other submission.
+
=== Outcome: Software has been changed ===
  
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: The same logic applies to Note fields. Whichever submission is approved last is the one that takes effect. If you create a submission which adds a sentence to the Note field of some record and then create another submission affecting the same Note field, the last approved submission will take effect. It would be safer to cancel the first submission, which can be done on "My Pending Edits" page, and create a new one. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 08:13, 17 July 2022 (EDT)
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Hearing no further objections, I have changed "Edit Title" to disallow entering Synopsis data for variant titles. [[Template:TitleFields:Synopsis‎]] has been updated as follows:
  
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== Flies on the Wall ==
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* A synopsis can only be entered for canonical titles. The software won't let you add a Synopsis to a variant title.
  
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This Alex Hamilton collection, which seems not to have been published in America unlike his earlier collection Beam of Malice (although that edition isn't on ISFDB), is rare and I did a lot of edits months ago piecing together the contents from searching the Google Books copy, discovering a contents listing online was missing 1 of the stories, finding a single copy on eBay so I could enter the price, uploading the full cover, etc. Today I randomly saw it on Archive.org (https://archive.org/details/fliesonwall0000hami); turns out someone uploaded it last month. Damn it. Anyway, most of the stories were collected in his bumper collection from Ash-Tree in 2007, but for some reason it seems his 1966 story "End of the Road" wasn't included and the original story "Fall" wasn't, either. So there's a couple of reasons this book is still valuable. Also, it's a good thing the eBay copy was complete because this copy is price-clipped, with an adorable little cut on the bottom of the front flap. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:03, 17 July 2022 (EDT)
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If you come across any issues, please let me know. All that's left is cleaning up the remaining 1400+ VTs which still have Synopsis values. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:15, 5 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== French Vincent O'Sullivan ==
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: There was a minor bug in the associated cleanup report. It was causing three valid title records to appear on the report. The bug has been fixed. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:54, 6 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1818259; Anyone know why this story, which is "When I Was Dead" in English, isn't a variant of that story, and why the anthologist is listed as a co-author? --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:47, 17 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Nightly cleanup reports fixed ==
  
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== See Here ==
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It turns out that the recent addition of a Notes template with an apostrophe in its name -- [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Help:Using_Templates_and_HTML_in_Note_Fields "Achevé D’Imprimer"] -- broke the automated nightly process which regenerates cleanup reports. The software was fixed a few minutes ago and everything should be back to normal tomorrow morning. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:12, 30 November 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?88940; "See" note may not be needed now that I've added the full cover, but there's so much tag stuff I don't know what to delete. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:41, 18 July 2022 (EDT)
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== New superseries for Glynn Stewart's Castle Federation ==
  
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== Thirty Seconds Over New York ==
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Would anyone object if I create a new superseries named <i>Castle Federation Universe</i> which would have the existing series [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?42767 Castle Federation] as subseries #1 and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?65374 Dakotan Confederacy] as subseries #2? [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 18:14, 1 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19266963W/Thirty_Seconds_Over_New_York; Anyone know what edition this is? I don't see this cover on eBay or in Google Images. The Collins edition which has no cover on ISFDB is online and it looks nothing like this. --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:38, 18 July 2022 (EDT)
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: No objection -- book covers and Goodreads reviews confirm it. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:09, 1 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Orchids for Doc ==
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::Done. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 21:52, 1 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?196373; Supposedly unpublished, but there is a WorldCat page that has a cover unrelated to the title, https://www.worldcat.org/title/orchids-for-doc-the-literary-adventures-and-autobiography-of-robert-aw-doc-lowndes/oclc/27728655, in case any old SF experts can do anything with this info. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:51, 18 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Julie Novakova/Nováková ==
  
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== Birthing Person ==
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[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?195102 The page for this author] has "Novakova" in her name, and states '''uses accentless spelling of her surname for foreign publications.'''.  However I just checked [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ship-Whisperer-Julie-Nováková-ebook/dp/B08F3S7J9L/ her collection] and [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosetta-Archive-Notable-Speculative-Translation/dp/195106402X an anthology she contributed a story to], and [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Beyond-Us-Original-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0BNZ7M4F7/ an anthology she co-edited], and all use "Nováková".  I assume these should at least be a variant, but  I don't have the privileges to see who might have added that author note, in case they can shed any further light?
  
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A British author named Rodney Hyde-Thompson (can't get more British than that) wrote a 1972 HC novel called The Alternative about A MAN WHO GETS PREGNANT, and it was quickly released in America as a cheap Warner PB with sweet cover art and the usual comparison to Rosemary's Baby, followed (preceded?) by a British Sphere PB retitled Black Marriage, with a photo cover showing a man sitting in a rocking chair, wearing makeup and a dress, holding a baby doll in his arms. The Warner PB was on Archive.org so I entered that, the Sphere has an Amazon page and a WorldCat record so I entered as much info as I could from those, but the HC really needs a print copy handy to enter info from; the Warner PB doesn't even mention it was previously published in England. Anyone have a copy? Also, if any mods read this, can you approve those 2 edits before my hundreds of others, because I saw on eBay that the ISBN is on the spine, which of course can't be seen on the Archive.org copy. I'd like to enter that info before I forget. EDIT: Approved, and it only took 3 days. Thanks for the quick response; I really appreciate it. The ISBN has now been added so I can finally delete my bookmark of the eBay photo with the spine. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:29, 19 July 2022 (EDT)
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(Also, "foreign publications" seems a bit Anglocentric, especially in conjunction with a Czech author?) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 19:38, 2 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== The Collected Stories of Philip *D*. Dick ==
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== Ghosts of the Chit-Chat ==
  
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Looking at the edit history, [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?883425 this one] has had 4 different editors/mods eyes on it, including a seemingly-inactive PVer, so I'm a tad wary of unilaterally fixing the apparent typo in the title without getting any second opinions.
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?869953; Contents #1, #4-7, #9, and #12 are not original; they're much older stories with at least one (Tatham) being under a different name (H. F. W.) and title ("Phonograph Bewitched"), plus a couple of authors that are not already on ISFDB (although J. K. Stephens may be James Stephens who is). If anyone owns this or knows where to get a look at the full text some fixing/merging is needed after determining what names and titles are actually used in it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 21:02, 2 December 2023 (EST)
  
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Also, the mod note on [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5237562 the original edit] which stated ''This edition was on Amazon.com US for a few weeks, where I bought it, before disappearing from their site. There was no publisher listed, and no ISBN.''  It feels like this - with slight wording tweaks - should probably be in the pub note, unless anyone objects?  (That this pub is no longer available makes it harder to verify if the typo is/was genuinely in the pub, of course.) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 10:18, 20 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Best of John W. Campbell ==
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: Dave is probably going to show up from somewhere soon-ish :) If you want to add the note, go ahead. See also [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Anniemod#The_Collected_Works_of_Philip_K._Dick_-_A_question this] for a conversation on other details on the thing. I am pretty sure the D. is a DB typo based on the long discussion we had on my page about it. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 12:50, 20 July 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: You weren't kidding about the length of that thread ;-)  I'll make the tweaks I proposed if there hasn't been any other feedback/dissenting opinion here in the next few days. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 16:38, 20 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Internet Archive ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1212025; I have a PENDING edit adding Archive.org link to '76 US PB and another edit adding month to intro but the afterword has a variant with neither having a month. PB doesn't actually say afterword on that essay's title page so this may be a false variant that needs merging into one. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:26, 4 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://blog.archive.org/2022/07/08/internet-archive-seeks-summary-judgment-in-federal-lawsuit-filed-by-publishing-companies; I've warned about this a few times before on these boards, but now it seems they're really getting serious. The Archive has always had a questionable practice of allowing any and every book, including hundreds of thousands of non-public domain titles, to be on their site, similar to YouTube and other sites. So it would be a major blow to this site if all those books weren't available anymore to add info from, not to mention to people who just like to read the books. So this is something to keep an eye on. Or is this something they go through regularly and it won't amount to anything? --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:00, 20 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Best New Romantic Fantasy ==
  
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== Canonical Name Change KC Grifant from K. C. Grifant ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?29658; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5827168; Re: this series, I don't think #3 was ever published like a lot of announced Juno books. There's almost no info online, nobody ever entered contents, etc. I think it should get an unpublished date here. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:58, 5 December 2023 (EST)
  
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Any objections to making [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?204307 KC Grifant] the canonical name and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?312721 K. C. Grifant] the alternate? The four titles attributed to K. C. Grifant shouldo have been credited to KC Grifant. I'll take care of the corrections when I make the change. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 16:37, 21 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Sanjulian ==
  
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: Hearing none, change made. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 10:57, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?914; Should this be changed to Sarjulian and made a variant of his parent name? Because it's supposed to be what's on the page, not what PV thinks it should be. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:03, 5 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Sorcerer's Apprentice ==
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== Dutch Plot ==
  
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https://archive.org/details/sa-016; The Wold story is on ISFDB with just a 1983 date and no note about where it came from, so I added a note about that, but philsp.com only mentions that story and the Keith Taylor article. So if anyone thinks the full contents should be entered here someone uploaded it recently. Philsp.com also mentions a #17 with a Karl Edward Wagner story but as far as I can see #16 is the only issue on Archive.org. --[[User:Username|Username]] 08:22, 22 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?28987; '79 Plot doesn't belong with the others. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:50, 6 December 2023 (EST)
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: I added the publication with a second article and the book reviews [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?907718 here]. I've also been fixing the FictionMags links and adding RPGGeek links. [[User:Taweiss|Tom]] 10:56, 24 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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:: Thanks. I noticed a lot of Sorcerer's Apprentice entries in the edit list; you went above and beyond. One thing I've been noticing is that some of the genre magazines that were uploaded to Archive.org (an uploader named SketchTheCow was responsible for many of them years ago) are incomplete; a very recent upload of an issue of a rare zine, Amazing Experiences, is missing 2 pages, which almost caused me to think that 1 of the stories listed in the contents wasn't in the zine. I was ready to crow about finding that out when I realized that the plot of a certain story didn't match the plot on the previous page ("The Yellow Pagoda"; the plot really shows up on the second page of the story, so I'm guessing not much is missed by the first page being missing; it seems like a sappy wish-fulfillment story about a woman who can't have a baby until she enters a pagoda at a carnival and a mysterious man from the Orient grants her wish and somehow makes her pregnant, but the ending takes a dark turn into pure horror; the author wrote a horror novel around the same time, Mantis, so I guess it's not too surprising). Also, the uploaded-in-2017 first issue of Night Cry from 1984 (which just reprinted stories from early issues of Twilight Zone Magazine) is missing SIX pages. What bothers me is that when I was rabidly printing every horror magazine that was uploaded several years ago I just assumed they were complete. I have at least half-a-dozen gigantic stacks of thousands of articles, essays, short stories, etc. printed at my local library that I haven't had time to read yet, and among them are hundreds and hundreds of stories from these magazines. When I finally get around to starting to read them, I wonder how many will be incomplete. So I suggest that anyone who works on anything having to do with archived zines, check and make sure they have all their pages, and if they don't leave a note in their record so other people will know. EDIT: I just noticed that Issue 16 which started this whole discussion doesn't have the issue number entered in the notes, while all the other issues have the issue # in the title, which I think is wrong; RTrace likes to fix those when he sees them. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:29, 24 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Very Special People ==
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:::I have run into the issue with incomplete scans in the past.  At least the SA scan had page numbers, so that helps.  I added the issue number to the notes.  Unfortunately, issue 17 also came out some time in '83, so both issues will end up with the same title.  I have some more edits to make to the early issues as well to fix their links. [[User:Taweiss|Tom]] 11:38, 26 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Award Bibliography page - sorting by award type? ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5828417; A copy of the rare 1977 horror novel The Soul of Anna Klane was uploaded to Archive.org earlier this year and I just came across it, it's a second impression so I cloned it, uploader messed up because the jacket is from an awesome book about circus people (or freaks as they were called back in the day) that anyone my age probably remembers reading or at least looking at the photos. Would anything by the author, https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL529624A/Frederick_Drimmer, qualify to be on ISFDB? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 20:59, 6 December 2023 (EST)
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:Is "Frederick Drimmer" the author of ''The Soul of Anna Klane''? The covers say the author is Terrel Miedaner. The only one from the list of Frederick Drimmer's works that looks like it might be includable is ''The Body Snatchers'', but it depends on what it's about. All his other works seem to be nonfiction about non-genre topics. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 12:33, 7 December 2023 (EST)
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:Other works by Miedaner that might be includable include [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181242.The_Mind_s_I ''The Mind's I'', in which he has a story or essay (not sure which as the book contains both). It has a work by Stanislaw Lem in it. I couldn't find anything else by Miedaner that could be included. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 12:40, 7 December 2023 (EST)
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::Miedaner wrote the novel, Drimmer wrote dozens of non-fiction books including some about genre-related topics that I thought might qualify. Maybe someone will find one or two with something in them that can be entered. The novel seems to have had a lot of other editions not on ISFDB including some foreign editions with weird covers so maybe someone fluent could enter those. Also, the Mind's I book you mentioned is on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=terrel+miedaner, in case you think that qualifies to be entered here. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:55, 7 December 2023 (EST)
  
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The "Award Bibliography" page currently sorts awards and nominations by year. That's fine for authors with relatively few awards, but it's not that great for more popular authors. For example, if you want to know if any of {{A|Paul J. McAuley}}'s works have been nominated for the Hugo award, you have to search [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/eaw.cgi?220 his "Award Bibliography" page] for the word "Hugo", skipping false positives like the 2005 Sidewise nomination for "The 2005 Hugo Award Ceremony Script".
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== Gary Allen ==
  
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I am thinking that it would be helpful to split the "Award Bibliography" page into two separate pages: one by year, which would be identical to the current one, and the other one by award type, which would have separate tables for each award type, sorted by type name. Would that be an improvement? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 15:13, 22 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?87741; The author of None Dare... died long before the other works on his page were written so obviously by a different Allen; he has his own Wikipedia. However, I don't think there should be a variant but rather the novel removed because it's not really a novel, it's an anti-Communist diatribe by a member of the John Birch Society that's been reprinted endlessly. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:42, 7 December 2023 (EST)
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: I'd love to be able to order that page by any of the 5 pieces of data in now shows - you have a similar issue if you are trying to find all nominations for a certain book for example (and they won't always be clustered if you sort per year because of translations and retrospective awards). So yes, having a second page grouping "per award" will be useful but having one which groups per title will also be a good idea IMO (if you are planning to do reorders anyway... :) ) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 15:20, 22 July 2022 (EDT)
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:Book has been deleted. Clear nongenre, nonfiction by a different author than the speculative fiction Gary Allen. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 19:16, 7 December 2023 (EST)
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::Perhaps making the table that lists them sortable by some or all of the column headers? Would that be easy to implement? I know they have sortable tables on Wikipedia, though I haven't looked into how they are done. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:39, 22 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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::: Making tables sortable is doable, but it would require some changes. For example, "Year and Award" is currently one column. We would need to split it into "Year" and "Award Type" before we could sort by award type. Also, translations and other variant titles would affect sorting by "Title", which may be better handled by creating a separate table layout.
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== Twice Twenty-Two ==
  
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::: One more thing. We have a "Statistics" report for [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/most_popular_table.cgi?0 Titles Ranked by Awards and Nominations]; you can limit the results by title type, decade and year. It would be nice to be able to sort author-specific titles by "award score". It would help answer questions like "What's Author X's most popular works?". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 15:54, 22 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://openlibrary.org/works/OL103175W/Twice_twenty-two?edition=key%3A/books/OL26558953M; 2 copies, one searchable and one not, searchable one has a gutter code on p. 405, "03 N", which is not in the book club edition's note about gutter codes on ISFDB. Non-searchable one has no code. So if anyone knows how to identify dates from the code they may want to enter at least the copy that has a code. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:58, 8 December 2023 (EST)
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:::: "Work with the most awards" is not necessarily the same as "most popular work" though :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 17:56, 22 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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::::: True, but in the absence of publishers' sales numbers awards and nominations are probably as close as we can get. We could also create a "Sorted by the number of reviews" page. (Unfortunately, our "votes" system is not as popular as Goodreads', which would make it only marginally useful.) [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 10:02, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Schrecksekunden ==
  
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:::::: How about number of pubs?  For example, using that as a ranking metric (*) puts Snow Crash ahead of Neal Stephenson's other work, which matches where it appears in [https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/545.Neal_Stephenson the Goodreads number-of-readers metric], whereas it's only his #5 work in the award table.
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5830404; Does anyone recognize the cover I added? I'm almost sure I've seen it before on an English-language book; if so, artist is likely on ISFDB for that and can be added to this. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:44, 9 December 2023 (EST)
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:::::: (* at least when just counting the English language pubs, which is all I could be bothered to implement in [https://github.com/JohnSmithDev/ISFDB-Tools/blob/master/bibliography.py my own version].) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 10:46, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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::::::: Sure, we can do that as well. There may be a certain bias when some of the author's works are in public domain and some aren't, but it can still be useful. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:56, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
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:https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/emergence/ and that conveniently also has [https://www.michaelwhelan.com/wp-content/uploads/fromtheheartofdarkness-cover.jpg From the Heart of Darkness cover].  Looks like we have [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1727716 this]. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 11:05, 9 December 2023 (EST)
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:The PV of the affected pub is active and a moderator, so I pointed him at this. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 11:10, 9 December 2023 (EST)
  
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:::: Other from that - yes - making these available on the individual authors' awards pages sounds like a good idea.  
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::The cover of [[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5830404 Schrecksekunden]] is correct. Regards Rudolf [[User:Rudam|Rudam]] ([[User talk:Rudam|talk]]) 05:43, 10 December 2023 (EST)
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:::: For the title sorting - that is why I did not mention making the tables sortable (if we do, we will need to pull "Original title" in its own column and that view will get too crowded and wide I think). I like our usual way of +1,+2 and so on in the address bar that we have in some other pages to switch between views and I think it can work well here as well. But either way works. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 17:56, 22 July 2022 (EDT)
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:::Submission approved. Cover credit added to Schrecksekunden with a publication note specifying the secondary source & new cover art record varianted to the prior one. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:19, 10 December 2023 (EST)
  
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(unindent) Hearing no objection, the following FRs have been created:
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== Aiken's World Well Lost ==
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* {{FR|1521}} "Allow sorting authors' award pages by different fields"
 
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* {{FR|1522}} "Author bibliography sorted by the number of reviews"
 
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* {{FR|1523}} "Author bibliography sorted by the number of reprints"
 
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[[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 14:00, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Szélesi Sándor = Sandor Szelesi ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?915733; I don't think Joan published a book with this title but rather it was her brother, John, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?135, so Joan's record for that book should probably be deleted. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:06, 9 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:Deleted. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:24, 10 December 2023 (EST)
  
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[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?170731 Szélesi Sándor] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?298265 Sandor Szelesi] both appear on the birthdays section of the homepage today.  The latter only has a single title (from a short story in a German anthology), so it would seem the second author record should be made a variant of the first one, or perhaps have the story changed to use the first author, if it looks like the latter is a data entry issue?
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== Pan Mystery Walk ==
  
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However, I noticed that both of the author records have "Legal Name: Szélesi, Sándor", which made me wonder if Hungarian uses <family name> <given name ordering> like Japanese.  [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_names Wikipedia] indicates that's the case, so I'm guessing the author records should be varianted (like we have for Cixin Liu and Liu Cixin), but a second opinion would be preferable before I start on edits about things that I don't have any expertise in.... [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 17:56, 23 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?556649; Someone just uploaded a foreign cover for Baal, one of Robert R. McCammon's novels, which led me to do some edits for other of his books (there's a lot left to do even though I've done many previously). There's a $75 Subterranean Press signed limited edition of The Night Boat which has been on Archive.org since April of last year which I somehow never noticed before so I added a link to that but the Pan edition of Mystery Walk only has a 2nd printing uploaded; the question is whether the 1st printing also says Stephen Crisp on back cover instead of Steve Crisp, which is what's on ISFDB. So if anyone owns a 1st printing (I don't see anything online except 1 eBay auction where they took photos of everything EXCEPT the copyright page) and it says Stephen then that needs fixing. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:38, 11 December 2023 (EST)
  
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:You' re right. In Hungary, the family name comes first, then the given name.Thanks for the discovery. I will correct this and change Sandor Szelesi into the alternative name. Rudolf [[User:Rudam|Rudam]] 11:59, 24 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== International Polygonics Edition of Liars and Tyrants and People Who Turn Blue ==
  
−
== Triptych ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?20274; I've made a few edits for this before but noticed today a copy was uploaded to Archive.org earlier this year so I added a link, replaced postage stamp-sized Amazon cover with their cover, and added LCCN (their site screwed up entering the title). However, the copy has a big thick sticker obscuring the cover art credit on the back; it seems to start with Kev so probably Kevin; no other books on ISFDB from the publisher have that in the artist's name so if anyone has/can find a copy can you let us know what the artist's name is? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:51, 12 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1157274; Someone uploaded some Cemetery Dance issues recently, and since William F. Nolan's work in #4, https://archive.org/details/cemetery-dance-4-spring-1990, was never collected in any of his many story collections I believe it should be made an essay, since he just talks about a few story ideas he's had but there's no actual story. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:04, 23 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Brennan's Riddle ==
  
−
== New WorldCat? ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?308567; Been doing some Joseph Payne Brennan edits and this one is odd; there's no content. Is it possible that it contains his 1964 poem "Riddle"? It's likely not a collection but a chapbook or something similar. I added cover image and FantLab ID in a PENDING edit. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:29, 13 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
Anyone else see a banner at the top of WorldCat which says a new WorldCat is coming? I wonder what "new" means. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:37, 25 July 2022 (EDT)
+
== Dedications in Poems ==
−
: They are redesigning. The details are not fully released yet but they hinted at it earlier in the year: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=962866871258711 . As far as I know, there won't be missing features but as with any redesign, we shall see. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 20:18, 25 July 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:: Oh my God, they went and did it, and it's HORRIBLE. I only found out when I clicked an OCLC link on OL and it took me to this page, https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/16107969?tab=details, which doesn't even have the OCLC on the page anymore. Why don't these people ever learn? They totally screwed up IMDb a few years ago with their awful redesign and now this, plus Amazon seems to be changing because many pages now lead to some weird thing where they just show the cover and there's some message about an error at the top of the page. This is ridiculous. Can't any of these sites ever do a redesign that actually improves things? It all seems so pointless now. EDIT: You now have to click the "Show more information" at the top of the page to see the info that used to be on the bottom of the page without clicking anything. Jerks. --[[User:Username|Username]] 23:31, 22 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
== Love Child ==
+
I'm holding [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5817418 this submission] to alter the title of {{T|1337626|this poem}} based on [https://www.sfpoetry.com/sl/edchoice/34.2-2.html this web page] from the magazine's web site.  My question is whether "(For Edgar Allen Poe)" should be considered as part of the subtitle, or whether that is a separate dedication that should not be included in the title field.  If we go with the latter, it could be added to the notes.  My recollection is that poems occasionally have "For XXX" listed in a smaller typeface under the title though usually without the parenthesis.  I don't think we usually include these as part of the title field.  How do other folks feel about this.  If there is disagreement, we can move this to the rules and standards page.  Thoughts?  Thanks. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 09:50, 14 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1838099; Title is very confused; I discovered that the Secker variant title is actually the original title with the dash, as are Viking and Richards, so I added the dash to those 2 plus the overall title record; however, an eBay copy of Virago shows every photo except the title page but since there's no dash in any of them it's safe to assume title page has none, either, and there's a 2021 British Library edition on Amazon but not on ISFDB which also has no dash; the Bello copy on Google Books, however, has no dash and no "The", either. So when my edits are approved breaking the Secker variant and making later editions variants may be needed. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:21, 26 July 2022 (EDT)
+
: Personally, I wouldn't include this as part of the title. It is somewhat similar to the way some sources treat additional information, for example for series - like in The Death of a Hero (Star Wars), and it ''is'' a dedication. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 11:35, 14 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== Ralph Smith ==
+
:: Dedications are a common occurrence, I never include them in the title. If someone wishes to put then in the note section, I would not object. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 13:25, 14 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?8649; I see that I added the cover to Captain Vincible some time ago and also a link to an article, but does it really belong here, being comics? Also, OL only lists 2 editions, in 1984 and 1985, not 1998. If it does belong here, the 1800's Smith needs something to separate him from the later Smith. --[[User:Username|Username]] 09:14, 27 July 2022 (EDT)
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:::Hearing no differing opinions, I will reject the edit. Thanks. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 15:08, 22 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== Where's Samuel L. Jackson When You Need Him? ==
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== Pocket Pulse ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Mhhutchins#Snake.28s.29_.26_.28and.29_Ladders; This dude didn't respond to my message (I don't think he does respond here anymore) but I just saw in the edit list that he did something, but I don't think he quite got it, unless he's planning on doing more. So if anyone remembers, just check that the title in TZ (and art with same title) is changed properly and variants are OK. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:32, 27 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?269828; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?251391; Should these very old entries by the late PV be changed to Pocket Pulse as the publisher so they merge with all the many others on ISFDB? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:08, 14 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== Futurians ==
+
== Martha Wells / All Systems Red - Code P1 ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?838968; 1 John Day edition credits Greco while the other doesn't. Which is correct? There's a PV in common between both editions. --[[User:Username|Username]] 09:54, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
+
Some copies of the original tp of All Systems Red have a code "P1" underneath "First Edition: May 2017" on the copyright page. Other copies have no code; the corresponding area is blank. Does anyone know the meaning of this code? Some online booksellers says this code denotes the first printing (or first state of first printing) but this seems to be their opinion. Is there any independent, documented, verifiable evidence of its meaning? Secondly, how should this be recorded in the ISFDb? We have two records: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?723225 PoD] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?608522 non-PoD]. Should I create a new pub record for the P1 code version or should I just add a pub note to an existing record stating that some copies have this code? [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:41, 14 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== New award "Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize" ? ==
+
== Rich Grote ==
  
−
This one had presumably been announced in the past, but hadn't been on my radar until [https://lithub.com/heres-the-shortlist-for-the-first-ursula-k-le-guin-fiction-prize/ the announcement of the first set of nominees] popped up in my Twitter feed just now. Off the top of my head, I know that at least 5 of 9 nominees are works that are in the database, and I suspect the others either already are, or probably should be. Looks like it's a panel judged award with just a single category - although the eligibility period looks a bit off, as there are both 2021 and 2022 works amongst those nominees.  ([https://www.ursulakleguin.com/prize The official site] indicates it uses a May-April eligibility period.)  The value of the winning prize, and a fairly high profile set of judges (for this year at least) indicate it's a fairly serious prize that should be around for a while. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 11:09, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?176753; I added, in a PENDING edit, archived site (online now is dead) richgrote.com and Behance page and wickedlocal.com article which revealed he's from New Jersey. There is a Rick Grote credit, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?112933, but his bio at various sites online says he started in 1976 while this book is from 1975. Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?123700, where one actually says Grote in the book while the other was not named but editor entered it from cover signature. So if anyone can say for sure that Grote or Rick Grote are Rich Grote then those can be made variants. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:42, 14 December 2023 (EST)
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: EDIT: I've just checked the titles I wasn't sure about, and all of them are already in the database, except for [https://bookshop.org/books/after-the-dragons/9781777091743 one that definitely looks to be speculative]. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 11:18, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: I wouldn't say that an expectation of "being around for a while" is a requirement -- a "real" award should be eligible for inclusion even if it dies after a year or two. What we primarily try to exclude is promotional gimmicks run by publishers and "paid contests". This award is clearly nothing like that.
+
== Ash of Stars ==
  
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:: Unless there are objections, I plan to add it to the list in a couple of days. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:17, 28 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?102752; I was doing a bunch of James Sallis edits recently (links to several short stories, archived link to Shores Beneath, adding a massive collection from 2007 titled Potato Tree) and noticed this book about Delany. I don't do many edits for Delany because I can't stand him personally but I'm sure many people here like his work so I'll mention that the copy on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=sallis+delany, the copy on Amazon.com and the copy on Google Books all have the same ISBN on back cover with the barcode saying 53950 which means price is $39.50 but ISFDB says $42.50. Also, ISBN is for HC supposedly but archived copy looks like TP to me. So if anyone wants to add a link to the copy and fill in anything else or change anything, please feel free. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 08:58, 15 December 2023 (EST)
  
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::: The [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/awardtype.cgi?99 new award type] and a single award category have been created. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:31, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Scheduled server maintenance - 3pm 2023-12-15 ==
  
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:::: Thanks.  By chance, I just added the missing nominated title a few minutes ago, so I'll add the nominees later this evening.  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 12:43, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
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The ISFDB server will be down for scheduled maintenance between 3pm and roughly 3:10pm server (EST) time on 2023-12-15 (today). [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:39, 15 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== 2022-07-29 -- server problems again ==
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: The server is back up. Thank you for your patience. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:08, 15 December 2023 (EST)
  
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We are once again experiencing server problems. At the rate the virtual machine is leaking disk space, we will have to shut down in less than an hour. Al has been notified. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 14:26, 29 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Brian Keith Evenson = Brian Evenson? ==
  
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: Edit: The loss of disk space is even worse than what I saw a few minutes ago. We probably have 10-15 minutes left. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 14:27, 29 July 2022 (EDT)
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Any thoughts/objections on making [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?224599 Brian Keith Evenson] a variant of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ch.cgi?6382 Brian Evenson]?  The former has just 2 pieces of short fiction in 1986 and 1989 (both with difficult to Google titles), which slightly predates the earliest work of the latter.  Howevever (a) "K." is listed as the middle initial of the legal name of "Brian Evenson" (with [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/evenson_brian SFE] saying this it is "Keith"), and (b) the 1989 story was published by Brigham University, which Wikipedia says is where Brian Evenson got a degree and was later employed.  Evenson's site doesn't have any detailed bibliography that might help clarify those two early stories are his. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 14:39, 15 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:The source given for {{P|654878|The Leading Edge, September 1989}} is FictionMags Index. Checking them, they have these as the same author. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 14:50, 15 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:: Thanks - I've now set up variants/alternates for the author and two title records. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 18:37, 17 December 2023 (EST)
  
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:: I am about to shut the server down, right before it runs out of space. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 15:09, 29 July 2022 (EDT)
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== Conan the Valiant ==
  
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::: We are back up. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 20:48, 29 July 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?982255; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5836070; Added a few archived links to some of Roland Green's Conan novels, went backwards so first novel was looked at last, it already had a link added by someone last year, as can be seen in my edit above the cover is not the same as the later editions, any Ken W. Kelly experts who know his style can say if both are his work in which case art needs unmerging or if Tor mistakenly carried over Kelly's credit for the later art by someone else. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 21:07, 16 December 2023 (EST)
  
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:::: I have a suggestion. Typing isfdb.blogspot.com verbatim on Google only brings up these 5 sites, [https://www.google.com/search?q=isfdb.blogspot.com&biw=1366&bih=667&tbs=li%3A1&ei=a1blYvuCKLqfptQP5JeW2AY&ved=0ahUKEwi75LDP_qD5AhW6j4kEHeSLBWsQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=isfdb.blogspot.com&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BQguEJECOgUIABCRAjoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6EQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOg4ILhCxAxCDARDHARDRAzoICAAQsQMQgwE6CAguENQCEJECOgQILhBDOgQIABBDOggILhCABBCxAzoLCC4QgAQQxwEQrwE6BQguEIAEOgoIABCxAxCDARBDOggIABCABBCxAzoFCAAQgAQ6BAgAEB46BggAEB4QCEoECEEYAEoECEYYAFAAWPIaYPwcaABwAHgAgAHfAYgBxhCSAQY2LjExLjGYAQCgAQHAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz], which are the actual site, an ancient ISFDB message from 2008 heralding the new site, and a couple of mentions on academickids.com; the last 2 are fake spam sites. Typing "isfdb blog" verbatim brings up these, [https://www.google.com/search?q=%22isfdb+blog%22&tbs=li:1&filter=0&biw=1366&bih=667&dpr=1], which are only slightly more numerous. When there are server problems there should be an obvious link to the blog, but there's not, so maybe someone can fix that. --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:15, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
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== F. Piatti ==
  
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::::: There are two different downtime scenarios:
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=co+piatti&type=Name; 2 credits for each, one should be parent assuming credits are correct; maybe they're all really spelled the same and someone just entered one or the other name wrong here. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:38, 17 December 2023 (EST)
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:::::* A complete server shutdown when browsers fail to establish a connection to the server. There isn't much we can do about that.
 
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:::::* The server is up but the database is not accessible for some reason. You can tell because trying to access any ISFDB page results in a "The ISFDB database is currently undergoing maintenance. Please try again in a few minutes" message. We can modify this message to say "http://isfdb.blogspot.com/ may have more information."
 
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::::: [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:40, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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:::::: {{FR|1520}} has been created. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 15:40, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
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: Done. Thanks for this find! Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 04:36, 18 December 2023 (EST)
  
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::::::: {{FR|1520}} has been implemented. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:40, 7 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Abridged editions? ==
  
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:::::::: Great! One suggested tweak; "if this due" to "if this is due". --[[User:Username|Username]] 09:38, 8 August 2022 (EDT)
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Do we include abridged editions? I know we don't include dramatizations but the help doesn't seem to say anything about abridged editions. Thanks! [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 15:02, 17 December 2023 (EST)
  
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::::::::: Good point. Fixed. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 14:05, 8 August 2022 (EDT)
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: Sure we do! It's possible to add them to the general title (and add a note to the publication), or if the abridgement does alter the story in a major way to add it as a variant,  or if another hand is credited for the abridgement to add it as a stand-alone title, like in [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2918952 this title]. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 04:44, 18 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Pentacle ==
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::Thanks for the clarification. I've started to run across a number of audio items that have abridged versions but haven't been sure if I should add them. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 07:37, 18 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?38644; The preview copy on Google has an essay by Ken Abner, who edited Terminal Fright where most of the stories appeared, but there's no 1999 edition on ISFDB, just the 1995 and the much later e-books. Anyone know where it originated? --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:06, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
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::: I have been told that abridgements are certainly accepted, but that they are never added as variants. How to deal properly with them was incorporated when dealing with translations, which are made variants but the difference in language makes it possible to distinguish them from name/author variations. ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 08:39, 18 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Samuel R. Delany / The Einstein Intersection - Cut / Restored Chapter ==
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:::: That's certainly true for audio versions/readings: here it is quite a regular case that they are abridged, so they should just be added with a note under the respective title. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 12:33, 18 December 2023 (EST)
  
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Various editions of The Einstein Intersection have a cut or restored chapter. I will shortly edit and PV five pub records: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?39061 one] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?308432 two] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?256309 three] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?200281 four] and five which will be a new pub record. I will add a general note about the cut / restored chapter to the title record and a specific note to each of these five pub records. Whilst researching this, I noticed that the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?256325 Ace fourth printing] states "First Ace printing March 1967". The pub record for the Ace first printing currently has a date of 1967-00-00 so I will add the month, add a pub note stating the source and add the month to all the associated records.
+
(unindent) Abridged editions are included. The [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:FAQ#How_does_the_ISFDB_deal_with_.22Portions_of_this_story_originally_appeared_in....22.3F FAQ says]:
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There are far too many PVs to notify individually hence this posting on the Community Portal. I will wait a few days in case there are comments before submitting all these edits. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] 13:56, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
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* If an individual story is rewritten or revised, then we create a Variant Title for it and add the nature of the changes, e.g. "expanded", "abridged" or "restored", in the Notes section. Please note that these conventions are likely to change in the foreseeable future as we beef up our software in this area.  
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:I have submitted the edits. There are eight in the queue. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] 11:42, 2 August 2022 (EDT)
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: The [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Feature:90155_Add_an_optional_%22nature_of_the_relationship%22_field_to_the_Make_Variant_screen original Feature Request to change the software] to display "relationships" between titles was created back in 2008, but it hasn't been implemented yet.
 +
: Of course, when dealing with drastically changed titles, e.g. novels reduced to excerpts or short stories expanded to novel length, we create separate title records. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:33, 19 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Meyrink Cover ==
+
:: To the original question - abridgements are in. I am questioning the varianting advice. I also once noted the lack of documentation on abridgements specifically. The original place I was told not to variant abridgements was in [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive46#Abridgements this] conversation. The argument was that variants were for title / author variations or translations as a special case due to limitations in the software. Only one moderator said so, but no one contradicted, so have been going by this since.  There were [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Help_desk/archives/archive_25#variant_or_independent_work.3F earlier] and [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Rules_and_standards_discussions#Adaptations_and_Abridgements later] discussions (I doubt I found them all) with varying degrees of agreement but no resolution.
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?138313; The 1992 Dedalus ISBN links, on OL, to a 2004 Dedalus cover while on Amazon it shows the Ariadne cover. So is Ariadne Dedalus under a different name, and is it correct for the cover to be dated 1936, when it was painted, instead of the book's date? --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:22, 30 July 2022 (EDT)
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:: And the FAQ reference above was answering a question about portions of a story appearing earlier in a novel that is expanded or created from a series of shorter stories. The [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Help:Screen:MakeVariant HELP on variants] says at the beginning that they are only for title and author variations, but later talks about how to deal with translations (with a link to how-to details). ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 23:50, 19 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== She's Dead, Jim ==
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::: [[Help:Screen:MakeVariant]] says:
 +
:::* Two title records are variants if they are in fact the same story, but have either a different title, or use alternate names for the author.
 +
::: Translations are effectively "the same story" for our purposes, but I agree that it's not made clear in the statement above. We should probably update it. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:16, 20 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
Well, Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's Lt. Uhura, has died at the age of almost 90, and from the info on her Wikipedia page it looks like the last 5+ years of her life were pretty sad. Anyway, I added a better cover and an OL link to the Archive copy of her autobiography Beyond Uhura (the British Boxtree HC, which is the only non-PV edition), but her novel Saturna's Quest is a bit puzzling, being from some obscure publisher, Planet X, unlike the first book in the series which was mainstream. It turns out the publisher's name has been wrong here for years, being Publishing and not Publications, which caused it to be lumped in with a Planet X that published books many years later. I fixed the name and imported a nice cover to the Wiki because Amazon and other ISFDB-friendly sites either have no cover or weirdly show the title page instead. Info is scarce, so if anyone owns a copy they may want to verify page count, etc. Only Takei (85), Koenig (85) and Shatner (91) are left (although Shatner will probably refuse to die when Death comes for him). --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:35, 31 July 2022 (EDT)
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:: It sounds like abridgements should not be varianted. But there's no help on how to document the relationship to the original - be it in the Notes or a linking template. ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 23:50, 19 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Height Intro ==
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:::I'm following this closely since most audio abridgements are significantly shorter than their unabridged brethren (should they exist for comparison). Often 2-3 hours compared to 8+ hours. The source novel is often in the 270 page range. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 08:57, 20 December 2023 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?39382; I recently added a newly-uploaded Archive copy of the Arkham, and just now added page #'s to the Millington because contents were all out of order, but I noticed the introduction is missing from the Star; page count is lower so maybe it's not in there, but maybe it is, so if anyone owns that edition they can say for sure and, if it is, it can be imported. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:21, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:::: I would expect a version that contains only 25-33% of the original material to be considered a separate derivative work. Kind of like {{A|E. Nesbit}}'s juvenile adaptations of {{A|William Shakespeare}}'s works are listed as separate works with the word "(abridged)" appended to the end of the title: "A Midsummer Night's Dream (abridged)", "The Tempest (abridged)", etc. Except, of course, there would be no additional co-author. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:52, 20 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:::::To me, this makes the most sense. If it's significantly abridged, it should be a separate work (for example, I think the abridged audio releases of ''{{T|7577|The Courtship of Princess Leia}}'' should be separate as they are only 3 hours as opposed to the {{P|983542|unabridged version}} of 14 hours (finally being released in January)). ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:00, 20 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race ==
+
::::::Based on this guidance, the title above has now been split into [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?7577 The Courtship of Princess Leia] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3258106 The Courtship of Princess Leia (abridged)]. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 18:02, 20 December 2023 (EST)
  
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We currently have {{A|Adrian Tchaikovsky}}'s [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2933372 ''Elder Race''] listed as a novella. The Note field reads:
+
== Présence du Futur ==
  
−
: Per a tweet from the author, this is a novella. Kobo reports a word count of 40k words. A conservative word count of 250 words per page, and 165 pages (blank pages are excluded) give 41,250 words, above the NOVEL threshold.
+
Ex-editor Hauck entered some entries in this endless French series but only basic info. I came across a manual which I added as a link, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5837420, although I have no idea if it contains anything useful, then I entered several missing bits of info for Gravité à la manque from Open Library, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5837421. I then came across a title with an actual copy, but rather than stumble my way through entering info from books in a language I'm not fluent in I'm just going to list this, https://archive.org/search?query=%22une+collection+d%27inedits+au+format+de+poche%22&sin=TXT&and%5B%5D=collection%3A%22inlibrary%22, so if anyone can find anything useful to enter from those they can do so. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 00:34, 19 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
I have a copy of the ebook and the lowest possible word count -- once you delete the copyright page, the dedication, etc -- is 40,347. As per [[Help:Screen:NewPub]], a novella must be "less than or equal to 40,000 words". Any objections to changing the title type to NOVEL? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 17:00, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Crash Override ==
  
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:I did an estimated word count from my print copy using the tool (I think it was the one Mhutchins created?) and got 39,384. It's definitely right on the border, and there's a page of smaller text with two columns, so it may well bump over to 40k. There are a lot of blank pages scattered throughout the book. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 18:40, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?659223; I added archived link and a few other things in a PENDING edit to the other book by the publisher, the novel The Secret. Publisher actually has no space between the 2 words in its name so I fixed that and then was going to check online to see if it was the same for this much later book but realized this probably shouldn't be here since it's not by a known author and it really has nothing to do with genre. So should it be deleted? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:54, 19 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:I was advised some time ago and it is my understanding that any works shortlisted for a genre award (in this case a Hugo) are considered in.  This exception is called out in [[ISFDB:Policy|our policy page]] but only for online publications.  Perhaps we should be more specific.  Aside from that, my recollection from reading the book in 2018 is that it is chiefly about the Gamergate event which is tightly coupled with the Sad/Rabid Puppies movements. I don't recall how much Quinn went into the latter, but if at all, it would certainly qualify this as a book about speculative fiction. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 11:51, 19 December 2023 (EST)
 +
::OK. It's PublicAffairs in Amazon look inside so I'm going to fix that so both books on ISFDB will be by the same publisher. EDIT: There's 1 archived copy which was uploaded in May, 2021 but wasn't added until January, 2023 (?!?) so I also added a link to that. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:14, 19 December 2023 (EST)
  
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:: FWIW: [https://twitter.com/aptshadow/status/1375024649373937665 "Editing this novella back and forth over the 40k word limit like I'm God and the Devil fighting over its soul."]  The dating of that tweet would suggest it refers to either Eldar Race or [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2981560 Ogres], the latter of which also has a 40k word count reported by Kobo.  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 19:31, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Napoleon ==
−
::: The Hugo admins also consider it a novella. While they can make a mistake, I cannot find anyone online challenging the type - and the SF community is not exactly silent with such things... [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 19:43, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::: [https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-faq/ Hugo FAQ] says "Also note that there are similar principles involved with the relocation of works in the four written-fiction categories, which also have a +/- 20% gray zone around their respective category boundary lengths."  I dunno if any other awards have a similar fudge factor; if not, that might explain why getting under 40k is still the target for novellas? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 20:06, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::::: I know they can fudge a bit - but even when they do, someone does complain :) Especially the fans (and occasionally authors) of the novella(s) that did not make the cut... And unless my google-fu is broken, I cannot find anything (and I don't remember anyone complaining). It is possible that this one slipped and went a bit higher. If Ahasuerus is sure in his count, I am fine converting it with notes - it is just way too close for estimates :( [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 20:35, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
 
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: Are you sure it is not counting some extras (pages numbers, chapters titles, single words split into two lines and so on)? If you are sure of the count, then we just need to document and change the type I think but I will be very surprised if it did not got edited down to fit a category (because it was never going to get a novel nomination). Not that it cannot happen of course :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 19:43, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: Well, it's an e-book, so there are no page numbers or split words.
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?31091; I added archived links to Minstrel Boy and ...Overhead and fixed formats to TP for both; publisher was also changed to Napoleon Publishing for those 2 and ...Yard because Napoleon & Company, as explained on the copyright pages, is a parent company and Publishing is the actual imprint. The problem now is the 2 e-book Gargoyle editions don't actually show a copyright page on Amazon and, more importantly, Time Thief's beautiful Napoleon cover is nowhere online and ISBN defaults to the Dundurn Press edition's less beautiful cover. Looking at Dundurn's Wiki page they bought Napoleon in 2011 which makes sense because Blogspot page linked in Napoleon's record on ISFDB ends in February, 2011, a month before their Time Thief edition was supposedly published. So maybe someone can say whether Time Thief Napoleon edition should get an unpublished date of 8888-88-88 and whether that and the 2 e-books should have their publisher changed to Napoleon Publishing just to keep everything together. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:13, 19 December 2023 (EST)
  
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:: I am using TextPad to count words in an ASCII version of the file. TextPad is pretty good at it since it's part of its core functionality. For example, the e-book uses "* * *" as chapter/scene separators, but TextPad doesn't count them as separate words.
+
== John Allen ==
  
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:: There are no chapter titles per se, but POV changes are marked with the name of the POV character. It could arguably subtract a few dozen words from the "official" count, but it would still be well over the 40,000 word limit. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 21:33, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?186482; Likely 3 or 4 different authors on the same page in case anyone can find info to separate some or all of them. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:32, 19 December 2023 (EST)
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::: Sounds like it did not get under the wire then... :) Depending on how they made the ebook, split words can be an issue (surprisingly enough that happens now and again even in new books from major publishers...) - thus the question :) Same for page numbers and the like - although these show up more often in OCR messes than in new books. As I said, if you are sure in the count, I do not object a conversion. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 22:36, 1 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:I split the entry into three. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:18, 20 December 2023 (EST)
  
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(unindent) Thanks, folks. I have updated the title and publication records, including Notes. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:38, 3 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Stateham Banners ==
  
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== Russian Interference ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?3575; Archived copy uploaded in 2020 so I added a link in a PENDING edit; note about frontispiece is wrong as it is credited on copyright page (an editor of Canadian edition noted this correctly) so maybe one of the active editors (Willem, GlennMcG, Spacecow) can fix note so it says the same as Canadian edition. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:23, 20 December 2023 (EST)
  
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Uh-oh; I mentioned this some time back, but FantLab seems to have gone through some changes recently because today I had to replace Thomas Monteleone's author photo from FantLab because the old one was broken, and now I was looking at Star Book of Horror 1 and that FantLab cover is also broken. I noticed the replacement photo I added was the same URL except there wasn't the word "data" at the beginning, if that helps. I'll be damned if I'm going to replace anything besides that photo, so I assume when mods get everything sorted out there will be a general fix for all broken links, right? Please? --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:19, 2 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Speedy In OZ ==
  
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: Checking their security certificate, I see that it expired earlier today. Let's wait a day or two and see if their administrators renew it. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 11:35, 2 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?366452; Oz fans, a request. I saw a lot of Oz edits in the queue recently and discovered many of R.P. Thompson's books were reprinted in PB in the eighties. I added archived links to the 4 I found but Speedy has a missing cover and most online ones are of the weird $19.00 reprint that nobody seems to know much about; the archived cover sucks because it has 3 huge stickers on the bottom obscuring things and a cover on Biblio.com is shot too far away, has a Barbed Wire Books business card in front of it, and has some plastic holder or something at the bottom of it. So if anyone can find a clear and clean cover, can you upload it? Thanks. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:45, 21 December 2023 (EST)
  
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:: They have updated their security certificate, which should remain valid for the next 90 days. Everything seems to be working again -- see [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?262338 ''Star Book of Horror No. 1'']. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:28, 3 August 2022 (EDT)
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== The Dread ==
  
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::: Great! I cancelled my Monteleone edit and made another one because even though the author image is now working again, when I added it long ago I forgot to erase the trailing "?r=" thing at the end of the URL, and I also found a rare 1990 interview conducted by fellow horror author Robert McCammon on a TAPE RECORDER (kids, ask your parents), so another edit was necessary. However, in the many edits I've made since I wrote this I may have replaced 1 or 2 FantLab images that were broken while I was adding other info to the record the image was in, so I'm mentioning that to forestall any complaints of "Why did you replace a perfectly good image?!?" when a moderator gets around to approving them. --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:43, 3 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22179; Year and subtitle (Allen, seen on sfpoetry.com) different than other ISFDB record; poem here, https://poetrynz.net/pdf/PNZ48.pdf, says Allan. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 16:16, 22 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Mira ==
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== Knock on Wood ==
  
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Famous author James Patterson edited an anthology, Thriller, back in 2006 which included some well-known names; someone entered it here but didn't add any contents (doubtful most of them are genre, anyway) and the page count was off by nearly 200 pages, so I fixed/added stuff from the Archive copy; however, the publisher, Mira, got lumped in, I think, with a Mira that publishes women's fiction, of which there are nearly 600 on ISFDB. So the question is how to differ this book's publisher, and whether among those 600 there may be at least a few that are by this Mira. EDIT: I decided to do an advanced search using publisher and 7783 ISBN and it turns out that this Mira IS the same as the others, which is weird because they published books by women and this anthology's 30+ writers are mostly men. Oh well. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:45, 2 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=0-671-04070-7+&type=ISBN; Cover says Vornholt; why is Friesner credited for the same book? EDIT: Also Witchopoly, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=0-671-02806-5&type=ISBN. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:37, 25 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:Deleted the two Friesner ones. All reliable sources show these two ISBNs as by Vornholt which matches cover. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 09:06, 30 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Hot Blood ==
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== Yesterday We Saw Mermaids ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?8749; I added the Book Club edition of Stranger By Night from Archive.org, which shows the PB cover on OL, and then noticed, as usual with these insane Pocket Books with their Canadian maple leaf editions and several printings and whatnot, that the cover for the original PB of Hot Blood was not the right cover, having no price (possibly the Gallery edition; they used the same Pocket covers but ridiculously jacked up the prices). There's an Archive copy of the Book Club edition which also shows a different cover on OL, also added by me, but after importing the original PB cover, because it doesn't seem to be on any friendly sites (FantLab shows the later printing's cover with the much higher price that's already on ISFDB, but then shows a photo of the back cover of the original edition!), I noticed that the subtitle on the original PB cover is Provocative, not Erotic. There's some confusion about that, with other editors making notes about how later editions say Erotic on the cover but still use Provocative on the title page, so I believe the original cover is the only one with the original title on both cover and title page. So just mentioning this in case anyone owns a lot of editions and can compare and make sure everything's as it should be re: proper titles, prices, covers and such. --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:36, 2 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?55736; Cover is the Tor edition but it's on the Wiki so the Pan cover would need uploading to replace it; problem is I can't find it because all eBay copies are Tor. So either it's rare or vaporware. Help, if you can. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:00, 25 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Kheryn Callender / Kacen Callender canonical name change ==
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== Finding forgotten horror story ==
  
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I think it is time to switch the canonical name [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?265373 here]. Except for the few early editions of the first book, all books are published under Kacen Callender. Any objections? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 18:42, 3 August 2022 (EDT)
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Hi, all. I hope you all had merry Christmases (if you celebrate).
 +
Someone on Goodreads is trying to find a horror story he or she read in the '70s about gentle hand-shaped creatures who live in a forest near a town or village. But then several people are found strangled with hand-shaped bruises on their throats. (Spoilers ahead.)
 +
The creatures are rounded up and killed. But the killings continue, and the townspeople realize the creatures were all shaped like left hands, while the bruises on throats are from a right hand (or vice versa).
 +
Does this story sound familiar to anyone? Thanks! —[[User:Rosab618|Rosab618]] ([[User talk:Rosab618|talk]]) 01:40, 26 December 2023 (EST)
  
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: Sounds like a plan. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 23:01, 3 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Sidgwick & Jackson Prices ==
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:: And done while adding their new book. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 13:09, 4 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Smoking Shatner ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5843103; I was looking at the Science Fiction Specials (added a couple more links because a few of them were hiding on Archive.org using a title of one of the contents instead of the overall title) and also am adding links and other stuff to books from the publisher by the authors in the Specials. I've noticed their prices on the front flaps are a mess with some being old pre-decimal prices and others being stickered with decimal prices. In this Asimov case you can see a pre-decimal price under the sticker that looks like 35s to me but I can't find any copies online that show the flap. So if anyone knows what the original price was, thinks it should be cloned, etc. let us know. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:29, 27 December 2023 (EST)
  
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In a follow-up to my Nichelle Nichols post above, I replaced the terrible William Shatner ISFDB photo, too-bright, old, and fat, with a crystal-clear B&W photo of a young and incredibly handsome Shatner smoking a cigarette, so you know it's from a long time ago. Looking next at George Takei, I think his photo is OK as it is, but I noticed that his 90's autobiography has a British price here for the Archway edition; the copy on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search.php?query=takei%20%22to-the-stars%22&and[]=mediatype%3A%22texts%22&and[]=collection%3A%22internetarchivebooks%22, has only American prices. It seems the original editor was the one who entered that price, but they're very long-gone. There's also some odd confusion about the ISBN being re-used from some much older book. So anyone more familiar with this book may know more, like where that British price came from, and whether it should just be changed to the American price and the Archive copy linked here. --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:29, 4 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Silverberg and Neverness ==
  
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== May Dawney Designs ==
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https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:SFJuggler#The_Time_Travelers; Linking this here in case anyone else might own a copy of the Donald I. Fine edition of Neverness. Also, should we make the Silverberg thing a pub. series? There's got to be more than 2 books in it; Archive.org search isn't the most accurate and there could be books not archived that are part of the series. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:40, 27 December 2023 (EST)
  
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Checking... [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=may+dawney&type=Name Three different May Dawney Designs] - I guess we should merge these into just May Dawney Designs, right? [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] 13:16, 5 August 2022 (EDT)
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:I have the Donald I. Fine 1st hc edition of Zindell's [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?23681 Neverness]. It does state "A Robert Silverberg Science Fiction Selection" on rear flap and also "RS/SF" on spine of dj. I have also discovered that Sturgeon's [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?15623 Godbody] has the same features. Looks like a pub series to me, even if it didn't last very long and didn't have many books in it. I have Godbody so I will PV both these pubs and edit them to create and add the pub series. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:40, 2 January 2024 (EST)
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:Done. Looking at the Amazon Look Inside for the pubs, the 2021 and 2022 were copyright year credits and not part of the name. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 15:56, 5 August 2022 (EDT)
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::Great, thanks! A search for the exact series title on Google only finds the ISFDB record for Godbody and my message on the SFJuggler board. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:55, 2 January 2024 (EST)
  
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== Mysterious Poe Collection ==
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== Where the Southern Cross the Dog ==
  
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https://archive.org/details/illustratededgar0000poee; Found this with no dustjacket, contents don't correspond to the other book with that title on ISFDB (also published in 1976), by Jupiter but there's a reprinted by Bookthrift on bottom of title page, Bookthrift only appears once on ISFDB as the publisher of an F. Paul Wilson book in 1990 with no cover image and ISBN finding nothing, ISBN of this Poe title finds 2 different Amazon covers, both terrible sideways photos, and Goodreads cover is upright but badly framed and damaged. So does anyone own a copy/know more? --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:53, 6 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?326635; Does anyone own the August 2002 issue of Locus? I added cover/interior artist and intro by S. R. Tem but I can't find the titles of the stories anywhere, 3 supposedly, and it was reviewed by Edward Bryant in that issue. Maybe he mentioned them. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:05, 27 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:Ah ha, I recently added a link to 40+ years' worth of microfilmed Locus issues on Archive.org and vaguely remembered that I had asked about an issue of Locus recently. I checked that 2002 issue and yes, all 3 stories were mentioned. The one original, "Black Angel Blues", doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere at all online (until now). --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 22:46, 17 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Molt Brother ==
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== Siergiejew ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?22570; As I've been working on Playboy books, some were entered as Playboy Press when they were really Playboy Paperbacks, and here's one with several active PV. Photo of title page here, https://www.ebay.com/itm/112360554002. Needs fixing? EDIT: Mind War, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?290886, is on OL and even though there's a (non-active) PV the cover artist wasn't entered from the copyright page so I took care of that, but then the publisher is Playboy Press Paperbacks so I changed it to that, and then the LCCN does show up on the LOC site but as "invalid" and a completely different one is listed as "valid" so I entered that. However, looking further, it seems that a lot of PB from the publisher were entered as Playboy Press, the HC name, but somewhere along the way they switched the PB name from Playboy Press Paperbacks to just Playboy Paperbacks, but editors entering them on ISFDB couldn't decide because there are more than a dozen with the longer name and several dozen with the shorter; far too many of them have active PV, so I'm just fixing Mind War's publisher and leaving the other ones alone. Someone here with a ton of patience could go through every paperback and fix everything. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:31, 6 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://readfrom.net/michael-aronovitz/364512-the_voices_in_our_heads.html; It's Marius Siergiejew in that link, no z in first name but also no "Noistromo", I checked Unlikely Entomology issue and it is Mariusz, so both should be variants assuming all the ones under Marius "Noistromo" actually have the correct name entered; now that the link above shows there's at least one with just Marius maybe that should become the parent after name is fixed and the nickname should be the variant. I added a Blogspot link to the Marius record. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:47, 29 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:Alternate name created. I would not consider that site reliable enough to change a verified pub. Unfortunately, the verifier is no longer active so we will have to wait for someone else to re-verify it. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:58, 30 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Robert Foster Middle-Earth guides ==
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== Webs of Time ==
  
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[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?181137 This author] has 4 different Middle-Earth guide titles published between 1971 and 2001; pubs of the 1971 and 1978 iterations have verifiers.  The copyright page text copied into the notes indicates that these are revisions of the same book e.g. [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?204225 from a 1978 pub]: ''"First Ballantine Books Edition: August 1974" (over) "Revised and enlarged edition: March 1978 (hardbound)"'', so I'm just double checking that the consensus that the later titles are definitely different enough that they shouldn't be varianted from the original 1971 one?
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pub_history.cgi?54122; Does anyone think the replacement cover I used is better than the old one? Mod didn't agree. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 22:35, 29 December 2023 (EST)
  
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The reason I ask is that there's [https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-complete-guide-to-middle-earth-the-definitive-guide-to-the-world-of-jrr-tolkien-robert-foster?variant=39718557450318 another version of this to be published next month].  The blurb doesn't indicate any difference in content from earlier versions, other than the addition of illustrations, so I'm inclined to variant it to the 2001 version, but throwing open to any alternative opinions...? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 12:41, 8 August 2022 (EDT)
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: Well, the overall quality (= colour likeness) seemed better with the amazon source, ''and'' I do assume that this source will be more stable than Fantlab (and presumably that's the line of thought Chris_J also tended towards). Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 06:26, 30 December 2023 (EST)
 +
::I guess; anyway, my replacement cover will still be in edit history so that's something. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 08:53, 30 December 2023 (EST)
  
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== Horne Anthology Art ==
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== Fanni S. ==
  
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https//www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?33822; I added a link to the Book Club edition; PV is gone now. I also added a link to the PB (at least 1 active PV), but artist was entered as Daniel even though it says Dan in the PB and note even mentions that, so I changed it to Dan. I'm sure someone will say something about this. --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:51, 8 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=fanni+s&type=Name; Probably the same person, maybe entries under the first name really don't have the special "u" or maybe editors didn't enter it that way. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 00:21, 30 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:The three records with Suto all had Amazon Samples available which showed they should have been Sütő. Only one was verified and that verifier is showing as not active in several years. I made the changes. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:46, 30 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== The Man Who Created Tarzan ==
+
== Pandora Effect ==
  
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https://archive.org/search.php?query=porges+tarzan&sin=; I came across these 2 books, 1 uploaded more than 10 years ago and 1 uploaded recently. The HC is a 2nd printing, and PV is not around anymore, while the PB has 1 active PV who I tried to interest in looking at Archive's copy to compare with his own and possibly add or fix anything, especially since it seems the uploader only included the first volume, not the second, but PV wasn't having any of it, apparently being a Luddite who only cares about physical copies, which I can sympathize with, being in my early fifties and remembering when people actually read books on paper. So I mention this here in case anyone who's interested in Burroughs wants to see if this printing of the HC differs in any way from the original entered on ISFDB (people who like entering multiple printings would probably want to enter it, anyway, just for posterity) or if the half-uploaded PB can yield anything useful. EDIT: I noticed that the publisher of the HC, Brigham Young University Press, only has 1 other ISFDB book, a kids' book from nearly 40 years earlier, while Brigham Young University has dozens of ISFDB books starting in the mid-1980's. Just thought that was weird; I can't believe the only 2 genre books they published in nearly 40 years were a little chapbook and a Tarzan bio. --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:11, 8 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?45062; I added Archive.org link in a PENDING edit, do any of the active PV think an August month should be added to dates as notes say? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:10, 31 December 2023 (EST)
  
