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Expanded archive listing

Sphere Frights

https://www.amazon.com/FRIGHTS-2-Kirby-McCauley/dp/0722157800; Kirby McCauley's 1976 anthology Frights was reprinted by Sphere in 1979 in 2 PB's; Frights 1's cover artist was found because someone noticed the same cover was used on a 1983 French book from Fleuve Noir; I noticed SFE lists Terry Oakes as cover artist for both Frights PB's, so that info seems to be known now, but what may not be known is whether that cool art at the Amazon link above, which I added just now in an edit along with Oakes' credit, was also re-used for a Fleuve Noir book. I thought I could check, but they published hundreds of those things, so if anyone more familiar with French PB's recognizes that cover they can always make it a variant. --Username 18:18, 2 January 2022 (EST)

Mystic Voices

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?500808; I couldn't find anywhere that shows the contents page of the original 1923 edition of Roger Pater's collection, but a scan is on Google Books and by searching for titles I think I've pieced all the page #'s together. However, it's possible it's not 100% correct, so if anyone has a copy or can find somewhere that shows contents let us know here. --Username 12:28, 3 January 2022 (EST)

I just added the 1923 intro by Pater so I think I'm done with this book now, but the problem is David G. Rowlands wrote a new intro for the 2001 Ash-Tree Press edition, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?279936, while there's something called "Preface to Mystic Voices" by Pater, which runs the same # of pages as the original intro. So I don't know if having 2 "Introduction (Mystic Voices)" will conflict, and whether that Preface should be merged with the 1923 intro since they're almost certainly the same. --Username 10:45, 4 January 2022 (EST)

Allen & Unwin vs Allen & Unwin (Australia)

There's a UK book due out this week that looks eligible for inclusion here. That review says it's from Atlantic Books, but Amazon and Kobo both say it's from "Allen & Unwin".

The publisher record for Allen & Unwin states "Australia-based independent publisher since 1990.", plus addition info about its history prior to then. However, there is also Allen & Unwin (Australia), which seems to cover the same post-1990 entity?

Both of these have pubs for recent years - the former seems to be a mix of USD and GBP priced pubs, and just a few AUD (which I suspect is more down to where the data was sourced from, rather than an indication of the country of publication); the latter is a mix of unpriced and AUD pubs. This seems a bit confusing to me. Naively I might assume "Allen & Unwin" should refer only to the pre-1990 UK publisher?

Going back to the title I want to add, doing a bit of investigation shows that the current "Allen & Unwin" entity is listed on the Atlantic Books site as "The UK home of Australia’s leading independent publisher". This makes me think that the title/pub I want to add might be best attributed to a new "Allen & Unwin / Atlantic Books" publisher record, to disambiguate from the parent Australian org, or the UK publisher prior to 1990. (And potentially the same for other books that have been published by the UK imprint of the UK arm of the Australian parent org - but that's something for another time...)

(FWIW There also seems to be a separate Oct 2021 pub from Allen & Unwin (Australia), which I may or may not get around to submitting, but will at the very least ensure is reflected in the title date.)

Any thoughts/objections/suggestions? ErsatzCulture 18:31, 3 January 2022 (EST)

EDIT: FWIW Kobo has a preview of the ebook already available, which does indeed have "Allen & Unwin" on the title page. The logo is similar but not identical to the one on the title page of the Australian ebook as visible via Amazon.com.au. ErsatzCulture 18:40, 3 January 2022 (EST)

Sacred or Scared?

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5188173; I remember some time ago when I changed a lowercase letter in a name to its proper uppercase but it didn't show up that way after I submitted the edit; I didn't mention it anywhere but now this edit linked above has the same issue, where it agrees the name was changed but still shows the same lowercase letter instead of McRoberts and has the same record #. More importantly, that title just can't be correct; SCARED Realm?!? I got on a kick of adding covers and a few other things to some of these PublishAmerica books, which seem to mostly be by people who have no other credits on ISFDB, and I get the feeling they weren't of the highest standard and probably had bad proofreading (not that major publishers don't often have bad proofreading, too). No title page photos online that I can find, so if anyone knows where to find one or actually owns it, can you check title page and verify it's SACRED Realm; please don't tell me it's really supposed to be SCARED? --Username 00:33, 4 January 2022 (EST)

Falkenstern

https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/carr_terry; Fantasy Annual IV and V, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?8918, and the SFE link above reveals Lisa Falkenstern did those covers, like she is credited for doing on III on ISFDB. IV has "LAF" signature on PB covers so that's obvious but I don't see any kind of signature on V so that's questionable. --Username 10:22, 4 January 2022 (EST)

Crime Club

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crime_Club; Harry Harrison's novel Queen Victoria's Revenge had no cover so I added it, but there was a note by some other editor that it was part of The Crime Club; link above says they were an imprint of Doubleday, so I changed publisher from Doubleday to Crime Club / Doubleday. However, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?57191, shows that only 5 ISFDB records use it that way while there's more than 25 that use it as part of a series. There's also 13 that call it Doubleday / Crime Club, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?25307. Also, Collins has many of their Crime Club books listed here as a publisher, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?9961, but also a few listed here as a series, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?2690. So some standardization may be in order to get all Crime Club books by both publishers under the same name. --Username 11:25, 5 January 2022 (EST)

Rat Cover

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?289366; I added OL ID to this and now that it's approved I realize the Archive.org copy has a totally different cover; prices on back are higher, so likely a later printing, in case anyone knows how many editions this went through. ISBN is the same as the earlier "train" cover, though. --Username 11:18, 6 January 2022 (EST)

Mouseover help for prices

As per FR 1467, the software has been updated to display mouseover bubbles for price values. All currency symbols listed in Help:List of currency symbols are currently supported. If you find bibliographic pages which display prices without a mouseover bubble, please post the offending URL here. Ahasuerus 11:44, 6 January 2022 (EST)

Rogue Wave / Theodore Taylor

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/edit/find_dups.cgi?30022; This book was entered as a novel and a collection, I changed novel edition to collection, but it's just a bunch of old sea stories from Argosy, not sure why it's here. Merge or delete, as you wish. --Username 16:03, 6 January 2022 (EST)

Anybody know anything about the author Theodore Taylor? Except for The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor, his work seems to be non-genre (primarily children's historical fiction). It's possible Weirdo might be genre, but sounds more non-speculative horror. None of his works are verified so no one to ask who has read them. It seems like his works need a good pruning. I'll give it a few days to see if anyone has any input, though. -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:43, 6 January 2022 (EST)

Yeah, I just looked through all of the long fiction and I agree (I couldn't find enough info to comment on the short fiction). The only one that looks genre is The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor. Not even Weirdo looks genre to me. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:55, 6 January 2022 (EST)

I went through the long works and tagged those that aren't genre. I left the autobiography since he does have at least one genre work. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:01, 6 January 2022 (EST)

https://archive.org/details/roguewaveotherre00tayl; Copyright page dates many of the stories as much earlier than their ISFDB date. --Username 18:39, 6 January 2022 (EST)

I've removed all of the non-genre stories since he is definitely not above the threshold. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:38, 10 January 2022 (EST)

Restructuring Blaze Ward's Alexandria Station Series

I want to restructure the Alexandria Station series and sub-series per Blaze Ward's own structure as shown on his website here. Proposed new structure:

Alexandria Station Universe

1 Alexandria Station Stories (rename of series "The Last Waltz")
- existing titles plus The Story Road
2 The Science Officer
- Move #1-8 into new sub-series "The Science Officer: Season One"
- Move #9-on into new sub-series "The Science Officer Season Two"
3 The Jessica Keller Chronicles
- Titles 1-9, Subseries "CS-405", "Uniforms of the Fleet: Volume One"
4 First Centurion Kosnett (moved from within "The Jessica Keller Chronicles" and stated on the website to be "Sequel Series to the Jessica Keller Chronicles")
- Two titles so far (to be six total)
5 Handsome Rob
- existing titles

This will put them in an in-universe order as well as matching the author's preferred grouping. Comments please. Phil 18:46, 7 January 2022 (EST)

At the moment, the sub-series that comprise this series are not explicitly numbered, so the display order is the alphabetical order of the sub-series names. Simply assigning then numbers based on publication order would be an improvement.

That said, since the author's Web site states that "First Centurion Kosnett" is a direct sequel to "The Jessica Keller Chronicles", I wonder if it may be better to creates a "Jessica Keller Sequence" sub-series and then turn both "The Jessica Keller Chronicles" and "First Centurion Kosnett" into its sub-series. We would end up with multiple levels of nesting, but it may be a more accurate representation of the universe.

I am going to leave a note on User:Chris_J's Talk page since Edit History indicates that he has done much of the work on this author's bibliography. Ahasuerus 17:36, 9 January 2022 (EST)

I think that would handle it nicely! That would also give room to create another sub-series if Blaze ever creates the follow-on series to "First Centurion Kosnett" that he has mentioned in his newsletter. BTW, I just discovered I missed mentioning that I also need to break up The Science Officer into to two sub-series: "The Science Officer: Season One" for #1-8 and "The Science Officer: Season Two" for #9-? (Fixing original note above for consolidated view of changes.) Phil 08:02, 10 January 2022 (EST)

Chris hasn't responded, so I went ahead and restructured the series based on your proposal. The only thing that I did differently was moving the non-fiction book "Uniforms of the Fleet: Volume One" to the newly created "Jessica Keller Sequence" series. Could you please take a look to see if everything looks OK? Ahasuerus 11:01, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Looks good! Thanks for doing it - I wasn't looking forward to all the delays doing it as a non-Mod! One thought about the new series name Jessica Keller Sequence. I asked Blaze Ward what he considers a good name for grouping those series together and he suggested that it be called "Republic of Aquitaine Era" since he has very loosely plotted out a future series set in the "Imperial Aquitaine Era". Plus, Jessica Keller isn't really more than a mention in any of the series after the "Jessica Keller Chronicles". Phil 11:35, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Works for me! Ahasuerus 11:46, 15 January 2022 (EST)

I've submitted the series rename. Thanks! Phil 12:12, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Approved. Ahasuerus 12:15, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Artist ID

Can anyone make out this signature? --Rosab618 17:30, 8 January 2022 (EST)

Perhaps Jack Woolhiser? A Google search on "Jack Woolhiser signature" finds better quality signatures which look similar. Ahasuerus 17:14, 9 January 2022 (EST)

Right you are! Thanks!--Rosab618 01:09, 10 January 2022 (EST)

Excellent :-) Ahasuerus 11:07, 10 January 2022 (EST)

Correct Help text for "Correcting a Variant Title that was done backwards"

This help text is partially incorrect. For Step 2: Instead of reading "You do not need to wait for moderator approval of the delete-variant-title but instead can just continue on to the next step." it should be changed to something like: "You need to wait for moderator approval of the delete-variant-title before continuing on to the next step. If you do not wait, you will get the error message "Error: Proposed parent title is currently a variant of another title. Variants of variants are not allowed." Phil 12:21, 9 January 2022 (EST)

Excellent point; I have made the change. Thanks! Ahasuerus 17:18, 9 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks! Phil 22:10, 9 January 2022 (EST)

Cthulhu and Henry James

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1692; 2 letters in 1989 issues of Crypt of Cthulhu, published nearly 75 years after he died. Probably a different Henry James. Same 2 PV for both issues, 1 gone, the other Biomassbob, so he might still have those issues. --Username 18:24, 9 January 2022 (EST)

Award to add? German Science Fiction Award - Deutscher Science Fiction Preis

Hi there, happy to new year!

How about adding the German "Deutscher Science Fiction Preis" , in English: "German Science Fiction Award", which is around since 1985.

Information about the award on English: https://www.dsfp.de/der-preis/the-german-science-fiction-award-information-in-english from the website itself or at the English Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_Science_Fiction_Preis

Many thanks and Best regards, Jannis (still very new to the isfdb!)

Looks like a perfectly legitimate award to me. If we have volunteers willing to enter the data, I can create a new award type for it. Ahasuerus 12:31, 10 January 2022 (EST)

Since I am the one asking for it, I would enter the previous winners and nominated entrees year for year (if there isn't some evil deadline to be finished in xxx days?). --Jannis 02:37, 11 January 2022 (EST)

Nope, no evil deadline! :-) Ahasuerus 08:26, 11 January 2022 (EST)

The only "evil" thing that may happen is that someone else may notice the award and decide to assist and add some of them before you :) Annie 17:32, 11 January 2022 (EST)

OK, if there are no objections, I can add the new award type tomorrow. Ahasuerus 19:42, 11 January 2022 (EST)

Cool, thanks a lot! The needed information for this award: Short Award Name: "DSFP", Full Award Name: "Deutscher Science Fiction Preis", Awarded For: "Best German-language science fiction novel and story", Awarded By: "Jury", Poll: "No", Non-Genre: "No" --Jannis 04:06, 12 January 2022 (EST)

Could you please clarify this award's "poll" status? Checking the list of 2021 nominations, I see that they are ranked 1-5 for short fiction and 1-9 for novels. It would appear that it makes it a "poll" in ISFDB terms based on Help:Screen:AwardType:

Poll: "No" if this award is limited to wins and nominations. "Yes" if this award assigns numeric places, e.g. 1, 2, 10, etc.

? Ahasuerus 16:00, 12 January 2022 (EST)

Sorry, yes you are absolutely right: Poll: yes, since there are the winners and other nominees as well! --Jannis 01:57, 13 January 2022 (EST)

Outcome: a new award type, DSFP/Deutscher Science Fiction Preis, has been created. It has two award categories, one for novels and the other one for short fiction. Ahasuerus 09:27, 13 January 2022 (EST)

Broughton Stories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoda_Broughton; http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?786021; 3 new stories, obviously not really new because she died many years earlier, all stories have notes saying they appeared in Temple Bar, Wikipedia link says they all appeared in non-Temple Bar publications, so any experts who know where and when they appeared can fix if they want. --Username 13:49, 10 January 2022 (EST)

I've fixed them up. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:20, 10 January 2022 (EST)

Times Wrong Numbers

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?307807; The page # start off OK but start to differ and by the end are off by 5 pages, as seen here, https://data.fantlab.ru/images/editions/plus/big/173665_4. Many people worked on this book over the years but there's no notes so maybe somebody had the book and they're all correct as they are, or maybe not. EDIT: Oh, I see now, someone got the # from The Supernatural Index. A real copy is needed to decide what the #'s really are. --Username 18:47, 10 January 2022 (EST)

Gor

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1036747; I was editing on Sidgwick & Jackson books and saw 1972's Gor Omnibus didn't have a cover, but couldn't find a cover image anywhere except on APPLE'S APP STORE. It's a perfectly clean cover and mentions the publisher's name so I uploaded it, but was told there was already an image by that name. I replaced it, and it turns out another editor, Ofearna, uploaded the cover for the 2007 Dark Horse edition nearly 10 years ago. That edition is also on ISFDB, with the correct cover, and she's not on the editors' list, so why it's in the Sidgwick wiki is unknown. So if any mods want to delete the Dark Horse upload, or if anyone actually owns a copy/knows where to find an image of the actual 1972 cover, they can replace the one from APPLE'S APP STORE. Ironic that Dark Horse's edition barely sold due to complaints but Apple has no problem selling what are basically BDSM porn novels. --Username 14:27, 14 January 2022 (EST)

I am assuming you are referring to Image:GRMNBSBZJM1972.jpg (associated with 297784) and one of the apps by "Corbin Miller" (either 650224447 or 628282752). There are a few applicable screenshots containing the cover but this one is particularly relevant. I cannot speak to why Susan uploaded that image with respect to that edition as clearly it does not belong there (but rather on the Dark Horse edition as you pointed out). You might find this archived discussion from the end of 2012 relevant. I appreciate your finding the correct cover but the image certainly needs to be cropped on the top and bottom. Thank you, —Uzume 12:11, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Wow, that's some Indiana Jones-level digging there, remembering a short discussion you had from 2012. Ofearna asked how to fix it, and obviously it never was. Any mod can still delete it if they care to. I can't believe there's no image of the original 1972 cover on the web somewhere, but I'm sure someone will find it eventually. Or maybe someone will admit to owning it and scan their own cover. --Username 12:35, 15 January 2022 (EST)

I did not really need to remember that as I just looked at Special:Whatlinkshere/Image:GRMNBSBZJM1972.jpg and found the older discussion. FYI: I also cropped the image and reuploaded it. Thanks again, —Uzume 12:42, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Different statuses for the two collections of authors

In the light of the fact that the two allowed melting pots assemble many authors of diverse languages: shouldn't 'uncredited' (here an example) and 'unknown' have the same status, i. e. have no language attached? Stonecreek 06:34, 15 January 2022 (EST)

I don't think it is possible to edit an author to remove the language. Author records start out with no language when first added from a publication, but any edit to the author record adds one. "null" is not an option in the language pull down list. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 07:26, 15 January 2022 (EST)

That is correct. The ISO 639-2 standard, which we use as the source of our supported languages, includes "zxx - No linguistic content; Not applicable", but it's not a part of the subset that we currently support. Ahasuerus 13:41, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Yeah, but I seem to remember that 'uncredited' once was the same way (or was it established when we had no language assignment around, but 'unknown' should have been around then also).

Also, 'uncredited' is virtually uneditable, 'unknown' maybe should have the same status. Stonecreek 08:23, 15 January 2022 (EST)

The difference between uncredited and unknown is not language. It is that uncredited has so many records the software prohibits viewing the author record. In the database, uncredited has a language of English, you just can't see that in the display. The software could probably be relatively easily changed to not display the language field on the unknown author record. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:38, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Our software uses authors' "Working language" values to determine which titles have their language displayed on Summary pages and which ones don't. For example, our Vladimir Nabokov record currently uses "English" as his working language, so his Russian works have "[Russian]" displayed next to their titles while his English works do not have "[English]" displayed. If we were to change his working language to "Russian", it would be the other way around.

