Difference between revisions of "User talk:ErsatzCulture"

Revision as of 20:20, 13 February 2022

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Time Traveler's Almanac 2021 TOC Comment

Hi. Thanks for adding the supposedly available 2021 Head of Zeus edition of "Time Traveler's Almanac" by the Vandermeers (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?870284 870284).

I and a friend are tracking this version and attempting to get an updated TOC from Head of Zeus or the Vandermeers that matches the 100 stories listed on the 2021 cover.

So far, we have been unsuccessful, with conflicting answers. At this point in time, it's not clear if there is really a 100 story version or if the 100 stories listed was in error.

Assuming that we eventually get an answer, I'll circle back and let you know, and propose a further edit if needed.

Best wishes. Dave888 11:18, 4 January 2022 (EST)

Hi, feel free to make any edits to the contents you see fit - I added this one as part of my project to try to pick up as many as possible of the new UK pubs that Fixer misses, and just cloned the contents based on the publisher's site indicating this is just a reissue of an earlier pub which had the same page count.

I do see that it missed the Dec 9th pub date, but this doesn't seem to have been acknowledged more officially - all the sources I've just checked still have that older date listed.

I got the impression that that publisher was putting out a number of reissued anthologies in December, of which this and the tp of Simon Ings' We Robots were the only ISFDB-relevant ones. Looking at the Amazon UK page linked in this tweet, it looks like all except those two got published per the schedule :-( ErsatzCulture 11:58, 4 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks. I'll make an edit when I really know what is actually going on here, and I'll let you know. If I cannot find out anything more definite within a few months, I'll add a note regarding the uncertainty, etc.Dave888 22:40, 4 January 2022 (EST)

Self-approving

I am tired of approving your stuff... :) A bit more seriously - if you would like to go for self-approval status, you'd have my vote for it. Just as a FYI :) Annie 13:52, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Same -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:17, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Thanks both. TBH, I don't mind having to wait for mods to approve my edits (doubtless I'll come to regret saying that when a bunch of my edits get get rejected or stick in the queue for multiple days ;-) but that's easier for me to say than other editors, as I don't generally touch magazines or anthologies that require more involved edits. (Although I have dozens of Adam Blade ebooks to add, that I've been putting off for months, as I didn't relish the multi-step hassle of doing novel->novella conversions on the existing entries beforehand...)

I try not to overload the queue with my edits, esp. when it's gone well into triple figures, but I appreciate that seemingly endless UK ebook pubs can't be the most interesting things that come up when processing the queue, so I don't mind taking that dubious responsibility off your hands.

One thing that I am a bit hesitant about though, is dealing with "borderline" titles. For stuff that's unclear - e.g. horrors that are vague about being gothic/psychological vs supernatural - I try to add appropriate title notes, but I feel better knowing that (in theory at least) there's a second pair of eyes giving such additions further examination. (Granted, this isn't without occasional issues ;-) As things currently stand, I've got more than enough backlogged unambiguous pubs to keep me busy for a long time, but if I'm doing self-moderation, then I'm more likely to get round to unclear stuff like this or stuff that may or may not cross the "threshold". I don't know whether bringing these up for discussion too frequently on Community Portal (or other pages) might get tiresome fairly quickly? ErsatzCulture 19:57, 26 January 2022 (EST)

Your choice. :) If you decide you want to, post on the Moderator board and the process will get started. :) If you rather spend some more time with moderators approving, so be it. You’ll get my vote whenever you are ready.

The DB leans towards inclusion - if the book has a chance of being genre, add it and add notes. If you are really troubled about a book, you know where my page is. Not that i am the authority - but because of Fixer, chances are I’ve seen the book, especially the new ones. :)Annie 20:11, 26 January 2022 (EST)

The Outlandish Companion: Volume Two

The cover says Volume 2, not Volume Two here. Do you have access to a title page? In either case a note is strongly recommended when the cover does not match our title. Annie 19:05, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Perhaps I should have copypasted and tweaked the note from the ebook I added a couple of weeks ago? (Amazon UK only has a preview for the ebook, not this hc, or a tp that's on my todo list.) ErsatzCulture 19:35, 4 February 2022 (EST)

If there is a discrepancy, always always always add a note :) Annie 19:39, 4 February 2022 (EST)

EDIT: This OK? ErsatzCulture 19:40, 4 February 2022 (EST)

Yes. And it is not about placating a moderator. It is about our data not contradicting itself. :) Annie 19:41, 4 February 2022 (EST)

The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub: Volume 2

The subtitle separator is ":", not "," - we use "," only if the title pages does so and we determine it is part of the title and not a subtitle. In this case, there is no comma anywhere on that title page and the font change is a clear subtitle situation for me (if it was not, then there won't be any punctuation but just "The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub Volume 2"_. Fixed here. Annie 16:46, 11 February 2022 (EST)

OK ErsatzCulture 16:57, 11 February 2022 (EST)

I think you were so busy clearing up the Two/2 thing in the notes that you missed the comma that Amazon has in the title. Amazon does that a lot ;) Annie 17:11, 11 February 2022 (EST)

TBH I don't think I was particularly aware of any rule regarding separator, I think most of my infractions have been over number vs word vs Roman numerals. Plus on this one I had to have three goes at submitting it, first lacked an ASIN, and the second I selected the wrong ID type from the drop-down.