−
== Emperor of the If ==
+
== Great Tales of Action and Adventure ==
  
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Just a heads-up that this rare novel by Guy Dent is on Luminist.org, but since they seem to have converted all of their books to PDF they screwed up because the PDF link goes instead to a French fairy tale book a little further down the list. The archived Google Drive and Dropbox links are, of course, very dead, but I managed to find a PDF on some Canadian digital archive and have made an edit with a link to it. I've been adding many PDF links and author photos from Luminist recently and this is the first mistake I've come across, so if anyone is friends with whoever runs that site they may want to let them know that Dent's PDF goes to the wrong book. --[[User:Username|Username]] 21:12, 8 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5846199; Cover question about this '67 10th printing I just added. It says Richard Powers on copyright page but Robert Shore on back, Powers credit possibly left over from earlier printings? Should Shore be entered instead? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:23, 31 December 2023 (EST)
 +
:My copy doesn't have the credit to Shore on the back, but the cover is different than the Powers original.  Seems like we should have a Richard Powers (in error) created as an alias to Shore. [[User:Taweiss|Tom]] ([[User talk:Taweiss|talk]]) 18:43, 2 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Ten Tomorrows ==
+
== Through the Budgerigar ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?34741; There's at least 2 permanent PV and 1 transient, so I'll just mention this here. Someone wrote a note about initials on the cover and how they don't appear here, but they do, so I added the cover artist, FMA (along with a PDF link to the book). --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:06, 9 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?925198; While adding LCCN to Jones novel Transplant I noticed this book was added not long ago and while SFE mentions it and even a cover artist there seems to be no evidence of a cover online; can anyone find one? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:06, 3 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Margaret (P.) Killjoy ==
+
== To the Sound of Freedom II==
  
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Does anyone object making [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?349295 Margaret P. Killjoy] (4 credits, all from 2007 in Steampunk Magazine) to [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?138463 Margaret Killjoy] (various credits from 2009 onwards, including [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1604281 the same magazine])?  I've not found anything to definitively tie the 4 earlier credits to the latter person - their personal site seems to be down, which might have had some useful info - but the common publication venues, and very similar but distinctive names, makes me think it highly unlikely they are 2 different people. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 12:16, 9 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive53#To_the_Sound_of_Freedom; I came across this record again today; should it get an all-8's date? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:24, 4 January 2024 (EST)
  
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: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?349295 Margaret P. Killjoy] is an alternate name for [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?138463 Margaret Killjoy]. She was an editor of 'Steampunk Magazine'. The masthead of early issues credited 'Margaret P. Killjoy' later issues 'Margaret Killjoy'. Various work is credited to both names as well as just Margaret within a given issue. Of the four titles, only [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3064995 Issue Three: The Sky is Falling] has the correct attribution. Go ahead and make the alternate name & variant the one title (correct the case first, 'Is'). [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 10:50, 10 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== HG Wells and His Critics ==
−
:: Thanks - I'll make the edits as you propose in the next day or so, assuming no objections are raised.  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 13:33, 10 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
== Gaines ==
+
https://archive.org/search?query=wells-and-his-critics; Anyone know a way to tell which of the 3 publishers these copies are from so I can add links? The USA one has no record; maybe it was never actually published by them. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 22:38, 5 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=gaines&type=Name; I found an uncommon photo of the founder of Mad Magazine, but after adding it I saw that ISFDB has a Bill Gaines/William Gaines as a separate person, which should probably be linked to William M. Gaines. --[[User:Username|Username]] 15:32, 9 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Top Science Fiction ==
  
−
== Arthur Hailey Cover Artist ==
+
https://archive.org/search?query=pachter-josh+top&sort=-addeddate; Someone added intros to this anthology recently, I added archived link long ago, just noticed a Spanish-language edition, La crema de la ciencia ficción, was upped to Archive.org in 2013 in case anyone fluent wants to enter that. EDIT: From the same publisher is La Crema del crimen, https://archive.org/search?query=crema-del-crimen, which includes a few stories from ISFDB judging by back cover. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:40, 6 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:I will add the Spanish one.  What the heck. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 13:12, 6 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
Mr. Hailey, writer of many once-popular books, like Airport, that nobody reads anymore, has 1 novel on ISFDB, In High Places, from 1962 (although apparently it was published in 1961 elsewhere and serialized in Canada in Maclean's magazine and a bunch of other confusing stuff that I'm willfully ignoring); it's a possible nuclear war type of book, so popular in the 1960's, and was reprinted roughly a zillion times, many editions being on Archive.org (but none on ISFDB), but the original American edition from Doubleday, for some reason, is very difficult to track down exact info on. Most eBay and other online sites either have no jacket or are a Book Club edition, but I finally managed to track down an auction of the original edition with the jacket flaps visible, https://picclick.com/In-High-Places-by-Arthur-Hailey-1962-1st-Edition-223453505903.html, although the seller started off with a bunch of photos with no jacket and stuck the jacket photo at the end, and the text on the flaps is either defective or was photographed badly, because some of it is tough to make out. I'm 99% sure the price is 4.95, so I included it in my edit, although I can't find a definitive place online where this price is mentioned, which is odd for such a mainstream book, but the real problem is the credit on the back flap. I've seen one other photo of the back flap online somewhere that was photographed bright and sharp, but the photographer cut off the photo after the words JACKET PAINTING, while the artist is visible here but the letters in the name are sketchy. I've tried finding it by searching for Homer in advanced search, but none of the 4 with that name match up, and it's possible it might not even be Homer. So does anyone know who the artist is? It's a very nice cover, and it would be good to credit them. --[[User:Username|Username]] 21:41, 9 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Pachter ==
  
−
== Fortunes of Brak ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1914279; Josh Pachter is credited as "with" on title page of 2015 English edition on Archive.org. Should he be added as co-author? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:21, 6 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:I didn't check the Archive.org copy, but the Look Inside on Amazon shows that "with" citation, but then on the copyright page it says the English translation is copyright 2015 Dhooge and Pachter.  There is also a copyright 2014 for Dhooge and the original publisher.  I interpret that to mean Pachter's role was (co-?)translator.  I found Pachter's [http://www.joshpachter.com/bib/bibliography.html bibliography page], and this listed in the "Translations" section.  But just to avoid having anything be too clear, he also has [http://www.joshpachter.com/bib/bib.styx.html this], where he talks about previously translating another Dhooge work and being asked to "collaborate on an American version" of this one.  So does that mean this isn't a translation but is actually a major revision?  Dunno.  Given that Pachter only takes credit for translating it, I think noting him as translator and documenting the "with" citation and the copyright statements (could throw in the Pachter site references as a bonus) should be sufficient.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 13:30, 6 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?28665; I added a Luminist PDF of the American Dell edition, but there's an un-entered (Book Club?) hardcover on Archive.org, uploaded last year, and I noticed it said DOUGLAS Beekman on the copyright page; there's no dustjacket. It turns out that it says so on the paperback's copyright page, too, so is it correct to go with the back cover's DOUG, as someone did, or should it be the longer name (which has a couple dozen entries on ISFDB)? --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:26, 10 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Star Gors ==
  
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== Holt(-)White ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5851689; I was adding links and adding/fixing other stuff in some Gor editions, mostly UK Star PB, when I noticed an artist's signature for Players of Gor, Star edition, is on the cover but ISFDB had no credit. I tried several names I thought it could be and finally got Tony Masero who, as far as I can tell, is credited exactly once on the entire net for doing this cover, an AbeBooks/Biblio seller's description, but AbeBooks show the wrong (Daw Books) cover and Biblio's scan of the right cover is much too small to see the signature clearly. So I think I got a rare one. As can be seen here, [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_results.cgi?USE_1=pub_title&O_1=exact&TERM_1=&C=AND&USE_2=pub_publisher&O_2=exact&TERM_2=star&USE_3=pub_title&O_3=contains&TERM_3=of+gor&USE_4=pub_title&O_4=exact&TERM_4=&USE_5=pub_title&O_5=exact&TERM_5=&USE_6=pub_title&O_6=exact&TERM_6=&USE_7=pub_title&O_7=exact&TERM_7=&USE_8=pub_title&O_8=exact&TERM_8=&USE_9=pub_title&O_9=exact&TERM_9=&USE_10=pub_title&O_10=exact&TERM_10=&ORDERBY=pub_year&ACTION=query&START=0&TYPE=Publication], there are 5 other Star editions with no cover credit; if anyone can find a signature on any of them, beat me to it and enter them yourselves. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 21:49, 6 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5387088; This author has the dash in his name for some of his books but clearly not for this one, as seen on the title page in the PDF. However, my edit was rejected, so was that right, or should it be accepted and author's name made a variant of the hyphenated name? --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:42, 10 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Night Mayor Cover Art ==
−
: Mod who rejected has un-rejected. All is well. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:56, 11 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Coronet Kersh ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?474; I noticed that the cover art for the original UK HC and the US C&G HC, which is the same, is credited to 2 different artists here. It's easy to find photos of the back flap of US online which does say design by Roy Colmer but of the several eBay sellers who offer the UK none thought to show the back flap. There are many C&G Colmer design credits online so I'm thinking Kemp did the art and US just didn't credit him, only their designer. So should we make C&G artist Jon Kemp with a note about him not being credited? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:11, 10 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?488936; While adding info about prices on back cover I noticed the title on the title page is the same as the American edition, so I fixed it and the cover art title, too. I don't know who provided the alternate title, but once my edit's approved some merging or unmerging or whatever needs to happen. Also mildly amusing is they partially rewrote the cheesy blurb on the back cover because, I guess, Brits wouldn't know what premium redemption stamps are. --[[User:Username|Username]] 22:47, 10 August 2022 (EDT)
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:I have the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?44644 UK hc of Kim Newman / The Night Mayor]. The rear flap of the dust jacket states: "Jacket Illustration: Jon Kemp" and "Jacket Design: Bostock & Pollitt Ltd." [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:44, 18 January 2024 (EST)
  
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== City of Glass ==
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== Darrah Chavey's Passing ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5388100; Rare book, Luminist PDF shows there are 2 numbered ad pages after the novel, PV hasn't responded to anything since last October, so should another edit be made to change the page count? --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:55, 11 August 2022 (EDT)
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I was saddened to read this morning of [[User:Chavey|Chavey]]'s passing in [https://file770.com/pixel-scroll-1-10-24-tom-swift-and-his-scrolling-pixels/ File 770] (Number 7 in the Pixel Scroll).  It was always a pleasure to work with him here and he will be missed. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 06:49, 11 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:I replaced link on his page with an updated one; also, while adding a link to the issue of the zine, Aurora, where his Walton essays appeared I discovered that most issues of Aurora and its predecessor Janus are on Archive.org, he PV most (all?) of them, but some have full contents while others have nothing. I imported a few poems from Robert Frazier, Steven M. Tymon, etc. but there's a ton of other book reviews and articles and stuff for anyone who's interested. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:15, 11 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== ''Genre Fiction: The Roaring Years'' by Peter Nicholls is out ==
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:: Sad news indeed. He had a heart attack a few years ago and has been less active since then, but he was only 69, so it was unexpected. Thanks for updating his User and Talk pages. I have updated user rights on his account. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 23:11, 12 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:Rtrace, thanks for letting us all know. I echo your sentiments. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:47, 13 January 2024 (EST)
  
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''Genre Fiction: The Roaring Years'', a compendium of 60 articles and reviews by the late {{A|Peter Nicholls}} (the mastermind behind the first version of ''Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', 1979), is now out in paperback and as an e-book. It's not available from Amazon, but you can order both versions directly [https://ae.ansible.uk/?t=roaring from the publisher], which also makes the [https://ae.ansible.uk/?t=roaring-cont table of contents available online]. There are no page numbers, but Dave Langford has volunteered to provide a scan of the ToC of the paperback edition if anyone wants to enter the book. Anyone feel up to the task? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 15:20, 12 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Barn Owl ==
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:Sure, I would do it. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 21:20, 13 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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:: Thanks! Dave has added [https://ae.ansible.uk/?t=roaring-cont a link to a scan of the first few pages] to the ToC Web page, which should hopefully help. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 22:11, 13 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?4296; I made an edit for City of Hermits long ago and today added some more stuff; I think this Barn Owl is not the same as the other that published much later. Ann Jungman who wrote a few of the later ones has a Wiki page where it says she founded Barn Owl in 1999 so I think the 1983 one should get a USA or California or something added to it. Whoever wrote the note about Frances Lincoln here seems to have conflated the 2 publishers; the England location probably belongs with the later publisher. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 08:27, 11 January 2024 (EST)
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:::I have entered both the {{P|910485|tp}} and {{P|910487|ebook}} versions along with the contents. We did not have existing records for quite a few of the contents. The website provides a listing of original appearances so my next step will be to sort that out. Some may be variant titles, but others (like {{T|3068541|Hop Aboard Kids, We’re Going to 1984: Seven Children’s Books}} which first appeared in {{P|293929|Foundation, #10}}) sound like they may have been review columns where we only list the reviews in the original publication. I will need to reach out to the verifiers of the original works so it will take a bit to work through that. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 10:31, 14 August 2022 (EDT)
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:I separated out [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?4296 Barn Owl Books (UK)] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?83339 Barn Owl Books (USA)] based on the ISBN's. I also updated the notes for Barn Owl Books (UK) based on [https://www.thebookseller.com/news/frances-lincoln-acquires-barn-owl this article]. When untangling publishers, the [https://grp.isbn-international.org/ Global Register of Publishers] can be of help. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 09:11, 13 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
:::: One step at a time :) Thanks! [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:08, 14 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Pat Frank Title ==
  
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== Make Variant - submission review changes ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5856366; I added cover image long ago; just came across archived copy which was there years before my edit so I'm not sure why I didn't add it back then but I did now and also added dash in title, H-Bomb, but I noticed there's another part of the title that people can't decide on. Mhhutchins entered it with 3 dots but title page has one GIANT dot while facing page has long dash and LOC/WorldCat has comma. So what's the consensus? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:44, 11 January 2024 (EST)
  
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As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have been working on a rewrite of the ISFDB software responsible for displaying submission review pages. As part of that rewrite "Make This Tile a Variant" has been changed. The following changes have been made:
+
== Sue Robinson ==
  
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* All fields associated with the title record are now displayed in the table; in the past only the fields whose values were explicitly specified in the submission were displayed. This is supposed to help moderators see the entirety of the record and identify potential problems.
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?16675; I added archived link and a few other things to the HC of Amendment; author is a respected American newsperson. She should be differed from the Australian author. 1992 story in Weird Tales may be by either of them or another person since there's no bio in that issue. Also, does anyone own Amendment PB? It has nice cover art but there's no back cover photo online where I assume the artist would be credited. I see some weird blocks in the lower right, P and another letter, maybe initials or maybe just part of the art. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:10, 11 January 2024 (EST)
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* The order of rows within the table has been changed to match the order of rows in the edit forms which created the submission, e.g. "Authors" is now displayed after "Title" and "Transliterated Titles" as opposed to at the bottom of the table.
+
:I separated out ''The Amendment'' to {{A|Sue Robinson (I)|373246}}. The author blurb for ''The Amendment'' does not align with the bio for the more prominent newspaper reporter of the same name, nor does that person list ''The Amendment'' as one of their works on their personal or faculty website. So probably two different reporters with same name. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 09:55, 13 January 2024 (EST)
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* The left column and the right column of the displayed table use the same color since they represent separate title records and not changed values in the same record.
 
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* For COVERART titles, two separate rows are now displayed. The first one shows the title types and the second one shows the related cover scans (if there are any.)
 
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* All fields now display hyphens ("-") in empty table cells.
 
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* All fields have been updated to support multiple yellow warnings. In the past some fields supported only one yellow warning per field even if the software identified multiple problems with the submitted data.
 
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* If a field generates multiple yellow warnings, they now appear on separate lines, making them easier to parse.
 
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* A yellow warning is now displayed when creating a new parent title record with a disambiguated series name, e.g. "Future History".
 
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* A yellow warning is now displayed when any non-Notes/Synopsis fields of the proposed parent title record contain recognized HTML tags. (Notes/Synopsis fields will continue to display yellow warnings if an UNrecognized HTML tag is used.)
 
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* A yellow warning is now displayed if the languages of the two titles are different. This is experimental and may be removed if it proves to be distracting.
 
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* Yellow warnings are now displayed if there is a mismatch between the two titles' non-genre, juvenile, novelization and graphic flags.
 
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* Yellow warnings about new, pseudonymous and disambiguated author names now specify which author(s) they apply to. This should help when the proposed parent title has multiple authors.
 
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* For omnibus titles, a yellow warning is now displayed if there is a mismatch between the Content values of the two title records.
 
  
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Please note that these changes are limited to the way Make Variant submissions are ''displayed''. No changes have been made to the way field values are entered in your Web browser or to the way they are filed into the database.
+
== Peter Goodfellow ==
  
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If you come across any bugs or anything unexpected, please post your findings here. If everything looks OK after a few days, I will start making similar changes to other submission review pages. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 17:00, 13 August 2022 (EDT)
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http://petergoodfellow.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/18-misc2; I added a few credits for this artist but the last one has me stumped because the 1992 edition had the same cover as the last image here, http://petergoodfellow.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/18-misc2, but that was wrong because archived copy has the same Posen cover as the later printing on ISFDB. Goodfellow cover has an M for Mammoth so was it an earlier or later edition and why can't I find the original Methuen cover anywhere? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:54, 12 January 2024 (EST)
  
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: Spot-checking a few "Make Variant" submissions currently in the queue, I see a couple of relatively minor issues:
+
== French Swastika ==
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:* "Disambiguated author" warnings are displayed twice under some circumstances
 
−
:* Series names are not linked in the left column
 
−
: I will start working on fixing them shortly. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 17:09, 13 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: Fixed. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 18:22, 13 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5857839; French speakers, I made my usual shaky attempt at entering a foreign-language edition but I felt a book of such fame probably deserved it; after approval if anyone cares to look it over I'm sure it can be improved. I also made a follow-up edit changing date of French variant to a year earlier to match the date of this book. Also, those Feminist Press editions, https://archive.org/search?query=swastika-night&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22, are a mess, the one with the white cover matches the UK Lawrence & Wishart edition's cover but has the info of the '85 Feminist edition, while the other 2 with the face on the cover either a) have no price on the back and totally different back cover text but copyright page is the same or b) are a 4th printing from 2003, I think, with cover info on copyright page the '85 edition doesn't have and a missing back cover so no way to tell what was on there. If anyone cares to figure all that out. For some reason the French edition I mentioned above is in English according to Archive.org which is obviously wrong. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:59, 12 January 2024 (EST)
  
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::: Consider showing the warning only if the languages are different and the child title lacks the translator template. Would function as a reminder for the editors. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 13:03, 14 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== UK Omni ==
  
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:::: An interesting idea. Thanks. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 14:51, 14 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://fantlab.ru/edition356174; I added archived links to the 6 volumes of Best of Omni and noticed FantLab has a photo of #6 with a UK price on it in case anyone knows more about that; maybe all 6 were published there but, if so, none are on ISFDB. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:23, 14 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
::::: I noticed the yellow warning is also shown when varianting art titles (see [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5390345 this edit]). This is confusing, because art titles don't need the translator template. --[[User:Willem H.|Willem]] 15:13, 14 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Tiret-Bognet ==
  
−
:::::: Perhaps we should get rid of the "Different languages" warning and replace it with a "Translator template" check for non-COVERART/INTERIORART titles. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 16:48, 14 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=bognet&type=Name; same Verne illustrator, same book in different languages, one should be parent and maybe some of the art needs merging, Holmesd worked on many of these Verne books so he'd probably know. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:48, 14 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== JFIF ==
+
== Server maintenance 2024-01-15 at 3pm EST ==
  
−
Luminist.org includes some author photos with a .jfif extension, which is accepted here as I added Evelyn E. Smith's photo recently and there was no problem, and a search revealed it's the only .jfif image on all of ISFDB. Anyone familiar with it? --[[User:Username|Username]] 09:47, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
The ISFDB server will be down for maintenance on 2024-01-15 (today) between 3pm and 3:10pm EST. The database and the Wiki will be unavailable. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:09, 15 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
: I was only aware of its existence, and knew nothing about the technical details, but [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Media/Formats/Image_types#jpeg_joint_photographic_experts_group_image Mozilla's image format docs] indicate that it's basically JPEG, and that there's shouldn't be any issues with any browsers rendering those images.
+
: The server is back up. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:06, 15 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Tevis Dillon Cover ==
+
== N. Katerli ==
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?184021; I added FantLab ID because it shows the back cover, and noticed that 1 of the 4 PV here wrote a note about cover art being signed "illon"; Leo and Diane Dillon did a cover for Fawcett the previous year, so I think it's probably them, as several websites agree with. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:38, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=katerli&type=Name; I found a huge (380+ pages) thread on FantLab's message boards with people who have died, many of which were never entered on ISFDB (not all genre, though, some footballers and other non-genre people are included, too) and while adding many dates and photos I came across Katerli; I added Wiki link, day of death, and photo to Nina's record but is that other spelling the same person? If so, some variant would probably be needed. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:25, 17 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:It's very possible, given how things get romanized from Eastern European languages. Perhaps one of our Eastern European language people can do a little digging? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:30, 17 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::Looking into it a bit myself, I'm 100% sure they are the same person. Working on connecting them. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:57, 17 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::Okay, everything is [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?373565 here], now. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:27, 17 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Double quotes in untitles award authors and plus signs in all author names disallowed ==
+
::: Thanks for working on her stories. I have added dates and updated the author record. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 21:51, 17 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
The following bugs were fixed in the patch installed a few minutes ago:
+
== Terry Venables ==
  
−
* Author names associated with untitled awards could include double quotes even though double quotes are automatically converted to single quotes for all other author names. This was preventing the software from matching author records with untitled award records, e.g. George "Lan" Laskowski vs. George 'Lan' Laskowski. 25 award records will need to be fixed manually, which I plan to do later today.
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5861442; Is this the famous footballer (or soccer, as we Yanks call it)? There seem to be a lot of photos of him but some of them look like a different person so just making sure this is the right guy (he wrote some novels including Bornless Keeper which is on ISFDB but online info seems to suggest he didn't actually write any of it, Gordon Williams did). --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:44, 17 January 2024 (EST)
−
* The way the software is currently designed, plus signs can't be used within author names. A minority of data entry fields automatically stripped them during the data entry process while most didn't. The software has been upgraded to display a pop-up message telling you that plus signs are not allowed in author names. (Eventually I plan to upgrade the software design to allow plus signs, but it's a long term project.) 2 author names will need to be fixed manually, which I plan to do later today.
 
  
−
If you encounter any issues, please post your findings here. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:03, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
: Yes, things like that do happen: there are several titles in the database for which it is doubtful if the featured prominent author did actually write them; and so, jugig from the photo and the theme of the listed title it is '''the''' Terry Venables. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 07:38, 18 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::I can confirm that the photo in your submission is indeed of the English footballer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Venables Terry Venables]. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:42, 18 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
: All affected records have been fixed. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:48, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Alchemy Magazine ==
  
−
== Helicon Award ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/seriesgrid.cgi?35135; Luminist.org has a lot of magazines not on Archive.org and while replacing cover and adding link to Alchemy #2 I noticed all 3 issues have a different format, TP/unknown/pulp. Those who know about such things may want to adjust those since I'm assuming they all should be the same format. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 01:11, 18 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
I just ran across [https://heliconawards.com/ the Helicon Award], offered in a number of different categories since 2019. Here's the basic info:
+
== Dinotopia Digest Novels ==
  
−
*'''Short Name:''' Helicon Award
+
I just made about 20 edits for this series (https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5862661 through https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5862859) and as usual with series books it's a nightmare; I think I did as much as I could with what's available (oddly, only 1 book, Survive!, didn't have its original Random House edition entered on ISFDB so I had to scrounge up a copy on Google Books to enter info from). I think only one thing may raise questions and that's this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2230051, where an editor here in 2017 entered James Gurney as cover artist but even though he's mentioned on all copyright pages because he's the creator/owner of Dinotopia it was actually Michael Welply who did all the covers. Problem is after I removed cover credit (I didn't enter Welply because while it does say that in archived 3rd printing copy there are some 1st printings of books in the series that misspelled it as Welpley and then corrected that in later printings) I noticed the nomination for best cover in the art record. So I don't know what to make of that; was Gurney nominated because he's the creator or did someone make a mistake and not nominate the real artist, Welply? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:58, 18 January 2024 (EST)
−
*'''Full Name:''' Helicon Award
 
−
*'''Awarded For:''' "Recognizes the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror for each calendar year."
 
−
*'''Awarded By:''' The Helicon Society
 
−
*'''Poll:''' No
 
−
*'''Covers more than just SF:''' No
 
−
*'''Webpages:''' https://heliconawards.com/
 
−
*'''Note:''' (from the website) Named after the mountain that the mythological Nine Muses called home, the Helicon Awards recognizes the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror for each calendar year. The 2019 Helicon Awards served as the awards’ inaugural year and covered works originally released in 2018. A selection committee meets several times prior to January 14th to select nominees and final winners for each category. Nominated works must have been published for the first time between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of the previous year. Membership in the Society is not a requirement to be considered for an award.
 
  
−
Categories (2019):
+
== Pratchett's Eric - converting into novella? ==
−
*Best Science Fiction Novel
 
−
*Best Fantasy Novel
 
−
*Best Military SFF Novel
 
−
*Best Alternate History Novel
 
−
*Best Media Tie-In Novel
 
−
*Best Horror Novel
 
−
*Best Anthology (SF/F/H)
 
−
*Melvil Dewey Innovation Award
 
−
*Laura Ingalls Wilder New Author Award
 
−
*Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award
 
  
−
Categories (2020):
+
I did a word count on a digital version of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1832 Eric], and it's around 35000 words, i.e. clearly a novella. Comments on the title and various publication records point out how unusually short it is. [http://www.locusmag.com/index/b381.htm Locus] calls the first edition a novella, but later editions a novel. I think the novella classification is correct, but am hesitant in converting such a high-profile title. Any opinions? [[User:TerokNor|TerokNor]] ([[User talk:TerokNor|talk]]) 08:01, 19 January 2024 (EST)
−
*Best Sci-Fi
 
−
*Best Fantasy
 
−
*Best Military SF/F
 
−
*Best Alt History
 
−
*Best Media Tie-In
 
−
*Best Horror
 
−
*Best YA
 
−
*Best Anthology (Book or story)
 
−
*Best SF/F Movie
 
−
*Best SF/F TV Series
 
−
*Best SF/F Comic Book or Graphic Novel
 
−
*Best SF/F Game
 
−
*Melvil Dewey Innovation Award
 
−
*Laura Ingalls Wilder Best New Author Award
 
−
*John W. Campbell Diversity in SF/F Award
 
−
*Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award
 
  
−
Categories (2021):
+
: My electronic copy contains 34.2K words, so it's a novella. That said, I wonder about Locus changing its classification after the first edition. Is there any indication that later editions may have been longer? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:43, 19 January 2024 (EST)
−
*Best Sci-Fi
+
:: I can find no indication of there being different editions of the text. I noticed however that after the original illustrated edition (which was billed "A Discworld Story"), it usually says "A Discworld Novel" on the covers, so Locus might have just gone with that. [[User:TerokNor|TerokNor]] ([[User talk:TerokNor|talk]]) 13:59, 19 January 2024 (EST)
−
*Best Fantasy
 
−
*Best Military SF/F
 
−
*Best Alt History
 
−
*Best Media Tie-In
 
−
*Best Horror
 
−
*Best YA
 
−
*Best Anthology (Book or story)
 
−
*Best SF/F Movie
 
−
*Best SF/F TV Series
 
−
*Best SF/F Comic Book or Graphic Novel
 
−
*Best SF/F Game
 
−
*Melvil Dewey Innovation Award
 
−
*Laura Ingalls Wilder Best New Author Award
 
−
*John W. Campbell Diversity in SF/F Award
 
−
*Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award
 
  
−
Categories (2022):
+
:::: It sounds like it's a novella whose subtitle (but not the word count) was changed in later editions. I suggest we wait for other editors to share their thoughts before we change the type from NOVEL to SHORTFICTION. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:49, 19 January 2024 (EST)
−
*Best Sci-Fi
 
−
*Best Fantasy
 
−
*Best Military SF/F
 
−
*Best Horror
 
−
*Best Alt-History
 
−
*Best YA
 
−
*Best Anthology
 
−
*Best SF/F Movie
 
−
*Best SF/F TV Series
 
−
*Melvil Dewey Innovation Award
 
−
*Laura Ingalls Wilder Best New Author Award
 
−
*John W. Campbell Diversity in SF/F Award
 
−
*Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award
 
  
−
I'll be happy to populate them if the award is created. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 17:03, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:::I added an Archive.org link in a PENDING edit to The Illustrated Eric, 2010 Gollancz HC, so that may help with the counting; page count said 144 but it is actually 131. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:26, 19 January 2024 (EST)
−
: The name rang a vague bell, so I did a bit of Googling - IMHO it's a Sad/Rabid Puppies-esque culture war thing for the founder to give prizes to his friends.  From [https://file770.com/tag/helicon-awards/ File 770], which is not exactly a completely unbiased source - see below the quotes - but I'm open to other coverage/documentation:
 
−
: ''(15) HELICONIA WINTER. Richard Paolinelli handed out the 2021 Helicon Awards [Internet archive link] yesterday, some to bestselling sff writers, two to L. Jagi Lamplighter and Declan Finn, but if you want to know what’s really on Richard’s mind look at this entry on the list:''
 
−
: ''John W. Campbell Diversity in SF/F Award – J.K. Rowling''
 
−
: ''Paolinelli also presented awards named for Melvil Dewey and Laura Ingalls Wilder, which he created after their names were removed from two American Library Association awards in recent years.''
 
−
: ''....''
 
−
: ''(13) HELICON AWARDS. Richard Paolinelli celebrated the Fourth of July by announcing the ten inaugural winners of the Helicon Awards on his YouTube channel. Sad Puppy Declan Finn won the Best Horror Novel category, which is probably more informative about where these awards are coming from than that Brandon Sanderson and Timothy Zahn also won.''
 
−
: ''....''
 
−
: ''Throughout the presentation Paolinelli keeps using the pronouns “we” and “our” without shedding very much light on who besides himself is behind these awards. The slides for the winners bear the  logo of his Science Fiction & Fantasy Creators Guild, opened last year with the ambition of rivalling SFWA. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Creators Guild closed group on Facebook is listed as having 275 members – you can’t see the content without joining, but FB displays a stat that it’s had 6 posts in the last 30 days. The SFFCGuild Twitter account hasn’t been active since February 2018.''
 
−
: ''Paolinelli’s blog claims sponsorship of the awards, but in the video he says not only won’t winners be receiving a trophy, he hasn’t even designed a certificate for them, though he might do that in a few weeks.''
 
−
: ''In addition to the 10 Helicon Awards, Paolinelli named “three individual honorees for the Mevil Dewey Innovation Award, Laura Ingalls Wilder Best New Author Award and the Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award.”''
 
−
: ''So far as the first two awards are concerned, it’s likely that what did most to persuade Paolinelli to give them those names was the decision by two organizations this past year to drop the names from existing awards – in Wilder’s case (see Pixel Scroll 6/25/18 item #5), the US Association for Library Service to Children said it was “over racist views and language,” while the American Library Association dropped Dewey (see Pixel Scroll 6/27/19 Item #13) citing “a history of racism, anti-Semitism, and sexual harassment.”''
 
  
−
: I note that one of [https://heliconawards.com/2022-helicon-awards/ the 2022 winners] is a book entitled "China Mike", which I'm sure by complete coincidence is a derogatory nickname that the Puppy crowd use to refer to Mike Glyer of File 770. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 18:35, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:::: I have approved the submission that corrected the page count and updated the Note field to indicate where the corrected page count comes from. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:49, 19 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
:: It looks like the core eligibility issue here is whether the Helicon Society has a non-trivial number of members beyond {{A|Richard Paolinelli}}. If it's effectively a one man show or a small press trying to promote its authors, then we wouldn't want to include the award. If it's more than that, then it's a different story.
+
::::: (Chime) Not surprised, don't care, go ahead. ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 21:26, 19 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
:: Here is what I am seeing so far. The main award page says the following about the Helicon Society:
+
(unindent) Hearing no objection, I have left a message on TerokNor's Talk page asking him to proceed with the proposed changes. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:38, 24 January 2024 (EST)
−
::* The Helicon Society was founded in 2018 and is a collective of SF/F authors and other creators who subscribe to the Superversive approach to creating SF/F media and look to promote good quality sci-fi/fantasy entertainment to their customers.  
+
:Thank you. I have submitted the first edit to begin the process. [[User:TerokNor|TerokNor]] ([[User talk:TerokNor|talk]]) 05:19, 2 February 2024 (EST)
−
::* It is not an official organization, it collects no fees and membership is by invitation only.
 
−
::* Membership in the Society is considered private, unless the member chooses to publicly announce they are a member of the Society. Any inquiries, or requests for a membership list, will be ignored.
 
  
−
:: This makes it hard to tell whether it's a one man show. https://scifiscribe.com/ , Paolinelli's Web site, used to have a Web page about the Helicon Society, https://scifiscribe.com/the-helicon-society/ . Unfortunately, it and other Helicon Society-related Web pages at that Web site are no longer available. The Wayback Machine says [https://web.archive.org/web/20220000000000*/https://scifiscribe.com/the-helicon-society/ This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine].
+
== Late Mods ==
  
−
:: Luckily, Google still has a cached version of the main Helicon Society page. The "Reviews" section has two bullets: "Reviewers Wanted" and "Richard’s Reviews", which suggests that the only reviewer is Paolinelli. The "ABOUT" section has one link to a sub-page about "TUSCANY BAY BOOKS" -- see [https://tuscanybaybooks.com/ their Web site] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?70305 the ISFDB Publisher page], including the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher_authors.cgi?70305+name Author breakdown page for this publisher].
+
I had a thought while adding FantLab ID to a PV Brian Lumley book today; is there a way to remove the necessity of adding a note to the mod about what changes you made if the mod is deceased? There have been several mod losses recently, most of whom PV countless books, so it would save time to not have to write anything if the only PV's are ones who are not going to read those notes. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:23, 19 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
:: The other thing that I noticed after reviewing [https://heliconawards.com/blog/ the list of 2019-2022 winners] was that there was a shift in the winning authors in 2022. In 2019-2021 the winners included {{A|Robert J. Sawyer}}, {{A|Ann Leckie}}, {{A|Jack McDevitt}}, {{A|S. M. Stirling}} and other established authors. In 2022 the winner in the "Best Sci-Fi" category was "Eerie" by Gibson Michaels, which has no ratings or reviews [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59011246-eerie on Goodread] after 11 months. The winner in the "Best Fantasy" category was "Dusklight" by N. R. LaPoint, which has 4 ratings and 2 reviews [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58471284-dusklight on Goodreads] after 14 months.
+
: I think there are two sides to this issue.
  
−
:: At the moment I have more questions than answers. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 21:31, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
: The first one is technical, i.e. whether it would be possible to modify the software to check each primary verifier's Talk page to see if it starts with the "Deceased user" template. The short answer is "Yes, it would be possible, although it would also make our core software more closely intertwined with the Wiki software, which may become a minor nuisance during the next Wiki upgrade".
−
:::Yeah, I don't know that I'd trust File 770 to be impartial about anything related to Sad Puppies as there is a long history of animosity on both sides. Regarding Goodreads, it is (at least in my experience) really hit or miss when it comes to number of reviews something gets there. I've noticed that a lot of more conservative authors tend to have fewer people reviewing their works on the site, even if they have sold well (even reaching #1 in multiple categories on Amazon in multiple cases). ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 12:26, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:::: I wasn't aware of possible major discrepancies between Goodreads and Amazon rating. Curious.
+
: The second one is functional, i.e. whether making this kind of change would be desirable. I am not sure it would. It would save some keystrokes, but there is value to having more detailed Edit History for primary verified publications even if their verifiers are no longer available. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:42, 19 January 2024 (EST)
−
:::: Checking [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09C2NMKDP Amazon.com's record for ''Eerie''], I see that the book has  2 ratings and no reviews. Its rankings within Amazon's browse node system is as follows:
 
−
::::* #1,980,551 in Kindle Store
 
−
::::* #9,228 in Historical Fantasy (Kindle Store)
 
−
::::* #15,617 in Fairy Tale Fantasy (Kindle Store)
 
−
::::* #16,482 in Historical Fantasy (Books)
 
  
−
:::: ''Dusklight'' [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097N5VFCY fares somewhat better]: 4 Amazon ratings and the following rankings:
+
== Moll/Head Virgin Planet ==
−
::::* #320,712 in Kindle Store
 
−
::::* #271 in Christian Fantasy (Kindle Store)
 
−
::::* #299 in Christian Fantasy (Books)
 
−
::::* #476 in Religious Science Fiction & Fantasy (Kindle Store)
 
  
−
:::: At the same time, Gibson Michaels, the author of ''Eerie'', was [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dragon_Award_nominees nominated for the Dragon award in 2016], which suggests that there may be more going on than someone "giving out awards to their friends". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:50, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5864268; I added cover and prices but I think publisher should be changed to Wyndham, either Star or Tandem or Target which are all on ISFDB related to Wyndham, since their logo is on front and back covers, https://www.ebay.com/itm/143869122299. The other issue is the cover is the same Charles Moll art as earlier US paperbacks; Michael Head was a designer with 1 other ISFDB credit that notes say is just a photo and a Mike Head I noted in an edit earlier today as the designer for Piatkus edition of M. Bingley's Waiting Darkness did a cover which is just a photo of a fist. So where Head credit came from for Virgin Planet I don't know but I think Moll credit should replace it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:09, 19 January 2024 (EST)
−
::::: Top post on [https://www.facebook.com/sentiencetrilogy/ the Gibson Michaels Facebook page]: ''It's been a slow process, but Gibson Michaels' last work is now available for pre-sale on Amazon.com.  Publish date is set for Sept 7, the anniversary of his passing. I'm very grateful for the help of Richard Paolinelli and Dawn Greenfield Ireland for their contributions to help me get Mike's last work out there.''  What exactly that refers to is unclear, but it would seem there is/was some relationship betwen Paolinelli and and Michaels.
 
−
::::: Also, based on [https://rosieoliver.wordpress.com/2021/01/14/helicon-awards/ the Rose Oliver blog post], [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?71220 Midlands Scribes Publishing] - the publisher of the 2021 Mil SF category winner - is a Paolinelli company; he also contributed one story and the cover.
 
−
::::: 2020 anthology winner [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2653304 Places Beyond the Wild] is from a different publisher, but amongst the contributors listed on the Amazon UK product page are Paolinelli, Declan Finn (seemingly the most prolific author at Tuscany Bay Books) and at least one other author who's had multiple titles published from Tuscany Bay. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 17:45, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::::: Update: The 2022 Best Anthology winner (not currently in the database, ASIN is B0B72GZMMV) was also published by Tuscany Bay in its first edition, per the Amazon preview. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 18:24, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
::: Regardless of any of that, I don't know that we should be making decisions on which awards to include based on what boils down to politics. We've had other awards that are handed out by unknown judges who use unknown methods in choosing the winners. I think the fact that this award has been given out to a fairly broad range of well known and lesser know authors would indicate that, whoever the judges are, they are doing more than simply giving out awards to their friends. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 12:26, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== One Hundred Years of Science Fiction ==
  
−
:::: Politics is certainly not a criterion when deciding which award-sponsoring organizations are eligible for our purposes -- we list everything from the Prometheus Award given by the Libertarian Futurist Society to the Soviet-era Aelita Award. The question that I am struggling with is whether this particular award sponsor is more than one or two people. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:50, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5864915; I'm guessing this Gollancz edition is rare judging by the fact there's almost no photos of the cover online. As can be seen in my edit, notes about year (probably very old and entered by the long-gone Bluesman) are obsolete now because the year is on the title page. Also, the price was entered by Mellotronman from his copy but for a 1969 UK book the pre-decimal price should be entered so that's what I did; problem is in his note to mod in edit history he says other price is 32s, not 30. So if he's still around he may want to PV and add a note about the alternate price (I'm assuming the archived copy's flap is badly framed which is why the other price is not visible) and delete year notes and add a new one saying the date is on the title page. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:31, 20 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:It doesn't help that two different printings share the same ISBN. Mine says 1970 on the front of the title page and 'second impression 1970' on the back of the same page. The price is most definitely listed on the dust jacket as '32s', an unusual way of writing 'shillings'. The more usual way would be '32/-'. Perhaps the first impression was 30s and the second 32? [[User:Mellotronman|Mellotronman]] ([[User talk:Mellotronman|talk]]) 16:55, 20 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::OK, I think it makes sense now, copy on Archive.org is '69 1st pr. with just s-price while your 1970 2nd pr. has both s-price and pounds. So after my edit is approved you may want to clone it and enter yours with new date and prices and PV it, too. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:07, 20 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
[Resetting indent to respond to some of Nihonjoe's and Ahasuerus comments]
+
== Tom Palmer ==
  
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<blockquote>Nihonjoe> I've noticed that a lot of more conservative authors tend to have fewer people reviewing their works on the site, even if they have sold well</blockquote>
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?98449; 2 or 3 different Palmers here; novels are by the guy pictured but the art credits are by the recently deceased (2022) famous comic artist who had a still-online site, tompalmerillustration, and a Wiki page as Tom Palmer (comics); the poem, judging by the bio at the archived Aphelion link, is by another likely American Palmer. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 21:58, 20 January 2024 (EST)
  
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I agree with this - e.g. I've been regularly scraping [https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/nielsen/xscifi.html the Publisher's Weekly monthly genre top 10s] and for the past few years, and David Weber is one of the few "new release" authors who can get (some of) his pubs into that chart, yet he has somewhat underwhelming numbers-of-ratings on Goodreads (whilst still outperforming other authors who write in the same niches).  So, whilst [https://sf.ersatzculture.com/award-charts-2020/ Goodreads stats are an interesting thing to look at], they should be taken with a large pinch of salt, especially when [https://twitter.com/ErsatzCulture/status/1555155113148293122 there's any amount of fake/bot activity on there for several years].
+
== Lone Star Law ==
  
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<blockquote>Nihonjoe> ...even reaching #1 in multiple categories on Amazon in multiple cases<br/>
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?80404; Anyone think this should be deleted? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:34, 21 January 2024 (EST)
−
    Ahasuerus> [other stuff about Amazon rankings]</blockquote>
 
  
−
The problem I have with Amazon rankings as any sort of meaningful indicator of popularity, is that I don't think Amazon have ever described how exactly those rankings are calculated, specifically in terms of the time periods they cover. e.g. if the rankings are only based on a very short period, then being one of the top ranked books in some subgenre probably doesn't mean very much. (If anyone does know more about how Amazon rankings are calculated, I would genuinely be very appreciative of that info.)
+
: The Note field says:
 +
:* Western story anthology. It may have some spec-fic stories, but otherwise, there's no reason for it to be in the database.
 +
: Have we been able to find this anthology's table of contents and determine whether any of the stories are SF? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:23, 24 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::I was able to look at the ToC via the Amazon Look Inside feature for the pb edition (ISBN 978-1982153069) and I don't see anything there that looks like SF. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 15:38, 24 January 2024 (EST)
  
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<blockquote>Ahasuerus> Gibson Michaels, the author of ''Eerie'', was nominated for the Dragon award in 2016</blockquote>
+
::: Reading the editor's introductions to each story I noticed that two stories were called "eerie". After reading them, I can confirm that one is an unambiguous ghost story while the other one is an ambiguous "curse" story. I have added them to the publication record and updated Notes. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:13, 24 January 2024 (EST)
  
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That was the first year of the Dragons, and IIRC they weren't publicized very widely.  I would contend there are a number of "interesting" results in that first year which [https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2016/09/winners-announced-for-inaugural-dragon-awards-or-should-that-be-puppy-awards/ others have documented more thoroughly].
+
== Recording plagiarized work ==
  
−
<blockquote>Nihonjoe> I don't know that we should be making decisions on which awards to include based on what boils down to politics<br/>
+
A couple of days ago [https://file770.com/pixel-scroll-1-19-24-all-these-pixels-are-someone-elses-fault/ File 770 reported] (item 5) that [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3221864 "After the Flood" by John Kucera] was plagiarised from another author.  I've added a note to that title record, but I'm wondering whether anything else should be done, e.g. making it a variant? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 01:36, 22 January 2024 (EST)
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    Ahasuerus> Politics is certainly not a criterion when deciding which award-sponsoring organizations are eligible for our purposes</blockquote>
 
  
−
I agree.  (Note that I personally added 2020's Prometheus Best Novel finalists, and I'm currently trundling through this year's Dragon finalists, both of which could reasonably be argued are on the right hand side of the awards spectrum.) However, when the Helicon Awards has the "John W. Campbell Diversity in SF/F Award", with past winners being Larry Correia, JK Rowling and Orson Scott Card, does anything think those are legitimate awards, as opposed to using culture war icons for trolling purposes?  (As an aside, I see zero indication that they have obtained permission from the relevant estates to name the "John W. Campbell Diversity in SF/F Award" or the "Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award" the way they have.)
+
: Unless the poem uses the same wording I'd think the only thing we can do is to add notes to the title (and likely the publications the plagiat was published in). Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 01:32, 22 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:All three of the works "by" this author that are listed on ISFDB appear to have been plagiarized. I've added notes to the title entries as well as the publication entries. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:59, 22 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:: Thanks all! [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 15:22, 22 January 2024 (EST)
  
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<blockquote>Nihonjoe> I think the fact that this award has been given out to a fairly broad range of well known and lesser know authors would indicate that, whoever the judges are, they are doing more than simply giving out awards to their friends.</blockquote>
+
:::At some point, we should probably make them variants since (in all the reports I've read) only the title were changed by the plagiarizer. Similar to [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1570478 this one]. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:34, 22 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::::I've added the variants for the two I could figure out. Still unsure who originally wrote "[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3205023 Summer 1993]" and what the original title was. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 16:15, 22 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:::::How about this one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2951283? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 16:29, 22 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::::::Looks like it's the same guy per a Google search that brought up [https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2023/11/16/fanlight-and-ice/ this] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20240123001032/https://www.silverblade.net/tag/john-siepkes/ archive]), which is the same thing but under his Kucera name. Now to try to figure out who really wrote it. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 19:06, 22 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::::::Some additional archive links to help us figure out all of this: [https://web.archive.org/web/20230604133528/https://thewildword.com/poetry-john-kucera/ Wild Word], [https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2024/01/john-kucera-exposed-as-serial-plagiarist.html Lothlorien Poetry Journal] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20240123004257/https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2024/01/john-kucera-exposed-as-serial-plagiarist.html archive]), [https://twitter.com/OneArtPoetry1/status/1747732242581876815 One Art Poetry on X], [https://web.archive.org/web/20230922115703/https://oneartpoetry.com/2023/09/11/two-poems-by-john-kucera/ One Art Poetry], [https://web.archive.org/web/20230530004119/https://www.fictionalcafe.com/spare-parts-poetry-by-john-kucera/ The Fictional Cafe], [https://web.archive.org/web/20240122101438/https://sparksofcalliope.com/2024/01/17/it-was-bound-to-happen-eventually/ Sparks of Calliope] (see also [https://web.archive.org/web/20240123004746/https://sparksofcalliope.com/2023/09/22/two-poems-by-john-kucera/ this page]), [https://issuu.com/newreadermagazine/docs/nrm_issue17_lowres_1_/s/16096176 New Reader Magazine] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20240123005036/https://issuu.com/newreadermagazine/docs/nrm_issue17_lowres_1_/s/16096176 archive]), [https://bsky.app/profile/wnwagner.bsky.social/post/3kj5gwyptla2o Wendy N. Wagner loves pie on BlueSky], and I'll add more later. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 20:31, 22 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
I disagree.  Putting well-known and respected figures (e.g. Stephen King, Neil Gaiman) alongside their clique was [https://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/04/27/four-things-about-the-hugos-42716/ a key part of the Puppy Hugo slating tactics], and was repeated for [https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/9/16118054/john-scalzi-alison-littlewood-dragon-awards-controversy-sci-fi-horror the second year of the Dragons]. 
+
(unindent) I suspect that the issue of plagiarized works is going to become harder to deal with in the near future. In the past we had to deal with two types of scenarios:
  
−
Some general comments and observations:
+
* word-for-word reprints with the title/credits changed, usually by shady publishers or self-publishers
 +
* more elaborate schemes whose perpetrators plagiarized sections of other authors' works
  
−
* I don't see that SFADB has covered this award
+
The first type is fairly straightforward, but the second type is hard to catch. For example, volumes 29 and 33 in the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?4950 ''Casca'' series] were retroactively removed from the series over allegations of plagiarism in April-June 2013. It happened 3-5 years after their original publication even though the Casca fandom is very active. It's not something that we, bibliographers, can realistically identify on our own.
−
* The [https://twitter.com/helicon_society Helicon Society] Twitter account has all of 37 followers and none of its Tweets have had more than low single digit interactions.
 
−
* The top few Google search results for "helicon awards" (which may well be different for other people are): the File 770 tag I posted earlier; the heliconawards.com site; [https://rosieoliver.wordpress.com/2021/01/14/helicon-awards/ a blog post] by a contributor to one of a winning anthology (thanking the publisher, Richard Paolinelli - what an amazing coincidence...), a couple of other blog posts by other winners/finalists, and unrelated results
 
  
−
None of these convince me that this is a widely recognized award.
+
Over the last few months I have seen a number of reports of plagiarists using software to scrape Web-published stories, massage them using ChatGPT and put them on Amazon, e.g. [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/18v1d5e/attention_authors_of_rr_there_has_been_a_spree_of/ this episode over the Christmas holidays]. I suspect it's going to be a pain to deal with. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:29, 24 January 2024 (EST)
  
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NB: I am quite possibly being overly negative about this particular award; there are several high profile awards that strike me as having an overly close link between their current or former organizers and the works that get nominated and/or win, so picking on this particular one is perhaps unfair.  However, their own statements about "It is not an official organization, it collects no fees and membership is by invitation only." and "Any inquiries, or requests for an official membership list, will be ignored." make me unwilling to consider it at all seriously. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 14:51, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Bard II ==
−
:Does an award need to be "widely recognized" to be included here? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 16:40, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: I don't think it does. Regional and specialized awards often have a limited number of people involved and that's fine.
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?291859; Wrong cover, it has price and ISBN of earlier printing, I can't find right cover, if anyone else can, can you upload it and replace this one? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:47, 22 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:Also, The First Long Ship (or Longship on some sites) which has no cover online I can find so if it exists and someone can find it that needs uploading, too. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:03, 22 January 2024 (EST)
  
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:: The question -- in my mind -- is where do we draw the line? A single person giving awards to his or her friends is clearly not a real award. A small press giving "best of the year" awards only to its authors is presumably not a "real" award either. However, we include [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/awardtype.cgi?1 the Analog Awards], which is limited to works published in ''Analog''. We also include [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/awardtype.cgi?80 АБС-премия / ABS-premiya], which, for the first 13 years of its existence, was controlled by a single prominent SF author:
+
== Galactic Central Images ==
−
::* [Boris Strugatsky] was responsible for appointing jury members and the nominating commission as well as selecting nominees based on the commission's recommendations
 
−
:: I am trying to think of a single rule which would help us determine award eligibility, but there are too many possible permutations :-\ [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 08:59, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
: I wasn't aware of that criterion. The UtahSF Awards certainly weren't widely known, and they were only given out for 3-4 years, but we've included them. They were definitely a regional award. And SFADB is hit or miss as far as covering awards, in my experience.
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5867682; The only other site I can find that has this cover is Camelot Books; I was going to upload it when I thought of checking Philsp and found it hiding there. Is the owner(s) of that site ever going to upgrade to HTTPS? Right-click and "open image in new tab" does show the image but it still would be better if that didn't have to be done. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:43, 22 January 2024 (EST)
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:Regarding "putting well-known and respected figures (e.g. Stephen King, Neil Gaiman) alongside their clique", it seems you may be overly biased against the Sad Puppies as that's misconstruing what I've read on the topic. Everything I read showed that they based their selection criteria off which books and stories they enjoyed the most, regardless of who wrote them. I definitely don't agree with how the Sad Puppies approached some things in their various campaigns, but that part seemed consistent throughout all of them. Note that this is the Sad Puppies, not the Rabid Puppies (whose only goal was to destroy the Hugos). It's possible you were conflating the two different groups.
 
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:As for refusing to divulge their membership list for an organization that isn't really organized, who cares? ··[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 16:40, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: It's not a requirement, it's just something that might help us determine whether this society/award are more than a single person. Then again, it's also possible that this society's (active) membership has fluctuated over the years. When a new organization is formed, it's often due to a surge of interest in some topic and then that interest dissipates over time, leaving only a few people involved. That's what happened to {{A|Mack Reynolds}}'s [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Labor_Party_of_America Socialist Labor Party of America], which had the support of tens of thousands of voters during the 20th century, but has faded away over the last few decades.
+
: Last I heard, the owner said that he had no plans to upgrade to HTTPS. That said, browser vendors have been making it harder to access HTTP sites, which puts pressure on site owners to upgrade. It remains to be seen how it may affect Galactic Central in the future. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:21, 24 January 2024 (EST)
  
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:: In addition, I am thinking that the fact that this award was apparently created as a side effect of fandom politics may be a minor argument in favor of its inclusion. An award created out of desire to promote some kind of common cause -- in this case adherence to "superversive principles" -- is arguably of more interest than an award given to its creators' friends. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 09:21, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
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== German Playboy ==
  
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:::I think it likely was created as part of the "superversive" movement (though that was around prior to the Sad Puppies). And I agree that would be a good point in favor of including it. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 11:11, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?757; While replacing sideways Amazon cover with better straight cover for one of these books I noticed there are 8 or 9 that don't have cover credits (last book was unpublished so likely no cover exists); since most covers in the series were originally on English-language books it's likely the missing ones were, too, so if anyone can recognize the art then artists can be entered and variants can be made. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:08, 24 January 2024 (EST)
  
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: As I mentioned before, there are any number of organizations that give out awards that don't provide specifics as to how they settle on the finalists or the winners. Some of them don't provide the names of the judges, either, but they are still included here. Listing it here doesn't lend it any more legitimacy than they currently have (however much that may be). It's simply providing the information for people to find, documenting speculative fiction information. The awards don't require a fee to enter, and it's not some marketing company (as far as I can tell) trying to drum up more business. That's the main reason I suggested they be included here. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 16:40, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Brian Ames Title ==
  
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:::: I feel like I am wasting my breathe in continuing to argue this, given that some of my prior points have gone unresponded to, but let me try one (final?) tack: there are rules of acquisition for pubs, if there were similar ones for awards, would this qualify.  In particular, a story is not eligible for inclusion if it has just been thrown up on an author's blog, or some general site like Wattpad - so it seems strange to me that we would consider for inclusion an "award" that doesn't seem to have anything (digitally or physical) tangible beyond a domain name and Wordpress.com site, and a low traffic/follower Twitter account. (Maybe there's more on Facebook, but I didn't see anything much in a search - but this may say more about FB search and my minimal footprint on that platform.) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 12:00, 18 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?119003; I added a link to a MOTA anthology over a year ago and there's a 2002 story by Brian Ames which editors before me seemed to have trouble deciding how to enter (see extensive title edit history), eventually settling on a symbol; however, in his collection someone entered the title as "grey blob", which is what it actually looks like in the anthology. So the 2 stories are the same and should be merged but what should the title be entered as? This reminds me of that David J. Schow horror story where nobody can ever decide how to enter it and eventually settled on "scribbled graffiti" or this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?76213, but at least Oates can get away with that because most of her work is pretentious "literary" stuff, anyway. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:22, 24 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:Merged [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2148942 here]. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 17:39, 24 January 2024 (EST)
  
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::::: I think both you and Nihonjoe have raised good points; you have certainly provided a significant amount of evidence suggesting that this award is closely linked to a single person.
+
== Duplicate finder -- NOVEL/CHAPBOOK? ==
  
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::::: I believe the underlying problem is that [[ISFDB:Policy]] doesn't say anything about award eligibility -- there is a single reference to "major awards", but the term is not defined -- so we have to decide on a case by case basis. After reviewing the arguments for and against I am thinking that we should put the issue of this award's eligibility on hold and come up with a general award inclusion policy on the Rules and Standards page first. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:57, 18 August 2022 (EDT)
+
The "Duplicate Finder" program, which exists in three incarnations -- one for Author pages, one for Title pages and one for Publication pages -- searches for potential duplicate titles and then lets you merge them. Its default mode of operations is "exact", which means that two (or more) titles need to have the exact same spelling as well as the same authors in order to be considered potential duplicates.
  
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::::::I'm fine with that. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:52, 18 August 2022 (EDT)
+
The "exact" mode also ignores unlikely title type mismatches. For example, if one title record is SHORTFICTION and another one is NOVEL, they won't be flagged as potential duplicates. However, the "exact" mode currently flags NOVEL and CHAPBOOK titles with identical titles and authors as potential duplicates. I am thinking that this is likely more harmful than useful and would like to propose that we change the behavior of the "exact" mode to skip identical NOVEL/CHAPBOOK pairs. Ideas? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:35, 24 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:I agree. As it is currently, we could accidentally merge titles incorrectly. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 17:40, 24 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::I also agree.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 13:21, 25 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::: I use that one a lot especially when adding juvenile chapbooks to prolific authors (mainly Fixer's) - because of how Amazon has these, they rarely make it to addPubs and not having the duplicate finder highlight the previously entered novel (a lot of these are stored as novels and need conversion) makes it more likely not to see the other version on the page. So I would rather not lose it... [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 18:43, 25 January 2024 (EST)
  
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:::: Other than the fact that RP has called these "awards", is there any meaningful difference between them and a blog posting their favourite books of the year ([http://www.nerds-feather.com/2021/01/top-9-books-of-year.html example])?  I guess there's the fact that they are put into (sub)genre categories, but that seems pretty tenuous personally. As an aside, I find it odd that only winning works have been announced, but no longlist/shortlist/nominees/finalists - are there any other awards for works that do that?  (i.e. not stuff like SFWA Grandmaster awards to individuals.)  
+
:::: Let me clarify that the Duplicate Finder's "similar" mode would continue to flag NOVEL, SHORTFICTION and CHAPBOOK titles as potential duplicates after the proposed change. Would it be sufficient for Fixer-originated use cases? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 21:41, 25 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::::: But we do not have a similar mode in the pubs/titles Duplicate finder. The one I use is the one that triggers when you click on "Check for Duplicate Titles" after a Pub/Title Edit. Which I believe is "exact". If I need to go to the author page every time to run a separate similar mode check, it will add steps. Plus in some of these authors, it will highlight a lot of things which is different from the current case where it is a quick check that finds usually a single match when it does. I can make it work - but it will add to the workflow. One option may be to allow the similar as an option on pub/title duplicate finder - keep the exact as a default but allow a similar to be run with a click how we do it on author page's find duplicates? A separate click which is right there will help.
 +
::::: And this is not just for Fixer usecases - I've needed it when moderating as well often enough in a similar usecase - we have chapbook/novel and a new(ish) member adds the same as the other.  
 +
::::: If the proposal is to remove it from the 'Author' exact duplicate finder only with no change for the pub/title duplicate finder, then I am fine with removing it there. But the way the proposal reads, it sounds like we are not going to show it in the default mode in either :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 10:45, 26 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
:::: Also, I have my doubts about the motivation for these awards. Prior to their advent, RP was [https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/the-first-annual-timothy-the-talking-cat-award-for-excellence-in-the-field-of-excellence/ called out for misrepresenting the award status of his books in advertising] (claiming they were award winning when they weren't; claiming to be a "Nebula nominee (non-finalist)" which is pretty meaningless; listing pay-to-play awards], so what better way to avoid that sort of embarrassment than creating your own set of awards that you control?
+
:::::: Thanks for the clarification. I forgot about the fact that the versions of the Duplicate Finder software used on Publication and Title pages do not support "similar" and "aggressive" modes. If memory serves, the reason was performance -- there can be thousands of titles with "similar" spellings where "similar" is defined as an 85% overlap, the current threshold value.
  
−
:::: (As a further aside, RP has [https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/reviews-aggregation-and-consent-to-be-talked-about/ a history of being pissy and abusive online to people who aren't complimentary to him], so I do wonder if/when I might fall into his sights for having the temerity to question one of his pet projects.)
+
:::::: It sounds like what we may need is a new Duplicate Finder mode. Something that would be the same as the "exact" mode except that it would also flag identical CHAPBOOK/NOVEL title pairs. It would be made available on all three Duplicate Finder pages.
  
−
:::: And just to summarize and reformat details I've (mostly) already posted above: in the 4 years these awards have been running, there have been 29 winners of the prose categories. Of those, by my reckoning, 7 of these have editions published (currently or formerly) by and/or have contributions from RP.  A further 2 are from other publishers, but by authors who have other books published by RP; 1 more seems to have had RP involved in getting it published. i.e. just over a third of prose category winners have an explicit connection with the only person publicly identified with this award. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 12:00, 18 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:::::: If it sounds workable, I can look into what it would take to implement it. I suspect that it should be a fairly straightforward change, but I am not 100% sure. We'll also need to come up with an intuitive name for the new mode. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:11, 26 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::::::: That will work for me. And if you are going to do it, we may think about throwing an anthology/collection/omnibus format mix in the same mode (same usecase essentially - especially around juveniles and novellas previously added as novels). And even poem/shortfiction? Maybe simply pull all the format discrepancy matches out from Exact (requiring a format match in it) and move them to their own type of duplicate finder mode. That will also make it less likely for someone to merge by mistake based on the standard duplicate find.[[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 12:27, 26 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
:::::To respond to your comments in order:
+
:::::::: You could have "type" be an independent modifier applied to any of the three modes. Something like "Match identical types only", on by default. That would also be easy to extend to other criteria (e.g., language) in the future without having a cross product of mode choices. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 14:26, 26 January 2024 (EST)
−
:::::#That's an interesting thought regarding "rules of acquisition" for awards. It might be difficult to define them, however.
 
−
:::::#Regarding lack of much social media presence, I don't think that should play into it at all. Not everyone is good at social media, and it can require a lot of time. I think this is pretty much irrelevant from ISFDB's point of view.
 
−
:::::#I wouldn't put a lot of stock in anything coming from Camestros Felapton when it comes to discussions of anything or anyone remotely connected to Sad Puppies. They (whoever they are, since that's not their real name) are extremely biased in that regard. Maybe those reasons were why the awards were created, but since we can't read minds, we can't know for sure.
 
