User talk:Pips55

Important! This editor is no longer actively participating and is unlikely to respond to messages left here. If this user is the sole verifier of a publication record, please: post only notices on the user's talk page concerning the addition of images and notes post inquiries regarding any other changes to the verified record at the Moderator noticeboard Otherwise, please post notices and inquiries only on the talk pages of the other primary verifiers.

Welcome!

Hello, Pips55, 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! Mhhutchins 22:54, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Lord Foul's Bane

I've accepted the submission adding a link to the cover image for this record. Please feel free to add a record for your printing. The best way to do this is to clone another record. Click on the "Clone This Pub" link under the Editing Tools menu of the record you just updated. A copy of the data from that record will then appear on the next screen. Just make all the necessary changes to the record that matches your copy, and then submit. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 22:58, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Illearth War

I'm holding your submission to add a pub to the above title. The UK editions of Donaldson's work seldom used the middle initial on the title page. On the [page] for this title there is already a variant, without the initial. If the edition you want to add doesn't use the middle initial, then it should be added under the existing variant. If it has the initial I can accept it as is. Also, does the 12th printing mention dates for any earlier printings? This would be the earliest record of a UK edition/printing which means we're missing the other 11!! Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:14, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Same for "The Power That Preserves". --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:20, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

You catch on quick! Thanks! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:47, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

These records may need some further work. I believe that most of Donaldson's British publications at this time were published as by "Stephen Donaldson", not his canonical name. Mhhutchins 22:57, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I see you've already started correcting them. Thanks. So few editors have to deal with variants so early, but you seem to have caught on well. Mhhutchins 23:00, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge

Definitely not the right way! This one is a bit more complicated. In the listings for this title is/was the special overseas edition, but it had been incorrectly entered under the title record with the middle initial. To correct this error I unmerged that edition from the list [from the Title page list it's the last option under Editing Tools]. This makes it show up in the author's bibliographic page all by itself. Then I edited that solo record to change the author [eliminated the middle initial]. Then I made it a Variant of the title record that has the middle initial. This is accomplished by using the fourth option under Editing Tools [Make This Title a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work]. When you click on this option a [window] will open that gives you two separate options. For this case ignore the bottom option. In the top option you would put the number of the title record with the middle initial. From the URL of the [Title record page] simply copy in the digit portion only, in this case 6159, and submit. If the overseas edition had simply been missing and there was no Variant there to clone/add then you would have entered the edition as a NEW publication/novel and followed the same steps to create the Variant. It's relatively easy once you've done a few. I think the Donaldson pages need quite a bit of cleaning up. Hopefully you have lots of them and can point the way. We'll definitely help out as things crop up. Thanks for joining us, please keep editing! Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 03:27, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I was thinking to add a variant but then I saw a variant already present in the S R Donaldson record of the book so I went to add the book under that variant; moreover, I did not notice the incorrect entry for the overseas edition. Sorry for the confusion. --Pips55 16:11, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

It's not always obvious to new editors how to respond to posts/questions. On the right of each individual posting is [edit]. By clicking on that a window will open that shows the posting in it's wiki format, this you can add to. If you open this one you see that the 'indent' is from adding a colon to the beginning of subsequent additions. This makes the thread appear like a ladder, easier to follow. One extra colon for each 'rung'. Above the window is a sequence of 'tabs'. The second last one [looks like a squiggle] is a 'signature' tab. click on that when you finish a response and it will 'sign' your user-name and time-stamp the response. Happy editing! :-) --~ Bill, Bluesman 03:32, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

A mind reader ! Now I know how to pester you with my questions ! For starters: can I verify my books, even if I do not have complete bibliographical information on them (for instance, cover artist or ISBN) ? My cover scans are 100 DPI, resized and color depth-decreased to 256 colors, but they frequently are over the 150 Kb limit: do I use my judgement (158 Kb ! Heck, I can just make out that nice particular !) or am I doing damage ? Thanks --Pips55 16:11, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Of course you can Primary Verify! If certain data is missing, that's what the notes are for. Many times the artist may not be credited but the cover is signed. Sometimes a secondary source lets you know. Again, that's what notes are for. Many hardcovers are price-clipped, so a note that "Verification copy price-clipped" lets you off the hook if a later verifier comes along with an intact jacket and the listed price is off by a $. Image size is just a tad arbitrary, designed to keep hi-res/large file images off the server so no-one can pirate them [covers our butts in the legal sense]. A file a few kb over is not going to 'break' anything, and you'll run across some images quite a bit larger but they are usually hardcovers with the whole cover shown [for wraparound art]. Since even image additions are Moderated, if something gets out of whack we'll let you know. I routinely scan at 200DPI but filter them all through a program that cuts the file down to about 125kb without losing the sharpness the higher res initial scan has. There are times when a large file has been added and accepted, I'll just download it to my computer, re-size it and reload. Same image but smaller file. Keep asking questions! It's great when a new editor asks first before we have to send in the Coast Guard [or SWAT in some cases]. ;-)) If you are wondering about the other 'tabs' above these editing windows, try a few. At the bottom is "Show Preview" so you can see what things will look like before submitting without actually doing so. Kind of a sandbox. Have fun! --~ Bill, Bluesman 17:01, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Publication Series

I accepted your change to The Pimpernel Plot, but I removed your addition of Time Wars to the publication series field. Time Wars is a title series and those are recorded at the title record level. Publication series are used for publisher level series (Ballantine Adult Fantasy being an example). See Help:How to work with series for more details.

I know that may not seem clear cut so if you have questions, let us know.

Thanks for contributing! -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:12, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

I think I got it: for instance, NEL Master SF Series is publisher level so it goes into the publication series field while 'Dune' as a series is at the title record level. --Pips55 22:03, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge

I've accepted your submission to change the ISBN of this record. The number you've given (0-77221-4372-9) is an invalid ISBN. Can you recheck to see if a valid ISBN (0-7221-4372-9) appears anywhere on the book? Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 23:22, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Number is reported twice, on the back cover as 0-7221-4372-9 and inside, as ISBN 0-7221-4372-9. The number seems valid: if a perform a check with my ebook manager, it correctly retrieves from the Internet the book (ISBN 13 9780722143728). --Pips55 23:40, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Reread my message: you had an extra seven in the ISBN field. I'll make the correction. Thanks. Mhhutchins 00:02, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Oops ! --Pips55 00:06, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The Forever War

I'm going to accept the submission adding cover art to this record. I noticed your question in the Note to the Moderator: "Price of my copy is US $5.99 - Can $ 7.99. Should I edit this record or create a new pub ? The bibliographic data is the same." It's not likely that a pub in 1991 had that price. Are you certain that your copy is dated May 1991 and not a later printing based on a number line? Thanks for looking. Mhhutchins 23:24, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

In the bibliographical page,it states 'First Avon Books Printing: May 1991' and there are not any further publication date. Bottom page it reports 'UNV 10 9 8 7 6 5': has it something to do with the number line thing, which I do not know how to interpret ? By the way, what is a trade paperback ? (English is not my first language, and I am not very much into bibliographical terminology) --Pips55 23:49, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Looks like a 5th edition to me, judged by the printing line ('UNV 10 9 8 7 6 5'). --Dirk P Broer 00:01, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

To create a new record for a later printing of this edition, you should clone it. Go to this record. And under the Editing Tools menu, select "Clone This Pub". On the next screen you'll get an identical copy of the record you just cloned. You will need to make changes in every field that doesn't match your copy. In the date field enter 0000-00-00, which means that the pub is not dated. In the note field enter: 5th printing based on the number line: "UNV 10 9 8 7 6 5". Then submit. Once the submission has been accepted you should do a primary verification of the new record. Thanks. Mhhutchins 00:07, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Done. Should I remove the cover from the original ? --Pips55 00:37, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Did the original already credit the same artist? If so, it was probably the same art and shouldn't make a difference. Mhhutchins 00:59, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

A trade paperback is a book with a soft cover but has the dimensions of a hardcover book. That usually means that it's taller than 7 inches or 18 centimeters, which is size of a mass-market paperback which we enter as "pb". You'll find this along with a lot of other rules on the single most important page in the help section: here. It wouldn't hurt to bookmark it. Thanks. Mhhutchins 00:12, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for your patience. I have a lot to learn ... --Pips55 00:37, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Don't worry. There is a lot to learn, but you're progressing very well. Mhhutchins 00:59, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Double Planet

I've accepted the submission adding a cover image to this record, but because it's primary verified, it is ISFDB etiquette to notify the primary verifier of the change. In most cases, adding a cover image or additional notes don't require that you notify them before the submission, but if you make any changes in the data fields you should not make the submission until you've discussed it with them. Mhhutchins 23:30, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

You've not notified the verifier, so this one time, as a courtesy, I did it for you (here). Please remember in the future that this should be done by the editor who changes verified pubs, not the moderator. Thanks for the consideration. Mhhutchins 23:01, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Alas, Babylon