Similarly, the fact that "unknown" currently has "English" set up as its working language means that English titles do not have their language displayed next to them while all other titles do. If we decide that it's desirable, it wouldn't be hard to change the software to always display the title's language on "unknown"'s Summary page. Ahasuerus 13:53, 15 January 2022 (EST)

Does it make sense to have an "unknown (language)", even if it's just to separate them out? Make it an alternate name? ../Doug H 15:04, 15 January 2022 (EST) (says unilingual bystander who doesn't really know what he's talking about).

That sort of makes sense. It is unlikely a Japanese publication would ever be credited with an author of "uncredited" or "unknown" as they would use something similar in Japanese. If we do make such authors, it might even make sense to make them into pseudonyms of the "unknown" or "uncredited" (although that might have other implications but in theory such could be handled like other shared pseudonyms in the title variants). —Uzume 12:50, 16 January 2022 (EST)

But those two denominations are no actual credits they are sorts of placeholders, and it makes IMO more sense to keep it as simple as possible, that is: have one denomination in our overall language of handling for each of the meanings. Stonecreek 13:12, 16 January 2022 (EST)

This approach partitions the unknowns, allowing one to view only, say, Russian unknowns together. An advanced query will do the same thing for those who might want to know and having the canonical unknown with listings for "[as unknown (Russian) [Russian]]" would seem odd. ../Doug H 15:02, 16 January 2022 (EST)

Perry Rhodan in French

Hi everyone! This seems to be a somewhat bigger cake, and there are some more complex problems involved.

There are two major phases of publishing the original Perry Rhodan series in French (see below), but both face the seemingly in most cases erroneous crediting to Clark Darlton and 'K.-H. Scheer': those two authors were central to the development of the series, but retreated over the course of time more and more from writing the novellas. So, in most cases the credit for one or both of them is wrongly stated (see this example, where the originals were written by Kurt Mahr and William Voltz, respectively). Usually we'd denominate the French credits as something like 'Clark Darlton (in error)' and 'K.-H. Scheer (in error)' (or possibly in the latter case just as 'K.-H. Scheer' since this alternate name of K. H. Scheer seems to have been used only in French).

Phase 1 (bundling of two novellas): This was the way to publish the series in French up to the year 2005. As of now, these publications are entered as novels, though each of them seems to consist of two distinct titled parts (the translated two novellas, see the example referred to above). It'd be better to have them that way, I'd think, that is, to have those volumes entered as anthologies or collections.

The trouble is that from 1966 (the beginning of the Fleuve Noir PR series) until 1970 or a bit later (I still have gaps in my collection), there is no clear evidence that the books are indeed collections of two novellas (apart from the mention “First Part” and "Second Part”, without any other title). See #1 of the series, presented as the translation of Unternehmen Stardust alone. Distinct titles for each part, usually translations of the German titles, seem to appear around 1970. As from 1973 or thereabouts, two original titles are indicated, thus implying the book is indeed a collection or anthology. So the very early years of the French series cause a real problem. Linguist 05:25, 17 January 2022 (EST).

It seems that for the first volumes at least, there's no major problem per se: they are varianted to the novel adaptations of 1962 and after (see here for #1), not the original novellas of 1961 and after. This also is the case for the last one without named parts. In case future problems will pop up, it still would be possible to use the identified beginnings of the respective parts as titles for the novella, like was done here for a statement by Scheer. Stonecreek 09:14, 17 January 2022 (EST)

Phase 2 (translations of fix-ups): With the year 2005 (and #200) the publications were stated translations of the fix-up novels that combined and bridged the single novellas into genuine novels and thus should directly be varianted to their originals.

For the background on this, see also Perrypedia. Any input on this will be welcome! Stonecreek 08:20, 16 January 2022 (EST)

From this response it seems to be okay to variant the titles of the second phase to the original novels.

For those of phase on from the internal logic and the statements 'This book collects French translations of two Perry Rhodan novellas' as in the example referred to above the assumption made above that those are really ANTHOLOGIES / COLLECTIONS also seem to be correct (with the exception of the ones that are variants of the early novel adaptations of the 1960s).

And also the alternate name 'Clark Darlton (in error)' should be inserted when appropriate.

I'll wait for a few days more for any other input (say until next Weekend) and then begin with the work. In this case, could you Dominique or Alain supply the titles for the respective two parts of the ANTHOLOGIES / COLLECTIONS, or should just 'Chapitre I' / 'Chapitre II' [or 'Première partie (...)' / 'Deuxième partie (...)'] be inserted.

In any case, there seem to be some updates for the notes in order. Stonecreek 02:05, 18 January 2022 (EST)

I can add the titles of the two parts when necessary, but remember my collection of Perry Rhodans is very far from complete. Just give me a ping when you want the job done. Linguist 04:18, 18 January 2022 (EST).

Thanks! Likely, this will be due beginning sometimes during next week. Christian Stonecreek 05:02, 18 January 2022 (EST)

I have just verified this publication and two points worth mentioning appeared to me when looking at it:

1) Dominique, how do you plan to enter the novellas: a) with their title proper, or b) with 'Première partie : respective title'. (I ask because some of those you haven't verified nevertheless have the respective titles listed in the notes.)

I think the second solution is the better one, as it gives a more precise idea of the way the French edition is organized (and sorry I didn't see your question earlier). Linguist 04:13, 23 January 2022 (EST).

2) In general: shouldn't the month of the stated dépôt légal be made into the to be entered month of publication (instead of the month of printing)? After all, this is the most likely month, the other one is just the month it was printed in. Christian Stonecreek 10:14, 21 January 2022 (EST)

Gwynplaine

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1562; I added author photo to F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre's record, it was just approved, but my note about his death by suicide was replaced by the note I wrote for the moderator about author's uncertain birth place which was moved into the regular notes section. I don't know why that was done, but who cares; the point is while I was looking at his record I noticed there was a comment written by Ahasuerus nearly 10 years ago that the author used 3 different names and most everything else about him was uncertain. Now that I stumbled onto this, if anyone knows whether anyone ever figured out his real name, where he was really born, etc. it might be time to update his record. --Username 10:38, 18 January 2022 (EST)

Bryan Smith

I think that the few dark suspense novels of Bryan Smith should be listed as the volume of supernatural and horror fiction that he has published, and is still publishing. I have been told no, but I would like a second opinion. How much is the right amount to be above the threshold? Not trying to cause any problems here, but... MLB 13:59, 19 January 2022 (EST)

Given the amount of work he's had published, I think he is above the threshold. So, I'd say add them, but be sure to mark any that have no supernatural content as non-genre. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:22, 19 January 2022 (EST)

Unless there is a cache of non-speculative stories and novels I don't know about (and Goodreads does not about either), he looks well above threshold to me. Annie 15:08, 19 January 2022 (EST)

I'm the one who has reservations.;) Is the volume of an author's work decisive in determining whether he/she/xer is above the threshold, or should we factor in how famous/well known the author is in the speculative fiction field as well? The author is definately not in the league of Asimov or Clarke or... And as I'm reluctant to add non spec-fic regardless, irrespective whether its above or below threshold (which is subjective, right? :), I have my doubts whether to include the work. MagicUnk 16:53, 19 January 2022 (EST)

"Well known" to whom? There are some big authors that never got an award in their life - bad timing, too niche or whatever else happened. With the advent of self-publishing, we will have even more of them. On the other hand, as big as Orwell will always be in the genre, we won't index all his works because he is not primarily a speculative author. The only somewhat objective criteria we have is "is he primarily a speculative author aka does most of his work belong in the genre?". For Bryan Smith the answer is "yes" IMO. So he is above threshold.

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather not index any non-genre work by anyone. But under the current definition and practices, Smith is above the waterline I think. Annie 17:35, 19 January 2022 (EST)

ISFDB:Policy says "The goal [of the "certain threshold" standard] is to avoid cataloging everything ever published by James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Louis Stevenson, Honoré de Balzac and other popular authors. Instead, we want to catalog their speculative fiction works only." So basically it excludes non-SF by "non-genre authors".

That's how I have been using the "certain threshold" standard, but in the past some editors have argued in favor of using a higher standard, something like "genre importance". Ahasuerus 20:24, 19 January 2022 (EST)

I'm not sure if you can use "well known" as a term much now. Smith would have been considered a mid-level author in the old days, but now, he's considered a major talent in the small-press horror field. He's been filmed, and major limited, signed editions have been issued. He's no King or Koontz, but he's major player in the horror field. MLB 02:29, 20 January 2022 (EST)

Being a famous horror author in and of itself doesn't warrant inclusion in the database. I'm with Ahasuerus' interpretation of the rules here: the author should be a genre author. So, since I'm not familiar enough with Bryan Smith's other works, would you say the majority of his work has speculative elements in it, as that would imply he's a genre author and his non-genre works eligible for inclusion? MagicUnk 05:00, 20 January 2022 (EST)

Let me make sure that I understand your question correctly Are you making a distinction between "psychological horror" [not SF as per Policy] and "supernatural horror" [SF as per Policy]? If so, then I believe that a very large percentage of Bryan Smith's works includes supernatural elements. A randomly selected 2016 collection included stories about "serial killers, vampire nuns, demons, werewolves, and regular people forced to make hellish choices." Some of his works are not speculative -- psychological horror and crime fiction -- but overall I would say that he is a genre author. Ahasuerus 11:20, 20 January 2022 (EST)

Yup, that's the distinction I wanted to make. As he's a genre author, I'll aprove MLB's submission, and flag it as non-genre. MagicUnk 16:56, 20 January 2022 (EST)

That's why I mentioned that unless there is a cache of non-speculative stories somewhere, he is above threshold for me (that implies that he is a genre author - you cannot get there unless you write mostly our type of stories). He is definitely one of ours - the speculative manages to sneak even into most of the ones that you would not expect (although a few stories and novels somehow managed not to have it) :) Annie 17:20, 20 January 2022 (EST)

Vagabonds of Gor

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?53042; Related to my find of the apparently rare cover for Gor Omnibus recently, the 1987 Star edition of Vagabonds was missing its cover until I just uploaded a beautiful one from www.sfandfantasy.co.uk. I also added Canadian and NZ prices from a back cover photo on AUSTRALIAN eBay. Online info suggests Ken (W.) Kelly did the cover, as he did for so many other Gor novels, but there was no mention of that on the back, so that's for someone else to enter if they own a copy and it mentions his name somewhere in the book. Uzume, do you have a copy? --Username 22:05, 19 January 2022 (EST)

Depp

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?384335; Rand Ravich wrote the screenplay for The Astronaut's Wife; the cover linked above is the poster with the stars, Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron. It's not artwork. --Username 19:26, 21 January 2022 (EST)

Web API updated

The Web API, i.e. the part of the ISFDB software which communicates with other computers, has been updated to include publication-specific transliterated titles and Web pages. There should be no impact on regular Web pages which are viewed/edited by ISFDB users. Ahasuerus 14:45, 23 January 2022 (EST)

Adding a "Stated Publication Date" field?

Recently, we had a discussion of publication dates on the Moderator Noticeboard. There were three parts to the discussion:

Internal inconsistencies in the current version of Template:PublicationFields:Date
Differences between Template:PublicationFields:Date and the prevailing data entry practices
The fact that we have only one field for "Publication Date", which forces us to choose between entering the date stated within the publication (on the title page, on the copyright date, etc) and the date when the publication was actually made available to the public.

Following up on that discussion, MartyD put together a proposed update to Help, which would address issues 1 and 2 above. Unfortunately, the proposed changes won't help with issue 3 because publication records have only field dates and you can't fit two different dates in one field no matter what you do. If a book published on 2021-09-27 has an "October 2021" statement on the copyright page, as is fairly common, it leaves us in an inherently difficult position. If we enter "2021-09-27" as the Date value, we very visibly contradict what's stated in the book and violate the "principle of least astonishment". If we enter "2021-10-00" and move the exact date to Notes, we lose granularity and accuracy, especially when it comes to searching and data mining.

After reviewing the discussion which was prompted by Marty's proposal, I wrote:

...we really need to add a "Stated Publication Date" to publication records and we need to do it sooner rather than later. A single field is just insufficient to handle the reality of what's out there.

Here is what I have been thinking:

The current "Publication Date" field (and all of its current values) would be kept "as is". It will be used for actual publication dates going forward
A new field, "Stated Publication Date", will be used when it's different from the actual publication date. If a publication has multiple publication dates, e.g. "2012" on the title page and "October 2012" on the copyright page, the more precise date will be used.
Title-level dates will remain as they are now and be "actual dates of first publication".
We will have to decide how to use this field for magazine publications, which have a separate set of data entry rules
If this works out, we may do something similar with certain other fields at a later point.

This would take a fair amount of programming work, but nothing insurmountable.

What does everyone think? Ideas? Potential issues? Ahasuerus 16:00, 23 January 2022 (EST)

I like the idea. We are a DB - the more data we have, the better. Annie 16:45, 23 January 2022 (EST)

PS: I think it will also solve nicely the issue with magazines dating - especially webzines and ebooks - which have dates but due to the way we have our rules, end up dated with just year or month. Having the two fields will allow us to keep both dates - the cover date and the actual date. Except that for them what we have now is closer to "stated dates" than to actual dates so we may need a cleanup effort to deal with these and move them to the proper places (especially for e-magazines and webzines). Annie 18:10, 23 January 2022 (EST)

A pragmatic solution, I'm good with it. Three topics when (if) we move on - display, documentation and population of the new field. A wish though - a way to persuade editors to provide meaningful citations for non-stated data. And in case I miss the later discussions - document the split / populating in/through the Help and use the history to 'recover' old values for date. ../Doug H 23:10, 23 January 2022 (EST)

Cliff ?

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?35340; I added OL link, previous editor entered name wrong ( it's Cliff NIELSON on back cover, https://archive.org/details/generoddenberrys00fred), but actually it's by Cliff Nielsen, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?21018, so if anyone cares to untangle that...also, there's another entry for Cliff Neilson on ISFDB and another one for Cliff Nielson. --Username 18:04, 23 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks for finding these errors! Fixed. Stonecreek 02:10, 24 January 2022 (EST)

Doesn't seem to be fixed (yet)? MagicUnk 06:23, 24 January 2022 (EST)

Hi, could you explain what seems to be still wrong? I can't see anything (but one does tend towards errors like this with his own doings / writings). Thanks, Christian Stonecreek 06:52, 24 January 2022 (EST)

Well, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?35340 has to be by Cliff NIELSON, not NIELSEN, as that's what's written on the back of the cover (see archive.org scan). I didn't find Cliff NEILSON anymore (presumably automatically deleted once you updated the records to NIELSON?) - as I don't know which records were affected, could you confirm it really was a typo, or rather that the books did have NEILSON written on it. IF the latter is the case, that name had to be a pseudonym instead. Regards, MagicUnk 08:35, 24 January 2022 (EST)

Oh, and incidentally, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?866152 really seems to be a typo by the editor. At least I can't find a reference to an edition on which NIELSON is credited - rather, NIELSEN is credited on back cover of the paperback edition here, as well as on the copyright page of the 7th printing hardcover edition (via LookInside). Regards, MagicUnk 08:42, 24 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks, both were dealt with. Christian Stonecreek 09:00, 24 January 2022 (EST)

Star Trek Fanzines

https://archive.org/details/@fanzine_collection_archivist; I entered info for this, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?853551, and saw this Archive user has a treasure trove of old Trek fanzines. ScoTpress, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?38212, is missing almost everything on ISFDB, so anyone who likes entering old fanzines might find a lot to do here. These don't seem to be listed on Open Library, so covers will probably have to be uploaded. Also, the cover artist is A.H. for the publication I entered info for, but there's a 1982 Polish essayist and an 1870's artist on ISFDB with the same name. So when this edit is approved someone may want to chime in with how to fix this; maybe A.H. (fanzine artist)? --Username 11:24, 25 January 2022 (EST)

I changed it to A.H. (fanzine artist) since nobody responded. --Username 10:05, 27 January 2022 (EST)

There's already an A.H. (artist) in the DB - not the same one you think? MagicUnk 12:20, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Probably not, since the A.H. already on ISFDB did the art in the 1870's and the person who did the cover for the Trek zine was 1984. Unless he lived to a ripe old age I doubt it's the same person. --Username 12:30, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Right... that's what you get when not paying attention :( But on the topic: the standard way to disambiguate is to use roman numerals (next to '(artist)', or '(in error)'). Examples here and here. Granted, the current case is a bit ambiguous, but I believe we could update the 'A.H. (fanzine artist)' to 'A.H. (I) (artist)' or 'A.H. (artist I)' as per the examples, which I believe to be more in line with actual practice. What do you think? MagicUnk 07:28, 28 January 2022 (EST)

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=fanzi&type=Name; only 2 names with "fanzine" in them, so you're right; change it to whatever you think best in keeping with standards. --Username 08:30, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Painting the Dark (Side)

https://www.amazon.com/Painting-Dark-Liane-Jones/dp/006101172X; I don't know which book was meant to be here, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?25543, but the book by Jones is Painting the Dark. --Username 19:34, 25 January 2022 (EST)

Looking at the edit history - seems to me a wrong cover was added in December 2017, and title was adjusted based on that wrong cover. I've replaced the cover with a link to the (supposedly) correct one, and changed the title accordingly. Should look better now. MagicUnk 09:54, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Gold Medal Recipe

Doing edits for Fawcett Gold Medal books; The Haunting of Drumroe, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?586630, is 144 pages but says WorldCat has 143. This, https://picclick.com/Paperback-The-Haunting-of-Drumroe-By-Claudette-124789383161.html, has 11 photos, but this, https://www.etsy.com/listing/1026058074/pulp-novel-the-haunting-of-dromroe-by, has the same photos but also includes a video where the seller flips quickly through the book, pausing briefly on the copyright page, which allowed me to see the month and enter that missing info here. 1 of the photos shows what seems to be the last page of the novel, 141 (although it's possible 142-143 may be an epilogue or something similar), and another photo shows the last page, 144, which is a RECIPE. Fawcett published cookbooks, so is it possible that they included a free recipe in their 70's books? If so, does that really count as part of the book? Anyway, that probably explains the WorldCat discrepancy. --Username 09:24, 26 January 2022 (EST)