−
:::::#Regarding whether you might be noticed by RP, again, Camestros Felapton is an extremely biased source for that. Unless you are equally as visible as that pseudonym, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
−
:::::#If 1/3 of the winners are as you describe, that means a super majority of them are not.  
 
−
:::::We can always put a disclaimer on the description of the awards (though it may be good to work out rules as mentioned). ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:55, 18 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
== To the Sound of Freedom ==
+
::::::::: Good point! [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:43, 26 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?269192; Does anyone know if this was published? There's a few mentions online but no cover images anywhere, no Archive copy, nothing. --[[User:Username|Username]] 18:06, 15 August 2022 (EDT)
+
(unindent) After experimenting on the development server and paying closer attention when working on the Clean Authors cleanup, I think I have a better appreciation for Annie's concerns. At this point clicking "Check for Duplicate Titles" post-approval is second nature for moderators and self-approvers. When a submission adds a NOVEL publication, it's very helpful to know that a CHAPBOOK pub with the same title already exists in the database, especially if the submitter is a robot. Requiring the approving moderator to click yet another link/button would mess with the workflow.
  
−
== Google Drive ==
+
I suppose we could change the Duplicate Finder logic to ignore CHAPBOOK/NOVEL duplicates by default, but display a yellow warning -- and a link to the more relaxed version of the Duplicate Finder -- if they exist. I am not sure it would be ideal, though. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:34, 31 January 2024 (EST)
 +
: As long as it is a link and not a need to go elsewhere or to go to the author level, that will work for me.
 +
: I'd also want to ask for the anthology/collection/omnibus and the poem/short fiction checks to be added to the chapbook/novel both for the yellow warning and the more relaxed one - both of these happen often enough to be annoying if we lose the ability to see them on the duplicate finder. Unless the plan is to leave these into the default one - in which case, we are fine. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:45, 31 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
I did a search in Advanced Search for publication webpages containing drive.google and several hundred came up; I replaced the 2 books' links, Falcons of Narabedla and The Elemental, with Luminist PDF, but all the rest are magazines, with a couple of hundred Analog/Astounding, single issues of other magazines, some webzines, etc. So there might be a need for Archive links for the print zines and online links for the webzines, etc. because Google Drive links are unstable at best. --[[User:Username|Username]] 08:57, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:: After thinking some more about this issue, it occurs to me that there may be another way to approach this issue. Currently, most post-approval Web pages display links that let you view/edit the updated/added record or, for some submission types like Make Variant, multiple records. A few post-submission pages also link to the Duplicate Finder or other pages.
  
−
== A Lion Books Checklist ==
+
:: However, there is nothing preventing the post-approval software from quietly checking the status of the added/updated record(s) and displaying appropriate warnings. For example, the post-approval page for NewPubs could run the Duplicate Finder behind the scenes and then display a message like:
 +
::* The added publication record includes a title record with the same title and authors as another title record. Use the Duplicate Finder link above to see the details.
 +
:: This warning message would be easy to implement and moderators would no longer have to worry about forgetting to click "Duplicate Finder" after approving NewPub submissions. Does this sound useful?
 +
:: If we choose to add this warning message, we could still decide to tweak the Duplicate Finder logic later, but I think the message should be implemented first since it changes the workflow. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:53, 2 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::: That will be useful -- I am not sure how many false alerts will show up and how they will be treated (especially from the less experienced moderating users - usually the self-approvers) but other from that, any checks the software can do for me are always welcome. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 14:08, 6 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
I recently created a new record for a reprint 1956 Lion Library edition of the original 1952 Lion Books edition of The Naked Storm by Eisner/Kornbluth, using the Luminist.org copy (which is not the usual PDF that almost all of their books are now but a weird Adobe document thing), and thought it was something special I'd found until it was just approved today and I saw online that fadedpage.com has it fully readable in a half-dozen different formats (odd that nobody ever entered it here). Damn it. Anyway, two questions: can anyone verify whether the 1952 edition's title page has the ellipsis or not, and is this book, https://books.google.com/books?id=WLt9awonT5gC, reliable, because it's not on ISFDB and the publisher seems shady judging by the note in their record here. The author did the other 2 Ultramarine non-fiction books entered on ISFDB. None of the 20 Lion Books on ISFDB have the day entered as part of their date, so if it's reliable then the days could be entered. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:54, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:::: OK, {{FR|1592}}, "Warning after approving NewPub submissions which create potential duplicates", has been created. We'll see how useful it will be. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:48, 6 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Borderlands 2 ==
+
=== Duplicate Finder enhancements -- Outcome ===
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?302701; I've mentioned at least once on these boards that a few years ago I picked up a very new-looking copy of the White Wolf edition of the horror anthology Borderlands 2, even though it came out way back in 1994. That still puzzles me, but today while entering/fixing some stuff for White Wolf Borderlands editions I thought I would PV my copy, only to find out that it seems to not be quite the same as ISFDB's, having the same ISBN but a "printed in Canada" on the title page and an additional $6.99 Canadian price on the back. More importantly, in my copy every story from "Androgyny" on p. 92 to "Slipping" on p. 259 actually begins 1 page ahead of what the contents page says, and the book actually ends on p. 280, with a 1-page About the Editor, an ad for the HC of Dark Destiny, and a 6-page extract from In the Forests of the Night. White Wolf, as anyone who's done any edits for their books here surely knows, were an insane mess in many ways, so I'll ask if anyone owns the copy on ISFDB with just the American price so that it can be verified that this shoddy page numbering is not just Canada's fault (unlike J. Trudeau) and it can be fixed here. --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:24, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
{{FR|1592}} has been implemented. After approving NewPub/AddPub/ClonePub/EditPub submissions, moderators and self-approvers will now see a yellow warning and a link to the Duplicate Finder if the created/affected publication record contains one (or more) title records which have the same title(s) and author(s) as other title records in the database. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:58, 8 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Error when submitting Make Variant  option 1 ==
+
== Moondust ==
  
−
I got this error when submitting a Make Variant option 1. The request is in the Pending Queue as [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5392848 this submission].
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?22737; I added a whole bunch of edits for Rosemary Harris books and also found a PDF link for her early uncollected story "Hamlin" at Galactic Journey. Looking through their list of PDF's I noticed a Swann link and, thinking it would be a short story, I clicked it and it turned out to be the full original edition of his novel Moondust which has no copies at the usual places like Internet Archive or Luminist. I'm guessing there's more novels hiding in that list but for now I'll just ask if anyone owns the book and wouldn't mind transcribing the text on the last 2 pages and adding it to the record because those are missing in the PDF. I'm not sure what copyright rules are for a 50+-year-old book but I think a page or two would count as an excerpt and wouldn't bother anyone, right? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:43, 25 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:That can get complicated. Since this was first published in 1968 in the United States, and if it was published with a copyright notice, the copyright expires at the end of 2063 (meaning it becomes public domain on January 1, 2064). If it was published without a copyright notice, since it was published between 1964 and 1977, it is now in the public domain. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain#When_does_copyright_expire? here] for more details. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:27, 25 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:Looking at the PDF copy from the link you submitted, the copyright notice is very clear on the back of the title page. This means the copyright doesn't expire until 2064, so we shouldn't be linking to a pirated PDF copy. I rejected the link addition. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:30, 25 January 2024 (EST)
 +
::So does that mean that all the 330 or so Luminist.org PDF's currently linked on ISFDB are pirated, too? Because I don't think most of those are public domain; I would know because I'm the one who added most of the links. Has any mod in the history of this site ever gotten a request from anyone to remove a Luminist PDF? I'd be curious to know. When someone pirates something and uploads it, they love to add their name, fake as it may be, to the upload, similar to how computer game crackers decades ago loved to add their names to the crack, usually with some animation and music (which were sometimes better than those in the game itself); believe me, I could easily add hundreds of Internet Archive links to rare books right now except for the fact that the uploaders converted them to crap e-editions with removed page numbers. I don't see anything like that in Moondust so it's likely someone's personal copy they converted to a PDF; it's clearly the original paperback with page numbers and a bookstore sticker on the cover and everything. Since Swann died in 1976 and the last reprint as far as ISFDB (and WorldCat) say was in 1977 I doubt anyone would care if a PDF was linked to here; any serious collector would want a physical copy. My suggestion would be to un-reject it. Barring that, I'll just go ahead and make a note with the address of the PDF but not hot-linked so people know where it is but actually have to paste the URL into the address bar themselves in order to get it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:47, 25 January 2024 (EST)
 +
:::This guy, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?286234, runs the site. Looks legit to me; he even published a magazine of the same title. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:08, 25 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
<type 'exceptions.AttributeError'> Python 2.5: /usr/bin/python
+
:::: The question about the status of Luminist-hosted PDF files is an interesting one. I should first note that I became aware of the Luminist Web site back in 2010 when we were given permission to link to Luminist-hosted images. I was under the impression that the files that they host were similar to [https://www.gutenberg.org/help/copyright.html Gutenberg-hosted "copyright-cleared" files], which is why I have been approving their addition for the last few years.
−
Tue Aug 16 15:29:15 2022
 
−
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
 
  
−
/var/www/cgi-bin/edit/submitmkvar1.cgi in ()
+
::::However, reading the copyright statement on the [http://www.luminist.org/archives/ main Luminist page]:
−
  67                update_string += "    <ModNote>%s</ModNote>\n" % (db.escape_string(XMLescape(form['mod_note'].value)))
+
::::* This collection may contain copyrighted material which has not been specifically authorized for our use. The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) provides for making “fair use” copies of copyrighted materials under certain conditions, including that that the reproduction is not to be used commercially or “for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” By accessing files linked to this site you are agreeing to abide by these restrictions. If you do not agree, do not download. If any copyright owner objects to our inclusion of their material on this web site, please do not harass our hosting providers; just contact us with the pertinent information. We will remove contested content promptly upon receipt of legitimate requests. Readers who wish to obtain a permanent copy of any item are encouraged to acquire one from a bookseller of their choice. Readers may contact us for assistance in locating copies for purchase.  
−
  68        update_string += "  </MakeVariant>\n"
+
:::: I see that they expect their users to download PDF files for "private study, scholarship, or research" purposes and, apparently, not for permanent use. This relies on an interpretation of the [https://copyright.columbia.edu/basics/fair-use.html "fair use" doctrine] which seems a bit too stretchy to me, but I am not an expert in the field. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:09, 25 January 2024 (EST)
−
  69        update_string += "</IsfdbSubmission>\n"
+
:::::OK, sounds good to me, "private study" clearly can mean reading the book and since they're being linked at ISFDB that covers the scholarship/research part. Also, what I took to be a Galactic Journey magazine is just a few random pages from the webzine with a couple of essay links, 1 of which is movie-related and probably doesn't qualify, but there's some Hugo Award nomination so I guess they count; the first entry is totally blank and was actually entered by user "galacticjourney" himself with mods questioning on his page why he entered it since it's a webzine. The site is still running currently and has hundreds of essays, many of which would be suitable for entry here, I'm sure. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:25, 25 January 2024 (EST)
−
  70
 
−
  71        submission.file(update_string)
 
−
submission = <isfdblib.Submission instance at 0x8919b0c>, submission.file = <bound method Submission.file of <isfdblib.Submission instance at 0x8919b0c>>, update_string = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>\n<Is...me</ModNote>\n </MakeVariant>\n</IsfdbSubmission>\n'
 
−
/var/www/cgi-bin/edit/isfdblib.py in file(self=<isfdblib.Submission instance at 0x8919b0c>, update_string='<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>\n<Is...me</ModNote>\n </MakeVariant>\n</IsfdbSubmission>\n')
 
−
  450                if isinstance(self.viewer, str):
 
−
  451                        from viewers import SubmissionViewer
 
−
  452                        submission_viewer = SubmissionViewer(self.viewer, submission_id)
 
−
  453                else:
 
−
  454                        self.viewer(submission_id)
 
−
submission_viewer undefined, SubmissionViewer = <class viewers.SubmissionViewer at 0x8de677c>, self = <isfdblib.Submission instance at 0x8919b0c>, self.viewer = '', submission_id = 5392848L
 
−
/var/www/cgi-bin/edit/viewers.py in __init__(self=<viewers.SubmissionViewer instance at 0x8deb68c>, method_name='', submission_id=5392848L)
 
−
4120                if not self.submitter:
 
−
4121                        self._InvalidSubmission('Submitter user name not specified')
 
−
4122                getattr(self, method_name)()
 
−
4123
 
−
4124        def _InvalidSubmission(self, message = ''):
 
−
builtin getattr = <built-in function getattr>, self = <viewers.SubmissionViewer instance at 0x8deb68c>, method_name = ''
 
−
<type 'exceptions.AttributeError'>: SubmissionViewer instance has no attribute ''
 
−
<br>[[User:Philfreund|Phil]] 15:35, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Yes, I've gotten the same thing when I've made variants in the last few days; when I look in my edit list, though, everything looks as it should. --[[User:Username|Username]] 15:47, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: Investigating... [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 15:56, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:::::: Let me clarify what I meant by "a bit too stretchy". The part of the Copyright Law that they cite -- "for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research" -- doesn't come from the "fair use" clause ([https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107 Section 107 of the Copyright Act].) Instead it comes from [https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#108 Section 108, "Reproduction by libraries and archives"]. Section 108 is a lengthy section with a set of provisions that are completely different from the "fair use" provisions in Section 107. It's odd that the Luminist Web site cites Section 108 ("libraries and archives") language to support what they state is a Section 107 ("fair use") exception.
  
−
::: Bug identified. Working on it. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 16:08, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
:::::: I should add that both Section 107 and Section 108 lawsuits can get complex and technical as we saw during [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachette_v._Internet_Archive Hachette v. Internet Archive] in 2020-2023. My knowledge of these topics is very limited, but hopefully other editors may have more in-depth knowledge and/or relevant experience in this field. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 21:38, 25 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
:::: OK, I think I got it. Please let me know if anything is still off. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 18:19, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
::::::: I have started a [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Rules_and_standards_discussions#Linking_to_third_party_Web_pages_--_defining_.22legally_posted.22 Rules and Standards discussion] to see if we can come up with unambiguous rules for linking to third party-hosted texts. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:50, 26 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Bruce McAllister ==
+
== Reactor?!? ==
  
−
Heads up that his collection The Girl Who Loved Animals, which has no Archive.org copy, was released by Cemetery Dance as an e-book in 2012, never entered on ISFDB, so I made a go at entering it. Also, while being known for SF/fantasy he seems to have shifted into horror in recent years, with several recent stories in CD Magazine and 1 in their Shivers VIII anthology, but what may not be known here is he's contributed 3 short-short stories to their website cemeterydance.com under the Free Fiction section. Haven't read the 3rd one yet, but the first 2 are pretty creepy, especially the one about the guy who killed a lady scientist in Africa because the hyena she was studying told him to telepathically; he brought it home to America and passes the time going out at night and watching as it kills junkyard dogs. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:47, 16 August 2022 (EDT)
+
I was at my awful local public library printing out various articles and short stories for free which is the only positive thing about libraries these days and after my hour was up I realized I forgot to check Tor.com to see if they published any new fiction (horror only, please, no SF or fantasy) so I checked when I got home and got a scary-looking page which made me think a computer virus had finally taken hold of my laptop after not having one for many years but it turns out that Tor apparently has re-named themselves Reactor. Is anyone else aware of this? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:08, 26 January 2024 (EST)
 +
: Yes, they announced it a few weeks ago. New site, new name (to differentiate them from the Tor.com publisher), same team, same contents. All the old links to their old site should be forwarding cleanly to the new one. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 17:30, 26 January 2024 (EST)
 +
: And the [https://reactormag.com/tor-com-to-become-reactor-debut-new-site-on-january-23rd/ announcement] and [https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/ Q&A] about it. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 17:31, 26 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Alex/Al Saviuk ==
+
:: I suspect that the part of the FAQ that is most likely to affect us is this:
 +
::* SFF literature is still the heart of what we do, and that’s our priority. We’ll just also be open to related subjects of interest, from nonfic to romantasy, pirates to gardening, and so on.
 +
:: So it looks like they will have more non-genre content going forward, but they expect to remain primarily SF-oriented for the foreseeable future. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:23, 26 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?25416 Alex Saviuk] (9 art credits) and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?25419 Al Saviuk] (3 short fiction - or possibly comic? - and 3 art credits) both appear in today's birthdays, and both link to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Saviuk the same "Alex Saviuk" Wikipedia page].  I propose to make the latter a pseudonym of the former (and variant the titles), unless anyone thinks it should be other way around?  (The Wikipedia page indicates he was more prominent in the comics world, so maybe one of those name variants is more widely known there?) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 08:41, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Chinese Godzilla? ==
  
−
:Making Al the pseudonym of Alex is i.m.o. the most logical solution. --[[User:Willem H.|Willem]] 09:56, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://archive.org/search?query=%E6%80%AA%E7%8D%A3%E3%82%B4%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A9&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22; If anyone knows what this is about and decides it warrants entering, thanks. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:18, 29 January 2024 (EST)
  
−
Also, can anyone with knowledge of Dutch sanity check that [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?164668 "Bouke IJlstra"] is a correct use of capitals, rather than an artifact of sloppy shift key usage?  A very cursory skim of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJ_(digraph) Wikipedia] indicates the former, but I'd defer to anyone with relevant expertise.  (May be worth having an author note to explicitly state that capitalization is correct?) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 08:41, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Magic German Cats ==
  
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:Yes, this was on purpose. The Dutch "IJ" is considered to be one letter and is one of the things that make Dutch a difficult language. --[[User:Willem H.|Willem]] 09:56, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?33710; There was a 1999 German edition under a new title, https://archive.org/details/katmagie13katten0000unse, in case anyone fluent wants to enter that. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:02, 30 January 2024 (EST)
  
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:: Thanks - I've now updated both of these authors (and varianted the works for the first one) as described. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 09:11, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== ZOLTAR ==
  
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== Nightworld ==
+
[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_results.cgi?USE_1=pub_title&O_1=exact&TERM_1=&C=AND&USE_2=pub_verifier&O_2=exact&TERM_2=Zoltar&USE_3=pub_title&O_3=exact&TERM_3=&USE_4=pub_title&O_4=exact&TERM_4=&USE_5=pub_title&O_5=exact&TERM_5=&USE_6=pub_title&O_6=exact&TERM_6=&USE_7=pub_title&O_7=exact&TERM_7=&USE_8=pub_title&O_8=exact&TERM_8=&USE_9=pub_title&O_9=exact&TERM_9=&USE_10=pub_title&O_10=exact&TERM_10=&ORDERBY=pub_year&ACTION=query&START=0&TYPE=Publication]; Polish primary verifier seemed to be very active in 2012 and then nothing, they left a lot of their 300+ PV unfinished with missing info, mentioning this in case anyone fluent in Polish wants to follow up on any of them and add or fix anything. I thought of this before but remembered it today after finding a photo for Jerzy Sosnowski on FantLab and an archived copy of the anthology PL +50 which his story on ISFDB appears in. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:45, 30 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?24292; The NEL HC cover is on Amazon with somebody's junk in the background, but FantLab seems to have gotten a photo where that stuff was cropped out and the lens flare removed, so I added that here, but Bluesman, a long-gone editor, uploaded the Dark Harvest cover as the NEL PB cover and didn't size it properly anyway, so if anybody can find the NEL PB cover they can upload it and replace the wrong one. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:10, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== verification email  ==
  
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== Pub ==
+
I have tried several times to elicit a verification email but nothing has arrived. I've checked junk & trash as well. Is this simply not working? {{unsigned|Starman99}}
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?2534; I added pub. series # to Death Guard based on dustjackets.com spine and the list at seriesofseries.owu.edu, then noticed 2 of the books weren't on that list, so I added (Hutchinson) to their 2 books to differ the series from Unwin's. Then I had a random thought; every time I do an edit it seems weird that every field starting with pub has no period; pub type, pub series, pub series #, and pub note. Is it possible to add one or would that require something major? The way it currently is makes it look like a tourist's guide to the local bars. --[[User:Username|Username]] 21:07, 17 August 2022 (EDT)
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: I am afraid this is a common occurrence, which we [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:FAQ#What_if_I_don.27t_receive_the_confirmation_email.3F discuss in the ISFDB FAQ]:
  
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== Ghost of Sherlock Holmes ==
+
:* Different email servers have different automated rules which may block email coming from certain Web sites, which makes it hard to tell what's preventing ISFDB confirmation email from being delivered to your mailbox.
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?286757; I own a small number of paperbacks and I never PV some of them, so while doing that today I realized that when I worked on this Halliwell book long ago I wrote a note about the Academy Chicago sticker on the back, only realizing now with more experience here that it's actually the American edition, so I deleted the note. What's interesting is that while looking at this I saw that while my copy has a sad little white sticker on the bottom left corner of the back cover with American publisher and price, the copy on Archive.org, which I assume I linked to back then, has a gigantic medieval-looking thing on the back with the publisher name/address and a white sticker with just the price. So if anyone thinks that copy really needs to be entered here as a separate edition it's available. I don't think there's any differences in the book itself as far as the stories or anything else; it's one of those "we can't be bothered to print new info so we'll just stick the details somewhere" type of thing. --[[User:Username|Username]] 18:27, 18 August 2022 (EDT)
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:* Note, however, that confirmation emails are optional as far as ISFDB is concerned. As long as you can log in, you have full access to all ISFDB features including Advanced Search, display preferences, submission creation etc.
  
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== Curtis Books ID ==
+
: Since you were able to post the message above, you should be all set :-) [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:11, 30 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5391717; I'm going to make another edit simply adding the PDF scan, but I'd like to point out that if the mod's rejection note is correct then someone should let the editors who entered the five dozen or so other Curtis entries with full ID here that they entered the ID wrong, too, many of which are PV. EDIT: I just went to make that edit and discovered it was already there, because after rejecting my edit the same mod made his own edit adding the PDF link himself (and for some reason included the entire PDF URL verbatim in the Note to Moderator), so now it looks in the Edit History like he's the one that found it. Wonderful. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:56, 19 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Ace Dates ==
  
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== Night Screams ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5872024; Can someone on the long list of editors find out where someone got month from? Whoever entered many of these old PB long ago was very random about noting where they got the month, but I remember it was a checklist or something so that's likely where this one came from, too. I thought it would be obvious why I added the month since it's there throughout the contents but I guess not. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:27, 30 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?187393; The collaborations between Pronzini and Malzberg have had copies added to Archive.org over the last few years, and this one has a weird note where the editor, Mhhutchins, who PV way back in 2007, determined the month was May by oddly using the date stamped on the library copy at the back; I see a March 1 date on Kirkus Reviews and Amazon, but don't really see May anywhere, so if any mystery experts can determine the exact date, it's probably not May. I've fixed the cover art date to May to make everything the same, but of course if the exact date is determined all the fields will have to change. --[[User:Username|Username]] 15:01, 19 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Berthon ==
  
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== File 770 ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=theodore+le&type=Name; Space in first entry separates same essay from its appearances elsewhere; no essay title page I can find but I did see a contents page of Frankenstein File that says, um, Ted Le Berthon, https://www.ebay.com/itm/334647759422. So, if anyone can verify, a merge or variant will be needed. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 00:08, 31 January 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?28984; In a weird sequence of events today, while adding prices and page numbers to Gerald Kersh books I saw there's a publisher called London Books that reprinted his 1938 novel Night and the City in 2007, and while adding the Archive copy I also entered the intro by John King. Somehow there's only one John King on all of ISFDB, and even that's a pseudonym, but I saw somebody named John King Tarpinian in the name search list and being an unusual last name I clicked on it, and noticed 1 of the essays he wrote had 2 obviously misspelled words. Checking the file770.com PDF of the December 2014 issue I learned there were several other spelling mistakes so I corrected them all in an edit, but I didn't do a thorough check so there might be more. The Edit History doesn't reveal who entered the contents, but as can be seen at that link above, there are many, many issues on here, so I have a feeling  there are probably many more mistakes. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:34, 19 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== I'm looking for a book title ==
  
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== Best SF Two (1) ==
+
Hello everyone,
 +
I'm looking for a book title. I read the book years ago probably in the 80s. A quick summary the world is divided by a massive mountain range. I think that the protagonist must climb the mountain range in order to become the ruler. They climb the mountain only to find a deep valley on the other side with an even higher mountain range behind it. The protagonist ultimately climbs the second mountain range where they find another land on the far side with another intelligent species. This has been driving me batty and I would appreciate it if anyone knows what this books title is and who wrote it. Thank you. {{Unsigned2|19:21, February 1, 2024‎| Firefighterbgrg }}
 +
:If no one here is able to help you, we have a [[ISFDB:FAQ#I need help finding a book|section in our FAQ]] that gives several places where you can ask for help finding the book. Good luck! ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:15, 2 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://archive.org/details/bestsftwoscience0000cris; Someone uploaded this recently, called it Best SF two, it's actually the first in the series, price-clipped with a Faber sticker on front flap, I just added the Archive link but if anybody owns a copy of this 1969 printing they can always add the real price. --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:00, 19 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Darrah Chavey ==
  
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== RHCP ==
+
I learn via [https://news.ansible.uk/a439.html Ansible] today that Darrah Chavey left this mortal coil on 6 January. He was always a learned and consistent editor to work alongside at the ISFDB... Happy trails Darrah, Rest In Peace. :( [[User:PeteYoung|PeteYoung]] ([[User talk:PeteYoung|talk]]) 10:39, 2 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=rhc&type=Publisher; There's 400+ RHCP but also 22 RHCB, all of which should probably be RHCP; also, 6 of those 22 have page numbers entered even though they're e-books, which I don't think is correct. --[[User:Username|Username]] 09:47, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
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: Yes, indeed. There was a brief [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal#Darrah_Chavey.27s_Passing Community Portal discussion on 2024-01-11] and Darrah's database record was updated. RIP. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:01, 2 February 2024 (EST)
  
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: Personally I'd be wary of rushing into changing these.  Loads of UK ebooks are listed on Amazon/Kobo/penguin.co.uk as being from "RHCP Digital", but if you look at the title pages, in many cases - quite possibly the majority I suspect - it's actually Penguin, Puffin, or one of their umpteen other imprints list.  [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?910301 Example].  Cornerstone (Digital) is another name that PRH use to make life difficult [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?902988 example]
+
== Gardner F. Fox's text story in "Strange Adventures" ==
  
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: I only came across a product listing using "RHCB" in recent weeks - probably because I've only recently ventured into trying to attack the backlog of kids books that Fixer never submitted - but I don't recall what was actually listed on the title page when I looked up the preview on Amazon.  I absolutely wouldn't automatically presume it anything listed with RHCB would be RHCP though. Fortunately 22 pubs shouldn't be an overly onerous job to check the previews on individually, not that I'm volunteering to do it personally ;-)
+
Earlier today a Usenet poster pointed out that {{A|Gardner F. Fox}} published "The Magic Maker of Rann", a text story, in the comic ''Strange Adventures'' #226. The story is lavishly illustrated, but the text works just fine even if you were to reprint it without illustrations, which is how we determine whether a story is "graphic".
  
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: I have been tempted to add publisher notes for RHCP Digital, Cornerstone Digital etc saying that pubs listed against them may be misleading - I dunno what anyone else thinks?
+
The whole thing is available [https://thedorkreview.blogspot.com/2012/01/adam-stranges-magic-maker-of-rann.html online], illustrations included. Should we treat ''Strange Adventures'' as a non-genre periodical and list this story? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:32, 2 February 2024 (EST)
  
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: Agree that the page numbers are probably wrong, unless those pubs are PDFs or similar, in which case that should be mentioned in the note.  (Off the top of my head, I don't recall seeing any PDF ebooks from PRH, but it doesn't strike me as completely infeasible if they're kids picture books, and I know Bloomsbury lists PDF ebooks for current titles on their website, even if I've never gotten round to submitting any as yet.) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 10:11, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
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:I've entered a number of Eando Binder stories from the {{Series|Lieutenant Jon Jarl of the Space Patrol}} series that originally appeared in {{Series|Captain Marvel Adventures}} comic, and I entered them in exactly the manner you suggest.  I believe some of these stories have been reprinted as text alone, so I felt I was on pretty safe ground. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 16:43, 2 February 2024 (EST)
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:: I decided to try one and picked the only collection out of the 22, R. Westall's Break of Dark, and found it on Amazon India with the wrong cover, but Look Inside revealed that it is RHCP, so I fixed that. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:29, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Chaz/Charles Brenchley ==
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== Lost Ark Storybook ==
  
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[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ch.cgi?2971 Chaz Brenchley] is an author with (mostly) prose works from 1991 onwards. He is listed as being born in 1959 in Oxford, and legal name of Charles Brenchley.
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5880702; ISBN belongs to Scholastic edition judging by a back cover I saw online. There's a later (3rd) trade printing on Archive.org with trade and library ISBN on the copyright page so either this record should be made Scholastic or a new record created for Random House edition(s). I've been adding dozens of Wikipedia links to novelizations recently and I've come across some other issues like this (only one I can remember is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade by Anne Digby which has pub. series as Hippo Books but that actually belongs to the UK edition which I made a new record for) so when these are approved a check and some fixing/adding is probably needed for at least a few of them. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:50, 3 February 2024 (EST)
  
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[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?132907 Charles Brenchley] has some fanac (letters and reviews) between 1977 and 1979.  His letter in Matrix #15 is scanned on fanac.org, and (a) has a contact address of Oxford, and (b) not to put too fine a point on it, looks like it was written by a stroppy teenager.
+
== Rise of the Silver Surfer ==
  
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Any objections to making the latter a variant of the former?  The 12 year gap in (recorded) activity might indicate different people, but everything else points to them being one-and-the-same. (NB: [http://www.chazbrenchley.co.uk/chronicle.html his personal site] says <i>"I sold my first story for £36 in 1977 and for the next 10 years writing for teenage and women's magazines and children's comics was my bread and butter."</i>, which seems a plausible explanation for that gap.) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 10:37, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?346021; I made an edit fixing typo "udpated" to "updated", surprisingly the only such error on all of ISFDB, and realized that this edition was likely never published with AbeBooks having a weird "cover to be unveiled" photo. So unless someone can find evidence of a copy I think this should get the unpublished date. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:30, 3 February 2024 (EST)
  
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: In a [https://fogcon.org/2014/02/guest-post-interview-chaz-brenchley/ 2014 interview], Chaz Brenchley said:
+
== Parnassus Wizard of Earthsea ==
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:* I’d known about fandom since I was a teenager, but it was mostly something that happened somewhere else, and required money I didn’t have, and social skills that were not at my command. I had friends who were quite heavily involved with the BSFA and fanzines, and I did some work with them, but I never went to anything - until I moved to Newcastle and actor-friends from Oxford phoned to say they were involved with a play at this SF con in my new city and could they come and stay with me to save the hotel costs? ... That was Mexicon in 1984.
 
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: This tells us that he "did some work" with "BSFA and fanzines" as a teenager and that he lived in Oxford until he moved to Newcastle in the early 1980s. Overall, I think it's more than enough evidence to support the notion that they are the same person. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 14:03, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:: Thanks for digging that out.  Assuming no-one raises any objections in the mean-time, I'll do all the necessary varianting tomorrow. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 16:17, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
 
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::: The author link has been done, and all the titles varianted to the parent author. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 10:21, 22 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Battlefield Earth Cover ==
+
https://archive.org/details/wizardofearthsea00ursu; I added a link to a Parnassus edition based on someone's extensive notes here (no number line or smudge on title page) but there are some editions of this book only linked from Open Library including the one above which has a price much higher than any other book from the publisher on ISFDB but copyright page has same info as 1969 2nd printing so if anyone knows a way to determine the date a new edition can be added. There's an ancient ISFDB bibliography from 2006 by Ahasuerus, https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Author:Ursula_K._Le_Guin, which could probably use some updating unless it's been updated somewhere else. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 20:08, 4 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?3704; There's more than 1 active PV, and it's clear that's the wrong cover because the sticker says soon to be a movie and that was in 2000, so original 1984 cover needs to replace it. They reprinted so many of this loon's books over and over again that it may be difficult to be sure which is the original. Oh my God, now that I've called him a loon online the Scientologists may come for me. Oh well, at least I'll get to meet Travolta. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:40, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Pranks ==
  
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== Witchdame ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?17626; I've made edits for all editions before, original 1983 Amazon cover seems to have disappeared leading to a broken image so I replaced it, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5882029, then I replaced OL/Archive cover which is too dark with an Amazon cover, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5882020, that isn't great but is brighter and still retains the sparkly stuff on the title that Leisure used to attract people to buy their books which then led to disappointment when the buyers realized the novels themselves were usually crap, the latest edition is fine as is, so now I think the 1983 edition with the wrong price and ISBN should be deleted and the image uploaded by Chris J. should be removed from the Wiki since it seems to be the badly creased cover that's still on Amazon with unnecessary back cover included. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:17, 5 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1121377; Berkley edition uploaded to Archive in '10, PV didn't link so I added OL ID but artist is spelled MEITZ on copyright page, a search of text contents on Archive revealed it's the only "by Don Meitz". PV barely responds to anything anymore, so if another mod wants to change it or contact him somehow; Don Maitz has extensive ISFDB credits but the only alternate name listed is Maitz. EDIT: https://archive.org/details/magicon-worldcon/Abracadabra%20--%20Program%20newsletter; 1 search result for "Don Meitz". --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:52, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Felix Kelly ==
  
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== Cold Fear ==
+
I entered new records for Faber anthologies Best Murder Stories and Best Murder Stories 2 which are mostly genre or by genre authors; I also looked at Best Tales of Terror, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?4213, and even though I know I've seen that cover many times I never noticed until seeing it full-sized on FantLab that there's a very clear signature lower right, FELIX KELLY. I entered that in an edit but the problem is that the record for him, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?255975, might be the same artist who did the 1956 art but can't be the guy from 1879. So there may be 2 Felix Kellys in case anyone can find out more and separate them into 2 records; it's also possible that the 1956 art was not new but taken from something drawn by the older Kelly. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:09, 6 February 2024 (EST)
 +
:Also added Margaret Wolpe as cover artist for Best Tales of Terror 2; no signature I can see but FantLab credits her + there's a copy on Dalby's site whose front flap says she did "jacket design" and the art does look like many of her other Faber covers. Also greatly updated her record with lots of bio info and noted she was married to Berthold, also an artist, and updated his record as well. Dalby's copy has a pounds price sticker covering another pound price so I'm getting the impression Faber reprinted their anthologies many times with no way to tell except the prices kept getting higher; lots of printings are probably missing so if anyone has any not on ISFDB it would be good to enter them. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:03, 6 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?885928; Someone just uploaded an Archive copy of the Brit edition; foreword as entered here says editor's foreword in the book, so I'd like to know if the American edition says the same so it can be fixed. Also, Pitman's name doesn't appear on the contents page because of the long poem title; is it the same in the American edition? In case anyone owns a copy and can say for sure. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:58, 20 August 2022 (EDT)
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== The Adventure of the Peerless Peer ==
  
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== Littlefinger ==
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Are there any objections to converting [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?11929 this] to a novella? The recent ebook reprint is marked as 27k words by Kobo USA and looking at the page numbers and some of the other editions, it does feel too small to be a novel. Thanks! [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 17:41, 6 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?14255; John D. Keefauver supposedly wrote at least 700 stories during his lifetime, and recently a collection of his stories was published. I imported the first 5 stories because they all included the D. in his name, but everything after that does not, so those will require variants and such. What's interesting is that I discovered not only that several stories had the wrong date on ISFDB, but that his story How Henry J. Littlefinger... seems to be 1 of a series of stories he wrote about that character, with another in the men's mag Knight in 1976, this odd one, https://www.nytimes.com/1980/12/03/archives/shapely-nonsmokers-seek-brainy-bikers-lonelyhearts-needs-can-be.html, and most interestingly a novel in 1992, The Three-Day Traffic Jam, the Amazon description of which mentions the character and says it's set in the future, which means it probably should be entered here; maybe I'll try using the Google copy. So if anyone can provide more info this could be made a series; anyone who owns his collection could also add a lot, because there's a couple of dozen more stories in it. EDIT: I entered the novel, pending approval, but no cover image, although the Google copy clearly has an illustrated cover which can be seen partially while searching inside the book, so a cover image must exist online somewhere. --[[User:Username|Username]] 18:51, 21 August 2022 (EDT)
+
: It's definitely a novella. The Titan Books edition (2011) is well over 200 pages and looks like a bona fide novel, but its apparent length is due to the addition of a very long promotional excerpt from {{A|Kim Newman}}'s ''Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles''. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:16, 7 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Masques Photos ==
+
== Termush - convert to novella ==
  
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https://fantlab.ru/images/editions/plus/big/196234_1?r=1519300680; I'm wondering if any software experts know how to cut-and-paste from an image like that one, because while most of the authors are famous genre figures with many online photos, there's also David Knoles with only the story in this book on ISFDB and Dennis Hamilton with 2, in this book and its sequel 3 years later. If so, their photos could be added to their records. --[[User:Username|Username]] 21:20, 21 August 2022 (EDT)
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Another recent reprint shows [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1443797 this one] as 25k words in English (Kobo USA count) which will leave it well short of 40K in its original Danish as well. Any objections to converting this to a novella? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 18:27, 6 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== One Footprint in the Sand, Part 2 ==
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== John Stanley ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive50#One_Footprint_in_the_Sand; Someone just uploaded this rare book to Archive.org, so I'll finally be able to fix/add everything. I still love that cover; creepy. EDIT: Now that there's a copy to look at it turns out that the white smudge on the bottom of the back cover is actually a signature! Sadly, it doesn't match any cover artist for the publisher, William Kimber, and the copy is a ratty ex-library one that may have had the back flap ripped out, where the cover credit may have been. Damn it. However, someone here may know who it is. --[[User:Username|Username]] 16:16, 22 August 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5883789; See my note about artist, that Little Lulu credit in the original Stanley record belongs with I's record because, as my note in the original says, he was born in '39 or '40 so he would only have been 9 or 10 if he did that art which is unlikely; this is the right Stanley, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stanley_(cartoonist). The Melvin Monster credits belong with I, too. I have to assume the Fengriffen Stanley is not the same as I because it's a UK edition and he's American plus it's a photograph, not drawn. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 00:10, 7 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Marcelin ==
+
== Doolin ==
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?169482; While adding/fixing stuff for their books I noticed Philippe is spelled wrong here, with 2 L's. Is that some ISFDB thing about spelling French names or is it a mistake, and would changing it in his record fix his name in all the books contained in his record? --[[User:Username|Username]] 09:26, 23 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?431777; Late PV entered James Doolin based on signature but there is none, FantLab photo has initials JPD, it's actually Joseph Doolin, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?27894, and he has an entry for the same art, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1590968. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:48, 7 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
== WorldCat loses Responsibility ==
+
== Uncorrected Proofs ==
  
−
The new WorldCat is here, after "coming soon" this weekend.<br>
+
I'm holding [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5870146 this submission] to update {{P|29328|this record}}.  I noticed that the record states that it was unpublished (8888-00-00), yet there appears to be a cover that was just added.  More importantly it also describes this as an "uncorrected proof" and I had thought that proofs were outside of our [[ISFDB:Policy#Contents/Project Scope Policy|scope]].  The policy specifically excludes Advance Reading Copies unless available for sale to the public.  Do uncorrected proofs differ from ARCs in terms of determining scope?  This seems straightforward to me and I believe the publication should be deleted.  If others disagree and this requires a full discussion, we can move this the the Rules and Standards board.  Thoughts?  Thanks. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 10:59, 7 February 2024 (EST)
−
It appears to me that WorldCat.org has eliminated (display of) the "Responsibility" field that reports writer, illustrator, editor credits from title pages.
+
: I read the rules the same way you do - ARCs and uncorrected proofs are out. However, we do keep records of unpublished but announced books (these are in scope under the <i>announced but never published (entered as "unpublished")</i> part of ROA) so I would not delete this one as it is under that category. So ARC/uncorrected proof of a book that comes out will not be eligible but if the book never makes it out, adding the notes about it into the 8888 book are fine I think. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:22, 7 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
For instance OCLC 1008214608:<br>
+
:: Comparing this publication record with [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3379 other, published, editions of the book], I note that it has a different ISBN in addition to a different publisher name. I typically enter announced-then-canceled ISBNs as 8888-00-00 publication records under the rule referenced by Annie. Their presence in our database helps answer a common question: "Whatever happened to this apparent first edition? Why can't I find any copies for sale?" We all know how obsessed collectors can get when it comes to first editions and our database is frequently the only readily accessible place that explains what happened to a "disappeared" ISBN. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:51, 7 February 2024 (EST)
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Served as https://www.worldcat.org/title/favourite-fairy-tales/oclc/1008214608 <br>
+
:::I've no argument with a publication record for an announced, but unpublished book.  However, an unpublished book and an uncorrected proof are two different things. The notes on this record confuse the issue as to what the record represents.  The addition of a cover scan and artist further confuses things.  How are we able to display a cover of a book that was never published?  I would suggest that the notes be reworked to indicate that a proof was done as evidence of the planned publication.  We could replace the first two sentences with "The Bluejay Books imprint was dissolved late in 1986 just after an uncorrected proof for this planned edition was printed in September of that year."  I would also recommend deleting the cover of the proof and rejecting the addition of an artist. I do worry that if we were to make an exception and allow a record specifically for an uncorrected proof when the book is never published, it would encourage the addition of other proofs and ARCs especially by those editors who surmise rules by examples of what is already in the database.  If others think this should be a valid exception to allow records for proofs, then we should document it in the scope page as is done with ARCs offered for sale. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 19:00, 7 February 2024 (EST)
−
Also served as https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1008214608 [& today "/title"]
+
:::: That sounds like a plan and the proposed change in the notes sounds fine to me - that will make it clear that the record is here because the book was announced and not because it had an ARC/uncorrected proofs done. I am at two minds about the cover - if it was announced with the book, recording it makes sense as it may help trace it to an artist later on and as it is part of the record after all. But other from that - I agree that we need to be careful not to confuse ARCs and unpublished books per se - although when a publication fails through often varies so there are ARCs out there for books that do not make it - that one being an example. Maybe all we need is to strengthen the language to specify that the exclusion is for books that end up being published - thus allowing the usecase we have here without a concern. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 19:06, 7 February 2024 (EST)
−
;Yesterday
 
−
* Author: David Grant; Anne Renier; Fernand Gabriel Renier; Jennie Williams; Collins (Firm); ''[link] All authors''
 
−
: [That short list atop, linked to a longer list in the Details frame that continues: "... Richmond upon Thames (London, England). Library Service,; William Collins Sons and Co.,"]
 
−
* Responsibility: Jenny Williams.
 
−
: [last line of the Details frame]
 
  
−
;Today at the new WorldCat
+
:::::I agree that the pub record should stay because it falls under "announced but never published" and agree with Ron that the problem with it as it stands is that the pub note gives the impression that the record has been created for the proof, not the unpublished book. Ron's tweak to the pub note solves this problem.
−
* Authors:David Grant, Anne Renier (Donor), Fernand Gabriel Renier (Donor), Jennie Williams (Illustrator), Collins (Firm) (Publisher), Richmond upon Thames (London, England). (Former owner), William Collins Sons and Co (Printer)
+
:::::Further notes and suggestions:
−
* [no Responsibility field; no mention of "Jenny Williams"]
+
:::::1) I agree that mentioning the proof in the pub note is a good idea. It is evidence that the book was announced.
 +
:::::2) I definitely think the cover image should be deleted. It should either be omitted or of the final cover. The latter assumes the publisher reached that stage and that we could find the image. All very unlikely. The cover image is more than just the artwork; it's also the colouring, wording, layout and typography and those aspects of the proof cover clearly wouldn't reflect the final version.
 +
:::::3) I would delete the OCLC/WorldCat External ID and just mention it in the pub note because it refers specifically to the uncorrected proof and not the unpublished final work.
 +
:::::4) I'm ambivalent about importing the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?950860 coverart record]. It's clear from the cover of the proof that Ron Walotsky was the intended artist so this falls under "announced but never published" but it would need a pub note explaining the source and why there's no image.
 +
:::::5) I'm broadly against making an exception for including ARC's / proofs when the book was unpublished although I do see Annie's point of view. But I think it's an unnecessary complication and veers back towards Ron's point about "encourage the addition of other proofs and ARC's especially by those editors who surmise rules by examples of what is already in the database" which is something I strongly agree we want to avoid. Also, if we do permit this exception, how do we implement it? Does it mean we would have two pub records: one for the unpublished work and one for the proof? [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 07:46, 8 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::::::I've gone ahead and change the notes as discussed above.  I've also moved the Worldcat number and the cover into the notes so that it's clear the record is for the unpublished work and not for the proof.  I'll reject the held edit.  Let me know if someone disagrees with these changes.  --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 21:47, 12 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
(No change in this.) "Author" names are active linknames, which return catalog search reports. The hits are neither matches on title page credits nor matches on identified persons.
+
== N. Carroll ==
  
−
In this instance (a book not in the database), illustrator {{a|Jenny Williams}} born 1939 is correct. "Jennie Williams" is a mistake.<br>
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?165703; The stories belong with the other Carroll but that ndp thing doesn't look right to me so maybe some other differing addition should replace it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:58, 7 February 2024 (EST)
−
Neither the old nor the new display of record OCLC 1008214608 links to, nor clearly indicates, either of the persons, or identities,
+
:Author attribution on the three stories, initially credited to Noël Carrol, has been corrected. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 07:57, 8 February 2024 (EST)
−
* [https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50018054/ Jenny Williams, 1939–] at WorldCat; [https://lccn.loc.gov/n50018054 LCCN]
+
::Thanks. I still think it's weird about that (ndp) because there's thousands of nom de plumes on ISFDB but this is the only one that has that added on the end of the name. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 08:28, 8 February 2024 (EST)
−
* [https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n80018263/ Jennie Williams, 1949–] at WorldCat; [https://lccn.loc.gov/n80018263 LCCN]
 
−
who are two creators of English-language children's books.  
 
  
−
[&] P.S. Today at this station, browser address bar displays the shorter URL with "/title" in place of "/oclc". --[[User:Pwendt|Pwendt]]|[[User talk:Pwendt|talk]] 12:02, 23 August 2022 (EDT)  
+
::: Well, we have some with (pseudonym) attached, and I'd think that'd be more meaningful (ndp isn't a colloquial abbreviation), or just a (I) attached. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 11:52, 8 February 2024 (EST)
−
--[[User:Pwendt|Pwendt]]|[[User talk:Pwendt|talk]] 12:02, 23 August 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: It's true, I mentioned their "coming soon" some time ago in a thread above called "New WorldCat?" and updated it today with some more comments; this redesign, I think, is going to lead to much angst here. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:05, 23 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: I can't find any traces of the "Responsibility" field either. Hopefully, their development team will tweak things over the next few weeks. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 13:12, 23 August 2022 (EDT)
+
::::I don't think we should use any parentheticals if we can avoid it. Since we have the (I) thing we already use extensively, I think that would be the best option for any that are currently using "(pseudonym)" as a disambiguator. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:20, 8 February 2024 (EST)
−
::: The old pages were so low-tech, but now everything has giant pictures everywhere. Also, I like how when you type WorldCat on Google this page is one of the first results, "New WorldCat.org coming soon", but the link leads to this, https://www.worldcat.org/whatis, which isn't even working, so apparently someone forgot to tell someone else that the new WorldCat is already here. For once I'd like to see a site redesign where they go from a picture-heavy overcrowded site to a streamlined text site. Less is more. God, I hope this doesn't mean that all the hundreds of WorldCat links I've added, and the countless thousands that other editors have added over the years, won't lead to the right page anymore. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:38, 23 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
== New cleanup report -- translation template mismatches ==
+
::::: There are reasons why I chose to set the author up as Noel Carroll (ndp). However, it's not worth our time to debate. I have changed it to [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?373877 Noel Carroll]. Not sure that the standards imply that Roman numerals are the preferred dismbiguator. [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Help:How_to_separate_two_authors_with_the_same_name Here] is the applicable help section. Thanks for your interest, [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 14:06, 8 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
A new cleanup report, "Translations with Tr template in Pub Notes and no Tr template in Title notes", has been deployed. It's a weekly report, so it will run every Sunday morning. It's currently limited to "title type = publication type" cases, so it will find only 43 mismatches when it runs in 4 days. There is no "ignore" functionality at this time, but we may need to add it later depending on what we find. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 20:45, 23 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Karen Simmons ==
  
−
: Awesome, thanks very much for this! [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 06:22, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1117998; She's the wife of Dan Simmons, credited for author photograph in the HC which can be seen on eBay, [https://www.picclickimg.com/images/g/04sAAOSw1Mdltkv~/s-l1600.jpg], art is likely by one of the regular Headline cover artists, Chris Moore maybe, but I don't see a signature. So her credit should be removed. I noticed a 2nd printing of the Headline PB on Archive.org which has that same art (and price) but different blurbs on top and bottom so I'm going to enter that now. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:37, 8 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
== John McNeil? ==
+
:Hi! There's a primary verification by Faustus. It'd be meaningful if you contact him to shed some light on the actual credit. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 11:49, 8 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::Hi! There's no credit on the PB because there's no author photo like there is on the back of the HC. 2nd printing PB I just entered has no art credit. I'm sure someone here familiar with UK PB artists will identify it in some artist's book sooner or later but it's certainly not by Dan's wife. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:08, 8 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?5229; I added OL ID link to Archive copy of Little Brother and saw there's a story credit nearly 20 years after he died, but the Clarkesworld bio at the bottom of the story gives no info and the website doesn't, either, so if anyone knows who that McNeil is they can add something to his name to separate him from the dead guy. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:09, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Wesso ==
  
−
: Digging through his site, there's a link to [https://github.com/johnmcneil GitHub] and [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-a-mcneil/ LinkedIn]. I can't see the latter (whilst I used to have an account there, I deliberately let it slide due to that site being awful in any number of ways), so I dunno if that has anything useful, but the GH profile indicates he is in the US, whereas the earlier one was British, so maybe "(US)" would be a reasonable disambiguator in the name field?  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 11:02, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5885644; Wiki says 1893. Anyone here who can find proof it's really 1894? I looked for a headstone but couldn't find one. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:49, 8 February 2024 (EST)
−
:: OK, I'll add (USA) to his name since there are a half-dozen other authors with that here. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:45, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
::: His LinkedIn profile says that he's been a "Specialist at Hennepin County Library" since 2012 and that he is "Interested in opportunities in libraries and web development". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 11:59, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Story about the Premiere of Rite of Spring ==
  
−
== Scaremongers ==
+
I'm looking for the short story (probably from 1970s) about recreating the experience of the premiere of The Rite of Spring by giving all of the audience members a new drug. I believe this was in one of the better short story annuals of the era.
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?29003; 1 copy on eBay, added cover artist from it (only other credit: Scaremongers 2), but 4 stories had different titles, two which altered the title greatly and 2 which were just missing The at the start, but while 3 of them were only under the wrong title on ISFDB, Stephen Gallagher's story has all other appearances with The at the start, with story title in this book being the only one without it, so either it's another one of the countless variants someone made here that wasn't actually a variant in the publication itself, or it's possible that the title page has no The at the start. Rare book, so the only hope is that someone here has a copy and can check all stories against their title pages. If my edit's approved first and anything needs fixing by someone else it can be fixed. --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:40, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
Most of my book collection is in storage, alas, so I can't find this by leafing through my old pulp. {{Unsigned2|17:38, February 8, 2024‎| Martycohen36 }}
  
−
== Gerani ==
+
== Black Christmas ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1490758; His book has a later date, https://picclick.com/Top-100-Top-100-Horror-Movies-by-Gary-175326440714.html, of November 2013 and is copyright 2013, so what's the deal? --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:43, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?878255; While entering Wikipedia links for tons of novelizations I came across this rare 1976 one for the classic 1974 horror film. The original edition is apparently very rare because I've looked everywhere and can't find a copyright page that doesn't have the word FANGORIA on it because apparently Fangoria Magazine reprinted it in 2008 (although there is very little mention of this online). It does include the original info so I was able to enter the month (February, which is odd because you'd think it would be late in the year to capitalize on the holiday) but if anyone has a 1976 copy can you verify what it says on it? The film was Canadian and book says "Printed in Canada" so possibly it was only published there in which case the price will need a C added to it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:18, 9 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Chetwynd-Hayes Story Title ==
+
== Riddle of the Exodus ==
  
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?889327; American edition of Cold Terror recently added to Archive.org, while making an edit I saw that "The Day That Father Brought Something Home" had no That in the title, and neither does the British edition's contents page on FantLab; I also added Tales To Freeze the Blood from Archive.org, which does have That in the title, and so does Doomed to the Night's contents page on FantLab, so I suspect the first anthology made a mistake and the second one copied it, but a look at Cold Terror's British story page and Doomed's story page are needed, if anyone has copies, and then titles can be separated and variant made. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:03, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?185298; Not fiction, religious history book, https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8166080W/The_Riddle_of_the_Exodus?edition=key%3A/books/OL8566162M, probably should be deleted. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:30, 9 February 2024 (EST)
 +
:Deleted. I question if the author of the religious book is the same author as of the BattleTech books. I couldn't find anything on the religious author's sites that connect him to the BattleTech books. I will ping the active verifier for the BattleTech book to see if there is an author blurb. If not (or it indicates it is a different author), I will remove the the current author info from {{A|James D. Long}}. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 12:31, 10 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::Philfreund has confirmed the BattleTech book provides no biographical information on the author. I have removed the author info from {{A|James D. Long}} as it is more than likely a different person. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 08:28, 11 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
== Badger Price ==
+
== Mutant Chronicles ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?260982; The note said artist credit came from SFE (although his full name is there on the cover) but I noticed the SFE cover has no price on the bottom like the cover on ISFDB. Is that a common Badger thing or is it an alternate edition or something? I know there's a lot of old SF paperback experts on here (the paperbacks are old, not the experts). --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:06, 24 August 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?250352; I replaced the cover; if anyone knows about the old one, whether it was an early one that was rejected or if it belongs to a different edition, a note about early art or a new record for the other edition if it exists would be good. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 20:09, 11 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Why is Robin Hood in the database? ==
+
== Lieutenant Teasdale R.O.N. ==
  
−
While browsing the database, I stumbled upon {{t|1338965|Robin Hood}}, and was wondering why it's in? I don't recall there being any spec fic elements in the story? I can be wrong, but no witches or sourcerers, right? So, shouldn't it be removed? [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] 11:49, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
+
I need to make several changes to the pub records for [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3126730 Lieutenant Teasdale R.O.N.]. The tp edition has a sole PV by the late Biomassbob but he somehow missed showing that Paula Goodlett is the co-author of the work. Amazon also shows the pub date for that edition as 2023-12-07, not 2023-12-02 as currently shown in the pub record. The 12-07 date makes more sense since all of the other self-published books by Gorg Hoff and Paula Goodlett have the ebook edition published the day prior to the tp edition. Any objection to my making changes? [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 12:21, 12 February 2024 (EST)
−
:I'd consider it alternate history. It's definitely based on a possible real person, but it's an alternate history retelling and embellishment of that. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 12:53, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
+
: Mistakes happen :) Go ahead - make sure the notes clarify where the date is coming from. And while you are there, we do not use "Independently published" as a publisher - so can you also fix that (author names are used when there is no publisher). I will sort out the other 2 we have under that publisher later today. Thanks for finding this one! :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 13:44, 12 February 2024 (EST)
−
::That seems to be quite a stretch if you ask me. True, Robin Hood is based on (likely) historical characters, but that doesn't mean it is to be considered an alternate history - if that were the case, all midieval stories with knights and ladies-to-be-rescued would have to be entered in the db (if there're dragons to be slain, yeah, that's something different :)). And what with contemporaneous novels that are loosely based off of real events & real people, but which have been used in an alternative narrative? I wouldn't think these are alternate histories either. [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] 16:19, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
+
::Done. I also corrected the title for the Interiorart maps record to match current standards. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 15:29, 12 February 2024 (EST)
  
−
::: There have been multiple versions of the story over the years, a few with at least marginal SF elements. I wouldn't include the non-SF versions, but the SF ones should remain in the database. Luckily one of the publications has been primary-verified, so we could start by asking the verifier. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 16:31, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Locus1 Secondary Verifications ==
  
−
:::: Indeed, we're only talking about the original. I've asked Chavey  to come over and give his opinion. Regards, [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] 09:40, 26 August 2022 (EDT)
+
Occasionally I come across pubs that have been SVd to Locus1 solely on the basis of their mention as the first edition of a later publication. The first one I encountered, as a very rookie editor, was this one: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?197293 David Brin / Sundiver]. I asked the SVer, Rtrace, about it and received [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Rtrace/Archive15#David_Brin_.2F_Sundiver this explanation]. For the purposes of this thread I shall refer to these as "indirect listings".
 +
<br>
 +
The most recent one I have encountered is [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?191929 David Gerrold / Chess with a Dragon] and it is this pub record that has prompted this thread because there is a clear contradiction between the SV to Locus1 and the pub note "Locus1 fails to list this pub (as of 2010-06-21)."
 +
<br>
 +
So my question is: should these indirect listings be allowed as SVs to Locus1? If I ruled the world I would not permit them because I don't think they conform to a general user's expectation of a Locus1 listing and they can cause confusion and inconsistencies as demonstrated by the Gerrold record. However, I do not feel strongly about this. I accept Ron's point that these indirect listings provide at least as much information as Clute/Nicholls and if the consensus is that they should be allowed then I can live quite happily with this.
 +
<br>
 +
However, if we do allow them then this Help page: [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Reference:Verification_Sources Reference:Verification_Sources] needs amendment. The matrix currently states that Locus1 provides "All" the information for fields such as Pages, Price and others but this is not true for the indirect listings. So either:
 +
<br>
 +
a) The relevant fields for Locus1 should be changed from "All" to "Some" (or maybe "Most").
 +
<br>
 +
or
 +
<br>
 +
b) A note should be added to the page explaining Locus1 indirect listings and clarifying that the values in the matrix for Locus1 only apply to full listings.
 +
<br>
 +
I prefer solution b).
 +
<br>
 +
Opinions please. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:38, 15 February 2024 (EST)
  
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::::: I agree that the standard "Robin Hood" is not spec fic, and I have this book marked that way in my own database. Someone else had earlier entered the 1938 edition, and I had the 1928 first edition, so I added it. But I have no objection to removing this title. However, I wish we were more consistent, or more efficient, about removing books that *aren't* genre. And so far as I know, if we do remove such a book, we have no system in place to prevent other editors from just adding the book back in again. As best as I can tell, "[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2386734 Robinson Crusoe]" and "[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1237145 Swiss Family Robinson]" have no spec fic in them, and yet we have them listed in the database. (Yes, Crusoe is marked as non-genre, but why is it even in the database? We don't list most of Defoe's other 75 known writings.) Francis Hodgson Burnett's "[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?174201 A Little Princess]" really doesn't belong here either. Someone else had it included, so I worked very hard on writing up an excuse as to why it belonged here, but even though I wrote that note in the title record, it doesn't convince *me* that it belongs. (Really, Darrah? the rat Melchisedec had "supernormal abilities to understand and respond to Sara"?) I wish there were a better way to deal with this type of book, but I have no recommendations. On "Robin Hood", though, I'm fine with deleting the entire title. [[User:Chavey|Chavey]] ([[User talk:Chavey|talk]]) 03:23, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
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: An interesting point. So basically Locus1 has two types of records. One type covers editions published between 1984 and 2007 and includes publication details. The other type covers first editions (including editions published before 1984) and only lists their year and publisher. In an ideal world, we may want to create a separate Secondary Verification type for the latter and call it something like "Locus1-First Edition". Unfortunately, I am not sure it would be feasible since we have over [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/stats.cgi?2 50,000 Locus1 verifications] and separating them would be a very time-consuming project. If we decide not to do it, then I agree that we should update [[Reference:Verification_Sources]] to reflect the fact that not all Locus1-verified publication records can be expected to have publication level data.
  