Does your copy of this book have roman-numeraled pages? According to the OCLC record there are vi (6) such pages. If so, you should enter the page count as vi+312. Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:01, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

There are only two roman-numeraled pages, v and vi, which contain Author's foreword. Do I signal the fact or stick to the convention of reporting the highest ? --Pips55 17:21, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Use the highest number. That's explained on this help page. Almost everything you need to know about entering and updating books is explained on this page, so it's a good idea to bookmark it. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:18, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

I picked up the convention of using the highest on the help page; I was in doubt because you said that there should be 6 of roman-numeraled pages. --Pips55 18:36, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The page count field doesn't indicate that every page is numbered, only the number of pages. In this case there were 6 roman-numeraled pages (even if they're not all numbered that way) and 312 standard numbered pages (even though every page may not have a number on it). This is entered as vi+312. Mhhutchins 22:55, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Sourcing data and/or verifiying records

I've accepted the submission adding this new publication. If you have a copy of this book, please do a primary verification (help is linked in the Welcome section above). If you don't have a copy, please update the record to give the source for your data in the note field. This should be done for all submissions that add or update records. You can help the moderator by adding a note in the "Note to Moderator" field that you're working from a book-in-hand, or otherwise give the source for your data in the note field. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:43, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I have got the book. I was scanning and adding the cover before verification (I am not that sure on the tags to add to the images, so I prefer to wait to use the 'Upload cover scan' option which fills automatically the tags). --Pips55 23:04, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, you should always wait until the record is in the system before uploading the image to the Wiki, but that doesn't prevent you from saying in the "Note to Moderator" that you will be verifying the record from a copy of the book. This helps the moderator avoid having to research the data that you're adding to the database. It's possible that some moderators will accept submissions without doing personal research, others (or just me) are more diligent about accepting unsourced data into the database. It's the luck of the draw and today you got me. Sorry. Mhhutchins 23:35, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Mission of Gravity

I found this source (look at the fifth book down) for the July 1963 date and the catalog number. Are you certain that your copy has no catalog number anywhere on the book? Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 23:46, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

The catalog number was under a sticker at the bottom of the spine. And think that the source you cited was in the notes that I added to explain the cover art ! I'll edit the entry and add the OCLC. Thanks. --Pips55 23:57, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I've deleted the record that was already in the database as it turns out to be the same publication as the one you just added. Mhhutchins 00:23, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

While browsing Harry Harrison's bibliography, I noticed a photo; on Hal Clement's page no image is present. On the back cover of this book there is a nice vintage photo of Hal Clement that I could provide, if it is Ok. Let me know. Moreover, I found a photo of Alfred Bester on the back of my copy of the Demolished man that could be used to substitute the one on his summary page that seems broken. --Pips55 21:36, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Photographs are the property of the photographer and, as such, are very likely copyrighted. We can't be exposed to the risk of adding copyrighted material to the website. We squeak by adding cover images because their purpose here is considered "fair use", and or least we hope so. If you look at the tags that are added to each uploaded image, there's an explanation of why we consider our usage of book covers is fair use. The same rules wouldn't apply for images of people. That being said, there are several photographs of authors and artists in the database that wouldn't qualify as well, and really shouldn't be here. The ones that aren't tagged with Creative Commons tags or Public Domain tags should actually be removed. BTW, we can deep-link to photographs on other websites as long as they've given us permission to do so. Mhhutchins 23:21, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Forgot to add: that Harrison photo is on Fantastic Fiction, a site which has given us permission to deep-link to their images. Yet, I seriously doubt they have the right to host the image. I don't know if deep-linking to it would make us as liable as they are if the owner of the photograph decided to take action. Mhhutchins 23:24, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Ray Bradbury intoduction

Titled and substantial? Of course add it to [this]. Likely it was in the first printing as well. --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:32, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Should it be classified as essay ? The same introduction is present in my copy of The Stories of Ray Bradbury, Volume 2 (that I am going to add). --Pips55 22:43, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, an essay. The NONFICTION option is for books, not individual items. Everybody misses that one! If you add the essay to the other volume, be sure to merge them. --~ Bill, Bluesman 23:24, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Too fast. I will correct, sorry. --Pips55 23:30, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

"Bycicle"?? Should that be "Bicycle"? --~ Bill, Bluesman 00:34, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Typo. Now I have to learn "How to change a story in a collection" ... Thanks --Pips55 23:27, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Go to the title record for the story and change it there. This will change it in both of the pubs you entered. Not the usual way but since only the two records you created have the typo, this will work the easiest. --~ Bill, Bluesman 02:04, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

I'd already excepted submissions in which Pips55 just added a new content record (correctly spelled) to each of the two volumes. I then went back and removed the old ones (using the "Remove Titles from This Publication" function). Next I merged the newly created records with the title record already in the database. Mhhutchins 02:38, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I did try to remove the misspelled ones using the "Remove Titles from This Publication" function, thinking that was all I had to do. I did not check if the operation created a duplicate to be merged. Thanks --Pips55 15:53, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

The Transmigration of Souls

I'm holding a submission to add a record for the second printing of this title. You give it the date of 1996-01-00, the same as the first printing. Does your copy explicitly state that it was printed in January 1996? Thanks for looking. Mhhutchins 01:15, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

No, the date is not specified, I must have slipped the clearing of the pub date. --Pips55 15:41, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

I'll accept the submission and then go back to remove the date. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:16, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Lyonesse

You asked in the submission adding this record, whether you should record a wrong ISBN printed on the back cover. This should be done anytime there are discrepancies in any stated information. Is the ISBN you've given for the record stated on the book's copyright page? Also, you give the cover credit to "Mick van Outen". Is this how the artist is credited in the book? (His true name is Mick van Houten.) Mhhutchins 22:55, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Concerning the question: it's better to ask questions on one of the various community pages, not in the Note to Moderator field. This field's purpose is to provide further information that helps the moderator determine whether to accept the submission. Specific questions about how to edit the database can be asked at Help Desk page, general comments can be made on the Community Portal, or to discuss ISFDB policy and rules go to the Rules and Standards page. You'll get a faster and more thorough response as more editors will see it there than the one moderator who handles your submission. You can even leave a question on the Moderator Noticeboard if you want to get the attention of all moderators who are currently online. Most of us monitor all of these pages so we know when a message has been left on any of them. Mhhutchins 23:07, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Edited the record. The wrong ISBN is on back cover, in copyright page it is the right one. Houten wa s a typo. --Pips55 00

33, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Using secondary sources to supply missing data

Quite often books are missing vital bibliographic data, such as the price, the date of publication, and/or cover artist credit. In these cases, it is perfectly OK by ISFDB standards to enter data that comes from a reliable secondary source. All recorded data that is not stated in the book should be sourced in the note field. I'm going to accept the submission that updates Slaughtermatic and ask that you use Amazon's listing as a source for the publication month. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:41, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Submission accepted, but I restored the line that the month of publication is not stated. Mhhutchins 18:57, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguating generic titles

When entering a title like "Introduction", "Foreword", "Afterword", etc. it is ISFDB policy to disambiguate it by parenthetically adding the name of the book. So the introduction in this book should be titled "Introduction (Quest of the Three Worlds)". Also, you should give the page numbers of the content records (the page on which each of them begin). All of these standards are given in this section of the page for data entry standards. Mhhutchins 18:49, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Content pages are not clear, since they are not reported with the story name but as Part One, etc. I disambiguated the introduction. --Pips55 18:53, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

It's important to note that the stories are not titled as they were originally published. See how I recorded the data in the record of a US edition. Mhhutchins 19:02, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Edited accordingly. No story list on back cover. --Pips55 19:08, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Thorns by Silverberg

Does the book state "second edition of May 1977 NEL edition"? Or is it the second printing or impression? There's a difference. Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 23:13, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

It says "This new edition July 1978".--Pips55 23:22, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

It would be best to record the statement as given without speculating about the number. Mhhutchins 23:35, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Let me rephrase that. You can speculate about the number but make it clear that it's not stated. Sorry. Mhhutchins 23:41, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Line breaks in the note field

Looking at your submission to update this record, I noticed that you entered keyboard strokes (the "enter" key) to separate each of the different parts of the notes, but if you look at the record, you'll see they're all displayed on one line. In order to start a new line in the note field you have to enter an HTML line break: <br> at the end of each line. Thanks. Mhhutchins 23:55, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Removing the frame around Amazon images

I approved the submission adding this record, but you'll notice a white frame to the left and right of the image. This is easily removed: Copy the original URL http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TfoFgGWDL._SL500_AA300_.jpg and remove all characters between the last dot (.) and the previous one, leaving one dot before the file extension. In this case you'd enter the URL as http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TfoFgGWDL.jpg. Look at the difference between the two images: here and here. Pretty neat trick, don't you think. This is pointed out on the help page for image-linking permissions under Amazon's listing. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:38, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Yup ! Much nicer ... --Pips55 22:46, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Orbit ed. of The Mote in God's Eye