I would include it, though if it's not SF-related, you could include it in the notes with an explanation of the page count. I would use the full page count (144), even if the content on the last page isn't included anywhere other than the notes. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:04, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Voigt Book

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?730271; I fixed publisher and also added price and month; lots of editors/moderators worked on this, and someone added an OL link in 2019, I think, but for some reason didn't notice all the wrong/missing info; also, the cover uploaded to ISFDB doesn't match the OL cover, missing that big star on lower left and also missing the price after the ISBN on the cover. I don't want to upload the OL cover just for a PB reprint, but if anyone cares they can approve my edit and then do whatever they want afterwards. --Username 17:09, 26 January 2022 (EST)

2001: A Space Odyssey COLLECTION vs. OMNIBUS

Hi, everyone interested. We have this as a COLLECTION but this as an OMNIBUS. Both editions/publications feature the same fiction content (though translated in one case). My preference would be for the latter, but I can see why the first was entered as a COLLECTION. Please vote, people. Christian Stonecreek 05:52, 27 January 2022 (EST)

It looks counterintuitive, but I think the rules point to COLLECTION. From the help screen under novel: "NOVEL. Used when the book is devoted to a single work of fiction. The addition of multiple short stories makes the book a collection, not a novel". --Willem 08:49, 27 January 2022 (EST)

(after editing conflict) Looking at the rules entries for NOVEL and OMNIBUS here, it has to be either a NOVEL or a COLLECTION (not an OMNIBUS). I also remember an earlier discussion (but can't find it right now), where basically it was said that a short fiction piece was added to a novel 'as an afterthought', or as a bonus, then the pub type would retain the type of the primary work - NOVEL in this case (in agreement with the rules for NOVEL pub type). If you consider the two stories not to be bonuses or afterthoughts, then it has to be a COLLECTION (and not an OMNIBUS). Regards, MagicUnk 08:51, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Omnibus needs two separate containers inside of it IMO (2 novels, novel+collection, 2 collections, 2 anthologies and so on). 1 Novel+1 bonus story is a novel; 1 novel+2 or more stories (or 1 novel and 1 novella) is a collection. I'd call this one a collection. Annie 15:55, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks to everyone, I have transformed and varianted the Portuguese title & publications. Christian Stonecreek 01:57, 28 January 2022 (EST)

German Spelling

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1801447; [1]; [2]; note the different spelling, TAUSENDUNDEINE, on the later edition. Cut-off cover image, mistake by the publisher, or did Germany have a spelling overhaul between 1997 and 2004? --Username 14:39, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Judging from the bibliographical links (DNB and OCLC) it's a misspelling just on the cover (and maybe also on the spine), which is not reflected on the title page. Stonecreek 02:16, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Semiprozines vs. Professional Magazines

The distinction between amateur and semiprozine is pretty clear. Are there specific criteria seperating semiprozines from professional magazines? John Scifibones 15:29, 27 January 2022 (EST)

In our DB? No. The distinction matters for some awards but in our DB, something is either a magazine (and that includes all semiprozines I had ever seen) or a fanzine (and even that line can blur in some cases - there is a reason why we use the same type for the title records of these). Annie 15:37, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Lately, I have seen some large differences in author renumeration. I don't want to incorrectly refer to a magazine as a semiprozine if it is something more. Pehaps I shouldn't use the term in anythong other an an awards reference? Thanks, John Scifibones 15:51, 27 January 2022 (EST)

But we don't have a semiprozine type anywhere? Do you mean notes? I don't usually use the term semiprozine in notes UNLESS the publication calls themselves so and/or they have awards/nominations in the category (and even then... I'd just call the thing magazine and not worry about the hierarchy). From our DB perspective, we don't really care what the remuneration is - a magazine is a magazine even if they pay in coconuts or monopoly money. Annie 16:00, 27 January 2022 (EST)

I have used the term in descriptions. I won't use it anymore. John Scifibones 16:40, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Application for self-approval status -- Swfritter

(Moved from Moderator Noticeboard to Community Portal) Which would probably be welcomed by a few moderators. The primary process I will be working on for (probably months) is internet archive links. The side benefit is that I am making a list of the few issues that need work. What would be nice is a way to flag admissions that I would like to be moderated by someone else.--swfritter 17:42, 25 January 2022 (EST)

Unfortunately it is all or nothing - once you get the ability to self-approve, moderators cannot touch your submissions - you can ping the moderators via the Moderator board or post on someone's individual page and they can look or assist you with a comment/advice, but we won't be able to approve/reject for you. Still interested in being able to self-approve under that rule?Annie 17:48, 25 January 2022 (EST)

Sounds good. Rtrace, Krang, and JLaTondre will probably be quite happy as they have been doing most of the approvals. Most of my knowledge from my decade as a moderator seems to be intact. Thanks.--swfritter 18:28, 25 January 2022 (EST)

I have pinged the moderators who have been working on Swfritter's submissions over the last few weeks. Ahasuerus 09:22, 26 January 2022 (EST)

I would welcome allowing swfritter to self-moderate. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 09:35, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Swfritter's area in the past & it appears present was magazines, so self-moderation would be great and hopefully sooner rather than later full moderation so I can go back to mostly ignoring magazines.Kraang 12:41, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Yes it would be a great help. Go for it.--Chris J 15:28, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Yep, I agree as well. The team is always around for questions/assistance if the rules had changed that much in a certain area. Annie 18:30, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support. -- JLaTondre (talk) 20:43, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:12, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --Willem 18:18, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. Stonecreek 02:17, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --MartyD 12:26, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --Bob 12:53, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. PeteYoung 00:10, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Outcome

Swfritter has been added to the list of self-approvers. Ahasuerus 09:55, 31 January 2022 (EST)

Application for self-approval status, Scifibones

(Moved from Moderator Noticeboard to Community Portal)

I formally request self-approval privileges. John Scifibones 13:59, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support. I would be fine with you have full moderator privileges. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:15, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support. I'd advice first self-approving for a few weeks, then thinking about full moderation but as I mentioned on your page, I won't vote 'no' on either. Annie 18:28, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support. Scifibones' almost never require questioning. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 20:26, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support, self-moderation for a short period & then move to full moderation.Kraang 22:01, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support, John, has shown he as a very good grasp of the rules by now - all of his edits are of high quality. I agree with above statements that John should/could move to full moderatorship shortly after. MagicUnk 08:53, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. Does a good job with everything I've seen. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:12, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support.--Chris J 15:44, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --Willem 18:19, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support, good work done so far as I've seen. -- Stonecreek 02:18, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --MartyD 12:26, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --Bob 12:52, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. PeteYoung 00:10, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Outcome

Scifibones has been added to the list of self-approvers. Ahasuerus 09:55, 31 January 2022 (EST)

Application for self-approval status--MOHearn

(Moved from Moderator Noticeboard to Community Portal)

And to keep the ball rolling on the subject of these last posts, here's my request for self-approval status.--Martin MOHearn 21:49, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support - working translations and weird languages is never easy in our DB and I’ve rarely seen issues. Annie 22:08, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support, detailed submissions & has good grasp of the DB.Kraang 22:51, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Support. Never really had any issues with Martin's submissions. Should be no problem to go to full moderator status as well. Regards, MagicUnk 08:54, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. Does a good job with accuracy and including what needs to be there. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:13, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:33, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support.--Chris J 15:45, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 18:01, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --Willem 18:20, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --MartyD 12:26, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. --Bob 12:51, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Support. PeteYoung 00:10, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Outcome

MOHearn has been added to the list of self-approvers. Ahasuerus 09:56, 31 January 2022 (EST)

El Frankenstein

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?869753; I used my mad Spanish skillz to figure out that the editor who entered this anthology didn't know or care to variant stories to their English originals; I did for all of them except the Morrow story because that also involves varianting the name, and I'm not touching that. Also, they stole the contents from one of Peter Haining's crap anthologies, 1995's The Frankenstein Omnibus, so I don't know if that would make the anthology a variant of the 1995 one or not. --Username 19:59, 27 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks for linking these translations. Unfortunately, the length is missing or disagrees with that of the parent title for several of these. The consensus is that if the length changes in translation, we list both records with the original length. There is another step required for these edits to edit the translated record to conform to the length of the original. This will keep them from showing up in this cleanup report. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 09:52, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Shock

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?53695; Jack Davis did all 3 covers for this 1960 magazine, but was only credited on 1 here. I fixed that, but why is 1 issue separate from the others? That can't be right. EDIT: I made an edit fixing the date issue; I'll know if I did it right if it's approved. --Username 20:48, 27 January 2022 (EST)

They were separate because noone got around to merging them when one of them was added. :) Merged now.

PS: You do not need to rename/re-date the EDITOR record in order to merge in these cases - that would have meant two steps (update and then merge). Instead you can use Advanced search to get both titles in a merge screen - and just merge them from there. Thanks for spotting that one. Annie 18:01, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Bauman's Husband

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=versandi&type=Name; Jill Bauman, famous artist, is still missing many credits on ISFDB. I just added 3 cover credits, and then noticed that she has an alternate name of Versandi which she used for a few books in 1986-1987. There's only 1 other person by that name here, Bob Versandi, who wrote 1 story published in a Tor horror anthology in 1987. Jill did cover art for many Tor books, so it seems likely they threw her husband a bone and published a story by him (there's barely any mention of it online). I can't find any definitive proof it's her husband, but if anyone else can then they can be linked with a note mentioning they are/were married. --Username 17:08, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Western Why

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?840906; Non-genre and no genre zine reviews, so why is it here? Maybe it shouldn't be. --Username 19:03, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Loaded with one of the early automations and never cleaned up. Will zap it.

PS: Even if there were reviews, we would be converting the reviews to essays and still deleting that one. Annie 19:08, 28 January 2022 (EST)

Collier Maps

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?195397; I was editing for a John Collier collection and noticed there were 2 interior art credits on his page here, 1 from 1923 and 1 from the 1970's. The 1970's one turned out to be by a different guy with the same name who did maps for some of Michael Moorcock's books. However, after I fixed that and then merged the art with another art credit, I noticed the original date was several years earlier. For some reason, the maps in earlier editions have a different name. About a dozen PV's worked on these books, some no longer around, so if anyone knows the deal with these maps and what title they should have it's all there. --Username 12:10, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Major changes made to Harry Turtledove "Series: How Few Remain Universe" without any consultation

All titles & pub titles where changed by dropping the series name which appears to be built into the title, for example "Title indicated as "Settling Accounts: Return Engagement" on cover, spine, copyright page and title page"[3] & [4]. A look inside of any of the other ten titles will show the same thing, plus even in the "books by" part of the book its the same[5]. I believe this may have been changed in hast, Personal Verifiers & other interested parties should have been consulted.Kraang 12:47, 29 January 2022 (EST)

The relevant part of the data entry standards was changed a few years ago. To quote Help:Screen:NewPub:

Note that the title page may show the series name, and sometimes the publication's position in the series. The present (2018) usage is to enter only the "simplified" title, for example, you could enter the title for a publication as "Song of the Dragon" and the note would have "The title page states 'Song of the' over 'Dragon' over 'The annals of Drakis: Book One'."

We are currently discussing whether editors should discuss these types of changes with primary verifiers on the Rules and Standards page. Ahasuerus 13:03, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Struggled with subtitles in the past but in this case these appear to be the actual intended titles, just felt such a major change should have been brought to the attentions of currents editors which PV the books.Kraang 13:21, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Missing X-Files

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?102785; I can't find a cover or any proof this was published. Might be it was announced and then cancelled. Anyone know? --Username 15:08, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Software support for more currencies

The software has been updated to recognize and display mouseover help for the following currencies:

Austrian schillings
Singapore dollars
Hong Kong dollars
New Zealand dollars
Taiwan dollars
Chilean pesos
Colombian pesos
Uruguayan pesos

The Austrian schilling has been added to Help:List of currency symbols. Ahasuerus 17:22, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Swiss francs

We apparently use "CHF", "sfr", "Sfr", "Sfr.", "SFr" or "sFr" for "Swiss Franc" -- see these Advanced Publication Search results. Wikipedia says that "SFr" is obsolete and that the current usage is "Fr." (German), "fr." (French/Italian/Romansch) or "CHF" (English and other languages.)

I propose that we standardize using "CHF" -- which will require a couple dozen edits -- and update the software to display mouseover help to reflect the standard. Ahasuerus 17:49, 29 January 2022 (EST)

CHF has been added to Help:List of currency symbols. The software has been updated to display appropriate mouseover help. Ahasuerus 12:42, 2 February 2022 (EST)

All database records have been updated. Ahasuerus 12:49, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Amazon-hosted cover scans

We have around 420,000 Amazon-hosted cover scans. 386,000 of them use "images/I" URLs and are fine. However, over 23,000 Amazon-hosted scans use "images/P" URLs, which means that they are based on the publication's ISBN. Amazon has been known to change the cover scans behind "/P/" URLs arbitrarily. It happens regrettably often, so we can't rely on them to remain stable. We already have a yellow warning which says:

Note that Amazon URLs which do not start with "/images/I/" may not be stable

Based on what Amazon has been doing with "/P/" images, we may want to take it a step further and display the following warning on all affected Publication pages:

Note: The displayed Amazon image is based on the ISBN of the publication and may no longer reflect the actual cover of this particular edition.

We may also want to create a cleanup report to look for primary verified publications which still use "/P/" images. We have roughly 4,200 of them.

Does this plan sound OK? Ahasuerus 19:16, 29 January 2022 (EST)

I remember another mod bringing that up recently, but the # of covers was much higher. Whatever the real #, it would be good to modernize them. Only problem is that Amazon has MANY pages where the publisher is not the right one for the image; in some cases you can actually see the correct publisher's name on the spine. I can't count how many covers I've replaced over the last year because an editor just right-clicked the Amazon image without making sure it was the right one. Is there a way to look for those? I think I know the answer already. --Username 19:24, 29 January 2022 (EST)

4,200 is the number of "/P/" images associated with primary-verified publications, the low-hanging fruit in this case. The other 19,000 publications with "/P/" images haven't been verified, so it may take longer to update them.

We also have 6,768 pubs with "/G/" images, including 3,904 primary-verified pubs. Our yellow warning says that "/G/" URLs are not stable either, but I don't recall whether they are in more or less danger of being changed by Amazon. Ahasuerus 19:37, 29 January 2022 (EST)

Upon reflection, perhaps the first thing to do is to add a new option, "My Primary Verifications with Unstable Amazon Images", to the "My Verifications" menu. It's easy to do and it will let verifiers check their collections for potentially unstable/superseded cover scans. Ahasuerus 12:11, 30 January 2022 (EST)

A new menu option, My Primary Verifications with Unstable Amazon URLs has been added to the My Verifications menu. Amazon URLs which do not start with "/images/I" (like this pub's) now carry the following warning:

The displayed Amazon image URL does not start with 'images/I/'. It may not be stable and may no longer reflect the actual cover of this particular edition.

