User talk:ArmChairFiction

Welcome!

Hello, ArmChairFiction, and welcome to the ISFDB Wiki! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• Help pages
• Field-by-field guide to entering new publications into the database
• Help:Getting Started
• What the ISFDB Wiki is for
• FAQ
• Wiki editing help - Tips on how to use the wiki-specific features when editing wiki pages.
• Wiki Conventions - How things are usually done on this wiki.
• Help:How to upload images to the ISFDB wiki

Note: Image uploading isn't entirely automated. You're uploading the files to the wiki which will then have to be linked to the database by editing the publication record.

Please be careful in editing publications that have been primary verified by other editors. See Help:How to verify data#Making changes to verified pubs. But if you have a copy of an unverified publication, verifying it can be quite helpful. See Help:How to verify data for detailed information.

I hope you enjoy editing here! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will insert your name and the date. If you need help, check out the community portal, or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Mhhutchins 18:59, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

The Genius Beasts / This World Is Taboo

Submission adding this publication was accepted, but several changes had to be made for it to comply with ISFDB standards. You will find those standards linked in the Welcome section above.

• The author credit was changed from Gregory Luce to the authors of the contents.

• Publication date was changed to 2014-05-18, based on the Amazon listing.

• Separate content records were added for each of the two stories.

Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 19:12, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

Latest batch of submissions - 2014-06-13

Sorry about the delay! We are working on them and hope to have everything reconciled on Sunday. Thanks for contributing! :) Ahasuerus 04:26, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Multi-author credits

Hi, and welcome. When supplying publications credited to multiple authors, use one name per "Author" field, and Add Author to make more such fields available in the form. If you use "A , B", that ends up going into the system as a single name (including the embedded comma), rather than as names "A" and "B". Thanks, and thank you for contributing. --MartyD 14:05, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Permission to link to http://www.armchairfiction.com/

Would it be safe to assume that you are the publisher of (or otherwise affiliated with) Armchair Fiction? And would you be in a position to give us permission to link to images hosted by the Armchair Fiction site? TIA! Ahasuerus 19:23, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I am an employee of Armchair Fiction. Part of my job is to maintain our web presence, so I will be submitting a lot of titles into the database, and editing old entries. I do appreciate that when I've made errors you've informed me or corrected them; that is very helpful in assisting me to learn more about this wiki. I have consulted the owner of Armchair Fiction, Gregory Luce, and he has authorized me to give permission to link to images on our website. Thanks, Susan Greer —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ArmChairFiction‎ (talk • contribs) .

Thanks for the update! I have updated the software to credit (and link to) Armchair Fiction whenever one of your hosted images is used. Ahasuerus 20:30, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Is it possible to link to better images? The ones you've linked are smaller than the thumbnails created by the ISFDB software. This means that the images have to be blown up, making them look even worse. If you have higher resolution files on your server of the cover art, please consider linking them to the ISFDB record. Also, do not link cover images which include don't have cover art and/or include text from the back cover (like this one.) Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:59, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

I can absolutely upload bigger images. What are your size requirements, in pixels and file size? Should I click the link marked "upload new cover scan", or would it be easier if I simply changed the image that the link goes to? Your statement regarding including text from the back cover, does that mean it should or shouldn't; do you mean it should only be the front cover? Thanks for your help, Susan Greer ArmChairFiction

The ISFDB policy is to upload no image file that is larger than 150KB in size and that the image is not taller than 600 pixels. An exception is made in some circumstances, such as images of wraparound cover art. Most scanners (or graphics software) will allow you to set the files to these limits without much trouble. But...if you're linking to image files on another server, we have no control (and no concern) on how large those files can be. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:53, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Rejection of non-spec-fic works

Works which have no speculative fiction content or that do not qualify under special rules of exception (documented here) are not eligible for the database. I have rejected the submissions to add a couple of mystery novels. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:58, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Recent submissions

There are a number of problems with your recent set of submissions which I will correct. Below is a list of the more common errors. Please keep them in mind when making future submissions.

• When a work includes more than one work of fiction (records typed as COLLECTION, ANTHOLOGY, or OMNIBUS), you must create individual content records for each of the works contained in the publication. Use the fields in the Content section to create content records.

• Many of the submissions have an invalid ISBN. Perhaps you're using a mix of the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13, e.g. adding "978" to an ISBN-10 to create the ISBN-13, which gives an incorrect checksum (the last digit).

• When you're adding a work which has a title already in the database, you should go to that title and use the "Add Publication to This Title" function located under the Editing Tools menu on the left side of the page. For example, Burroughs The Gods of Mars is already in the database. By using the "Add New Novel" function (as you did when adding the Armchair Fiction edition), you created a new title record which will have to be merged with the existing one. This would not apply for the Double Novel series since they are new titles as published.

• Enter the publication series exactly as it has been established in the database. Any variation creates a new publication series, e.g. use Armchair Fiction Double Novel instead of "Armchair Fiction Double Novels" (the final "s" isn't part of the series as established in the db.)

• Add a space after each initial in an author's credit, e.g. "J. F. Bone" and "H. G. Wells", instead of "J.F. Bone" and "H.G. Wells". Otherwise you're creating a new author in the db. (You could have avoided this by using the "Add Publication to This Title" function instead of "Add New Novel". That function populates the title and author field to match the existing data.)

• Use standard Capitalization rules: The first word is capitalized, and all later words are also capitalized except for "and", "or", "the", "a", "an", "for", "of", "in", "on", "by", "at", "from", "with", and "to". (This is documented on this help page, a page which should be bookmarked for new editors as it provides a field-by-field guide to creating publication records.)

• Be sure to use the correct publication type. Only use the OMNIBUS type if at least one of the works is a NOVEL, i.e. more than 40K words. I changed this publication to an ANTHOLOGY, because both works are SHORTFICTION of novella length.

Thank you for choosing to contribute to the ISFDB as an editor. Adding and updating publication records in the ISFDB is not a simple process. We don't expect all editors to get it right the first time, and we know it may take some time to learn the ins and outs, and all of the tricks. Please be patient with us as we guide you through this process. We will try our best to also be patient, but being human, it may appear that a moderator can be nitpicking, or even overbearing at times. Please be assured that it isn't personal, and we're only trying our best to achieve the quality of data that our users have come to expect. Together we can build a better database. The best piece of advice I can offer is to take some time to read this help page. It has instructions on how to enter each field of a publication record. If you need further assistance, don't hesitate to inquire at the help desk. Again, thank you for becoming a vital part of the ISFDB. Mhhutchins 17:40, 17 June 2014 (UTC)