I have a submission to update this record and remove the month of publication and the source for that data. If the data isn't stated in the pub, then it's perfectly OK to add data from a reliable secondary source. I'll accept the submission, but go back and add the date information that was originally part of the record. Look at it when you get a chance to see how future updates of this kind should be handled. Thanks. Mhhutchins 23:18, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

I removed the month because I could not verify the information from The Whole Science Fiction Data Base, and no verifyer was present in the record to ask for a check. From now on, I will leave the information that I find if not in contrast with the pub. --Pips55 23:58, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Don Erikson is probably the editor who entered it, because he's been working with that source for awhile. Are you certain you looked in the right issue? His note says it was in issue #7 (Fall 1989), listing books by authors with names beginning with "N". Mhhutchins 00:34, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

What I meant is that I do non possess The Whole Science Fiction Data Base, so I could not check by myself;no one verified the record before, so instead of verifying something that I could not check, I preferred to stick to what I could read out of the book, setting the month as unspecified and leaving the task of completing the record to someone in possess of other sources of information. --Pips55 21:36, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

The Legacy of Heorot

I changed the page number of the excerpt from [1] to [389] in this book. The first number would mean that it's on an unnumbered page at the start of the book. The second number indicates that it starts on the page that would have been 389 if the pagination had continued from the last numbered page. Mhhutchins 23:24, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

The Chronoliths

Can you double-check the number line given in this record? Mhhutchins 03:19, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

I will add the '5'. It is missing also in this record which I cloned, I just deleted the last '1' without checking. Thanks. --Pips55 18:25, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

The Sundering

If the first printing of this title was March 2004, the second printing (unless another date is given) should be dated 0000-00-00. Mhhutchins 03:23, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

You are right, must have slipped ... --Pips55 18:28, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Nine Princes in Amber

Your submission to add a new printing of this title is quite similar to one already in the database here. The only difference is the cover art credit. The verifier of this record gives the source for his record. If you believe yours is the same book, you can cancel the submission and do a second primary verification of the current record. Mhhutchins 23:25, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

I think it is the same book. I cancelled my submission. Thanks. --Pips55 23:48, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Glasshouse

I have your submission on hold as the notes don't seem to jive with the date of the record. "First published in GB in 2006 by Orbit, reprinted 2007 (twice)" would make your copy a 2007 printing but the record is for a 2008 printing. Or am I missing something? --~ Bill, Bluesman 21:55, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

No other date information is present; I am not sure about the actual pub date, and 2008 was already provided in the record, so I decided to leave it and add only the info I was sure about. --Pips55 22:00, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

The existing record is for a later printing [at least the fourth]. You could clone that and date that record for 2007 with the same notes. With the data you provided you don't have a 2008 printing. --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:11, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Ok, done. --Pips55

Saturn's Children

A similar issue for [this] record. Though not stated, the existing record is for a first printing [at least July is the earliest date known, from Locus and Amazon.uk for a paperback edition of this title]. From your notes you have a third printing [still 2009] but the month is unknown [unless all first three printings were in July!!]. Again, cloning the existing and creating a new record is called for [same notes can go in] just the month would be omitted. --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:17, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Same problem as Glasshouse (at least I am consistent, even if in mistake !). Will clone and omit month. --Pips55 22:22, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Number lines

There are several ways publishers print them: ascending [123456789] descending [987654321] or what we call pyramid [135798642 or 246897531] in varying forms [some run to or from 10 or even 12]. The lowest number is the printing of the edition, regardless where that number appears in the line. Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:23, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Forgot about the British method [at least for a couple of publishers] that only use a single number to indicate printing. --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:26, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

And don't forget the publishers who add the printing year to the line, sometimes before, sometimes after! Mhhutchins 22:34, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Everything clear now, thanks. --Pips55 22:39, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Relinking the Fantascienza images

There may be a way to do this with a universal change. Make an inquiry on the Moderator's Noticeboard to see if it can be done. Mhhutchins 21:22, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, I have already a post open on the subject in the Community portal; the images I edited were incorrectly entered (same image for Galaxy #68-71). --Pips55 21:28, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Great. I wouldn't want you to update hundreds of these records if they can be done on this side. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:54, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I let Data Thief loose on these and think I covered them all (done the hard way, with Moderator approval of each one). Please let me know if I missed any so I can reprogram Data Thief with a large hammer. BLongley 01:23, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

As soon as the next backup is online, I am going to download it and check. Good job ! --Pips55 21:00, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

2nd Solaris printing of Necropath

I think your submission duplicates this record. If so, please cancel the submission. If not, let me know how it differs. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:25, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Seems a different edition: no canadian price, and now that you noticed, ISBN is different (1-84416-649-X). I will edit/resubmit with complete data, as you prefer. --Pips55 21:35, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

It seems there's a second US printing and a second UK printing, yours being the latter. I'll accept the submission, but ask that you add a note about it being the UK printing so that someone doesn't delete the other one. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:45, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Afterwords in Little Brother

Because each of the two afterwords were written by different authors, it wasn't necessary to disambiguate them by adding a number. We only do that to avoid the merging of similarly named pieces by the same author. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:24, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Earthman's Burden

Please see this discussion. Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 16:09, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Weaveworld Clive Barker 1988 continental edition

Uploaded new cover art for this pub BarDenis 19:37, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks ! --Pips55 21:59, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Iain M. Banks "Matter"

I've added Mary Branscombe as the interviewer of Banks. Thanks.--Teddybear 20:23, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

The Greatest Show Off Earth

You've dated this record as published in 1996, but the note gives it as reprinted in 1995. Is this a third printing? Mhhutchins 22:29, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it is the third printing. It is actually the second reprint, as stated in the first line of the notes I submitted: I did not repeat the reprint date in publication history. --Pips55 22:35, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Yep, I see it now. Sorry I missed it before. Mhhutchins 23:04, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #101

I'm holding the submission adding this issue to the database, just to let you know of two different things which will have to be corrected when I approve it. You'll have to change the title of the pub from "Galassia - 1969" to "Galassia #101", and the date from "1969-00-00" to "1969-05-00". The way the editor records are titled are not the way the issue itself is titled. Check out any of the 1968 issues to see how they were entered. Once an entire year's worth of issues are entered, we combine their editor records into one, retitle it in the form "MAGAZINE - YEAR" and then place it into the magazine series. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:26, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Here's a link to the issue. Mhhutchins 02:28, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

One more thing: you'll have to change the title of the serial record to "Incidente nello spazio (Complete Novel)" and then variant it to this record (as you noted in the Note to Moderator). Thanks again. Mhhutchins 02:30, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #107

You asked in the submission adding this record: I have the mag; add collection and every single novella-novelette as variant ? Does SERIAL apply also in Collections ?

Such questions should be asked at the Help Desk, and if possible, before making the submission. In answer to the first question: yes, you must variant each of the Italian records to the English record of every story. To the second question: No, a COLLECTION is a type of record, as is a SERIAL. A record can only be one type of record. Is this what you're asking? Mhhutchins 20:26, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

I was only wondering about the fact that if a NOVEL in a magazine has to be classified as a SERIAL, should a COLLECTION in a magazine be classified as SERIAL too (maybe with a 'Complete Collection' specifier. Honest to say I did not see any reference to 'Complete' + anything else than Novel) ? --Pips55 21:02, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I've been thinking of the same thing while adding Urania editions beyond Ernesto's original entries. Sometimes "(Complete Collection)" looks to be the most sensible way of proceeding, but there are bibliographic warnings if we try to do that. And sometimes a Complete Novel variant of a Collection makes sense, where the original has been classified as a Collection but the translations are counted as Novels. Good question. BLongley 22:06, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #161

The date and issue number of this record is out of synch with the other issues. Mhhutchins 23:03, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

You are right: year was 1972. Foreign magazines are tough: there is a lot to add and to take into account ... Thanks --Pips55 23:08, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

You'll also have to change the dates of both of the content records, this cover art record and this editor record. You now see how the incorrect date in one field affects several auto-generated records. Mhhutchins 23:24, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Translated titles

Now that the software has been updated to better support translated works, it is unnecessary to give both the Italian and English titles in the record's note field. Once you've varianted each with their original language title record then both are displayed in the content section. When Ernesto Vegetti was creating records, the note field was the only place to record the Italian titles. Hopefully, not having to do this will save you much time. Thanks for your contributions. Mhhutchins 18:25, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

I've been continuing Ernesto's work with some help from "Data Thief", and can appreciate how much work it still is to enter non-English titles. It's even more painful to rework existing titles, but we might improve that soon if Ahasuerus finishes his latest work project in a week or two. So, please continue, and if you want some automated help please let me know and I'll see if I can get some data entered en masse. BLongley 19:10, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

One thing though: as translator support is even further away, that information is still useful to have in notes. You can't search for translators or narrators or readers or editors of collections as easily as you can Authors and Artists, but if the data is there in the notes then they can be searched for. (And no doubt will be when such support is introduced.) BLongley 19:10, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out, Bill. I'd forgotten that Ernesto had credited the translator as well as the Italian title. Mhhutchins 19:16, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, he certainly entered a lot of detail! It's been very useful when reworking his submissions: which so far is limited to "Complete Novel"s that are reprinted in later issues of "Urania". I think Ernesto had covered about a third of them before he died, Data Thief has entered stubs for another third, but I haven't found a good way to automate the submission of the collections and anthologies so it's a bit of a long slog. BLongley 19:39, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your thoughts. I have now in working order a page scraper/reformatter that should speed things up. It is not completely automatic, which I prefer for now, so I am going to test it with the Galassia I own, then I will proceed to add the missing numbers taking data from Fantascienza.com (which I think should be credited in Notes, maybe with the tinyurl to the relevant page). What I didn't try is to submit data using the Web API: my programming expertise is in VB, and I have no experience in posting XML.