It sounds a bit awkward, but it's the best I could come up with. Originally I was going to have it say something like "The displayed Amazon image is based on the ISBN of the publication", but that only covers Amazon's "P" URLs. Their "G" URLs are also potentially unstable and do not use ISBNs, e.g. see this 1969 pub. I don't know how likely they are to mutate, but the last time we looked into it, we determined that only "I" images are stable, hence the current wording of the related yellow warning. Ahasuerus 17:46, 31 January 2022 (EST)

I have no idea where Amazon uses the /G/ space these days (if at all) or how stable they may be. They may be the previous iteration of the /I/ idea (aka non-ISBN related images - in which case we may be ok) but there is no way to tell. I will do some digging to see if I can find any information. Annie 19:01, 31 January 2022 (EST)

They probably have been the correct images when the book was added and/or verified. That is the problem with the /P/ links - they get changed by Amazon - they point to whatever /I/ image is the cover of the latest printing that had been loaded for that ISBN. So if you add a book in 2018 with the correct image but you use a /P/ URL instead of an /I/ one, when the book gets reissued with the same ISBN and a new cover in 2021, the cover here in our DB changes on all printings which use the /P/ URL. That's why we added that yellow warning for unstable links last year (?) - so people know to check for that. Annie 19:01, 31 January 2022 (EST)

(unindent) It occurs to me that we could split the new report into two: one for ISBN-based ("P") URLs and another one for other non-I (primarily "G") URLs. ISBN-based URLs are in greater danger of being changed, so having them listed separately would make it easier to prioritize the cleanup process. We could do the same to the warning message. Ahasuerus 08:01, 1 February 2022 (EST)

That's a good idea. Annie 16:47, 1 February 2022 (EST)

Done -- see the new menu option in the My Verifications menu. The warning message has been split in 2 as well. Ahasuerus 19:06, 1 February 2022 (EST)

That's really useful. I didn't start fixing up the /P/ images immediately when PVing, and now have a backlog of 464. (And 418 of the others). I thought I was going to have to start my shelves over again when I reached the end. --GlennMcG 15:14, 3 February 2022 (EST)

Glad to hear it's been useful :-) Ahasuerus 17:29, 3 February 2022 (EST)

Is the sort order the PV date? (most recent first?) --GlennMcG 18:46, 3 February 2022 (EST)

That's right. Ahasuerus 23:12, 3 February 2022 (EST)

Perhaps the Amazon icon could be expanded in the 'cover' column of the title record to show this good/maybe/bad status? --GlennMcG 19:08, 3 February 2022 (EST)

Could you please clarify which Web page you are referring to? Is it the standard "Publications" table displayed on Title pages like this one? Ahasuerus 10:05, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Yes, that's what I was referring to. --GlennMcG 15:56, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Another option is the Publication page (e.g. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?369390 this] and maybe a coloured border on the image? ../Doug H 10:13, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Or perhaps a way to mark the included cover images. It could be nice to find another publication with the same cover to fix up ones PVs. It would also be nice to have some way to notify other printing/format PVers that a candidate matching cover has been added to another entry. --GlennMcG 19:08, 3 February 2022 (EST)

Stephen King's Brother

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?256961; That interview is of horror man S. King's bro; the fantasy novel is by another guy with the same name. How best to differentiate these two? The birthplace and Amazon link belong to the fantasy author. --Username 17:15, 30 January 2022 (EST)

According to this biography, Stephen's adopted brother David Victor King was born on 1945-08-17, so I guess we could enter him as "Dave King (1945-)". Ahasuerus 17:28, 30 January 2022 (EST)

Done; edit awaiting approval. --Username 17:54, 30 January 2022 (EST)

Approved, thanks. The new author record has been updated. Ahasuerus 18:38, 30 January 2022 (EST)

Make Variant Title

Ahasuerus, Will you consider adding the series field to the 'Make Variant Title' form. This will save an edit anytime a series is involved. It will be especially useful for non moderators. Thanks, John Scifibones 09:09, 31 January 2022 (EST)

Earlier this month I was thinking the same thing while working on entering Japanese light novels, which require a lot of VTs :-) FR 1479, "Add Series and Series number fields to Make Variant Title" has been created. Ahasuerus 09:52, 31 January 2022 (EST)

And done. Ahasuerus 20:11, 13 February 2022 (EST)

Thank you!! John Scifibones 14:22, 14 February 2022 (EST)

The Sixth Sense (no, not that one)

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1121274; http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1013304; I found a better cover for Witch, then noticed there was another Sixth Sense novelization by M.Z. Bradley, which is in the Sixth Sense series here, but Witch isn't; when I tried to fix that the series fields are blacked out. The chapbook is a novelization but the story itself wasn't so I fixed that, too, but someone who knows can say why it can't be made part of the series. --Username 17:57, 31 January 2022 (EST)

It was decided some years ago that CHAPBOOKs are to be excluded from being part of a title series. I think the main reason was that they would clutter the listing of the respective series. Christian Stonecreek 01:38, 1 February 2022 (EST)

While chapbooks look like just another form of publication, they are a unique construct of this database. Think of them as merely a container, the pupose of which is to hold a content (title) record. The content record is the key. To include in a series, use the series field in the content record. Reviews and awards work the same way, attach to the content record. John Scifibones 07:53, 1 February 2022 (EST)

My Recently Changed Primary Verifications tweaked

The Web page My Recently Changed Primary Verifications has been updated to display the word "Webpage" in the "Changed field" column when appropriate. Ahasuerus 14:53, 1 February 2022 (EST)

Any chance you could link from the 'New' icon directly to this report? It seems that it's the only one like this. --GlennMcG 18:41, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Knight Rider

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?56540; Did some edits for these recently, did more today, last book says -also as by- but names are the same, which is probably a mistake; also, last book is missing American cover but I can't find anywhere usable and refuse to upload a Knight Rider cover, so maybe someone can find a usable one on the list of sites ISFDB is friendly with. --Username 18:51, 1 February 2022 (EST)

Shocking Tales

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?284952; I just fixed a few things for this; 2 questions I have are does anyone know whose signature that is on low left corner and why there's an ASIN ID for this 1946 book? --Username 11:55, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Application for self-approval status -- MLB

MLB is being shy about directly asking (after asking here) so here we go. Annie 12:40, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Support. Annie 12:40, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Support. Does a great job. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:59, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Support. Long overdue. --Willem 14:14, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Support --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 14:26, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Support.--Chris J 15:38, 2 February 2022 (EST)

Support. Wholeheartedly! --MartyD 13:51, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Outcome

Success; self-approver flag set on the account. Ahasuerus 13:51, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Possible canonical name change Mary A. Turzillo

Before adding the remaining 43 titles to this publication, I gathered the following information for a possible canonical name change.

Titles using the following names:

110 Mary A. Turzillo (approximate)
104 Mary Turzillo
12 Various other alternate names

Her website and LiveJournal use 'Mary A. Turzillo'. SFE also refers to her this way. Beside the above collection, four additional collections still need their contents added. All are credited to 'Mary Turzillo'. Opinions? John Scifibones 08:00, 3 February 2022 (EST)

When were those collections published - aka are they new (so move towards that name) or old? Considering what her website uses, it seems like her preferred name is the "A." version and as the numbers are close enough (I know the 4 collections will tip it), I'd leave it as is and keep an eye on her for now. But that's just my 2 cents :) Annie 14:26, 3 February 2022 (EST)

The additional four collections are dated 2007,2008,2014, and 2017. There is no distinctive trend, she has used both names throughout. I don't feel strongly either way. My intention is to allow a week for comments. Thanks for

replying. John Scifibones 15:37, 3 February 2022

After further investigation, it appears she uses 'Mary Turzillo' primarially for collections and 'Mary A. Turzillo' for everything else. I'm leaving the canonical name unchanged. John Scifibones 18:55, 12 February 2022 (EST)

Psychotic

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=psychotic%2C&type=Fiction+Titles; Lots of different editors, but I feel none of these are actually short fiction. --Username 10:55, 3 February 2022 (EST)

SFE Issue

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5216264; http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5216277; SF-Encyclopedia has many cover images (and artist credits) that don't really show up in online searches; I was adding several covers (some new, some better than old ones on ISFDB) and artists today without a problem until those 2 linked above. Not sure what that warning means, but I'm sure someone here does. Other Mystic Rebel book covers will be replaced, too, but I'll wait until this is cleared up before doing that. --Username 13:43, 4 February 2022 (EST)

The message is very clear: "For SFE-hosted images, only links to /clute/, /langford/ and /robinson/ sub-directories are allowed.". The link you are trying to add is to a fourth subdirectory (/gal/spy_guys/) for both which we do NOT have permissions to link directly to. It is a public image but we cannot deep-link to it - the same way we cannot link to the the Goodreads images directly. Either you need to find these covers elsewhere or you need to bring them in our DB - we cannot link to them in SFE.

In addition, even for the images in the 3 sub-directories which we are allowed to use from SFE, we cannot use the images links as they are, we need to use a special format ("For images hosted by this site, the URL of the associated Web page must be entered after a '|'" - so image_link|page_where_the_image_is_linked_in_SFE and not just image_link.) - we have a few sites like that so if the yellow message reminds of that, the rules will need to be followed or we cannot link to that cover. Annie 13:56, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Well, I remember Mystic Rebel because I replaced 4 covers out of the 6 books in the series with better ones on Amazon months ago, and the editor who worked on these books originally is long gone, so the SFE covers are the best anyone's going to get (they're all beautifully framed and photographed, definitely better than Amazon's). However, I hesitate to upload covers unless they're for rare or small-press books; if I uploaded better covers for every mass-market PB I wouldn't have time for anything else. So I think what I'll do is cancel the 2 edits I made and just add a link on the Mystic Rebel series page here to SFE's page for these books so people can see the covers if they wish. Also, none of the many other SFE covers I added/replaced today had any error messages, and I believe SFE made major changes to their site recently, so all that stuff about adding "|" and sub-directories may be outdated. In the future, I'll add covers with no warnings and delete ones with warnings so I don't receive any more angry messages. --Username 14:15, 4 February 2022 (EST)

There are no angry messages anywhere - deep linking to a source we are not allowed to link to or not following the rules of a source which imposes conditions to allow deep-links can get us in trouble (including SFE not allowing us to use any of their covers in this case). That's the reality of internet etiquette and permissions around deep-linking I am afraid - an image deep link means that we show the image here but use their bandwidth and they pay for the traffic while they don't really get a visitor to their site - which can get very expensive on some hosting plans (and that's why we need explicit permissions and we follow whatever conditions the source has).

I will ping Ahasuerus to check if the message for the format of the SFE links needs an update or if the software needs an update and we need a cleanup report to fix the ones added naked. Annie 14:27, 4 February 2022 (EST)

I think I figured it out; all acceptable images start with "x.sf-encyclopedia.com" while rejected ones start with "sf-encyclopedia.uk". --Username 14:30, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Different sites, different rules on the permissions we have. I pinged Ahasuerus anyway to make sure the software does what it is supposed to anyway - we've had wrongly coded permissions checks when the sites are close enough before. Annie 14:32, 4 February 2022 (EST)

I see original editor for these Mystic Rebel books was long gone but came back recently after a long absence; I had 1 dealing with them since then which didn't go well, so if anyone has any further questions about these books they can always ask that editor. Also, the site I got all images from is https://sf-encyclopedia.com/, but bad .uk images are also on that site, so the 2 sites seem connected. --Username 14:52, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Well, this is odd. I went back to the Mystic Rebel gallery and it's also on .com, and those images are acceptable. So I think what happened is some image I was looking for was linked to the UK site, and then further image edits here were all unacceptable because they were UK. So the key is to always make sure you're adding images from the .com site. --Username 15:05, 4 February 2022 (EST)

(unindent) Re: SFE links, it's a long and convoluted story. The short version is that the online version of SFE was originally sponsored by a UK publisher. Because of that association and -- presumably -- because of the expectation that SFE Web pages would help the publisher sell more books, our links to SFE pages had more restrictions than our links to other third party sites.

The publisher and the editorial team behind SFE parted ways in 2021. The SFE site is now under complete control of the SFE team. A few days after the transition I asked Dave Langford, their technical administrator, if the change of ownership meant that there was going to be a change to how other sites could link to SFE. The answer was that there would be no changes, at least in the short term. That said, Dave has more control over the software now, so perhaps things will change in the foreseeable future, but that's where we are at the moment. Ahasuerus 15:07, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Spot-checking a bunch of SFE URLs, I see that there may have been a change in the URL structure. I don't think I have seen URLs like x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/matthews/HancockHI-Gold.jpg before. Let me check with Dave... Ahasuerus 15:20, 4 February 2022 (EST)

We have our answer. For technical reasons, SFE is now using "x.sf-encyclopedia.com" and "sf-encyclopedia.uk" URLs interchangeably. The same rules apply to both sets of URLs. I will be updating the yellow warning later today, once the backups finish. Ahasuerus 12:33, 5 February 2022 (EST)

So does this mean my SFE edits on hold will be accepted, rejected, etc. (a few already were) and should I continue to add more (there are likely hundreds of them if not thousands) or wait? If your note means that any SFE cover image will get a yellow warning after today then I'm not even going to bother with them anymore. --Username 12:42, 5 February 2022 (EST)

It means "only links to /clute/, /langford/ and /robinson/ sub-directories are allowed." Your edits will be processed based on that. You can add any links under those subdirectories. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:02, 5 February 2022 (EST)

So checking my accepted edits I see that JLaTondre reverted every accepted SFE cover I added recently back to their old inferior covers except for 1 that's in Clute, Mr. Klein's Kampf, and even that was modified by him to add a pipe and other stuff to the URL. So even after the site is under new management and their links and everything else are being changed, this deal with only a few directories being usable, and even those needing to modify every URL with all that extra stuff, is still necessary? Is anyone going to ask the guy in charge now if maybe now that the old guard is gone they might want to become 1 of those sites that let ISFDB use their URL's without uploading? Their covers don't usually show up on Google Image searches, so the fact that they have MANY superior covers to the ones already on ISFDB is probably news to a lot of people. SFE might appreciate the traffic. How disappointing; those covers could have kept me occupied for months. --Username 14:08, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Ahasuerus did ask & received the response that there is no change. See the post of his you replied to above... -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:55, 5 February 2022 (EST)

And all links to the SFE images need to have the extended syntax with the pipe as described in our documentation as per our agreement with SFE. Annie 15:02, 5 February 2022 (EST)

(unindent) OK, I have updated the yellow warnings. As stated above, only links to /clute/, /langford/ and /robinson/ sub-directories are allowed for both sf-encyclopedia.com and sf-encyclopedia.uk. All of their URLs require the currently used "|" syntax. Ahasuerus 15:45, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Clarke and Dunsany

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?628+1998; added several missing covers for this publisher, but for this year I think 1 of those Correspondence editions is redundant and can probably be deleted. --Username 15:58, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Astounding/Analog links to luminist scans

Beginning in about 1960 there are no Internet Archive links for Astounding/Analog. Links to luminist are used instead. But those links go to a Google Drive account. Example in this issue. In my case, this leads to some rather iffy options for downloading the file rather than viewing online as with Internet Archive. This is not a method I trust.--swfritter 18:14, 4 February 2022 (EST)

I agree that we shouldn't be linking to scans of post-1926, i.e. potentially copyrighted, books/magazines uploaded to Google Drive and similar services. There is no way of telling what their copyright status may be without doing the kind of comprehensive copyright search that Gutenberg and similar sites do before they make scans and OCRs publicly available. Our editors and moderators are not well equipped to do that kind of work. Ahasuerus 15:53, 5 February 2022 (EST)

My problem is not with copyrights but with links to weird places. The most likely reason that there are no post-1960 Astounding/Analog scans on the Internet Archive is that they were properly copyrighted. Most of the magazines were not properly copyrighted and if they were copyrighted in the first place, the copyrights were quite often not properly renewed. It wasn't until about 1988 that copyrights did not have to be registered with the government. In any case, the worse that is likely to happen is a take-down notice.--swfritter 16:51, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Rename Andre Norton series

I would like to rename the Andre Norton series Jern Murdoc to "Zero Stone / Murdoc Jern". The actual character name is Murdoc Jern. The series is named "Zero Stone Series by Andre Norton (Series aka) Murdoc Jern" on the andre-norton.com website. Are there any objections? Thanks! Phil 13:16, 5 February 2022 (EST)

I believe I was the last editor to update this series name, but I don't recall the specifics and have no objections. At one point we had a discussion of Norton's numerous overlapping series and there were some arguments re: how they would be best organized, but I don't think we ever reached consensus. Ahasuerus 17:14, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Thanks. Submitted. Phil 18:06, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Approved. Ahasuerus 18:34, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Proposed Date help text revision

Cross-posted to R & S Discussions as well. I have a draft revision of the help text for publication dates available at User:MartyD/ProposedDateHelp for review. This is meant to codify/clarify existing rules/policies, not to define anything new or different. A special thanks to the early reviewers. Please comment on the discussion page there. Thanks! --MartyD 13:32, 5 February 2022 (EST)

The official Template:PublicationFields:Date has been updated with the proposed text. --MartyD 12:40, 12 February 2022 (EST)

Morlan's Amulet

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?16138; TP cover was missing, I added it, noticed the e-book cover here has the same creases and marks, typed e-book ISBN into Google Images, only 1 cover came up, [6], cover has A.R. Morlan's name below the title unlike other covers, so I don't know what's up but I think that may be the real e-book cover and the one here now is actually the TP cover which I just entered for the TP edition. --Username 13:50, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Bill Longley

As this is the Community Portal, I'm just letting our more recent editors know that our mod Bill Longley passed away this day in 2014. He was a knowledgable and popular guy, he used to run an ISFDB blog over on Live Journal, and he shepherded my early years here. I wonder is it worth updating his reference work Using the ISFDB? Raising a glass in your memory, Bill. PeteYoung 16:31, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Bill was a good person and a valued contributor. Unfortunately, his guide is obsolete, but then it's been almost 9 years, an eternity in ISFDB terms. I am also not sure we could update it because the copyright page says "This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form". If an editor wants to preserve and update the information, it may be better to review Bill's guide and use it as an inspiration to fill in any lacunae that Help may have. Ahasuerus 17:12, 5 February 2022 (EST)

Claude Y.

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/393657246869; French-speaking people, this caught my eye, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?297863, because the author's name is actually Yelnick. That eBay link shows his true name but not on title page, so it's possible it's wrong there; also, there's a French price on the back, but I hesitate to enter that because I don't know how many editions this went through. So if anyone more familiar wants to take this. EDIT: some edition is here under his right name, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?565110. --Username 11:41, 6 February 2022 (EST)

Comic Book Adaptations

I'm holding this edit. The publication being edited appears to be a comic book adaptation of Stevenson's story. I know that we have some exceptions for graphic novels of above the threshold authors (Gaiman comes to mind). I don't believe that this publication falls into that exception. If it did, we would need to track many other Classics Illustrated comics. Does anyone disagree? --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 10:02, 7 February 2022 (EST)

I agree with you - that one does not belong here. Robert Louis Stevenson is not above threshold. We had a conversation a few years ago on allowing adaptations of books which do belong here in their original form but it went nowhere and we never changed the policies on it. Annie 11:58, 7 February 2022 (EST)

I agree, as the rules currently stand, that one doesn't belong here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:43, 7 February 2022 (EST)

Thanks all. I have deleted the publication. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 06:46, 9 February 2022 (EST)

New yellow warning for language mismatches

The software has been modified to display a yellow warning when trying to import a title into a publication whose "referral" title has a different language. This should make it easier to catch errors dealing with titles like "1984" and "Solaris", which are spelled the same way in multiple different languages. Ahasuerus 16:25, 7 February 2022 (EST)

Fake Trek

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?52303; Actually first published in August 1996 according to copyright page, but this, [7], shows the subtitle to be different. There's a copy of the 1998 edition here, https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780060952761. Publisher of 1996 edition is very obscure; could it be related to this, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?17301? --Username 20:37, 7 February 2022 (EST)

Eddy Deco Cover

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/titlecovers.cgi?13902; The artwork is almost the same but the stuff at the top is different; should they merge or did Wilson really alter the cover for the later edition? EDIT: Also, after doing edits for several Wilson titles, I noticed 2 of his collections have "graphic format" next to them while the others don't. Should all have it or none? --Username 07:55, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Schwob's King

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?613064; I ran across this and the name jogged a memory; I remembered seeing this when I used to be an avid reader decades ago, but in English. Turns out it's this, http://50watts.com/filter/july-2008/The-King-in-the-Golden-Mask. One of those editions was at the Central Library in Jamaica, N.Y. I don't remember anything about the stories, but after looking further I found this, https://fantlab.ru/searchmain?searchstr=marcel+schwob+king, which reveals there was a 2012 Tartarus edition and a 2021 Zagava edition, and Open Library mentions a 2017 Wakefield Press edition but there's little info about it, plus no English edition is available on Archive.org. An editor named Hauck made all the edits for the French version on ISFDB, so maybe he'd like to know there are many English editions out there, although some seem to take stories from several of Schwob's French collections. --Username 11:22, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Application for self-approval status -- henna

Hello, Annie asked me if I would like to get self-approved status. I say yes, and promise to handle it carefully. What do you say? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Henna (talk • contribs) .

