User talk:Dagon99

Welcome!

Hello, Dagon99, 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
What the ISFDB Wiki is for
ISFDB FAQ
Help:Screen:EditPub#General contents - Warning and a note on how to update a publication's contents

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! Ahasuerus 11:00, 6 Dec 2007 (CST)

The Good Guy and Curse of the Claw

Thanks for submitting The Good Guy and Curse of the Claw! I have approved the submissions and made a few changes as per our Help pages:

Our software expects all dates to be in the YYYY-MM-DD format, otherwise it changes them to "unknown"
The abbreviations for different types of binding are "hc" for hardcover books, "pb" for mass market (i.e. small) paperbacks and "tp" for trade (i.e. large) paperbacks
The dates of publication that you entered apparently came from Amazon.com. Unfortunately, Amazon's dates are not very reliable and although there is no harm in including them, it's probably safer to use the YYYY-MM-00 format unless we have a solid source for the publication date
The page counts also apparently came from Amazon.com and they tend to be even less reliable than their publication dates. Basically, publishers send information about forthcoming books to Amazon.com well ahead of time, before they know how many pages the book will end up with, and Amazon employees almost never correct that number after they get the actual book. We use a variety of sources to double check Amazon's data -- see our Sources of Bibliographic Information page. In this case I used OCLC's FirstSearch engine to correct the page count for the Koontz.
I also entered the publisher's description of Koontz's novel from the OCLC record and changed the book's type from "NOVEL" to "NONGENRE" to reflect the fact that, as far as I can tell, the book has no speculative fiction content. We do catalog non-SF books by SF writers, but we need to mark them accordingly or else our users will not be able to tell what in the author's bibliography is SF. Imagine ordering a previously unknown Silverberg novel and then discovering that it's one of his pseudonymous soft core porn novels :) Unfortunately, due to current software limitations, this isn't something that can be specified at the time of the original submission and you have to go back and change the type after the submission has been approved.
I added Curse of the Claw to the appropriate series based on your note and then deleted the note. Again, due to current software limitations, this has to be done after the original submission.

Don't worry about the changes, they are all very common when new editors begin to contribute to the project. That's why we have the moderation process in place and this Wiki to communicate with the editors :) Thanks for editing! Ahasuerus 11:33, 6 Dec 2007 (CST)

Blackout by Guy N. Smith

I accepted your submission of this novel but had to correct the date. The ISFB recognizes dates as YEAR-MM-DD, so July 18, 2006 should be entered as 2006-07-18. Otherwise the system reverts to 0000-00-00 indicating "unknown" date. Thanks. Mhhutchins 11:14, 2 Jan 2008 (CST)

Richard Laymon's Island

Thanks for submitting Richard Laymon's Island! I have approved the submission and changed the publication date to 2002 to reflect the date when this edition was published. Also, the Amazon image didn't appear correctly, so I have deleted it for now. When you get a chance, please take a look at the result to make sure that everything looks fine. Also, please keep in mind that all submissions are reviewed by moderators and approved/rejected, so it may take some time for your submission to percolate to the top of the submission queue. Thanks! Ahasuerus 11:30, 17 Jan 2008 (CST)

The Fuel of Tender Years by Froehlich

I accepted your submission of this new pub, but had to make corrections to comply with ISFDB standards

Dates should be in the form of YYYY-MM-DD, so August 1996 would be 1996-08-00. As it was entered "August 1996", the system reverts back to 0000-00-00 and shows the date as unknown.
Binding: A paperback edition should be entered as "pb"
Generically titled content entries, e.g. "Introduction" should be entered as "Introduction (The Fuel of Tender Years)" so that it can be distinguished from similar titles.