I would prefer to continue with Ernesto's way of adding the original title in Notes, now that it is automatic ;-) --Pips55 21:23, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Mondo senza sonno

Would it be safe to assume that Mondo senza sonno is a vt of The Unsleep and that Diane Gillon is a pseudonym of Diana Gillon? Ahasuerus 22:47, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

It is a vt; about the Author's name, it is Diane both on cover and on copyright page. The same name is in the italian catalog, which even specify 'Pleasance' as second name. --Pips55 23:04, 15 March 2012

Thanks! I have created a variant title relationship and set up a pseudonym, so we should be all set. Ahasuerus 23:20, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Combining the editor records of Galassia to add it to the magazine series and grid

Let me know when you're ready to do this. I can walk you through it. There appears to be enough issues for 1970 to give you an example of how to combine later issues. Mhhutchins 18:17, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

Ok, ready ! --Pips55 21:22, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

Part One

1. Go to one of the editor's summary page (it doesn't matter which one).
2. Click the link "Show All Titles" under the Editing Tools menu
3. Check all the boxes that have these three elements: "1970" (year), "EDITOR" (type), and "Galassia..." (title). There should be 13 of them.
4. Click "Merge These Titles"
5. You have to reconcile the conflicts. It doesn't matter which one you choose, because the record will have to be updated later.
6. Click "Complete Merge".
7. Wait for the submission to be accepted.

Part Two (after submission is accepted)

1. Go back to the editor's summary page.
2. Find the editor record that was created in the first step and click on it.
3. Click on "Edit Title Data" under the Editing Tools menu.
4. Change the title field to "Galassia - 1970", the year field to "1970-00-00", and enter "Galassia" in the series field.
5. Click "Submit data"

After this submission is accepted all of the editor records that are currently in the database for this title and this year will have been merged into one and placed into the magazine's series, which makes all of the issues visible on the magazine's issue grid. As you add more issues for the year 1970, you will have to merge the newly created editor record with the editor record you just created. Mhhutchins 01:57, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

To add more issues to 1970, would cloning a 1970 magazine be the same as merging ? --Pips55 17:17, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Magazine records can't be cloned. I created stub records (without contents) which can be completed later. Mhhutchins 17:22, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Also, magazine records can't be merged. Only the editor records can be merged. Mhhutchins 17:28, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks --Pips55 17:30, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

I went ahead and created stub records for the remaining 1970 issues, so there are going to be 23 records. BTW, according to Fantascienza, issue #110 was edited by Ugo Malaguti. Is that an error? Mhhutchins 16:33, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, mine ... Can I correct the mistake or the change in Editor has deeper consequences ? --Pips55 17:17, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

You have to correct both the publication record and the editor record. So don't merge that one with the other 1970 issues. It will have to be merged with the 1970 editor record for Ugo Malaguti. Mhhutchins 17:22, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I was waiting to merge it since I was suspecting something in that order was necessary. --Pips55 17:30, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

I am merging Galassia #110 with the 1970 editor record for Ugo Malaguti: how should I interpret the conflict page ? --Pips55 20:38, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Keep the attributes of the record that's already been retitled and placed into a series: "Galassia - 1970". Mhhutchins 04:41, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Cancro 2000

You were right, we didn't have the English original in ISFDB. I have added it using Reference:Reginald1 and created a VT. Thanks for the heads up! 00:11, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #116

I've changed the author credit for the stories by Barry N. Malzberg in this issue to "K. M. O'Donnell". You will have to variant them to the parent title records credited to Barry N. Malzberg. So Guerra Finale will have to be varianted to Final War by Malzberg, not to Final War by "O'Donnell". Otherwise, that would be creating a variant of a variant, something we should avoid. Thanks. Mhhutchins 04:39, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

The reason of authors' attribuiton comes from Fantascienza.com which reports author data as submitted (Intro to O'Donnell and stories to Malzberg). In effect, I was going to variant the stories as 'foreign' vt of Malzberg titles, starting from the collection title. Thank you for your attention. --Pips55 16:05, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm assuming it was a mistake on Fantascienza's part. I'm not sure that in 1970 the pseudonym had been attributed to Malzberg. And it makes more sense that the stories were credited to O'Donnell if the issue itself is credited to him. I may be wrong, but that can only be cleared up by a primary verifier. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:20, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

102 bombe H (102 bombe H)

Is correctly entered? Mhhutchins 20:53, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

And this one? Mhhutchins 20:54, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

They are stories in the Collection '102 bombe H' Galassia #183; this story title is the same as the collection and this one is the same as the original English one, so I thought of dis-ambiguating the Italian titles. --Pips55 21:01, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

I knew their source, being the moderator who accepted them into the database. That's how I caught the unusual way in which they were titled. In both of these cases, it's redundant and the disambiguation is unnecessary. You should only disambiguate generic titles, but only rarely to avoid confusion between exact titles by the same author. If the Italian version is reprinted later, you'll be able to merge them. With the first collection's name in the title, it wouldn't make sense if it were ever published in another collection. Mhhutchins 21:30, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Same situation with this title. Mhhutchins 21:34, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Ok, from now on I will avoid that kind of disambiguations. --Pips55 21:35, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

And this one. If you remember doing this for earlier titles, please go back and remove the collection name from the titles of the stories. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:36, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

I'll correct both the publication record and the editor record. --Pips55 21:44, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

No, you should only correct the title records. That will automatically update the title as it is displayed in the publication record. And there's no connection between editor records and content title records. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:49, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #192

When you submitted a variant for the title collection, I noticed that it was English instead of Italian. When I checked the contents of the issue I saw that all of them were English as well. It must have defaulted to English when the record was created because the language wasn't set to Italian. If you look at the editor record for this issue, you'll see it's set to English too. All of the content records will have be updated to change the language to Italian. Mhhutchins 22:29, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks.--Pips55 22:36, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Titling illustrations

We usually title the illustration record the same as the work which it illustrates. (As an example, look at this record which was recently updated.) If there are more than one work illustrating a story, we add numbers to the pieces after the first one. In the case of this magazine, because the work isn't credited to anyone, it wouldn't matter if you just create one record for the whole work. That's up to you. In either case, the records will need to be titled. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:39, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Ok, done. I left each illustration, maybe someone who will verify the mag will be able to credit them. --Pips55 21:48, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #223

I'm not sure that we need to have a content record for an anthology titled Maturità in this issue. There is no equivalent anthology published in any language, except for the stories published in this issue. Mhhutchins 18:02, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Same thing with the content record in this issue. If we do choose to keep these records (and I can now see a reason why we should), we should credit the editor of the magazine as the editor of the anthology instead of "uncredited". What do you think? Mhhutchins 18:06, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

I've found two more (and there may be others): here and here. If we leave these as uncredited they'll be hidden on a page with thousands of records, but credited to the actual editor of the magazine, they will also appear on his summary page. Mhhutchins 18:10, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

I agree: I think it is correct to credit these anthologies to the magazine editor, which anyway is responsible of their composition.--Pips55 21:16, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

If you'll make submissions to change the credits I'll accept them. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:22, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Right; as soon as the next copy of the DB will be available, I will search for other occurrences. Thanks for raising the issue. BTW thank you also for merging the two years of Galassia (I missed a couple of heartbeats, I was working on them when I started to receive 'Missing record" error messages ...). --Pips55 21:33, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Sorry about that. At the time you were busy entering the later issues, so I wanted to save you some time by going ahead and merging the loose ones. I'll hold off on the last years which seem to be very close to completion. Thanks for doing such a great job on this title. Have you thought about tackling another of the Italian magazines? Mhhutchins 22:42, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

