Difference between revisions of "User talk:Dmatlock"

Revision as of 08:02, 28 December 2009

Welcome!

Hello, Dmatlock, 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
Wiki editing help - Tips on how to use the wiki-specific features when editing wiki pages.

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 16:08, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Rudy Rucker's Mathenauts

I accepted your submission for a new edition of this title, but had to make a few changes for it to fall into ISFDB standards.

For trade paperback binding, using "tp"
Place the dollar sign ($) before the price
Provided the month of publication (same as the hardcover edition)
Added contents (imported from the hardcover edition) [you can add the page numbers if you get a chance]

Regarding this last addition: if you're adding an almost identical edition, you can clone one that's already in the database, making changes in those fields which are different. This way the pub will show all of the stories without someone having to manually enter them (or importing them if another edition exists), and then merging them with the pre-existing title records for those stories. When you have a chance, read these help pages: Entering New Publications and Cloning. Thanks and again welcome to the ISFDB. MHHutchins 16:20, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Early Harvest

I've approved your additions to Early Harvest, but isn't it "The Shining" rather than "The Shinning"? BLongley 14:23, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

I know the Simpsons used the longer version, but that seems to be several years later. BLongley 14:29, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

---

Thanks. I made the correction. 2 "n"s is correct as opposed to 3.

Cheers,

Dmatlock 14:35, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Escape! by Bova

I approved this and added an ISBN and other info from online researh, with proper source notes. -DES ^Talk 18:18, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Please note that our existing record for this calls it a novella, not a novel, and it looks close to the border line. Are you quite sure it should be recorded as a novel? In any case, the existing record should be either merged, or linked with a proper note, to this record. -DES ^Talk 18:29, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Millennium by Bova

I approved this. Please don't forget to merge with the existing title record for Millennium. See Help:How to merge titles for information. Similarly, "Escape!" (section above) probably needs to be merged with the pre-existing record we had for it. -DES ^Talk 18:26, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

I approved Brothers in Arms which has the same need for merging. Please find existing publications and use "Add Publication to this Title" rather than "New Novel" to avoid the need for extra merges. BLongley 20:52, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Will do. I was wondering how to do that in a single step (add a new novel into a current publication) so I will read up on "Add Publication ... Thanks, Dmatlock 00:31, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Ethan of Athos

I approved your edits to Ethan of Athos but you entered some Roman-numeralled page numbers. We would like to know where the Roman-Numeralled page numbers end so we can enter the total page count as, say, "xi+199". Can you check where the foreword ends please? BLongley 20:07, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Same question for Beyond the Barriers of Space and Time - where do the Roman-numeralled pages finish? BLongley 20:27, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Borders of Infinity

OK, I approved your edit to Borders of Infinity but somewhat reluctantly. It works in this case, but changing existing contents is NOT recommended as it changes ALL such entries in EVERY publication they've ever been in. I agree Alice N. S. Lewis and David Deen probably did not provide INTERIORART for the book, they did cover Design and cover Art respectively, and Suford Lewis did provide an Editor's Note which would indeed should be recorded as an ESSAY. BLongley 21:16, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

However, it would normally be far better and safer to add new contents separately, and use "Remove Titles From This Pub" to remove erroneous old ones. It saves a LOT of checking on the Moderator's part! During the first edit you could also note that Alice N. S. Lewis did cover design in the publication Notes (there is no field for Cover Designers as such, they have to go in notes). And also when adding the "Editor's Note" it's probably useful to add a suffix to explain which book the "Editor's Note" is for - e.g. "Editor's Note (Borders of Infinity)". The thinking behind this is that we can then look at Suford Lewis's Author page and see which "Editor's Notes" he did for which books. BLongley 21:16, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Lastly, as this is a collection, hopefully you're going to add contents at some point? Please look at "Import Content" (from another publication that already has them) as a quick way that will save some merges later. BLongley 21:16, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for editing, hopefully we haven't put you off too much with the comments! BLongley 21:16, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

First,

I am not at all put off by the large number of comments and replies I have received. I am taking in this information albeit a bit slower then I would otherwise prefer. All I can say is I am working on educating myself with your standards and methods.

That being said I will be more careful to use less generic titles and to use the Add and Remove content functions you mentioned rather then just modifying existing ones.

Thanks, Dmatlock 00:29, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Titling generic entries

I accepted your submissions which added map credits to several pubs, but changed the titles to disambiguate them from similarly title records. So instead of "Map", I changed one to "The White Dragon (map)". You would do this for other generic titles such as "Introduction", "Preface", "Afterword". All other interior art is titled the same as the piece of work which it illustrates. Thanks. 21:16, 15 November 2008 (UTC) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mhhutchins (talk • contribs) .

