Difference between revisions of "User talk:Merlene"

Revision as of 12:53, 6 October 2011

Welcome!

Hello, Merlene, 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
Help:Getting Started
What the ISFDB Wiki is for
ISFDB 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! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mhhutchins (talk • contribs) .

Whipping Star by Herbert

I accepted the submission updating this publication record. We ask that you do a verification of the record if you have a copy of the book. If you don't have the book, please note the source of the data in the record's note field. Here is a link to the help page that explains how to verify a record. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 19:48, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

I added the required license tag to the image file you uploaded for Whipping Star. The best way to add cover images is to use the semi-automated method: go to the record of the book you want to upload the image for, and click "Upload cover scan" (or "Upload new cover scan", if there's one already there) and follow the directions. This will create and add the license tag automatically. The only thing after that you need to do is to update the record by adding the URL of the image you just uploaded. Thanks. Mhhutchins 00:49, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

The Blood Artists

Hi. I accepted your submission of The Blood Artists. I moved the "Jacket design by..." information from the Artist field to the notes and made the artist credit be simply Richard L. Aquan. We use a person's name, or a company's name if no person credited, putting any further detail in the notes (for example, sometimes we get "jacket art by xyz" plus "jacket design by abc", in which case we only credit xyz). You should be able to upload the full cover scan -- it doesn't have to be a scan of just the front. If you were not able to scan it in one piece, you will need to put all of the pieces together into one jpg or gif (e.g., using Paint on Windows) and upload that. Thanks, and thank you for contributing. --MartyD 10:46, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Images

If you have some, we want them! As mentioned elsewhere, the want-list would be really, really long, so letting us know what you can fill in would be good. BLongley 02:03, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Saberhagen's The Books of the Gods: Part One

Hi Merlene. I have your submission to change the date of this pub from 2001-01-00 to 2000-12-00. Is this date actually stated in the book itself? Our source for the current date is Locus1, but that may have been the date they received the book. Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 20:43, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

On the copyright page about 3/4 of the way down the page it says--First SFBC Fantasy printing December 2000.

BTW, I find it very confusing here--the project is huge, with many instructions (which I read), that are very complicated and many times I don't understand them. I love science fiction and have thousands and thousands of books. I want very much to help as much as I can. For example, is there someplace that tells how to use this talk page--I look, and search for things--but somehow I am just not "getting it". I am sorry to bother you like this, but I have been a user on the site for years and never realized until recently that you could JUST JOIN, and contribute. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Merlene (talk • contribs) .

I very much understand your frustration at how editor-unfriendly this project truly is. My one consolation is that if you stick around, it will eventually come together and be easier. The learning curve here is extremely steep for newcomers but will flatten out with experience.

First, to edit a user talk page (or any Wiki page): go here and just read the first section, "Editing basics" which is practically everything you'll ever need to know in order to communicate on the Wiki. There are tricks with formatting displays and the such but all are unnecessary for basic communication between editors.
Second: if you need help before you make a submission: post a message on the Help Desk page. It shouldn't take long for it to be answered.
Third, editing the database: the best place to start learning to edit (either a current record or adding a record) is this How To page. These basic questions lead to help pages which have practically everything you'll need to start. If it becomes too complicated or uneasy to comprehend, just post a message at the Help Desk linked above and someone will be able to step you through the process.

I truly hope this helps. We need people like you who have the books and are willing to update, enter and verify records. You're really appreciated. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 23:09, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Seconded! Please add, correct, and verify to the best of your abilities and we'll support you all the way. And please do point out where things are confusing - we do need to improve help, and a few of us can actually improve the software too, if you point out where it is unintuitive or even "broken". BLongley 01:37, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

I've updated the pub record with the information that you provided. Please feel free to add to the note field any other information that you think is important for the record to contain. The more the better, but only as much as you're able to provide. Thanks. Mhhutchins 23:13, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

The Reaches

I added a note to your verified pub The Reaches. Thanks - Kevin 23:03, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Kenneth Grahame's Pagan Papers

I have the submission to add a pub for this title, but I'm not sure if its eligible for the database. I've read some of the pieces on the Project Gutenberg website and they appear to be personal essays, not fiction at all. Do you have any further insight that would suggest that the title does belong in the database? Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:54, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

The book is old enough to be in the Public Domain, in the U.S. that is. So, I just searched and grabbed a site with the entire publication: http://sattre-press.com/grahame-pagan-papers.html (sorry, I don't know how to hotlink this). If you want to glance through it, it is actually quite small when printed in a small font and single space. I took the info from my copy and it is my feeling that it is very fantastical. Grahame, as did many other late-Victorian writers, openly embraced the neopaganist views of the period and many of these stories are an extension of his beliefs. There some instances when Grahame does discuss something in the first person, but I think, much as a poet does--he uses it as a stepping stone. If you look at "The Lost Centaur" and "Orion", I think they are gorgeously evocative examples of the volume. --It's your call.Trisha 02:53, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Looking over a few of the "stories" (which stretches the definition of the term to its outermost boundaries), I can still find only a few that could be considered "fantastical". Yes, marvelous language, very poetic, often clever, even whimsical but little in the form of speculative fiction. I found this description of the book:

Years before he wrote The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame published a very different sort of book: Pagan Papers, a wry, witty, wide-ranging collection of eighteen irresistible essays. Strolling, loafing, smoking, collecting books and pondering, the author muses on the human condition. What to do about relatives who are in the way? What is the proper punishment for a bookbinder who takes too long at his job? Are free libraries an unmixed blessing? More seriously: Can nothing make it worth our while not to quarrel with our fellows? Which is more desirable: memory or forgetfulness? Are we irrevocably cut off from the natural world, or might there still be a way back to it?