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:::::: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1237142 ''Der Schweizerische Robinson''] aka ''The Swiss Family Robinson'' has the following note attached to it:
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: As far as cases like {{A|David Gerrold}}'s [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?191929 Chess with a Dragon] go, I would reword Notes. Instead of saying "Locus1 fails to list this pub (as of 2010-06-21)", I would say something like "Locus1 doesn't have a detailed record for this edition, but multiple records for reprint editions refer to it as the first edition." [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:48, 16 February 2024 (EST)
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::::::* A juvenile adventure story. The only speculative element is the fact that the desert island that the protagonists are stranded on has a combination of animal species which is unrealistic based on their natural habitats.
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::Yes, I realised when I started the thread that if we disallow the Locus1 indirect listings there could be a legacy issue of past records SVd to Locus1 that would be difficult to amend. This is often a problem when rules and standards are changed. So although in theory I would vote to disallow these cases, I accept it is not practical to do so. Consequently I am happy with leaving them as they are and updating [[Reference:Verification_Sources]] to reflect the fact that not all Locus1-verified publication records can be expected to have publication level data, which we both agree with.
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:::::: It puts it somewhere between "lost world" and "fantastic voyages" on the proto-science fiction spectrum. Since [[ISFDB:Policy]] says "The older the book, the more likely we are to include it even if it is borderline eligible", it was included.
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::I am working on [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?191929 David Gerrold / Chess with a Dragon] and so will incorporate the change to the Locus1 pub note as you suggest. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 17:08, 16 February 2024 (EST)
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:::::: Re: consistency, there was a time when we created title/publication records for non-genre books (both fiction and non-fiction) reviewed in genre magazines. The policy was changed years ago, but some ineligible non-genre books still linger. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:45, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Scottish Lowlands ==
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::: Hearing no objection, I have clarified the "Locus1" row of [[Reference:Verification Sources]]. Thanks for identifying this issue. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:12, 26 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::::Thank you. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 16:27, 2 March 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=scottish+lo&type=All+Titles; 1 of Paul Finch's Terror Tales anthologies had no cover artist so I entered it from R. Dalby's site, and then checked and found 1 other volume had no artist, either (same guy, Neil Williams), so I entered it from Amazon's back cover, but there's some weird phantom edition someone forgot to delete or something, and that review not only is missing a word in the title but I'm sure it's supposed to be Rath, not Roth, who has 1 other review on ISFDB. Also, there's another Roth review from way back in 1995, so I'm going to check that one, it being in an easy-to-find book, and change to Rath if necessary; if anyone has this Scottish Lowlands book the page numbers still need entering. EDIT: What a dope; the book's easy to find, the review's in an obscure Brit zine. Bob PV both, so I'll just ask him to check and fix if needed. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:10, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Necronomicon in Sweden ==
  
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== Black Mask Covers ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=d+bergho&type=Name; First name likely misspelled by PV (or magazine it appeared in) and essay is in second name's record with a much earlier date. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:47, 15 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?4674; While looking at the Sarban omnibus I realized the 2 cover photos on the book's cover were original PB covers; Black Mask has a few dozen books on ISFDB and only the last one had someone named MOHearn who realized this and made Fabulous Clipjoint's cover a variant of the original. The Sarban book is the only one that's PV and that dude's long gone, so there's no problem with asking anyone, but there's a couple of points, firstly that some of the covers don't look like any of the original covers, possibly due to copyright issues, and also there's the question of how the artists are credited, if they are at all, in the Black Mask editions and whether the names differ from what's here already and have to be made variants. As far as I can tell Archive.org only has Dark Chase, Detour, Night of the Hunter and Pick-Up, none of which are on ISFDB (well, Night is, but only in a recent edition from another publisher). --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:22, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Garland Library of SF ==
  
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== Reorganizing some large numbered tie-in series ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?8067; I made a couple of edits adding archived link, LCCN and cover image to Past Master when I noticed that there is 1 book in the series with a UK price and 1 without any price. So if anyone can fill in the missing one and add US one (moving UK to notes) for the other then everything will be uniform. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:44, 16 February 2024 (EST)
  
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There are some large tie-in series that currently consist of many dozens of numbered entries. This numbering comes from the publisher - the number might or might not be on the cover and is usually listed on a page that gives an overview of the series. The numbering simply follows publication order, there is no relation to in-story continuity or suggested reading order. There are some problems with this: the numbering is publisher-specific and might change or be dropped when the line changes publishers. There is no way to display books that are actually related story-wise, like some trilogies that later get their own omnibuses etc. I would like to change these series numberings into what has been done with Star Trek: The Original Series, where the numberings where changed into publication series like [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?2425 here] and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?2473 here]. Examples of such series are the other Star Trek series ([https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?305 TNG], DS9, VOY) or gaming-related series like [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?6404 Shadowrun], and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?1991 Battletech]. Are there any objections? [[User:TerokNor|TerokNor]] 15:32, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
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==  Lou J. Berger ==
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:Given the sizes of many of those, I'd recommend creating a working page for each (perhaps at [[User:TerokNor/Star Trek]], [[User:TerokNor/Battletech]], and [[User:TerokNor/Shadowrun]], for example). You can use wiki markup to make the various series lists as you imagine them. That will also allow you to make sure you don't get confused when you get into making the changes. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 16:01, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== New yellow warning for translations ==
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The author has requested we change his canonical name from [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?186596 Lou J. Berger] to "Lou J Berger" (no period after the "J"). See mod note [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5878281 here]. Any objections? [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 15:32, 16 February 2024 (EST)
  
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The post-submission review page for "Make Variant" has been updated. It now displays a yellow warning if the two title records have different languages and the proposed variant's Note field doesn't contain the "Tr" template. (This warning is not displayed for COVERART or INTERIORART titles.) The older yellow warning which displayed the words "Different languages" in the "Language" row of the table has been removed.
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: Checking Amazon.com's Look Inside, I see that the name was spelled "Lou J. Berger" in 2013-2014 and changed to "Lou J Berger" in 2015/2016. By now the majority of the stories use the "Lou J Berger" form of the name, so it should be our canonical name. We just need to make sure that we use the right form for the transitional (2015-2016) period. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:05, 16 February 2024 (EST)
  
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If you come across anything unexpected, please your findings here. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 16:23, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
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:: Author attributions were reviewed and corrected resulting in compliance with the author's request. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 15:16, 17 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== 11th Armada Ghost Book ==
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== Locus on Microfilm ==
  
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Archive.org copy added recently revealed "Lavendar Girl" was actually Lavender and page count was 1 short because of the usual last unnumbered page thing, but what's more odd is the back cover has a dirty and faded Scholastic Book Club sticker or something on it covering up the foreign prices; the only ISFDB entry by that publisher is an umpteenth reprinting of some old Doc Savage novel, so those people here who like entering every edition of something they can find may be able to source the date or enter it as date unknown or whatever. There are no other copies readable online. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:30, 25 August 2022 (EDT)
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I recently added links to the handful of random print issues of Locus that are on Archive.org, one a very early issue and the others more recent, but I just stumbled on a huge cache of microfilmed 1973-2015 issues uploaded by MicrofilmIssueGenerator so I added a link, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5893289. Not sure if this is known about already but if not I'm sure it will come in handy here for research. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:39, 16 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Fat Cow ==
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== Server maintenance 2024-02-18 at 11am EST ==
  
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I came across a Bookscans cover with fatcow in the URL; there are 11, I replaced 3, but the other 8 are PV, in case anyone thinks it's necessary to contact active people and ask to replace those with their updated URLs. I saw this, https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Data_Consistency/Disallowed_URLs, but that's old and might not be relevant anymore. --[[User:Username|Username]] 15:56, 26 August 2022 (EDT)
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The server will be down for maintenance later today (2024-02-18) between 11am and 11:10am EST. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:20, 18 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Uncanny Banquet and Leisure ==
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: The server is back up. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:06, 18 February 2024 (EST)
  
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A few thoughts I've had which I've finally decided to ask about; first, about Ramsey Campbell's 1992 anthology Uncanny Banquet. I distinctly remember back in the 1990's when I used to go to bookstores all the time that I saw several copies (of the hardcover, I think) at the Barnes and Noble in Mid-Manhattan, NYC, near St. Patrick's Cathedral (the same place where I saw Chauncey Howell, recently-deceased local New York entertainment newscaster who worked at ABC back in the 1980's and was known for his happy on-air demeanor, who was browsing through a half-price bin looking about as angry and unhappy as a person possibly can) being sold for ONE DOLLAR. Yes, this supposedly never-published-in-America book somehow showed up in an American bookstore practically being given away. Being as cheap as I am, I didn't buy it, just sat there reading the included novel Hole in the Pit (which at the time was almost impossible to find), which I still regret because I've never seen another copy anywhere since, and there's a few stories in there that are still rare 30 years later. So I'm curious if anyone who owns a copy could have one that has B&N stickers on it or, possibly, actual text in/on the book itself calling it a B&N edition? Also, I just noticed that the cover art credit here is only on the PB even though the HC had the same art, so I imported and fixed the date; not sure how I never noticed that before. Second, Leisure Books released many, many books in their pre-respectable days back in the 1980's, and even a teenage horror fanatic like I was eventually gave up on reading their books because they seemed to have a policy of making them as long as possible, with a Leisure horror title under 300 pages being a rare thing, but also because of the low quality of many of them, even by the standards of horror paperback fiction back then. However, one thing I remember about them before I stopped was that their quality control was incredibly shoddy, with many horror titles suddenly switching to a page or two from one of their non-horror titles before going back to the horror. I'm sure many people on here own copies of old Leisure titles, so if anyone has one that includes pages from a Leisure western/action/whatever it might be interesting to add notes and see how many people can find. EDIT: Hey, here's something; an Italian edition of Uncanny Banquet, https://www.fantascienza.com/catalogo/volumi/NILF109393/l-orrido-pasto-racconti-del-soprannaturale/, in case anyone fluent in that language owns a copy and thinks it needs entering here. I guess Uncanny doesn't translate well so they just used Horrid instead. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:40, 26 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Sword of the Samurai ==
  
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== Add Variant Title upgraded ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5894874; I have owned a copy since the 1980s and PV it here in 2022, copy uploaded to Archive.org last summer but not added until a few days ago, I think I got the right page count but if anyone disagrees feel free to tweak it a bit, you don't have to ask me. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:41, 18 February 2024 (EST)
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:I see a note in the UK edition's record here says [236] so I think they counted the illustration between the first 19 pages and the start of the novel itself. Should that count? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:44, 18 February 2024 (EST)
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::I would count it one way or the other, either as part of the introductory material (so, technically on [20]) or as part of the main material.  A page number on that first page of main text would have been a useful guide....  I found an eBay listing of the Puffin edition that has some interior photographs.  Not of the page in question, but the TOC and other leading material looks identical to what Archive.org shows for the edition you have.  Extrapolating that to content that follows it suggests Reginald did count that illustration as part of the main material.  Given the [236] there, what I will do is tweak your count to [236] and add a note about the illustration's appearance relative to the text on the surrounding pages. Just trying to save you an edit cycle; feel free to adjust it to be however you prefer -- I do not mean to insist on anything.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 12:07, 18 February 2024 (EST)
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:::Sounds good, thanks. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:18, 18 February 2024 (EST)
  
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The Web page responsible for displaying (admittedly uncommon) "Add Variant Title" submissions has been updated to use the new submission display software. It will now display the same yellow warning about missing "Tr" templates for translated titles as the previously upgraded "Make Variant Title" page. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 21:52, 26 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Bibliographic impact of the 2023 Hugo Awards ==
  
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== I don't receive the confirmation email. ==
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The current pre-release cover of {{A|Samantha Mills}}'s debut novel [https://www.amazon.com/Wings-Upon-Her-Back-ebook/dp/B0CVS2RDH8 ''The Wings Upon Her Back''] says "Nebula and Hugo Award Winner". On 2024-02-17 Mills disavowed the award and announced that she would have "Hugo winner" removed from future editions of the book:
  
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Hello, I am trying to set up my email in "My preferences" and the system says it sent an email to my address for confirmation. However, I never get this email. I tried oh so many times already.
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* [https://samtasticbooks.com/2024/02/17/rabbit-test-unwins-the-hugo/ “Rabbit Test” unwins the Hugo]: ... on Tuesday I’ll send a very awkward email to my agent and editor summarizing the situation ... and figure out the logistics of removing “Hugo winner” from the ebook and future printings. The first print run will be a limited edition novelty, I suppose? Jeez.
  
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- I am using '''gmail'''.
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This may not be an isolated occurrence since, as Samantha Mills wrote (among other things):
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- I ''have already checked'' '''spam''' folders, '''trash''', '''all mail''', etc. I also have '''no filters set up'''.
 
  
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For a test, I created a 10-minute mail service. Well, the confirmation email '''DID SHOW''' there, coming from apache@server.isfdb.org . Problem is, no use in confirming a temporary email... I want to use my regular gmail.  
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* On February 14, a report written by Jason Sanford and Chris M. Barkley was simultaneously released on the [https://jasonsanford.substack.com/p/the-2023-hugo-awards-a-report-on Genre Grapevine] and [https://file770.com/the-2023-hugo-awards-a-report-on-censorship-and-exclusion/ File770]. ... we also got a look at [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rhCwKLMydCto6HvXvcqjR553DqrhTfBu/view the validation list itself], aka the tables of frontrunner nominees being vetted for the final ballot, and a horrible pattern emerged, especially in the fiction categories: there were a whole lot of Chinese nominees in frontrunner positions who just… vanished, and never made it onto the final ballot. There were so many, in fact, that if I am reading this document correctly: ''not a single fiction winner'' (short story, novelette, novella, novel, or series) would have even been a finalist if those nominees hadn’t been taken off.
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* There’s an indicator of why in the apology letter from the admin who leaked the emails and validation tables: “We were told there was collusion in a Chinese publication that had published a nominations list, a slate as it were, and so those ballots were identified and eliminated.”
  
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I also tried with an older yahoo email that I still have. No luck either.
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From our perspective, this means that we will need to:
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* Update the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_details.cgi?78890 “Rabbit Test” Award record] to indicate that the author disavowed the award, similar to how [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_details.cgi?9534 this award record] explains that {{A|Judy-Lynn del Rey}}'s posthumous "Best Professional Editor" award was refused by her husband {{A|Lester del Rey}}.
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* Keep an eye on [https://www.amazon.com/Wings-Upon-Her-Back-ebook/dp/B0CVS2RDH8 ''The Wings Upon Her Back''] to make sure that the correct covers are used for the first and any subsequent editions of the novel.
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* Be on the lookout for possible other announcements of authors disavowing 2023 Hugo awards.
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* Occasionally check "Worldcon Intellectual Property" announcements. On January 30, 2024 they issued [https://www.wsfs.org/2024/01/31/announcements-from-worldcon-intellectual-property/ a statement] censuring multiple people "for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon" and said that "There may be other actions taken or to be taken that are not in this announcement." If and when they make additional statements about the Hugos awarded at the 2023 Worldcon, we may need to update our records.
  
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So, is anyone able to help me with this issue? Thanks!
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[[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:55, 19 February 2024 (EST)
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Pugno (Paolo Fabrizio Pugno)
 
  
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: Different email servers have different automated rules which may block email coming from certain Web sites, so it's hard to tell what's preventing ISFDB email from being delivered to your mailbox.
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: Earlier today {{A|Adrian Tchaikovsky}} disavowed his 2023 Hugo award for Best Series on [https://adriantchaikovsky.com/ his Web site]. The [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_details.cgi?78915 award record] has been updated. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:56, 21 February 2024 (EST)
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::These notes are exactly the correct action for us, I think.  If we had notes for an award year, it would probably be desirable to add something for the 2023 Hugos.  Although, getting a properly neutral description of the controversy free of personal biases (and I have many in this instance), would be tricky. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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: The good news is that confirmation emails are optional as far as ISFDB is concerned. If you can log in here, i.e. on the Wiki side, with a Wiki user name and password, you should be able to use the same user name and password to log in on the main database side. At that point you will have full access to all ISFDB features including Advanced Search, display preferences, submission creation etc. Hope this helps! [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 17:46, 28 August 2022 (EDT)
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::: One of the challenges that the 2023 Hugos present is that it's still a developing story. What we knew 10 days ago is very different from what we know today. Perhaps we'll learn more in the future.
  
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::Understood. Well, if there's no loss of functionality, I guess it's Ok. Thanks for the quick reply. CHeers! [[User:Pugno|Pugno]] 18:25, 28 August 2022 (EDT)
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::: For example, back in late January I came across a re-post/translation of a Chinese fan's comments about the Hugos. The post stated that the fan had been involved in the Hugo process (committee member?) and that he or she had a conflict with Chinese members of the Hugo committee with various accusations flying back and forth. At the time I had trouble parsing the post, in part due to lacking context and in part due to the quality of the translation. In retrospect it may have been related to the following email sent by Dave McCarthy on June 7, 2023 at 6:18pm (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_QqmsxQkACoYcxSx2LVqbxD39-DJI_gS/view), which says:
 +
:::* Tomorrow I have a 4 hour meeting with my chinese counterparts to look at ballot detail and determine if any ballots are to be voided
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::: Perhaps either this fan or other members of the 2023 Hugo committee may clarify matters at some point. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:33, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Mr. Saunders ==
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:: It would especially be useful to note that the nomination totals and the EPH points appear to be completely unreliable, since those are noted in each nomination award record. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=saunders&type=Name; I suspect essay by David R. Saunders was originally (in English) by David Saunders (1922-2003), and essay by David Saunders should be by David Saunders (1954 - ), in case anyone more expert knows for sure (and, by the way, should there be spaces before and after the dash in 1954?). Impetus for all that was this, https://fantlab.ru/user13240/blogpage2, where that big Saunders cover caught my eye; might be something worth entering here. --[[User:Username|Username]] 18:39, 28 August 2022 (EDT)
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::: One thing that comes to mind is that we could change the way opening sentences are phrased. Instead of the current "1674 valid ballots cast, 944 valid ballots cast in category" we could say something like "According to the [https://www.thehugoawards.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Hugo-Award-Stats-Final.pdf voting statistics] released [https://www.thehugoawards.org/2024/01/2023-nominating-and-final-ballot-statistics-published/?ref=astrolabe.aidanmoher.com on 2024-01-20], there were 1674 valid ballots cast, 944 valid ballots cast in category". It's not much, but it would at least clarify which version of the stats our records use. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:20, 22 February 2024 (EST)
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::::I've added your suggested text to the records in the Best Novel category.  In addition to the ballot count at the head, I've also added it to the nomination numbers at the foot.  I think it's more important there as that is where there is evidence of shenanigans. In any case, let me know if it looks good and I can update the remaining records or we tweak it if desired. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 21:26, 27 February 2024 (EST)
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::::: Everything looks good, thanks. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:40, 27 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Variant Dates - new yellow warning ==
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:: I recall that award year notes has been suggested before and there may be a feature request, though I suspect that how the award tables are structured may make this difficult. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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"Add Variant" and both versions of "Make Variant" have been modified to display a yellow warning when the proposed variant date is before the proposed parent date. Certain other changes were made under the hood, but they shouldn't be visible to editors/moderators. If you come across anything unexpected, please let me know. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 12:59, 29 August 2022 (EDT)
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::: Yes, indeed. {{FR|1086}}, "Change the award year field to a drop-down list", says "Create a new record type for award years. We can call it something like "award year" or "award ceremony". Once we have it, we will be able to add notes to award years. Notes can be used to specify when the awards were announced, when and where they were given, eligibility rules changes, etc." Unfortunately, as you said, it would be fairly time-consuming to implement. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:12, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== R(obert). S. Brown ==
+
:: In any case, I do have one suggestion for the del Rey award record.  We currently have the explanation of the non-acceptance of the award noted in the title field of what should be an untitled award.  Perhaps we didn't have award level notes at the point that award was added.  I feel that the verbiage in the title should be moved to notes and replaced with "untitled".  --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=s.+brown&type=Name; Not long ago I entered the short story in GoreZone #1, which was the sister magazine to the great Fangoria and ran for a couple of dozen issues from 1988 to sometime in the nineties. The first issue had artwork by someone not on ISFDB previously, but today as I entered #2-4 (Archive.org has all of them, although they stopped including fiction for a couple of later issues until public outcry convinced them to go back to doing so), completing the 1988 issues, the artwork was all by Robert S. Brown, who only has a single art credit here for a 1982 John Wyndham paperback reprint. I thought it was odd that he did 1 mainstream cover for a major publisher and then suddenly switched more than 5 years later to doing interior art for a gory horror zine, so I checked further and I believe the credits under R.S. Brown here are all by him, too. The signature on some of the covers, RSB, matches that on the GoreZone artwork. There seems to be no mention anywhere on the internet of Brown doing art for GoreZone, so this would be good to get entered, if anyone else looks into this and agrees with me. I assume the long name would be a variant of the short name since that's what has most of the credits. --[[User:Username|Username]] 15:07, 29 August 2022 (EDT)
+
::: I agree. It's exactly as you said -- award records didn't have a Notes field back then. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:12, 22 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::::I've updated [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_details.cgi?9534 this] and expanded the comment as a note taking my queue from Judy-Lynn's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy-Lynn_del_Rey Wikipedia article]. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 21:26, 27 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Saturn's Children ==
+
::::: Thanks. I have hyper-linked Lester del Rey's name and clarified that he was Judy-Lynn's husband. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:40, 27 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?829343; Somebody named Aardvark (?) entered the first entry recently from Archive.org copy, using the full title unlike everyone else, but used a cover image that has the Book Club number of the later SFBC edition on the back, and this actually showed up on the cleanup report as the only Science Fiction Book Club record without a catalog ID; also, the PV SFBC edition has the wrong cover artist, the art actually being used on several other editions with the correct artist. So I guess this means Mr. Aardvark should enter the ID and replace the image, and someone should tell PV of other edition that they should change the artist, except oddly it was Alvonruff, the guy who does the behind-the-scenes stuff here that nobody else understands. You mean many years ago he was just an ordinary guy entering books like most of us plebes? Get out of town. --[[User:Username|Username]] 22:22, 30 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Kater-Bound ==
  
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== Which Way ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?22308; On all of the web there seems to be only 1 mention of Borgo Press and Kater-Bound together, https://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p=22429, although it does get a handful of hits in a text search, https://archive.org/search?query=%22kater-bound%22+%22borgo%22&sin=TXT&sort=-addeddate. This Archive.org page, https://archive.org/search?query=compton+farewell+bliss&sort=-addeddate, shows 2 editions with one being Borgo but with price on front covered and Kater-Bound sticker on back. Could this be the mysterious Borgo HC mentioned in the book's record? Also, the note about artist is wrong because he's credited on copyright page and back cover, the latter of which can be seen in the cover image. TP PV doesn't respond much so I'm asking on this board. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:09, 19 February 2024 (EST)
 +
:The Archive.org copy is a library book, and Kater-Craft does library bindings. I believe it is not uncommon to have a retail hardcover edition and a library-binding hardcover edition of the same book. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 17:44, 19 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::Believe it or not, I have library hardcover versions of Ace Doubles.  All should be listed in my opinion. [[User:MLB|MLB]] ([[User talk:MLB|talk]]) 01:00, 20 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?41315; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?10883; same publisher, but somebody made 1 a series and the other a pub. series, so a decision is needed on which is correct. --[[User:Username|Username]] 14:34, 31 August 2022 (EDT)
+
== Miriam Allen de Ford ==
  
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== British Fantasy Award / Best Audio ==
+
Per the ''Spaces in Names'' subsection of [[:Template:PublicationFields:Author]], Miriam Allen de Ford should be standardized as {{A|Miriam Allen deFord}}. However, we have a {{A|Miriam Allen de Ford}} alternate name which was recently edited so the notes copy the rules saying it should be standardized. Instead, I propose we merge the alternate name to the canonical name in accordance with the rules. As there are a number of verified pubs, I will point the verifiers to the this discussion, If there are any objections, then we should probably have a Rules and standards discussions. Thanks. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 18:28, 19 February 2024 (EST)
 +
:I guess it would be like calling somebody named MacIntosh being called Mac Intosh.  Still, I'll go with the majority. [[User:MLB|MLB]] ([[User talk:MLB|talk]]) 00:58, 20 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::No objection to merging, but I think the actual spelling of the name should be made clear in the notes. [[User:Linguist|Linguist]] ([[User talk:Linguist|talk]]) 04:06, 20 February 2024 (EST).
 +
:::No objection, I had three pubs, two in Croatian language I already corrected, but I have also one in Serbian language. In Serbian language names are written as they are pronounced, in this case same as written. Should I change this one as well? This is publication in question: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2277217 {{unsigned|Debolestis}}
  
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Would the British Fantasy Award for Best Audio be considered an award that should be connected to EDITOR records?
+
== Ruben De Anda ==
  
−
For example, PseudoPod has been a nominee from 2018 through 2022[1], and PodCastle has been a nominee from 2019 through 2022 (with a win in 2020)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1476655; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2552505; Can anyone find proof that these are the same artists? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:45, 20 February 2024 (EST)
 +
:I don't know. But [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?107431 The Galaxy Primes] (Ace 1976) appears also to be signed by R. De Anda. [[User:Horzel|Horzel]] ([[User talk:Horzel|talk]]) 08:52, 23 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::Probably is but since last name is mostly covered it's hard to tell. PV Willem H. noted that it may be Rafael M. De Soto but I doubt it because he has no original cover credits on ISFDB after 1964 and this book is from 1976. There's a copy on Archive.org which I've added a link to in a PENDING edit. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:44, 23 February 2024 (EST)
  
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BFA Audio Award Category Record # 778:
+
== Steve Miller: RIP ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category.cgi?778+1
 
  
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Things like the Hugo, Ignyte, and Locus are listed on the individual magazine pages for each of these publications by publication year. Links to the 2021 EDITOR Title Records:
+
For those who may not have seen an announcement, [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?214 Steve Miller], co-author of the Liaden Universe, et al., died on February 20, 2024 at his home in Maine. His wife, author [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?418 Sharon Lee], posted [https://korval.com/2024/02/21/steven-richard-miller-1950-2024/ this obituary]. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 07:41, 22 February 2024 (EST)
 +
:I added photo from FantLab which is a little bigger and shows his face better than Fantastic Fiction's photo. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:42, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2820526
+
== Last User Activity ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2874271
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?895338; What does this mean exactly? There was a question of contacting this PV RedDragonBooks about something related to a mod note I made and checking their page the last answer they gave or contribution they made was in spring of 2022 but the activity at the bottom of the record linked above says a few days ago. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:03, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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Currently, the BFA Audio Award nominees only include a link to the Sandman Audible production. What would be the most appropriate way to connect records?
+
:There are two databases: The wiki and the bibliographic database. What you see for User Contributions on their user/talk page is just their Wiki edits.  What you see for Last User Activity in the verifiers' list is the date of their last activity in the bibliographic side -- the Wiki software does not know about that, only about the Wiki.  That user did some verifications on 2024-02-18 but hasn't posted anything to the wiki in the past couple of years. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 13:56, 22 February 2024 (EST)
  
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[1] 2022 shortlist announcement:
+
:: Just a quick note to clarify that the software that displays the Last User Activity date checks both the Wiki side and the database side. It then displays the latest date that it finds. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:36, 22 February 2024 (EST)
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https://www.britishfantasysociety.org/authors/british-fantasy-awards-shortlists/
 
  
−
[[User:Fenrix1958|Fenrix1958]] 17:51, 31 August 2022 (EDT)
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== Ermengarde Fisk = Evelyn E. Smith? ==
  
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: I am not familiar with this award, but I think there may be a structural problem with linking nominations and awards to EDITOR records. Let's consider ''Poscastle'', which was [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category.cgi?778+1 nominated in 2019 and 2021]. Its [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?25416 series page] shows that the editorial team changed during 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2019, which is why we have multiple EDITOR records for each of these years. We can only link an award record to a single EDITOR title, so we would need to pick one out of 2+ EDITOR titles for these years. How do existing EDITOR-linked awards handle this issue? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 09:29, 2 September 2022 (EDT)
+
One of my friends pointed me at [https://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Oopsla/Oopsla10.pdf#view=Fit issue #10 of the 'zine Oopsla], specifically page 13. The "SHORT STORIES" section says:
  
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== Blood Is Not Enough ==
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  Third goes to another brand-new author, [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1254 Evelyn E. Smith] ... is better known to fandom as the pseudonymous authoress of the "New York Letter" column in Slant--yeah, that's right, she's [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?266764 Ermengarde Fiske].
  
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https://fanac.org/fanzines/Birmingham_Science_Fiction_Group_Newsletter/Birmingham_Science_Fiction_Group_Newsletter230.pdf; Someone recently uploaded to Archive.org an apparently rare book, the Grafton edition of E. Datlow's anthology Blood Is Not Enough, but the price was higher than ISFDB, and there was no mention of later printing on copyright page, but that PDF above says £4.50 in the review and is dated just after the publication date and the 1 eBay photo of the back cover online I've seen also says £4.50 so, assuming the original price came from Locus, it's another of their many mistakes, so while entering the missing page numbers I also adjusted the price. Of course, if anyone here can produce a photo showing £3.99 on the back it can always be reverted. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:07, 31 August 2022 (EDT)
+
As I don't know what the accuracy of fan writing was like nearly two decades before I was born, I don't know how reliable this info might be.  Any objections to varianting these author records?  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 13:49, 23 February 2024 (EST)
 +
: We already have a pseudonym there: Evelyn Smythe (intentional corruption of Evelyn Smyth E.?) which I think is based exactly on the note you cited above. I am not sure if we have enough evidence to connect the two Evelyn E. Smith's though - while very very likely, the name is not very uncommon. Maybe add some notes to both accounts until we find a better proof that the two are one and the same? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 14:50, 23 February 2024 (EST)
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:: Never mind, I looked at the fanzine itself now - you actually missed the smoking gun while quoting - that award over there is for a story that belongs to Evelyn E. Smith (Tea Tray in the Sky) - so yes, they are the same person. Connect them away. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 14:54, 23 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::: This is now done.  Had a bit of a headscratcher with Ermengarde Fiske having its own alternate names, but I think everything is now correct, with all the authors pointing at Evelyn E. Smith as the canonical, and all of the title records having parent titles with that author record.  However I wouldn't say no if someone wants to double check that everything is now as it should be. Thanks! [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 13:44, 27 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Guy's Vendetta ==
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== J. Watson ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?711064; I added The Pan Book of Revenge Stories (1971) to ISFDB recently since the contents are largely genre/by genre authors, but Maupassant's "A Vendetta" is only on here in the German edition of Michel Parry's dog horror anthology, Hounds of Hell, and only as "Vendetta" (although the original has "Une" at the beginning), with that story not in English-language editions and other stories seemingly dropped. So if anyone can figure out the date of the first appearance of the story with "A" they can always add that to the Pan book and variant it, and also it seems like the German Hounds of Hell should be a variant, too, since it has different contents. --[[User:Username|Username]] 11:04, 1 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?224483; What do you suggest is best to add to differ 1966 Thunderbirds artist from Leading Edge writer/artist? He's on Wikipedia so I'll add that link (as Jim Watson). --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:48, 24 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Canonical Name Change Richard Strachan from Richard W. Strachan ==
+
: See [[Help:How_to_separate_two_authors_with_the_same_name]] for ideas.  Looks like "James Watson (1960s)" would work here and might be more helpful than "(I)". The situation is quite similar to the Jame Cooper examples given in that bullet.  In light of the disparity in volume between their bibliographies, I think you could treat the James Watson from the 1980s as "more prominent/widely known in the Spec-Fic world" and leave it with no embedded disambiguation. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 12:04, 25 February 2024 (EST)
 +
::OK, thanks. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:30, 25 February 2024 (EST)
  
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Any objections to making [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?142431 Richard Strachan] the canonical name and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?217611 Richard W. Strachan] the alternate? [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 14:38, 1 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Tem Title ==
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: Go ahead. This one is obvious. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 15:01, 1 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: Done, [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 15:56, 1 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== ISFDB Receives Special Committee Award at Chicon 8 ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?67830; Archived link to recently uploaded Chrysalis 9 HC just added by me in a PENDING edit, PV doesn't respond much, PB has one or two active PV so if they can verify it's Hit-and-Run there, too, not Hit-and-Miss, title should be changed. I vaguely remember asking about this long ago after noticing title was different in Tem's online bibliography. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 15:32, 25 February 2024 (EST)
  
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The ISFDB was awarded a Special Committee Award at this year's Worldcon, Chicon 8.  Go us!  The award was presented at the opening ceremonies and Al was there to accept the award.  He mentioned some of the early history of the database, specifically mentioning [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]], NESFA and others.  It was nice to see our work appreciated.  --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 23:42, 1 September 2022 (EDT)
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== The Hole of the Pit ==
  
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: Great! ISFDB has certainly been a major source of genre information for many years and I'm glad I've contributed in some small way over the last 20 months. A few thoughts, though; Chicago is one of the most dangerous cities in America, so I wouldn't linger after the convention is done if I were you. Also, on their website, https://chicon.org/, the section labeled Policies is chilling, with full vaccination and mask-wearing required almost everywhere, almost all the time, even at this point when the pandemic has ceased being deadly for most of the American population; the organizers of this con seem to think it's still 2020, unless that COVID Policy page is old and someone forgot to update it. Also, the Code of Conduct and Anti-Racism Statement pages are full of some of the most Orwellian doublespeak I've seen in a long time, and I live in New York, so that's really saying something. I fail to see how anyone could actually have fun at one of these things anymore when the slightest misspoken word or joke or even a look could be taken the wrong way and result in expulsion from the con or possible legal action. I'd be terrified to even enter the front door. It also makes me wonder if the winners of the awards at this con are actually the most deserving (this site not included, of course) or whether they're being given instead to the most inclusive, diverse candidates. But then this is an issue everywhere now, so I shouldn't single out Chicon. Anyway, Godspeed! --[[User:Username|Username]] 00:15, 2 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive53#Uncanny_Banquet_and_Leisure; Exactly a year-and-a-half ago I asked about Uncanny Banquet and noted the rare novel contained in it; a copy of the Oleander Press edition including the novel with a short story and a poem was recently added to Archive.org so I've added a link in a PENDING edit. Still waiting for a copy of that anthology to show up somewhere...anywhere. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:55, 25 February 2024 (EST)
  
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:: Hmmm. Not good enough to talk about science fiction, we have to get into politics too? Or don't you appreciate how essentially EVERYTHING you just said is all politics, politics, and more politics. [[User:Chavey|Chavey]] ([[User talk:Chavey|talk]]) 03:28, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Series sort order? ==
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::: Leaving aside the fact that you're responding to a nearly month-old thread that everyone else abandoned a day after it started, warning someone about the severe danger of being in Chicago these days, especially for SF con attendees who usually aren't the most capable people when it comes to defending themselves, isn't politics, it's called common sense; as for the rest of my comments, the truth hurts sometimes, and I suspect that the reason it bothers you is because you agree with those policies. Science fiction isn't real; those things are real. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 07:30, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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:::: A reminder that the ISFDB Wiki is not a place for discussing politics. There are plenty of other Web sites where political issues are talked about. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 09:23, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
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I was looking at a [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?2278 page for a series] and couldn't figure out the basis for the order of the sub-series. First come the numbered sub-series, in numerical order. Then the 'loose' items in chronological order. Then come the unnumbered sub-series, which are neither alphabetical or chronological by any of their contained titles. Is there a particular order to them? ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 09:04, 28 February 2024 (EST)
  
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: Wow! This is great news! That in addition to us being a regular bibliographic reference with SFE and Wikipedia should give us even more monemtum. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] 03:44, 2 September 2022 (EDT)
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: The only order that the display software enforces is as you described above: all numbered sub-series are displayed first and the rest are displayed randomly. I think it would be fairly easy to display unnumbered sub-series alphabetically. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:36, 28 February 2024 (EST)
  
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: Yet another step on the path to world domination through bibliography... ahem, I mean it was very nice of them to give us the award. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 08:56, 2 September 2022 (EDT)
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::: (after edit conflict) A more thorough review discovered that Summary pages were already sorting unnumbered sub-series alphabetically. I have adjusted the software to do the same on Series pages. Thanks for identifying the problem! [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:36, 28 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Laser Books ==
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::Since series tend to be written in order, displaying the unnumbered titles in chronological order may make more sense.  Although, sub-series wouldn't have a date and extrapolating the date from the earliest contained title would be more complex.  Perhaps, numbered items followed by unnumbered sub-series followed by everything else in chronological order.  --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 18:34, 28 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?16874; Several active PV for Herds, it's the only Laser with no month, but it's between the first 2 books which are both August so logically it should be August, too, right? --[[User:Username|Username]] 08:55, 2 September 2022 (EDT)
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::: Could you please clarify what you mean by "items" in this case? Series may contain both title records and sub-series records. They use different, unrelated, numbering systems. For example, a series may contain 3 titles numbered "0.5", "1" and "2", as well as two sub-series numbered "1" and "2". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:36, 28 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Amazon Images ==
+
::::I intended items to mean both title records amd sub-series records, either of which may be numbered.  What I was suggesting is that within a series (parent), each numbered item would display based on the numbering.  In your example, there would be a conflict as there are both titles numbered "1" and "2" and sub-series numbered "1" and "2".  Ideally, we would never assert that both a title and a sub-series should occur first in the parent series. Clearly, numbering only applies within the parent series.  I believe that for numbered "items", I am not suggesting any changes to how things currently work.  I had suggested a chronological sort for the remaining items based on your now corrected statement that they were displayed randomly.  Given that we're already sorting alphabetically, it's probably fine to leave things as they are, unless others think a chronological sort would be preferable. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 21:13, 28 February 2024 (EST)
  
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Anyone know what Amazon is doing to their site? It seems totally random now as to whether clicking a book link will take you to the right page or a page that just shows the cover with an error message, and when I just added Daniel G. Keohane's author image, not the big one at the top which has the kind of URL that ISFDB gives a yellow warning for but the bigger of the two identical photos in the scroll list below, it has WEBP in the URL; advanced search reveals there's not that many WEBP URL on ISFDB, less than 100, while many others I've entered recently have the same old URL with media or ssl in them. Why is every site changing, from WorldCat to Amazon? It's becoming untenable. --[[User:Username|Username]] 19:35, 2 September 2022 (EDT)
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== BattleTech Universe ==
  
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: WebP is a Google-developed image file format which produces significantly smaller files than traditional image formats like JPG and GIF. According to various sources, [https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-rhpectfvhj76w including Amazon], Google began prioritizing WebP images in certain operations about a year ago. Chances are that it created an incentive for other companies to speed up the adoption of this format. Hopefully any instability which it may cause at Amazon is just growing pains. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 22:06, 3 September 2022 (EDT)
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The [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?1991 BattleTech Universe] series and it's sub-series all list having an Issue Grid, which suggests they are Serials / Magazines. They look like books to me. Is it a mistake in the software or entry? Might the existence of one Serial in the series propagate? ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 09:12, 29 February 2024 (EST)
 +
: Yep - if there is one magazine series somewhere in the sub series inside of a bigger series, the whole set and any sunsets of it shows the grid links. It is how the software is built. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 10:00, 29 February 2024 (EST)
  
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== Unpublished Campbell Awards ==
+
:: Good catch. {{Bug|842}}, "Extraneous 'View Issue Grid' links on series pages", has been created. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:15, 29 February 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?42308; I came across this randomly and found a 2015 post on lawrenceperson.com that included all the page numbers, so I've made an edit. Odd is that Mr. Person himself made an edit here early in 2016, which was cleaned up by someone afterwards, but for some reason nobody ever entered those numbers. If anyone knows him they may want to ask for an actual photo of the contents page because he wrote one of the titles wrong, Shang instead of Shan (at least I assume it's wrong because it's Shan everywhere else online), so it's possible he could've done the same for some of the numbers, and if possible he could also be asked other things like whether Donaldson's story has "A Fable" like it does elsewhere, if there's a reason why no price was entered, whether that essay on p. 251 has that exact title (I cut-and-pasted it into my edit), etc. --[[User:Username|Username]] 21:05, 3 September 2022 (EDT)
+
== Database Backup ==
  
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== Ariel ==
+
Can you please save the database with InnoDB utf8mb4 so accented and Chinese characters will show up correctly? As it now with MyISAM utf8, Иван Константинович Айвазовский shows up as &#1048;&#1074;&#1072;&#1085;&#1050;&#1086;&#1085;&#1089;&#1090;&#1072;&#1085;&#1090;&#1080;&#1085;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1040;&#1081;&#1074;&#1072;&#1079;&#1086;&#1074;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;&#1081;. It makes it hard to work with the database and makes it a lot larger than it has to be. {{unsigned|Catpoolfan}}
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2185053; Says non-genre, but from long-ago reading I remember it having some ambiguous supernatural touches, and online talk, like https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/ArielBlock, seems to agree. If the original HC is entered there's a LOT of reprint editions to follow, so if anyone here agrees then it will be entered. --[[User:Username|Username]] 12:23, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
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: For historical reasons -- the ISFDB project started in 1995 -- ISFDB tables use "latin1_swedish_ci". You can see it if you run "SELECT TABLE_CATALOG, TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, TABLE_COLLATION FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES" in MySQL. Non-Latin-1 Unicode characters are stored in the database as HTML entities. When you see "&#1081;" (i.e. "&#1081") displayed, that's because that's what's stored in the database.
  
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== Uncle Silas and Gods, Men and Ghosts==
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: There are plans to migrate from HTML entities to native Unicode, but it will be a major project with a number of dependencies. There is no ETA at this time. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:42, 1 March 2024 (EST)
  
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https://archive.org/details/unclesilas0000jsle; Antiquarian alert; someone recently uploaded this but it's damaged, missing copyright page and a few others, but it seems much earlier than other Dover editions of this title on ISFDB judging by the price, $2.00, so maybe someone here knows what the date is and it can be entered properly. EDIT: Also recently uploaded is this, https://archive.org/details/godsmenghostsbes0000duns, which has no price unlike the other 2 copies on ISFDB with the same cover; there's confusion about printings judging by the notes someone wrote, so maybe this is the true 1972 Dover edition. --[[User:Username|Username]] 13:49, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
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== I Stole You ==
  
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== Server migration on 2022-09-06 ==
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?60942+2017; A copy of Tripping... was recently uploaded so I added a link and the stories' numbers, there's also supposedly a copy of Ringman's collection but when I saw the red hardcover I knew that couldn't be right and it wasn't; it's a copy of some old romance novel by Jane Aiken Hodge. I checked all the usual sites but can't get contents page of TP so if anyone can or owns a copy fill in the page numbers if you wish. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:40, 1 March 2024 (EST)
  
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All bibliographic pages have been updated with the following banner:
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== Mandarin ==
  
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> The ISFDB is moving servers the week of 9/4. Editing will be disabled on 9/6 until the database is migrated, and you may see either the old server or the new server while the domain name change propagates across the Internet. You are currently on the OLD SERVER.
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5905095; Is anyone familiar with Mandarin paperbacks who can say why ISBN on back cover doesn't match any other Mandarin PB on ISFDB which (almost) all start with 0-7493? This book's ISBN, 0-09, seems to have been used by Cresset per online searching but there is no mention of them anywhere in it; a couple of Cresset Editions books on ISFDB do have an ISBN which starts with that. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:14, 2 March 2024 (EST)
  
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The current plan is to start by disabling all editing/moderation before 9:30am (server time, i.e. Eastern Daylight Time). The migration process should take over 24 hours. It may take another day or two for the rest of the internet to start sending "isfdb.org" traffic to the new server. While various upgrade processes are running on the new server, the old server will remain available in "read only" mode. Hopefully everything goes smoothly <fingers crossed>. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 20:33, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Donkerste Dag ==
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: How will this affect edits? Will edits still pending on Monday night remain after the switch (I have over 100 currently and doubt they'll all be accepted by tomorrow night)? --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:53, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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:: Any edits already in the queue will remain there and will be processed after editing is re-enabled on the new server. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 23:11, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5905146; Nico Richter has 1 credit on ISFDB for a German Neil Gaiman edition but here he's credited for design. Sheila Metzner is a famed artist and I don't know what Ortikol is so if anyone thinks any of them should be entered as cover artist they can do that. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 14:12, 2 March 2024 (EST)
  
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: What are the advantages of the switch, and will the editing process be the same afterwards? --[[User:Username|Username]] 20:53, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Shadow Regions ==
  
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:: The planned server migration will also upgrade pretty much every software component that underlies the ISFDB database. It will let us move from HTTP to HTTPS, improving security. Upgrading the software that runs the ISFDB Wiki will also plug a number of security holes. The new server will have more memory, making it faster. It will have more disk space, which will let us (eventually) migrate the Fixer software to the main server and open it up to all moderators. The migration will fix the ISFDB-SFE nightly reconciliation process which is currently unable to run. Lots of minor and not so minor things, really. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 23:11, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?295434; The woman who ran the publisher whose imprint put out this anthology, Tammy Perron, apparently was a crook who didn't pay most of the authors or even give some of them copies which is detailed in the link from Absolute Write that I added some time ago. In September 2023 some mysterious person uploaded a copy on Archive.org and it was finally added a few weeks ago (I stumbled on it completely by accident) so I've added a link in a PENDING edit along with the price and the stories' numbers. Maybe it was one of the authors using their own copy because this seems a very rare book with WorldCat not finding any copies; there's only 1 sad review on Goodreads where one of the authors crows about having a story in it...little did he know. According to ISFDB only 3 of the 20 stories have been reprinted since it came out nearly two decades ago so if anyone was interested in reading it you should do so because you never know if old Tammy may crawl out of the woodwork to have it taken down. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:55, 2 March 2024 (EST)
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:::Cool, dude. Happy Labor Day. --[[User:Username|Username]] 23:28, 4 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Morrell's Testament ==
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== Adam L. G. Nevill canonical name ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1621261; I added the Pan last October, but while doing some Morrell edits recently I noticed that it's actually a third printing; maybe I didn't notice back then because the type in the book is so small. I fixed that, giving it "date unknown", but then found a messed-up copy of what I believe to be the real 1977 Pan on Archive.org from The Public Library of India; there are no covers, no copyright page, words are cut off due to poor scanning, pages are photographed crookedly, etc. I entered it as 1977 judging by the much lower prices of other Pans at the back compared to those in the third printing, but of course anyone here who owns Pan copies can fill in some blanks, like the price, ISBN, etc. of the original, or maybe they have the second printing or later ones if there were any. --[[User:Username|Username]] 10:36, 5 September 2022 (EDT)
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I think it is time to swap the canonical name [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?134040 here] to Adam L. G. Nevill. Any objections? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 15:18, 4 March 2024 (EST)
  
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== Server migration today at 9:30am ==
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: We have 8 book-length works as by {{A|Adam Nevill}} and 8 book titles as by {{A|Adam L. G. Nevill}}. All books published over the last 5 years have appeared exclusively as by "Adam L. G. Nevill". SHORTFICTION: 8 as by "Adam Nevill" and 27 as by "Adam L. G. Nevill".
  
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This is to confirm that the server migration is still scheduled to start today at 9:30am server (Eastern Daylight) time. The data will be visible through the migration process, but you will not be able to create submissions until the migration is completed.
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: Given the numbers and the timeline, I think it's fair to say that "Adam L. G. Nevill" is the most recognizable form of his name within the genre as of 2024. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:19, 4 March 2024 (EST)
  
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Once the migration is finished, you'll need to login to the ISFDB '''Wiki''' first and the ISFDB '''database''' second. If your password is too short or too easy to guess, the Wiki will tell you about it and suggest that you change it. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 07:37, 6 September 2022 (EDT)
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== The Under-People ==
  
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: Editing will be turned off at 9:28am. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 09:26, 6 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3046564; https://archive.org/search?query=the-under-people&sort=-addeddate; No reason for this to be here, it's one of dozens of junk science "non-fiction" books by Norman/Steiger published back in the day. I think it should be deleted. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:52, 4 March 2024 (EST)
  
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:: Editing has been turned off. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] 09:28, 6 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Collection contents question ==
  
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== Koontz and Gibbons ==
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When adding contents to a collection which is authored using a variant name, if there is no indication to the contrary, should all the content titles be attributed to the variant author name and then be made a variant of the canonical author name titles if they do not exist? Example: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?804222 The Witching Hour]. The collection author is James Gunn. The copyright page shows the content copyrights as by James Gunn. The included content titles only exist as by the canonical name James E. Gunn. Should these be changed to being authored by James Gunn and then made into variants? [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 09:28, 5 March 2024 (EST)
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: Yes. Remove the three fiction titles, add the three new titles and variant to the canonicals. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 09:57, 5 March 2024 (EST)
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::Done. Thanks.[[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 11:05, 5 March 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?976021; Archive copy of 1997 has totally different cover but Lee Gibbons is cover artist for both, so I've added Archive link and checked eBay for 2007 and it's Gibbons there, too, so after edits are approved I assume some unmerging is needed, or maybe not, I'm not sure if artist is more important or if different covers by same artist need separating. --[[User:Username|Username]] 08:13, 6 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Hautala Covers ==
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:We separate them out. I accepted the edits and unmerged them. --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 09:23, 6 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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:: OK. Looking further, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?9849, the 1997 art actually originated in the Headline HC, upside-down, while the 2007 art was re-used for the 2012 Headline e-book but the cover credit wasn't added, and there's a date unknown Headline PB where PV "Jorssi" made the Gibbons cover credit separate from the earlier one, plus there's a 2018 Headline TP that has totally different art, so more to do which can't be done now because this server issue may take a day or several days before editing can resume and then passwords need to be re-entered and blah blah blah. --Username 10:31, 6 September 2022 (EDT)
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I was entering edits for Rick Hautala books, found Jacobus signature on Moon Walker so Tim Jacobus was entered as the artist; Little Brothers, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?20465, has a name or initials on the lower right, can anyone find out who that is? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:45, 5 March 2024 (EST)
  
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== Moving ==
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== ISFDB Server downtime -- 2024-03-06 at 6pm ==
  
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So yesterday I tried to get into isfdb.org, saw the GoDaddy crap, then somehow stumbled on something called isfdb2.org, and tried to log in to Wiki, which said my password wasn't valid, either because it's been so long since I created it that I've forgotten or maybe it's lost in the server move, but it allowed me to skip that part and continue anyway, so then I tried to log in to ISFDB itself and it didn't recognize my password and said something about capitalization being important so I tried multiple times and eventually got through, either because I stumbled on whatever way I entered them a long time ago when I first created them or the software just got tired and gave up. Now I see today that isfdb.org is back, and actually that seems to be the site to use because ISFDB2 only goes up to June, while ISFDB is current. Did anyone else see any of this or did I have a unique experience? This is Username, by the way, because I don't see the signature thing above to sign this message with, either because I'm not logged in enough to see it or SNAFU.
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The ISFDB server will be down for maintenance on 2024-03-06 between 6:00pm and 6:15pm EST. Both the database and the Wiki will be unavailable. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:13, 6 March 2024 (EST)
  
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: isfdb2.org is a staging server for the isfdb. It's where we did all the work to move up to the latest Linux kernel, Apache, MySQL, MediaWiki, etc, and did work to get https working. It's not updated regularly, and data entered there will not find itself to the isfdb proper. isfdb2 will be used to stage large changes that would be too risky to put up at isfdb.org (like maybe a Python 3 port someday). isfdb.org is back (sort of), and since we've moved mediaWiki to a version that is 10 years past the old one, we're currently working through things like the missing wiki toolbar. (I've been doing mediaWiki so long that I had no idea the signature was in the toolbar, since I've just been doing tilda tilda tilda tilda forever) [[User:Alvonruff|Alvonruff]] ([[User talk:Alvonruff|talk]]) 16:23, 7 September 2022 (EDT)
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: The server is back up. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:05, 6 March 2024 (EST)
  
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== Back ==
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== Simulacrum ==
  
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The site was down for a few minutes --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:49, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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Tonight I accidentally ended up on the archived SpecFicWorld site which used to be a major hub of speculative fiction but seems to have entirely disappeared from the modern web (whatever you do, don't type specficworld.com on Google and click the link whose description is "Daftar Situs Agen Judi Slot Online Terpercaya Resmi 2023"; that will NOT lead you to what you're looking for). Only issue #9 of Simulacrum, edited and published by the guy who ran the site, Doyle Eldon Wilmoth, Jr., has an archived PDF link but while searching, as I usually do, for random text from an archived story on Google to try and find out if there are any modern sites that still include it I got one hit, the late Tanith Lee's site daughterofthenight.com, because that issue included a reprint of a story by her from Interzone Magazine. That led me to this, https://archive.org/details/@zatoichi01?query=simulacrum&sort=title, which, according to Galactic Central, is the entire 14-issue run. I rarely enter magazines but any self-moderators who don't have to wait for approval can probably do these quickly without much trouble since the contents are a mixture of reprints which will need importing and originals (or at least they're not on this site). There are many well-known authors and artists included. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:59, 7 March 2024 (EST)
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:I'll take a look at it and see what I can do. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 12:48, 8 March 2024 (EST)
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:I have through issue 10 entered. I'll finish up with the remaining four later. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 20:35, 8 March 2024 (EST)
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:I've entered all 14 issues now. You can see them [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?72797 here]. I did not combine the years into editor series because there are only 14 issues so leaving them all separate makes it easier to get to them (one less click-through). ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 18:32, 12 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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: Yes, it was down between 9:30am and 9:35am while the daily backups ran. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 09:51, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Neglected moderation ==
  
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and when it came back I was able to make an edit, adding Peter Straub's death date on 9/4, so apparently us non-mods can now edit again. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:49, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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Last time I changed something in ISFDB it took days to get a single non-controversial change accepted with hundreds of pending changes. Now it takes weeks with thousands of pending changes. When looking a the recent changes I see lots of self acceptance and accepted automatic changes, but only little moderator activity.
  
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: I was just about to post that all editing features were enabled a few minutes ago. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 09:51, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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Remembering that it takes at least 4 or 5 rounds to add all information for a translated book that amounts to waiting multiple months for a single book.
  
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== Updating Wiki-based tables ==
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If you don't want contributors anymore then say so clearly! ATM I'd wonder if you find people sticking with ISFDB for a longer time with that situation.
  
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As many of you know, our Wiki software lets you create tables within Wiki pages. Most editors used:
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To give you an indication how this should go: I added a new word to Wiktionary, it took 4 minutes for first reaction and 1:15 to reach the final entry.
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    <nowiki>class="TablePager"</nowiki>
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--[[User:Stoecker|Stoecker]] ([[User talk:Stoecker|talk]]) 16:31, 8 March 2024 (EST)
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at the top of each table to create table borders, but "TablePager" is no longer valid in the new version of the Wiki software. You can use:
 
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    <nowiki>class="wikitable"</nowiki>
 
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to achieve the same results.
 
  
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I have updated the tables embedded in some of the more popular Wiki pages, but I am pretty sure I didn't get all of them. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:47, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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: Longer approval times have definitely been a problem lately. Currently we have 1976 pending submissions, 1137 of them by [[User:Username]] (many are straightforward additions of archive.org links to publication records), 124 by [[User:Fixer]] (a robot account) and the remaining 715 are by other editors.
  
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:I updated all the other tables that showed up in an ''Everything'' wiki search. --[[User:Alvonruff|Alvonruff]] ([[User talk:Alvonruff|talk]]) 06:51, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
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: That said, the ISFDB editing process is very different from what Wikipedia and its offshoot projects use. The latter are much easier to edit, but the quality of the end product varies tremendously. I wrote/rewrote dozens of Wikipedia articles in the mid-2000s, but eventually concluded that trying to keep articles accurate and coherent was going to be prohibitively time-consuming. I occasionally peek to see what has happened to them and their current state is pretty bad. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensheviks is full of confused nonsense.
  
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== Psychotronic II ==
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: We added the ability to self-approve a few years ago and we are slowly expanding the number of editors who can do so. Hopefully it will help matters going forward. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:56, 8 March 2024 (EST)
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive52#Psychotronic; Archive copy uploaded recently, 6th printing with $20 price, I made an edit for it, so that's 1 printing with that price, others need finding and entering. Read the book, it's awesome, with much info about movies not mentioned online much if at all. My copy was read so often the spine is broken and the book's barely hanging together. EDIT: 1996's Psychotronic Video Guide is also on Archive, hiding in the Magazine section (?) since 2017, so I added a link to that, too, and it turns out the page count was way off so that's been fixed. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:12, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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:: Well, my request to do so was simply ignored. --[[User:Stoecker|Stoecker]] ([[User talk:Stoecker|talk]]) 10:10, 16 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== Thriller Book Club ==
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::: Nominations require support from other editors/moderators before they can be approved. If a nomination doesn't gain enough support, it is not approved. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:01, 16 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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https://archive.org/search.php?query=thriller-book-club&sort=titleSorter&and[]=mediatype%3A%22texts%22; There's only 2 books on ISFDB by that publisher, and only 1 of them is genre, the other being included because it's by John Brunner, a genre author. However, Archive.org has many books by them, most in old reliable Public Library of India, and some of those titles/covers seem like they may be genre, in case anyone here has read any of them and knows for sure. That In the Still of the Night cover is oddly disturbing, like Blair Witch's ending 30+ years earlier. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:34, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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:::: Which is an endless loop. Because moderators don't care I want self-moderation. But for that I need moderators to care which they don't. An unreachable goal. --[[User:Stoecker|Stoecker]] ([[User talk:Stoecker|talk]]) 10:05, 23 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== Replacing Uploaded Images ==
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== Heide Oberheide ==
  
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Recent copy of junk horror novel The Supernatural by John G. Jones on Archive, added link, replaced previous cover image added by me some time ago with better Archive cover, noticed that replacing the old one didn't require a CTRL+F5 to see the new cover, so that may be one improvement of this new ISFDB. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:37, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?127989; I left a PV a note telling them that a T. Canty credit for Parke Godwin's novel Beloved Exile was actually by Oberheide so that will need fixing but another problem I found is that her page at The Paperback Palette says she was born in Canada in 1957, both very different than what ISFDB says. So does anyone know what the real info is? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 22:48, 9 March 2024 (EST)
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:Found [https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/arts/heidi-oberheide.php this] and [https://www.arts.wa.gov/artist-collection/?request=record;id=2193;type=701 this], which both agree on 1943 and Germany and have enough differences that neither seems to be the source for the other.  They both strike me as fairly authoritative, especially that first one. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 11:23, 10 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== Server migration banner removed ==
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== Tales of Terror ==
  
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The banner which informed users about the server migration has been removed. We should be back to normal operations. I hope to have a fix for the server performance issue in another day or two. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:40, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?291626; I added a link to the back cover image on Bookscans in a PENDING edit and noticed there are some copies on eBay which show the first page, 5, with "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" as a title, which means this shouldn't really be a novel but rather a collection of Poe stories adapted by Sudak. Does anyone own a copy who can verify the page numbers of the other stories so they can all be entered? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:13, 13 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== Rich Horton ==
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== Cover artist data entry rules updated ==
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?807208; Horton title on p. 9 obviously not fiction so I changed it to Essay, but it's in the wrong year, Scribd.com preview shows it in the 2019 edition, 2020 edition has an intro by Horton with a completely different title that's in the e-book but not the TP; many PV for these books, so moving/fixing/checking everything else is recommended. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 22:14, 8 September 2022 (EDT)
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Please note that the "Artist" section of [[Template:PublicationFields:CoverArt]] has been updated to reflect current practices. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:02, 14 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== Ed Gorman and Donald Trump ==
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== The Message ==
  
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I added a 2014 collection by Ed Gorman, Scream Queen, that somehow escaped being entered here even though it seemed every last thing by Gorman had already been entered. The copyright section is a mess, with wrong dates, wrong titles, etc. However, there's 1 story I think needs fixing here on ISFDB, "En Famille", because while it says in the book that it originated in 1994's Murder at the Races, one of those crap Peter Haining anthologies, the date of that anthology seems to really be 1995 based on online info, but the earlier Gorman collection the story appears in, Moonchasers, says it was first published in 1995 in Ellery Queen's on the copyright page, and yet ISFDB gives it the same date as the collection as if it was an original story. The problem is that it seems to have really originally been written in 1993, because another crap Haining anthology, 1992's Television Detectives' Omnibus, was revised in 1993 as another crap anthology, The Armchair Detective Omnibus, and Gorman's story is in that. Many of Gorman's stories are hard to pin down, he being a multi-genre author whose work appeared in many publications not on ISFDB, but this one I think I've got. So if anyone can look into this and agrees with me that Armchair was really the first place the story appears in then the date can be changed to 1993. I took some time importing the stories, only to find out that the mod who approved my first edit entering the book went ahead and imported the stories himself, so while checking my edit history to see what other edits of mine he'd approved I found that he'd only rejected one, where I'd added Donald Trump's specific birth place of Jamaica Estates (previously it said just Queens, which is far too vague for such a huge place), and added a note, since there were none, identifying him as the 45th President, for those in other countries who might not recognize who he is, since he's about to announce his run for 2024. My edit was rejected with this: "Too much honor". Now this has been an issue before, with lefties on this site deciding which information they want added and which they don't, and removing a previous photo of Trump I'd added (which I asked about here months ago and nobody replied to, even though I'm sure it would be very easy to find out who it was that took it down), so what I'm going to do is re-do my edit with exactly the same info and let another mod approve it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:16, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1471825; Obscure author and publisher but not obscure enough that it didn't get a Chinese translation, https://archive.org/search?query=brockman-robin&sort=-addeddate, in case anyone fluent wants to enter that; just don't title it The MASSAGE like the uploader did. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:37, 14 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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: If you believe that one of your submissions was rejected in error, the process is to raise the issue with the reviewing moderator. If you disagree with the moderator's reasons, the next step is to appeal on the Moderator Noticeboard. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:13, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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== YouTube audiobooks in or out? ==
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:: I've done enough of that; nobody responds. Adding a more specific birth place and a note about who the person is doesn't require a reason; it's bio data. It was rejected purely for political reasons; "too much honor" isn't a legitimate reason to reject anything. I've made another edit, so one of you who are not partisan can approve it when you have the time. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:30, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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::: Even if another moderator approves the edit, there is nothing stopping the original (or another) moderator from removing the data later. When a submission is rejected for an invalid reason, it's important to make sure that the moderator who rejected it is understands why it shouldn't have been rejected, otherwise he or she may do something similar again. I'll post on the Moderator Noticeboard. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:05, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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I've placed [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5852793 this submission] on hold because I'm unsure if YouTube audiobooks should be included here since they are generally not downloadable (instead being streamed). The [[ISFDB:Policy#Rules of Acquisition|rules]] include audiobooks, but also exclude "[w]orks published in a web-based publication and available exclusively as a Web page" (which is pretty much what a YouTube video is), and they say nothing about podcasts. Thoughts? Should this be a [[RS|Rules and standards]] discussion? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:42, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
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: They are out under the exclusion as they are not downloadable. However we need to extend the Audio-book section of the inclusion section to match the ebooks/electronic publication one above it a bit - especially around podcasts which are not considered magazines for example. So maybe starting a discussion to clarify what audio-materials we want to index is the best choice (while keeping that one on hold until we decide what we want to do) :). [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 15:09, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
 +
::Okay, moved it [[ISFDB:RS#Clarifying the Audiobooks entry|over there]]. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:33, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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:::: I have posted my analysis of the issue on the Moderator Noticeboard. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:35, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Barcodes with prices hiding in plain sight ==
  
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== Chauncey G. Parker ==
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A lot of printed books have prices on their back covers hiding in plain sight. If you look at a barcode on the back cover, next to the ISBN, usually over the smaller barcode next to the ISBN one, there is a number sequence - for example 51595 or 51699. That means $15.95 / $16.99 (5 is the code for $, the rest is the price). The first example is from a book I pulled from my shelf (not genre), the second is from [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982095031 an Amazon book]. As back covers are very often visible in Amazon (separately or as part of Look Inside), that may help with adding prices (with an appropriate note) even when Amazon and other retailer have their own ideas on what the price may be (or at the very least it can serve as a confirmation for the Amazon price). It is not there for all books (90000 is a very common code up there) but for the books that have it, it is as good as the old printed prices.  
  