Support :) Annie 14:35, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Yes, absolutely, sort of overdue, I'd think. Christian Stonecreek 14:42, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Support --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 15:02, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Support. Definitely a good egg. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:32, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Agree MagicUnk 13:34, 10 February 2022 (EST)

Support --Willem 14:01, 10 February 2022 (EST)

Support. --MartyD 15:18, 10 February 2022 (EST)

Outcome

User:Henna is now a self-approver. Ahasuerus 15:38, 13 February 2022 (EST)

Invalid HREFs in Notes/Synopses

The cleanup report Invalid HREFs in Notes has been redesigned. In the past, it was limited to Publication notes. The new version covers all record types (titles, series, authors, awards, etc) and does a better job of finding malformed HREFs. It also superseded the cleanup report "Mismatched Double Quotes", which has been retired.

The new data will become available tomorrow morning; I expect approximately 220 records to be flagged.

Please note that the HTML standard requires that all HREFs to have double quotes around URLs. Most modern browsers try to be forgiving about missing quotes, but some older browsers get confused. The cleanup report will flag notes with missing quotes. Ahasuerus 17:28, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Page count for books with cross book numbering

I'm adding a publication (The Two Towers) that starts on page 399. Should I use the rule for magazines and compute a page count? --GlennMcG 21:07, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Compute the number of pages for the "Pages" in the publication field but use the actual number printed in front of the contents (And add a note explaining what is going on). Annie 21:17, 8 February 2022 (EST)

Podwil's Perfect Day

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1993568; I added cover to $1.50 undated Fawcett ed. of I. Levin's This Perfect Day, same cover as $1.75 1976 edition linked above, so cover art clearly dates from earlier in case anyone knows when it was first used. --Username 21:32, 9 February 2022 (EST)

Fulton

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/greenwichtime/name/elizabeth-fulton-obituary?id=10021405; I ran across this, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?45058, and remembered that cool cover from when the book first came out. While trying to find a better cover I found that the author died last year; also, her other novel is also on ISFDB, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?53251, under a different name. I remember finding a cover for Vengeance months ago but not adding it here because the Tor logo didn't look like a 1987 one; although Amazon says that's the year, this, https://www.ebay.com/itm/143563408404, seems to have the right info, being from 1982. From the description on the back, I don't know what qualifies it for inclusion here; maybe Mhhutchins does because he entered it in 2014. So if anyone wants to they can add bio info to whichever name they think appropriate, and decide whether Vengeance belongs here, and if it does whether the 1987 printing actually exists. --Username 19:41, 10 February 2022 (EST)

15-Foot Spider

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/lifetimes/kin-r-it.html; Should there be 2 separate entries for this, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?717766, since they're really the same? EDIT: The '59, '63 and '90 issues have the same, uh, issue; I didn't check the 2000's issues. --Username 19:48, 10 February 2022 (EST)

Changing canonical name "Edgar Malboeuf" to "RavensDagger"

This author has published one novel (2013) as Edgar Malboeuf and 5 novels as "RavensDagger". He also has a large number of online serials being published as by "RavensDagger".

Given the fact that he averages over 90K words of fiction per month (sic), I expect that well over 95% of his publicly available output is as by "RavensDagger". I propose that we change his canonical name accordingly. Ahasuerus 21:23, 10 February 2022 (EST)

Looks like a good idea. Annie 12:19, 11 February 2022 (EST)

Done. Ahasuerus 12:14, 15 February 2022 (EST)

2 Ralph Smiths

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?8649; I was going to add (artist) to the 2nd guy but if that 1st guy's cartoon book isn't supposed to be here then there's no need to. Thoughts? --Username 08:38, 11 February 2022 (EST)

Dickens and Ghosts

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?720157; Original British edition was missing page # and cover, I added those, intro in later editions was also missing so I imported that, but it has a date of 1981-12-00 while book has 1982 date, so if anyone knows for sure 1 date should be changed. EDIT: Probably the 1981 date is correct because they would publish a Dickens collection for the Christmas holiday season; just my feeling. --Username 10:32, 12 February 2022 (EST)

Gray or Grey

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?3264; I found a copy of this on Archive.org mistakenly added to the pulp mag section; I added a link in an edit, but 1 story, Everil Worrell's "Gray Killer", is spelled "Grey Killer". As with my months-ago question about the different spelling of Stephen King's "Gray Matter"/"Grey Matter", is it necessary for this to be a variant or is it just a British quirk and should be left alone? I checked the other (American) publications the story appeared in and it's "Gray" in all of them. EDIT: Also, some of Thomson's Not At Night books are under Selwyn and Blount, some are under Selwyn & Blount; probably a standard name for this publisher should be decided on and all books grouped under the chosen name. --Username 11:41, 12 February 2022 (EST)

Cleanup reports temporarily unavailable

The cleanup reports are temporarily unavailable. The list of authors over 79 is so long now that the nightly process can't handle the volume and errors out. I plan to change the threshold to 85 tomorrow. Ahasuerus 21:50, 12 February 2022 (EST)

Let me clarify that the plan is to fix the software later today; the data will become available on Monday morning. Ahasuerus 09:58, 13 February 2022 (EST)

The software has been fixed. We should see the new data in about 3 hours. Ahasuerus 22:34, 13 February 2022 (EST)

Series and Series number fields added to the Make Variant Title page

Two new fields, Series and Series Number, have been added to the Make Variant Title page. Help will be updated shortly. If you come across any issues, please post your findings here. Ahasuerus 20:09, 13 February 2022 (EST)

Awesome. Any chance to also add Web Pages? Annie 12:01, 15 February 2022 (EST)

Sure, let me create an FR. Ahasuerus 12:26, 15 February 2022 (EST)

FR 1487, "Add Web Pages to Make Variant pages", has been created. Ahasuerus 12:28, 15 February 2022 (EST)

And the 4 checkboxes (novelization, juvenile and so on) - if one is a self-approver, they can ensure they are set in the variant and they will carry up when making the variant; if the editor is not self-approving and the edits are approved our of order, a subsequent edit will be needed just to set these on the parent later. I know this one will be much trickier but the Web Pages one should be easy enough I think? Annie 12:01, 15 February 2022 (EST)

Let me first make sure that we are talking about the same thing. The way the software works at the moment, the current values of the four title flags -- juvenile, novelization, non-genre, graphic format -- associated with a title are automatically copied to the newly created parent title. What you are requesting is the ability to set the new parent title's flag values explicitly at VT creation time, right? My only concern with that is that it could result in the two sets of flags getting out of sync if the submitter doesn't create another submission for the VT. I guess it shouldn't be much of an issue because any discrepancies would be caught by one of our cleanup reports. Ahasuerus 12:26, 15 February 2022 (EST)

They are already getting out of sync if the creation of the variant is approved before the edit that sets them on the child.

For self-approvers, that change is not needed - you set them on the variant, approve, then use Make Variant - otherwise you still need to go and edit the child later anyway. But for non self-approvers, they easily go out of sync when the approving is not done in the correct order.

The big challenge here is that if you make them explicitly settable here, it stops the "copy from variant to parent on creation" logic which takes care of those for self-approvers. Thus me calling it trickier. We need a way to indicate when the ones coming from the child are to be used... maybe build the logic to account for both: "if checked, set it as checked; if unchecked, use what is in the variant" thus enabling both ways to get them set. Annie 12:56, 15 February 2022 (EST)

Interesting points. I guess if one were to step back and consider the issue from a different perspective, one could argue that the 4 flags should only exist at the parent title level. After all, that's what we do with series and synopsis information. If memory serves, the reason why we originally allowed them to be set at the VT level was that we wanted to make them findable via Advanced Title Search. That said, I am not sure it's a big enough advantage to outweigh the added complexity and potential for confusion. Ahasuerus 16:32, 15 February 2022 (EST)

Robert (S.) Phillips

I added bio info here, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?19924, including the fact he died very recently. I think another item on ISFDB is by him but was mistakenly entered as a different author, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1034674, since it's mentioned here, https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/8630/circumstances-beyond-our-control, in Table of Contents and there's a mention of authors who were born in late 1930's-early 1940's like Robert S. He was well-known as a poet, as can be seen by the author image I added which is a book of poetry. EDIT: I had forgotten that I added a nytimes.com link to a 60's notice about his lady because it verified his middle name, but clicking on it now gets me nothing while the Wikipedia link next to it is fine. If anyone else can't open it then maybe there's something amiss with linking to the Times website, in which case I guess it'll have to go. --Username 23:31, 13 February 2022 (EST)

Messing With the Demon

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5223292; I just wrote one of the mods asking why he uploads to the Wiki old inferior covers after I add better covers to books he PV'd, and now I find this submission, which sat partially unaccepted for days because the same mod mentioned above has something against using full covers even if the art is continued on the back like this one, and today another mod finally accepted it, but rewrote my note about price and cover artist in order to add a few "the" words. I feel like I've mentioned this before, but altering my notes annoys me because 1 way I know when I've come across something I've previously worked on, which happens very often since I've done 20,000+ edits, is I write in a specific way so I know which notes were by me. Please stop doing this. Also, I'm no language expert, but is it correct that the transliterated title doesn't have the symbol over the first E in Angelique? --Username 09:38, 14 February 2022 (EST)

Aytoun or Maginn

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?891416; http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1140889; Supernatural Index under Aytoun's name says for "The Man in the Bell": "error , should be William Maginn". There's a few other mentions of this online; Peter Haining could be blamed as usual except for the fact that the Aytoun credit also is in a 1935 book. I moved the note about Blackwood's over to Maginn's ISFDB page for this story, but some sort of variant mentioning error may be necessary. --Username 11:26, 14 February 2022 (EST)

Light and Twilight

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?786877; I added/fixed a bunch of stuff for this old book; the cover image I replaced the fake Amazon one with got a yellow "already on file" warning; it's on ISFDB for the Laurel reprint, but since that's a facsimile technically it's the cover of the original. If it's OK, let it stand; if not, accept my edit and then I will remove the cover credit afterwards. Just don't reject it and make me do the edit over again. --Username 00:38, 15 February 2022 (EST)

Edit was approved and I removed the wrong cover. --Username 18:42, 19 February 2022 (EST)

3 cleanup reports for Audible publications

The following 3 cleanup reports have been deployed:

Pubs without an ISBN and with an Audible ASIN which is an ISBN-10
Digital audio download pubs with a regular ASIN and no Audible ASIN
Pubs with an Audible ASIN and a non-Audible format

The data will become available tomorrow morning. Ahasuerus 16:10, 15 February 2022 (EST)

Greenhouse

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?17367; I just added OL ID to this; the cover has the extra verbiage and so does the title page, but is that really supposed to be part of the title or is it just a descriptive blurb since it appears above the title? Regular title on ISFDB doesn't have it but book itself does. --Username 20:22, 15 February 2022 (EST)

If it's on the title page, it's probably part of the title. Does the copyright page show a Library of Congress catalog information section? That will usually have the correct title. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:05, 16 February 2022 (EST)

The question is why the subtitle is included in the book's record but not the regular titles record; it should be either both or neither. Since the PV informed me months ago that he's no longer approving edits by me because I had the nerve to disagree with him about some of my edits, and since he hardly does any edits these days, anyway, you can try to find him and ask him about it, or confab with the other mods about whether it should really be part of the title or not. --Username 18:32, 16 February 2022 (EST)

Gadino

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=gadino&type=Name; Same person here. I added missing cover to Enchantress and then searched for artist's name; online info says he's a very famous poster artist and did covers for many gay and straight romance novels. I have a feeling some of his cover credits are missing on ISFDB; anyway, 1 name should probably be made a variant of the other, although I can't find any personal info on him to add. --Username 08:48, 16 February 2022 (EST)

I don't think they are the same person. Gadino was active 40-50 years ago, and Victor Gadino has only relatively recently started working in the field. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:11, 16 February 2022 (EST)

https://www.artrenewal.org/14thARCSalon/Home/Artist/15890; I think they're the same person. --Username 18:27, 16 February 2022 (EST)

Well, unless we're sure, we shouldn't be linking them. All the work I've seen by Victor Gadino is nothing at all like the work by Gadino as far as style goes. Maybe they are the same person, but I haven't seen anything other than having the same surname which would lead me to believe they are the same person. That's not enough, at least for me. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:17, 21 February 2022 (EST)

1943 or 1951

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45012; I imported 2 stories into Suspense; shouldn't this retitling be dated 1951-00-00? --Username 21:14, 16 February 2022 (EST)

Cleanup menu improvements

The main cleanup menu had two "Translations" sections; they have been merged. In addition, the names of the sections with outstanding cleanup reports are now displayed at the top of the Web page along with the count of active reports within the section; you can click them to jump to the section of your choice. Ahasuerus 21:56, 16 February 2022 (EST)

My Pending Submissions -- self-approver enhancement

"My Pending Submissions" has been modified. When viewing a pending submission, self-approvers can now go to the "Approve/Reject" page for the submission. Ahasuerus 09:29, 17 February 2022 (EST)

Matilda

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?71266; I knew that publisher was fishy; this page, https://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD-JEUNESSE/Folio-Junior/Folio-Junior/Matilda2, suggests it's Gallimard, but it could also be Folio Junior and there's no mention of "Contemporary French Fiction", so I leave it to French readers who may know more about exact details re: who the publisher is and what the publication series is. --Username 11:31, 17 February 2022 (EST)

Thanks for finding this. The trustworthy BNF (French National Bibliography) has the publisher as Gallimard Jeunesse, which I'll insert. Stonecreek 10:18, 18 February 2022 (EST)

The interior art was MATLIDA, so I removed it and then imported the right art, but afterwards got 2 yellow warnings for unstable cover image and language mismatch on the art. So you may want to replace/fix those. --Username 10:40, 18 February 2022 (EST)

MZB's 'Falcons of Narabedla'

Hi! I have done a word count estimate for this publication and found that for the fiction it lies somewhere between 32,000 and 35,000, which does make it a novella. I'll wait for the weekend to pass and change this and the title accordingly if there's no objection. Christian Stonecreek 10:14, 18 February 2022 (EST)

There is a convention that we treat works published in Ace Doubles as novels regardless of length. See the last sentence under "NOVEL" here. However, it also uses "typically". --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 12:06, 18 February 2022 (EST)

I can not agree with this change. I did a rough wordcount for both Ace double editions, and both come to just above or below 40.000 words. --Willem 16:04, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Inscrutable

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?56019; I fixed a minor error for David Shobin's The Center (someone spelled "cover" as "covere") and saw there was a Japanese edition; looking at the list linked above, I'm just curious how these are entered. Stephen King's Misery title is spelled here only in Japanese even though the English title is on the cover, but King's IT is spelled in English and Japanese here, with the Japanese symbol being different between the 2 editions; also, King's name isn't on the cover for Misery but it is for IT, and yet his name is spelled in Japanese for both books here. The Center's title is in Japanese but Shobin's name is in English, even though both title and name are spelled in English on the cover. World War Z's title is in English and its author in Japanese even though both are in English on the cover. Asking on the very slim chance I ever try to enter a Japanese-language book. --Username 11:33, 18 February 2022 (EST)

Bad Red

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?882813; Did someone create a new thing recently where if ISBN is bad it says so on record in red? Looks pretty cool. EDIT: Oh, it's gone now and mod fixed ISBN problem and added notes about it; red message must be for mods' eyes only. I just peeked behind the curtain. --Username 11:35, 19 February 2022 (EST)

The red warning has been present for quite awhile and is visible to everyone. There is also a cleanup report that shows these and people will fix them based on that also. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:47, 19 February 2022 (EST)

Application for self-approval status, Holmesd

As my peers do not seem have upset the apple-cart, the system is still functioning, and the backlog of edits is still large (unknown if it includes self-editors or not), I will assume that self-approval is still something that moderators might be willing to grant. That said, I hereby apply for such status knowing that there is no documentation for what that entails, or whether it can be reversed. ../Doug H 15:00, 19 February 2022 (EST)

Support (as I had already indicated when I nudged you to apply for it) :) Annie 15:12, 19 February 2022 (EST)

Support --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 19:52, 19 February 2022 (EST)

SupportKraang 20:34, 19 February 2022 (EST)

Support. -- JLaTondre (talk) 21:04, 19 February 2022 (EST)

Support, of course. Christian Stonecreek 00:23, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Support. --MartyD 06:57, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Support. --Willem 16:00, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Support. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:18, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Outcome

Success. The self-approver flag has been set on the account. Ahasuerus 11:48, 24 February 2022 (EST)