I just did similar for Scepters and Legacies, but it seems one of the map artists has an extra or missing "l"? BLongley 21:37, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

I also note that we're a bit inconsistent about whether a "(title)" suffix disambiguates "Maps" or a "(Maps)" suffix disambiguates a title - whatever, the main thing is that "Maps" alone is not enough. BLongley 21:37, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

True, I have found a number of other entires for Ellisa Mitchell in some other books and the proper spelling is with two l's in Ellisa. I will edit those as well. Dmatlock 11:48, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

OK, approved some of these. We're down to one "Elisa Mitchell", one "Ellisa Mitchel", and fifty "Ellisa Mitchell" entries now. I can't say I'm keen on the "Maps (Chaos Balance, The)" format - is there any particular reason for the trailing definite article? We don't usually do that format. BLongley 20:32, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

No particular reason. The two l's in the first and last name is the correct spelling as far as I can tell. Dmatlock 21:42, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

I accepted a couple of these titles but edited them to have a leading article, i.e. "Maps (The Chaos Balance)". MHHutchins 16:40, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

David Brin's The River of Time

I'm holding your submission updating this pub, because you changed the title records for several pieces. Because these title records are included in the contents of several other publications, perhaps with different spellings than the one which you are updating, your submission would be change ALL the records to match those that you updated. Go here to learn how to change contents of a collection or anthology without affecting other publications. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks. MHHutchins 21:24, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to accept this submission, but I'll have to revert the titles to those in the original record. If the content titles don't match your edition, please use the above method to make the corrections. Thanks. MHHutchins 22:54, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Personalization in pub notes

I accepted your submission updating this pub, but changed the notes to make them less personal.

Your note reads: "I changed the publication date to 2008-08-00 from 2008-09-00. The book only specifies 2008 but the publisher's website states August 2008. Please note that the Editor's Note is physically on page 201 but I changed the page count to 199 as that is the last numbered page in the book."

Which I adapted to: "Month of publication not stated in the book. Date from the publisher's website. Last numbered page is 199. The Editor's Note appears on the unnumbered page 201."

I also changed the title of the Editor's Note to "Editor's Note (Ethan of Athos). Thanks. MHHutchins 21:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

I see three Mods crawling over your edits at the moment, so I'll back off and leave the others to it! Thanks for the Roman Numerals fix I asked for above. BLongley 21:40, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Ben Bova's Escape!

I'm holding your submission which attempts to merge the novel Escape! with the novella Escape!. It's quite possible that these are the exact same texts because the novel version was only 122 pages. Do you have both texts in order to compare and state conclusively that they're the same text? Or is there a statement in the collection Escape Plus that it's the same text as the 1970 novel? Otherwise, I think we should leave the records alone for now. Thanks. MHHutchins 21:44, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Too many mods again - Mike, please see Escape! by Bova above. I'm stopping all moderating tonight, I think I could only add more confusion. BLongley 22:22, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't know. I thought you were asking me to merge to initiate a merge on these from an earlier post although perhaps I misunderstood. The only reference I have is the "Hold Library Edition" which is the one I entered. My edition has about 30,000 words so should likely be classified as a Novella depending on what criteria is used for that. Dmatlock 00:36, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, Devin. I didn't see the earlier posting in which David (DES) suggested the merge. I'll post a request on the Verification page to see if anyone has both texts so that we can determine if the records should be merged. MHHutchins 02:52, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Note that what I said was that the "existing record should be either merged, or linked with a proper note...". I suspect this text is near the border between novella and novel, assuming that it is in fact the same text. -DES ^Talk 05:38, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

I suspect it is the same text, but am not sure. Our record for the novella in Escape Plus gives an inital date of 1970, which suggests that this is the same text, but doesn't prove it. I know I read that collection some years ago, I'll have to check if I still have a copy. -DES ^Talk 01:03, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Your Email

Only just picked that up - I don't check email very often, the Wiki (for all its faults) gets my attention faster. I presume Mike has fixed Out of the Sun to your satisfaction now? I guess the other Holt edition probably needs adjusting too, but I don't know who left that note. BLongley 18:07, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Taken care of, thanks! Dmatlock 22:35, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Undwerwood/Miller

In your edit of Trumps of Doom you want to change the publisher from "Underwood/Miller" to "Underwood-Miller". The vast majority of our existing records for this publisher are in the form "Underwood/Miller" 769/"Underwood/Miller" -- at the moment only 3 are in the form Underwood-Miller. Also, when I have seen this firm's name in reveiws and the like, and in ads in Whispers magazine, and in the Vance Integral Edition documentation, a slash has been the normal formatting. Why do you want to change this from the more common to the less common form?