No problem, I quickly realized someone was doing the job for me: please feel free to work as you please on the remaining years.--Pips55 17:42, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Urania perhaps? I've let Data Thief loose on the ones with "complete novels" but I'm sure they could do with a more expert eye. Ernesto only got up to the early 500s, and although it may appear to be over 1500 now, I skipped many of the anthologies and collections as those are best done in one go to avoid wrong default language - and Data Thief had problems with apostrophes in titles, so we are still missing quite a few. BLongley 23:47, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Before Urania, I was thinking to proceed with Cosmo Argento and Cosmo Oro, high quality bound publications and, I presume, amenable to machine treatment with my scraper. If you prefer Urania, I will have a go at it; I saw that you worked quite a lot on them. --Pips55 17:42, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I say go for Cosmo Argento. Michael Bishop had a couple of titles published there. But isn't this more a publication series than a magazine? The books look nothing like magazines. For that matter, neither does Urania #1431 for which I just did a primary verification. Continental European publishing is very confusing. Mhhutchins 18:00, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Cosmo Argento is in reality a publication series, tp in format. Cosmo Oro is a publication series too, but hc. Urania is a magazine which underwent quite a few format changes during its long life, not taking into account spin-offs. I noticed few Cosmo Argento in ISFDB under the name Tascabili Nord: I think we will have to reconcile the pub series name.--Pips55 19:28, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

La civiltà dei solari

Please check the page count for this record. Mhhutchins 21:49, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

DO NOT ADD a content record for novels

In fact, don't add a content record for the titles of anthologies, collections, magazines or nonfiction. The system automatically creates one. You'll have to go back to all of the titles you've added to the Cosmo Collana di Fantascienza series and remove the extraneous title record. After you've removed them and the submission is accepted, you'll have to go back again to each title and merge the stray title record with the title record linked to the publication. Mhhutchins 21:53, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

The submissions you made did not affect the record. You have to use the "Remove titles from this pub" function. It's under the editing tools menu. Mhhutchins 22:58, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #137 editor credit

Is only Curtoni credited as the editor in this issue? According to the title record of the anthology there were three editors. Mhhutchins 17:53, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Editors should be Curtoni and Montanari, since they were editors for Galassia in that period; there must be something strange going on with my input procedure, because a few times Montanari (and only Montanari !) was skipped during my Galassia run, both as an editor or as contributor. The three names are the curators for the specific anthology. --Pips55 20:05, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Inversely, this issue is credited to two editors, but the anthology is only credited to one editor. Mhhutchins 17:59, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

The pub is composed of a collection of works of Catani (which gives the name of the anthology as you can see from the cover) and a series of short stories from various authors in a separate section. --Pips55 20:05, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

The editor is considered the "author" of an anthology. So this record will have be corrected to give credit to the editors. If every story in the issue were by a single author then it would be a COLLECTION type, instead of ANTHOLOGY. Mhhutchins 20:11, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I was in doubt between COLLECTION or ANTHOLOGY, since the contributions of authors different from Catani were in a separate section devoted to young writers. I will correct the editors. --Pips55 20:37, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Il fiume della vita

The link for this record's cover image appears to be the covers of two different books. Is the one on the right a later printing? It doesn't have the "argento" look. Mhhutchins 18:02, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I am not sure if it is part of the 'Argento' series (a number of reprints were later issued under different Nord series as Tascabili or Capolavori or special editions as Dorsai or Riverworld), and I don't know why Ernesto decided to join the covers. I could split, for precision's sake, the true cover. --Pips55 19:45, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, they should be split, to avoid confusion. Mhhutchins 20:38, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I've found a larger and better image. I'll upload it and replace the link. Mhhutchins 20:41, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Bored of the Rings

I corrected a listing of yours in Bored of the Rings from "Map (Bored of the Rings)" to "Bored of the Rings (map)", which is the format we use for listing maps. Chavey 19:10, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

And similarly, in Night Watch, changed "Map (Night Watch)" to "Night Watch (map)". Chavey 19:13, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I thought (without asking) that it was a way to disambiguate the content: thanks.--Pips55 19:51, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Translators

When entering multiple translators from Fantascienza, it looks like your operating system's copy-and-paste shortcut doesn't change the conjunction "e" to "and" :-)

Fixed, thanks. --Pips55 17:00, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Astronave Stardust

Re: Astronave Stardust, I have set it up as a VT of The Stardust Voyages, but it would appear that only 4 of the 6 stories were translated. Could you please confirm and make a note of it in Notes? TIA! Ahasuerus 23:31, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

A Star Called Cyrene and Mushroom World are missing; note submitted. I would like to thank the moderators which help me with variants, I really appreciate that ! --Pips55 17:14, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Hey, that's why we are here! :) Ahasuerus 17:44, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Galassia #33

Would you happen to have a copy of Galassia #33 handy? Our record (verified by Ernesto Vegetti) and Fantascienza state that Ivan Yefremov's Incontro su Tuscarora is a "Complete Novel" and occupies 130 pages in Galassia #33. However, various English, Spanish and Russian sources list it as a short story or a novelette. Something is not quite right here, so I wonder if, by chance, Galassia #33 may contain another (unlisted in the table of contents?) story... Ahasuerus 01:31, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, no. From the introduction, available here, the work is referred to as a novel, but composed of separate parts. --Pips55 17:20, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I think I see what's going on! "il lago di mercurio tra i Monti Altai, i giganteschi vermi mortiferi del Deserto di Gobi, i misteriosi disegni paleolitici nelle montagne siberiane, il destino tragico e leggendario del veliero settecentesco Saint Ann" suggests that they translated the eponymous collection, which is only 124 pages long, rather than just the short story. For example, "giganteschi vermi mortiferi del Deserto di Gobi" matches Олгой-Хорхой (Olgoi-Khorkhoi), which is another name for the Mongolian death worm. Another mystery solved! :-)

The only thing that bothers me is "A parte la «cornice», che è molto più recente", which suggests that the author (?) may have added a framing story at a later point. It would be nice to check the magazine and see whether individual stories are credited separately (in which case we could create variant titles) or whether they were presented as a single text. Ahasuerus 17:44, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

I'll keep that in mind, in case I happen to stumble on something useful.--Pips55 20:01, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Kaleidoscope Century

Hello, Andrea. I have added an OCLC cat# to the note field of your verified publication of Kaleidoscope Century. --John L.-- Syzygy 19:48, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks !--Pips55 19:59, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I cacciatori della Luna Rossa

Could you please double check whether this publication credits both Marion Zimmer Bradley and Paul Edwin Zimmer on the title page? According to our records, "Paul Edwin Zimmer not listed as author on early editions. Listed as providing info on weapons and continuity in fight scenes on dedication page. Co-authorship was acknowledged in the 13th DAW printing, 1992" and the cover scan that you uploaded only shows Bradley's name. TIA! Ahasuerus 22:46, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

I see what you mean; my source and Catalogo Vegetti credits both. I think we will have to wait a primary verifier. If you like, I can add a note. Thanks again for 'varianting' for me. --Pips55 22:56, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 23:26, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Il distruttore by P. J. Farmer

Can you confirm the artist credit for this record? The same artwork is used on the American edition and it's credited to Artifact. Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 17:42, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Lucky me, I have the book: on back cover the credit goes to Gene Mydlowski, and it says that the artwork is part of the cover of the original edition. --Pips55 20:05, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Googling around, it seems that in the original edition the dust wrapper art was by Artifact, while cover design was by Gene Mydlowski. --Pips55 20:16, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

The record should be corrected. Cover designer is only credited in the cover artist field if the work is solely a design and not artwork. Mhhutchins 21:11, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Correction submitted. --Pips55 21:19, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

I just updated the record for the first publication. Mydlowski is credited as the cover designer. Mhhutchins 21:39, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Charles Sheffield novels

Hello, Andrea. I see you are somewhat of a Charles Sheffield fan, speaking of which, I have a couple of publications by him I would like to verify that you have also verified. But before I do, there are a couple of items I would like to clear up. First, in Cold as Ice, third printing, you stated in your notes that the Canadian price is C$8.90. In my pub, that price is C$8.99. Can you check that? Could just be a typo. The second item is going to be harder to figure out. In your copy of The Mind Pool, you listed it as a fourth printing with a printing date of April 1997, and a price of $4.99 (C$5.99). Baen Books has been pretty good with giving us a date with each reprinting. So here I am with a fourth printing, also, but in mine, they give a printing date of December 1998 and a price of $6.99 (C$9.99). This is what I think: Either you have a fourth printing for 1997, and my copy is misprinted with fourth printing giving a correct date OR I have a fourth printing for 1998 and you have a misprinted fourth printing giving a correct date. Unless you misentered the data, there is no way to now which one is correct. All I am asking is that you check that data for me. It would be much appreciated. Thanks, --John L.-- Syzygy 22:38, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your attention. Cold as Ice, Canadian price IS C$8.99, a crease in the spine 'cuts' through the 9, giving it a resemblance of 0. Concerning The Mind Pool,, copyright page states "Fourth printing, April 1997", while prices are wrong ($5.99 C$7.50, I must have been smoking something strong ...), and that, I am afraid, does not solve the issue. A search online does not shed more light: there is a reference for a 4th printing 1998 in AbeBooks and one about an 1997 edition in here; the impression is that my pub is a third edition misprinted but I could not find conclusive evidence. --Pips55 19:18, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Or mine could be a fifth printing, misprinted. We can't know unless we find a third, fifth or a sixth printing, if the publishers got that far. I did think about what to do in the meantime. I'll go ahead and do a pub update on mine and put notes in with a link about the discrepency. Once you see my post of the issue, you can up date your notes, or if you want, I can do it. Up to you. I quit smoking 8 years ago. Now I'm doing pharmaceuticals. The joys of getting older! --John L.-- Syzygy 20:09, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Feel free to update my notes, thanks. --Pips55 21:20, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

