Rules and standards changelog

This is a changelog of ISFDB data entry rules and standards. It summarizes the outcomes of discussions on the Rules and standards discussions page as well as functional data entry changes prompted by software patches. It began logging changes on 2016-11-13. There is no changelog for rule changes before that date.

Note that this changelog is limited to changes to data entry standards. For a list of software changes see Recent Patches.

Date of change	Short description	New rule	Old rule	Help pages affected by this change	Discussion which led to the rule change (the link may not work for archived discussions)
2016-11-13	Date of variant titles	Date must be the first occurrence of the variant title	Date to use was the first occurrence of the work	Template:TitleFields:Date	Improve "How to enter foreign language editions" page regarding the publication date of translations
2016-11-27	Eliminated 'sf' Story Length	'sf' is no longer entered in the Story Length field	'sf' was supposed to be entered in the Story Length field for short fiction titles of unknown length	Template:TitleFields:Length	Eliminating "sf"/"shortfiction" during editing and 2016-11-27 downtime
2016-11-27	Omnibus story length separators	Plus signs are to be used as omnibus story length separators	Slashed were to be used as omnibus story length separators	Template:TitleFields:Length	Composite "story length" values for OMNIBUSes
2017-01-16	Story length field split into 4	Omnibus length values as well as juvenile and novelization indicators have been moved from the "story length" field to separate fields. A leading slash is no longer required for omnibus length values.	The story length field was used to store all 4 types of information. Leading slashes were to be used for omnibus length values.	Template:TitleFields:Length, Template:TitleFields:Content, Template:TitleFields:Juvenile, Template:PublicationFields:Juvenile, Template:TitleFields:Novelization, Template:PublicationFields:Novelization	2017-01-16 downtime - 6:30pm
2017-03-12	Suffix handling in author LegalName field	Suffixes that are part of the author's legal name are recorded; format Lastname, Firstname Middlenames, Suffix	No suffixes were to be recorded	Template:AuthorFields:LegalName	Handling of suffixes on author names
2017-10-02	Psychic abilities	Explicitly state genre includes fictional psychic abilities	Not specifically in inclusion criteria	ISFDB:Policy	Psychic abilities: In or Out?
2017-12-22	Boxed sets	Boxed sets with additional data elements are included	Boxed sets were excluded	Template:PublicationFields:PubType	Boxed Sets
2017-12-25	Non-genre speculative fiction	Removed reference to "non-genre speculative fiction" as confusing. No real change in policy itself.	"non-genre speculative fiction" was listed in inclusion criteria.	ISFDB:Policy	"Non-genre speculative fiction" in ISFDB:Policy
2018-01-17	Special genre issues of non-genre magazines	For special genre issues of non-genre magazines, non-fiction may be entered as well	Non-fiction from non-genre magazines never entered	Help:Entering non-genre magazines	Special Genre Issues of Non-Genre Issues