I have this submisison on hold pending your response. -DES ^Talk 22:55, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

I changed it becuase all the references in that book (which I own, spine, title page, etc.) use the hyphen rather then the forward slash. Dmatlock 01:57, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank you - I think your reply was missed as this was still in the queue. I approved the update and then added a note to the publication record explaining it really states "Underwood-Miller" so that someone does not later do a data cleanup and wipe this out. --Marc Kupper|talk 18:57, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

A Coming of Age

You submitted an edit whioch would change this pub from "1985-04-00" to "1984-12-00". However, ABE searches show printings of this ISBN in 1984, 1985 and 1986. I think it would be better to clone and edit, so that we would up with two records. Is there any reason not to do so? Submisison on hold pending your response. -DES ^Talk 23:12, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

No reason not to do so. I can't confirm that later printings don't exist so a clone sounds like the way to go. If you concur reject that edit and I will clone and add the earlier edition.

I am sorry if I haven't quite caught on to the proper procedure. Making changes in this database is really a different mindset then what I do when adding or correcting something in my collection.Dmatlock 01:28, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

I glanced at ABE as well and it looks like those other years are indicated as later printings so it does look like this should be cloned. Which raises the questions of printings especially in the same year. Any reason printings (and possibly states) arn't acounted for? Beyond the issue that this would be a major change to encoded information? Dmatlock 01:44, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

I approved your update and also did the cloning so that we have records for both dates. Pending software updates we have adopted a practice of noting the printing number in the publication notes. For example, "Third printing per number line" or "Stated Third Printing".

Are you aware of the verify-publication link in the left menu? It does a couple of things. 1) It marks that you have a copy of the book available in case someone has further questions about a detail. 2) It establishes that you have done a best-effort to verify that the data stated in ISFDB matches the publication. When things don't match then we add notes. For example, sometimes I'll run across a record that states a date, or credits a cover artist, where inspection of the publication can't confirm this. In that case I add a note along the lines of "The printing date is not stated. Prior to verification this ISFDB record was dated yyyy-mm-dd. The source of this data is unknown but is assumed to be accurate."

Under the verify menu there's also transient verification. You can use this for publications you have in hand but are getting rid of or as a secondary verification in case someone else has already done a primary verification. --Marc Kupper|talk 19:25, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Cascade Point and Other Stories

You submitted an edit that would change the price of this pub from "$15.95" to "$16.95" Are you reasonably sure that there wasn't an earlier printing with a lower price? For example does your copy say "first printing" or have a numberline showing that it is a first printing?

Submisison on holding pending your reply. -DES ^Talk 23:17, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, The book I have is a first edition. Bluejay did not do number lines (at least at that time) but the copy-write page states "First Bluejay printing: March 1986) and there is no indication this is a later edition. Also, I have a distinct recolection that I purchased this book just after it was released as I was very much a Zahn fan at that time. Well, still am really. I have no problem with cloning this but as the version I was modifying was not verified I believe it is in error. Let me know how you wish to proceed. Dmatlock 01:23, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

It looks like DES dropped off line without warning leaving some items pending. I approved this update and then added a note explaining the book may have been announced at $15.95 but that the first edition was confirmed at $16.95. --Marc Kupper|talk 19:13, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Gateway

Added a cover image to GATEWAY1977 --Bluesman 22:27, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Shadow of the Torturer

Added a cover image to THSHDWFTHT1980 --Bluesman 19:28, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Split Infinity

I added a cover image and an interior art credit to your verified pub SPLTNFNTY1980 --Rtrace 01:17, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Wielding a Red Sword

I replaced a broken cover image for your verified pub BKTG04939 Thanks. --Rtrace 13:22, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Jargoon Pard

Added a cover image to [this] --Bluesman 23:21, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Blue Adept

I added this cover scan to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 11:25, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Moderator Help Request

I verified the following link.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?SWRDSFTHHR1985 against a primary source but I made an error in actually verifying this.

The artist is listed as L. Royd and should be listed as L. Royo or Luis Royo.

Thanks,

-Devin

Changed to Luis Royo, Thanks!Kraang 02:44, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Verificaton and Editing Question

I was verifying (trying to) Galactic Empires Volume Two by Brian Aldiss SFBC edition.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?GLCTCMPRSB1978

I noticed that this publication is already in the database and has been verified by a primary reference.

The entered title is “Galactic Empires, Volume II” while my copy of the book has the following,

Galactic Empires VOLUME TWO

With “Volume Two” being in a lower size font and all in caps on the line below and centered.

So my question is,

The entered title has a comma, and Volume II rather then Volume Two or VOLUME TWO.

What is the correct procedure here?

Should I comment about this in the notes section? You can see it clearly in the picture in the database so this isn’t really confusing I just am curious to understand how accurate we need to be and what the etiquette is.

Also, this seems to be a COLLECTION rather then an ANTHOLOGY.