It pretty much describes what I read in my light perusal. Perhaps I'm not the person to make the decision about whether it should be in the database, although I often lean toward inclusion in borderline cases. I'm going to release the hold and allow another moderator the chance to look at the submission. Thanks. Mhhutchins 03:56, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

I totally see your point and as I am completely new here at isfdb this is a good part of my learning experience. Really, I think it should just be cancelled. Thanks Trisha 13:12, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Level 7

I have removed the "series" from the title of the "Library of American Fiction" publication series in this record, as being redundant. According to this OCLC record, the book has xlix roman-numbered pages and an introduction by David Seed. I can add the introduction if you wish, but I'd need to know if it has a title other than "Introduction". Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:29, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Just got the book today, I don't know if you use/need any or all of this Table of Contents, it is on page seven, or where to enter this so let me give you this in its entirety:

  Contents:
 Introduction by David Seed   ix
 Looking Back in Wonder: The Author's Reminiscences and Reflections   xxix
 Preface  by The Martian Institute for Archaeological Excavations in the Solar System   xlv
 Level 7   1
 Appendix A: Training the Nuclear Warrior: A Manual for Level 7  185
 Appendix B: The Politics of Ratology (a fantasy)    191
 Further Reading    203

I hope this helps/makes sense and I hope I am not being too much trouble.Trisha 02:53, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

The submission updating this record was accepted, but there's a couple of issues to deal with. First, a question: are the SHORTFICTION pieces (starting on pages xlv, 185 and 191) actually part of the novel? If so, we don't give them separate records. Do you know if they're new to this particular edition of the novel? (Perhaps somewhere in the introductions this may be mentioned.) Next, the piece titled "Further Reading 203" should be typed as ESSAY, not NONFICTION, which is reserved for book-length works of nonfiction, or essay collections. Also the author "Suggested by David Seed", should be changed to simply "David Seed". And I suspect the "203" is a typo.

Another ISFDB standard is to disambiguate generic titles by adding the title of the work parenthetically to the piece's title. So the "Introduction" should be titled "Introduction (Level 7)", and "Further Reading 203" should be "Further Reading (Level 7)". I can make these changes for you, but I suggest that it would be good practice to do it yourself. Either way, it's a good lesson. These are common errors that every editor make when learning the ins and outs of ISFDB data entry. Mhhutchins 15:46, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

.

Item #1: Preface by The Martian Institute for Archaeological Excavations in the Solar System xlv Mordecai Roshwald wrote this "Preface" to his novel Level 7 but it was not included until 2003 because it was felt that it was just one big "spoiler". The pretense is that long, long after the earth is decimated another group of beings are living on Mars, send an archaeology team to earth and that they write a report on the devastation. They find a "journal", cannot decide whether it is truth or fiction, and offer it in their report stating, "Still, for the sake of mental curiosity we reproduce the Diary of Push-Button Officer X-127. May the reader form his own opinion about the problem involved."

Appendix A, page 185 was published in "The Nation" 4/2/1960 and Appendix B, page 191 was published in "The Nation" 9/17/1960. They were supposed to be two chapters from a new novel by Mordecai Roshwald, but he never went further with it.

Mhhutchins, I gave Martian Preface a separate record so that what I submitted matches the book's Table of Contents numbering scheme--the info on my 10/5 post above is an exact match to the books "Contents" page. Please let me know how you would like this handled. I originally went to "Help" and tried a search on both Index and Preface but did not getting any help in how this should be handled--where might that information be?

@@ Line 86: / Line 86: @@
 .
 :Item #1: Preface by The Martian Institute for Archaeological Excavations in the Solar System   xlv  Mordecai Roshwald wrote this "Preface" to his novel Level 7 but it was not included until 2003 because it was felt that it was just one big "spoiler". The pretense is that long, long after the earth is decimated another group of beings are living on Mars, send an archaeology team to earth and that they write a report on the devastation.  They find a "journal", cannot decide whether it is truth or fiction, and offer it in their report stating, "Still, for the sake of mental curiosity we reproduce the Diary of Push-Button Officer X-127. May the reader form his own opinion about the problem involved."
-:Mhhutchins, I gave it a separate record so that what I submitted matches the books Table of Contents numbering scheme--the info on my 10/5 post above is an exact match to the books "Contents" page. :Please let me know how you would like this handled. I originally went to "Help" and tried a search on both Index and Preface but did not getting any help in how this should be handled--where might that information be?
+:Appendix A, page 185 was published in "The Nation" 4/2/1960 and Appendix B, page 191 was published in "The Nation" 9/17/1960. They were supposed to be two chapters from a new novel by Mordecai Roshwald, but he never went further with it.
+:Mhhutchins, I gave Martian Preface a separate record so that what I submitted matches the book's Table of Contents numbering scheme--the info on my 10/5 post above is an exact match to the books "Contents" page. Please let me know how you would like this handled. I originally went to "Help" and tried a search on both Index and Preface but did not getting any help in how this should be handled--where might that information be?