Any thoughts on how to handle that (apparent) original ltd hc I mentioned in the mod notes? I just looked it up on Goodreads, and that seems to only know about the ebook :-( It seems like it *maybe* dates from 2021-04-01 (based on the timestamp on a link to a lettered ltd edition on the publisher's site), but a Locus review states October, and info generally seems very scarce. In the absence of anything else, maybe add a note to the title record, perhaps? ErsatzCulture 17:33, 11 February 2022 (EST)

The Subtitles paragraph: "If the title has a subtitle, enter it, with a colon and a space used to separate the title from the subtitle.". It gets automatic once you get used to looking for it. :)

Numbered and signed editions can be... problematic info-wise. If the publisher says it exists and especially if we have someone reviewing the edition or other pieces of info elsewhere, we use that to add it and do best diligence of the date with a lot of notes on its provenance. Add it with the known details -- and when we find more, we will update. I'd use the Locus date here with a note - the timestamp of a page does not really tell you when the book came out, just when it was supposed to (not all publishers update pages...). There is also Signed/Lettered and yes - we want all of them. If ISBNs are unclear or not there (As issued or not), we leave these empty and if the date is particularly problematic as this Signed and lettered one, I'd use 0000-00-00... Or put it on my list and wait for it. I'd add at least the one that Locus reviewed though. Annie 18:01, 11 February 2022 (EST)

The Moon and the Sun

We are still missing that 2015-07-02 ebook. Do you plan to add it? Goodreads is usually a good place for hunting these: in this case or this one for example (Goodreads always splits kindle and epub records even if it is the same book) :) Annie 18:08, 11 February 2022 (EST)

TBH, it wasn't something I was looking to do - felt like too much relying on secondary (or arguably tertiary for GR) sources, and making assumptions about what happened in the past, which would probably be reasonable on 99% of pubs, but given the drawn out history of the film adaptation, I'd rather not presume that it didn't have a tie-in cover back in 2015.

(Plus I only noticed that this ebook still had "The Moon and the Sun" on the title page after I'd already entered all the details in to an AddPub for the variant title, so had to junk all that and redo it - which doesn't make me positively disposed towards this pub....) ErsatzCulture 14:21, 12 February 2022 (EST)

No worries. I’ll add it. Annie 14:42, 12 February 2022 (EST)

The Wars of Gods and Men

Can you check the ebook's cover here? I added the Amazon.com ASIN so we do not lose it but the cover seems weird everywhere. Annie 18:33, 13 February 2022 (EST)

I assume it's a publisher screw-up - going to "the source" at Gollancz.co.uk, the image is correct for the tp but not for the ebook. Maybe it'll get fixed for the actual ebook itself and/or the product listings before then? (FWIW, Kobo also has the wrong image.) I guess there's not much to do other than add a pub note and/or check once the book is out?

There is something at the back of my mind nagging me about something weird about this title and/or series though. Looking back, I think it's because it was one of my very early edits, and I was confused that there were two tps, rather than an hc and a tp, and made an incorrect presumption that the original physical was an export edition - I suspect the note on this could probably do to have the latter half of the final sentence removed? ErsatzCulture 19:11, 13 February 2022 (EST)

I'd remove the image in such cases - it will never get fixed in our DB as we use /I/ images (Amazon will just repoint to the proper /I/ leaving us pointing to the wrong one so if the image is visibly wrong or says "image to come" and so on, don't add an image to the book). I pulled the image out of that one and when someone gets a correct image, we will put it in.

Ah yes - the double paperbacks of UK ;) Always fun when that happens. Fixed now. :) Annie 19:20, 13 February 2022 (EST)

@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 : There is something at the back of my mind nagging me about something weird about this title and/or series though. Looking back, I think it's because it was [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?4608643 one of my very early edits], and I was confused that there were two tps, rather than an hc and a tp, and made an incorrect presumption that the original physical was an export edition - I suspect the note on [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?709781 this] could probably do to have the latter half of the final sentence removed? [[User:ErsatzCulture|ErsatzCulture]] 19:11, 13 February 2022 (EST)
+:: I'd remove the image in such cases - it will never get fixed in our DB as we use /I/ images (Amazon will just repoint to the proper /I/ leaving us pointing to the wrong one so if the image is visibly wrong or says "image to come" and so on, don't add an image to the book). I pulled the image out of that one and when someone gets a correct image, we will put it in.
+:: Ah yes - the double paperbacks of UK ;) Always fun when that happens. Fixed now. :) [[User:Anniemod|Annie]] 19:20, 13 February 2022 (EST)