La nuova preistoria/La nuova prehistoria

Hello. Can you verify the spelling of this title (with or without an H) here as there two versions in Italian ? Thanks. Hauck 19:02, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

No H in 'preistoria'; as far as I can see, in reality there are two versions of the shortstory in Italian, translated by different translators which decided for different titles (source Fantascienza.com). Is it Ok ? --Pips55 20:17, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Il tempo è il solo nemico by Michael Bishop

I've updated this record and verified it. I changed the artist from David Mattingly to Peter Jones, which is how the book credits the cover art. I'm not sure who the actual artist is, but I see that Fantascienza credits Mattingly. Mhhutchins 15:01, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

I was going to flag it for you, but you have been faster ... Thanks --Pips55 15:06, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

L'enigma di Star's Rest

I see this Pub was approved but the cover image doesn't match the Author as given. (W. Michael Gear or Michael W. Gear). Can you confirm that the title page gets it right? If so, it would probably be worth a note. BLongley 23:31, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Data is straight from Fantascienza.com, I'll add a note. I did not notice the mismatch, thanks --Pips55 19:41, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Cobweb

Is there any reason to believe that the author is credited differently inside of this publication? Mhhutchins 21:55, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

The source I used seems to say so; it makes a kind of sense, since Stephen Bury is a pseudonym. --Pips55 22:08, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

I know it's a pseudonym. I'm trying to determine why it would be credited differently on the inside than it would on the cover. Same thing with this one. Perhaps it was Ernesto's way of showing the books are pseudonymous published. He still shows the author (under "DI" in the header, not the contents) to be Stephen Bury (for Cobweb). If the cover is all we have then we have to use it to credit the author(s). Mhhutchins 22:11, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

I was not implying you didn't know that it was a pseudonym. I give precedence to Fantascienza.com contents section and then add in notes the discrepancies; if you think it is correct the other way round, I will change them. --Pips55 22:23, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

I'll leave that up to you. Until it's primary verified there's no way either of us can be sure who the credited author is. I'll try to look up a few more pubs in his database to see how Ernesto handled pseudonyms. That will at least give us a sign post until the records can be verified. Mhhutchins 22:48, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Look at how he handles Gunner Cade which was written by "Cyril Judd". There's no way that it would have been actually credited to Kornbluth and Merrill in 1954, but he has the title credited to "Cyril Judd" and the interior contents to Kornbluth and Merrill. I think this was his method of indicating a pseudonym in his database instead of creating variants the way the ISFDB does. Mhhutchins 22:52, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Another one: The Running Man. The book is credited to "Richard Bachman" and the content is credited to King. In January 1984 very few people knew that "Bachman" was King (it was only known after the publication of Thinner in November 1984), so there's very little chance that the inside credit is to King. Mhhutchins 22:57, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

I remember we already had a situation like this one for Galassia 116. Looking at its record in Ernesto catalog I can see in the contents section a (ps) near O'DONNEL, meaning pseudonym, while in Cobweb, near BURY, there is (pscoll. ...) that sounds like collective pseudonym. So apparently Ernesto had this system to handle pseudonyms, while Fantascienza.com decided to drop the information. We could compromise on adding an invitation to verifier, in the title record notes, to re-check the attribution. --Pips55 21:54, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

You can always do that, but in cases where it's rather obvious how the contents should be credited (as in the Malzberg/O'Donnell book), we shouldn't hesitate to record the content credits to match the book credit. That's a basic ISFDB standard: stories in a collection (or the novel content record in a novel publication record) should be credited to the author credited on the title page unless stated otherwise. Mhhutchins 01:34, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Ok and thanks for the help with the 'varianting' --Pips55 17:23, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

La spiaggia d'acciaio

I have approved your changes to this pub, but I am not sure about the change of this essay's date from 1994-06-00 to 1991-12-01. Did Varley date the essay, by chance? If so, keep in mind that we use the first date of publication in its current form (in this case the date when the Italian version first appeared) rather than the date when the author finished the text.

It looks like the English version of this essay originally appeared in 1992 and the Italian version appeared in 1994. If that's the case, then the date of this Title would be 1994-06-00. Does this make sense? Ahasuerus 19:51, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

The date is in the essay. I should have realized that it is the same rule of other contents: I will return the title date to the one of the Italian version . Thanks --Pips55 20:37, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 22:42, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Zero price

Adding a zero in the price field indicates that the book was available at no cost (free). If you meant that there is no stated price in this book then the field should stay blank, and make a statement in the note field about that. Mhhutchins 21:01, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Searching the available sources, the book results a free sample (there is also a commercial edition which I own and I will add later). --Pips55 21:07, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Fabbricanti di universi

Single-author omnibuses, like this one, should be credited to the author of the novels, not the editor. Thanks. Mhhutchins 00:38, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

And this one, this one, and this one. Mhhutchins 00:39, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Correction submitted. Thanks --Pips55 16:21, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Images

The ones you are currently submitting are not coming through. Since they aren't being downloaded by our process, I can't even check the upload log to see why they aren't displaying properly. perhaps hold off until Ahasuerus can look?? --~ Bill, Bluesman 15:02, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Sure, it was only a test batch. --Pips55 15:32, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Linking images from Urania Mania

There's an extension on the URL (after .jpg) that is preventing the images from being linked to the ISFDB record. On the first one, I removed it and it looks OK but the images are still rather small. I thought Urania Mania had larger images. I've rejected the others and ask that you resubmit with the corrected URL. Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:59, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

I am afraid that the removal is not enough (the link is not working any more on my machine). I will wait to submit more covers. I will gladly contact again Urania Mania web administrator to solve the problem, let me know. --Pips55 17:34, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

The one I fixed by removing all characters after .jpg is working. See here. Mhhutchins 17:42, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Nope, it's not working now. They probably block other websites from "deep-linking". I believe they misunderstood that the images were not just linked, but that we would be using their bandwidth to display the images on our page. And that's clearly explained in the letter you sent them. Mhhutchins 17:44, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Clicking on the image gives you the the 403 error message: "Forbidden / You don't have permission to access [images] on this server." Mhhutchins 17:47, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Exactly. I am going to write to Urania Mania web administrator about it. I think they have some sort of protection based on cookies to prevent the mass copy of their images. --Pips55 17:55, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

We're not really copying their images. That could be done with much effort. We're linking to the images on their server, which many websites block. They feel it overburdens their servers without the benefit they would receive if a user went directly to their website, and counting towards the "eyes" that generates revenue for their site. By deep-linking, we get the benefit of their images without placing a burden on our server. Mhhutchins 18:18, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

The software change to make sure they get a link-back is in, but obviously they won't benefit from that if we can't use their images. Let me know if you need some technical support on the matter. BLongley 19:50, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

I have sent an e-mail to the their web admin describing the situation, with a couple of links as example. I will keep you informed, thanks .--Pips55 20:02, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

The problem was due to missing permissions: now the first covers that were submitted are visible again. I will submit a new test batch and see if everything goes Ok. --Pips55 19:57, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

After 25 submissions it is working fine; to avoid problems, I am following Mhhutchins advice, removing all characters after .jpg. --Pips55 21:11, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

[unindent] They must have done something from their side. There's no difference in how we're handling it on our end. Mhhutchins 21:23, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

Sure, they forgot to set the right permissions to the filesystem in which their images reside: now they fixed it. --Pips55 21:28, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

Great. Thanks for keeping on top of this. I guess these small images are better than nothing. Also, were you aware that the last dozen or so title records for the books in this series have not been varianted to the parent titles? Mhhutchins 21:44, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

I agree, they are small but still better than those of Ernesto... I will add some good scan for those I own, when I will start verifying. Now that I am launched, I would like to finish adding the covers and then proceed with the varianting of the pubs I added yesterday. Thanks for your help in pinpointing the cause of the problem. --Pips55 22:01, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