Word Count

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1588237; Here's something I found that might be of interest. A Christian SF magazine, GateWay S-F, published 5 issues (for some reason #4 was never entered here even though info is on the usual sites) about 20 years ago. They actually had a website which is missing the archive of #1's contents but has #2 (there's also a 3rd issue but its contents don't match the print version of #3 at all); there are a few wrinkles like 2 of the stories being in a different order and 1 story online actually being from #1 (whether it's really from #1 or was actually in #2 is a good question). However, the interesting thing is while most of the (mostly lame) stories are very short, the story by Joe Zeff is very long. I did an edit changing it from a short story to a novelette, but then thought mod might ask how I know how long it really is and whether it qualifies. I found a page called wordcount.com and entered the URL, https://web.archive.org/web/20010303180722/http://www.gateway-sf-magazine.com:80/native.html, and got this result: 7,638 Words 46,966 Characters 38,368 Characters without space 11,620 Syllables 552 Sentences 712 Paragraphs. So does it qualify, and is this site known here or did I discover something? EDIT: Wow, I just found the ISFDB page re: story lengths, http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Template:TitleFields:Length, and it says 7,500 words is the low # for a novelette, so I was right, barely; also, I did a Google search for ISFDB and wordcount.com and got no hits, so I may have found something here. --Username 21:15, 19 February 2022 (EST)

I've been told that some people use MS Word to figure out story lengths; the site I mentioned above, wordcount.com, does the same thing almost instantly and is about as basic a page as you can get, unlike other word counting sites that have ads/blogs/giant pictures on the screen, and doesn't force you to enter the Gates of the evil Microsoft Empire. --Username 19:17, 25 February 2022 (EST)

Application for self-approval status: ErsatzCulture

It was suggested to me a few weeks ago that I might consider applying for self-approval privileges. My initial response was to be somewhat reluctant, but given that a large proportion of my edits are mundane AddPubs of stuff Fixer missed (or can no longer get from Amazon UK's API), or adding links to author records, perhaps it's not a good use of the moderators' time to plough through that stuff? I promise not abuse this privilege should it be grant, or conversely to be offended should the judgement go against me ;-) ErsatzCulture 16:21, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Support. Annie 16:53, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Support -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:21, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Support Kraang 22:42, 20 February 2022 (EST)

Support Christian Stonecreek 01:51, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Support. --MartyD 09:02, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Support --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 09:22, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Support. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:18, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Support. --Willem 13:53, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Support.--Chris J 15:29, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Outcome

Success. The self-approver flag has been set on the account. Ahasuerus 15:57, 25 February 2022 (EST)

Kindle Vella ASINs

So it looks like each "episode" of a story on Kindle Vella has a different ASIN. The format of the URLs is https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B09P51SY31, with the ASIN at the end changing for each separate episode. Can we add a "Kindle Vella ASIN" to the External IDs list so we can enter these? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:26, 21 February 2022 (EST)

Are those only in the US Kindle store or are they also on the internationals and if they are there for the internationals, is it the same ASIN across stores (as happens often for ebooks - with the UK/US exception for some publishers) or different (as with audiobooks - which have separate ID in each store) - aka do we need an ID that works like the ASIN (with 16 links) or like Audible ASIN (pointing only to Amazon.com in this case)? Annie 17:46, 25 February 2022 (EST)

If I click on the above amazon.com link from the UK, I (eventually) get a fairly empty page with "Kindle Vella stories are available for US customers on Amazon.com." If I edit the URL to be .co.uk rather than .com, I get a 404-ish "we couldn't find that page" error.

I can try doing a search on Amazon UK if someone tells me what text string to try... ErsatzCulture 18:19, 25 February 2022 (EST)

I suspected so. Search to see if "My Wife Is a Minotaur, but I Don't Have Time for That Now. I'm Late to Work!!" pops up somewhere as a title? Also the main page is here - and that does not work in either of the other Amazons (thus the original question). And then there is this (on the author side of Vella): "With Kindle Vella, U.S. based authors can publish serialized stories, one short episode at a time" and " Kindle Vella publishing is currently available to publishers who reside in the U.S. to publish stories in English." and a few other sites report that both readers and writers need to be in the US. Which means that we need a simple ID (for now) and not the ASIN formatted one. Annie 18:47, 25 February 2022 (EST)

I utterly failed to get anything back in search on Amazon UK, trying several variants of that string, different departments in the dropdown etc.

I was able to see the main Vella page (on amazon.com), with various products listed. If I click on one of them, I get a /story/ page (e.g. [8], which has some details, but also the "Kindle Vella stories are available for US customers on Amazon.com." warning at the top of the page. Clicking on the "Read episode 1" link gets the same empty page as I first mentioned above. ErsatzCulture 19:33, 25 February 2022 (EST)

(unindent) Sorry, folks, I missed this discussion back in February :-(

I guess the first question that we need to answer is whether Vella-hosted Web serials are eligible for inclusion based on ISFDB:Policy. Here is a list of currently included electronic publication types:

e-books with a unique identifier such as an ISBN, ASIN, EAN, or catalog number
downloadable e-zines
Internet-based publications which are downloadable as electronic files in any number of ebook formats (ePub, Mobi, PDF, etc).
Speculative fiction webzines, which are defined as online periodicals with distinct issues (note: online periodicals without distinct issues are not considered webzines)
Special speculative fiction issues of non-genre webzines
One time speculative fiction anthologies published on the Web
Online publications available exclusively as a Web page, but only if:
1. published by a market which makes the author eligible for SFWA membership (listed here), OR
2. shortlisted for a major award

Here is how Vella serials fare:

They have unique identifiers, but are they really e-books?
N/A
Are Vella serial installments downloadable or are they only available in your browser or via the Kindle app?
N/A
N/A
N/A
Apparently N/A:
1. Amazon is not listed as an eligible market by SFWA
2. AFAIK, none of them are shortlisted for major awards so far

Ahasuerus 13:20, 8 March 2022 (EST)

Hm. That's a good question. It is "the web at www.amazon.com/kindle-vella and in the Kindle app" only (for now) from what I can see. So I suspect that will mean that they are closer to web serials than actual ebooks - even though being available on the kindle app kinda makes them a bit of a hybrid. Still probably not eligible under the current definition... We probably need to open that definition a bit more again at some point if we want to follow the publishing world... but that is another conversation. Annie 13:27, 8 March 2022 (EST)

I don't know. Each installment has a unique ASIN, and (like any other Kindle release), there are ways to get the file so you can view it using any viewer, not just the Kindle app. It seems to me that if they meet one of the criteria, they should be in. They are ebooks as you have to download them to your device. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:02, 8 March 2022 (EST)

The fact that they have ASINs -- even though specialized ASINs -- is an argument in favor of their inclusion. However, they appear to be only available via the Kindle app. Regular e-books can be downloaded as mobi/azw3/epub/pdf/etc files. Are they still e-books if they can't be downloaded as files? Ahasuerus 15:55, 9 March 2022 (EST)

Not all ebooks can be downloaded in different formats but they can be downloaded in at least 1 format -- which is enough. Annie 16:03, 9 March 2022 (EST)

How can you get the file from Amazon (not with a third party tools and so on - or any online story anywhere is eligible - I have a browser plugin that can sent to my kindle creating an ebook that way). I cannot find any way to actually download the mobi/azw/azx file from Amazon? If we can download the file, I'd call them ebooks indeed. Annie 16:03, 9 March 2022 (EST)

With regular e-books that you purchase on Amazon, you go to "Manage Your Content and Devices", then "Digital Content", then "Books". When the desired book is displayed in the list, click "More Actions" on the right. In the pop-up list select "Download & transfer via USB" and click "Download". This will download the book as an azw3 file.

When you follow the same steps for a Vella serial, you get to the last step, but the "Download" button is grayed out. Instead you get a "You do not have any compatible devices registered for this content. Buy a Kindle or get the free Kindle reading app." I haven't been able to find a way around it. Ahasuerus 16:49, 9 March 2022 (EST)

That's probably due to Vella still being in beta. I haven't been able to figure out how to do it, either. I'll keep trying different ways. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:05, 9 March 2022 (EST)

Gaèl Baudino versus Gael Baudino

Is the correct first name of author G Baudino really spelled "Gaèl" as shown on her bio page and all of her pubs? I have four early paperback novels written by her that all have her first name spelled "Gael" on the title pages. No one has created an alias. I can't find anywhere that spells it "Gaèl". Should it be mass changed to "Gael"? I'm puzzled where the "è" came from. Phil 08:58, 22 February 2022 (EST)

The software currently doesn't allow an alias from "Gael" to "Gaèl" as it treats the names as identical. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:05, 22 February 2022 (EST)

The way the software works is that if the very first publication was created with the name as Gaèl, any subsequent one will default to it because Gaèl and Gael is the same name for the DB (it is a known limitation). I do not see a name update but there is a merge way back which seems to have caused this with a bad selection on what to remain as the valid name (there was a bug that could have allowed Gaèl and Gael to coexist under some circumstances but one of them was kinda hidden and causing issues elsewhere). We have two choices: change it to Gael (and add notes to the books which use Gaèl) or leave it as is and noes with the books which use Gael. Annie 16:23, 22 February 2022 (EST)

PS: It most likely was created by one of the two French stories - then post-merge, with Gaèl as the default, every Gael got turned into it... Annie 16:25, 22 February 2022 (EST)

I'd vote to change everything to Gael and add notes to anything that might actually have "Gaèl" if they can be identified but that's based on only the 4 pubs I can PV and searches on the WorldCat and Wikidata. Phil 18:00, 22 February 2022 (EST)

This has languished for a few weeks. What has to be done to implement this? Do I just submit a change to the author record and include a note about the change? Phil 10:28, 3 March 2022 (EST)

We tend to give people time to object when such changes are done. :) As noone objected to the change, it is now changed and a note for the second spelling added. Annie 14:08, 3 March 2022 (EST)

German Burroughs

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?720866; Editor TerokNor hasn't been around for years; I added cover to this, it says Gottin on cover, not Gotter, so anyone who may own a copy could check title page and fix if needed. Edgarriceburroughs.nl says: "The Gods of Mars (cover title Goddess of Mars). --Username 11:04, 23 February 2022 (EST)

There are two valid sources which state the currently recorded title "Die Götter des Mars": German National Library and the Bibliography of German-language SF. Both sources usually have a physical copy of the publication and are therefore very likely correct. What's stated on the title page defines the title of the publication, not the title on the cover, and given these two reliable sources I assume that the title page states "Die Götter des Mars". The record at German National Library also mentions "Göttin des Mars", but only in a note as a "secondary" title, which they probably mentioned because of the title deviation on cover and title page. BTW: TerokNor as been active a few days ago (see the contributors page). Jens Hitspacebar

That's why I asked if anyone could check "title page", because what's on "title page" is canon. Mr. T hasn't responded on his discussion page since 8/2018, so I don't know what he's done lately but it's certainly not answering any questions. Also, don't forget to sign your messages with the next-to-last symbol above. --Username 18:56, 23 February 2022 (EST)

The title page says "Die Götter des Mars", the cover "Göttin des Mars". Just checked on a physical copy. Werner Welo 08:57, 5 March 2022 (EST)

Best Indie Book Award

This would be a good one to add. We'd need the following setup:

Short Name: BIBA
Full Name: Best Indie Book Award
Awarded For: The Best Indie Book Award is an annual, international literary award contest recognizing independent authors all over the world since 2013. Entries are limited to independently (indie) published books, including those from small presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.
Awarded By: Not sure. I can't find the name of an organization that runs it (other than "Best Indie Book Award").
Poll: No
Non-Genre: Yes
Web Page 1: https://bestindiebookaward.com/
Note: There is an entry fee.

They have the following categories. I haven't looked through them to see if any of the non-genre categories might have genre works winning or being nominated. I've italicized the ones least likely to contain any genre nominations or winners:

Romance
Science Fiction/Dystopian
Fantasy/Paranormal/Supernatural
Action/Adventure
Mystery/Cozy Mystery
Suspense/Thriller
Young Adult
Mainstream/Non-Genre/Literary Fiction
Short Story Collection/Poetry Collection
Children
Children’s Middle Grade
Historical Fiction
Humor/Satire
Occult/Horror
LGBTQ2
Other Fiction (For any Genre Fiction not listed.)
Christian (Fiction/Non-Fiction)
Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction> Memoir
Non-Fiction> Biography
Non-Fiction> Self Help/Health
Non-Fiction> Inspirational/Motivational
Non-Fiction> New Age/Metaphysical/Visionary
Non-Fiction> Religion/Spiritual
Non-Fiction> Business/Investing/Marketing
Non-Fiction> Cooking/Crafting/How-To
Non-Fiction> Travel

Please let me know if you need anything else. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:14, 23 February 2022 (EST)

Sorry, I forgot about this request :-(

Now that I am looking at the award description, I see that these awards are based on authors' submissions and the organizers require an "entry fee" for each submitted book. From their FAQ:

14. You may enter more than one book in the contest, but each entry must be accompanied by the entry fee. Entry fees are non-refundable.
15. You may enter the book in multiple categories. There will be an extra fee for each additional category entered.

In additions, the FAQ says that the winners get (FAQ 24):

Ongoing Promotion of the winning book through social media, print advertising, online advertising, email lists, and more. (100,000+ followers)
Five-Star rating on Goodreads.
Added to the BIBA® Winners list on Goodreads.
Custom Promotional Images of your book for you to use.
Promotion across multiple websites.

These descriptions make it sound more like a promotional service than an award. Ahasuerus 13:35, 8 March 2022 (EST)

I can see that. You do have to win to get those things, though, so it's not as simple as a "pay this fee and you get these services" thing. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:04, 8 March 2022 (EST)

Yes, but they also say (Q 17) that "In the event of a category having a large number of entries in a given year, we may also split categories to give entrants a better chance." That's pretty much a mechanism to keep their paying customers happy.

Apparently there are quite a few similar "awards" which are really contests for self-published authors. This article lists more than 20 of them. Ahasuerus 21:14, 8 March 2022 (EST)

That makes sense. This doesn't look like a good one to add, then. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:11, 9 March 2022 (EST)

Gollancz Fantasy Date

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?359054; Cover was missing so I added it from Amazon, Amazon says 1968 not 1978, ISBN fits in with '68 Gollancz books, who thinks date should be changed to 1968? --Username 11:25, 24 February 2022 (EST)

British Library and OCLC say 1978. Amazon.com is unreliable for such old books - they are second-hand vendors additions and these can be hit or miss. Plus a price of £4.50 is not consistent with 1968 - as a value (too high) and partially as a currency (a bit too early for pounds - they switched officially in February 1971 - although earlier dates are possible). I've added the BL and OCLC numbers while I was around anyway. It may have been a reserved ISBN or a later printing but with this combination of details, this is not a 1968 book. Annie 13:47, 8 March 2022 (EST)

Series Number of Dresden Files short fiction

Looking at Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series and those short fiction entries that have been allocated a series number, it seems that the intended numbering scheme is internal chronological order (although there are a few inconsistencies). This hit my radar when I was looking at my copy and the pub record for Side Jobs and the series number for the short story Vignette. In the book it says it "Takes place between Death Masks and Blood Rites" so the series number should be 5.5, not 0.5 and the note in the title record for Vignette needs a corresponding correction. In any case, 0.5 would also be wrong if the numbering scheme were publication order.
In Side Jobs, every story starts with a statement of where it falls in the internal chronology relating to other novels / short fiction in the series, yet only one of the contents records after Vignette has a series number.
I've just taken a brief look at my copy of the Brief Cases collection and it seems as though the internal chronological position of stories is also stated in that collection.
So, assuming you're all still with me after this long diatribe, two questions:
1) Is the series number a feature that's considered valuable in the ISFDb? I'm quite happy to take on a project to figure out the series number for all the Dresden Files short fiction and make all the edits but I don't want to waste my time or moderators' time with something that's considered inconsequential. It will involve about 10 submissions for the stories in Side Jobs alone and about another 15 for the stories in other collections.
2) Who else, if anyone, should I inform? The title records for the contents entries themselves are not PVd and tracking down all the PVs of all the publications in which all of these pieces of short fiction appear and then notifying them will be onerous. And I'll be less happy to undertake the project! :-) Teallach 18:56, 24 February 2022 (EST)

The more data, the better. We like order when we can establish it. However... when a story is strictly set between Novels 5 and 6, I would call it 5.5 even if it was published 11 years after novel 6 came out. Just saying. :) The numbering may have been done by mistake OR someone may have made a typo or who knows. Just add a note on the series level explaining the numbering of the short fiction and all is well. Adding the note with the statement of where the story falls and where it is explained while adding the numbers is also useful.

As for PVs, as it is a relatively big series, anyone who had PVed a book that contains a story and is active has some stake into the numbering so I would bring that to their attention. You can (and should really) just point them to this thread instead of copying everywhere - thus keeping all conversations in one place. If they want to voice an objection, they can. If they don't or ignore the note, you just update the numbers :)

Don't worry about the number of edits. They may sit on the board for a day or three if you hit a slow moment moderator-wise but as long as you clear the objections and add notes (and moderator notes if needed) and we know what you are doing, these are easy approvals. Annie 19:43, 24 February 2022 (EST)

That's fine. I'll take this on. I will definitely add notes explaining the sources of the series numbers. Before I make any edits, I'll work out the series numbers for every short fiction and report back here first to advise any issues or lack of them. It'll probably take me a week or two to figure everything out. So don't crack the whip on me too hard. :-) Teallach 17:55, 25 February 2022 (EST)

Ok, I now have all the series numbers sitting in a spreadsheet. Early in my research I came across a page on Jim Butcher's website that has a full timeline of Dresden Files events. So that was most of my work done. This timeline is more comprehensive than the story notes in the books because the latter only locate the shorts in relation to the novels, whereas the website timeline locates the shorts in relation to other shorts as well as the novels. This becomes very relevant when you discover that 6 shorts take place between the novels Small Favor and Turn Coat.

Some issues:

A) When I'm adding title notes to explain the source of series numbering, is it ok to link to the author's webpage timeline in terms of stability and is it ok to link or refer to it in terms of permission?

B) 3 of the shorts are in the Bigfoot series which is a sub-series of the Dresden Files. Should I leave the numbers as their Bigfoot series numbers (1, 2, 3) or assign their parent series numbers, which will be 2.5, 7.1, 11.2 respectively ?