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?204281; I've just added birth/death dates, and it seems like the III should be added to the main name and the shorter name without the III, which was only used for the Brit edition of his novel, should be the alternate name, right? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:32, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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I propose to add this tidbit of information to the [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Template:PublicationFields:Price Price field help]. Meanwhile, I am leaving it here for information :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 17:21, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== Removing from watchlist ==
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:Good idea to add this to the Help. I have sometimes used this for prices. You might like to expand the note to explain other currencies. The smaller 5 digit barcode is the supplementary section of the barcode and contains a EAN-5 code. The first of the five digits is a currency code. If the first digit is 9, that means the supplementary section does not contain price information. It's explained in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAN-5 this Wikipedia article]. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:28, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
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:: Yep - we should add all the codes when we are adding the note to the help page. Thanks for the link to the Wiki page - I knew it was there, I did not think to look it up earlier today :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 18:41, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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After the upgrade, it looks like you can no longer directly stop watching a talk page or a discussion/notice board page. The option to stop watching has disappeared from the bottom of the page. I was able to use the EditWatchlist button and make the changes I wanted but it's a lot more inconvenient. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 12:20, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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::: I agree that adding a section about EAN-5 codes to [[Template:PublicationFields:Price]] would be useful. We could list  the commonly used first digits:
 +
:::* 0 and 1 -- UK
 +
:::* 3 - Australia
 +
:::* 4 - New Zealand
 +
:::* 5 - US
 +
:::* 6 - Canada
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::: and explain special pseudo-price values, i.e. that "9999" means "100.00 or more" while "90000" means "no price given". We could then link to the Wikipedia article or an industry Web page for other scenarios. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:06, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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: As far as I know, all Wiki pages have a star displayed between "View history" and "More" at the top of the page. Clicking the star should toggle its "watched" status for the currently logged in user. Can you see it? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:39, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Webzines to include? ==
  
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::Yes. It does work. :) However, it's more inconvenient and not particularly intuitive since you now have to scroll to the top of the page and know to toggle the star to do something that used to be able to be done at the bottom of the page with a clearly annotated check box. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 13:29, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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Hello. I have two new pub submissions on hold as they pertain to new webzine entries. Do we want to include these?
 +
* Small World City: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5776649], [https://smallworldcity.com/ website].
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* Kalpabishwa: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5884972], [https://www.kalpabiswa.in/ website].
 +
Looking through the contents, I say we can include those. Not sure how long-lived these are going to be though... Comments/suggestions from other editors & moderators whether to include or not? (didn't look for past discussion where webzine inclusions were debated...) [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 15:35, 21 March 2024 (EDT)
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: Both produce issues and both are genre -zines. So they are eligible under the "Webzines, which are defined as online periodicals with distinct issues (note that online periodicals without distinct issues are not considered webzines)." rule. How long they survive is irrelevant - even if they produce a single issue, they are in. However, these records will need some massaging post approval :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 15:41, 21 March 2024 (EDT)
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:: Thought so. The help text says to post and query the editor community - we may want to update that and instead clarify that if a webzine has distinct issues, it is in by default? [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 16:09, 21 March 2024 (EDT)
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::: Probably an oversight (we forgot it was there?) after we changed the ROA awhile back to include these. Which of the help pages?
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::: PS: Note that awhile back we even dropped the requirement for the webzine to be genre allowing non-genre ones to be added as any other non-genre periodical (with only genre contents indexed). So yep - a webzine with issues is always in under the genre magazine rules or the non-genre periodical ones. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 16:22, 21 March 2024 (EDT)
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:::: [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Help:Screen:NewPub#Format Here] - see '''webzine''' in that section. [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 11:00, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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::::: Ah, the one place I did not look at. :) Yep - that needs an update. I will start a discussion so we can get the language crafted. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:08, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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::::: [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Rules_and_standards_discussions#Formats_help_pages Here we go] - the proposed new language. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:26, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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:::: [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Policy#Rules_of_Acquisition Rules of Acquisition] has it as you mention above - we may want to add non-genre periodicals role there explicitly. [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 11:00, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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::::: We do not have them called out in the print periodicals section either but if you think we should clarify that across the board, I won't object. Let's finish the audio-formats discussion we are currently having about changes in the same section of the ROA over in R&S and then I will initiate a discussion about this. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:08, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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:::: As an aside, I must say that I couldn't find the ROA immediately - I think it is an important section of the rules. Shouldn't we be adding a link on the main help page? [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 11:00, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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::::: I know to look under Policy but you are right, it needs to be a lot more visible [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page here] - either as a sublink under the ISFDB Policy link or on its own in the same section. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:08, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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::::::I've added a specific link to it on [[Help:Contents]], which is found at the top of most help pages. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:18, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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::: Curious. I see a "Watch this page" check mark displayed next to "This is a minor edit" check mark when editing sections of the Community Portal and Talk pages. Perhaps I have my Editing Preferences configured differently? Also, if you hover your mouse over the star, it will tell you that Alt-Shift+w should also work as a toggle. It seems to work for me. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:50, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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== ISFDB:Verification requests ==
  
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::::Good call. I had to check "Add direct unwatch/watch markers (×/+) to watched pages with changes (JavaScript required for toggle functionality)" on the watchlist section of the wiki preferences. It was unchecked. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 17:53, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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The [[ISFDB:Verification requests]] board is not used much anymore. It seems [[ISFDB:Help desk]] and this board have pretty much supplanted it. Do we want to discontinue it? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:17, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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: How about we can turn it into a broader board instead: "Assistance needed/Project Assistance Required/Something along these lines" for example - when an editor starts a project and notices other things that need adding/fixing or finds a source that may be useful and is unable/unwilling to work through it, they can request assistance there. Looking at CS, about half of the posts there in the last couple of years are from that nature and they choke the actual discussion threads and make it very hard for people to notice that something was posted in the discussions. It will be the counter-part of the Help Desk - come to the Help Desk if you want help getting the work done and learning how to do it; come to this board to post a project that needs work but you cannot/don't want to work on. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 14:59, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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::I'd be fine with that. I agree this board has gotten rather full lately, making it hard to keep track of things. So maybe change the title to [[ISFDB:Assistance requests]] or something? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:11, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== Logging on to "isfdb.org" vs. "www.isfdb.org" ==
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::: I like the idea. "Assistance requests" may be a bit too narrow for what we are trying to define, but it's the closest that I can think of at the moment. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:46, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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:::: I like "Assistance Requests". If we ever come up with a better name, we can rename and forward. And we have the text under it to add a sentence that describes the scope better. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 15:53, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
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::::: "Help Wanted" ? ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 09:47, 23 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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There have been reports of odd and inconsistent logging in/logging out behavior when signing on to "isfdb.org" as opposed to on to "www.isfdb.org". We have installed a fix for this problem. From now on, logging on to "isfdb.org" should act the same way that logging on to "www.isfdb.org" does. If you come across any bugs or other unexpected behavior, please post them here. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:34, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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:::::: I think that there is potential for confusion between "Help desk" and "Help Wanted". Ideally, whatever name we come up with should clearly differentiate between the two boards. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:08, 23 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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== editing topics ==
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:::::::Maybe "Research Requests" or "Research Assistance"? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:45, 24 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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For some reason you have to edit the entire page since the move, instead of being able to edit a specific topic.--[[User:Dirk P Broer|Dirk P Broer]] ([[User talk:Dirk P Broer|talk]]) 16:50, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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:::::::: I like "Research Assistance". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:13, 24 March 2024 (EDT)
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: The [edit] link is immediately after the thread title as opposed to being right justified. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 17:00, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: Thanks! I see it now, didn't notice it before.--[[User:Dirk P Broer|Dirk P Broer]] ([[User talk:Dirk P Broer|talk]]) 19:26, 11 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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== Brian Matthews ==
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(unindent) Are there any objections to changing [[ISFDB:Verification requests]] to [[Research Assistance]]? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:12, 4 April 2024 (EDT)
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: I'm okay with that. [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 06:10, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
  
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The two works attributed to {{A|Brian Matthews}} appear to be by ''different'' Brian Matthewses.
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:: If there are no objections, I will ask Nihonjoe to make the change tomorrow. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:50, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
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* {{T|1742110}} is written by the Australian writer Brian Matthews (1936-2022). This author has a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Matthews_(writer) Wikipedia page]. His [https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A29099 AustLit page] says that his full name is Brian Ernest Matthews.
 
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* {{T|2797724}} appears to be a self-published work available through Amazon but there's no accompanying author page.
 
  
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What naming convention should be used for separating these two authors?
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:::De we want it to be [[ISFDB:Research Assistance]] to [[Research Assistance]]? The other can be a redirect. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 17:54, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
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[[User:Riselka|Riselka]] ([[User talk:Riselka|talk]]) 19:35, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
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: As per [[Help:How to enter duplicate record names]]:
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:::: Probably [[ISFDB:Research Assistance]] in order to stay consistent with the majority of other "major" pages. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:05, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
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:* Duplicate names must be disambiguated, typically using a parenthetical qualifier. For example, when two or more people have identical names, they are distinguished by a qualifier such as {{A|Adrian Smith (I)|altName=Adrian_Smith_(I)}} vs {{A|Adrian Smith}} or {{A|Colin Harvey}} vs {{A|Colin Harvey (1971-)|altName=Colin_Harvey_(1971-)}}.
 
  
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: More specific qualifiers like "(1971-)", "(UK)" or "(artist)" are more informative than less specific qualifiers like "(I)", so we try to use the former when possible. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:10, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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::::: Since there are no objections, please feel free to go ahead and move [[ISFDB:Verification requests]] to [[ISFDB:Research Assistance]] when you get a chance. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:45, 6 April 2024 (EDT)
  
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:: Thanks for sharing this page, I'd only seen this other [[Help:How to separate two authors with the same name|one]]. Both authors should receive additional qualifiers, but I'm not sure which exact convention to take for the qualifiers. For the first, known author this is simple enough since we have birth/death dates: "Brian Matthews (1936-2022)". However, it seems less clear for the self-published Brian Matthews since I couldn't find any additional information about the author. So, should the record just receive a numeric qualifier (i.e., "Brian Matthews (I)")? [[User:Riselka|Riselka]] ([[User talk:Riselka|talk]]) 20:53, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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::::::Moved! ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 11:31, 8 April 2024 (EDT)
  
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::: Yes, "Brian Matthews (I)" is probably the best that we can do at this point. We can always update it if and when we find additional information. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:57, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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::::::: Thanks! I have updated the main Wiki page and everything looks good. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:37, 8 April 2024 (EDT)
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:::::::: The Description up in the panel at the top of all the community boards still say "Help with bibliographic, image credit, and other questions which require a physical check of the work in question.". [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:49, 8 April 2024 (EDT)
  
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:::: Great, thanks for the help! I've submitted the initial edits. [[User:Riselka|Riselka]] ([[User talk:Riselka|talk]]) 21:02, 9 September 2022 (EDT)
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::::::::: Updated, thanks! The new wording is "Help with bibliographic projects", which is a bit bland and non-specific, but I couldn't think of a better way to summarize the purpose of the new board. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:49, 8 April 2024 (EDT)
  
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::::: After reviewing the submission I realized that we have only 2 "Brian Matthews" records on file, so we can leave one of them as just "Brian Matthews". I have approved the "Brian Matthews (1936-2022)" submission and kept the other one as plain "Brian Matthews". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:25, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Jim/James Burns ==
  
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== Galactic Central ==
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I just added a link and did a few other things for the 33rd YBSF edition, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2012677, and searched for others with James Burns as cover artist; only 34th came up, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2209443, but as can be seen PV of TP and HC entered it differently. So maybe consensus about which is "better" should be reached and credits merged. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:45, 27 March 2024 (EDT)
  
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Anyone else notice philsp.com cover images are broken unless you click on them? See the Haunt of Horror issues for an example. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:18, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
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== Lovecraft Collaborations Book ==
  
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: We are talking about pubs like [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?274975 The Haunt of Horror, August 1973], right? The problem is that we are now on HTTPS and Galactic Central still uses HTTP. (I believe the owner of the site has stated that he has no plans to move to HTTPS because he doesn't have user-created content.)
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I was starting to add the audio book edition of {{T|2610309|this title}} and discovered that publisher has provided a copy of the pdf version of the book.  While we don't have a record for the pdf (it has a different ISBN than the eBook), there are several discrepancies between it and our records.  I also have questions other questions about how this title is reflected and while none of the publications are primarily verified, there have been several editors who have touched these records.  I thought I'd reach out for comments before proceeding with changes.
 +
# We have the title as an ANTHOLOGY and list both the editor and Lovecraft. All the stories are credited to Lovecraft with various co-authors.  Personally, I feel that these sorts of collection of collaborations are better typed as COLLECTION as was done with {{T|34634|this title}}.
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# The title page lists the credits as "By H.P. Lovecraft" over "Edited and Annotated by Finn J.D. John" in smaller type.  We have both names in the author field.  Since we have this as an ANTHOLOGY, this labels them both as "Editors".  Lovecraft clearly didn't edit this book.  As I feel this should be listed as a COLLECTION, I also feel that only Lovecraft should be listed in the author field.  If the consensus is that it's an ANTHOLOGY, then we only list John.
 +
# The stories are listed with both Lovecraft and his co-author on their title pages, whereas we have them all listed by the collaborating author alone.  So I intend to swap out which variant of these titles is included.  I don't thin this is controversial.
 +
# There is a short essay before each section giving biographical details of each co-author.  I intend to add these. While not signed, I think we can safely attribute them to John by virtue of his annotation credit.
 +
#The PDF lists 5 different formats each with their own ISBN including the "Interactive PDF".  Should we add the PDF as a separate title record, or should the PDF ISBN be added in the notes for the {{P|765112|ebook}} edition?  I'll also note, that my understanding is that we do list page numbers for pdfs whereas we do not for ebooks.
 +
# I'm fairly comfortable that these changes should apply to the 2018 publications based on the 2018 pdf.  I'm less certain whether I should make changes to the 2017 edition, or the 2019 omnibus, i.e should we assume the story credits and biographical essays are present in the other editions not listed in the pdf?
 +
# I assume adding a note about the PDF being included with the audio book is sufficient rather than duplicating the contents showing the story exists twice (audio and text).
 +
I'd appreciate other's thoughts on these questions.  Thanks. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 07:29, 28 March 2024 (EDT)
  
−
: When an HTTPS page includes an HTTP image, different browsers display it differently. Firefox displays the image, but shows an exclamation point next to the "lock" icon to the left of the URL bar. If you click the icon, it will say "Connection not secure: Parts of this page are not secure (such as image)". On the other hand, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge do not display the image, which is presumably what you are running into. Apparently Google Chrome used to do what Firefox currently does, but they changed it in [https://www.searchenginejournal.com/chrome-81-will-not-load-mixed-content/358298/ Chrome 81]. Users can allow "insecure content" on a site-by-site basis, but it's not going to help casual browsers.
+
:My mild opinion is that both this and the example you cited should be ANTHOLOGY.  They are different from the case where most of the stories are written by Lovecraft alone, with one or two written by him and someone else. While both are Locvecraft-centric, they are primarily showcasing the work of a wide variety of authors.  I agree with everything else in your list. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 19:55, 31 March 2024 (EDT)
 +
::I'm afraid I would still prefer these as COLLECTIONs.  If we were to convert them to ANTHOLOGY, we would need to list the editor as the sole author which would move these collections out of Lovecraft's bibliography.  I had only cited one example, but there are many similar collections, many of which are verified.  For example, see which collections containing the story {{T|1035316|The Green Meadow}}.  It is contained in two true anthologies. Aside from the 4 editions of the title we're discussing, there is but one other {{P|848648|publication} typed as a ANTHOLOGY. All other publications were entered as COLLECTION or OMNIBUS.  In some of these cases, we don't necessarily have the editor and would likely need to move these titles to the uncredited bibliography page instead of Lovecraft's.  {{P|280465|Beyond the Wall of Sleep}} is another interesting example.  There about 10 "collaborations" in this collection which is a minority, but it is more than one or two stories. If we decide to type these sorts of books as ANTHOLOGY, where would we draw that line?  My last point is that it appears to me that these books are published to appear as Lovecraft collections with his name listed more prominently than any editors (if they are listed at all). If we are to reclassify these publication, I'd like to hear from some of the other verifiers. Thanks. --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 19:23, 1 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
:::Since there have been no further responses to this, and the one objection was "mild", I'm going to proceed with these changes. Thanks.  --Ron ~ [[User:Rtrace|Rtrace]]<sup>[[User talk:Rtrace|Talk]]</sup> 12:34, 13 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
: Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about this. All of the major players, including all of the browser vendors, have been trying to get rid of HTTP for years and its days are numbered. Many companies already block HTTP on their networks and it's only going to get more restrictive.
+
== "Publication Title-Reference Title Mismatches" enhanced ==
  
−
: We have 12,584 Galactic Central image links, which means that any kind of manual migration is liable to be painful:-(. Then again, perhaps the owner of Galactic Central will upgrade to HTTPS once the pressure gets to be too much.
+
As per the recent Rules and Standards discussion, the cleanup report "Publication Title-Reference Title Mismatches" has been enhanced to require an exact match between publication titles and their reference title records' titles. New data will become available tomorrow morning.
  
−
: I also need to check how many other HTTP links to third party images we have. (As an aside, most ISFDB-hosted images are still linked to using HTTP, but our software upgrades them to HTTPS automatically, so they do not cause problems). [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:13, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
+
We are looking at around 10,000 mismatches, so the cleanup effort will be significant, especially considering the fact that many affected publication records have been primary-verified. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:07, 4 April 2024 (EDT)
−
:: If anyone is in contact with the owner they could tell him that covers from his site are now broken on the biggest source of genre information website, so they might want to consider that and upgrade to HTTPS, since most owners are greedy and only care about how much traffic they get; I can see people browsing ISFDB and seeing all those broken images and not bothering anymore, not realizing the images appear if you click on the broken thing. Yes, I use Chrome, and it's terrible like everything Google touches, but the fact is that's what most people use, so I'm sure one of the behind-the-scenes people that work on this site can do something to make the images appear without having to click anything. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:44, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
::: Browser vendors consider it a security issue, so it's not something that we can change on our side. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:23, 11 September 2022 (EDT)
+
== Canonical name change Charles Eugene Anderson from Chuck Anderson ==
  
−
:: Also, those spam users are getting really annoying now, clogging up the recent changes list and making it hard to see the real messages, so I'm sure someone's working on that, too.  --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:44, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
+
Any objections to making [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?273059 Charles Eugene Anderson] the canonical name and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?108390 Chuck Anderson] the alternate?
 +
*17 titles credited to Charles Eugene Anderson.
 +
*09 titles credited to Chuck Anderson.
 +
*01 title has publications credited to each.
 +
Thanks, [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 07:51, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
: Go ahead, obvious case where the switch can/need to happen [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 09:28, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
:: Hearing no objections, done. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 18:45, 9 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
::: Do you have "Group changes by page in recent changes and watchlist" checked on the "Recent Changes" tab under [[Special:Preferences]]? It greatly reduces the number of lines displayed on the [[Special:RecentChanges]] page. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:23, 11 September 2022 (EDT)
+
== David (B.) Mattingly ==
  
−
:: I also uploaded a few wraparound magazine images to replace front-cover only philsp.com images (at least there's a handful that won't be broken now) and I downsized one that was a little over 600 in dimension but forgot to do that for the next one, but it didn't give me a broken image like used to happen when it was over 600, so was that fixed pre-move or is that one of the actual good things that have happened as a result of the move? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:44, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
+
Looking through the works credited to [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?37498 Mattingly], it seems to me that "David Mattingly" is the most common (by far), and has been for a long time. There are so many entries, though, this opinion is based only on quickly scanning through the list. Is there a way to get a count of each through database queries? I don't think any of the other aliases are used in a significant amount. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 17:58, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
: Just with search and a browser search: 510 with the name David Mattingly; 747 under the canonical; 198 of these 747 of them are "only as by David Mattingly". Just based on that, how we record the names from secondary sources for artists and the fact that the new ones are always without the B. when we get access to the book, I would say it is time to flip the names. I am not volunteering to do it though. :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 18:58, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
== Sites serving HTTP images ==
+
(after edit conflict)
  
−
Images from www.mondourania.com seem to be broken, too. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:30, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
+
: The easiest way that I can think of is to run a few Advanced Title Searches using "Author's Name is exactly David Mattingly". Make sure to click "Get Count" instead of "Get Results". Here are the results that I see:
 +
:* David B. Mattingly: 747
 +
:* David Mattingly: 510
 +
:* Dave Mattingly: 12
 +
:* D. B. Mattingly: 7
 +
:* Dave Maddingly: 1
 +
:* D. Matingly: 1
 +
:* Mattingly: 2
 +
:* David Burroughs Mattingly: 1
 +
: Since {{A|David B. Mattingly}} is the current canonical name, it's over-represented. Every "David Mattingly" COVERART/INTERIORART title has a "David B. Mattingly" parent title, but only some of the latter have actual publications associated with them. Firefox tells me that the Summary Bibliography page has:
 +
:* 79 instances of "also appeared"
 +
:* 8 instances of "also as"
 +
:* 132 instances of "only appeared"
 +
:* 207 instances of "only as"
 +
: What this means is that 339 canonical titles have only appeared under an alternate name. Another 87 have been credited at least 2 different ways. 339+87-12-7-1-1-2 is 403, which, unless I am missing something, gives us a rough count. I'd need to run database queries to get a better idea, but it looks like "David Mattingly" is slightly ahead of "David B. Mattingly".
  
−
: We have permission to link to the following Web sites which are still serving HTTP images:
+
: P.S. Perhaps what we need is a new menu options to generate this kind of data on demand. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:03, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
−
:* [http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/ACE.html Ace Image library] - 39 image links. We should probably re-host the images locally.
 
−
:* "Dr. Robert G. Williscroft":
 
−
:** [http://relativitybirthdaypresent.com http://relativitybirthdaypresent.com] - site migrated to https://robertwilliscroft.com/, we have no image links on file
 
−
:** [http://slingshotnovel.com http://slingshotnovel.com] - site no longer exists
 
−
:** [http://starchildcompact.com http://starchildcompact.com] - site migrated to https://robertwilliscroft.com/, we have no image links on file
 
−
:* [http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe/ Encyclopedia of Fantasy] - 158 image links; I plan to investigate and ask Dave Langford about the site's status
 
−
:* [http://philsp.com Galactic Central] - '''12,696''' image links
 
−
:* [http://www.mondourania.com Mondourania] - 2,322 image links
 
−
:* [http://www.sf-leihbuch.de/index.cfm?page=home SF-Leihbuch] - 50 image links. The site supports HTTPS, but their HTTPS certificate is not set up properly, so browsers will refuse linking to their images if we change our links to HTTPS. Since it's only 50 image links, it may be easier to re-host the images locally.
 
−
: Based on the above, I am going to:
 
−
:* remove the 3 obsolete "Dr. Robert G. Williscroft" site definitions
 
−
:* investigate the Encyclopedia of Fantasy situation
 
−
:* ask if anyone has had recent contact with the owners of Galactic Central and Mondourania
 
−
: [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:10, 11 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:: The 3 "Dr. Robert G. Williscroft" domains have been removed. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:38, 11 September 2022 (EDT)
+
::That would be cool. Another cool thing would be if we could figure out a way to programatically automate the process of changing canonical names (maybe have a side menu link that appears whenever viewing an author entry). The link would take you to a page where you'd enter the current author ID and the target author ID. We'd have to account for variants on the author name, title variants, and translations (and probably a lot of other things that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head). For situations like this, it would save tons of time in the long run. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:37, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
−
:::Could someone write a bot script that can grab all of the images from these sites and upload them here? Maybe have it run in batches of 50 or 100 until they are all moved over? Kind of like Fixer, but on the wiki side? ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 12:52, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:::: There are a few MediaWiki extensions which support mass file upload -- see [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Bulk_upload this list]. We would then need to perform a number of additional operations to integrate the newly imported images properly:
+
::: This functionality has been requested a couple of times. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to implement in a way that would guarantee completeness and accuracy. Not only would the software need to change the way VTs and Alternate Names are configured, but it would also need to change dates (for some titles) and Notes.
−
::::* Check file sizes
+
::: Perhaps we could implement something less ambitious but still useful. For example, "Undo all Variants for This Author"? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:22, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
−
::::* Add the standard license language
+
::::Yeah, it's definitely very complex. I like the "Undo all Variants for This Author" idea, though. What about a "swap canonical authors" option on individual titles? That would be a lot less complex and allow for easier catching of potential issues. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:48, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
−
::::* Change the Image URL of each affected pub
 
−
:::: Some of it could be (most likely) automated, but it would require development work. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:01, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::::: I am dubious of the idea that some other sites allowing ISFDB to hotlink to their images (with a credit) automatically means that they would be happy to have ISFDB copy their images and host/serve them locally (which I think would lose the credit to the original source, at least on the pub page?) It may well be that those sites wouldn't have any issue with ISFDB doing that, but it seems overly presumptive to just assume that they'd be OK with that happening.
 
−
::::: Can't think of any specific precedents off the top of my head, but it seems vaguely analogous to news websites wanting search engines to show links to their sites, but not being as happy when Google starts pulling contents and displaying it directly as snippets/cards in the search results, removing the likelihood that a user will click through to the source site. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 12:37, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:::::: To the best of my knowledge, scanning an image and uploading it to a Web site doesn't create any rights. The reason that we get permission to link to third party sites is strictly because displaying an image hosted on another server consumes the owner's bandwidth, which can be a limited resource and/or cost money.
+
::::: I don't see the benefit of an "Undo all Variants for This Author" tool. A variant title only needs to be broken if both the canonical title and the variant tiles have publications attributed. If all the publication(s) are associated with the variant title, a simple merge is the best option. Not only does it save a step by not having to delete the old canonical, but it saves all the information. Some data is only stored in the "parent title", plus any edit history. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 15:38, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
:::::: The only exception that I am aware of is some Web site owners scanning old, poorly preserved, covers, cleaning up the images to make them look pristine and then claiming derivative copyright. I don't know how successful they have been, but we typically do not encounter this issue. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:26, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
+
::I'm slowly working through all of them. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 19:42, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
−
:::::::At least in the United States, where (I believe) the ISFDB servers are, cleaning up an image doesn't grant any derivative copyright rights. Except for those covers in the public domain, all of the covers we host are done so using fair use. It doesn't really matter where the cover image came from for fair use as long as the proper credit is given for the cover artist (if known). ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:36, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:::::::: The hosting company has servers in multiple countries, but I believe our servers are in the US. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:47, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
+
== Server downtime -- 2024-04-06 at 2pm ==
  
−
::::::::: My concern is less to do with legalities/fair use/etc - IANAL basically - and more of being a "good neighbour" to sites that are in a similar space to ISFDB. I vaguely recall a recent exchange on this wiki (maybe in the past couple of weeks?) where someone who ran another (German IIRC?) site was unhappy with an editor who'd uploaded an image here, which (again IIRC) that editor had actually sourced from an ebook which had stolen the image from the complainant.  Whether that complainant was legally and/or morally in the right or not, I have absolutely no idea, but it's obviously preferable not to annoy external parties, especially in cases where we're talking 1000s of images. 
+
The ISFDB server will be down for maintenance between 2:00pm and 2:10pm. Both the database side and the Wiki side will be unavailable. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:28, 6 April 2024 (EDT)
−
::::::::: It may well be that those external parties would be perfectly amicable to having ISFDB host copies of their stuff, but I feel that that is something that should be sounded out long before any technical concerns are looked into.  Related, after looking briefly at BuildDisplayedURL(), I'm unclear whether the code that generates text that reads "Image supplied by ISFDB on <wiki link>" is able to credit the original source?  It looks like it determines the credit name based on the domain of the URL, but IMHO it would be preferable to credit the image source rather than the host?  (If I've not fully grokked what that code does, then apologies in advance.) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 14:28, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
:::::::::: The discussion referred to was [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Henna#Using_my_scans_without_permission this one].
+
: The server is back up. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:05, 6 April 2024 (EDT)
−
:::::::::: When I upload images from other sites (or databases) I (nearly) always refer to the source like [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:VLMSCHFLMK1946.jpg here]. Might be an idea. --[[User:Willem H.|Willem]] ([[User talk:Willem H.|talk]]) 14:48, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
  
−
::::::::::: One thing to keep in mind is that we really have 2 different scenarios here. The first one covers the 3 sites with between 39 and 150+ HTTP images. The second one covers the 2 sites -- Mondourania and Galactic Central -- with thousands of HTTP images. It would be ideal if we could ascertain the intent of their owners before doing anything about their images. With all of the major browser vendors moving away from HTTP, the owners may decide to reconsider their stance on HTTPS. Many companies no longer let their employees access HTTP sites over their network and it's likely to get worse in the next year or two. Anyone who is still on HTTP has a built-in incentive to migrate to HTTPS if they want to make their data widely available. This isn't the first time a major change like this has happened as those who remember Gopher from 30 years ago can attest to. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:08, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
+
== The Prequel Trilogy ==
  
−
== Encyclopedia of Fantasy in webpage field ==
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934500; I have a question about the publisher of this 2007 Star Wars omnibus; there is no mention of Ballantine in the book so it should be similar to the last one on this list, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=del+rey&type=Publisher, but without the SFBC. Should I change publisher to LucasBooks / Del Rey? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:30, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
:https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934540; I changed publisher on this one since they were still with Ballantine in 2000. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:22, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
::https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934546; Another change from 2005 when they were still together. I don't see any cover artist credited that someone entered here or any sign of the excerpt mentioned on the book's copyright page. EDIT: One of the earlier editions has a note here saying they got artist from his site. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 12:31, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
:::https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934585; Another one from 2006; this one actually has a PV so I'll leave them a message. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:12, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
::::And a final one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934586, 2005 HC, PV is gone so no need for a note. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:18, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
Evidently SFE now serves <i>Encyclopedia of Fantasy</i> targets that use domain '''sf-encyclopedia.uk''' (eg, http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=baum_l_frank) in a way that displays URL using domain '''sf-encyclopedia.com''' (eg, https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/baum_l_frank) --in Chrome addressbar at this station now.
+
== Semaphore ==
  
−
But we display linkname "Encyclopedia of Fantasy" only when the former domain is specified. 
+
https://www.lulu.com/fr/search?contributor=Marie+Hodgkinson; While adding PDF story links from Tartarus Press at their old freepages.pavilion.net site the last one I linked was a story by Rebecca Lloyd that was entered here as original to her 2014 collection but was actually published in 2007 in a magazine called Semaphore, no issues of which are on ISFDB, but I found that Lulu page above so anyone who likes entering magazines can add a lot from that. The editor has a page here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?143960. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:41, 9 April 2024 (EDT)
−
* {{a|L. Frank Baum}} Webpages linknames include: Encyclopedia of Fantasy, sf-encyclopedia.com
+
:https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/semaphoremagazine.com; PDF of some (all?) issues at this site. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:50, 9 April 2024 (EDT)
−
* {{a|David Severn}} Webpages linknames include: sf-encyclopedia.com-1, sf-encyclopedia.com-2
+
::Looks like it has archived PDFs of all but the last issue (issue 15) from June 2011. I'll work on these. The first issue is now [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1002803 here]. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:32, 9 April 2024 (EDT)
−
For both, the two content targets are Author entries in the two encyclopedias. Baum's URL http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=baum_l_frank is old here. Severn's URL https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/severn_david is new, from copy-paste using Chrome browser yesterday. --[[User:Pwendt|Pwendt]]|[[User talk:Pwendt|talk]] 12:43, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
+
:::Okay, I think they're [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?73131 all entered] (15 issues in total). I also found a [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?73148 couple anthologies] collecting the stories and poems voted best by readers of the magazine. I don't know if there were more than the two anthologies. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 13:33, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
::::Excellent. Only thing I think you forgot is June 2008's cover artist. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 14:07, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
:::::Fixed! ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 14:11, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
: It looks like they may have changed some things on their end. Investigating... [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:09, 11 September 2022 (EDT)
+
== David Ireland ==
  
−
:: The credits have been corrected. {{A|L. Frank Baum}}, {{A|David Severn}} and other similar pages now credit SFE and Encyclopedia of Fantasy. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:36, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
+
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?3106; I just made edits adding the Allen Lane HC of City of Women and adding a link to Mortal Fire where the 1982 short story is from and noticed that the Wiki page makes no mention of any art so I think the famed Australian novelist and the artist are 2 different people. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:28, 11 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
::: Dave Langford has confirmed that they have migrated "http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php" URLs to "https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe". The change is permanent, so I have created {{FR|1539}}, "Update Encyclopedia of Fantasy URLs". I plan to write a script to do a mass conversion in the near future. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 07:07, 18 September 2022 (EDT)
+
== Canonical name change Jody A. Lee from Jody Lee ==
  
−
:::: Done. All "http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/" links have been converted to "https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe". [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:47, 18 September 2022 (EDT)
+
The [https://www.jodylee.org/ artist's website] and [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lee_jody_a SFE] use Jody A. Lee. While the majority of her early work was credited to 'Jody Lee', the shift to 'Jody A. Lee' is clear. Here are the current statistics.
 +
*111 titles credited to Jody A. Lee.
 +
*73 titles credited to Jody Lee.
 +
*26 titles hasve publications credited to each.
 +
Are there any objections to making [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?25820 Jody A. Lee] the canonical name and [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?25602 Jody Lee] the alternate? [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 14:24, 11 April 2024 (EDT)
 +
:Sounds good to me. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:41, 11 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
== Performance enhancements ==
+
:: No objections here. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:47, 11 April 2024 (EDT)
  
−
As previously [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Moderator_noticeboard#Rendering_Delays_on_the_New_Server discussed on the Moderator Noticeboard], we have identified what we believe to be the main cause of the recent performance problems. The way the database stores authors and titles has been tweaked to eliminate the identified bottlenecks. If you come across any errors or unexpected behavior, please post your findings here. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:44, 10 September 2022 (EDT)
+
::: Hearing no objections, done. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 17:47, 15 April 2024 (EDT)
−
 
+
::::https://ixgallery.com/artists/jodylee/; Here's her photo in case someone wants to upload it to the wiki. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 17:58, 15 April 2024 (EDT)
−
== SFE reconciliation ==
 
−
 
 
−
The [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/edit/sfe3_authors.cgi SFE reconciliation report] was unable to run between October 2021, when SFE started using HTTPS, and last week when our server was upgraded. The report is back in business, runs nightly and has caught up with SFE. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:40, 11 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Performance -- 2022-09-12 ==
 
−
 
 
−
The server is currently experiencing system-wide performance problems. We are looking into it. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:27, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: As near as we can tell, the performance problems mentioned above were due to issues at the Virtual machine (VM) level, something that we have no control over. Everything went back to normal within 24-36 hours, but we plan to keep an eye on performance issues. If they continue popping up, we will consider alternative hosting solutions. Now that we have everything working on the new and improved version of the software, moving to another hosting company should be much easier. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:15, 15 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
==  Selected Forthcoming Books algorithm ==
 
−
 
 
−
The current algorithm [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi here] does not take into account how many books from the same author show up. So if a major author gets a reprint of a few long series, they can end up dominating the 22 spots we have on this list. At the moment, Mike Resnick has 6 of the 22 spots (we got lucky, he actually has [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_results.cgi?USE_1=author_canonical&O_1=exact&TERM_1=Mike+Resnick&C=AND&USE_2=pub_month&O_2=exact&TERM_2=2022-09&USE_3=pub_title&O_3=exact&TERM_3=&USE_4=pub_title&O_4=exact&TERM_4=&USE_5=pub_title&O_5=exact&TERM_5=&USE_6=pub_title&O_6=exact&TERM_6=&USE_7=pub_title&O_7=exact&TERM_7=&USE_8=pub_title&O_8=exact&TERM_8=&USE_9=pub_title&O_9=exact&TERM_9=&USE_10=pub_title&O_10=exact&TERM_10=&ORDERBY=pub_title&ACTION=query&START=0&TYPE=Publication 11 reprints] coming out tomorrow but the publisher chose a series whose titles are later in the alphabet so there are not enough spots for them. Some of the others may also go down as I am adding some ebooks coming out tomorrow at the moment but that reminded me to post. Should we restrict the number of books per author on this list? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 19:09, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: We would have had the entirity of Wheel of Time (14 books?) showing up there late last year, but I lost the will to live submitting them more than a couple of week, so there were only about half-of-them in that list just before they got published.  The Michael Anderle gigafactory clogging up the list is  something I've been happy not to see the past few months as well ;-)
 
−
: I did briefly look at the code for that page section a while ago.  I don't have any amazing insights or suggestions, but perhaps just showing a maximum of 1 pub per author, and then adding something like "plus X other titles" to the text details?  One problem with that is that there's no easy way (AFAIK) to give a site visitor an easy way to see those other titles, other than going to the full forthcoming list and searching through (potentially) several hundred pubs. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 19:21, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: There are a lot of possible permutations, e.g. multiple books with overlapping but not identical co-authors like {{A|Michael Anderle}}'s collaborators. For the sake of simplicity, "one pub per author" is probably a decent baseline. We can always revisit the issue if and when we come across unexpected and undesirable behavior. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:47, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::: Possibly with a preference to a new/unknown title when one is available compared to a reprint so an author who gets out book #3 in their series while book #2's paperback is out the same day (or both 1 and 2 get reprinted in some form), has #3 on the list... Although that may make that query too heavy to be sustainable so food for thought only - we rarely have so many eligible titles not to allow a secondary sort I suspect. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 20:10, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:::: True, performance is definitely a concern. It's probably better to move the process of selecting matching pub IDs to the nightly job first. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:54, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::::: As the vast majority of these come from Fixer anyway (plus the UK ones from John), we should be able to make sure we are running a few days ahead so a nightly process can work. That may help the overall loading time on this page as well - it had always been slow(ish). :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 22:19, 12 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::::: IMHO stuff like forthcoming books, author bibliographies, publisher yearly pages, etc - basically webpages that use/show derived/aggregated data that can't be edited directly - would preferably have some sort of memcache'ing on the resource intensive bits, so the relevant database query only runs as-and-when a site visitor goes to a page, with memcache told to keep that processed data for (say) an hour, and then after that time it's automagically ejected from the cache.  (In the case of bibliography pages, the directly-editable author data like dates, links, notes etc probably wouldn't be cached, but list of titles or awards would be.)  I dunno if that is something that has ever been considered?  The nightly jobs I guess are conceptually similar, but I don't think you could, or would want to, have things like (thousands of?) bibliographies generated that way every night. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 17:28, 13 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
::::::: Forthcoming books, author bibliographies, etc can't be edited directly, but they are affected by regular editing activities. It would be exceedingly difficult to edit the data if you couldn't rely on the displayed data being current. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:30, 13 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
::::::: P.S. Also, it could cause different pages to be out of sync with each other. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 22:31, 13 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::::::: As I type this, there are over 2000 items pending in the edit queue going back god-knows how many days, which is surely more of a negative impact on editors knowing what the current state of the database is, compared to having forthcoming books be an hour out of date.  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 10:32, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
::::::::: Unprocessed submissions do not cause the same consistency problems that cached data can cause.
 
−
 
 
−
::::::::: Caching is a huge and complicated area. I would only consider it as a last resort. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:08, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:::::::: In any case, memcache (at least the implementations I've used) allow code to forcibly evict info from the cache ahead of schedule, so for example, once an AddPub is accepted by a mod and the database updated, any cached info for that author's bibliography, and - if the pub date is in the future - forthcoming books could be removed, causing them to be regenerated if/when a site visitor next visits those pages.  This does put the onus on the code knowing which edits might invalidate particular cached items, but I suspect the majority of cases can be caught fairly easily.
 
−
:::::::: FWIW I can think of at least 2 cases where Amazon.co.uk displays inconsistent data due to caching - or at least, consistent with caching - in some cases over a period of multiple days.  If caching might help address some of the recent performance issues - and I might well be talking rubbish here, as I don't know what sort/quantity of requests are coming in that have been causing those issues - then the short-term/minor (IMHO) display inconsistencies it causes may be preferable to restricting functionality, as has been done in a couple of cases so far.
 
−
:::::::: (Apologies for bluntless and veering increasingly off-topic.) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 10:32, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Applying for self-moderating ==
 
−
 
 
−
Hello, all! I am applying for self-moderating status. I think I'm around long enough and there's no need for clogging up the submissions. I have also learned my lesson and will not repeat my fads & fallacies of earlier. There also will be more communication upon planned actions from my side. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 10:18, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
In the foreseeable future I'll concentrate on entering European magazines (well, mostly German), adding months of publication based on infos stated in magazines (like [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?608507 here]), the seemingly neverending Perry Rhodan complex, and caring for some European authors, at last especially [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?186477 Sławomir Mrożek] whose bibliography needs original titles & dates and misses lots of relevant speculative work. Oh, and add some more classic and upcoming books from my collection. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 12:38, 23 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: You get my backing, Christian. [[User:PeteYoung|PeteYoung]] ([[User talk:PeteYoung|talk]]) 06:40, 24 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Abstain -- I have no objection, but I was not involved with past issues and defer to those who were. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 08:25, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: I back your application. [[User:Biomassbob|Bob]] ([[User talk:Biomassbob|talk]]) 08:55, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:I support Christian's application. [[User:Henna|Henna]] ([[User talk:Henna|talk]]) 13:29, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Support (somewhat qualified but still support). I have some concerns with the by now usual pattern of behaving under moderation, promising improvement if permissions are returned and then getting back to the old behavior as soon as permissions are granted again, especially around “correcting” other editors’ work silently and conforming to our dating and varianting rules, especially for art titles (hint: art or not, same rules apply per community agreement and the rules). Which is a pity considering that Christian is one of the best editors in the DB - when he wants to be and does not decide that having it his way is more important than the community agreement. Hopefully this is the last time we are at this stage - next time it will take a lot more than a promise for me to support an application (partially because I often end up needing to mop up after the latest creative interpretation of the rules). [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 13:41, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Neutral. I have thought long and hard about this. Too much has happened in the past for me to support this application, but I believe in second (or third or ??) chances, so I won't object. I sure hope there won't be a next time though. --[[User:Willem H.|Willem]] ([[User talk:Willem H.|talk]]) 16:07, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:: There won't be. I've been somewhat short-tempered (and even unfair & wrong to you) before. Apparently I've been a hothead regarding some things that didn't work out the way I thought they should. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 10:56, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: No objection. [[User:Scifibones|<b>John</b> <small>Scifibones</small>]] 10:51, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
::: Thanks to all of you who thought about this and commented here! Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 02:09, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::: I'm a bit late to comment, but I'd like to repeat your promise here :) ''There also will be more communication'' upfront ''upon planned actions from my side.'' (I've emphasized the important part here by adding 'upfront'). Take that at heart, abide by the consensus, and all will be well. Regards, [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 06:46, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
=== Outcome ===
 
−
 
 
−
Self-approver flag has been set on the account. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:04, 29 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Darker Angels ==
 
−
 
 
−
https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:DRKRNGLSBK1998.jpg; Another case where I subbed real cover with Koontz quote at bottom but it's not on the right Wiki page, so someone put it right when you have time. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:55, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== WorldCat link behavior ==
 
−
 
 
−
When linking to WorldCat over the last few days, I have been intermittently getting a splash screen showing
 
−
<br>www.worldcat.org
 
−
<br>Checking if the site connection is secure
 
−
<br>www.worldcat.org needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.
 
−
<br>It sits and shows a spinner for 20-30 seconds and then redirects to a standard publication page. I suspect that this is because the address for the link for WorldCat in the Other Links menu is for http instead of https. Could someone check on this? It's kind of annoying. Thanks. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 16:38, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: Yes, I saw it, but it accepted me a few seconds later. Whether it's their issue or this site's is the salient point. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:14, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: It would appear that WorldCat has installed one of the increasingly popular software packages that check that your users are humans and not robots. I have seen the exact same pop up banner elsewhere, e.g. at https://www.fanfiction.net/ , which has had issues with robots downloading their whole Web site, one page at a time.
 
−
 
 
−
:: In theory, the check that this software performs should take just a few seconds. Once it's done, it shouldn't bother you again for 24 hours or a similar configurable period. However, it looks like the process may take longer if you are using an older browser, although that's just a suspicion at this point. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:57, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
::: It's always let me in as well and the wait time seems random. I'm using the Brave browser which is Chromium-based so it's not the browser age in my case. [[User:Philfreund|Phil]] ([[User talk:Philfreund|talk]]) 07:19, 15 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Hubin and Crime Fiction ==
 
−
 
 
−
https://archive.org/search.php?query=crime-fiction%20allen%20hubin&and[]=collection%3A%22inlibrary%22; While looking for something else I saw these and figured I'd mention them since they're tangentially related to this site and could be of some use to editors here. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 19:13, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== New Writings 2 ==
 
−
 
 
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?23815; While adding other prices from a photo on R. Dalby's site I saw on title page that it was edited by David Sutton, no A.; fixed it, but Riley's name on contents page has no A. and Holdstock's name has a P., so if anyone owns a copy they'll need to check story pages to see how all authors are identified and fix if needed. EDIT: The names on Volume 1's, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?23814, contents page match with a photo on FantLab, but that site, nor any other, doesn't seem to show the title page, so it's possible #1 is also edited by David Sutton, no A., in case anyone has a copy of that. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:13, 15 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Links to User and User Talk pages standardized ==
 
−
 
 
−
As per {{FR|1459}}, "Standardize links to User and Talk pages", links to User and User Talk pages have been updated. All ISFDB pages have been standardized to link to Talk pages only. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:42, 15 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Wiki rollback behavior tweaked ==
 
−
 
 
−
One of the side effects of the new Wiki layout is that it's easy to click "Rollback" by accident. I have tweaked Wiki settings to ask for confirmation before allowing rollback. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 19:45, 15 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Silvia Moreno-Garcia - above the threshold? ==
 
−
 
 
−
The cover of [https://twitter.com/TheKitschies/status/1570691919491272712 Velvet was the Night] has been nominated for a [https://twitter.com/TheKitschies/status/1570691912352563201 "speculative or fantastic"] award, despite the author themselves saying [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3551230496?book_show_action=true "Velvet Was the Night is historical and noir. There is no SFF element."]  Obviously this can be added as an untitled award, but I'm wondering if [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/eaw.cgi?123813 Silvia Moreno-Garcia] counts for the nebulous-to-me threshold criteria, in which case I'll add the novel as a proper title/set of pubs, and then append the award nom to those? 
 
−
 
 
−
And just whilst I'm here, on the subject of non-genre works and authors above the threshold, would there be any objections to adding [https://titanbooks.com/70917-the-hot-beat/ this upcoming Robert Silverberg crime reprint], appropriately flagged as non-genre of course? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 09:04, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Silverberg is in even if he publishes a phone directory. :)
 
−
: And I’d consider Moreno-Garcia above treshold as well. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 10:13, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::I agree regarding both. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 15:26, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::: Thanks all - the SM-G has been added, the Silverberg will be done in the next week or so. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 16:24, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Most External ID Types upgraded to HTTPS ==
 
−
 
 
−
The vast majority of External ID Types now use HTTPS. The following External ID Types could not be upgraded to use HTTPS either because the third party site does not support it or because its HTTPS certificate is improperly set up:
 
−
 
 
−
* BL
 
−
* BNB
 
−
* SFBG
 
−
* PPN
 
−
* NILF
 
−
* DF-Leinbuch
 
−
* PORBASE
 
−
 
 
−
We'll update their links if and when they fully implement HTTPS support. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:22, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Did you remember to also change the templates associated with the External IDs which got changed? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 16:47, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: All templates were updated a few months ago. It's the External IDs and the ISBN-based links in the navbar on the left that were missed the first time around. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 17:39, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::: Ah, okey - I've forgotten and don't have handy examples for all of them :) All set then! Thanks! [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 17:52, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:::: ISBN-based links to third party Web sites (including all Amazon sites) have been updated as well. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:31, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Drop/Keep ==
 
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−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5424453; I brought this up a few times long ago, but there was a recent discussion here about this, I think, so I'm going to see if I can get anyone else to see what I see on my computer. Obviously I want to keep the 2010 date as that's the original, but the boxes say drop for 2010 and 2011 and keep for 2012, and yet the 2010 is the only one not highlighted, which makes me think that it's those boxes that are the problem. Am I wrong? Someone may want to approve this so we can see whether 2010 gets accepted, then we'll know it's just the boxes and that the system isn't keeping the wrong ones, because I used to do a ton of these merges in my early days here and I'd hate to think that a lot of them had the wrong date approved. By the way, it seems random, as sometimes when I do these the right date gets kept. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 22:37, 16 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: When you merge, it always "keeps" the lowest ID (the first record entered into the DB among the set being merged) and "drops" the others. So the lowest ID will survive and remain going forward, while the higher ID(s) will be deleted and no longer exist.  If you choose values from among the IDs that will be dropped, those values are copied into record that is going to survive.  So anything highlighted in the "keep" record is going to overwritten by the corresponding value not highlighted in the other record(s).  This is your submission:
 
−
 
 
−
: [[Image:CP-Merge-Q-20220917.jpg]]
 
−
 
 
−
: The display tells us record ID 1896758 will remain, record IDs 2848219 and 2848220 will be deleted, and record ID 1896758's original Year of 2012-12-27 will be lost, replaced with the 2010-10-00 Year from record ID 2848219 (and record ID 2848220's Year of 2011-07-01 will also be lost).  Does that answer your question/address your concern?  The submission looks normal and correct, and I have accepted it so you can see [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1896758 the result].
 
−
 
 
−
: Both the dropping and value-copying behavior are why one needs to be careful about submitting further edits involving titles being merged until after the merge has been accepted.  If, for example, the submission above were pending and you submitted a clone of the pub containing the essay dated 2010-10-00 -- thinking it's the original/earliest -- that clone submission would contain a reference to record ID 2848219.  Acceptance of the merge submission would delete that record, rendering the clone submission invalid. --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 08:01, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: I'm a bit slow mentally and also not tech-savvy so your words went way over my head, but I see 2010 as the date of the intro now so the right date was accepted and it's all good. I also added a new record for the TP Kensington edition because nobody ever entered it and it's on Archive.org, so all contents will need to be imported to that, and I wonder if the intro is included in those 2 British Titan editions or those 2 Spanish-language editions; maybe someone else knows. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 08:37, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:::OK, sorry about that.  In case it's useful to you or anyone else trying to understand merging:
 
−
:::# There were three titles for that essay (with dates 2012-12-27, 2010-10-00, and 2011-07-01), and you picked those three and did a merge.
 
−
:::# Each title has a unique "ID" in the database (this is that number you see at the end of <nowiki>https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?</nowiki>'''1896758''').  These IDs are assigned automatically by the software when titles are created, and the numbers are always increasing.  Something entered earlier has an ID that is lower than something entered later.
 
−
:::# The merge screen shows each title being merged, one title per column, and the order of the columns uses those IDs, not the dates (or anything else).  The title with the lowest ID is on the left, and each subsequent column shows the title with the next highest ID.  The IDs are included at the top of each column.
 
−
:::# The title listed on the left, the one labeled "Keep ID", is retained by the merge.
 
−
:::# The title(s) listed to the right, the one(s) labeled "Drop ID" are dropped by the merge.
 
−
:::# When the merge presents you an option to choose from among different values, if you choose something that is not in the title listed on the left (that is, you choose to use something from one of the other titles), the acceptance of the merge will copy the value you chose from whichever title originally had it into the title listed on the left.  Whatever value the title on the left had for that field is overwritten and lost.  The screen is showing you what will be lost and what the final value will be.
 
−
:::So the merge operation is transforming that "Keep ID" title at the left into a composite of the information from the other titles and then deleting them. "Composite" can range from one extreme of not taking anything new from any of the other titles to the other extreme of completely replacing everything with values from the other titles. What looks to you like keeping the 2010 title and getting rid of the 2012 and 2011 titles is actually transforming the 2012 title into a 2010 title and getting rid of the other 2010 title and the 2011 title.
 
−
 
 
−
::: When you have a publication with contents (e.g., the publications where the ESSAYs in this merge came from), the ISFDB records that content relationship using those IDs, not the names or dates or anything else.  So suppose pub A had the 2012 essay.  Its contents list would say "I have title ID 1896758".  And if pub B had the 2011 title, its contents list would say "I have title ID 2848220."  Anything you do involving either pub's contents uses those IDs to identify the title.  If you wanted to change the page number of the essay in pub B, while it looks to you like you're changing the page number of "Introduction: The Birth of the Dead" to nnn, the submission would say "Change the page number for '''title ID 2848220''' to nnn".  Or if you cloned pub B to make pub C and kept "Introduction: The Birth of the Dead" in its contents, the submission would say "make pub C and give it '''title ID 2848220''' in its contents".
 
−
 
 
−
:::If the example merge had been submitted but not yet accepted and you submitted one of those other changes, the acceptance of the merge submission would delete the 2011 essay with ID 2848220. If a moderator then tried to process the page number change or clone, the system would read that submission, try to find the "'''title ID 2848220'''" it refers to, and would not find anything because the title with that ID was deleted by the merge.  A submission referring to something that's not there cannot be processed, so the moderator would be forced to "hard reject". So once you submit a merge, you don't want to do any other edits involving the titles in that merge submission until it has been accepted.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 10:08, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:::: A very nice and detailed explanation. Do you feel like generalizing it and adding it to [[Help:How to merge titles]] as a new section? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 10:33, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
::::: Ok, done.  I also decided to reiterate the edit-with-pending-merge warning at the top of that page.  Feel free (everyone) to revise/edit/prune as you see fit.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 12:31, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:::::: Thanks! [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 20:04, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::::::: Alternatively, the lowest record ID will be kept, and all fields colored green (that had been selected) will be kept as well (and consequently the red ones will be overwritten/are lost. Regards, [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 10:42, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Public database backups - MySQL version ==
 
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−
We make a "scrubbed" version of ISFDB backups publicly available -- see the "Database Backups" section under [[ISFDB Downloads]]. At this time 2 versions of each backup file are posted each week: one for versions 4.0-5.1 of MySQL and one for versions 5.5+. This level of redundancy made sense during the early-mid 2010s when version 5.5 was still new (released in December 2010) and many people were still running earlier versions. However, it's been almost 12 years and I am thinking that we can drop support for MySQL 4.0-5.1, which will save time and disk space.
 
−
 
 
−
Will this cause issues for anyone? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 07:02, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: I download the 5.5 backups every week, but I think the only 4.x ones I've downloaded were a couple of ancient ones from 2011 and 2014 when newer versioned ones weren't available.  (Not sure I ever actually did anything with them mind, I just thought they might be interesting for historical curiousity.)  As such, I personally am perfectly OK with dropping the older file.  [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 12:39, 18 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: Hearing no objection, I am going to trim old 4.0 backups and use 5.5 going forward. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:19, 24 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Poles Apart ==
 
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−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5425152; I'm awaiting approval for this, but I'd like to alert any Polish readers that apparently someone put 2 guys with the same name together, with the cover art being by this guy, I think: https://fantlab.ru/art6950. Nothing about him on that page except that he's Polish, so if anyone's familiar with him they can separate him into his own record with some info after his name. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 18:24, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Username Edits a Perry Rhodan Book!!! ==
 
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−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5425200; I swore I'd never touch one of those several-hundred-volume Rhodan books but I couldn't help noticing the lone volume in Community Texts on Archive.org and was drawn to it for some reason; it turns out that whoever entered the note here said the copyright page has a 1974 date but every other date in the ISFDB record is 1975; that's just a careless mistake, but the page count was off, too, and unless I'm mistaken not all the contents were entered. All 3 PV are gone, but now I shudder to think how many other Rhodan books they worked on may have wrong info, too. So I ask the other editors here who worked on these books in the past if they've noticed anything awry; many edits may be in the future if so, because there's dozens of Archive volumes in the non-Texts section. EDIT: Oh dear God, it's a magazine, so everything's counted, covers, ads, etc. That's why the page count was what it was. Damn it. Well, I'm going to cancel my edit and re-do it with just the Archive link and the note fix. I knew I shouldn't have touched one of these books. EDIT: It turns out the user who uploaded the book also did so for 1 other book, The Man With Two Faces, which didn't show up in my search earlier for some reason, so I added an edit with the link, although in this case, probably because there's an active editor, there were no mistakes for me to fix, not even a tweak to the year in the notes; how inconsiderate. Anyway, a search of Texts gave this, https://archive.org/details/opensource?query=perry-rhodan, which reveals that while these are the only 2 English-language Rhodan books available (which seems weird for such a huge series; of course, there could be more that don't have the series name in the title, hiding somewhere in there), there are a few foreign editions that may be of some use to someone who isn't me. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 20:14, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Alison Scott disambiguation ==
 
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−
The author of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2899497 The Underwater Bridge] is not the same person as the created the fanac that makes up the rest of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?80033 that bibliography].  (There's some bio detail in a foreword visible in the Amazon preview of the novel, that's inconsistent with the fan's bio details.)
 
−
 
 
−
My understanding is that the most prolific/highest profile person gets the "main" author name, and the others get a parenthesized disambiguation.  In this case though, I wasn't sure if maybe an author of novels might take precedence over a fan?
 
−
 
 
−
Unless anyone indicates otherwise, I propose to leave "Alison Scott" as the UK fan, and set up "Alison Scott (US author)" for the novelist. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 12:29, 18 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: These have now been split up. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 09:45, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: Why not "Alison Scott (US)"?
 
−
:: I suggest that we avoid using "author" in parenthetical disambiguation; that is, strain to avoid using it. I prefer "writer" but suggest we avoid that too.
 
−
:: With a glance at all our Author names that contain "author)", I suggest "(NZ)" rather than "(New Zealand Author)"; similarly for "(1990's author)" and "(US author)". [Alison Scott is now the only "(US author)" where we have about thirty "(US)".]
 
−
:: Our {{a|Pete Alexander (author)}} might be Pete Alexander (US). [I visited all our Pete Alexanders in order to validate this suggestion. The others are "(UK)" and an illustrator without parenthetical disambiguation.] --[[User:Pwendt|Pwendt]]|[[User talk:Pwendt|talk]] 16:00, 6 October 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Ivan T.'s Ghosts ==
 
−
 
 
−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?278053; I added a better cover to this book recently, and the copy on Google Books says Ivan's story was reprinted from Tales for a Stormy Night, which is on ISFDB, but is separate because his last name is spelled differently, but looking at this, https://books.google.com/books?id=vBVlAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=ivan, I'm not so sure they shouldn't be merged. Thoughts? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 13:57, 18 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Blatty and The Ninth Configuration ==
 
−
 
 
−
Doing a bunch of W.P. Blatty stuff and remembered that I asked somewhere about Ninth Configuration; there's an Archive copy uploaded more than 10 years ago so I entered it. It was released in 1978, heavily revised from his 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane, and was made into a really weird movie in 1980. I think it's genre, since the original 1966 version is listed as such here, but I marked it non-genre because there's this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2184055, although whether that's for the book or movie I don't know, but someone else entered a 2020 German edition, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?6735, so whether the 2 versions need to be separated, is Ninth genre or not, whether the review is for the book and should be linked to it, etc. are some questions that need answering. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:56, 18 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Kolchak#The_Ninth_Configuration_by_Blatty; I was adding a note to "The Elementals" message at the bottom of Kolchak's list, who seems non-active, and happened to notice the other message about Blatty's book; Kolchak tried entering this more than 10 years ago and said the same thing I did about it being a revision of the earlier novel, but his publication was deleted. Lucky mine was accepted. I wonder what the problem was back then; the Archive copy is from 2011, so it's very possible Kolchak's edit used it, too. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 15:50, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Account recovery  ==
 
−
 
 
−
Hello,
 
−
I only use two emails and neither one is working for password recovery for my main account, Settdigger
 
−
 
 
−
Is it RIP, or is there another way to recover it?
 
−
 
 
−
Cheers-- {{unsigned|Everyman}}
 
−
 
 
−
: Checking the database, I see that the email address associated with your ISFDB account ends with "gmail.com". Is it one of the addressed that you tried? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 11:11, 19 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Portuguese version(s) of GRRM's Nightflyers ==
 
−
 
 
−
I spotted [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2909969 this "standalone" Portuguese 2012 "novel" of Nightflyers] on GRRM's bibliography page.  My strong suspicion is that it should be converted to shortfiction/novella and made a variant of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?49769 the English language original].  Based on the reported translators of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?855779 the collection it appears in], it looks to be a different translation from either the 2017 or 2019 PT versions already varianted from the original?
 