Cosmo Serie Oro. Classici della Narrativa di Fantascienza

According to the cover images the series is titled "Cosmo: Classici della Fantascienza"". Is there any evidence that the interior gives the longer name? Mhhutchins 16:11, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

The longer name "Cosmo serie Oro Classici della narrativa di Fantascienza", along with a phrase sounding like "n-th volume of the series" is usually reported in the interior on entire page before copyright page. --Pips55 16:43, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Other editor(s) already started a series by the other name: here. Mhhutchins 17:36, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

They're all books with Tim White covers, so it must have been editor BarDenis who created the series. You'll have to get together with him to explain the reason for using the extended title, and all of the pub records will have to be updated. Mhhutchins 17:41, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

I wrote a note to BarDenis, thanks for the suggestion --Pips55 20:22, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Variants of variants

We don't make variants based solely on capitalization or lack thereof and never make a variant of a variant!. Thus the two records for Apologia pro geologia sua should be merged, at which point you get to pick if there are capitals or not. --~ Bill, Bluesman 20:41, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

The one I submitted is in italian, so I varianted it against the (presumed) english version: I did not even notice the capitalization ... --Pips55 20:49, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

And I never even thought it was an English title .... oh, well. Shall approve the submission, then go clean my glasses! :-)) --~ Bill, Bluesman 20:56, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Converting Italian magazine records

Just a reminder: when you add new content to a record which was created before non-English language support, the records will default to English. You'll need to go back and update the individual title records to set the language. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:33, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, I noticed that after the first (tentative) submissions. To be sure, I will go through the first numbers of 'I Romanzi di Urania' to check. --Pips55 20:46, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

Actually, adding new content currently defaults to English even for pubs added after we introduced better language support. :-( It's a known problem we will get round to fixing when we can figure out the best way to implement it - unfortunately there is no guaranteed way of identifying the language of the "container" title, we have Klingon/English hybrids and a lot of the Italian magazines are now English with some Italian content. (You might think editing is complicated, try programming this stuff!) BLongley 20:48, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

I can live with the editing, but I cannot even start imagining the programming 'behind the scenes' ... --Pips55 20:57, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

I think it was about two years here before I started submitting software "improvements". I've probably done more good than harm, but I'm still embarrassed by the current "unmerge" bug. :-/ BLongley 21:28, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

Updating content titles

You can update the titles in a pub edit if there are no other pubs that contain the title. So when you updated I Romanzi di Urania #67, in the same submission, you could have changed the title record of "Delay in Transit (Part 5 of 5)" to "Indugio forzato su Dialfa (Part 5 of 5)". That saves you an extra submission and the moderator from handling it. Thanks. Mhhutchins 16:51, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

I see now you have to change the language anyway, so an extra submission was necessary...but only in cases like this. If you're not changing the language, you can edit the title in a pub edit. Mhhutchins 16:53, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Good to know, there is a lot of editing to do on these pubs... thanks --Pips55 17:02, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Notte di luce

You verified this pub, which is the 2nd printing of the Italian edition of Father to the Stars. I would like to change the pub type from "Omnibus" to "Collection" and merge the result with the 2007 edition. A small change to the notes is also necessary, since this is not an omnibus, according to the help text. Hope you can agree. Thanks, --Willem H. 14:18, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

I am also the one who entered the record for the pub in Cosmo Oro series. I decided to classify it as an Omnibus since it contains Night of Light which is a novel and the Help page you cite allows this kind of pubs to be classified so: I pointed out the situation to the Moderator, and he apparently agreed.

'Father to the Stars' contains The Night of Light instead, which is a novella, so the pub is rightly a collection; on this basis, I am not sure that Notte di luce is the Italian edition of Father to the Stars, while it is evident that the 2007 edition is the same as the pub in Cosmo Oro series, so the classification needs to be reconciled in order to merge the records. What is your opinion ? --Pips55 21:24, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

I hadn't noticed the difference between "Night of Light" and "The Night of Light", that changes things. I corrected the 2007 edition, and added the omnibus title to the "Father Carmody" series. I still don't think it qualifies as an omnibus (including one novel doesn't automatically make an omnibus of a collection), but that's just my (subjective) opinion. Thanks for the response! --Willem H. 09:53, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

You are welcome! In general, I am inclined to agree with you, a novel doesn't automatically make an omnibus, but 'Notte di Luce' should make a nice [O1-5] in the series bibliography, with all the 5 stories in the series ... Btw, "Night of Light" and "The Night of Light" are both considered third in the series: is it correct (I am not a Farmer expert)? --Pips55 19:36, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

"Night of Light" is an expansion of "The Night of Light" (the second half was added), so essentially (i.m.o. of course) they're the same work, and logically both #3 in the series. If you want to find out more about Farmer, my friend's website has everything you would ever want to know. Ernesto Vegetti helped him a lot with the Italian translations.

I think the omnibus display was originally intended for novels in a series, but [O1-5] would work for me. --Willem H. 20:01, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Tutto Bene A Carson Planet

I see that you would like to merge the two Tutto bene a Carson Planet serials which appeared in Urania #238 and Urania #539. Typically, we don't merge serials, in part because they are often abridged and there is no easy way of telling whether any two abridgements are identical. If we are reasonably sure that the texts are indeed the same, then we may want to discuss the issue on the Rules page. Ahasuerus 06:30, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

This source, which I forgot to mention to the Moderator, speaks of a reprint of Urania #238 but I cannot vouch for identical text. Urania magazine has a long standing tradition of reprinting stories (in the 'white cover publication period' they were dubbed in the upper right of the cover as 'I Capolavori' -The Masterpieces-, while in the lower right it was indicated 'Ristampa' -Reprint-). --Pips55 16:14, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Well, we generally do not merge SERIAL records, e.g. see the 1941 and 1949 magazine appearances of A. Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage in Fantastic Novels Magazine, even though I am pretty sure that the texts were identical because the novel was reprinted "by popular demand". As Help:Use of the SERIAL type says, "If a work has been serialized more than once, those records are normally not merged either. ". However, if this is something that Urania did frequently, then we may want to discuss the topic on the Rules page to make sure that we are all in sync policy-wise.

I can confirm the Urania habit of reprinting stories: I decided to stop buying Urania regularly to avoid duplicates ...

I noticed that a few Urania have already been merged, see f.i. Quelli di Kaluiki (Complete Novel), so maybe it will be useful to bring the matter on the Rules page. --Pips55 17:13, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Sounds good, I will start a discussion shortly. Ahasuerus 18:46, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

P.S. Speaking of serials and translations, would you happen to know anything about Poul Anderson's L'ultima Frontiera in Urania #1079? It seems to be a "catch-all" title for the "History of Rustum" stories that appeared in this issue of Urania and I wonder if it may be a variant of Orbit Unlimited, which was a fix-up of some of the stories in the series. Ahasuerus 00:25, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

I have the magazine. On Copyright page the original title is "Orbit Unlimited. New America" while in the table of contents are reported the single stories, so your suspect of a "catch-all" collection seems confirmed: Urania itself considers the mag as a collection (see cover upper right "Le Antologie"). I think that the reference to the serial should be removed.--Pips55 17:13, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Removed and deleted, thanks! Ahasuerus 18:45, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Urania #252

A quick question about Urania #252: The notes field says that "Time Patrol was translated by Andreina Negretti as "Everard cronodetectiv" [sic!]", but the Title record says "Everard cronodetective (Part 1 of 3)". Could you please clarify whether there is an "e" at the end of "Everard cronodetectiv[e]"? TIA! Ahasuerus 20:29, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

It is a typo, probably in the index of the magazine: the world 'cronodetectiv' does not exist in Italian , so the [sic!] by Ernesto. The correct name, as reported by the sources Mondourania and Uraniamania is "Everard cronodetective". The same complete name (with the final 'e') is reported in ISFDB in Urania #253 and #254.--Pips55 20:43, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

I figured it was a typo since the lack of the trailing "e" would indicate a Germanic word (cf. "Detektiv" in German) rather than a Romance one. However, we record titles as they appear on the title page, even if they are mangled, so if the title page says "cronodetectiv", that's what we will want to use. On the other hand, if the typo is only present in the table of contents, then we'll just document it in Notes. I don't suppose there is a way to tell what the title page says, is there? Ahasuerus 21:27, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, no, I don't have the magazine. We will have to wait for a verifier. --Pips55 21:54, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Oh well, we tried :-) Ahasuerus 00:12, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Al di là del sole (Complete Novel)

Could you please clarify the intent of the unmerge submission for this title? The problem appeared to be the fact that Urania #301 listed the Italian translation of Operation: Outer Space as Al di là del sole (Complete Novel) rather than as La chiave dello spazio. I think I have resolved the problem by approving your Edit Publication submission, removing the wrong title and then setting up the newly created SERIAL title as a variant of the canonical title. Does everything look OK now or was there something else that you wanted to use the Unmerge submission for? (And by the way, I have set up Italian variants for Camille Flammarion's La fin du monde which appeared in Urania 288, 189 e 190.) Ahasuerus 03:30, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