Thanks for submitting. Mhhutchins 15:21, 30 Jan 2008 (CST)

Midnight Screaming

According to the magazine's website, there have only three issues of Midnight Screaming, but none of the three match the contents of your submission. Is this a forthcoming issue? If so, the date should be a part of the title and the content records. Also the number you placed in the ISBN/Catalog # field is neither. It appears to be an ISSN. If so, it can be recorded in the notes field. The submission is being held awaiting your response. Thanks for contributing. MHHutchins 06:15, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

"Toe Tags: 21 Spine-Tingling Tales..." by Brian Barnett+William Pauley III

I have approved your submission for this publication. But I have a few questions and issues of formatting.

One author is listed as "T.J. McIntyre". We always show initials with spaces, so this should be "T. J. McIntyre".
One author is shown as "Oonah V Joslin". W always show initials with periods, unless the author has consistantly treated the letter as a complete name, so this should probably be "Oonah V. Joslin". Do you know if this author treats "V" as a one-letter name, rather than an initial?
The date is currently listed as "2009-09-29". Did this come from amazon, or direct from Lulu, or where? Amazon so often adds spurious day-of-th-moth figures to its dates, that I and many other editors here routinely change any amazon-derived date to YYYY-MM-00, deleting the day of the month figure. But with a Lulu published book there might be an accurately known, specific day of publication. Is there?

The listing for the pub is now here. Please double check, and verify if you are working from an actual copy of the book. Thank you for your contributions. -DES ^Talk 16:19, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Copied from User talk:DESiegel60

Yes, Oonah V Joslin is correct. There is no period after the "V".

I have no issue with changing T.J. to T. J.

The date is correct, unless you would rather change it to just the month and year. That was the exact day that it was open to be purchased to the public.

Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dagon99 (talk • contribs) 11:30, 1 October 2009 .

End content Copied from User talk:DESiegel60

I have changed "T.J. McIntyre" to "T. J. McIntyre".
A Google search confirms that Oonah V Joslin generally (but not always) omits a period after the V. I have therefore left this unchanged.
Since the exact date is accurate, i have not changed it. There is no objection to exact dates -- many magazines have them, for example, particularly ones more frequent than monthly. It is just that Amazon days-of-month are so routinely wrong they are apparently assigned basically at random, and Amazon is so big that many exact dates for book publications seem to be derived from their data. This has made people here suspicious of exact dates. But when they are know to be accurate, great. I have added a note so future editors will know this date is actual.

Again, thanks for your contributions, and I hope this exchange has been helpful. -DES ^Talk 15:01, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Communication among editors and moderators

This page is your talk page. It will be used by other editors and moderators for questions, comments and other messages. When a change is made to this page, the "My Messages" link will be highlighted when you log onto the ISFDB website. Clicking on the highlighted link will lead you to this page. For more information about using this Wiki go here. MHHutchins 03:16, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Midnight Screaming again

I accepted the second submission (the duplicate), because it answered some of the questions I left in the post above. I had to remove the cover image link to the publisher website, because we need explicit permission from the website owner to deeplink to another server. You can download a copy of the image file to your home computer and then upload it the ISFDB server, using the link "Upload cover scan" on the publication record page. I also removed the message in the note field about communication which I hope I answered in the post immediately preceding this one. And I made the publisher's website address that you placed in the note field into a hyperlink. If you have any more questions about this publication, you can ask them here. Just click the (edit) link for this posting. An edit window will open. Type in your message (preceded by a colon [:] to indent the message from mine. At the end of the message type four tildes (~~~~) which will automatically sign and date your post. I have placed a watch on this page, so I will be notified immediately when you've responded to the message. Thanks for your contributions. —The preceding unsigned comment added by Mhhutchins (talk • contribs) 22:25, 1 October 2009 Signature was present, but blocked by incorrect wiki formatting. (-DES)

Thanks again for the help with this. I learn something new every time. I uploaded the cover pic from my computer. I suppose that you or someone will need to approve it? Thanks again. —The preceding unsigned comment added by Dagon99 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 2 October 2009 Signature was present, but blocked by incorrect wiki formatting. (-DES)

Uploads of cover images do not need approval. But the change to the database record that links an image (via its URL) to a publication record and thus displays the image with the pub record does need to be approved, just like any other change to a publication record. Thanks for uploading. -DES ^Talk 15:14, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

