ISFDB talk:Serial Cleanup

Process description, please

It would be nice if this page explained exactly what an editor had to do to Fix a particular title. -DES ^Talk 14:55, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Good point, let me give it a shot... Ahasuerus 15:12, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

An explanation has been added -- hope it makes sense! Ahasuerus 15:29, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Thought I'd try to fix some of these, but sorry, the explanation didn't help me. Perhaps a few pointers for the denser among us. I was able to do some of the more obvious errors in the malformed titles list. MHHutchins 07:14, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

What I've been doing is this.

• I look at the title link in the left hand set of columns. I then follow the links to the stated author and canonical author pages.
• If, on the canonical author page, there is a non-serial version of the work, i make the serial a variant of that work, delete the placeholder serial title linked on the right-hand side of the table (which will now have no pubs), and mark the entry "Fixed".
• If, on the stated author page, but not on the canonical author page, there is a non-serial version of the work, I create a placeholder non-serial version under the canonical author name. Then I make the actual publications, both serial and non-serial, variants of this. Then I delete the placeholder serial title linked on the right-hand side of the table, and mark the entry "Fixed".
• If there is no non-serial version of the work on either author page, I mark the entry "OK".

I hope that procedure is sufficiently well described to be helpful. -DES ^Talk 14:49, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the step-by-step. I'll try to work on some. MHHutchins 16:19, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Malformed serial titles

Have these titles appeared on this list simply because the "p" in "(Part x of y)" or the "c" and "n" in "(Complete Novel)" isn't capitalized? Will capitalizing be enough to remove the "error" in those cases? Same thing with the use of brackets instead of parentheses? Also, I recall creating the record for In Polar Seas (and its pseudonymous variant) just as a placeholder for the title (it appeared on a list of important lost race novels). Without creating 19 pub records (!) for a serial in a non-genre magazine, what is the best way to handle situations like this? Thanks. MHHutchins 04:50, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

For example "Under the Moons of Mars" as by "Norman Bean" had been fixed. Now it is listed as being "malformed". Is the only problem that the "p" in "part" is not "P"? Is this really such a vital matter? Moving the goal posts like this is unfortunate. -DES ^Talk 14:38, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Serials in Grantville Gazette

Many of the malformed serial titles are from the Grantville Gazettes, of which I readily admit I know nothing about. It's strange that they're typed as serials as none of them have parts. If they are just a continuing series (which is not a serial) shouldn't they just be typed as shortfiction and placed into a subseries of "1632"? Look at the mess it's caused this author's page. This may have been discussed before when the Gazettes were being entered, and I may have skipped the discussion because it involved ebooks which are outside my area of knowledge. (And I'm not going to debate the difference between a serial and a series. We all should know that by now.) MHHutchins 06:57, 28 August 2009 (UTC)