C) I wasn't intending to touch the Dresden Files Graphic Novels because I don't have any of them but, actually, I could if I'm using the website timeline. However, they form another sub-series so same question as B) above.

D) According to the website timeline, the shorts "Day One" and "Zoo Day" take place concurrently. Should I assign the same series number to both, which will be 15.7 ? Is that acceptable within the ISFDb? Alternatively, I could just assign series numbers of 15.7 and 15.8 arbitrarily. Please advise. Teallach 18:30, 3 March 2022 (EST)

A) Linking to the author's page is ok.

B) If you pull them in their own series, use the numbers 1,2,3. If you keep them in the main series, you use the 2.5 and so on. In both cases use the template {{MultiS}} in the notes and add a note which is the second series (existing or not in ISFDB). The Notes field help page has links to all available templates and their explanation.

C) See B :)

D) You cannot have two entries with the same series number. Select numbers based on... something (publication date?) and add notes explaining that if needed.

Did I miss something? :) Annie 18:36, 3 March 2022 (EST)

All looks good. I will inform some PVs now, wait a few days for feedback and then start the edits some time next week. Teallach 09:30, 4 March 2022 (EST)

No objections. Phil 12:00, 4 March 2022 (EST)

I imagine that this will continue to evolve as more stories are released. Adding all this detail will make updates much easier down the road. This is great! Tom 18:06, 4 March 2022 (EST)

Ok, it's all done. Took about 30 edits but we got there eventually. Thanks for your help with this Annie. Teallach 13:28, 12 March 2022 (EST)

The End of the World

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?958717; Actually a 1982 PB of a 1981 HC titled Invitation to a Holocaust and reprinted many times by Pinnacle; author seemingly wrote dozens of nonsense books about psychic powers and such. Only here because of the review so probably could be deleted and review kept. --Username 20:51, 24 February 2022 (EST)

Review converted to essay and publication deleted as ineligible work. -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:11, 28 February 2022 (EST)

Burrage Barrage

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?6518; Mr. Burrage just keeps on giving; whenever I find more stuff to do related to him even more turns up. Today I noticed a signature on the bottom of his '27 Some Ghost Stories; the artist, Cecil Cornforth, doesn't seem to be credited anywhere on the web for this cover (actually, he's barely credited for any artwork). Then I found that Burrage's essay "Un-Paying Guests" had been reprinted much earlier than credited on ISFDB, in a Ghost Story Society booklet released free to their members (along with 2 rare stories), so that booklet was entered in an edit. Then, most amusingly, the preface "A Skene" which is in his 1967 collection Between the Minute and the Hour confused me since he died 10 years before the book was published. Turns out it was written by Anthony Skene. Ha! Mr. Skene only has 1 other credit on ISFDB, a 1924 essay reprinted in a Michael Moorcock collection, and apparently was well-known for writing Sexton Blake novels. What I'd like to know now is who did that beautiful cover for the '31 Someone in the Room. If anyone knows, let me know. A nicer photo of Mr. Burrage would be good, too; there don't seem to be very many online. --Username 21:56, 27 February 2022 (EST)

Richard Hughes and Robots

http://www.philsp.com/homeville/SFI/k00271.htm#A14; http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2949275; I saw a cool photo of famous Brit author Hughes on FantLab and was sad to see it already on ISFDB (probably added by me long ago and forgotten about); however, it unearthed an interesting situation. There's a recent entry by Richard Hughes in some kind of robot anthology which is obviously not by the same Hughes, but while looking at ISFDB's "same name" page and trying to figure which was the best way to differentiate the two I discovered that the PV, VWCrist, hasn't responded since 2018, and according to that philsp.com link above, the work was actually from a 1955 comic, and Hughes and Suchorsky show up in several comic sites for 1950's works. So what's the best way to do this? --Username 12:03, 28 February 2022 (EST)

Here is some help. Looks like the Richard Hughes from "The Robot!" is Richard E. Hughes, while the Richard Hughes of the 1931 poem is Richard Arthur Warren Hughes, as indicated in our record. So the record for "The Robot!" could be separated out using a disambiguated name; we could leave the other one alone or add disambiguation to that as well. Since we know something definite about middle names for both, "Richard Hughes (Arthur Warren)" and "Richard Hughes (E.)" would work, although a little clunky. --MartyD 15:13, 2 March 2022 (EST)

Nightly processing getting split

As the database grows and we add more and more cleanup reports, the process of regenerating database statistics and cleanup reports takes longer and longer. While the nightly process runs, the system is so sluggish that it might as well be unresponsive.

To minimize the impact of nightly processing on system availability, I am starting to move certain processes to a separate job which will be run on Sunday morning. So far I have moved the process of regenerating database statistics, which should save around 4 minutes every night between Monday and Saturday. If everything looks good tomorrow morning, I will start moving relatively low priority cleanup reports to the Sunday job. Ahasuerus 17:18, 3 March 2022 (EST)

A robotic chess game

I've been looking for a number of years for an author/title for a first-contact work.

This search goes back perhaps 5-10 years and is for a work (most likely a short story) published earlier than 2005.

The rough idea is that a first-contact mission to a planet sends out a robotic "explorer" of some type. While searching the surrounding area, the robotic explorer encounters another entity - a precise copy of itself - and finds that any physical movement it makes, the copy executes a mirror maneuver to block the original's further excursions. If the original moves left, the copy moves to the right blocking it's advance.

At the time, I was reading Lem's works and thought it might be by him but I haven't been able to find anything like this.

As I recall, the story was published as part of a collection of short stories - possibly by the same author (not sure about the author part though - it could have been a collection of stories by various authors).

Thanks for any help anyone can provide. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Magillaonfire (talk • contribs) 8:35, 4 March 2022 (EST)

2022-03-05 performance issues

There are a lot of (apparently) automated connections to the ISFDB server at the moment. It's making the system almost unusable at times. I am looking into it. Ahasuerus 10:22, 5 March 2022 (EST)

I have examined our log files and it looks like we are being hammered by robots which are constantly accessing random pages. For example, they access "Delete Title" pages for title records linked to multiple publication records, which no human editor would do. They are also using a variety of IP addresses from different regions, which makes it impossible to block them without specialized software. I'll ask Al if he has any ideas. Ahasuerus 13:10, 5 March 2022 (EST)

I blocked the top IP address (with more than 100,000 accesses today) using iptables. Don't know if that will help in this case. Alvonruff 13:47, 5 March 2022 (EST)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 14:37, 5 March 2022 (EST)

Who 50

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?429068; https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Doctors-Anniversary-Collection/dp/0141348941; ISFDB record for this book had no page # for stories so I entered them from Archive copy, https://archive.org/details/bbcdoctorwho11do0000unse, but cover doesn't match one on ISFDB which has a "50 Years" blurb on it. I replaced cover with Open Library one, but it's as dark as if someone dropped it down a well and then took a picture of it; the Amazon link above shows same cover as Archive but also another cover which says "50th Anniversary Anthology" on it , which neither Archive's or ISFDB's does (although Archive says "50th Anniversary Collection" on back cover). So if anyone owns any editions it would be good to enter them because they seem to have released this with multiple covers. --Username 21:07, 5 March 2022 (EST)

Starlog Covers

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?33627; May '77 and May '78 are the only 2 issues that have cover images judging from my quick scan of all issues; why, and should those 2 covers be deleted? --Username 15:24, 6 March 2022 (EST)

Alex or Alexa?

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?94243; Here's a tricky one; Archive.org includes an archivist named Public Resource who apparently scanned over a million items from public libraries in India. I've added many old books in edits today, but they also include more recent books; Edmund Crispin's 1960's-era Best Tales of Terror 1 and 2 being examples. The item in question here is John Keir Cross' story "Happy Birthday, Dear Alexa", which has a note on ISFDB about Tuck wrongly titling it "Alex". Turns out that's the original title; the next reprint, in 1972's London Tales of Terror, also says "Alex" on contents page, and since the only hit on Google for that book and "Alexa" is our own site, I think it's safe to say it's "Alex" inside the book, too. Then there's the 1981 Hoke anthology, https://archive.org/details/mysteriousmenaci00hoke, which says "Alex" on copyright page but "Alexa" everywhere else in the book. So some varianting may be needed. I tried to delete the wrong note about Tuck but because all notes in that record were added with those dots I keep getting a yellow warning about mismatched HTML tags, so if a mod wants to delete it that's fine. EDIT: Well hell, the copy of Best Tales of Terror 1 shows title page and other books by Faber in the same "Best..." series and then proceeds to more than 400 pages of a book about Queen Elizabeth I. So Mr. "Public Resource" or someone else screwed up. At least #2 is really there, although searching is tough because misspellings of titles and faded/corrupted pages abound so searching by author and then by title if that doesn't work is sometimes necessary. --Username 16:59, 6 March 2022 (EST)

The Thrill Book

Unless anyone else had this project on their radar I am going to tackle it using scans of the issues, Bleiler's Annotated Index to The Thrill Book, and a two-volume collection of most of the stories published by LuluBooks. There will be a number of changes to editorship records and the removal and deletion of nongenre titles.--swfritter 17:49, 6 March 2022 (EST)

Have fun :) Annie 13:52, 8 March 2022 (EST)

Transliteration reports moved to the weekly job

All "transliterated values" reports have been moved to the weekly job. A new line has been added to the top of all cleanup reports to indicate how frequently the are run: nightly, weekly or monthly.

In addition, the nightly process has been changed to rebuild cleanup reports one report at a time, so they will no longer disappear when the job kicks in at 1am server time. Ahasuerus 18:42, 8 March 2022 (EST)

Psychotronic

I have a copy of Michael Weldon's 1983 book The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, bought back in the late 80's. I came across this book on ISFDB today and decided to check to make sure all info was correct. Turns out the copy I have is a third printing with a $17.95 price, unlike the $16.95 of the first edition. The page count was also slightly off, being 815 instead of 813 (814 is also mentioned online in some places). There's also a foreword by well-known author Christopher Cerf which wasn't entered so I took care of that, too, and added another WorldCat ID, the old one being in German or something. However, the most important thing is I decided to replace the cover on ISFDB with the 1 on FantLab, being darker and clearer, and noticed the text on the cover was different. At the bottom of the original is "The most amazing film book ever!" while later editions replaced that with a blurb from American Film. The FantLab cover has 1st edition's price and ID on the cover, while the cover on ISFDB had a TWENTY-DOLLAR price and a different ID. How many times was this book reprinted?!? Anyway, if anyone has the elusive second edition or knows what edition costs $20, reply or enter. --Username 21:25, 10 March 2022 (EST)

ISFDB time settings corrected

In the past, some ISFDB pages, including the front page, used Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) while other pages used ISFDB server time (currently Eastern Standard Time.) The software has been standardized to use local server time across all pages. If you come across any issues, please let me know. Ahasuerus 22:15, 10 March 2022 (EST)

Pan Prices

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?264637; I replaced the cover with Bookscans cover, then noticed the price was missing in the corner. Dalby's site has this, https://richarddalbyslibrary.com/collections/newest-shopify-test/products/herbert-van-thal-the-second-pan-book-of-horror-stories-1960-first-edition-paperbacks, and this, https://richarddalbyslibrary.com/products/herbert-van-thal-the-second-pan-book-of-horror-stories-1960-paperbacks, which show the price but as a sticker, which is obvious because in 1 photo it's peeling off. So I think I'm going to leave my edit alone since I figure that's the original edition and price was added to later editions' covers, of which apparently there were many; http://www.45worlds.com/book/title/the-second-pan-book-of-horror-stories. If anyone is an expert on these old Brit PB's and disagrees let me know. --Username 10:53, 11 March 2022 (EST)

Unknown Page Numbers

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?359095; Someone entered the second volume in this series and imported contents with page #'s without realizing the HC and PB #'s are totally different. There's an Archive copy of the HC so I fixed those #'s, but now I notice someone made the same error for the first volume, and I can't find anywhere that shows the contents page. So if anyone owns this they may want to fix those HC #'s. --Username 14:06, 12 March 2022 (EST)

Container reports moved to the weekly job

All "Container" cleanup reports have been moved to the weekly job. Ahasuerus 21:08, 12 March 2022 (EST)

Ditto "Translation" reports. Ahasuerus 22:57, 12 March 2022 (EST)

Lin Carter series name change

Based on the following comment in the the Author's Note published in Down to a Sunless Sea, I would like to change the series name from "The Man Who Loved Mars" [9] to "The Mysteries of Mars".

"This is the fourth, and, probably, the last novel I shall write in a loose sequence of books I think of under the heading of "The Mysteries of Mars.""

The existing series name is the same as the title of the first book in the series. Would anyone object to making this change? Phil 08:18, 13 March 2022 (EDT)

Never owned any of these, but support the change as long as none of the subsequent books reference the name "The Man Who Loved Mars" as anything other than the name of the first book. ../Doug H 11:13, 13 March 2022 (EDT)

And Wikipedia also lists your proposal as 'official' name of the series. Christian Stonecreek 13:29, 13 March 2022 (EDT)

I Am the Walrus

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?407806, https://canerdr.blogspot.com/2013/10/walrus-tales-table-of-contents.html?m=0; This bizarro anthology which includes many well-known authors doesn't seem to have any Kindle edition to check inside, and info online is scarce, unusual for such a recent book. I started to enter partial contents from Datlow's Honorable Mentions list at the back of one of her Best Horror of the Year anthologies which included several stories from this book, then I found the full contents on that nearly 10-year-old Brazilian (!) site, but the Ranalli title is spelled differently on ISFDB and the site doesn't mention that Ranalli's and Hughes' story are reprints. So I imported those 2 and added a link to that site, but if anyone owns a copy they can check if there's a publication history to verify which stories are reprints and if original stories are spelled the same as on that site so that they can be entered. ISFDB gets a shout-out on the site, too! --Username 16:01, 13 March 2022 (EDT)

The Very Eye of Death

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?381543; Minor point here, but there's 2 Creation Oneiros collections I added from Archive.org recently, and while W. H. Hodgson's Horrors from Haunted Seas had a very different page count (288 on ISFDB vs. the correct 259; corrected by me recently), the Poe collection says 192 on ISFDB, while a couple of Amazon pages agree and 1 says 191, which seems to be correct, but there may be something on the last page that's not included in the contents. Anyone with Archive account can check their copy and make sure. --Username 13:43, 15 March 2022 (EDT)

Andrew Osmond - split into two author entries?

Andrew Osmond is apparently both:

the co-author (with a fairly well known in the UK Conservative politician) of three novels from the late 1960s/early 1970s, who died in 1999 (as documented on Wikipedia and a UK national newspaper)
the writer of a few essays and reviews, mostly anime related, and most of which post-date the aforementioned death date

It seems highly likely to me that these should be split to two different author records. The latter person seems to have a reasonable online presence (Twitter, publisher bio, what seems to be a self-authored bio, none of which mentions co-writing novels with politicians.

Any objections to splitting these up? ErsatzCulture 13:25, 16 March 2022 (EDT)

They should definitely be split up. I've known the second Andrew for years (though I haven't seen him for years, either). Nice guy. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:35, 16 March 2022 (EDT)

Thanks.

I just hacked up a rough SQL query to report on anomalous death dates vs title dates. Lots of false positives - so not something that could easily be turned into a cleanup report - but this author record also looks like a candidate for splitting:

* Richard Young - US author who died in 2015 vs (probably) British currently active artist for UK SF TV tie-ins. ErsatzCulture 15:35, 16 March 2022 (EDT)

That second one should be called Richard Young (artist) when you split them ;) Annie 15:38, 16 March 2022 (EDT)

Richard Young is done. Does anyone have any preferences on which of the Andrew Osmonds to rename and/or how? The newer one describes himself as a journalist on one of the links I supplied above, but as the earlier one was involved in the satirical news magazine Private Eye, I don't think that's a particularly helpful way of disambiguating them. Maybe "(1938-1999)" for the older one?