I edited the publication record to display the cover image. For future reference, after you upload a cover image, click on the image displayed on the wiki page, or on the link with the name of the image (or it may say "full resolution", depending on the image size) to get a page that shows just the image, no description. This will have a URL like http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/2/21/MDNGHTSCRM2009.jpg. Copy this URL to the clipboard. Click back on your browser. Click the green link in the description page just before the word "edition". This will take you to the publication record for the book or magazine. (Or navigate to the publication page by any other method you want. You may still have it open in another window or tab if you just uploaded from the "Upload cover image" link.) Click "Edit this Pub". Past the image URL you copied into the "Image URL" field. (Note that this must be the URL to the page with just the image, not to the wiki image description page.) Click "Submit Data". A moderator will review and (normally) approve the edit. -DES ^Talk 15:58, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Wiki stuff

Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will insert your user name (Dagon99) (or a custom signature if you set one in your preferences) and the date. See Wiki Conventions for more on how things are generally done on the wiki. -DES ^Talk 15:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Midnight Screaming yet again

Since this is a magazine, and other issues exist that should be entered, I have changed the title to "Midnight Screaming, October 2009". See Help:Screen:EditPub#Title (The section on magazines) for more details on our customary practices for magazine titles. -DES ^Talk 15:28, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Do you know how much of the contents of issues 1-3 was speculative fiction, that is: science fiction, fantasy, or horror, in a broad sense? There is enough data on the magazine web site to create entries for these issues, but i don't want to do that if there was little or no SF included. The magazine's web site says that SF is welcome, but so is work in other genres, and doesn't indicate how much of the actual content might be SF in any given issue. -DES ^Talk 15:49, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, they have speculative fiction stories. I think the majority of their stories are, anyway. Dagon99 14:15, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Maneater by Guy N. Smith

I approved your addition of Maneater, and added an amazon cover image URL and an OCLC record number. However, this amazon page suggest that the book is thriller/horror, but with no supernatural elements. Note that ISFDB:Policy#Definitions specifically includes "Supernatural horror". Is the amazon review a good description of the content of this book? (Amazon is often wrong.) If so, I would like to change this to a NONGENRE book -- it seems to me that Guy N. Smith has written enough speculative fiction for his non-genre books to merit inclusion here. Wouls you object to this? -DES ^Talk 21:22, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Price sources and notes

In your submisison of Wolfcurse you left a note "I cannot find an original cover price." When you leave notes with an "I" in them, it is a good idea to sign them with your ISFDB user name, or your name or initals, or some other handle, so that a reader has some idea who the "I" is. I was going to add a signiture to this note, but first I checked the British Library Integrated Catalogue. For books published in the UK (and sometimes elsewhere) since 1970 or so, this often gives prices. See our page on Sources of Bibliographic Information for this and other places worth checking. In this case I found a price and added it to the pub record. -DES ^Talk 21:38, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

To be clear, you are never required to check additional sources -- it is fine to enter what information you have. I mention the BLIC and other sources only in case you want to look further. -DES ^Talk 20:55, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Eleven O’Clock Fright by Joshua Scribner and data sources

I recently approved your submission of Eleven O’Clock Fright. I note that the record you submitted appears to match the Amazon.com record very closely. In particular, Amazon says that this book has 220 pages, as does your submission. OCLC record #1932606114 says that this book has only 210 pages. Usually, but not always, OCLC is more accurate than Amazon.