−
 
 
−
As I don't know a single word of Portuguese, is there anyone more knowledgeable who might be able to take a look at these before I start blundering around? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 07:55, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
: We have a number of Portuguese translations which were never linked to their parent titles. I suspect that the editor who entered them submitted a batch of NewPubs and then became unavailable before they were approved. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 08:24, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: That happens a lot with translations so nothing unusual. Some languages get caught a bit faster than other. Based on the pub note, this is the translation of Jorge Colaço and/or Luís Santos so definitely a different translation. Based on [https://bibliowiki.com.pt/index.php/Nightflyers Bibliowiki], this specific story is translated by Luís Santos :) From the looks of it, this 2012 book is from Portugal, the newer ones are Brazilian. The two Portuguese speaking countries very very rarely share translators and even when they do, they rarely share the translation itself. Welcome to the world of translations... Let me know if you would like to fix it or if I should take care of it. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 10:21, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:: Thanks both.  I'm happy to make the edits, presuming there are no objections to what I suggested above (convert to novella, variant to the EN original as a different PT translation from the other 2). [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 12:17, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::: And add the translator. Actually, all the stories in that collection need translators if you want to look at them in bibliowiki :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 15:50, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::: Hold your horses - I've only just finished cleaning up all of today's Titan pubs! :-P
 
−
:::: (Will take a look at the PT stuff later today or maybe tomorrow...) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 16:23, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::::I recently came across one of these: [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2914119 Edmund Cooper / Cinco para doze]. There is no PV on the pub record but the edit history shows only one entry so I left a message on the submitter's talk page [https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Paulotecario#Edmund_Cooper_.2F_Cinco_Para_Doze_.28Five_to_Twelve.29 here]. However, no progress so far. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:17, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::::: When you find things like these, feel free to fix them. Sometimes editors do not finish the updates they started - they forget about them, don't know they should have or real life interferes. Would you like to try completing the needed updates or do you mention it so someone else could do it? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 18:32, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:::::::I was reluctant to tread on another editor's toes. However, based on your comment, I will fix this. Will submit the Make Variant edit shortly. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 16:17, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
== X-Files Book That Was Never Published ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?34955; Probable vaporware; almost no info online, no covers, etc. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:34, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
== Calling PeteYoung ==
 
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−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?326787; Log in seems random, some pages it works and others it doesn't, I can't get on that PV's page to let him know that I added an Archive link and replaced the cover because it was the wrong one (real Hodder HC has the foreword text on the bottom) so I'll say it here and maybe he'll see it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:17, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
: Pete Young's Talk page -- [[User talk:PeteYoung]] -- had an HTTP image embedded, which was causing some browsers to treat it as insecure. I have upgraded the image to HTTPS, so it should work normally now. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:00, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: Just seen this... All appears good now, so thanks for the very quick fixes guys! [[User:PeteYoung|PeteYoung]] ([[User talk:PeteYoung|talk]]) 15:36, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
== More challenges added ==
 
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−
Due to our continuing problems with spammers, we have added another challenge. You may be asked to answer a question when adding a URL to a Wiki page. You can see the current list of URLs which do *not* trigger a challenge on [[MediaWiki:Captcha-addurl-whitelist]]. If you find that you frequently add links to other legitimate sites, please post the sites' URLs here and I will update the list of exception.
 
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−
Sorry about the hassle, but deleting/blocking a few dozen spammers every day is not viable in the long run. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:46, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
: Some of those backslashes look to be on the wrong side of the dot - although I suspect they'll pass those domains OK, just might let through other stuff too? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 13:34, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:: Fixed, thanks. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:42, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::: Looks like archive.org is still wrong?  I can't edit the page myself - I assume it's locked to bureaucrats? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 16:20, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Can we add twitter\.com, which I link to fairly frequently. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 13:34, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: EDIT: file770\.com and sf\-encyclopedia\.com might also be useful to have, more the latter than the former? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 13:36, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
:: Good points, added. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:42, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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::: Add [https://fantlab.ru FantLab] to white list please. --[[User:Zlogorek|Zlogorek]] ([[User talk:Zlogorek|talk]]) 17:44, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
:::: Done. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 21:13, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:Related to this, it might be good to set <code>$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createpage'] = false;</code> and <code>$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createtalk'] = false;</code>, and only grant that to <code>confirmeduser</code> or higher. This will prevent anyone not registered from creating new pages, and prevent those who haven't edited existing pages a little from being able to create new pages. ···[[User:Nihonjoe|<font color="darkgreen">日本穣</font>]] · <small>[[Special:Contributions/Nihonjoe|<font color="blue">投稿</font>]] · [[User talk:Nihonjoe|Talk to Nihonjoe]]</small> 18:17, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: An interesting idea. We haven't seen any spam activity since the last change, so for now things look good. If spammers return, we can try your approach. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 21:16, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
::: I suspect my earlier comment got missed amongst the other edits, but the archive.org entry still looks wrong to me. [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 11:22, 23 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
:::: Oops! Thanks, corrected. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:03, 23 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
== Encounter Three ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?250701; There's an Archive.org copy, page count one less than entered here, made edit and asked active PV, they said their page count was correct and corrected my correction, other active PV moving house and can't check his books right now, so does anyone else have a copy? Maybe it's Archive scanner error, maybe Pinnacle sent out some copies missing the last page. If anyone does and it includes p. 372, maybe you can transcribe those few lines in the book's record so people who read the Archive copy can actually finish the book. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 15:24, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
== Self-moderation: Zapp ==
 
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−
Hello everybody, all users and moderators. I was told that there is a chance to contribute edits as a self-moderator. Since I'm an editor for more than seven years, I thought about getting that status. I would be happy if you could agree to this and give me support. Thanks a lot. --[[User:Zapp|Zapp]] ([[User talk:Zapp|talk]]) 16:54, 20 September 2022 (EDT)<br>
 
−
I see, the right name is Self-Approver. --[[User:Zapp|Zapp]] ([[User talk:Zapp|talk]]) 17:03, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:Support[[User:Kraang|Kraang]] ([[User talk:Kraang|talk]]) 23:58, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:Support --&nbsp;[[User:JLaTondre|JLaTondre]] ([[User talk:JLaTondre#top|talk]]) 10:03, 23 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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: Support [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 11:10, 23 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:I think you should be a little more careful in applying title types (for example [htte ps://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?914910 this] sounds a little more like a CHAPBOOK at johnsinclair.nl); it's better to have seen at least one example of a series 'in person'. But I think you'll apply that in the future, so: support. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 12:15, 23 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
:: NB. All titles of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?49859 this John Sinclair series] are listed as MAGAZINE. --[[User:Zapp|Zapp]] ([[User talk:Zapp|talk]]) 18:12, 29 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
::: That's right, but none of them has been primary verified. It ''is'' a difficult case to decide. If there are only the novellas in them (and that's what the source hints at), the publications should be entered as chapbooks, I think. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 05:02, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Support --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 08:26, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
=== Outcome ===
 
−
 
 
−
The self-approver flag has been set on the account. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 16:08, 29 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: Thank You. --[[User:Zapp|Zapp]] ([[User talk:Zapp|talk]]) 18:12, 29 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
 
 
−
== Backwards French ==
 
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−
I was entering Dutton ed. from Archive, noticed first names were switched, Barker ed. also on Archive, almost missed it because genius who uploaded it spelled authors' names as "Thomas Bileau" and "Pierre Narcejag", names are also switched in that ed., Panther ed. has just last names on the cover but title page not seen anywhere by me, Bantam ed. has correct first names on cover and title page I saw on eBay, so when these are approved someone should decide what the primary names should be. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 16:53, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
== Josh Kirby Monster Face ==
 
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−
Did some stuff earlier for Boileau and Narcejac books, Kirby did cover for Four Square edition of The Evil Eye so I added credit, online Kirby sites credit him for Corgi here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/titlecovers.cgi?851823, so I added that, too, but earlier Bantam has same lower cover but different face on top, Archive copy of Bantam has been there since 2010 so I added it, but there's no art credit, so does he deserve credit or did he just do the new face for Corgi? --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 20:08, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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−
== Flight to the Lonesome Place ==
 
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−
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?20193; I entered 1971's price info from Archive copy uploaded a few months ago, Chris J. entered that much later edition with the same price and ISBN, highly unlikely so if he sees this he may want to fix/delete, since it's tough getting on people's boards sometimes. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 23:28, 21 September 2022 (EDT)
 
−
: If You don't have a copy in Your hands, that shows the price, You should give information in "note" where that information comes from to avoid such events. --[[User:Zapp|Zapp]] ([[User talk:Zapp|talk]]) 06:33, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== The Deep ==
 
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I was updating my Wikipedia page on authors who potentially have missing articles, and was working on authors who have been nominated for a World Fantasy Award (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alvonruff/World_Fantasy_Award_Notability). In 2020 ''The Deep'' (https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2514516) was nominated for a WFA (as well as a Hugo) in the novella category. Our entry on The Deep shows it as written by Rivers Solomon, with the following note: "Based on the rap song The Deep by Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes, and which was performed by the group Clippings." Our award citations follow this by showing Solomon nominated for the awards, but not the others.
 
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Wikipedia, however, show Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes as nominees for both the Hugo and the WFA. The wording on the WFA site states "The Deep, by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Hodder & Stoughton UK)", and the Hugo site states "The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)".
 
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So the question is: is there an official rule on determining who is ''actually'' nominated when there are side contributors who did not actually write the original text? I ran into a similar case with the Hugos in 2015 for the novelette "The Day The World Turned Upside Down", which nominated Thomas Olde Heuvelt, but mentioned Lia Belt, who translated the work. In the Heuvelt case, we show the author as Heuvelt, and a note mentions that the translation was done by Belt. But our award only goes to Heuvelt. Wikipedia cites both, and has the note: ''"Thomas Olde Heuvelt's 2015 winner "The Day the World Turned Upside Down" is the only translated work to win the "Best Novelette" Hugo. Hugos were awarded to both the author and the translator."''
 
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This is a very exclusive corner case, and I'm not recommending any changes, just wondering what folks opinions are on this somewhat arcane topic.--[[User:Alvonruff|Alvonruff]] ([[User talk:Alvonruff|talk]]) 08:43, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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: My personal opinion is that for "titled" awards, the award record should be attached to the closest title record in the database, and any additional winners/nominees go in the note.  I don't think there's any other way of handling those as the codebase stands right now?
 
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: A similar issue may be the recent kerfuffles over semiprozines listing all their staff, with IIRC Strange Horizons listing ~70 people as being responsible for their 2022 Hugo finalist.  (Take a look at [http://www.sfadb.com/Hugo_Awards_2022 SFADB] to see the full lists.)  Personally I don't think ISFDB editors should feel any responsibility to try to match all of those up with author records in the database and/or to create new records - just adding a note is more than enough.
 
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: Re. translators, there were [https://twitter.com/sqiouyilu/status/1566762259187060736 complaints that the stats report] that the Hugo admins produce didn't list translators where applicable. [https://twitter.com/ErsatzCulture/status/1567499794184110082  My pedantic opinion] is that I don't believe the Hugos don't distinguish between different translations of the same work, so if they are highlighting the XX->EN translators, why not the EN->XX for works that got translated into other languages in the relevant eligibility period.  (Project: Hail Memory being a case in point.) [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] ([[User talk:ErsatzCulture|talk]]) 09:42, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: I have seen all kinds of scenarios. For translations, an award may be given to:
 
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::* The translated ''title'', which we can link to our variant/translated title
 
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::* The ''translation'', which is not the same as an award for the translated title and can't be linked to a variant title, so it needs to be entered as an "untitled" award
 
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::* Both the title and the translation, which I would link to the variant title, then add a note to the award record about the translator(s) being co-recipients of the award
 
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:: If and when we have beefed up translator support (a separate can of worms) which will let us link awards to translators, we will need to revisit the issue. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:17, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Hitler Victorious ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?182333; Many editions, fixed "11" to "Eleven" in a few, Berkley has no title page photo online I can find, anyone who sees it can change title to Eleven, there's a few sites that say Eleven even if they don't actually show it. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 09:23, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Gnomobile ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1006497; 2 copies on Archive.org, 1 with cover and 1 without, PV was unsure of price but it turns out it was correct, I added links and price, but online info suggested the art by Tillard was not done for Bobbs but for a 1959 French edition, and they were right: https://aux-belles-illustrations.fr/it/libro-francese-romanzi/1009-en-gnomobile-a-travers-l-amerique-0710377715864.html. PV long-gone, so French editors may own a copy and want to enter it here; not sure what the rule is for variants, because the French title is different. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:14, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Stupid Question ==
 
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While entering the previous message on this board I had to answer one of those questions because I added a link, which was "Do often have robot thoughts?" (my answer: NO). If we're going to be forced to answer them at least make them grammatical, unless they come from somewhere else, in which case we're screwed. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:17, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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: It looks like the wording was corrected an hour ago. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:20, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== John Varley / Titan (map & diagram) ==
 
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There are 3 interior art records by J. M. Weiss: 1) [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?866660 Titan] and 2) [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1277187 Titan (maps)] and 3) [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1166655 Titan (map & diagram)] that are almost certainly identical and so I propose to merge them. I have verified they are the same in the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?119591 Berkley/Putnam hc] and the Ace pb 8th printing (undated but early 2000's - no pub record for this yet; I will create one). Furthermore, all the pub notes of the various pubs in which these 3 interiorart records appear strongly suggest they are the same (signed Weiss 78). There are two separate pieces of art: one map and one diagram so I intend to title the merged record "Titan (map & diagram)". I will wait a week for comments before proceeding. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:22, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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: If there are two pieces of art, I'd record them separately - that way if a reprint only uses one (for one reason or another) or if one of them changes, we can properly merge later. There are some active PVs on most of these books so you may want to post on their pages and point them to the discussion - not everyone is monitoring CP and as the board can get very busy, things slip. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 18:45, 22 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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::Now I wish I hadn't started this :-) As a general principle, I agree with you that a separate map and diagram by the same creator in the same pub should have two interiorart records and I would have done that if I had been creating these records from scratch. In this case though, the single interiorart record is used for both the map and diagram in a considerable number of PVd pubs involving a considerable number of editors / moderators all of whom were happy with the one record. Changing all these pubs to include two interiorart records will involve a substantial amount of work that does not seem to me to be really necessary. Furthermore, I have now looked at the map and diagram more closely and although they are separated by a page of unrelated material in the two pubs that I own, I see that there is a note forming part of the diagram stating "Area shown in aerial view map" so it is highly unlikely that a reprint would use only one of these pieces of art. I have now drawn attention of this discussion to several active PVs of the related pubs and will await further comments. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 18:27, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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::: You never know what a translation can do to a map - having grown up on translations, I've seen all kinds of weirdness. So my mind goes there when I see combined records.:) Either way is acceptable and per the rules. We may as well leave it as is until we find a book that has just one of them. :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 18:46, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:::: As far as I can see, the interior art of [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?724606 my own French copy] consists of one map and one diagram, partly translated into French (the first map retains a few English denominations), no credit, no signature. One may assume that they are the same and should be credited to Weiss, without excluding the possibility that they could have been redrawn in part. Anyway, I'll make two records of my “Titan (maps)”, so you can fiddle with them if necessary. [[User:Linguist|Linguist]] ([[User talk:Linguist|talk]]) 05:01, 27 September 2022 (EDT).
 
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::::: In [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?119591 my copy] the map is on page 8 and the diagram on page 10 (both unnumbered). In my copy of the [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?371377 Dutch translation] the map is on page 6/7 and the diagram on page 5. Both have the text translated, the illustrations are identical to the original. I have no problem with splitting the title. --[[User:Willem H.|Willem]] ([[User talk:Willem H.|talk]]) 15:00, 27 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:::::: My [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?679831 Dutch copy] has the diagram on unnumbered p.5, and the map on unnumbered pp. 6 and 7. Text translated in Dutch. The diagram is unsigned, the map is signed ''JMWeiss 78''. Given that, I'm inclined to suggest to separate them out in two INTERIORART records, and variant them to the original(s). [[User:MagicUnk|MagicUnk]] ([[User talk:MagicUnk|talk]]) 06:37, 30 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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::: I verified my copy in 2008. The ISFDB attitude and approach to art has changed over that time, but still seems to allow some latitude about naming. I like the idea of merging maps (or varianting them) where they are the same but have run across maps that morphed over a series and worry about how one can tell they are the 'same'. I'm less worried about republication / reprinting the same book. My concern about changing the title in my verified publication is that it implies I agree that the images match, when in fact I may not. The varianted / merged INTERIORART title should explain the reasoning and actions taken. ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 08:29, 27 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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::::Various opinions have been expressed and there is no consensus so I will leave the map and diagram records as they are. [[User:Teallach|Teallach]] ([[User talk:Teallach|talk]]) 12:14, 3 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Dilky/Dilkey ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2495876; I've been adding stories from the last (?) issue of Chizine in 2011, and this has a misspelled title, the original being "Dilkey", https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1154962; the print edition can't be found and the e-book links don't seem to lead to the right pages anymore, and the PV is gone, so if anyone can get a copy then the title can be corrected and merged or, if it is wrong, made a variant. Also, there's a note in "Dilkey" that says it's from Punktown: Third Eye, but that's not on ISFDB, which seems odd, being genre, I assume, and there's many other Punktown books on here. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 20:13, 23 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Uncovered Porn ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5432839; I saw someone uploaded a cover for an Ember Library book, which was 1 of the many Greenleaf imprints, so I checked the other books by the author and saw 1 of the Bookscans.com images was broken so I replaced it in my edit linked above; however, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?20457, many, maybe the majority, of the covers (a lot of which were added by me, making it all a waste of my time), are now broken, because even though there hasn't been an update on Bookscans.com in months someone decided it was necessary to change images to images-Greenleaf. Luckily, some are from Amazon/other ISFDB-friendly sites or were uploaded to the Wiki and so don't need replacing. So if anyone knows how to fix those en masse or wants to change them one by one; I wonder how many other URL's they may have changed for other publishers that are now broken on ISFDB. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 10:50, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:I have recovered the cover for [https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?809275 ''Garden of Shame''], but that was the limit of my technical abilities!… :o) [[User:Linguist|Linguist]] ([[User talk:Linguist|talk]]) 11:28, 27 September 2022 (EDT).
 
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: I assume you're a self-mod and thus can accept your own edits since I see the cover is now there, so I've cancelled my edit which, as I mentioned above, replaced the same cover you just replaced, since it was sitting near the end of my 600+ edit queue and it might have been a long time before it was approved. Thanks. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 16:00, 27 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: I think I got all the Bookscans Greenleaf images fixed. Post if there's a group I missed. ../[[User:Holmesd|Doug H]] ([[User talk:Holmesd|talk]]) 17:06, 27 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Dave, Is That You? ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?275497; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?16988; I believe the essay and interior art by "Dave English" belong to David A. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 14:00, 25 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Punchatz and The Amulet ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?175551; I saw on toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com in a couple of different posts that Don Punchatz did the cover for Michael McDowell's The Amulet (the 1979 Avon ed.) but he didn't sign the cover like he usually did; it was supposedly verified by Grady Hendrix for Paperbacks From Hell. I also noticed that the FantLab page says Don Ivan Punchatz, and since I'm the one who added the FantLab ID a year-and-a-half ago I'm not sure why I didn't enter the name back then. So what's the rule for entering cover artists when there's no credit in the book or signature on the cover? The dude used a lot of different names. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:35, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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: My recommendation: Unless you think the source is attempting to repeat/document an official credit, use the canonical name and when noting the source of the credit also record the name the source used there.  If you think the source is attempting to document an official credit, then follow the precedent for reviewed titles -- if the title used in a review matches one we have, use that; otherwise, use the canonical title and document the title the review gives in the notes -- and use the source's name if matching a name we have, otherwise use the canonical name.  When in doubt, use the canonical.  --[[User:MartyD|MartyD]] ([[User talk:MartyD|talk]]) 14:13, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Under Venus ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?14542; The copy of the Peter Straub collection Wild Animals I added recently from Archive.org says "never-before-published second novel", but Under Venus has a 1974 date here. Shouldn't it be the date of the collection, October 1984? Where did 1974 come from? EDIT: Uh-oh, it seems Stonecreek entered that date last year. I'm not getting into that; someone else can inquire and change it if they care to. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 00:41, 27 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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: It is stated at the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Straub Wikipedia entry for Straub]: I'll take a search if there's an associated publication to be found, else I'll add a note to the title. I planned to do this at the time of the edit, but there seems to have been some deterioration. Thanks for finding it. Christian [[User:Stonecreek|Stonecreek]] ([[User talk:Stonecreek|talk]]) 04:28, 27 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== The Wiz Book ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?673925; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?213561; I added info to the empty record for SIDNEY LUMET and noticed his intro was only in that second link, but probably belongs in both books in the first link, and the second book in the first link seems the same as the book in the second link. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 01:00, 28 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Kate Alice Marshall / Kate Marshall canonical name reversal ==
 
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Any objections to reversing the canonical name for {{A|Kate Alice Marshall}} and {{A|Kate Marshall}}? She seems to be using only the longer form these days and we have more titles under it already. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 15:54, 28 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== sf-encyclopedia.uk URLs migrated ==
 
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All 157 http://sf-encyclopedia.uk cover scans have been migrated to https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:03, 28 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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: Has this been done for fantasticfiction.co.uk images? Because those are broken, too. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:59, 29 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: Checking Fantastic Fiction-hosted images, I see that their HTTP URLs may have HTTPS counterparts. Thanks for the pointer. I'll take a closer look. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 12:58, 29 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Zinewiki ==
 
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https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/webpages_search_results.cgi?OPERATOR=contains&WEBPAGE_VALUE=zinewiki; Apparently we have another website that changed their URL's; only 26 of the above (will be 27 because I stumbled on this when I saw someone had recently PV an issue of Fantasy Macabre and went to the series page and clicked on the zinewiki.com link, only to see a huge 404 page, so I made an edit to fix it) have the /wiki/ that they added for some reason, so mods may know how to batch fix or do it individually or whatever. --[[User:Username|Username]] ([[User talk:Username|talk]]) 11:58, 29 September 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Front page performance and future changes ==
 
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The way the ISFDB software generates the front page has been modified. In the past, the list of 20 publications to display was regenerated every time the page was displayed. Post-change the list is built once a day as part of the nightly process which regenerates cleanup reports. (If the nightly process doesn't run for some reason, the software will generate the list the old way.)
 
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The immediate impact is that the page will load slightly faster, although the improvement will be marginal. Going forward, it means that we can make the process of selecting publications more sophisticated without affecting front page performance. For example, we should be able to display only one publication per author. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 13:40, 1 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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: What happens if a title on the page gets re-dated during a day it is on the list? Books get delayed or better information (different jurisdiction or source which was incorrect) can cause a book publication date to change - especially on the pre-release records? Generating a few extra titles and ordering by date at display time (or something like that) may solve that issue nicely. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 16:49, 1 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: That's exactly what the new nightly process does. It selects 30 publications and stores them in a separate locations. The front page software uses that list of 30 pubs to build a list of 20 pubs which still meet the requirements. If the new list has less than 20 pubs, the software decides that something must have gone wrong with the nightly process and rebuilds the list from the database. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:38, 1 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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: And didn’t we actually have 22 books on that list before? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 16:49, 1 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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:: The old code had the value of the "MaxBooks" variable set to 21. I thought it was rounded down to 20 due to the displaying 2 books per HTML table row, but it looks like you are right and the algorithm rounded it up to 22. The new code uses "20" without rounding. We can easily change "20" to "22" if desired. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:38, 1 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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=== Proposed Changes Going Forward ===
 
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Now that the process of building the list of pubs displayed on the front page has been moved to the nightly job, we can fine-tune it without adversely affecting front page performance.
 
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The first idea, which was briefly discussed a few weeks ago, is to allow only one publication per author. That way if a publisher reprints multiple books by a popular author and they all come out on the same day, only one will appear on the front page.
 
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I think this would be an improvement, but there is a caveat. Suppose Book 2 in a series comes out in hardcover and the publisher makes Book 1 available in paperback on the same day. If we implement the proposed enhancement, our software will display only one of the books, semi-randomly picking Book 1 or Book 2 even though we would prefer Book 2 to be displayed because it's a new book and not a reprint.
 
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There are two ways we could address this issue. The first one would be to institute a "no reprints on the front page" rule. The second one would be to check the date of each pub's ''reference title'' and display the pub with the latest date for each author.
 
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Which one would be a better choice? [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 14:44, 4 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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: I prefer the second option. We want some reprints I think. Plus we have the pesky problem of translations - if the new book is in German but has a new title and the old translation, for us it is a new title but in reality it is a reprint. Same applies for any renamed book (even if the book just gets & swapped for "and" or something as trivial). And sometimes what looks like a reprint (because there is an earlier book in the publications list) is actually the first publication - due to early (or misdated) translation or early audio version (although technically this is a publication after all) or a book that never made it out but was never cleaned from the list and so on. Unless you make a manual process, reprints will always trickle in. So we may as well just suppress them a bit when they compete with another title. [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] ([[User talk:Anniemod|talk]]) 14:55, 4 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Fantastic Fiction URLs updated ==
 
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All Fantastic Fiction URLs which used HTTP have been updated to use HTTPS. If you come across any issues, please post them here. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 18:49, 3 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Series deletion -- submission review page updated ==
 
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The submission review page for Series Deletion submissions has been updated. The only change is the addition of a link to the about-to-be-deleted series record and slightly fancier formatting. If you come across any issues, please let me know. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:54, 4 October 2022 (EDT)
 
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== Publication deletion -- submission review page updated ==
 
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The submission review page for Publication Deletion submissions has been updated. A few links have been added. [[User:Ahasuerus|Ahasuerus]] ([[User talk:Ahasuerus|talk]]) 15:54, 4 October 2022 (EDT)
 

Latest revision as of 17:58, 15 April 2024


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PVR

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=rosenkr&type=Name; Palie von is actually Palle von per contents page photo online, novel is not genre from what I can gather online, Palle Rosenkrantz story is not genre per online reviews, neither really belong here, didn't notice this until I'd already entered bio info for Rosenkrantz, cancelled my edit, I think both names should be deleted, probably other contents from 1960 omnibus and Martin Edwards anthology are not genre and should be removed, too (there's a note in the anthology's record mentioning this). --Username (talk) 14:30, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Rageot

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=rageot&type=Publisher; I have a PENDING edit fixing/adding stuff re: someone else's recent edit for a book published by Rageot and I noticed ISFDB has records for that name which was on the title page and the longer name, Rageot-Éditeur, which was on the copyright page. So really all books should probably be merged under one name. --Username (talk) 12:30, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

Science Fictional Solar System

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?32159; The UK HC & book club editions say Martin H. Greenberg on their cover, 2 eBay copies of book club don't show title page, does anyone own either edition who can verify what his name is on title page? --Username (talk) 22:28, 4 November 2023 (EDT)

Brad Steiger Stories

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5805263; I didn't change the dates of Steiger's stories but I think they're both wrong. "Detroit", being a variant title, should have the date of this anthology, I think, and "Huntsman" should have a 1966 date as copyright page says. Am I right? --Username (talk) 10:01, 5 November 2023 (EST)

Yes, titles are dated per first appearance of that form of the title. Updates made. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:51, 5 November 2023 (EST)

Amazon WEBP Images

[1]; After I replaced one a few days ago and another one today I did a search and it seems most (all?) of the images with the weird URL Amazon switched to for a while are now broken. Is there a batch fix or will they have to be changed one by one (there's several hundred)? Most are not PV. --Username (talk) 17:09, 5 November 2023 (EST)

I see what you mean. There are 806 affected publication records, 30 of them primary-verified. I could create a script to change the URLs of the unverified pubs, then we could ask the primary verifiers to check their pubs. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:25, 5 November 2023 (EST)
I'm sure you've already got something that could be repurposed for this, but if not:
https://github.com/JohnSmithDev/ISFDB-Tools/blob/master/tools/submit_edits_via_api.py
You would need to update get_bad_pub_records() to pick up the affected records - plus any additional check to not pick up verified pubs - and the regex to fix them in the first line of generate_pubdate_imagefix()
Then 'uncomment' the PUB_COVER_EDITS code in the __main__ section. ErsatzCulture (talk) 05:01, 6 November 2023 (EST)
There have been quite a few scripts to mass change URL structures over the years, e.g. this one from 2022. I plan to use it as a template later today. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:17, 6 November 2023 (EST)
I was adding an Amazon author image for Maggie Allen and the URL is weird so I did a search, [2], and these are also broken. I don't know if the batch will fix these, too. EDIT: This URL was fine, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5806113, which I got by searching for Amazon and the author's name in Google Images; however, on the author's Amazon page, https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Maggie-Allen/e/B00DXZNLOG, the URL is the broken one. I don't know what's up with all this but I'm sure someone else does. --Username (talk) 10:13, 6 November 2023 (EST)
I have now manually fixed the "WEBP" author URLs. All but 2 were broken. Removing the "WEBP" part fixed all of them, although a few were "S" images, so they will be caught by the cleanup reports when they next run. I think it's safe to say that we should be able to removed "WEBP" from the affected cover scans programmatically. I'll work on it later today. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:13, 6 November 2023 (EST)
Thanks. I added an image to Maxwell Alexander Drake's record and of the 4 images on his Amazon page (I think at least some people must be aware by now that only certain regional Amazon pages display all author images at the moment in the scroll bar or whatever it's called, Amazon.com and many others just show the main photo, and they seem to be getting fewer and fewer as time goes by; I find Amazon Canada and Amazon France are still good) 2 are WEBP and 2 are regular; it figures that the one I had to use wasn't as good as the others. --Username (talk) 19:33, 6 November 2023 (EST)

Outcome -- WEBP images converted

All 806 "WEBP" images have been converted. Please let me know if you come across any issues. Ahasuerus (talk) 20:17, 6 November 2023 (EST)

St. Martin's The Light Fantastic

https://colinsmythe.co.uk/terry-pratchett/discworld/discworld-novels/light-fantastic/; I was doing some edits for the few St. Martin's editions of Terry Pratchett's novels and I think this last one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?43074, doesn't exist. It should probably get the unpublished code for the date. --Username (talk) 11:46, 6 November 2023 (EST)

Untouched by Human Hands

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5806259; Actual price was a bit different than what Tuck supposedly said but since Bluesman is gone if anyone else has the Tuck book and it really says 12/- then a note about difference on flap can be added after my edit is approved. --Username (talk) 12:38, 6 November 2023 (EST)

There is a price shown here: www.ebay.com/itm/115568098201 Tom (talk) 22:07, 13 November 2023 (EST)

Faerie Tale

https://archive.org/search?query=faerie-tale&sort=title&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22&and%5B%5D=firstTitle%3AF; While doing an edit for Raymond E. Feist (adding a note that he was born Gonzales, not Feist, and fixing his day of birth) I saw that, despite the dozens of editions of his great horror/fantasy novel Faerie Tale the only one archived is a Doubleday Book-of-the-Month Club edition which isn't on ISFDB! Open Library claims there are 2 previewable copies but whichever edition the other one was, it's gone now. So if anyone has one of those club indexes or wherever people get the dates/ID # from, you may want to enter this edition so at least there'll be one copy people can read easily. --Username (talk) 19:26, 6 November 2023 (EST)

I've added the BOMC edition here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:23, 7 November 2023 (EST)

Alan Burns

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?18958; I added cover image to Dreamerika a while ago and today added archived link to US Babel edition; SFE says "Babel" in New Worlds is an excerpt so I've added that word to the title. The issue now is SFE thinks all the other short stories are by a different Alan Burns (and probably the poems and essay, too). Does anyone know for sure? --Username (talk) 11:31, 7 November 2023 (EST)

Connecting books in an unnamed series

I'm currently adding two books where one is the sequel to the other, yet they are not part of a named series. Should I still add series to them (and if so what should I call it), or should I only make a not about it in the title note? /Lokal_Profil 14:34, 7 November 2023 (EST)

What are the books? Can you provide a link to them? Or have you not added them yet? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:52, 7 November 2023 (EST)
One thing that we often do when two or more titles -- or two or more series -- are part of a larger, unnamed, setting is create a new series (or super-series) and use the word "universe" in its name. One example would be the Baba Yaga Universe. It contains 2 sub-series and one collection. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:05, 7 November 2023 (EST)
This is only two books Domens dag and Råttorna. Calling it a universe feels a bit like giving it more credit than it is due =) /Lokal_Profil 18:01, 7 November 2023 (EST)
Hi! If you can't find a naming of the series or a general theme, I'd suggest to use in this case the title of the first novel, like it was done for the two novels in this series. (The second link you provided leads one to a piece of interior art ;-) ) Christian Stonecreek (talk) 06:48, 8 November 2023 (EST)
If the two novels do share the same main character, there'd be the additional possibility to name the series after it, like it was done here. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 07:10, 8 November 2023 (EST)
Thanks for the many suggestions! I'll go with the title of the first novel suggestion as the main characters are not given a last name (if memory serves) and Peter & Anna is way to generic =). Appologies for the erroneous second link (that was the pub-id not the title-id), the intended one is Råttorna. /Lokal_Profil 16:53, 8 November 2023 (EST)

Pied Pipers

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1428017; I left Chavey a message about a city missing in their note about imprint on title page of Routledge edition (which I'd just added an Archive.org link to) but later saw that there was a more pressing problem; the title was wrong, missing a word and misspelling another. I later added another note about Warne edition also likely being wrong based on cover image. Looking further, I think the other 2 editions also have the wrong title; Rand McNally 1937 edition (Chavey's note says 1927, that may be yet another mistake) is on Archive.org and it says The Pied Piper of Hamelin on title page while there's no edit history for Harrap edition but notes are in Chavey's style. Problem is Chavey hasn't responded to any messages since May of last year. Any suggestions? --Username (talk) 19:28, 7 November 2023 (EST)

Their last activity in the database was on 2023-11-04, so only a few days ago. I suggest giving it a little more time for them to respond to the questions. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:33, 8 November 2023 (EST)

Geta

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?17102; I added a link to 1984-00-00 in a PENDING edit; 1985 2nd printing was edited by Hauck, hater of ISFDB, while RTrace cloned the 1984-06-00 but that date can't be right because the price is higher than 1985. There are 2 identical notes about name of publisher in 1984-00-00 and 1985 but neither was edited by the same person/people so some cloning/copying happened there, too. So publisher should either be Granada or Panther / Granada for all 3 and 1984-06-00 should either have a new date or all 0's for unknown; it also says TP, not PB, and likely has the same cover as the others so cover artist should be imported. --Username (talk) 23:48, 9 November 2023 (EST)

Arthur Barker Edition of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5809217; No idea why that obviously incorrect cover artist data was approved by a mod but I removed Kay and the word "Illustrations" from Litherland's credit. I assume the Amazon cover is the correct one because there's a few non-Amazon sites that show the same cover for that ISBN but the problem is Open Library has a 1985 date for the Arthur Barker edition (the only one out of 85 editions) but editor here has 1980 and ISFDB page for that publisher ends in 1980. This edition seems rare so if anyone owns it can you check to make sure date, price, page count (Open Library says 188, not 187), etc. are correct? I left PV a message but they don't seem to answer any questions. --Username (talk) 10:01, 10 November 2023 (EST)

Letter From A Teddy Bear On ?

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:J-Sun#Letter_from_a_Teddy_Bear_on_Veteran.27s_Day; I doubt this editor will respond so if anyone else wants to say what the right way to do this is, chime in. I could have sworn this discussion took place much earlier but I see it was only last December and yet I added some weird image to my message, which I don't do, so not sure why I did that. --Username (talk) 13:46, 10 November 2023 (EST)

Varianted. Most common version used as parent per standard. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:26, 10 November 2023 (EST)

Who Is Lewis Pinder?

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?976273; MLB recently PV Signet PB and I just replaced faded Amazon cover with nice Bookscans cover but I can't find a cover for the HC anywhere. If anyone else can, can you upload it? --Username (talk) 23:29, 10 November 2023 (EST)

Request to add German fantastic literature price:

Hi all,

after adding the German "DSFP" award, I would like to add now the "Phantastikpreis der Stadt Wetzlar", another German fantastic price:

Translation: The “Fantasy Prize of the City of Wetzlar” has been awarded since 1983. The prize is a literary prize endowed with 4,000 euros and is awarded annually for a novel. The prize honors works from all types of fantasy, from magical realism to fantasy science fiction, utopia and horror. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that the fantastic element - similar to Goethe's “Magician's Apprentice” - also allows real life connections to appear in a new light. The prize is awarded by the city of Wetzlar in cooperation with the Wetzlar Fantastic Library. The jury consists of literary experts from Wetzlar and the surrounding area who have a close connection to fantastic literature.

Source (in German): https://www.phantastik.eu/ausschreibungen-und-preise/phantastikpreis-der-stadt-wetzlar.html

Forgot to sign it: Jannis (talk) 08:39, 12 November 2023 (EST)

I do think it should be perfectly eligible. Stonecreek (talk) 07:06, 12 November 2023 (EST)
I agree that it appears to be eligible. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:41, 13 November 2023 (EST)
Hearing no objection, I have created a new Award Type and an Award Category for this prize. Please let me know if there are any issues with the new records, otherwise have fun entering the awards :-) Ahasuerus (talk) 15:54, 17 November 2023 (EST)
Thats great! Thanks a lot Ahasuerus, I will add the books & authors of last winners of this price, and later link the price to their works. Jannis (talk) 05:16, 18 November 2023 (EST)

Pro Se

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=pro+se&type=Publisher; If anyone knows whether these are all by the same publisher some altering to bring them under the same publisher name would be helpful. They publish pulp-style stuff in all genres; neither of the books on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=pro-se-press&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222016%22, are on ISFDB, Sushi Bar... likely has some genre-related stories, probably other eligible books by them out there. --Username (talk) 21:46, 12 November 2023 (EST)

If memory serves, I used Amazon's Look Inside to look into "Pro Se" publishers/publication series at one point. Their books used a number of different forms of attribution and I couldn't figure out the logic behind it. Someone would need to do more digging to sort it all out. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:55, 13 November 2023 (EST)

Cyrano and Jules Verne

https://archive.org/search?query=airborne+alan-c; I added 2 anthologies recently, imported genre stories into Skyriders in a PENDING edit, imported 3 genre stories (Kipling, T. L. Thomas, O'Flaherty) into Airborne but there's a couple of ancient excerpts (?) that are a problem. The Cyrano title doesn't match the one on ISFDB and there is no such title by Verne here. Searching for Verne title online only got 1 hit, https://www.mwbooks.ie/pages/books/307419/alan-c-jenkins/airborne-compiled-by-alan-c-jenkins, an Irish bookseller's page for Airborne. Typing a line of text from Verne's story got nothing online. I doubt this book found some long-lost Verne story so I assume it's just a novel excerpt. Does anyone know? --Username (talk) 10:41, 13 November 2023 (EST)

Anna's Archive has a downloadable copy. According to the Acknowledgements page, the Cyrano title is a "passage from Other Worlds by Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Geoffrey Strachan". The Verne title is a "passage from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, translated by Jacqueline Baldick". Ahasuerus (talk) 12:15, 13 November 2023 (EST)
The submission has been approved. The two titles discussed above have been added. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:38, 13 November 2023 (EST)

Bellows

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?97465; I added FantLab photo in a PENDING edit, findagrave.com says Jeffrey, not Jeffery, and has "Kent" in quotes like it's a nickname but the grave says Kent Bellows, and what does the G. stand for? --Username (talk) 09:24, 14 November 2023 (EST)

Bizarrocast

[3]; I was going through the old horror webzine Rosewort, adding links (yes, I found ANOTHER D. F. Lewis story, "Aspen"), and the Ken Goldman story "Going Potty" had a dead link. Then I noticed that the Bizarrocast link in that story's record leads to a log-on page because the original site is gone, but the archived site hardly has any archived pages; I tried one from 2013, "How the Isle of Cats Got Its Name", and after waiting a long time for the page to load all I saw was Arabic (?) writing so even that seems to have been captured after the site was already dead. My link above searched for all title webpages with Bizarrocast in their URL and there's quite a few so if anyone knows whether there's a new site, say here. Otherwise, all those links should probably be deleted. --Username (talk) 13:16, 14 November 2023 (EST)

Book storage and moving boxes

When I packed my book collection for an interstate move last year, I mostly used the 1 cubic-foot book boxes sold by U-Haul. There were a total of about 135 boxes. I have just finished unpacking the last of them and no damage occurred to any of the books. I particularly liked that they stacked nicely and were easy to hold onto while moving them around. They were especially useful for moving and storing paperbacks. Since there always a need to put some books into storage, I recommend using these boxes. Cheers! Phil (talk) 17:16, 14 November 2023 (EST)

Bloodlust and Fangers

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?118655; Today I was adding links to any stories on the old Bloodlust-UK horror site that are on ISFDB and they seem to have redesigned the site some time after 2005 because there were a couple of links that had different URL's for the same stories. I did get quite a few links, including at least one that was published earlier on Bloodlust than what the note on ISFDB says and two by the same author that were supposedly original to one of her collections but were actually published on Bloodlust more than 10 years earlier, and was feeling pretty good about all that until tonight when I decided to see if the authors who got links had any other stories online nowadays, non-archived, and while looking for stories by Denise Sodaro this site came up, https://fangersinc.wordpress.com/tag/short-stories/, where they dumped most/all of the original site's stories without any note that I can see that these stories are nearly 2 decades old. I nearly cried at how much faster I could have added links from Fangers instead of trawling through the old site. Anyway, it seems they were collected in some recent Fangers anthologies; I feel bad for people paying money for these old stories that mostly shouldn't have been published the first time when online editors were hungry for content and would accept almost anything. However, there is one thing that could lead to something interesting; this guy, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?118655, seems to have plagiarized at least one story, "Jumpers", which I added a note to some time ago with an explanation of who actually wrote the story. His other ISFDB story is in an anthology that I read via Interlibrary Loan years before I was an editor here and I can't remember a word of it so no way to tell if that's original. Bloodlust had a story by Michael Steinberg, "Life, or Something Like It", but this Fangers site calls him M. O. Steinberg even though he was already using the M. O. name back when the original site was active so why he went by Michael is anyone's guess. I typed a line of text from "Life..." on Google but got no hits so I'm not sure if it's original or another plagiarism. So if anyone owns the anthology Dreaming of Angels and can read Steinberg's story or reads "Life..." and recognizes it as being by someone else, can you let us know? --Username (talk) 20:11, 16 November 2023 (EST)

Mark Powers - two different people

Currently for this author we have a bunch of UK juvenile titles, and some Jim Butcher/Dresden Files comics. I'm reasonably sure these are two different people: here is the agency page for the former, and here a publisher page for the latter, with neither page acknowledging the other work.

Unless anyone objects, I propose to split these off, probably making the second one "Mark Powers (comics)" unless there are better suggestions. ErsatzCulture (talk) 13:54, 17 November 2023 (EST)

I agree. This is a page showing a pic of the Dresden comics writer. Definitely not the person shown in the two Twitter/X profiles on our author page. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:00, 17 November 2023 (EST)
The Dresden Files comics should now all be switched over to the new author record. Thanks for confirmation! ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:59, 19 November 2023 (EST)

Twitter changed to "X/Twitter"

I am seeing more and more references to "X" instead of "Twitter". I have changed the way third party links appear on bibliographic pages from "Twitter" to "X/Twitter" to reflect this. It's a trivial change, so we can always tweak it again if the name changes. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:46, 17 November 2023 (EST)

Darrell Awards

https://web.archive.org/web/20120908050157/http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~timgatewood/sf/darrell/DarrellWinners_Categories_96to12.pdf; I came across that while looking for something else entirely and since some here like entering new awards and this doesn't seem to be on ISFDB I thought I'd link it in case anyone wants to enter it if it's eligible. --Username (talk) 13:49, 19 November 2023 (EST)

Final Frontier Cover

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?13334; I noticed there was a Greg and Gregory Brodeur here, made Gregory an alternate, made variant of one of his essays and merged 3 into 1 for the other essay (a variant will need to be made of that result after, I think), noticed 1st printing of Final Frontier '88 US PB was on Archive.org so added a link, finally noticed BORIS VALLEJO is credited for a foreign edition but not for any of the others even though they have the same art, Bluesman who was PV of 2 editions is long gone so if active PV of US PB agree with PV, Welo, that added art (they didn't mention where they got it in their notes) then cover credit can be added to all with date of US PB. --Username (talk) 19:00, 19 November 2023 (EST)

The German translation states Boris Vallejo as cover artist on the copyright page. But, i wouldn't take this as given for every other release without another source to verify. At the time the german publishers weren't the reliablest for infos on the copyright pages, they had sometimes wrong infos (copied from previous pubs, but not correct). I've stumbled over a few wrong ones over time. Welo (talk) 12:31, 1 December 2023 (EST)

SFWA Bulletin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?951170; I was doing Bruce McAllister edits and there's 1 Bruce McAllaster credit here (along with a correct spelling elsewhere in it) but SFWA.org says McAllister so probably a misprint by PV. Also, Gatherng should be Gathering, Nores should be Notes, etc. If anyone can see a real copy all of those can probably be fixed. I assume there are many other mistakes in the other issues of this bulletin since the same PV worked on most/all of them. --Username (talk) 11:11, 20 November 2023 (EST)

Book of Ballads Dates

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Ofearna#Book_of_Ballads; Does anyone agree with me that the 2004 contents should be November instead of October? They say they're original to this book in their notes. --Username (talk) 17:39, 21 November 2023 (EST)

Lecrivain

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=the+last+swan+prince&type=All+Titles; 2017 zine has no period after the C in her name, 2020 webzine does, story's title page will need to be seen to determine if 2017 really doesn't have it, then there should be a merge or a variant. Her other story in that zine doesn't have a period, either, according to ISFDB. --Username (talk) 18:25, 21 November 2023 (EST)

Ormazoids

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5816628; Since PV is deceased if anyone wants to add/fix anything mentioned in my note to mod, feel free. EDIT: Seems logical UK edition would have been first for a Who book so title date should probably be 1986-00-00 unless anyone can determine exact UK date. --Username (talk) 18:56, 21 November 2023 (EST)

Patterns of the Fantastic II

https://archive.org/search?query=%22patterns+of+the+fantastic%22&sort=title; Copyright page says December 1984, title page says 1986 in roman numerals, ISFDB says May 1985. If anyone knows what's the deal here they may want to add the link where appropriate and fix dates if needed. --Username (talk) 00:22, 23 November 2023 (EST)

The title page date is on a sticker that has been applied after printing. That sticker also has "Borgo Press". So it could be Borgo was selling copies for Starmont House or they made a photographic reprint and stuck their sticker on it. May 1985 is the date Locus1 has so that might have been the source for the ISFDB record. Rtrace has secondary verified it with Clute/Nicholls and Reginald3. I will ping him to see if either of those might has some info to shed light on the situation. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:53, 23 November 2023 (EST)
Neither Reginald3 nor Clute/Nicholls mention Borgo. The former has a 1985 date while the latter has 1984. Chalker/Owings has the 1984 date. BP 300 has 1985. This is probably due to the difference between copyright and publication dates. Also from BP 300, Borgo acquired Starmont in March 1993 after having purchased Starmont's Contemporary Writers Series in 1991. If I had to guess, the sticker is likely a cancel of the Starmont publisher and perhaps the 1986 date is due to a typo (VI vs IV). With that scenario, the sticker was likely added sometime after 1993 when Borgo purchased Starmont. Chalker/Owings does note that the purchase included Starmont's back stock. Regardless, if we decided to add a new publication record for the Borgo cancel of Starmont, I don't think we can date it exactly and I'd recommend using the unknown date. Hope this helps. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 09:13, 23 November 2023 (EST)
I made the following changes:
  • Updated the Starmont House editions with the stated publication date as per ISFDB standards. I also included a pub note on the secondary source dates and a statement that it was likely not out until after the stated publication date.
  • Cloned an undated Borgo Press edition with a statement regarding Borgo Press buying Starmont House backstock & the uncertainty of the Roman numeral date's meaning.
  • Added the contents.
-- JLaTondre (talk) 08:21, 25 November 2023 (EST)

Philip K. Dick Reader

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1365790; I cloned an 11th printing and publisher is Citadel+Kensington like 2016 but cover is same as 1997 which says publisher is Citadel Twilight; does anyone own a 1st printing who can say whether it says Twilight or if 1997 should be changed to Kensington? Twilight books had a certain bluish look about their covers and they say Twilight on the cover which this book doesn't. Per note on ISFDB Twilight ended in 2000 so it's possible it was a Twilight book and it was only mentioned inside. --Username (talk) 10:46, 24 November 2023 (EST)

ASIN

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?966441; Clicking US ASIN leads to a different magazine; I don't know if that happens often or not but I thought I'd mention it. --Username (talk) 18:07, 24 November 2023 (EST)

There are two ISFDB records sharing the same ASIN, "B0CDQWPL1Z":
Their respective Edit Histories show that the 2 pubs were manually entered by the same editor on the same day. Most likely it was a copy-and-paste error. I have corrected the erroneous ASIN; thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 21:17, 24 November 2023 (EST)

Salt Is Not For Slaves

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=salt+is&type=All+Titles; I can't find a copy of 1931 Ghost Stories issue where it says E. W. supposedly, can confirm it's G. W. in Book of the Living Dead (added link in a PENDING edit from OL-only no-search copy). --Username (talk) 12:19, 25 November 2023 (EST)

Rustin Parr

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?36131; Title was entered in 2011, I've made 3 edits (one in each of the last 3 years), and only today noticed the title was wrong; it's Confession, not Confessions. Fixed that in a PENDING edit and while doing so noticed there are 2 foreign editions, https://archive.org/search?query=%22rustin+parr%22+stern&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222000%22, in case anyone fluent wants to enter those. I also have an edit adding UK Boxtree 4th printing of The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier by the same author; there is a HC book club (?) edition of the Onyx edition on Archive.org but I didn't bother with that. --Username (talk) 21:29, 26 November 2023 (EST)

Khaw & Kadrey's The Dead Take the A Train

Re. this title, I propose deleting the pub dated 2022-09-27. That was the original publication date, which was pushed back a full year. I have added this detail to the notes for actual pub when it was released (2023-10-03), so the earlier pub record is now redundant. Any objections from anyone? PeteYoung (talk) 07:43, 27 November 2023 (EST)

Would it not be better to make the pub date 8888-00-00, rather than deleting the record? That way the ISBN is still in the database in case anyone else tries adding it in future? ErsatzCulture (talk) 08:36, 27 November 2023 (EST)
Yeah, that sounds sensible. Done. PeteYoung (talk) 15:49, 27 November 2023 (EST)

ayaz daryl nielsen

Are there any objections to using lowercase for Ayaz Daryl Nielsen. I have never seen him credited any other way. John Scifibones 09:01, 27 November 2023 (EST)

Hearing no objections, the change has been made. John Scifibones 10:31, 3 December 2023 (EST)

Eichner

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=m.+eichner&type=Name; While adding links and other stuff to E. Everett Evans books I noticed Eichner shows up twice as an illustrator and I assume those are the same people which would mean a variant is needed. Also, Eichner's birth date is off by 10 days from Wikipedia and most sites seem to agree it's 9, not 19, so the day may need changing. --Username (talk) 00:38, 30 November 2023 (EST)

Disabling the Synopsis field for Variant Titles

Back in April 2022 "Make This a Variant Title" 2022-04-30 was modified to move VTs' Synopsis data to their parent titles. A new cleanup report, Variant Title with Synopsis Data, was created at the same time.

The original plan was to:

  • clean up any titles found by this cleanup report (1,600+ at the time)
  • confirm that there were no scenarios where a VT needed to have Synopsis data
  • change "Edit Title" to disable the Synopsis field for VTs

The first step was never completed, so the process stalled. I have now processed/corrected around 50 (out of 1546) affected title record. It is as we suspected. Most just needed their synopsis data to be moved to the parent titles. Some needed two synopsis entries reconciled. A few were in error, e.g. there was Notes data in the Synopsis field or vice versa. A few Synopsis values were using a language other than English, which is explicitly not allowed in Help.

Based on the above, I think it's safe to change the software to disallow entering Synopsis data for VTs. If there are no objections, I plan to work on it over the next few days. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:03, 30 November 2023 (EST)

Will this block adding a synopsis to a serial title? In at least this case, each of the serial titles is a separate novella that could justifiably have its own synopsis. Phil (talk) 21:57, 1 December 2023 (EST)
That's right, the proposed change would prevent Synopsis values from being added to SERIAL titles. I don't think it should cause significant issues since semi-standalone SERIALs are rare and could be handled the way we handled George Lowther's Superman:
  • Chapters 1-2 describe Superman's planet of origin, Krypton. Chapters 3-5 deal with Clark Kent's childhood with his adoptive parents. In chapter 6, Clark goes to Metropolis and gets a job with the Daily Planet. The remaining eleven chapters deal with a mystery involving ghost ships and Nazi spies.
Ahasuerus (talk) 10:53, 2 December 2023 (EST)
That's what I thought. Hmmm. I don't think that would work in the case of Last Stand since each of the installments (Episodes) are approx. 20,000 word novellas which have differing focus characters within the pseudo-TV series framework and the summaries should be more than a couple of words each. I'm not convinced it is truly a serial anyway. Anniemod set this up initially and I've been following suit since. I could just as well see this as a series called Last Stand with the individual novellas as normal Chapbooks/Shortfiction titles. Phil (talk) 12:52, 2 December 2023 (EST)
If they have different focus characters and different plots requiring different synopses, then I agree that they sound more like linked stories than a serialization. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:09, 2 December 2023 (EST)
I'm the only PV for these. On deeper examination, I believe they are linked stories, not serials. I'm going toss a note to Annie and then convert these from serials to shortfiction, unvarianting the titles, and grouping them under the series Last Stand. Phil (talk) 07:37, 3 December 2023 (EST)

Outcome: Software has been changed

Hearing no further objections, I have changed "Edit Title" to disallow entering Synopsis data for variant titles. Template:TitleFields:Synopsis‎ has been updated as follows:

  • A synopsis can only be entered for canonical titles. The software won't let you add a Synopsis to a variant title.

If you come across any issues, please let me know. All that's left is cleaning up the remaining 1400+ VTs which still have Synopsis values. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:15, 5 December 2023 (EST)

There was a minor bug in the associated cleanup report. It was causing three valid title records to appear on the report. The bug has been fixed. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:54, 6 December 2023 (EST)

Nightly cleanup reports fixed

It turns out that the recent addition of a Notes template with an apostrophe in its name -- "Achevé D’Imprimer" -- broke the automated nightly process which regenerates cleanup reports. The software was fixed a few minutes ago and everything should be back to normal tomorrow morning. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:12, 30 November 2023 (EST)

New superseries for Glynn Stewart's Castle Federation

Would anyone object if I create a new superseries named Castle Federation Universe which would have the existing series Castle Federation as subseries #1 and Dakotan Confederacy as subseries #2? Phil (talk) 18:14, 1 December 2023 (EST)

No objection -- book covers and Goodreads reviews confirm it. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:09, 1 December 2023 (EST)
Done. Phil (talk) 21:52, 1 December 2023 (EST)

Julie Novakova/Nováková

The page for this author has "Novakova" in her name, and states uses accentless spelling of her surname for foreign publications.. However I just checked her collection and an anthology she contributed a story to, and an anthology she co-edited, and all use "Nováková". I assume these should at least be a variant, but I don't have the privileges to see who might have added that author note, in case they can shed any further light?

(Also, "foreign publications" seems a bit Anglocentric, especially in conjunction with a Czech author?) ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:38, 2 December 2023 (EST)

Ghosts of the Chit-Chat

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?869953; Contents #1, #4-7, #9, and #12 are not original; they're much older stories with at least one (Tatham) being under a different name (H. F. W.) and title ("Phonograph Bewitched"), plus a couple of authors that are not already on ISFDB (although J. K. Stephens may be James Stephens who is). If anyone owns this or knows where to get a look at the full text some fixing/merging is needed after determining what names and titles are actually used in it. --Username (talk) 21:02, 2 December 2023 (EST)

Best of John W. Campbell

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1212025; I have a PENDING edit adding Archive.org link to '76 US PB and another edit adding month to intro but the afterword has a variant with neither having a month. PB doesn't actually say afterword on that essay's title page so this may be a false variant that needs merging into one. --Username (talk) 19:26, 4 December 2023 (EST)

Best New Romantic Fantasy

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?29658; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5827168; Re: this series, I don't think #3 was ever published like a lot of announced Juno books. There's almost no info online, nobody ever entered contents, etc. I think it should get an unpublished date here. --Username (talk) 13:58, 5 December 2023 (EST)

Sanjulian

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?914; Should this be changed to Sarjulian and made a variant of his parent name? Because it's supposed to be what's on the page, not what PV thinks it should be. --Username (talk) 19:03, 5 December 2023 (EST)

Dutch Plot

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?28987; '79 Plot doesn't belong with the others. --Username (talk) 10:50, 6 December 2023 (EST)

Very Special People

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5828417; A copy of the rare 1977 horror novel The Soul of Anna Klane was uploaded to Archive.org earlier this year and I just came across it, it's a second impression so I cloned it, uploader messed up because the jacket is from an awesome book about circus people (or freaks as they were called back in the day) that anyone my age probably remembers reading or at least looking at the photos. Would anything by the author, https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL529624A/Frederick_Drimmer, qualify to be on ISFDB? --Username (talk) 20:59, 6 December 2023 (EST)

Is "Frederick Drimmer" the author of The Soul of Anna Klane? The covers say the author is Terrel Miedaner. The only one from the list of Frederick Drimmer's works that looks like it might be includable is The Body Snatchers, but it depends on what it's about. All his other works seem to be nonfiction about non-genre topics. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:33, 7 December 2023 (EST)
Other works by Miedaner that might be includable include [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181242.The_Mind_s_I The Mind's I, in which he has a story or essay (not sure which as the book contains both). It has a work by Stanislaw Lem in it. I couldn't find anything else by Miedaner that could be included. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:40, 7 December 2023 (EST)
Miedaner wrote the novel, Drimmer wrote dozens of non-fiction books including some about genre-related topics that I thought might qualify. Maybe someone will find one or two with something in them that can be entered. The novel seems to have had a lot of other editions not on ISFDB including some foreign editions with weird covers so maybe someone fluent could enter those. Also, the Mind's I book you mentioned is on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=terrel+miedaner, in case you think that qualifies to be entered here. --Username (talk) 12:55, 7 December 2023 (EST)

Gary Allen

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?87741; The author of None Dare... died long before the other works on his page were written so obviously by a different Allen; he has his own Wikipedia. However, I don't think there should be a variant but rather the novel removed because it's not really a novel, it's an anti-Communist diatribe by a member of the John Birch Society that's been reprinted endlessly. --Username (talk) 13:42, 7 December 2023 (EST)

Book has been deleted. Clear nongenre, nonfiction by a different author than the speculative fiction Gary Allen. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:16, 7 December 2023 (EST)

Twice Twenty-Two

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL103175W/Twice_twenty-two?edition=key%3A/books/OL26558953M; 2 copies, one searchable and one not, searchable one has a gutter code on p. 405, "03 N", which is not in the book club edition's note about gutter codes on ISFDB. Non-searchable one has no code. So if anyone knows how to identify dates from the code they may want to enter at least the copy that has a code. --Username (talk) 11:58, 8 December 2023 (EST)

Schrecksekunden

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5830404; Does anyone recognize the cover I added? I'm almost sure I've seen it before on an English-language book; if so, artist is likely on ISFDB for that and can be added to this. --Username (talk) 09:44, 9 December 2023 (EST)

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/emergence/ and that conveniently also has From the Heart of Darkness cover. Looks like we have this. --MartyD (talk) 11:05, 9 December 2023 (EST)
The PV of the affected pub is active and a moderator, so I pointed him at this. --MartyD (talk) 11:10, 9 December 2023 (EST)
The cover of [Schrecksekunden] is correct. Regards Rudolf Rudam (talk) 05:43, 10 December 2023 (EST)
Submission approved. Cover credit added to Schrecksekunden with a publication note specifying the secondary source & new cover art record varianted to the prior one. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:19, 10 December 2023 (EST)

Aiken's World Well Lost

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?915733; I don't think Joan published a book with this title but rather it was her brother, John, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?135, so Joan's record for that book should probably be deleted. --Username (talk) 19:06, 9 December 2023 (EST)

Deleted. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:24, 10 December 2023 (EST)

Pan Mystery Walk

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?556649; Someone just uploaded a foreign cover for Baal, one of Robert R. McCammon's novels, which led me to do some edits for other of his books (there's a lot left to do even though I've done many previously). There's a $75 Subterranean Press signed limited edition of The Night Boat which has been on Archive.org since April of last year which I somehow never noticed before so I added a link to that but the Pan edition of Mystery Walk only has a 2nd printing uploaded; the question is whether the 1st printing also says Stephen Crisp on back cover instead of Steve Crisp, which is what's on ISFDB. So if anyone owns a 1st printing (I don't see anything online except 1 eBay auction where they took photos of everything EXCEPT the copyright page) and it says Stephen then that needs fixing. --Username (talk) 17:38, 11 December 2023 (EST)

International Polygonics Edition of Liars and Tyrants and People Who Turn Blue

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?20274; I've made a few edits for this before but noticed today a copy was uploaded to Archive.org earlier this year so I added a link, replaced postage stamp-sized Amazon cover with their cover, and added LCCN (their site screwed up entering the title). However, the copy has a big thick sticker obscuring the cover art credit on the back; it seems to start with Kev so probably Kevin; no other books on ISFDB from the publisher have that in the artist's name so if anyone has/can find a copy can you let us know what the artist's name is? --Username (talk) 19:51, 12 December 2023 (EST)

Brennan's Riddle

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?308567; Been doing some Joseph Payne Brennan edits and this one is odd; there's no content. Is it possible that it contains his 1964 poem "Riddle"? It's likely not a collection but a chapbook or something similar. I added cover image and FantLab ID in a PENDING edit. --Username (talk) 12:29, 13 December 2023 (EST)

Dedications in Poems

I'm holding this submission to alter the title of this poem based on this web page from the magazine's web site. My question is whether "(For Edgar Allen Poe)" should be considered as part of the subtitle, or whether that is a separate dedication that should not be included in the title field. If we go with the latter, it could be added to the notes. My recollection is that poems occasionally have "For XXX" listed in a smaller typeface under the title though usually without the parenthesis. I don't think we usually include these as part of the title field. How do other folks feel about this. If there is disagreement, we can move this to the rules and standards page. Thoughts? Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 09:50, 14 December 2023 (EST)

Personally, I wouldn't include this as part of the title. It is somewhat similar to the way some sources treat additional information, for example for series - like in The Death of a Hero (Star Wars), and it is a dedication. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:35, 14 December 2023 (EST)
Dedications are a common occurrence, I never include them in the title. If someone wishes to put then in the note section, I would not object. John Scifibones 13:25, 14 December 2023 (EST)
Hearing no differing opinions, I will reject the edit. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 15:08, 22 December 2023 (EST)

Pocket Pulse

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?269828; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?251391; Should these very old entries by the late PV be changed to Pocket Pulse as the publisher so they merge with all the many others on ISFDB? --Username (talk) 13:08, 14 December 2023 (EST)

Martha Wells / All Systems Red - Code P1

Some copies of the original tp of All Systems Red have a code "P1" underneath "First Edition: May 2017" on the copyright page. Other copies have no code; the corresponding area is blank. Does anyone know the meaning of this code? Some online booksellers says this code denotes the first printing (or first state of first printing) but this seems to be their opinion. Is there any independent, documented, verifiable evidence of its meaning? Secondly, how should this be recorded in the ISFDb? We have two records: PoD and non-PoD. Should I create a new pub record for the P1 code version or should I just add a pub note to an existing record stating that some copies have this code? Teallach (talk) 18:41, 14 December 2023 (EST)

Rich Grote

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?176753; I added, in a PENDING edit, archived site (online now is dead) richgrote.com and Behance page and wickedlocal.com article which revealed he's from New Jersey. There is a Rick Grote credit, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?112933, but his bio at various sites online says he started in 1976 while this book is from 1975. Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?123700, where one actually says Grote in the book while the other was not named but editor entered it from cover signature. So if anyone can say for sure that Grote or Rick Grote are Rich Grote then those can be made variants. --Username (talk) 19:42, 14 December 2023 (EST)

Ash of Stars

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?102752; I was doing a bunch of James Sallis edits recently (links to several short stories, archived link to Shores Beneath, adding a massive collection from 2007 titled Potato Tree) and noticed this book about Delany. I don't do many edits for Delany because I can't stand him personally but I'm sure many people here like his work so I'll mention that the copy on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=sallis+delany, the copy on Amazon.com and the copy on Google Books all have the same ISBN on back cover with the barcode saying 53950 which means price is $39.50 but ISFDB says $42.50. Also, ISBN is for HC supposedly but archived copy looks like TP to me. So if anyone wants to add a link to the copy and fill in anything else or change anything, please feel free. --Username (talk) 08:58, 15 December 2023 (EST)

Scheduled server maintenance - 3pm 2023-12-15

The ISFDB server will be down for scheduled maintenance between 3pm and roughly 3:10pm server (EST) time on 2023-12-15 (today). Ahasuerus (talk) 13:39, 15 December 2023 (EST)

The server is back up. Thank you for your patience. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:08, 15 December 2023 (EST)

Brian Keith Evenson = Brian Evenson?