Unless the new one is a new Isaac Asimov (aka very prolific or very well known or the new one has A LOT of books), the old one keeps his name and the new one gets the (I) :) Annie 17:47, 16 March 2022 (EDT)

The Curse of the Lion

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1094960; The contents of this have never been entered because they (except for "The Ape People") don't appear in secondary sources, but it turns out they do, sort of; this link, http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/l/ll00124.htm#A10, lists all stories in the "Bruce Logan" series, and 1 of them has the same title as the collection. It's mentioned in an old ad for the book and in a 50's fanzine that the narrator is Bruce Logan. I know better than to ask if anyone has a copy of the original, but someone here must own the recent Coachwhip reprint to verify the contents, right? --Username 20:25, 16 March 2022 (EDT)

Sorry, but I think this assumption ain't right: most editors have some special areas of interest, and if a publication is not in one of those it's rather unlikely that someone owns a specific copy of a publication. So, if it's not PVed, one can assume that not one of our editors has it in her or his stock. Christian Stonecreek 13:21, 17 March 2022 (EDT)

Last Day

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?11336; cover is used for every edition except 1 foreign cover, but only credited cover is Dutch. Is that really the original? Should other cover art credits be variants of that or should it be a variant of whichever English-language edition was the original? --Username 09:14, 17 March 2022 (EDT)

Surely not the original, made a parent title, ready to import (or merge). Thanks, Christian Stonecreek 13:32, 17 March 2022 (EDT)

Doll Maker / Dollmaker

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?2159; I did some edits for Sarban's work and this is puzzling me; the title of his collection is The Doll Maker but the story inside is "The Dollmaker"; shouldn't they be the same? Also, it's novel-length, not novella, which is why it was reprinted as a standalone novel a few times. The story "The Trespassers" should be a novella, I think; it's 50, 56 or 62 pages long depending on which book it's in. --Username 22:12, 17 March 2022 (EDT)

Old Paper

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?554648; This is the only book on ISFDB from this publisher that seems to have the full book on Archive.org; others are missing pages with month and so forth. However, judging by the catalog at the back of one of them they sold cloth for $1.00 and paper for 50¢; seeing as how this is the cheaper version, how does the format change? Did they have trade paperbacks back then in 1892, or should it just be made a PB? --Username 22:39, 17 March 2022 (EDT)

Not looking closely at your example and based on Jules Verne research, copies were sold with and without covers, assuming that people would bind them themselves. I'll be interested in the answer. ../Doug H 22:53, 17 March 2022 (EDT)

Blatty Question

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2184055; William Peter Blatty's Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane has many editions on ISFDB; there's a note about it being heavily revised as The Ninth Configuration, a film version with that title being released in 1980. I'd like to enter an edition of Ninth from the only copy on Archive.org, but as can be seen in that link above, the only mention of that title here says it's "non-genre". Knowing the movie had definite genre elements I assume the book does, too, so why is it non-genre but Kane is genre? --Username 11:51, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

French Exorcist

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5264948; French speakers, I found a French Exorcist edition, https://archive.org/details/lexorciste0000blat_h2y4, which isn't on ISFDB; it's by the well-known publisher J'ai Lu, but unlike their much earlier edition on ISFDB which just uses the standard Exorcist cover, this edition uses a crazy-eyed girl as the cover. I made a sad attempt at entering it but I don't have a clue what some of the info on the back cover means, so when this is approved if anyone would like to further improve it, please do. --Username 12:21, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

R. Louis?

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2820529; The OL ID links to a preview-only copy, but there's 2 copies I just added links to from Public Library of India which are 1946 reprints. All editions credit R. L. Stevenson, so that R. Louis variant should probably be gone and R. L. variant substituted. Uh-oh, I just checked and that preview copy is also a 1946 reprint, so none of these Archive copies are the original 1945 edition; something may have to be done about that. --Username 14:17, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

Fireman Flower

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?601237; The Public Library of India comes through again; William Sansom's first collection was entered here years ago; I remembered doing something for it a long time ago, realized it was only finding that lovely cover, and being glad of that because another editor, Vasha77, long-gone now, entered the page #'s and got them completely wrong. You'd think someone would have noticed since they end on a much higher number than the page count. I fixed them all, but in my usual OCD way searched for Sansom instead of William Sansom and another Fireman Flower edition came up, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.475678, which says 1944 but is actually from 1952, in Chatto & Windus' New Phoenix Library. ISFDB has only 2 books in Phoenix Library (no New) for Chatto, 2 editions separated by 20 years of an Ambrose Bierce collection, and an online search seems to suggest there were a lot of books in that series, so other genre books may be waiting to be entered. Sansom's collection is barely genre, with many mainstream stories, but if anyone feels like entering that '52 edition it's there; the page count is much higher than the original Hogarth edition, so I don't know if they printed on really small pages or what. --Username 23:52, 18 March 2022 (EDT)

Publisher Pricing Stickers

How do we handle publisher pricing stickers? Where the publication is exactly the same as an existing record, but the publisher has add a sticker to the book with a higher price? If it were a re-seller or other secondary party, it would be pretty straightforward that it is not a new edition. But when the publisher adds the sticker, how do we want to handle that? -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:15, 19 March 2022 (EDT)

Do what I did. Clone the publication and make a note that the publisher has added a sticker over the old prices with the new higher prices. It can't be a reprint as otherwise the copyright page would state that fact. Presumably at some point they must have printed a large number at the lower price then for "reasons" something happened to affect the prioe of books and the publisher had to print stickers with the new prices to put over the old prices on their remaining stock. --Mavmaramis 17:22, 19 March 2022 (EDT)

"It can't be a reprint". Exactly, it's the same publication, not a new one. I'm not seeing how this is a different case then how we handle ebooks. When we know it is the same ebook sold at different prices, we add that information to the notes. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:57, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

Well yes but if you have a copy that has one of these publisher's stickers on the back, especially if it's a wraparound cover, then uploading that image will replace one that's already there with the original prices (if the full wraparound has been uploaded that is). So although the note would be sufficent for cases where the cover isn't wraparound it's not adequate when the cover is wraparound (as in the case of my copy of Herbert's Destination Void). So i think that cloning the original entry with the original prices and amending the entry with the new price(s) as per the publisher's sticker would be best as then an image can be uploaded to show the sticker on the back of the wraparound artwork. --Mavmaramis 08:13, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

But that will essentially create 2 separate records for the same version of the book... if the stickers get removed (by mistake or on purpose), does it mean you now own a different version of the book? :) Under that logic, we should also be be creating multiple versions of publications for books which get a ton of awards and the publisher keeps adding stickers about them on the cover of the same already printed books. Stickers and price clipping are essentially the same thing for us - modification of the books post-printing. We use notes for these -- and if you want to add the second cover, upload it as a normal file on the wiki and link it. So I would not make a clone personally. Just my 2 cents :) Annie 16:58, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

Help:Screen:NewPub currently says:

...if the price change is via a stickered label, the price change should be ignored. For example, copies of the British distribution of some American magazines were stickered with a British price. These are not British reprint editions of those magazines, but simply imported copies of the American edition, so a separate publication record with a separate price value should not be created for them.

I would use the same approach when dealing with stickers used by the original publisher, but I would also use Notes to document the fact that at least some copies had a sticker with a higher price. Ahasuerus 17:18, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

Annie wrote "if you want to add the second cover, upload it as a normal file on the wiki and link it" - fine if you actually know how to do that. I do not. The wraparound cover with publisher's sticker has been posted elsewhere so I could link to that image instead. --Mavmaramis 12:44, 21 March 2022 (EDT)

Direct Upload. It is one of the links we post in the Welcome message for new editors but either you never got one or it got lost in the shuffle of archiving. External link also works :) Annie 14:24, 21 March 2022 (EDT)

Probably easier for me to link to the image already uploaded elsewhere to be honest. --Mavmaramis 16:15, 21 March 2022 (EDT)

The Man They Couldn't Kill

"I am so thrilled! Arriving in the mail from New Zealand today, I just acquired the only copy for sale in the world (that I could find) of Roy Meyers' first novel: The Man They Couldn't Kill." "The book itself is quite strange in appearance. No copyright year features anywhere in the book, so I have no idea how ISFDB determined it was 1944. It has the appearance of a pulp magazine of the time and is made on pulp paper in pulp magazine size with a pulp magazine shiny paper cover. The title page says the publisher is "Fiction House LTD. 162a Strand, London, W.C.2 Copyright Reserved." Does that mean it was published in the second water closet? The back page indicates it was printed by the "Blackfriars Press, Ltd., Smith-Dorrien Road, Leicester." The above was written by a "deleted user" on Goodreads recently; it seems to contradict some of the info on ISFDB. Any pulp experts here may want to look at this to see if any changes are needed. --Username 08:00, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

It certainly means that it was published in the second wuthering cave that London's underworld is filled with ;-). Sorry, that I can't help with the other unsolved problems (but if each of the other editors is as helpful as me, we'll have them solved in no time). Christian Stonecreek 12:55, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

Your edition is documented in Worldcat. Unfortunately, there are no copies available in a library near me. The only additional data Worldcat seems to have is that the author's middle name was Lethbridge. There is another copy available at biblio.com [10]--swfritter 18:40, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

It's someone on Goodreads who bought that copy, not me, hence the quotes; the last 2 sentences are mine. There's a Fiction House on ISFDB but it published American pulp zines and so is probably not the same. The other thing about Roy Meyers is that he supposedly co-wrote 1 of those crap Laser novels, in 1977, several years after he died. I find it hard to believe an obscure British pulp writer hooked up with an American SF writer (J.F. Bone) and wrote a novel and then it laid around for years until finally being published. There's a note about the name on the cover being Roy Myers, so I suspect that may be who actually co-wrote it, and Roy Meyers had nothing to do with it. But I'm probably wrong. All I'm sure about is most of those Laser novels were awful. --Username 19:34, 20 March 2022 (EDT)

My copy of Dolphin Boy describes it as the author's first novel so perhaps he disowned The Man They Couldn't Kill. SFE claims all the novels are by the same person but who knows? Perhaps we are dealing with three different authors.--swfritter 19:13, 21 March 2022 (EDT)

The Old Tobacco Shop

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.264545; Even though all of William Bowen's works on ISFDB are in the public domain range there don't seem to be any Archive copies except the book linked above; it's a 1922 reprint, not 1921, and is damaged, but last page clearly says 241 with THE END at the bottom. ISFDB and LCCN say 236, but there is a list of 5 illustrations near the front, so it's possible those pages weren't counted. So if anyone wants to look at it. --Username 18:56, 21 March 2022 (EDT)

After two years I need remind myself of this and that. During late March 2022 ;-) i will include this work and also The First Book of Unknown Tales of Horror (#Unknown Page Numbers) in the corpus. --Pwendt|talk 15:05, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Chico

"Chico Buarque, who wrote the wonderful novel Fazenda modelo/Typical Manor (1974), a variation on Orwell's Animal Farm, which is a satire on capitalism"; the above comes from a blog on FantLab; there's a section on Brazilian writers, but his ISFDB record, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?331575, is empty. So if anyone knows what's up with that; maybe a story that was deleted or something. --Username 16:31, 23 March 2022 (EDT)

Updated. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:34, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Also, it was empty because there was a review of the book, but the book wasn't entered. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:35, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Encyclopedia Cthulhiana

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/titlecovers.cgi?1452020; https://archive.org/details/the-encyclopedia-cthulhiana; I found a Japanese (?) edition of this non-fiction book which has a cover unlike any of the others on ISFDB. Maybe a Japanese-fluent editor would like to enter it. --Username 16:04, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:08, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

Mummy Extract

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1654520; I have a thing about old authors who have story or book dates much later than the rest of their work; in this case typing the title linked above on Google brought up that it's actually Chapter III of his novel The Mummy and Miss Nitocris. I added "The Ghost Ships" to W.H. Hodgson's record recently and gave it a 1909 date because it was a chapter from his novel The Ghost Pirates, since it's not really an extract but a whole chapter that has the same title as the story included in the much later collection of Hodgson's stories, but I didn't change this one because I'm not entirely sure what's correct. Should this have the date changed to that of Griffith's novel or should it be left alone with just a note saying it's a chapter? --Username 21:24, 24 March 2022 (EDT)

More HTTP/HTTPS changes - cover scan URLs

A few thousand cover scan URLs hosted by third party sites have been upgraded to use HTTPS. The only supported third party sites still using HTTP are:

sf-encyclopedia.uk (note that sf-encyclopedia.com supports HTTPS)
www.philsp.com and philsp.com -- reportedly no plans to upgrade to HTTPS
www.mondourania.com
people.uncw.edu
www.sf-leihbuch.de and sf-leihbuch.de
books.ofearna.us and art.ofearna.us -- note that ofearna.us supports HTTPS

Covers hosted by the following three sites can be found using Advanced Publication Search and will require manual review:

covers.openlibrary.org -- current HTTP URLs redirect to multiple different Web sites
www.grantvillegazette.com -- the Web site structure and the URLs have changed; need to review and update all URLs; see the Web site's main archive page for details
img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk and www.fantasticfiction.co.uk -- URLs seem to be moving to img1.fantasticfiction.com; need to be reviewed

Amazon-hosted images are a separate issue and require more research. Ahasuerus 14:32, 25 March 2022 (EDT)

Most eligible HTTP links to third party Web pages have been upgraded to HTTPS. The rest will have to be done manually. Here is what I discovered while reviewing HTTP links:

Changed URL structure:

zinewiki.com - need to add '/wiki/' between the domain name and the article name
www.tercerafundacion.net - changed to https://tercerafundacion.net [note dropped the 'www']
www.alisoneldred.com - new URL structure, details currently unknown
www.borisjulie.com - some URLs no longer work
www.grantvillegazette.com - all URLs changed (HTTPS)
www.ilona-andrews.com - many URLs have changed (HTTPS)
www.donatoart.com - most URLs have changed (HTTPS)

URLs which may have changed structure:

talestoterrify.com (HHTPS)
farfetchedfables.com (HTTP)
www.strangehorizons.com (HTTP)
bnreview.barnesandnoble.com
www.michaelwhelan.com (HTTPS)

Dead sites:

kirjasto.sci.fi (HTTP)
www.kirjasto.sci.fi (HTTP)
www.mirrorshards.org -- purchased domain, HTTPS supported
chrisachilleos.co.uk - empty domain (HTTP)
www.bpib.com - purchased domain
comicbookdb.com -- sold to comicbook.com

Ahasuerus 17:44, 26 March 2022 (EDT)

Dates for Aldiss / Vanguard from Alpha (Equator)

The title records for Aldiss's novella Vanguard from Alpha and its variants Equator (by Brian W. Aldiss) and Equator (by Brian Aldiss) all have dates of 1959-10-00. However, none of these is contained in any publication having that date. Are these dates correct? If so, could someone please explain why? Teallach 11:27, 27 March 2022 (EDT)

The dates of these variant titles as currently stated are incorrect. The reason is that we originally used the parent title's date for its variant titles. A few years later we changed the data entry standard to use the date of the earliest appearance of a variant title as its date, but a few old records still use the old convention. We update them as we find them. Ahasuerus 17:45, 27 March 2022 (EDT)

The parent was also incorrect as it was dated 1959-10-00, but the first non-serialized appearance is 1959-00-00. There are no publications with a 1959-10-00 date & the pub history of the Ace Double doesn't show it ever had a month that was removed. I have fixed all the records. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:17, 27 March 2022 (EDT)

Thank you! You have saved me the trouble of submitting these edits myself. Teallach 13:17, 29 March 2022 (EDT)

HTTPS upgrade - phase 1 completed

The core ISFDB software has been upgraded to work with HTTPS. This means that if you install the ISFDB software/database on an HTTPS-enabled server, it should work out of the box. Now we need to enable HTTPS on www.isfdb.org, which is a whole different can of worms -- see Development/HTTPS if you are interested in the technical details. Ahasuerus 17:15, 27 March 2022 (EDT)

Falkner Story Title

Does anyone own a copy of the 2000 Tartarus edition of J. Meade Falkner's The Lost Stradivarius? It includes a couple of short stories, and 1 was titled A Midsummer Night's Marriage, yet I found eBay UK copy which says A Midsummer's Night Marriage on copyright page, contents page, front flap and spine. Google Books has a copy of the 1896 magazine where it first appeared and it has the former title. So a look at the story's page head is needed to know if that's the title inside the book. --Username 12:06, 28 March 2022 (EDT)

Magazine or Anthology?

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1320181; I don't know if warning needs to be fixed by someone. --Username 15:22, 28 March 2022 (EDT)

At one point we allowed ANTHOLOGY titles to be included in MAGAZINE publications, but the software behind "Bibliographic Warnings" was not updated to reflect the policy change. Let me see what I can do... Ahasuerus 15:49, 28 March 2022 (EDT)

Fixed. Thanks for reporting the issue. Ahasuerus 16:05, 28 March 2022 (EDT)

Poul Anderson's The Year of the Ransom

The entry states "A rough word count makes it 25,000 words." and guesses that it's really not a novel. I guess that makes the text a novella, and the publication a CHAPBOOK. I'd like to adapt this accordingly. Christian Stonecreek 13:59, 29 March 2022 (EDT)

Check with the PVs for a possible second count (or with whomever did this one if they are around to make sure it was done properly) and if the numbers align, let the PVs know and convert it and add notes explaining the length. Annie 02:49, 30 March 2022 (EDT)

And don't forget to check with the pv's of the omnibus editions, that will have to be turned to collections. --Willem 04:44, 30 March 2022 (EDT)

Adding archived links

I think it would be a good idea to add a second "archive link" field for any external link fields in the database. This would allow us to include an archived version of any external links, thus preventing degradation of links in the database. The archived link could be displayed as "originallink.com (archive)". Thoughts? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:09, 30 March 2022 (EDT)

You can always just add the archived link as a regular one now... which had been done in some places (either as a second link or as the only one). The problem of course is that even if we do that, we cannot guarantee that the link will be valid - archive.org can remove contents (if the owner of the copyright requires it) and they may even go down (hopefully never but...) so not sure how useful that will be really (except to look more structured). And if it is a page that changes/adds things and not just a story for example, do we keep changing the archived link to the newest available? Annie 15:19, 30 March 2022 (EDT)

There are other archive services than archive.org, too. I often use archive.vn. It's better at capturing layouts, too. Yes, archive sites might go down, but having two possible locations increases the odds of one of them not being down. And the odds of archive.org removing a purely informational link are pretty low.

Another possibility is adding a "Reference" section where links can be placed, and give it the ability (maybe via a drop-down menu or something similar) to indicate which items the reference supports. Then add the above archive option to those links. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:12, 30 March 2022 (EDT)

@@ Line 1,365: / Line 1,365: @@
 I think it would be a good idea to add a second "archive link" field for any external link fields in the database. This would allow us to include an archived version of any external links, thus preventing degradation of links in the database. The archived link could be displayed as "originallink.com (archive)". Thoughts? ···[[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> 13:09, 30 March 2022 (EDT)
 : You can always just add the archived link as a regular one now... which had been done in some places (either as a second link or as the only one). The problem of course is that even if we do that, we cannot guarantee that the link will be valid - archive.org can remove contents (if the owner of the copyright requires it) and they may even go down (hopefully never but...) so not sure how useful that will be really (except to look more structured). And if it is a page that changes/adds things and not just a story for example, do we keep changing the archived link to the newest available? [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 15:19, 30 March 2022 (EDT)
+::There are other archive services than archive.org, too. I often use archive.vn. It's better at capturing layouts, too. Yes, archive sites might go down, but having two possible locations increases the odds of one of them not being down. And the odds of archive.org removing a purely informational link are pretty low.
+::Another possibility is adding a "Reference" section where links can be placed, and give it the ability (maybe via a drop-down menu or something similar) to indicate which items the reference supports. Then add the above archive option to those links. ···[[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> 19:12, 30 March 2022 (EDT)