Did you work for a physical copy of the book? (If so, Amazon is right and OCLC wrong for once.) Or did you work from the Amazon record, or from some other source? When data comes from a source other than the book itself, it is a good idea to include a note indicating where the data came from. Other editors then have an idea where else to check, and some indication of reliability, as some sources are more reliable than others, or are more reliable on particular issues. -DES ^Talk 22:05, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Luna by Gina Farago

I approved your submission for this book. I then found the OCLC listing for it, which says that it has 399 pages rather than 372. Were you working from the actual book or from a secondary source such as an Amazon.com listing? It is perfectly fine to work from a secondary source, but in such cases it is very helpful to include a note indicating what the source is. -DES ^Talk 20:53, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

I also added a cover image. Is it correct for your copy? -DES ^Talk 20:53, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Sorry about that. I forgot all about it. I'll cite my sources from now on. It was from Amazon. Dagon99 12:09, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. -DES ^Talk 13:51, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

As the World Dies: The First Days

You entered As the World Dies: The First Days as a mass-market paperback (code pb). But amazon says that it is 8.9 inches high, and OCLC that it is 23 cm high. This indicates that it is a trade paperback (code tp). As you will see in Help:Screen:EditPub#PubFormat, the standard height for a pb is 7 inches, (18 cm) possibly up to 7.25 in (19 cm). anthing over that is generally a tp if it isn't an hc. The price is also a clue: a current book selling for 14.95 is probably not a pb, although this isn't certain, and prices must always take the year they are stated for into account.

I have changed this to a tp, and have altered the page count based on the OCLC record. -DES ^Talk 13:59, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Similar remarks apply to As the World Dies: Siege. Amazon often lists as "(Paperback)" both mass-market and trade paperbacks. -DES ^Talk 14:05, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

I also changed Among the Living to a tp for similar reasons. -DES ^Talk 14:14, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Semi-automated cover image uploads

I notice that you have been using the semi-automated cover image upload feature. I hope this makes uploading cover images easier.

However, you still need to edit the publication record after you upload the image, and enter the image URL, just as we used to before the semi-automated upload feature was made available. otherwise the uploaded image is not actually displayed on the pub record.

There seem to be 15 images you uploaded that need this step. To fix them:

Open the image wiki page (from the list below)
Click on the link just below the image, or the image itself, to go to the image file page (displays only the image, not the description)
Copy the URL (address) to the clipboard
Click the back button
Click on the link to the pub record in the Description line (first line of the "Fair Use Image Data")
Click on "Edit this Pub"
Paste into the "Image URL:" field.
Click the "Submit Data" button.
Repeat these steps for each image.

The images that need attention seem to be:

In future, when uploading a cover image via the "Upload cover scan" link from a publication, after the upload is complete, you must follow steps 2-8 above, except that if you have kept the publication record open in another tab or window, you can skip steps 4 and 5, simply switching to the proper browser window or tab.

I hope this is helpful. Please indicate if this outline is clear. -DES ^Talk 22:39, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Author merges for Harding

Could these possibly be pseudonymous entries? Our standard is to enter the title and author data as credited in publications. A variation in the author's name is considered to be a pseudonymous relationship. See this Help section. Perhaps this is the more appropriate approach?--swfritter 15:36, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I'd say that changing the names to pseudonyms would be best. I tried to follow the directions, but I think I must have missed a step or two along the way. Dagon99 16:54, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

The first thing we need to decide is the name of the Canonical Author. It seems that you think R. S. Harding is appropriate. If that is the case then this is the way you would do the one title for Ralph S. Harding. You will want to bring up the title. Under Editing Tools click Make This Title a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work. You will see Ralph S. Harding in the Author1: field. Replace the Author1: data with R. S. Harding. Click Create a New Parent Title and your submission will in the queue.--swfritter 20:09, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Alright, we got that part. The next step is to document Ralph S. Harding as a pseudonym of R. S. Harding at the Author level. Go to the Ralph S. Harding page. Under Editing Tools click Make/Remove a Pseudonym. Enter R. S. Harding as the Parent Name. Click Submit Data. And then once again you have to wait for a moderator.

The same methodology can be used to process the Ralph Stephen Harding titles.--swfritter 16:10, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

The Body Cartel

Thanks for submitting The Body Cartel ! The submission was fine, but I moved the book's editor, Tim Marquitz, to the Notes field since we currently have no other way to enter the editors of single author books. Ahasuerus 23:38, 7 December 2009 (UTC)