Any thoughts/objections on making Brian Keith Evenson a variant of Brian Evenson? The former has just 2 pieces of short fiction in 1986 and 1989 (both with difficult to Google titles), which slightly predates the earliest work of the latter. Howevever (a) "K." is listed as the middle initial of the legal name of "Brian Evenson" (with SFE saying this it is "Keith"), and (b) the 1989 story was published by Brigham University, which Wikipedia says is where Brian Evenson got a degree and was later employed. Evenson's site doesn't have any detailed bibliography that might help clarify those two early stories are his. ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:39, 15 December 2023 (EST)

The source given for The Leading Edge, September 1989 is FictionMags Index. Checking them, they have these as the same author. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:50, 15 December 2023 (EST)
Thanks - I've now set up variants/alternates for the author and two title records. ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:37, 17 December 2023 (EST)

Conan the Valiant

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?982255; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5836070; Added a few archived links to some of Roland Green's Conan novels, went backwards so first novel was looked at last, it already had a link added by someone last year, as can be seen in my edit above the cover is not the same as the later editions, any Ken W. Kelly experts who know his style can say if both are his work in which case art needs unmerging or if Tor mistakenly carried over Kelly's credit for the later art by someone else. --Username (talk) 21:07, 16 December 2023 (EST)

F. Piatti

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=co+piatti&type=Name; 2 credits for each, one should be parent assuming credits are correct; maybe they're all really spelled the same and someone just entered one or the other name wrong here. --Username (talk) 11:38, 17 December 2023 (EST)

Done. Thanks for this find! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 04:36, 18 December 2023 (EST)

Abridged editions?

Do we include abridged editions? I know we don't include dramatizations but the help doesn't seem to say anything about abridged editions. Thanks! Phil (talk) 15:02, 17 December 2023 (EST)

Sure we do! It's possible to add them to the general title (and add a note to the publication), or if the abridgement does alter the story in a major way to add it as a variant, or if another hand is credited for the abridgement to add it as a stand-alone title, like in this title. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 04:44, 18 December 2023 (EST)
Thanks for the clarification. I've started to run across a number of audio items that have abridged versions but haven't been sure if I should add them. Phil (talk) 07:37, 18 December 2023 (EST)
I have been told that abridgements are certainly accepted, but that they are never added as variants. How to deal properly with them was incorporated when dealing with translations, which are made variants but the difference in language makes it possible to distinguish them from name/author variations. ../Doug H (talk) 08:39, 18 December 2023 (EST)
That's certainly true for audio versions/readings: here it is quite a regular case that they are abridged, so they should just be added with a note under the respective title. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 12:33, 18 December 2023 (EST)

(unindent) Abridged editions are included. The FAQ says:

  • If an individual story is rewritten or revised, then we create a Variant Title for it and add the nature of the changes, e.g. "expanded", "abridged" or "restored", in the Notes section. Please note that these conventions are likely to change in the foreseeable future as we beef up our software in this area.
The original Feature Request to change the software to display "relationships" between titles was created back in 2008, but it hasn't been implemented yet.
Of course, when dealing with drastically changed titles, e.g. novels reduced to excerpts or short stories expanded to novel length, we create separate title records. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:33, 19 December 2023 (EST)
To the original question - abridgements are in. I am questioning the varianting advice. I also once noted the lack of documentation on abridgements specifically. The original place I was told not to variant abridgements was in this conversation. The argument was that variants were for title / author variations or translations as a special case due to limitations in the software. Only one moderator said so, but no one contradicted, so have been going by this since. There were earlier and later discussions (I doubt I found them all) with varying degrees of agreement but no resolution.
And the FAQ reference above was answering a question about portions of a story appearing earlier in a novel that is expanded or created from a series of shorter stories. The HELP on variants says at the beginning that they are only for title and author variations, but later talks about how to deal with translations (with a link to how-to details). ../Doug H (talk) 23:50, 19 December 2023 (EST)
Help:Screen:MakeVariant says:
  • Two title records are variants if they are in fact the same story, but have either a different title, or use alternate names for the author.
Translations are effectively "the same story" for our purposes, but I agree that it's not made clear in the statement above. We should probably update it. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:16, 20 December 2023 (EST)
It sounds like abridgements should not be varianted. But there's no help on how to document the relationship to the original - be it in the Notes or a linking template. ../Doug H (talk) 23:50, 19 December 2023 (EST)
I'm following this closely since most audio abridgements are significantly shorter than their unabridged brethren (should they exist for comparison). Often 2-3 hours compared to 8+ hours. The source novel is often in the 270 page range. Phil (talk) 08:57, 20 December 2023 (EST)
I would expect a version that contains only 25-33% of the original material to be considered a separate derivative work. Kind of like E. Nesbit's juvenile adaptations of William Shakespeare's works are listed as separate works with the word "(abridged)" appended to the end of the title: "A Midsummer Night's Dream (abridged)", "The Tempest (abridged)", etc. Except, of course, there would be no additional co-author. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:52, 20 December 2023 (EST)
To me, this makes the most sense. If it's significantly abridged, it should be a separate work (for example, I think the abridged audio releases of The Courtship of Princess Leia should be separate as they are only 3 hours as opposed to the unabridged version of 14 hours (finally being released in January)). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:00, 20 December 2023 (EST)
Based on this guidance, the title above has now been split into The Courtship of Princess Leia and The Courtship of Princess Leia (abridged). Phil (talk) 18:02, 20 December 2023 (EST)

Présence du Futur

Ex-editor Hauck entered some entries in this endless French series but only basic info. I came across a manual which I added as a link, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5837420, although I have no idea if it contains anything useful, then I entered several missing bits of info for Gravité à la manque from Open Library, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5837421. I then came across a title with an actual copy, but rather than stumble my way through entering info from books in a language I'm not fluent in I'm just going to list this, https://archive.org/search?query=%22une+collection+d%27inedits+au+format+de+poche%22&sin=TXT&and%5B%5D=collection%3A%22inlibrary%22, so if anyone can find anything useful to enter from those they can do so. --Username (talk) 00:34, 19 December 2023 (EST)

Crash Override

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?659223; I added archived link and a few other things in a PENDING edit to the other book by the publisher, the novel The Secret. Publisher actually has no space between the 2 words in its name so I fixed that and then was going to check online to see if it was the same for this much later book but realized this probably shouldn't be here since it's not by a known author and it really has nothing to do with genre. So should it be deleted? --Username (talk) 10:54, 19 December 2023 (EST)

I was advised some time ago and it is my understanding that any works shortlisted for a genre award (in this case a Hugo) are considered in. This exception is called out in our policy page but only for online publications. Perhaps we should be more specific. Aside from that, my recollection from reading the book in 2018 is that it is chiefly about the Gamergate event which is tightly coupled with the Sad/Rabid Puppies movements. I don't recall how much Quinn went into the latter, but if at all, it would certainly qualify this as a book about speculative fiction. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 11:51, 19 December 2023 (EST)
OK. It's PublicAffairs in Amazon look inside so I'm going to fix that so both books on ISFDB will be by the same publisher. EDIT: There's 1 archived copy which was uploaded in May, 2021 but wasn't added until January, 2023 (?!?) so I also added a link to that. --Username (talk) 12:14, 19 December 2023 (EST)

Napoleon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?31091; I added archived links to Minstrel Boy and ...Overhead and fixed formats to TP for both; publisher was also changed to Napoleon Publishing for those 2 and ...Yard because Napoleon & Company, as explained on the copyright pages, is a parent company and Publishing is the actual imprint. The problem now is the 2 e-book Gargoyle editions don't actually show a copyright page on Amazon and, more importantly, Time Thief's beautiful Napoleon cover is nowhere online and ISBN defaults to the Dundurn Press edition's less beautiful cover. Looking at Dundurn's Wiki page they bought Napoleon in 2011 which makes sense because Blogspot page linked in Napoleon's record on ISFDB ends in February, 2011, a month before their Time Thief edition was supposedly published. So maybe someone can say whether Time Thief Napoleon edition should get an unpublished date of 8888-88-88 and whether that and the 2 e-books should have their publisher changed to Napoleon Publishing just to keep everything together. --Username (talk) 19:13, 19 December 2023 (EST)

John Allen

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?186482; Likely 3 or 4 different authors on the same page in case anyone can find info to separate some or all of them. --Username (talk) 19:32, 19 December 2023 (EST)

I split the entry into three. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:18, 20 December 2023 (EST)

Stateham Banners

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?3575; Archived copy uploaded in 2020 so I added a link in a PENDING edit; note about frontispiece is wrong as it is credited on copyright page (an editor of Canadian edition noted this correctly) so maybe one of the active editors (Willem, GlennMcG, Spacecow) can fix note so it says the same as Canadian edition. --Username (talk) 19:23, 20 December 2023 (EST)

Speedy In OZ

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?366452; Oz fans, a request. I saw a lot of Oz edits in the queue recently and discovered many of R.P. Thompson's books were reprinted in PB in the eighties. I added archived links to the 4 I found but Speedy has a missing cover and most online ones are of the weird $19.00 reprint that nobody seems to know much about; the archived cover sucks because it has 3 huge stickers on the bottom obscuring things and a cover on Biblio.com is shot too far away, has a Barbed Wire Books business card in front of it, and has some plastic holder or something at the bottom of it. So if anyone can find a clear and clean cover, can you upload it? Thanks. --Username (talk) 19:45, 21 December 2023 (EST)

The Dread

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22179; Year and subtitle (Allen, seen on sfpoetry.com) different than other ISFDB record; poem here, https://poetrynz.net/pdf/PNZ48.pdf, says Allan. --Username (talk) 16:16, 22 December 2023 (EST)

Knock on Wood

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=0-671-04070-7+&type=ISBN; Cover says Vornholt; why is Friesner credited for the same book? EDIT: Also Witchopoly, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=0-671-02806-5&type=ISBN. --Username (talk) 17:37, 25 December 2023 (EST)

Deleted the two Friesner ones. All reliable sources show these two ISBNs as by Vornholt which matches cover. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:06, 30 December 2023 (EST)

Yesterday We Saw Mermaids

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?55736; Cover is the Tor edition but it's on the Wiki so the Pan cover would need uploading to replace it; problem is I can't find it because all eBay copies are Tor. So either it's rare or vaporware. Help, if you can. --Username (talk) 18:00, 25 December 2023 (EST)

Finding forgotten horror story

Hi, all. I hope you all had merry Christmases (if you celebrate). Someone on Goodreads is trying to find a horror story he or she read in the '70s about gentle hand-shaped creatures who live in a forest near a town or village. But then several people are found strangled with hand-shaped bruises on their throats. (Spoilers ahead.) The creatures are rounded up and killed. But the killings continue, and the townspeople realize the creatures were all shaped like left hands, while the bruises on throats are from a right hand (or vice versa). Does this story sound familiar to anyone? Thanks! —Rosab618 (talk) 01:40, 26 December 2023 (EST)

Sidgwick & Jackson Prices

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5843103; I was looking at the Science Fiction Specials (added a couple more links because a few of them were hiding on Archive.org using a title of one of the contents instead of the overall title) and also am adding links and other stuff to books from the publisher by the authors in the Specials. I've noticed their prices on the front flaps are a mess with some being old pre-decimal prices and others being stickered with decimal prices. In this Asimov case you can see a pre-decimal price under the sticker that looks like 35s to me but I can't find any copies online that show the flap. So if anyone knows what the original price was, thinks it should be cloned, etc. let us know. --Username (talk) 09:29, 27 December 2023 (EST)

Silverberg and Neverness

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:SFJuggler#The_Time_Travelers; Linking this here in case anyone else might own a copy of the Donald I. Fine edition of Neverness. Also, should we make the Silverberg thing a pub. series? There's got to be more than 2 books in it; Archive.org search isn't the most accurate and there could be books not archived that are part of the series. --Username (talk) 17:40, 27 December 2023 (EST)

I have the Donald I. Fine 1st hc edition of Zindell's Neverness. It does state "A Robert Silverberg Science Fiction Selection" on rear flap and also "RS/SF" on spine of dj. I have also discovered that Sturgeon's Godbody has the same features. Looks like a pub series to me, even if it didn't last very long and didn't have many books in it. I have Godbody so I will PV both these pubs and edit them to create and add the pub series. Teallach (talk) 18:40, 2 January 2024 (EST)
Great, thanks! A search for the exact series title on Google only finds the ISFDB record for Godbody and my message on the SFJuggler board. --Username (talk) 18:55, 2 January 2024 (EST)

Where the Southern Cross the Dog

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?326635; Does anyone own the August 2002 issue of Locus? I added cover/interior artist and intro by S. R. Tem but I can't find the titles of the stories anywhere, 3 supposedly, and it was reviewed by Edward Bryant in that issue. Maybe he mentioned them. --Username (talk) 18:05, 27 December 2023 (EST)

Ah ha, I recently added a link to 40+ years' worth of microfilmed Locus issues on Archive.org and vaguely remembered that I had asked about an issue of Locus recently. I checked that 2002 issue and yes, all 3 stories were mentioned. The one original, "Black Angel Blues", doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere at all online (until now). --Username (talk) 22:46, 17 February 2024 (EST)

Siergiejew

https://readfrom.net/michael-aronovitz/364512-the_voices_in_our_heads.html; It's Marius Siergiejew in that link, no z in first name but also no "Noistromo", I checked Unlikely Entomology issue and it is Mariusz, so both should be variants assuming all the ones under Marius "Noistromo" actually have the correct name entered; now that the link above shows there's at least one with just Marius maybe that should become the parent after name is fixed and the nickname should be the variant. I added a Blogspot link to the Marius record. --Username (talk) 18:47, 29 December 2023 (EST)

Alternate name created. I would not consider that site reliable enough to change a verified pub. Unfortunately, the verifier is no longer active so we will have to wait for someone else to re-verify it. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:58, 30 December 2023 (EST)

Webs of Time

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pub_history.cgi?54122; Does anyone think the replacement cover I used is better than the old one? Mod didn't agree. --Username (talk) 22:35, 29 December 2023 (EST)

Well, the overall quality (= colour likeness) seemed better with the amazon source, and I do assume that this source will be more stable than Fantlab (and presumably that's the line of thought Chris_J also tended towards). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 06:26, 30 December 2023 (EST)
I guess; anyway, my replacement cover will still be in edit history so that's something. --Username (talk) 08:53, 30 December 2023 (EST)

Fanni S.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=fanni+s&type=Name; Probably the same person, maybe entries under the first name really don't have the special "u" or maybe editors didn't enter it that way. --Username (talk) 00:21, 30 December 2023 (EST)

The three records with Suto all had Amazon Samples available which showed they should have been Sütő. Only one was verified and that verifier is showing as not active in several years. I made the changes. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:46, 30 December 2023 (EST)

Pandora Effect

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?45062; I added Archive.org link in a PENDING edit, do any of the active PV think an August month should be added to dates as notes say? --Username (talk) 11:10, 31 December 2023 (EST)

Great Tales of Action and Adventure

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5846199; Cover question about this '67 10th printing I just added. It says Richard Powers on copyright page but Robert Shore on back, Powers credit possibly left over from earlier printings? Should Shore be entered instead? --Username (talk) 18:23, 31 December 2023 (EST)

My copy doesn't have the credit to Shore on the back, but the cover is different than the Powers original. Seems like we should have a Richard Powers (in error) created as an alias to Shore. Tom (talk) 18:43, 2 January 2024 (EST)

Through the Budgerigar

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?925198; While adding LCCN to Jones novel Transplant I noticed this book was added not long ago and while SFE mentions it and even a cover artist there seems to be no evidence of a cover online; can anyone find one? --Username (talk) 18:06, 3 January 2024 (EST)

To the Sound of Freedom II

https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive53#To_the_Sound_of_Freedom; I came across this record again today; should it get an all-8's date? --Username (talk) 18:24, 4 January 2024 (EST)

HG Wells and His Critics

https://archive.org/search?query=wells-and-his-critics; Anyone know a way to tell which of the 3 publishers these copies are from so I can add links? The USA one has no record; maybe it was never actually published by them. --Username (talk) 22:38, 5 January 2024 (EST)

Top Science Fiction

https://archive.org/search?query=pachter-josh+top&sort=-addeddate; Someone added intros to this anthology recently, I added archived link long ago, just noticed a Spanish-language edition, La crema de la ciencia ficción, was upped to Archive.org in 2013 in case anyone fluent wants to enter that. EDIT: From the same publisher is La Crema del crimen, https://archive.org/search?query=crema-del-crimen, which includes a few stories from ISFDB judging by back cover. --Username (talk) 09:40, 6 January 2024 (EST)

I will add the Spanish one. What the heck. --MartyD (talk) 13:12, 6 January 2024 (EST)

Pachter

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1914279; Josh Pachter is credited as "with" on title page of 2015 English edition on Archive.org. Should he be added as co-author? --Username (talk) 10:21, 6 January 2024 (EST)

I didn't check the Archive.org copy, but the Look Inside on Amazon shows that "with" citation, but then on the copyright page it says the English translation is copyright 2015 Dhooge and Pachter. There is also a copyright 2014 for Dhooge and the original publisher. I interpret that to mean Pachter's role was (co-?)translator. I found Pachter's bibliography page, and this listed in the "Translations" section. But just to avoid having anything be too clear, he also has this, where he talks about previously translating another Dhooge work and being asked to "collaborate on an American version" of this one. So does that mean this isn't a translation but is actually a major revision? Dunno. Given that Pachter only takes credit for translating it, I think noting him as translator and documenting the "with" citation and the copyright statements (could throw in the Pachter site references as a bonus) should be sufficient. --MartyD (talk) 13:30, 6 January 2024 (EST)

Star Gors

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5851689; I was adding links and adding/fixing other stuff in some Gor editions, mostly UK Star PB, when I noticed an artist's signature for Players of Gor, Star edition, is on the cover but ISFDB had no credit. I tried several names I thought it could be and finally got Tony Masero who, as far as I can tell, is credited exactly once on the entire net for doing this cover, an AbeBooks/Biblio seller's description, but AbeBooks show the wrong (Daw Books) cover and Biblio's scan of the right cover is much too small to see the signature clearly. So I think I got a rare one. As can be seen here, [4], there are 5 other Star editions with no cover credit; if anyone can find a signature on any of them, beat me to it and enter them yourselves. --Username (talk) 21:49, 6 January 2024 (EST)

Night Mayor Cover Art

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?474; I noticed that the cover art for the original UK HC and the US C&G HC, which is the same, is credited to 2 different artists here. It's easy to find photos of the back flap of US online which does say design by Roy Colmer but of the several eBay sellers who offer the UK none thought to show the back flap. There are many C&G Colmer design credits online so I'm thinking Kemp did the art and US just didn't credit him, only their designer. So should we make C&G artist Jon Kemp with a note about him not being credited? --Username (talk) 19:11, 10 January 2024 (EST)

I have the UK hc of Kim Newman / The Night Mayor. The rear flap of the dust jacket states: "Jacket Illustration: Jon Kemp" and "Jacket Design: Bostock & Pollitt Ltd." Teallach (talk) 18:44, 18 January 2024 (EST)

Darrah Chavey's Passing

I was saddened to read this morning of Chavey's passing in File 770 (Number 7 in the Pixel Scroll). It was always a pleasure to work with him here and he will be missed. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 06:49, 11 January 2024 (EST)

I replaced link on his page with an updated one; also, while adding a link to the issue of the zine, Aurora, where his Walton essays appeared I discovered that most issues of Aurora and its predecessor Janus are on Archive.org, he PV most (all?) of them, but some have full contents while others have nothing. I imported a few poems from Robert Frazier, Steven M. Tymon, etc. but there's a ton of other book reviews and articles and stuff for anyone who's interested. --Username (talk) 19:15, 11 January 2024 (EST)
Sad news indeed. He had a heart attack a few years ago and has been less active since then, but he was only 69, so it was unexpected. Thanks for updating his User and Talk pages. I have updated user rights on his account. Ahasuerus (talk) 23:11, 12 January 2024 (EST)
Rtrace, thanks for letting us all know. I echo your sentiments. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:47, 13 January 2024 (EST)

Barn Owl

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?4296; I made an edit for City of Hermits long ago and today added some more stuff; I think this Barn Owl is not the same as the other that published much later. Ann Jungman who wrote a few of the later ones has a Wiki page where it says she founded Barn Owl in 1999 so I think the 1983 one should get a USA or California or something added to it. Whoever wrote the note about Frances Lincoln here seems to have conflated the 2 publishers; the England location probably belongs with the later publisher. --Username (talk) 08:27, 11 January 2024 (EST)

I separated out Barn Owl Books (UK) and Barn Owl Books (USA) based on the ISBN's. I also updated the notes for Barn Owl Books (UK) based on this article. When untangling publishers, the Global Register of Publishers can be of help. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:11, 13 January 2024 (EST)

Pat Frank Title

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5856366; I added cover image long ago; just came across archived copy which was there years before my edit so I'm not sure why I didn't add it back then but I did now and also added dash in title, H-Bomb, but I noticed there's another part of the title that people can't decide on. Mhhutchins entered it with 3 dots but title page has one GIANT dot while facing page has long dash and LOC/WorldCat has comma. So what's the consensus? --Username (talk) 11:44, 11 January 2024 (EST)

Sue Robinson

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?16675; I added archived link and a few other things to the HC of Amendment; author is a respected American newsperson. She should be differed from the Australian author. 1992 story in Weird Tales may be by either of them or another person since there's no bio in that issue. Also, does anyone own Amendment PB? It has nice cover art but there's no back cover photo online where I assume the artist would be credited. I see some weird blocks in the lower right, P and another letter, maybe initials or maybe just part of the art. --Username (talk) 19:10, 11 January 2024 (EST)

I separated out The Amendment to Sue Robinson (I). The author blurb for The Amendment does not align with the bio for the more prominent newspaper reporter of the same name, nor does that person list The Amendment as one of their works on their personal or faculty website. So probably two different reporters with same name. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:55, 13 January 2024 (EST)

Peter Goodfellow

http://petergoodfellow.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/18-misc2; I added a few credits for this artist but the last one has me stumped because the 1992 edition had the same cover as the last image here, http://petergoodfellow.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/18-misc2, but that was wrong because archived copy has the same Posen cover as the later printing on ISFDB. Goodfellow cover has an M for Mammoth so was it an earlier or later edition and why can't I find the original Methuen cover anywhere? --Username (talk) 12:54, 12 January 2024 (EST)

French Swastika

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5857839; French speakers, I made my usual shaky attempt at entering a foreign-language edition but I felt a book of such fame probably deserved it; after approval if anyone cares to look it over I'm sure it can be improved. I also made a follow-up edit changing date of French variant to a year earlier to match the date of this book. Also, those Feminist Press editions, https://archive.org/search?query=swastika-night&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22, are a mess, the one with the white cover matches the UK Lawrence & Wishart edition's cover but has the info of the '85 Feminist edition, while the other 2 with the face on the cover either a) have no price on the back and totally different back cover text but copyright page is the same or b) are a 4th printing from 2003, I think, with cover info on copyright page the '85 edition doesn't have and a missing back cover so no way to tell what was on there. If anyone cares to figure all that out. For some reason the French edition I mentioned above is in English according to Archive.org which is obviously wrong. --Username (talk) 18:59, 12 January 2024 (EST)

UK Omni

https://fantlab.ru/edition356174; I added archived links to the 6 volumes of Best of Omni and noticed FantLab has a photo of #6 with a UK price on it in case anyone knows more about that; maybe all 6 were published there but, if so, none are on ISFDB. --Username (talk) 10:23, 14 January 2024 (EST)

Tiret-Bognet

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=bognet&type=Name; same Verne illustrator, same book in different languages, one should be parent and maybe some of the art needs merging, Holmesd worked on many of these Verne books so he'd probably know. --Username (talk) 19:48, 14 January 2024 (EST)

Server maintenance 2024-01-15 at 3pm EST

The ISFDB server will be down for maintenance on 2024-01-15 (today) between 3pm and 3:10pm EST. The database and the Wiki will be unavailable. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:09, 15 January 2024 (EST)

The server is back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:06, 15 January 2024 (EST)

N. Katerli

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=katerli&type=Name; I found a huge (380+ pages) thread on FantLab's message boards with people who have died, many of which were never entered on ISFDB (not all genre, though, some footballers and other non-genre people are included, too) and while adding many dates and photos I came across Katerli; I added Wiki link, day of death, and photo to Nina's record but is that other spelling the same person? If so, some variant would probably be needed. --Username (talk) 12:25, 17 January 2024 (EST)

It's very possible, given how things get romanized from Eastern European languages. Perhaps one of our Eastern European language people can do a little digging? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:30, 17 January 2024 (EST)
Looking into it a bit myself, I'm 100% sure they are the same person. Working on connecting them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:57, 17 January 2024 (EST)
Okay, everything is here, now. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:27, 17 January 2024 (EST)
Thanks for working on her stories. I have added dates and updated the author record. Ahasuerus (talk) 21:51, 17 January 2024 (EST)

Terry Venables

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5861442; Is this the famous footballer (or soccer, as we Yanks call it)? There seem to be a lot of photos of him but some of them look like a different person so just making sure this is the right guy (he wrote some novels including Bornless Keeper which is on ISFDB but online info seems to suggest he didn't actually write any of it, Gordon Williams did). --Username (talk) 12:44, 17 January 2024 (EST)

Yes, things like that do happen: there are several titles in the database for which it is doubtful if the featured prominent author did actually write them; and so, jugig from the photo and the theme of the listed title it is the Terry Venables. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 07:38, 18 January 2024 (EST)
I can confirm that the photo in your submission is indeed of the English footballer Terry Venables. Teallach (talk) 18:42, 18 January 2024 (EST)

Alchemy Magazine

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/seriesgrid.cgi?35135; Luminist.org has a lot of magazines not on Archive.org and while replacing cover and adding link to Alchemy #2 I noticed all 3 issues have a different format, TP/unknown/pulp. Those who know about such things may want to adjust those since I'm assuming they all should be the same format. --Username (talk) 01:11, 18 January 2024 (EST)

Dinotopia Digest Novels

I just made about 20 edits for this series (https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5862661 through https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5862859) and as usual with series books it's a nightmare; I think I did as much as I could with what's available (oddly, only 1 book, Survive!, didn't have its original Random House edition entered on ISFDB so I had to scrounge up a copy on Google Books to enter info from). I think only one thing may raise questions and that's this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2230051, where an editor here in 2017 entered James Gurney as cover artist but even though he's mentioned on all copyright pages because he's the creator/owner of Dinotopia it was actually Michael Welply who did all the covers. Problem is after I removed cover credit (I didn't enter Welply because while it does say that in archived 3rd printing copy there are some 1st printings of books in the series that misspelled it as Welpley and then corrected that in later printings) I noticed the nomination for best cover in the art record. So I don't know what to make of that; was Gurney nominated because he's the creator or did someone make a mistake and not nominate the real artist, Welply? --Username (talk) 12:58, 18 January 2024 (EST)

Pratchett's Eric - converting into novella?

I did a word count on a digital version of Eric, and it's around 35000 words, i.e. clearly a novella. Comments on the title and various publication records point out how unusually short it is. Locus calls the first edition a novella, but later editions a novel. I think the novella classification is correct, but am hesitant in converting such a high-profile title. Any opinions? TerokNor (talk) 08:01, 19 January 2024 (EST)

My electronic copy contains 34.2K words, so it's a novella. That said, I wonder about Locus changing its classification after the first edition. Is there any indication that later editions may have been longer? Ahasuerus (talk) 11:43, 19 January 2024 (EST)
I can find no indication of there being different editions of the text. I noticed however that after the original illustrated edition (which was billed "A Discworld Story"), it usually says "A Discworld Novel" on the covers, so Locus might have just gone with that. TerokNor (talk) 13:59, 19 January 2024 (EST)
It sounds like it's a novella whose subtitle (but not the word count) was changed in later editions. I suggest we wait for other editors to share their thoughts before we change the type from NOVEL to SHORTFICTION. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:49, 19 January 2024 (EST)
I added an Archive.org link in a PENDING edit to The Illustrated Eric, 2010 Gollancz HC, so that may help with the counting; page count said 144 but it is actually 131. --Username (talk) 12:26, 19 January 2024 (EST)
I have approved the submission that corrected the page count and updated the Note field to indicate where the corrected page count comes from. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:49, 19 January 2024 (EST)
(Chime) Not surprised, don't care, go ahead. ../Doug H (talk) 21:26, 19 January 2024 (EST)

(unindent) Hearing no objection, I have left a message on TerokNor's Talk page asking him to proceed with the proposed changes. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:38, 24 January 2024 (EST)

Thank you. I have submitted the first edit to begin the process. TerokNor (talk) 05:19, 2 February 2024 (EST)

Late Mods

I had a thought while adding FantLab ID to a PV Brian Lumley book today; is there a way to remove the necessity of adding a note to the mod about what changes you made if the mod is deceased? There have been several mod losses recently, most of whom PV countless books, so it would save time to not have to write anything if the only PV's are ones who are not going to read those notes. --Username (talk) 12:23, 19 January 2024 (EST)

I think there are two sides to this issue.
The first one is technical, i.e. whether it would be possible to modify the software to check each primary verifier's Talk page to see if it starts with the "Deceased user" template. The short answer is "Yes, it would be possible, although it would also make our core software more closely intertwined with the Wiki software, which may become a minor nuisance during the next Wiki upgrade".
The second one is functional, i.e. whether making this kind of change would be desirable. I am not sure it would. It would save some keystrokes, but there is value to having more detailed Edit History for primary verified publications even if their verifiers are no longer available. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:42, 19 January 2024 (EST)

Moll/Head Virgin Planet

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5864268; I added cover and prices but I think publisher should be changed to Wyndham, either Star or Tandem or Target which are all on ISFDB related to Wyndham, since their logo is on front and back covers, https://www.ebay.com/itm/143869122299. The other issue is the cover is the same Charles Moll art as earlier US paperbacks; Michael Head was a designer with 1 other ISFDB credit that notes say is just a photo and a Mike Head I noted in an edit earlier today as the designer for Piatkus edition of M. Bingley's Waiting Darkness did a cover which is just a photo of a fist. So where Head credit came from for Virgin Planet I don't know but I think Moll credit should replace it. --Username (talk) 23:09, 19 January 2024 (EST)

One Hundred Years of Science Fiction

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5864915; I'm guessing this Gollancz edition is rare judging by the fact there's almost no photos of the cover online. As can be seen in my edit, notes about year (probably very old and entered by the long-gone Bluesman) are obsolete now because the year is on the title page. Also, the price was entered by Mellotronman from his copy but for a 1969 UK book the pre-decimal price should be entered so that's what I did; problem is in his note to mod in edit history he says other price is 32s, not 30. So if he's still around he may want to PV and add a note about the alternate price (I'm assuming the archived copy's flap is badly framed which is why the other price is not visible) and delete year notes and add a new one saying the date is on the title page. --Username (talk) 12:31, 20 January 2024 (EST)

It doesn't help that two different printings share the same ISBN. Mine says 1970 on the front of the title page and 'second impression 1970' on the back of the same page. The price is most definitely listed on the dust jacket as '32s', an unusual way of writing 'shillings'. The more usual way would be '32/-'. Perhaps the first impression was 30s and the second 32? Mellotronman (talk) 16:55, 20 January 2024 (EST)
OK, I think it makes sense now, copy on Archive.org is '69 1st pr. with just s-price while your 1970 2nd pr. has both s-price and pounds. So after my edit is approved you may want to clone it and enter yours with new date and prices and PV it, too. --Username (talk) 19:07, 20 January 2024 (EST)

Tom Palmer

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?98449; 2 or 3 different Palmers here; novels are by the guy pictured but the art credits are by the recently deceased (2022) famous comic artist who had a still-online site, tompalmerillustration, and a Wiki page as Tom Palmer (comics); the poem, judging by the bio at the archived Aphelion link, is by another likely American Palmer. --Username (talk) 21:58, 20 January 2024 (EST)

Lone Star Law

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?80404; Anyone think this should be deleted? --Username (talk) 17:34, 21 January 2024 (EST)

The Note field says:
  • Western story anthology. It may have some spec-fic stories, but otherwise, there's no reason for it to be in the database.
Have we been able to find this anthology's table of contents and determine whether any of the stories are SF? Ahasuerus (talk) 15:23, 24 January 2024 (EST)
I was able to look at the ToC via the Amazon Look Inside feature for the pb edition (ISBN 978-1982153069) and I don't see anything there that looks like SF. Phil (talk) 15:38, 24 January 2024 (EST)
Reading the editor's introductions to each story I noticed that two stories were called "eerie". After reading them, I can confirm that one is an unambiguous ghost story while the other one is an ambiguous "curse" story. I have added them to the publication record and updated Notes. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:13, 24 January 2024 (EST)

Recording plagiarized work

A couple of days ago File 770 reported (item 5) that "After the Flood" by John Kucera was plagiarised from another author. I've added a note to that title record, but I'm wondering whether anything else should be done, e.g. making it a variant? ErsatzCulture (talk) 01:36, 22 January 2024 (EST)

Unless the poem uses the same wording I'd think the only thing we can do is to add notes to the title (and likely the publications the plagiat was published in). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:32, 22 January 2024 (EST)
All three of the works "by" this author that are listed on ISFDB appear to have been plagiarized. I've added notes to the title entries as well as the publication entries. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:59, 22 January 2024 (EST)
Thanks all! ErsatzCulture (talk) 15:22, 22 January 2024 (EST)
At some point, we should probably make them variants since (in all the reports I've read) only the title were changed by the plagiarizer. Similar to this one. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:34, 22 January 2024 (EST)
I've added the variants for the two I could figure out. Still unsure who originally wrote "Summer 1993" and what the original title was. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:15, 22 January 2024 (EST)
How about this one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2951283? --Username (talk) 16:29, 22 January 2024 (EST)
Looks like it's the same guy per a Google search that brought up this (archive), which is the same thing but under his Kucera name. Now to try to figure out who really wrote it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:06, 22 January 2024 (EST)
Some additional archive links to help us figure out all of this: Wild Word, Lothlorien Poetry Journal (archive), One Art Poetry on X, One Art Poetry, The Fictional Cafe, Sparks of Calliope (see also this page), New Reader Magazine (archive), Wendy N. Wagner loves pie on BlueSky, and I'll add more later. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:31, 22 January 2024 (EST)

(unindent) I suspect that the issue of plagiarized works is going to become harder to deal with in the near future. In the past we had to deal with two types of scenarios:

  • word-for-word reprints with the title/credits changed, usually by shady publishers or self-publishers
  • more elaborate schemes whose perpetrators plagiarized sections of other authors' works

The first type is fairly straightforward, but the second type is hard to catch. For example, volumes 29 and 33 in the Casca series were retroactively removed from the series over allegations of plagiarism in April-June 2013. It happened 3-5 years after their original publication even though the Casca fandom is very active. It's not something that we, bibliographers, can realistically identify on our own.

Over the last few months I have seen a number of reports of plagiarists using software to scrape Web-published stories, massage them using ChatGPT and put them on Amazon, e.g. this episode over the Christmas holidays. I suspect it's going to be a pain to deal with. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:29, 24 January 2024 (EST)

Bard II

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?291859; Wrong cover, it has price and ISBN of earlier printing, I can't find right cover, if anyone else can, can you upload it and replace this one? --Username (talk) 10:47, 22 January 2024 (EST)

Also, The First Long Ship (or Longship on some sites) which has no cover online I can find so if it exists and someone can find it that needs uploading, too. --Username (talk) 11:03, 22 January 2024 (EST)

Galactic Central Images

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5867682; The only other site I can find that has this cover is Camelot Books; I was going to upload it when I thought of checking Philsp and found it hiding there. Is the owner(s) of that site ever going to upgrade to HTTPS? Right-click and "open image in new tab" does show the image but it still would be better if that didn't have to be done. --Username (talk) 12:43, 22 January 2024 (EST)

Last I heard, the owner said that he had no plans to upgrade to HTTPS. That said, browser vendors have been making it harder to access HTTP sites, which puts pressure on site owners to upgrade. It remains to be seen how it may affect Galactic Central in the future. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:21, 24 January 2024 (EST)

German Playboy

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?757; While replacing sideways Amazon cover with better straight cover for one of these books I noticed there are 8 or 9 that don't have cover credits (last book was unpublished so likely no cover exists); since most covers in the series were originally on English-language books it's likely the missing ones were, too, so if anyone can recognize the art then artists can be entered and variants can be made. --Username (talk) 09:08, 24 January 2024 (EST)

Brian Ames Title

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?119003; I added a link to a MOTA anthology over a year ago and there's a 2002 story by Brian Ames which editors before me seemed to have trouble deciding how to enter (see extensive title edit history), eventually settling on a symbol; however, in his collection someone entered the title as "grey blob", which is what it actually looks like in the anthology. So the 2 stories are the same and should be merged but what should the title be entered as? This reminds me of that David J. Schow horror story where nobody can ever decide how to enter it and eventually settled on "scribbled graffiti" or this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?76213, but at least Oates can get away with that because most of her work is pretentious "literary" stuff, anyway. --Username (talk) 12:22, 24 January 2024 (EST)

Merged here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:39, 24 January 2024 (EST)

Duplicate finder -- NOVEL/CHAPBOOK?

The "Duplicate Finder" program, which exists in three incarnations -- one for Author pages, one for Title pages and one for Publication pages -- searches for potential duplicate titles and then lets you merge them. Its default mode of operations is "exact", which means that two (or more) titles need to have the exact same spelling as well as the same authors in order to be considered potential duplicates.

The "exact" mode also ignores unlikely title type mismatches. For example, if one title record is SHORTFICTION and another one is NOVEL, they won't be flagged as potential duplicates. However, the "exact" mode currently flags NOVEL and CHAPBOOK titles with identical titles and authors as potential duplicates. I am thinking that this is likely more harmful than useful and would like to propose that we change the behavior of the "exact" mode to skip identical NOVEL/CHAPBOOK pairs. Ideas? Ahasuerus (talk) 17:35, 24 January 2024 (EST)

I agree. As it is currently, we could accidentally merge titles incorrectly. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:40, 24 January 2024 (EST)
I also agree. --MartyD (talk) 13:21, 25 January 2024 (EST)
I use that one a lot especially when adding juvenile chapbooks to prolific authors (mainly Fixer's) - because of how Amazon has these, they rarely make it to addPubs and not having the duplicate finder highlight the previously entered novel (a lot of these are stored as novels and need conversion) makes it more likely not to see the other version on the page. So I would rather not lose it... Annie (talk) 18:43, 25 January 2024 (EST)
Let me clarify that the Duplicate Finder's "similar" mode would continue to flag NOVEL, SHORTFICTION and CHAPBOOK titles as potential duplicates after the proposed change. Would it be sufficient for Fixer-originated use cases? Ahasuerus (talk) 21:41, 25 January 2024 (EST)
But we do not have a similar mode in the pubs/titles Duplicate finder. The one I use is the one that triggers when you click on "Check for Duplicate Titles" after a Pub/Title Edit. Which I believe is "exact". If I need to go to the author page every time to run a separate similar mode check, it will add steps. Plus in some of these authors, it will highlight a lot of things which is different from the current case where it is a quick check that finds usually a single match when it does. I can make it work - but it will add to the workflow. One option may be to allow the similar as an option on pub/title duplicate finder - keep the exact as a default but allow a similar to be run with a click how we do it on author page's find duplicates? A separate click which is right there will help.
And this is not just for Fixer usecases - I've needed it when moderating as well often enough in a similar usecase - we have chapbook/novel and a new(ish) member adds the same as the other.
If the proposal is to remove it from the 'Author' exact duplicate finder only with no change for the pub/title duplicate finder, then I am fine with removing it there. But the way the proposal reads, it sounds like we are not going to show it in the default mode in either :) Annie (talk) 10:45, 26 January 2024 (EST)
Thanks for the clarification. I forgot about the fact that the versions of the Duplicate Finder software used on Publication and Title pages do not support "similar" and "aggressive" modes. If memory serves, the reason was performance -- there can be thousands of titles with "similar" spellings where "similar" is defined as an 85% overlap, the current threshold value.
It sounds like what we may need is a new Duplicate Finder mode. Something that would be the same as the "exact" mode except that it would also flag identical CHAPBOOK/NOVEL title pairs. It would be made available on all three Duplicate Finder pages.
If it sounds workable, I can look into what it would take to implement it. I suspect that it should be a fairly straightforward change, but I am not 100% sure. We'll also need to come up with an intuitive name for the new mode. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:11, 26 January 2024 (EST)
That will work for me. And if you are going to do it, we may think about throwing an anthology/collection/omnibus format mix in the same mode (same usecase essentially - especially around juveniles and novellas previously added as novels). And even poem/shortfiction? Maybe simply pull all the format discrepancy matches out from Exact (requiring a format match in it) and move them to their own type of duplicate finder mode. That will also make it less likely for someone to merge by mistake based on the standard duplicate find.Annie (talk) 12:27, 26 January 2024 (EST)
You could have "type" be an independent modifier applied to any of the three modes. Something like "Match identical types only", on by default. That would also be easy to extend to other criteria (e.g., language) in the future without having a cross product of mode choices. --MartyD (talk) 14:26, 26 January 2024 (EST)
Good point! Ahasuerus (talk) 14:43, 26 January 2024 (EST)

(unindent) After experimenting on the development server and paying closer attention when working on the Clean Authors cleanup, I think I have a better appreciation for Annie's concerns. At this point clicking "Check for Duplicate Titles" post-approval is second nature for moderators and self-approvers. When a submission adds a NOVEL publication, it's very helpful to know that a CHAPBOOK pub with the same title already exists in the database, especially if the submitter is a robot. Requiring the approving moderator to click yet another link/button would mess with the workflow.

I suppose we could change the Duplicate Finder logic to ignore CHAPBOOK/NOVEL duplicates by default, but display a yellow warning -- and a link to the more relaxed version of the Duplicate Finder -- if they exist. I am not sure it would be ideal, though. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:34, 31 January 2024 (EST)

As long as it is a link and not a need to go elsewhere or to go to the author level, that will work for me.
I'd also want to ask for the anthology/collection/omnibus and the poem/short fiction checks to be added to the chapbook/novel both for the yellow warning and the more relaxed one - both of these happen often enough to be annoying if we lose the ability to see them on the duplicate finder. Unless the plan is to leave these into the default one - in which case, we are fine. Annie (talk) 11:45, 31 January 2024 (EST)
After thinking some more about this issue, it occurs to me that there may be another way to approach this issue. Currently, most post-approval Web pages display links that let you view/edit the updated/added record or, for some submission types like Make Variant, multiple records. A few post-submission pages also link to the Duplicate Finder or other pages.
However, there is nothing preventing the post-approval software from quietly checking the status of the added/updated record(s) and displaying appropriate warnings. For example, the post-approval page for NewPubs could run the Duplicate Finder behind the scenes and then display a message like:
  • The added publication record includes a title record with the same title and authors as another title record. Use the Duplicate Finder link above to see the details.
This warning message would be easy to implement and moderators would no longer have to worry about forgetting to click "Duplicate Finder" after approving NewPub submissions. Does this sound useful?
If we choose to add this warning message, we could still decide to tweak the Duplicate Finder logic later, but I think the message should be implemented first since it changes the workflow. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:53, 2 February 2024 (EST)
That will be useful -- I am not sure how many false alerts will show up and how they will be treated (especially from the less experienced moderating users - usually the self-approvers) but other from that, any checks the software can do for me are always welcome. Annie (talk) 14:08, 6 February 2024 (EST)
OK, FR 1592, "Warning after approving NewPub submissions which create potential duplicates", has been created. We'll see how useful it will be. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:48, 6 February 2024 (EST)

Duplicate Finder enhancements -- Outcome

FR 1592 has been implemented. After approving NewPub/AddPub/ClonePub/EditPub submissions, moderators and self-approvers will now see a yellow warning and a link to the Duplicate Finder if the created/affected publication record contains one (or more) title records which have the same title(s) and author(s) as other title records in the database. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:58, 8 February 2024 (EST)

Moondust

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?22737; I added a whole bunch of edits for Rosemary Harris books and also found a PDF link for her early uncollected story "Hamlin" at Galactic Journey. Looking through their list of PDF's I noticed a Swann link and, thinking it would be a short story, I clicked it and it turned out to be the full original edition of his novel Moondust which has no copies at the usual places like Internet Archive or Luminist. I'm guessing there's more novels hiding in that list but for now I'll just ask if anyone owns the book and wouldn't mind transcribing the text on the last 2 pages and adding it to the record because those are missing in the PDF. I'm not sure what copyright rules are for a 50+-year-old book but I think a page or two would count as an excerpt and wouldn't bother anyone, right? --Username (talk) 11:43, 25 January 2024 (EST)

That can get complicated. Since this was first published in 1968 in the United States, and if it was published with a copyright notice, the copyright expires at the end of 2063 (meaning it becomes public domain on January 1, 2064). If it was published without a copyright notice, since it was published between 1964 and 1977, it is now in the public domain. See here for more details. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:27, 25 January 2024 (EST)
Looking at the PDF copy from the link you submitted, the copyright notice is very clear on the back of the title page. This means the copyright doesn't expire until 2064, so we shouldn't be linking to a pirated PDF copy. I rejected the link addition. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:30, 25 January 2024 (EST)
So does that mean that all the 330 or so Luminist.org PDF's currently linked on ISFDB are pirated, too? Because I don't think most of those are public domain; I would know because I'm the one who added most of the links. Has any mod in the history of this site ever gotten a request from anyone to remove a Luminist PDF? I'd be curious to know. When someone pirates something and uploads it, they love to add their name, fake as it may be, to the upload, similar to how computer game crackers decades ago loved to add their names to the crack, usually with some animation and music (which were sometimes better than those in the game itself); believe me, I could easily add hundreds of Internet Archive links to rare books right now except for the fact that the uploaders converted them to crap e-editions with removed page numbers. I don't see anything like that in Moondust so it's likely someone's personal copy they converted to a PDF; it's clearly the original paperback with page numbers and a bookstore sticker on the cover and everything. Since Swann died in 1976 and the last reprint as far as ISFDB (and WorldCat) say was in 1977 I doubt anyone would care if a PDF was linked to here; any serious collector would want a physical copy. My suggestion would be to un-reject it. Barring that, I'll just go ahead and make a note with the address of the PDF but not hot-linked so people know where it is but actually have to paste the URL into the address bar themselves in order to get it. --Username (talk) 17:47, 25 January 2024 (EST)
This guy, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?286234, runs the site. Looks legit to me; he even published a magazine of the same title. --Username (talk) 18:08, 25 January 2024 (EST)
The question about the status of Luminist-hosted PDF files is an interesting one. I should first note that I became aware of the Luminist Web site back in 2010 when we were given permission to link to Luminist-hosted images. I was under the impression that the files that they host were similar to Gutenberg-hosted "copyright-cleared" files, which is why I have been approving their addition for the last few years.
However, reading the copyright statement on the main Luminist page:
  • This collection may contain copyrighted material which has not been specifically authorized for our use. The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) provides for making “fair use” copies of copyrighted materials under certain conditions, including that that the reproduction is not to be used commercially or “for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” By accessing files linked to this site you are agreeing to abide by these restrictions. If you do not agree, do not download. If any copyright owner objects to our inclusion of their material on this web site, please do not harass our hosting providers; just contact us with the pertinent information. We will remove contested content promptly upon receipt of legitimate requests. Readers who wish to obtain a permanent copy of any item are encouraged to acquire one from a bookseller of their choice. Readers may contact us for assistance in locating copies for purchase.
I see that they expect their users to download PDF files for "private study, scholarship, or research" purposes and, apparently, not for permanent use. This relies on an interpretation of the "fair use" doctrine which seems a bit too stretchy to me, but I am not an expert in the field. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:09, 25 January 2024 (EST)
OK, sounds good to me, "private study" clearly can mean reading the book and since they're being linked at ISFDB that covers the scholarship/research part. Also, what I took to be a Galactic Journey magazine is just a few random pages from the webzine with a couple of essay links, 1 of which is movie-related and probably doesn't qualify, but there's some Hugo Award nomination so I guess they count; the first entry is totally blank and was actually entered by user "galacticjourney" himself with mods questioning on his page why he entered it since it's a webzine. The site is still running currently and has hundreds of essays, many of which would be suitable for entry here, I'm sure. --Username (talk) 18:25, 25 January 2024 (EST)
Let me clarify what I meant by "a bit too stretchy". The part of the Copyright Law that they cite -- "for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research" -- doesn't come from the "fair use" clause (Section 107 of the Copyright Act.) Instead it comes from Section 108, "Reproduction by libraries and archives". Section 108 is a lengthy section with a set of provisions that are completely different from the "fair use" provisions in Section 107. It's odd that the Luminist Web site cites Section 108 ("libraries and archives") language to support what they state is a Section 107 ("fair use") exception.
I should add that both Section 107 and Section 108 lawsuits can get complex and technical as we saw during Hachette v. Internet Archive in 2020-2023. My knowledge of these topics is very limited, but hopefully other editors may have more in-depth knowledge and/or relevant experience in this field. Ahasuerus (talk) 21:38, 25 January 2024 (EST)
I have started a Rules and Standards discussion to see if we can come up with unambiguous rules for linking to third party-hosted texts. Ahasuerus (talk) 20:50, 26 January 2024 (EST)

Reactor?!?

I was at my awful local public library printing out various articles and short stories for free which is the only positive thing about libraries these days and after my hour was up I realized I forgot to check Tor.com to see if they published any new fiction (horror only, please, no SF or fantasy) so I checked when I got home and got a scary-looking page which made me think a computer virus had finally taken hold of my laptop after not having one for many years but it turns out that Tor apparently has re-named themselves Reactor. Is anyone else aware of this? --Username (talk) 17:08, 26 January 2024 (EST)

Yes, they announced it a few weeks ago. New site, new name (to differentiate them from the Tor.com publisher), same team, same contents. All the old links to their old site should be forwarding cleanly to the new one. Annie (talk) 17:30, 26 January 2024 (EST)
And the announcement and Q&A about it. Annie (talk) 17:31, 26 January 2024 (EST)
I suspect that the part of the FAQ that is most likely to affect us is this:
  • SFF literature is still the heart of what we do, and that’s our priority. We’ll just also be open to related subjects of interest, from nonfic to romantasy, pirates to gardening, and so on.
So it looks like they will have more non-genre content going forward, but they expect to remain primarily SF-oriented for the foreseeable future. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:23, 26 January 2024 (EST)

Chinese Godzilla?

https://archive.org/search?query=%E6%80%AA%E7%8D%A3%E3%82%B4%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A9&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22; If anyone knows what this is about and decides it warrants entering, thanks. --Username (talk) 18:18, 29 January 2024 (EST)

Magic German Cats

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?33710; There was a 1999 German edition under a new title, https://archive.org/details/katmagie13katten0000unse, in case anyone fluent wants to enter that. --Username (talk) 10:02, 30 January 2024 (EST)

ZOLTAR

[5]; Polish primary verifier seemed to be very active in 2012 and then nothing, they left a lot of their 300+ PV unfinished with missing info, mentioning this in case anyone fluent in Polish wants to follow up on any of them and add or fix anything. I thought of this before but remembered it today after finding a photo for Jerzy Sosnowski on FantLab and an archived copy of the anthology PL +50 which his story on ISFDB appears in. --Username (talk) 12:45, 30 January 2024 (EST)

verification email

I have tried several times to elicit a verification email but nothing has arrived. I've checked junk & trash as well. Is this simply not working? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Starman99 (talk • contribs) .

I am afraid this is a common occurrence, which we discuss in the ISFDB FAQ:
  • Different email servers have different automated rules which may block email coming from certain Web sites, which makes it hard to tell what's preventing ISFDB confirmation email from being delivered to your mailbox.
  • Note, however, that confirmation emails are optional as far as ISFDB is concerned. As long as you can log in, you have full access to all ISFDB features including Advanced Search, display preferences, submission creation etc.
Since you were able to post the message above, you should be all set :-) Ahasuerus (talk) 18:11, 30 January 2024 (EST)

Ace Dates

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5872024; Can someone on the long list of editors find out where someone got month from? Whoever entered many of these old PB long ago was very random about noting where they got the month, but I remember it was a checklist or something so that's likely where this one came from, too. I thought it would be obvious why I added the month since it's there throughout the contents but I guess not. --Username (talk) 23:27, 30 January 2024 (EST)

Berthon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=theodore+le&type=Name; Space in first entry separates same essay from its appearances elsewhere; no essay title page I can find but I did see a contents page of Frankenstein File that says, um, Ted Le Berthon, https://www.ebay.com/itm/334647759422. So, if anyone can verify, a merge or variant will be needed. --Username (talk) 00:08, 31 January 2024 (EST)

I'm looking for a book title

Hello everyone, I'm looking for a book title. I read the book years ago probably in the 80s. A quick summary the world is divided by a massive mountain range. I think that the protagonist must climb the mountain range in order to become the ruler. They climb the mountain only to find a deep valley on the other side with an even higher mountain range behind it. The protagonist ultimately climbs the second mountain range where they find another land on the far side with another intelligent species. This has been driving me batty and I would appreciate it if anyone knows what this books title is and who wrote it. Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment added by Firefighterbgrg (talk • contribs) 19:21, February 1, 2024‎

If no one here is able to help you, we have a section in our FAQ that gives several places where you can ask for help finding the book. Good luck! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:15, 2 February 2024 (EST)

Darrah Chavey

I learn via Ansible today that Darrah Chavey left this mortal coil on 6 January. He was always a learned and consistent editor to work alongside at the ISFDB... Happy trails Darrah, Rest In Peace. :( PeteYoung (talk) 10:39, 2 February 2024 (EST)

Yes, indeed. There was a brief Community Portal discussion on 2024-01-11 and Darrah's database record was updated. RIP. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:01, 2 February 2024 (EST)

Gardner F. Fox's text story in "Strange Adventures"

Earlier today a Usenet poster pointed out that Gardner F. Fox published "The Magic Maker of Rann", a text story, in the comic Strange Adventures #226. The story is lavishly illustrated, but the text works just fine even if you were to reprint it without illustrations, which is how we determine whether a story is "graphic".

The whole thing is available online, illustrations included. Should we treat Strange Adventures as a non-genre periodical and list this story? Ahasuerus (talk) 16:32, 2 February 2024 (EST)

I've entered a number of Eando Binder stories from the Lieutenant Jon Jarl of the Space Patrol series that originally appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures comic, and I entered them in exactly the manner you suggest. I believe some of these stories have been reprinted as text alone, so I felt I was on pretty safe ground. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 16:43, 2 February 2024 (EST)

Lost Ark Storybook

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5880702; ISBN belongs to Scholastic edition judging by a back cover I saw online. There's a later (3rd) trade printing on Archive.org with trade and library ISBN on the copyright page so either this record should be made Scholastic or a new record created for Random House edition(s). I've been adding dozens of Wikipedia links to novelizations recently and I've come across some other issues like this (only one I can remember is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade by Anne Digby which has pub. series as Hippo Books but that actually belongs to the UK edition which I made a new record for) so when these are approved a check and some fixing/adding is probably needed for at least a few of them. --Username (talk) 12:50, 3 February 2024 (EST)

Rise of the Silver Surfer

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?346021; I made an edit fixing typo "udpated" to "updated", surprisingly the only such error on all of ISFDB, and realized that this edition was likely never published with AbeBooks having a weird "cover to be unveiled" photo. So unless someone can find evidence of a copy I think this should get the unpublished date. --Username (talk) 19:30, 3 February 2024 (EST)

Parnassus Wizard of Earthsea

https://archive.org/details/wizardofearthsea00ursu; I added a link to a Parnassus edition based on someone's extensive notes here (no number line or smudge on title page) but there are some editions of this book only linked from Open Library including the one above which has a price much higher than any other book from the publisher on ISFDB but copyright page has same info as 1969 2nd printing so if anyone knows a way to determine the date a new edition can be added. There's an ancient ISFDB bibliography from 2006 by Ahasuerus, https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Author:Ursula_K._Le_Guin, which could probably use some updating unless it's been updated somewhere else. --Username (talk) 20:08, 4 February 2024 (EST)

Pranks

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?17626; I've made edits for all editions before, original 1983 Amazon cover seems to have disappeared leading to a broken image so I replaced it, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5882029, then I replaced OL/Archive cover which is too dark with an Amazon cover, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5882020, that isn't great but is brighter and still retains the sparkly stuff on the title that Leisure used to attract people to buy their books which then led to disappointment when the buyers realized the novels themselves were usually crap, the latest edition is fine as is, so now I think the 1983 edition with the wrong price and ISBN should be deleted and the image uploaded by Chris J. should be removed from the Wiki since it seems to be the badly creased cover that's still on Amazon with unnecessary back cover included. --Username (talk) 11:17, 5 February 2024 (EST)

Felix Kelly

I entered new records for Faber anthologies Best Murder Stories and Best Murder Stories 2 which are mostly genre or by genre authors; I also looked at Best Tales of Terror, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?4213, and even though I know I've seen that cover many times I never noticed until seeing it full-sized on FantLab that there's a very clear signature lower right, FELIX KELLY. I entered that in an edit but the problem is that the record for him, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?255975, might be the same artist who did the 1956 art but can't be the guy from 1879. So there may be 2 Felix Kellys in case anyone can find out more and separate them into 2 records; it's also possible that the 1956 art was not new but taken from something drawn by the older Kelly. --Username (talk) 10:09, 6 February 2024 (EST)

Also added Margaret Wolpe as cover artist for Best Tales of Terror 2; no signature I can see but FantLab credits her + there's a copy on Dalby's site whose front flap says she did "jacket design" and the art does look like many of her other Faber covers. Also greatly updated her record with lots of bio info and noted she was married to Berthold, also an artist, and updated his record as well. Dalby's copy has a pounds price sticker covering another pound price so I'm getting the impression Faber reprinted their anthologies many times with no way to tell except the prices kept getting higher; lots of printings are probably missing so if anyone has any not on ISFDB it would be good to enter them. --Username (talk) 11:03, 6 February 2024 (EST)

The Adventure of the Peerless Peer

Are there any objections to converting this to a novella? The recent ebook reprint is marked as 27k words by Kobo USA and looking at the page numbers and some of the other editions, it does feel too small to be a novel. Thanks! Annie (talk) 17:41, 6 February 2024 (EST)

It's definitely a novella. The Titan Books edition (2011) is well over 200 pages and looks like a bona fide novel, but its apparent length is due to the addition of a very long promotional excerpt from Kim Newman's Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:16, 7 February 2024 (EST)

Termush - convert to novella

Another recent reprint shows this one as 25k words in English (Kobo USA count) which will leave it well short of 40K in its original Danish as well. Any objections to converting this to a novella? Annie (talk) 18:27, 6 February 2024 (EST)

John Stanley

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5883789; See my note about artist, that Little Lulu credit in the original Stanley record belongs with I's record because, as my note in the original says, he was born in '39 or '40 so he would only have been 9 or 10 if he did that art which is unlikely; this is the right Stanley, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stanley_(cartoonist). The Melvin Monster credits belong with I, too. I have to assume the Fengriffen Stanley is not the same as I because it's a UK edition and he's American plus it's a photograph, not drawn. --Username (talk) 00:10, 7 February 2024 (EST)

Doolin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?431777; Late PV entered James Doolin based on signature but there is none, FantLab photo has initials JPD, it's actually Joseph Doolin, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?27894, and he has an entry for the same art, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1590968. --Username (talk) 10:48, 7 February 2024 (EST)

Uncorrected Proofs

I'm holding this submission to update this record. I noticed that the record states that it was unpublished (8888-00-00), yet there appears to be a cover that was just added. More importantly it also describes this as an "uncorrected proof" and I had thought that proofs were outside of our scope. The policy specifically excludes Advance Reading Copies unless available for sale to the public. Do uncorrected proofs differ from ARCs in terms of determining scope? This seems straightforward to me and I believe the publication should be deleted. If others disagree and this requires a full discussion, we can move this the the Rules and Standards board. Thoughts? Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:59, 7 February 2024 (EST)

I read the rules the same way you do - ARCs and uncorrected proofs are out. However, we do keep records of unpublished but announced books (these are in scope under the announced but never published (entered as "unpublished") part of ROA) so I would not delete this one as it is under that category. So ARC/uncorrected proof of a book that comes out will not be eligible but if the book never makes it out, adding the notes about it into the 8888 book are fine I think. Annie (talk) 11:22, 7 February 2024 (EST)
Comparing this publication record with other, published, editions of the book, I note that it has a different ISBN in addition to a different publisher name. I typically enter announced-then-canceled ISBNs as 8888-00-00 publication records under the rule referenced by Annie. Their presence in our database helps answer a common question: "Whatever happened to this apparent first edition? Why can't I find any copies for sale?" We all know how obsessed collectors can get when it comes to first editions and our database is frequently the only readily accessible place that explains what happened to a "disappeared" ISBN. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:51, 7 February 2024 (EST)
I've no argument with a publication record for an announced, but unpublished book. However, an unpublished book and an uncorrected proof are two different things. The notes on this record confuse the issue as to what the record represents. The addition of a cover scan and artist further confuses things. How are we able to display a cover of a book that was never published? I would suggest that the notes be reworked to indicate that a proof was done as evidence of the planned publication. We could replace the first two sentences with "The Bluejay Books imprint was dissolved late in 1986 just after an uncorrected proof for this planned edition was printed in September of that year." I would also recommend deleting the cover of the proof and rejecting the addition of an artist. I do worry that if we were to make an exception and allow a record specifically for an uncorrected proof when the book is never published, it would encourage the addition of other proofs and ARCs especially by those editors who surmise rules by examples of what is already in the database. If others think this should be a valid exception to allow records for proofs, then we should document it in the scope page as is done with ARCs offered for sale. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:00, 7 February 2024 (EST)
That sounds like a plan and the proposed change in the notes sounds fine to me - that will make it clear that the record is here because the book was announced and not because it had an ARC/uncorrected proofs done. I am at two minds about the cover - if it was announced with the book, recording it makes sense as it may help trace it to an artist later on and as it is part of the record after all. But other from that - I agree that we need to be careful not to confuse ARCs and unpublished books per se - although when a publication fails through often varies so there are ARCs out there for books that do not make it - that one being an example. Maybe all we need is to strengthen the language to specify that the exclusion is for books that end up being published - thus allowing the usecase we have here without a concern. Annie (talk) 19:06, 7 February 2024 (EST)
I agree that the pub record should stay because it falls under "announced but never published" and agree with Ron that the problem with it as it stands is that the pub note gives the impression that the record has been created for the proof, not the unpublished book. Ron's tweak to the pub note solves this problem.
Further notes and suggestions:
1) I agree that mentioning the proof in the pub note is a good idea. It is evidence that the book was announced.
2) I definitely think the cover image should be deleted. It should either be omitted or of the final cover. The latter assumes the publisher reached that stage and that we could find the image. All very unlikely. The cover image is more than just the artwork; it's also the colouring, wording, layout and typography and those aspects of the proof cover clearly wouldn't reflect the final version.
3) I would delete the OCLC/WorldCat External ID and just mention it in the pub note because it refers specifically to the uncorrected proof and not the unpublished final work.
4) I'm ambivalent about importing the coverart record. It's clear from the cover of the proof that Ron Walotsky was the intended artist so this falls under "announced but never published" but it would need a pub note explaining the source and why there's no image.
5) I'm broadly against making an exception for including ARC's / proofs when the book was unpublished although I do see Annie's point of view. But I think it's an unnecessary complication and veers back towards Ron's point about "encourage the addition of other proofs and ARC's especially by those editors who surmise rules by examples of what is already in the database" which is something I strongly agree we want to avoid. Also, if we do permit this exception, how do we implement it? Does it mean we would have two pub records: one for the unpublished work and one for the proof? Teallach (talk) 07:46, 8 February 2024 (EST)
I've gone ahead and change the notes as discussed above. I've also moved the Worldcat number and the cover into the notes so that it's clear the record is for the unpublished work and not for the proof. I'll reject the held edit. Let me know if someone disagrees with these changes. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:47, 12 February 2024 (EST)

N. Carroll

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?165703; The stories belong with the other Carroll but that ndp thing doesn't look right to me so maybe some other differing addition should replace it. --Username (talk) 23:58, 7 February 2024 (EST)

Author attribution on the three stories, initially credited to Noël Carrol, has been corrected. John Scifibones 07:57, 8 February 2024 (EST)
Thanks. I still think it's weird about that (ndp) because there's thousands of nom de plumes on ISFDB but this is the only one that has that added on the end of the name. --Username (talk) 08:28, 8 February 2024 (EST)
Well, we have some with (pseudonym) attached, and I'd think that'd be more meaningful (ndp isn't a colloquial abbreviation), or just a (I) attached. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:52, 8 February 2024 (EST)
I don't think we should use any parentheticals if we can avoid it. Since we have the (I) thing we already use extensively, I think that would be the best option for any that are currently using "(pseudonym)" as a disambiguator. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:20, 8 February 2024 (EST)
There are reasons why I chose to set the author up as Noel Carroll (ndp). However, it's not worth our time to debate. I have changed it to Noel Carroll. Not sure that the standards imply that Roman numerals are the preferred dismbiguator. Here is the applicable help section. Thanks for your interest, John Scifibones 14:06, 8 February 2024 (EST)

Karen Simmons

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1117998; She's the wife of Dan Simmons, credited for author photograph in the HC which can be seen on eBay, [6], art is likely by one of the regular Headline cover artists, Chris Moore maybe, but I don't see a signature. So her credit should be removed. I noticed a 2nd printing of the Headline PB on Archive.org which has that same art (and price) but different blurbs on top and bottom so I'm going to enter that now. --Username (talk) 10:37, 8 February 2024 (EST)

Hi! There's a primary verification by Faustus. It'd be meaningful if you contact him to shed some light on the actual credit. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:49, 8 February 2024 (EST)
Hi! There's no credit on the PB because there's no author photo like there is on the back of the HC. 2nd printing PB I just entered has no art credit. I'm sure someone here familiar with UK PB artists will identify it in some artist's book sooner or later but it's certainly not by Dan's wife. --Username (talk) 12:08, 8 February 2024 (EST)

Wesso

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5885644; Wiki says 1893. Anyone here who can find proof it's really 1894? I looked for a headstone but couldn't find one. --Username (talk) 13:49, 8 February 2024 (EST)

Story about the Premiere of Rite of Spring

I'm looking for the short story (probably from 1970s) about recreating the experience of the premiere of The Rite of Spring by giving all of the audience members a new drug. I believe this was in one of the better short story annuals of the era.

Most of my book collection is in storage, alas, so I can't find this by leafing through my old pulp. —The preceding unsigned comment added by Martycohen36 (talk • contribs) 17:38, February 8, 2024‎

Black Christmas

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?878255; While entering Wikipedia links for tons of novelizations I came across this rare 1976 one for the classic 1974 horror film. The original edition is apparently very rare because I've looked everywhere and can't find a copyright page that doesn't have the word FANGORIA on it because apparently Fangoria Magazine reprinted it in 2008 (although there is very little mention of this online). It does include the original info so I was able to enter the month (February, which is odd because you'd think it would be late in the year to capitalize on the holiday) but if anyone has a 1976 copy can you verify what it says on it? The film was Canadian and book says "Printed in Canada" so possibly it was only published there in which case the price will need a C added to it. --Username (talk) 09:18, 9 February 2024 (EST)

Riddle of the Exodus

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?185298; Not fiction, religious history book, https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8166080W/The_Riddle_of_the_Exodus?edition=key%3A/books/OL8566162M, probably should be deleted. --Username (talk) 11:30, 9 February 2024 (EST)

Deleted. I question if the author of the religious book is the same author as of the BattleTech books. I couldn't find anything on the religious author's sites that connect him to the BattleTech books. I will ping the active verifier for the BattleTech book to see if there is an author blurb. If not (or it indicates it is a different author), I will remove the the current author info from James D. Long. -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:31, 10 February 2024 (EST)
Philfreund has confirmed the BattleTech book provides no biographical information on the author. I have removed the author info from James D. Long as it is more than likely a different person. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:28, 11 February 2024 (EST)

Mutant Chronicles

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?250352; I replaced the cover; if anyone knows about the old one, whether it was an early one that was rejected or if it belongs to a different edition, a note about early art or a new record for the other edition if it exists would be good. --Username (talk) 20:09, 11 February 2024 (EST)

Lieutenant Teasdale R.O.N.

I need to make several changes to the pub records for Lieutenant Teasdale R.O.N.. The tp edition has a sole PV by the late Biomassbob but he somehow missed showing that Paula Goodlett is the co-author of the work. Amazon also shows the pub date for that edition as 2023-12-07, not 2023-12-02 as currently shown in the pub record. The 12-07 date makes more sense since all of the other self-published books by Gorg Hoff and Paula Goodlett have the ebook edition published the day prior to the tp edition. Any objection to my making changes? Phil (talk) 12:21, 12 February 2024 (EST)

Mistakes happen :) Go ahead - make sure the notes clarify where the date is coming from. And while you are there, we do not use "Independently published" as a publisher - so can you also fix that (author names are used when there is no publisher). I will sort out the other 2 we have under that publisher later today. Thanks for finding this one! :) Annie (talk) 13:44, 12 February 2024 (EST)
Done. I also corrected the title for the Interiorart maps record to match current standards. Phil (talk) 15:29, 12 February 2024 (EST)

Locus1 Secondary Verifications

Occasionally I come across pubs that have been SVd to Locus1 solely on the basis of their mention as the first edition of a later publication. The first one I encountered, as a very rookie editor, was this one: David Brin / Sundiver. I asked the SVer, Rtrace, about it and received this explanation. For the purposes of this thread I shall refer to these as "indirect listings".
The most recent one I have encountered is David Gerrold / Chess with a Dragon and it is this pub record that has prompted this thread because there is a clear contradiction between the SV to Locus1 and the pub note "Locus1 fails to list this pub (as of 2010-06-21)."
So my question is: should these indirect listings be allowed as SVs to Locus1? If I ruled the world I would not permit them because I don't think they conform to a general user's expectation of a Locus1 listing and they can cause confusion and inconsistencies as demonstrated by the Gerrold record. However, I do not feel strongly about this. I accept Ron's point that these indirect listings provide at least as much information as Clute/Nicholls and if the consensus is that they should be allowed then I can live quite happily with this.
However, if we do allow them then this Help page: Reference:Verification_Sources needs amendment. The matrix currently states that Locus1 provides "All" the information for fields such as Pages, Price and others but this is not true for the indirect listings. So either:
a) The relevant fields for Locus1 should be changed from "All" to "Some" (or maybe "Most").
or
b) A note should be added to the page explaining Locus1 indirect listings and clarifying that the values in the matrix for Locus1 only apply to full listings.
I prefer solution b).
Opinions please. Teallach (talk) 18:38, 15 February 2024 (EST)

An interesting point. So basically Locus1 has two types of records. One type covers editions published between 1984 and 2007 and includes publication details. The other type covers first editions (including editions published before 1984) and only lists their year and publisher. In an ideal world, we may want to create a separate Secondary Verification type for the latter and call it something like "Locus1-First Edition". Unfortunately, I am not sure it would be feasible since we have over 50,000 Locus1 verifications and separating them would be a very time-consuming project. If we decide not to do it, then I agree that we should update Reference:Verification_Sources to reflect the fact that not all Locus1-verified publication records can be expected to have publication level data.
As far as cases like David Gerrold's Chess with a Dragon go, I would reword Notes. Instead of saying "Locus1 fails to list this pub (as of 2010-06-21)", I would say something like "Locus1 doesn't have a detailed record for this edition, but multiple records for reprint editions refer to it as the first edition." Ahasuerus (talk) 12:48, 16 February 2024 (EST)
Yes, I realised when I started the thread that if we disallow the Locus1 indirect listings there could be a legacy issue of past records SVd to Locus1 that would be difficult to amend. This is often a problem when rules and standards are changed. So although in theory I would vote to disallow these cases, I accept it is not practical to do so. Consequently I am happy with leaving them as they are and updating Reference:Verification_Sources to reflect the fact that not all Locus1-verified publication records can be expected to have publication level data, which we both agree with.
I am working on David Gerrold / Chess with a Dragon and so will incorporate the change to the Locus1 pub note as you suggest. Teallach (talk) 17:08, 16 February 2024 (EST)
Hearing no objection, I have clarified the "Locus1" row of Reference:Verification Sources. Thanks for identifying this issue. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:12, 26 February 2024 (EST)
Thank you. Teallach (talk) 16:27, 2 March 2024 (EST)

Necronomicon in Sweden

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=d+bergho&type=Name; First name likely misspelled by PV (or magazine it appeared in) and essay is in second name's record with a much earlier date. --Username (talk) 23:47, 15 February 2024 (EST)

Garland Library of SF

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?8067; I made a couple of edits adding archived link, LCCN and cover image to Past Master when I noticed that there is 1 book in the series with a UK price and 1 without any price. So if anyone can fill in the missing one and add US one (moving UK to notes) for the other then everything will be uniform. --Username (talk) 09:44, 16 February 2024 (EST)

Lou J. Berger

The author has requested we change his canonical name from Lou J. Berger to "Lou J Berger" (no period after the "J"). See mod note here. Any objections? John Scifibones 15:32, 16 February 2024 (EST)

Checking Amazon.com's Look Inside, I see that the name was spelled "Lou J. Berger" in 2013-2014 and changed to "Lou J Berger" in 2015/2016. By now the majority of the stories use the "Lou J Berger" form of the name, so it should be our canonical name. We just need to make sure that we use the right form for the transitional (2015-2016) period. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:05, 16 February 2024 (EST)
Author attributions were reviewed and corrected resulting in compliance with the author's request. John Scifibones 15:16, 17 February 2024 (EST)

Locus on Microfilm

I recently added links to the handful of random print issues of Locus that are on Archive.org, one a very early issue and the others more recent, but I just stumbled on a huge cache of microfilmed 1973-2015 issues uploaded by MicrofilmIssueGenerator so I added a link, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5893289. Not sure if this is known about already but if not I'm sure it will come in handy here for research. --Username (talk) 19:39, 16 February 2024 (EST)

Server maintenance 2024-02-18 at 11am EST

The server will be down for maintenance later today (2024-02-18) between 11am and 11:10am EST. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:20, 18 February 2024 (EST)

The server is back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:06, 18 February 2024 (EST)

Sword of the Samurai

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5894874; I have owned a copy since the 1980s and PV it here in 2022, copy uploaded to Archive.org last summer but not added until a few days ago, I think I got the right page count but if anyone disagrees feel free to tweak it a bit, you don't have to ask me. --Username (talk) 11:41, 18 February 2024 (EST)

I see a note in the UK edition's record here says [236] so I think they counted the illustration between the first 19 pages and the start of the novel itself. Should that count? --Username (talk) 11:44, 18 February 2024 (EST)
I would count it one way or the other, either as part of the introductory material (so, technically on [20]) or as part of the main material. A page number on that first page of main text would have been a useful guide.... I found an eBay listing of the Puffin edition that has some interior photographs. Not of the page in question, but the TOC and other leading material looks identical to what Archive.org shows for the edition you have. Extrapolating that to content that follows it suggests Reginald did count that illustration as part of the main material. Given the [236] there, what I will do is tweak your count to [236] and add a note about the illustration's appearance relative to the text on the surrounding pages. Just trying to save you an edit cycle; feel free to adjust it to be however you prefer -- I do not mean to insist on anything. --MartyD (talk) 12:07, 18 February 2024 (EST)
Sounds good, thanks. --Username (talk) 12:18, 18 February 2024 (EST)

Bibliographic impact of the 2023 Hugo Awards

The current pre-release cover of Samantha Mills's debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back says "Nebula and Hugo Award Winner". On 2024-02-17 Mills disavowed the award and announced that she would have "Hugo winner" removed from future editions of the book:

  • “Rabbit Test” unwins the Hugo: ... on Tuesday I’ll send a very awkward email to my agent and editor summarizing the situation ... and figure out the logistics of removing “Hugo winner” from the ebook and future printings. The first print run will be a limited edition novelty, I suppose? Jeez.

This may not be an isolated occurrence since, as Samantha Mills wrote (among other things):

  • On February 14, a report written by Jason Sanford and Chris M. Barkley was simultaneously released on the Genre Grapevine and File770. ... we also got a look at the validation list itself, aka the tables of frontrunner nominees being vetted for the final ballot, and a horrible pattern emerged, especially in the fiction categories: there were a whole lot of Chinese nominees in frontrunner positions who just… vanished, and never made it onto the final ballot. There were so many, in fact, that if I am reading this document correctly: not a single fiction winner (short story, novelette, novella, novel, or series) would have even been a finalist if those nominees hadn’t been taken off.
  • There’s an indicator of why in the apology letter from the admin who leaked the emails and validation tables: “We were told there was collusion in a Chinese publication that had published a nominations list, a slate as it were, and so those ballots were identified and eliminated.”

From our perspective, this means that we will need to:

  • Update the “Rabbit Test” Award record to indicate that the author disavowed the award, similar to how this award record explains that Judy-Lynn del Rey's posthumous "Best Professional Editor" award was refused by her husband Lester del Rey.
  • Keep an eye on The Wings Upon Her Back to make sure that the correct covers are used for the first and any subsequent editions of the novel.
  • Be on the lookout for possible other announcements of authors disavowing 2023 Hugo awards.
  • Occasionally check "Worldcon Intellectual Property" announcements. On January 30, 2024 they issued a statement censuring multiple people "for actions of the Hugo Administration Committee of the Chengdu Worldcon" and said that "There may be other actions taken or to be taken that are not in this announcement." If and when they make additional statements about the Hugos awarded at the 2023 Worldcon, we may need to update our records.

Ahasuerus (talk) 12:55, 19 February 2024 (EST)

Earlier today Adrian Tchaikovsky disavowed his 2023 Hugo award for Best Series on his Web site. The award record has been updated. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:56, 21 February 2024 (EST)
These notes are exactly the correct action for us, I think. If we had notes for an award year, it would probably be desirable to add something for the 2023 Hugos. Although, getting a properly neutral description of the controversy free of personal biases (and I have many in this instance), would be tricky. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
One of the challenges that the 2023 Hugos present is that it's still a developing story. What we knew 10 days ago is very different from what we know today. Perhaps we'll learn more in the future.
For example, back in late January I came across a re-post/translation of a Chinese fan's comments about the Hugos. The post stated that the fan had been involved in the Hugo process (committee member?) and that he or she had a conflict with Chinese members of the Hugo committee with various accusations flying back and forth. At the time I had trouble parsing the post, in part due to lacking context and in part due to the quality of the translation. In retrospect it may have been related to the following email sent by Dave McCarthy on June 7, 2023 at 6:18pm (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_QqmsxQkACoYcxSx2LVqbxD39-DJI_gS/view), which says:
  • Tomorrow I have a 4 hour meeting with my chinese counterparts to look at ballot detail and determine if any ballots are to be voided
Perhaps either this fan or other members of the 2023 Hugo committee may clarify matters at some point. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:33, 22 February 2024 (EST)
It would especially be useful to note that the nomination totals and the EPH points appear to be completely unreliable, since those are noted in each nomination award record. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
One thing that comes to mind is that we could change the way opening sentences are phrased. Instead of the current "1674 valid ballots cast, 944 valid ballots cast in category" we could say something like "According to the voting statistics released on 2024-01-20, there were 1674 valid ballots cast, 944 valid ballots cast in category". It's not much, but it would at least clarify which version of the stats our records use. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:20, 22 February 2024 (EST)
I've added your suggested text to the records in the Best Novel category. In addition to the ballot count at the head, I've also added it to the nomination numbers at the foot. I think it's more important there as that is where there is evidence of shenanigans. In any case, let me know if it looks good and I can update the remaining records or we tweak it if desired. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:26, 27 February 2024 (EST)
Everything looks good, thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:40, 27 February 2024 (EST)
I recall that award year notes has been suggested before and there may be a feature request, though I suspect that how the award tables are structured may make this difficult. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
Yes, indeed. FR 1086, "Change the award year field to a drop-down list", says "Create a new record type for award years. We can call it something like "award year" or "award ceremony". Once we have it, we will be able to add notes to award years. Notes can be used to specify when the awards were announced, when and where they were given, eligibility rules changes, etc." Unfortunately, as you said, it would be fairly time-consuming to implement. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:12, 22 February 2024 (EST)
In any case, I do have one suggestion for the del Rey award record. We currently have the explanation of the non-acceptance of the award noted in the title field of what should be an untitled award. Perhaps we didn't have award level notes at the point that award was added. I feel that the verbiage in the title should be moved to notes and replaced with "untitled". --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 10:57, 22 February 2024 (EST)
I agree. It's exactly as you said -- award records didn't have a Notes field back then. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:12, 22 February 2024 (EST)
I've updated this and expanded the comment as a note taking my queue from Judy-Lynn's Wikipedia article. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:26, 27 February 2024 (EST)
Thanks. I have hyper-linked Lester del Rey's name and clarified that he was Judy-Lynn's husband. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:40, 27 February 2024 (EST)

Kater-Bound

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?22308; On all of the web there seems to be only 1 mention of Borgo Press and Kater-Bound together, https://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p=22429, although it does get a handful of hits in a text search, https://archive.org/search?query=%22kater-bound%22+%22borgo%22&sin=TXT&sort=-addeddate. This Archive.org page, https://archive.org/search?query=compton+farewell+bliss&sort=-addeddate, shows 2 editions with one being Borgo but with price on front covered and Kater-Bound sticker on back. Could this be the mysterious Borgo HC mentioned in the book's record? Also, the note about artist is wrong because he's credited on copyright page and back cover, the latter of which can be seen in the cover image. TP PV doesn't respond much so I'm asking on this board. --Username (talk) 13:09, 19 February 2024 (EST)

The Archive.org copy is a library book, and Kater-Craft does library bindings. I believe it is not uncommon to have a retail hardcover edition and a library-binding hardcover edition of the same book. --MartyD (talk) 17:44, 19 February 2024 (EST)
Believe it or not, I have library hardcover versions of Ace Doubles. All should be listed in my opinion. MLB (talk) 01:00, 20 February 2024 (EST)

Miriam Allen de Ford

Per the Spaces in Names subsection of Template:PublicationFields:Author, Miriam Allen de Ford should be standardized as Miriam Allen deFord. However, we have a Miriam Allen de Ford alternate name which was recently edited so the notes copy the rules saying it should be standardized. Instead, I propose we merge the alternate name to the canonical name in accordance with the rules. As there are a number of verified pubs, I will point the verifiers to the this discussion, If there are any objections, then we should probably have a Rules and standards discussions. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:28, 19 February 2024 (EST)

I guess it would be like calling somebody named MacIntosh being called Mac Intosh. Still, I'll go with the majority. MLB (talk) 00:58, 20 February 2024 (EST)
No objection to merging, but I think the actual spelling of the name should be made clear in the notes. Linguist (talk) 04:06, 20 February 2024 (EST).
No objection, I had three pubs, two in Croatian language I already corrected, but I have also one in Serbian language. In Serbian language names are written as they are pronounced, in this case same as written. Should I change this one as well? This is publication in question: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2277217 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Debolestis (talk • contribs) .

Ruben De Anda

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1476655; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2552505; Can anyone find proof that these are the same artists? --Username (talk) 19:45, 20 February 2024 (EST)

I don't know. But The Galaxy Primes (Ace 1976) appears also to be signed by R. De Anda. Horzel (talk) 08:52, 23 February 2024 (EST)
Probably is but since last name is mostly covered it's hard to tell. PV Willem H. noted that it may be Rafael M. De Soto but I doubt it because he has no original cover credits on ISFDB after 1964 and this book is from 1976. There's a copy on Archive.org which I've added a link to in a PENDING edit. --Username (talk) 09:44, 23 February 2024 (EST)

Steve Miller: RIP

For those who may not have seen an announcement, Steve Miller, co-author of the Liaden Universe, et al., died on February 20, 2024 at his home in Maine. His wife, author Sharon Lee, posted this obituary. Phil (talk) 07:41, 22 February 2024 (EST)

I added photo from FantLab which is a little bigger and shows his face better than Fantastic Fiction's photo. --Username (talk) 17:42, 22 February 2024 (EST)

Last User Activity

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?895338; What does this mean exactly? There was a question of contacting this PV RedDragonBooks about something related to a mod note I made and checking their page the last answer they gave or contribution they made was in spring of 2022 but the activity at the bottom of the record linked above says a few days ago. --Username (talk) 09:03, 22 February 2024 (EST)

There are two databases: The wiki and the bibliographic database. What you see for User Contributions on their user/talk page is just their Wiki edits. What you see for Last User Activity in the verifiers' list is the date of their last activity in the bibliographic side -- the Wiki software does not know about that, only about the Wiki. That user did some verifications on 2024-02-18 but hasn't posted anything to the wiki in the past couple of years. --MartyD (talk) 13:56, 22 February 2024 (EST)
Just a quick note to clarify that the software that displays the Last User Activity date checks both the Wiki side and the database side. It then displays the latest date that it finds. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:36, 22 February 2024 (EST)

Ermengarde Fisk = Evelyn E. Smith?

One of my friends pointed me at issue #10 of the 'zine Oopsla, specifically page 13. The "SHORT STORIES" section says: 

 Third goes to another brand-new author, Evelyn E. Smith ... is better known to fandom as the pseudonymous authoress of the "New York Letter" column in Slant--yeah, that's right, she's Ermengarde Fiske.

As I don't know what the accuracy of fan writing was like nearly two decades before I was born, I don't know how reliable this info might be. Any objections to varianting these author records? ErsatzCulture (talk) 13:49, 23 February 2024 (EST)

We already have a pseudonym there: Evelyn Smythe (intentional corruption of Evelyn Smyth E.?) which I think is based exactly on the note you cited above. I am not sure if we have enough evidence to connect the two Evelyn E. Smith's though - while very very likely, the name is not very uncommon. Maybe add some notes to both accounts until we find a better proof that the two are one and the same? Annie (talk) 14:50, 23 February 2024 (EST)
Never mind, I looked at the fanzine itself now - you actually missed the smoking gun while quoting - that award over there is for a story that belongs to Evelyn E. Smith (Tea Tray in the Sky) - so yes, they are the same person. Connect them away. Annie (talk) 14:54, 23 February 2024 (EST)
This is now done. Had a bit of a headscratcher with Ermengarde Fiske having its own alternate names, but I think everything is now correct, with all the authors pointing at Evelyn E. Smith as the canonical, and all of the title records having parent titles with that author record. However I wouldn't say no if someone wants to double check that everything is now as it should be. Thanks! ErsatzCulture (talk) 13:44, 27 February 2024 (EST)

J. Watson

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?224483; What do you suggest is best to add to differ 1966 Thunderbirds artist from Leading Edge writer/artist? He's on Wikipedia so I'll add that link (as Jim Watson). --Username (talk) 19:48, 24 February 2024 (EST)

See Help:How_to_separate_two_authors_with_the_same_name for ideas. Looks like "James Watson (1960s)" would work here and might be more helpful than "(I)". The situation is quite similar to the Jame Cooper examples given in that bullet. In light of the disparity in volume between their bibliographies, I think you could treat the James Watson from the 1980s as "more prominent/widely known in the Spec-Fic world" and leave it with no embedded disambiguation. --MartyD (talk) 12:04, 25 February 2024 (EST)
OK, thanks. --Username (talk) 12:30, 25 February 2024 (EST)

Tem Title

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?67830; Archived link to recently uploaded Chrysalis 9 HC just added by me in a PENDING edit, PV doesn't respond much, PB has one or two active PV so if they can verify it's Hit-and-Run there, too, not Hit-and-Miss, title should be changed. I vaguely remember asking about this long ago after noticing title was different in Tem's online bibliography. --Username (talk) 15:32, 25 February 2024 (EST)

The Hole of the Pit

https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive53#Uncanny_Banquet_and_Leisure; Exactly a year-and-a-half ago I asked about Uncanny Banquet and noted the rare novel contained in it; a copy of the Oleander Press edition including the novel with a short story and a poem was recently added to Archive.org so I've added a link in a PENDING edit. Still waiting for a copy of that anthology to show up somewhere...anywhere. --Username (talk) 18:55, 25 February 2024 (EST)

Series sort order?

I was looking at a page for a series and couldn't figure out the basis for the order of the sub-series. First come the numbered sub-series, in numerical order. Then the 'loose' items in chronological order. Then come the unnumbered sub-series, which are neither alphabetical or chronological by any of their contained titles. Is there a particular order to them? ../Doug H (talk) 09:04, 28 February 2024 (EST)

The only order that the display software enforces is as you described above: all numbered sub-series are displayed first and the rest are displayed randomly. I think it would be fairly easy to display unnumbered sub-series alphabetically. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:36, 28 February 2024 (EST)
(after edit conflict) A more thorough review discovered that Summary pages were already sorting unnumbered sub-series alphabetically. I have adjusted the software to do the same on Series pages. Thanks for identifying the problem! Ahasuerus (talk) 18:36, 28 February 2024 (EST)
Since series tend to be written in order, displaying the unnumbered titles in chronological order may make more sense. Although, sub-series wouldn't have a date and extrapolating the date from the earliest contained title would be more complex. Perhaps, numbered items followed by unnumbered sub-series followed by everything else in chronological order. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:34, 28 February 2024 (EST)
Could you please clarify what you mean by "items" in this case? Series may contain both title records and sub-series records. They use different, unrelated, numbering systems. For example, a series may contain 3 titles numbered "0.5", "1" and "2", as well as two sub-series numbered "1" and "2". Ahasuerus (talk) 19:36, 28 February 2024 (EST)
I intended items to mean both title records amd sub-series records, either of which may be numbered. What I was suggesting is that within a series (parent), each numbered item would display based on the numbering. In your example, there would be a conflict as there are both titles numbered "1" and "2" and sub-series numbered "1" and "2". Ideally, we would never assert that both a title and a sub-series should occur first in the parent series. Clearly, numbering only applies within the parent series. I believe that for numbered "items", I am not suggesting any changes to how things currently work. I had suggested a chronological sort for the remaining items based on your now corrected statement that they were displayed randomly. Given that we're already sorting alphabetically, it's probably fine to leave things as they are, unless others think a chronological sort would be preferable. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 21:13, 28 February 2024 (EST)

BattleTech Universe

The BattleTech Universe series and it's sub-series all list having an Issue Grid, which suggests they are Serials / Magazines. They look like books to me. Is it a mistake in the software or entry? Might the existence of one Serial in the series propagate? ../Doug H (talk) 09:12, 29 February 2024 (EST)

Yep - if there is one magazine series somewhere in the sub series inside of a bigger series, the whole set and any sunsets of it shows the grid links. It is how the software is built. Annie (talk) 10:00, 29 February 2024 (EST)
Good catch. Bug 842, "Extraneous 'View Issue Grid' links on series pages", has been created. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:15, 29 February 2024 (EST)

Database Backup

Can you please save the database with InnoDB utf8mb4 so accented and Chinese characters will show up correctly? As it now with MyISAM utf8, Иван Константинович Айвазовский shows up as ИванКонстантинович Айвазовский. It makes it hard to work with the database and makes it a lot larger than it has to be. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Catpoolfan (talk • contribs) .

For historical reasons -- the ISFDB project started in 1995 -- ISFDB tables use "latin1_swedish_ci". You can see it if you run "SELECT TABLE_CATALOG, TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME, TABLE_COLLATION FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES" in MySQL. Non-Latin-1 Unicode characters are stored in the database as HTML entities. When you see "й" (i.e. "&#1081") displayed, that's because that's what's stored in the database.
There are plans to migrate from HTML entities to native Unicode, but it will be a major project with a number of dependencies. There is no ETA at this time. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:42, 1 March 2024 (EST)

I Stole You

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?60942+2017; A copy of Tripping... was recently uploaded so I added a link and the stories' numbers, there's also supposedly a copy of Ringman's collection but when I saw the red hardcover I knew that couldn't be right and it wasn't; it's a copy of some old romance novel by Jane Aiken Hodge. I checked all the usual sites but can't get contents page of TP so if anyone can or owns a copy fill in the page numbers if you wish. --Username (talk) 17:40, 1 March 2024 (EST)

Mandarin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5905095; Is anyone familiar with Mandarin paperbacks who can say why ISBN on back cover doesn't match any other Mandarin PB on ISFDB which (almost) all start with 0-7493? This book's ISBN, 0-09, seems to have been used by Cresset per online searching but there is no mention of them anywhere in it; a couple of Cresset Editions books on ISFDB do have an ISBN which starts with that. --Username (talk) 13:14, 2 March 2024 (EST)

Donkerste Dag

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5905146; Nico Richter has 1 credit on ISFDB for a German Neil Gaiman edition but here he's credited for design. Sheila Metzner is a famed artist and I don't know what Ortikol is so if anyone thinks any of them should be entered as cover artist they can do that. --Username (talk) 14:12, 2 March 2024 (EST)

Shadow Regions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?295434; The woman who ran the publisher whose imprint put out this anthology, Tammy Perron, apparently was a crook who didn't pay most of the authors or even give some of them copies which is detailed in the link from Absolute Write that I added some time ago. In September 2023 some mysterious person uploaded a copy on Archive.org and it was finally added a few weeks ago (I stumbled on it completely by accident) so I've added a link in a PENDING edit along with the price and the stories' numbers. Maybe it was one of the authors using their own copy because this seems a very rare book with WorldCat not finding any copies; there's only 1 sad review on Goodreads where one of the authors crows about having a story in it...little did he know. According to ISFDB only 3 of the 20 stories have been reprinted since it came out nearly two decades ago so if anyone was interested in reading it you should do so because you never know if old Tammy may crawl out of the woodwork to have it taken down. --Username (talk) 18:55, 2 March 2024 (EST)

Adam L. G. Nevill canonical name

I think it is time to swap the canonical name here to Adam L. G. Nevill. Any objections? Annie (talk) 15:18, 4 March 2024 (EST)

We have 8 book-length works as by Adam Nevill and 8 book titles as by Adam L. G. Nevill. All books published over the last 5 years have appeared exclusively as by "Adam L. G. Nevill". SHORTFICTION: 8 as by "Adam Nevill" and 27 as by "Adam L. G. Nevill".
Given the numbers and the timeline, I think it's fair to say that "Adam L. G. Nevill" is the most recognizable form of his name within the genre as of 2024. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:19, 4 March 2024 (EST)

The Under-People

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3046564; https://archive.org/search?query=the-under-people&sort=-addeddate; No reason for this to be here, it's one of dozens of junk science "non-fiction" books by Norman/Steiger published back in the day. I think it should be deleted. --Username (talk) 23:52, 4 March 2024 (EST)

Collection contents question

When adding contents to a collection which is authored using a variant name, if there is no indication to the contrary, should all the content titles be attributed to the variant author name and then be made a variant of the canonical author name titles if they do not exist? Example: The Witching Hour. The collection author is James Gunn. The copyright page shows the content copyrights as by James Gunn. The included content titles only exist as by the canonical name James E. Gunn. Should these be changed to being authored by James Gunn and then made into variants? Phil (talk) 09:28, 5 March 2024 (EST)

Yes. Remove the three fiction titles, add the three new titles and variant to the canonicals. John Scifibones 09:57, 5 March 2024 (EST)
Done. Thanks.Phil (talk) 11:05, 5 March 2024 (EST)

Hautala Covers

I was entering edits for Rick Hautala books, found Jacobus signature on Moon Walker so Tim Jacobus was entered as the artist; Little Brothers, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?20465, has a name or initials on the lower right, can anyone find out who that is? --Username (talk) 10:45, 5 March 2024 (EST)

ISFDB Server downtime -- 2024-03-06 at 6pm

The ISFDB server will be down for maintenance on 2024-03-06 between 6:00pm and 6:15pm EST. Both the database and the Wiki will be unavailable. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:13, 6 March 2024 (EST)

The server is back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:05, 6 March 2024 (EST)

Simulacrum

Tonight I accidentally ended up on the archived SpecFicWorld site which used to be a major hub of speculative fiction but seems to have entirely disappeared from the modern web (whatever you do, don't type specficworld.com on Google and click the link whose description is "Daftar Situs Agen Judi Slot Online Terpercaya Resmi 2023"; that will NOT lead you to what you're looking for). Only issue #9 of Simulacrum, edited and published by the guy who ran the site, Doyle Eldon Wilmoth, Jr., has an archived PDF link but while searching, as I usually do, for random text from an archived story on Google to try and find out if there are any modern sites that still include it I got one hit, the late Tanith Lee's site daughterofthenight.com, because that issue included a reprint of a story by her from Interzone Magazine. That led me to this, https://archive.org/details/@zatoichi01?query=simulacrum&sort=title, which, according to Galactic Central, is the entire 14-issue run. I rarely enter magazines but any self-moderators who don't have to wait for approval can probably do these quickly without much trouble since the contents are a mixture of reprints which will need importing and originals (or at least they're not on this site). There are many well-known authors and artists included. --Username (talk) 23:59, 7 March 2024 (EST)

I'll take a look at it and see what I can do. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:48, 8 March 2024 (EST)
I have through issue 10 entered. I'll finish up with the remaining four later. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:35, 8 March 2024 (EST)
I've entered all 14 issues now. You can see them here. I did not combine the years into editor series because there are only 14 issues so leaving them all separate makes it easier to get to them (one less click-through). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:32, 12 March 2024 (EDT)

Neglected moderation

Last time I changed something in ISFDB it took days to get a single non-controversial change accepted with hundreds of pending changes. Now it takes weeks with thousands of pending changes. When looking a the recent changes I see lots of self acceptance and accepted automatic changes, but only little moderator activity.

Remembering that it takes at least 4 or 5 rounds to add all information for a translated book that amounts to waiting multiple months for a single book.

If you don't want contributors anymore then say so clearly! ATM I'd wonder if you find people sticking with ISFDB for a longer time with that situation.

To give you an indication how this should go: I added a new word to Wiktionary, it took 4 minutes for first reaction and 1:15 to reach the final entry. --Stoecker (talk) 16:31, 8 March 2024 (EST)

Longer approval times have definitely been a problem lately. Currently we have 1976 pending submissions, 1137 of them by User:Username (many are straightforward additions of archive.org links to publication records), 124 by User:Fixer (a robot account) and the remaining 715 are by other editors.
That said, the ISFDB editing process is very different from what Wikipedia and its offshoot projects use. The latter are much easier to edit, but the quality of the end product varies tremendously. I wrote/rewrote dozens of Wikipedia articles in the mid-2000s, but eventually concluded that trying to keep articles accurate and coherent was going to be prohibitively time-consuming. I occasionally peek to see what has happened to them and their current state is pretty bad. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensheviks is full of confused nonsense.
We added the ability to self-approve a few years ago and we are slowly expanding the number of editors who can do so. Hopefully it will help matters going forward. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:56, 8 March 2024 (EST)
Well, my request to do so was simply ignored. --Stoecker (talk) 10:10, 16 March 2024 (EDT)
Nominations require support from other editors/moderators before they can be approved. If a nomination doesn't gain enough support, it is not approved. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:01, 16 March 2024 (EDT)
Which is an endless loop. Because moderators don't care I want self-moderation. But for that I need moderators to care which they don't. An unreachable goal. --Stoecker (talk) 10:05, 23 March 2024 (EDT)

Heide Oberheide

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?127989; I left a PV a note telling them that a T. Canty credit for Parke Godwin's novel Beloved Exile was actually by Oberheide so that will need fixing but another problem I found is that her page at The Paperback Palette says she was born in Canada in 1957, both very different than what ISFDB says. So does anyone know what the real info is? --Username (talk) 22:48, 9 March 2024 (EST)

Found this and this, which both agree on 1943 and Germany and have enough differences that neither seems to be the source for the other. They both strike me as fairly authoritative, especially that first one. --MartyD (talk) 11:23, 10 March 2024 (EDT)

Tales of Terror

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?291626; I added a link to the back cover image on Bookscans in a PENDING edit and noticed there are some copies on eBay which show the first page, 5, with "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" as a title, which means this shouldn't really be a novel but rather a collection of Poe stories adapted by Sudak. Does anyone own a copy who can verify the page numbers of the other stories so they can all be entered? --Username (talk) 12:13, 13 March 2024 (EDT)

Cover artist data entry rules updated

Please note that the "Artist" section of Template:PublicationFields:CoverArt has been updated to reflect current practices. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:02, 14 March 2024 (EDT)

The Message

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1471825; Obscure author and publisher but not obscure enough that it didn't get a Chinese translation, https://archive.org/search?query=brockman-robin&sort=-addeddate, in case anyone fluent wants to enter that; just don't title it The MASSAGE like the uploader did. --Username (talk) 18:37, 14 March 2024 (EDT)

YouTube audiobooks in or out?

I've placed this submission on hold because I'm unsure if YouTube audiobooks should be included here since they are generally not downloadable (instead being streamed). The rules include audiobooks, but also exclude "[w]orks published in a web-based publication and available exclusively as a Web page" (which is pretty much what a YouTube video is), and they say nothing about podcasts. Thoughts? Should this be a Rules and standards discussion? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:42, 20 March 2024 (EDT)

They are out under the exclusion as they are not downloadable. However we need to extend the Audio-book section of the inclusion section to match the ebooks/electronic publication one above it a bit - especially around podcasts which are not considered magazines for example. So maybe starting a discussion to clarify what audio-materials we want to index is the best choice (while keeping that one on hold until we decide what we want to do) :). Annie (talk) 15:09, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
Okay, moved it over there. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:33, 20 March 2024 (EDT)

Barcodes with prices hiding in plain sight

A lot of printed books have prices on their back covers hiding in plain sight. If you look at a barcode on the back cover, next to the ISBN, usually over the smaller barcode next to the ISBN one, there is a number sequence - for example 51595 or 51699. That means $15.95 / $16.99 (5 is the code for $, the rest is the price). The first example is from a book I pulled from my shelf (not genre), the second is from an Amazon book. As back covers are very often visible in Amazon (separately or as part of Look Inside), that may help with adding prices (with an appropriate note) even when Amazon and other retailer have their own ideas on what the price may be (or at the very least it can serve as a confirmation for the Amazon price). It is not there for all books (90000 is a very common code up there) but for the books that have it, it is as good as the old printed prices.

I propose to add this tidbit of information to the Price field help. Meanwhile, I am leaving it here for information :) Annie (talk) 17:21, 20 March 2024 (EDT)

Good idea to add this to the Help. I have sometimes used this for prices. You might like to expand the note to explain other currencies. The smaller 5 digit barcode is the supplementary section of the barcode and contains a EAN-5 code. The first of the five digits is a currency code. If the first digit is 9, that means the supplementary section does not contain price information. It's explained in this Wikipedia article. Teallach (talk) 18:28, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
Yep - we should add all the codes when we are adding the note to the help page. Thanks for the link to the Wiki page - I knew it was there, I did not think to look it up earlier today :) Annie (talk) 18:41, 20 March 2024 (EDT)
I agree that adding a section about EAN-5 codes to Template:PublicationFields:Price would be useful. We could list the commonly used first digits:
  • 0 and 1 -- UK
  • 3 - Australia
  • 4 - New Zealand
  • 5 - US
  • 6 - Canada
and explain special pseudo-price values, i.e. that "9999" means "100.00 or more" while "90000" means "no price given". We could then link to the Wikipedia article or an industry Web page for other scenarios. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:06, 20 March 2024 (EDT)

Webzines to include?

Hello. I have two new pub submissions on hold as they pertain to new webzine entries. Do we want to include these?

Looking through the contents, I say we can include those. Not sure how long-lived these are going to be though... Comments/suggestions from other editors & moderators whether to include or not? (didn't look for past discussion where webzine inclusions were debated...) MagicUnk (talk) 15:35, 21 March 2024 (EDT)

Both produce issues and both are genre -zines. So they are eligible under the "Webzines, which are defined as online periodicals with distinct issues (note that online periodicals without distinct issues are not considered webzines)." rule. How long they survive is irrelevant - even if they produce a single issue, they are in. However, these records will need some massaging post approval :) Annie (talk) 15:41, 21 March 2024 (EDT)
Thought so. The help text says to post and query the editor community - we may want to update that and instead clarify that if a webzine has distinct issues, it is in by default? MagicUnk (talk) 16:09, 21 March 2024 (EDT)
Probably an oversight (we forgot it was there?) after we changed the ROA awhile back to include these. Which of the help pages?
PS: Note that awhile back we even dropped the requirement for the webzine to be genre allowing non-genre ones to be added as any other non-genre periodical (with only genre contents indexed). So yep - a webzine with issues is always in under the genre magazine rules or the non-genre periodical ones. Annie (talk) 16:22, 21 March 2024 (EDT)
Here - see webzine in that section. MagicUnk (talk) 11:00, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
Ah, the one place I did not look at. :) Yep - that needs an update. I will start a discussion so we can get the language crafted. Annie (talk) 11:08, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
Here we go - the proposed new language. Annie (talk) 11:26, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
Rules of Acquisition has it as you mention above - we may want to add non-genre periodicals role there explicitly. MagicUnk (talk) 11:00, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
We do not have them called out in the print periodicals section either but if you think we should clarify that across the board, I won't object. Let's finish the audio-formats discussion we are currently having about changes in the same section of the ROA over in R&S and then I will initiate a discussion about this. Annie (talk) 11:08, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
As an aside, I must say that I couldn't find the ROA immediately - I think it is an important section of the rules. Shouldn't we be adding a link on the main help page? MagicUnk (talk) 11:00, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
I know to look under Policy but you are right, it needs to be a lot more visible here - either as a sublink under the ISFDB Policy link or on its own in the same section. Annie (talk) 11:08, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
I've added a specific link to it on Help:Contents, which is found at the top of most help pages. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:18, 22 March 2024 (EDT)

ISFDB:Verification requests

The ISFDB:Verification requests board is not used much anymore. It seems ISFDB:Help desk and this board have pretty much supplanted it. Do we want to discontinue it? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:17, 22 March 2024 (EDT)

How about we can turn it into a broader board instead: "Assistance needed/Project Assistance Required/Something along these lines" for example - when an editor starts a project and notices other things that need adding/fixing or finds a source that may be useful and is unable/unwilling to work through it, they can request assistance there. Looking at CS, about half of the posts there in the last couple of years are from that nature and they choke the actual discussion threads and make it very hard for people to notice that something was posted in the discussions. It will be the counter-part of the Help Desk - come to the Help Desk if you want help getting the work done and learning how to do it; come to this board to post a project that needs work but you cannot/don't want to work on. Annie (talk) 14:59, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
I'd be fine with that. I agree this board has gotten rather full lately, making it hard to keep track of things. So maybe change the title to ISFDB:Assistance requests or something? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:11, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
I like the idea. "Assistance requests" may be a bit too narrow for what we are trying to define, but it's the closest that I can think of at the moment. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:46, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
I like "Assistance Requests". If we ever come up with a better name, we can rename and forward. And we have the text under it to add a sentence that describes the scope better. Annie (talk) 15:53, 22 March 2024 (EDT)
"Help Wanted" ? ../Doug H (talk) 09:47, 23 March 2024 (EDT)
I think that there is potential for confusion between "Help desk" and "Help Wanted". Ideally, whatever name we come up with should clearly differentiate between the two boards. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:08, 23 March 2024 (EDT)
Maybe "Research Requests" or "Research Assistance"? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:45, 24 March 2024 (EDT)
I like "Research Assistance". Ahasuerus (talk) 15:13, 24 March 2024 (EDT)

(unindent) Are there any objections to changing ISFDB:Verification requests to Research Assistance? Ahasuerus (talk) 17:12, 4 April 2024 (EDT)

I'm okay with that. MagicUnk (talk) 06:10, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
If there are no objections, I will ask Nihonjoe to make the change tomorrow. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:50, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
De we want it to be ISFDB:Research Assistance to Research Assistance? The other can be a redirect. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:54, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
Probably ISFDB:Research Assistance in order to stay consistent with the majority of other "major" pages. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:05, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
Since there are no objections, please feel free to go ahead and move ISFDB:Verification requests to ISFDB:Research Assistance when you get a chance. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:45, 6 April 2024 (EDT)
Moved! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:31, 8 April 2024 (EDT)
Thanks! I have updated the main Wiki page and everything looks good. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:37, 8 April 2024 (EDT)
The Description up in the panel at the top of all the community boards still say "Help with bibliographic, image credit, and other questions which require a physical check of the work in question.". Annie (talk) 11:49, 8 April 2024 (EDT)
Updated, thanks! The new wording is "Help with bibliographic projects", which is a bit bland and non-specific, but I couldn't think of a better way to summarize the purpose of the new board. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:49, 8 April 2024 (EDT)

Jim/James Burns

I just added a link and did a few other things for the 33rd YBSF edition, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2012677, and searched for others with James Burns as cover artist; only 34th came up, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2209443, but as can be seen PV of TP and HC entered it differently. So maybe consensus about which is "better" should be reached and credits merged. --Username (talk) 18:45, 27 March 2024 (EDT)

Lovecraft Collaborations Book

I was starting to add the audio book edition of this title and discovered that publisher has provided a copy of the pdf version of the book. While we don't have a record for the pdf (it has a different ISBN than the eBook), there are several discrepancies between it and our records. I also have questions other questions about how this title is reflected and while none of the publications are primarily verified, there have been several editors who have touched these records. I thought I'd reach out for comments before proceeding with changes.

  1. We have the title as an ANTHOLOGY and list both the editor and Lovecraft. All the stories are credited to Lovecraft with various co-authors. Personally, I feel that these sorts of collection of collaborations are better typed as COLLECTION as was done with this title.
  2. The title page lists the credits as "By H.P. Lovecraft" over "Edited and Annotated by Finn J.D. John" in smaller type. We have both names in the author field. Since we have this as an ANTHOLOGY, this labels them both as "Editors". Lovecraft clearly didn't edit this book. As I feel this should be listed as a COLLECTION, I also feel that only Lovecraft should be listed in the author field. If the consensus is that it's an ANTHOLOGY, then we only list John.
  3. The stories are listed with both Lovecraft and his co-author on their title pages, whereas we have them all listed by the collaborating author alone. So I intend to swap out which variant of these titles is included. I don't thin this is controversial.
  4. There is a short essay before each section giving biographical details of each co-author. I intend to add these. While not signed, I think we can safely attribute them to John by virtue of his annotation credit.
  5. The PDF lists 5 different formats each with their own ISBN including the "Interactive PDF". Should we add the PDF as a separate title record, or should the PDF ISBN be added in the notes for the ebook edition? I'll also note, that my understanding is that we do list page numbers for pdfs whereas we do not for ebooks.
  6. I'm fairly comfortable that these changes should apply to the 2018 publications based on the 2018 pdf. I'm less certain whether I should make changes to the 2017 edition, or the 2019 omnibus, i.e should we assume the story credits and biographical essays are present in the other editions not listed in the pdf?
  7. I assume adding a note about the PDF being included with the audio book is sufficient rather than duplicating the contents showing the story exists twice (audio and text).

I'd appreciate other's thoughts on these questions. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 07:29, 28 March 2024 (EDT)

My mild opinion is that both this and the example you cited should be ANTHOLOGY. They are different from the case where most of the stories are written by Lovecraft alone, with one or two written by him and someone else. While both are Locvecraft-centric, they are primarily showcasing the work of a wide variety of authors. I agree with everything else in your list. --MartyD (talk) 19:55, 31 March 2024 (EDT)
I'm afraid I would still prefer these as COLLECTIONs. If we were to convert them to ANTHOLOGY, we would need to list the editor as the sole author which would move these collections out of Lovecraft's bibliography. I had only cited one example, but there are many similar collections, many of which are verified. For example, see which collections containing the story The Green Meadow. It is contained in two true anthologies. Aside from the 4 editions of the title we're discussing, there is but one other {{P|848648|publication} typed as a ANTHOLOGY. All other publications were entered as COLLECTION or OMNIBUS. In some of these cases, we don't necessarily have the editor and would likely need to move these titles to the uncredited bibliography page instead of Lovecraft's. Beyond the Wall of Sleep is another interesting example. There about 10 "collaborations" in this collection which is a minority, but it is more than one or two stories. If we decide to type these sorts of books as ANTHOLOGY, where would we draw that line? My last point is that it appears to me that these books are published to appear as Lovecraft collections with his name listed more prominently than any editors (if they are listed at all). If we are to reclassify these publication, I'd like to hear from some of the other verifiers. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 19:23, 1 April 2024 (EDT)
Since there have been no further responses to this, and the one objection was "mild", I'm going to proceed with these changes. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 12:34, 13 April 2024 (EDT)

"Publication Title-Reference Title Mismatches" enhanced

As per the recent Rules and Standards discussion, the cleanup report "Publication Title-Reference Title Mismatches" has been enhanced to require an exact match between publication titles and their reference title records' titles. New data will become available tomorrow morning.

We are looking at around 10,000 mismatches, so the cleanup effort will be significant, especially considering the fact that many affected publication records have been primary-verified. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:07, 4 April 2024 (EDT)

Canonical name change Charles Eugene Anderson from Chuck Anderson

Any objections to making Charles Eugene Anderson the canonical name and Chuck Anderson the alternate?

  • 17 titles credited to Charles Eugene Anderson.
  • 09 titles credited to Chuck Anderson.
  • 01 title has publications credited to each.

Thanks, John Scifibones 07:51, 5 April 2024 (EDT)

Go ahead, obvious case where the switch can/need to happen MagicUnk (talk) 09:28, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
Hearing no objections, done. John Scifibones 18:45, 9 April 2024 (EDT)

David (B.) Mattingly

Looking through the works credited to Mattingly, it seems to me that "David Mattingly" is the most common (by far), and has been for a long time. There are so many entries, though, this opinion is based only on quickly scanning through the list. Is there a way to get a count of each through database queries? I don't think any of the other aliases are used in a significant amount. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:58, 5 April 2024 (EDT)

Just with search and a browser search: 510 with the name David Mattingly; 747 under the canonical; 198 of these 747 of them are "only as by David Mattingly". Just based on that, how we record the names from secondary sources for artists and the fact that the new ones are always without the B. when we get access to the book, I would say it is time to flip the names. I am not volunteering to do it though. :) Annie (talk) 18:58, 5 April 2024 (EDT)

(after edit conflict)

The easiest way that I can think of is to run a few Advanced Title Searches using "Author's Name is exactly David Mattingly". Make sure to click "Get Count" instead of "Get Results". Here are the results that I see:
  • David B. Mattingly: 747
  • David Mattingly: 510
  • Dave Mattingly: 12
  • D. B. Mattingly: 7
  • Dave Maddingly: 1
  • D. Matingly: 1
  • Mattingly: 2
  • David Burroughs Mattingly: 1
Since David B. Mattingly is the current canonical name, it's over-represented. Every "David Mattingly" COVERART/INTERIORART title has a "David B. Mattingly" parent title, but only some of the latter have actual publications associated with them. Firefox tells me that the Summary Bibliography page has:
  • 79 instances of "also appeared"
  • 8 instances of "also as"
  • 132 instances of "only appeared"
  • 207 instances of "only as"
What this means is that 339 canonical titles have only appeared under an alternate name. Another 87 have been credited at least 2 different ways. 339+87-12-7-1-1-2 is 403, which, unless I am missing something, gives us a rough count. I'd need to run database queries to get a better idea, but it looks like "David Mattingly" is slightly ahead of "David B. Mattingly".
P.S. Perhaps what we need is a new menu options to generate this kind of data on demand. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:03, 5 April 2024 (EDT)
That would be cool. Another cool thing would be if we could figure out a way to programatically automate the process of changing canonical names (maybe have a side menu link that appears whenever viewing an author entry). The link would take you to a page where you'd enter the current author ID and the target author ID. We'd have to account for variants on the author name, title variants, and translations (and probably a lot of other things that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head). For situations like this, it would save tons of time in the long run. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:37, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
This functionality has been requested a couple of times. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to implement in a way that would guarantee completeness and accuracy. Not only would the software need to change the way VTs and Alternate Names are configured, but it would also need to change dates (for some titles) and Notes.
Perhaps we could implement something less ambitious but still useful. For example, "Undo all Variants for This Author"? Ahasuerus (talk) 14:22, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
Yeah, it's definitely very complex. I like the "Undo all Variants for This Author" idea, though. What about a "swap canonical authors" option on individual titles? That would be a lot less complex and allow for easier catching of potential issues. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:48, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
I don't see the benefit of an "Undo all Variants for This Author" tool. A variant title only needs to be broken if both the canonical title and the variant tiles have publications attributed. If all the publication(s) are associated with the variant title, a simple merge is the best option. Not only does it save a step by not having to delete the old canonical, but it saves all the information. Some data is only stored in the "parent title", plus any edit history. John Scifibones 15:38, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
I'm slowly working through all of them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:42, 10 April 2024 (EDT)

Server downtime -- 2024-04-06 at 2pm

The ISFDB server will be down for maintenance between 2:00pm and 2:10pm. Both the database side and the Wiki side will be unavailable. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:28, 6 April 2024 (EDT)

The server is back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:05, 6 April 2024 (EDT)

The Prequel Trilogy

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934500; I have a question about the publisher of this 2007 Star Wars omnibus; there is no mention of Ballantine in the book so it should be similar to the last one on this list, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=del+rey&type=Publisher, but without the SFBC. Should I change publisher to LucasBooks / Del Rey? --Username (talk) 11:30, 7 April 2024 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934540; I changed publisher on this one since they were still with Ballantine in 2000. --Username (talk) 12:22, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934546; Another change from 2005 when they were still together. I don't see any cover artist credited that someone entered here or any sign of the excerpt mentioned on the book's copyright page. EDIT: One of the earlier editions has a note here saying they got artist from his site. --Username (talk) 12:31, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934585; Another one from 2006; this one actually has a PV so I'll leave them a message. --Username (talk) 13:12, 7 April 2024 (EDT)
And a final one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5934586, 2005 HC, PV is gone so no need for a note. --Username (talk) 13:18, 7 April 2024 (EDT)

Semaphore

https://www.lulu.com/fr/search?contributor=Marie+Hodgkinson; While adding PDF story links from Tartarus Press at their old freepages.pavilion.net site the last one I linked was a story by Rebecca Lloyd that was entered here as original to her 2014 collection but was actually published in 2007 in a magazine called Semaphore, no issues of which are on ISFDB, but I found that Lulu page above so anyone who likes entering magazines can add a lot from that. The editor has a page here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?143960. --Username (talk) 13:41, 9 April 2024 (EDT)

https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/semaphoremagazine.com; PDF of some (all?) issues at this site. --Username (talk) 13:50, 9 April 2024 (EDT)
Looks like it has archived PDFs of all but the last issue (issue 15) from June 2011. I'll work on these. The first issue is now here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:32, 9 April 2024 (EDT)
Okay, I think they're all entered (15 issues in total). I also found a couple anthologies collecting the stories and poems voted best by readers of the magazine. I don't know if there were more than the two anthologies. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:33, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
Excellent. Only thing I think you forgot is June 2008's cover artist. --Username (talk) 14:07, 10 April 2024 (EDT)
Fixed! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:11, 10 April 2024 (EDT)

David Ireland

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?3106; I just made edits adding the Allen Lane HC of City of Women and adding a link to Mortal Fire where the 1982 short story is from and noticed that the Wiki page makes no mention of any art so I think the famed Australian novelist and the artist are 2 different people. --Username (talk) 10:28, 11 April 2024 (EDT)

Canonical name change Jody A. Lee from Jody Lee

The artist's website and SFE use Jody A. Lee. While the majority of her early work was credited to 'Jody Lee', the shift to 'Jody A. Lee' is clear. Here are the current statistics.

  • 111 titles credited to Jody A. Lee.
  • 73 titles credited to Jody Lee.
  • 26 titles hasve publications credited to each.

Are there any objections to making Jody A. Lee the canonical name and Jody Lee the alternate? John Scifibones 14:24, 11 April 2024 (EDT)

Sounds good to me. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:41, 11 April 2024 (EDT)
No objections here. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:47, 11 April 2024 (EDT)
Hearing no objections, done. John Scifibones 17:47, 15 April 2024 (EDT)
https://ixgallery.com/artists/jodylee/; Here's her photo in case someone wants to upload it to the wiki. --Username (talk) 17:58, 15 April 2024 (EDT)
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