It is exactly as I wanted to obtain. I was afraid that changing the title in the magazine before unmerging could provoke unwanted results. If I remember well, unmerging does not provide the space to add a note to the moderator, and the information I provided with the following edit was probably a bit on the synthetic side. So the unmerging was not necessary ? Thank you for your help also with the varianting: I am starting to hate Fredrick Brown and Ambrose Bierce with their zillions of short stories ... --Pips55 18:48, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Unmerging is typically used when you have a valid Publication record associated with the wrong Title record. For example, a number of translated pubs may be associated with the canonical title record (as per the old data entry standards). When an unmerge submission is approved, the approval process creates new Title records for each unmerged pub and then you can set up variants if applicable. However, in this case the pub data was incorrect, so the easiest way to fix it was to remove the wrong records from the pub and then take it from there. Ahasuerus 02:36, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Essi ci guardano dalle torri

You have two submissions on hold. Both make Essi ci guardano dalle torri a variant of different titles. One makes it a variant of The Watch-Tower while the other one makes it a variant of Passport to Eternity. Which one of these is correct? - Thanks Kevin 21:48, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Nevermind. I just realized one is fiction, the other a collection. - Sorry - The records were blending together in my mind. - Thanks Kevin 21:50, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

And now I've come across the second submission to make two titles variants of the same Collection. Could you please double check these two held submissions? Make Essi ci guardano dalle torri Collections a variant of Passport to Eternity Collection; and Also make Passaporto per l'eternità Collection a variant of Passport to Eternity Collection Kevin 21:56, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

The stories from the original collection were split between the two italian pubs, as I have tried to document in Notes. Thanks for your attention. --Pips55 22:09, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for double checking me. Kevin 22:14, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Urania #205: l dono del dottor Leibster • shortstory by L. Tieplov

I think, it may be this story. BarDenis 05:48, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

I am inclined to agree with you, but I have not the info to confirm: my three sources cite only the italian title (which is actually 'Il dono ...') and the author, and only (one an english title, not present in ISFDB, and date (1954). Maybe someone owning Tuck can help us to solve this one since ErnestoVeg verified the magazine against that source. --Pips55 19:51, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

There is russian text. Maybe you could find italian one? BarDenis 07:43, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

No luck, sorry. I am sure Mhhutchins can help us as soon as he is back from his vacation: he has Tuck. --Pips55 20:07, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Urania #756

For some reason the submission was corrupted and had to be Hard Rejected [means I couldn't even see what was wrong]. Please re-submit. --~ Bill, Bluesman 05:01, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Flowers of Evil

Accepted the submission to create [this] title but the data did not match the cover shown. The cover was for a later Futura /General edition. Found a cover for the Bantam and added it. Not sure where you got the $4.99 price but that's way too high for 1982 [would have been about $2.25/$2.50]. And it turns out the real first edition is a 1981 Futura. Found enough data to create a record for it, but no image. Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 23:07, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

I noticed a flurry of activity around the submission; data was a mix of Worldcat and Amazon. Thanks --Pips55 19:01, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Urania #991

Is the "second part" of the Asimov piece actually SHORTFICTION in this record? It also appears that the English titles have been reversed, either in the listing or the notes. Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 19:59, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I made a mess of this submission. The notes have the right order and the shortfiction is an essay. --Pips55 20:04, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Urania #1034

I rejected the submission to remove the title record for the Pangobrn collection from this record. I changed its type from SERIAL to COLLECTION. Mhhutchins 00:21, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks --Pips55 15:13, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

SERIAL = fiction only

About the "serialization" of the essay "Indagine sulla fantascienza in Italia" in this issue: we only use the SERIAL type for fiction. For nonfiction use the ESSAY type, and record the titles as they appeared in the publication. If the titles are identical, then you can disambiguate them by adding the part name or number. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:45, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Right, thanks. I will correct the entries. --Pips55 21:48, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

>

The use of this character (">") in the Note field of eight records for issues of Urania has caused it to show up as an HTML error. A program designed to catch errors looks for both opening and closing brackets to determine if there's an HTML error. Can you think of a different way to present the way the pieces are presented in the Note field (like in this issue)? Or is it even necessary to note them at all? (You can keep the title in the title records as they are.) Thanks. Mhhutchins 16:41, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

You could use the HTML entity ">" which displays as ">". This is the standard workaround for displaying a > character, and &lt; is for a < character. -DES ^Talk 17:39, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

See Help:Using HTML in Note Fields#HTML Entities for more detail. -DES ^Talk 18:23, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

Sorry about the HTML error, I did not think of that. I will edit the records. Thanks --Pips55 19:27, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

2038: la revolta

I'm holding a submission to update this record, but nothing was changed. What was your intention? Mhhutchins 20:26, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

I think I changed the language from Italian to Italian: just going in automatic ... I will cancel the submission. Sorry --Pips55 20:31, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

Ready to Mod?

You're contributing an awful lot and making a lot of work for us Moderators in the process. And I haven't seen many problems with your edits recently. Do you think you're ready to become a Moderator (our Italian specialist even)? Have a look at Moderator Requirements before you answer, but if you agree I'll start the process. BLongley 21:23, 13 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your proposal, it's a real honour! I am not sure I am ready: I have done, till now, only pubs and magazines (no authors, pseudonyms and the other fancy stuff, and merging still keeps me on the edge until the submission is accepted ...). I have just learnt my ways around Italian sources, my knowledge of English publishing panorama is sketchy and I would prefer to avoid to mention my bibliographic competence.--Pips55 23:23, 13 July 2012 (UTC)

No hurry - keep up the good work and drop me a line if/when you think you're ready. BLongley 11:03, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Urania #1485

Your submission seems to have tripled up the new content? BLongley 22:08, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

I have no record of my submission: can you be more specific ?--Pips55 22:12, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

The new content reads "Gli AutorI. Brian Herbert. Kevin J. Anderson (Il Preludio a Dune 3: I ribelli dell'Impero) (Il Preludio a Dune 3: I ribelli dell'Impero) (Il Preludio a Dune 3: I ribelli dell'Impero)" BLongley 22:18, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

A glitch in my page scraper, one title in brackets should be enough ... --Pips55 22:24, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, fixed now. BLongley 22:30, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations!

Thanks for the great job you've done on completing the entry of Urania which Ernesto Vegetti had started before his sudden death. Now onward to the next project. (There really is no end to the fun!) Mhhutchins 21:14, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

I stood on giants' shoulders: thanks to you and all the Moderators I burdened in the past two months. BTW, I noticed there is no end to the fun: I just discovered two new Urania publication series, one for selling in bookstores and the other in commercial centers ... --Pips55 21:33, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

I think you may be our only Italian Editor at the moment, so most of the work will fall your way. But congratulations on your latest accomplishment from me too. BLongley 22:27, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Bill, didn't your Data Thief have a hand in these as well? If so, thanks and congratulations to you both. Mhhutchins 20:54, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes, Data Thief did a load of stubs but they all needed fleshing out. BLongley 13:20, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Those were the shoulders I was mentioning before, Data Thief's ;-) --Pips55 20:33, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Urania #317bis

Ernesto had started a separate series for these publications titled I Capolavori di Urania. Could the pub you just entered be a part of that same series? It looks identical to this record. Mhhutchins 20:52, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I'm holding the submission to add a record for what appears to be already in the database. Mhhutchins 20:58, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I am sorry, I did not check the existence of the magazine in another series: of course, the publication is the same. I do not know why Ernesto (and consequently Fantascienza.com) declared it as part of a separate series, the cover clearly states "Suppl. al n. 317" , with "317 bis" on spine. --Pips55 21:11, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Doesn't "I Capolavori di Urania" translate as "Masterpieces of Urania"? (At least, that's what Google translate says it means!) Wouldn't that indicate a different series? I can only assume that's what Ernesto thought, and the reason why he created a new magazine for these. BTW, you could have searched for "Cronache della Galassia". That's how I found the duplicate. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:29, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

The translation is correct, but the label "I Capolavori" was used in Urania to indicate reprints (see for instance the cover of Urania #566 I just submitted). The Italian national bibliographic service classifies the magazine as part of Urania. I know I could have searched by name if in doubt, but the cover and the spine drove me to the conclusion that the magazine was not present in ISFDB.--Pips55 21:53, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

It seems from the cover design (and the new series logo) that the publisher wanted these publications to be separately distinguished from the main series. And both magazines are in the same parent series (see Mondadori). But if you feel strongly enough that they should be in the same series, cancel the current submissions in the queue, and update the 7 publication records that's already in the database. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:36, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

A case of conflicting sources ... Mondourania says that they are a different series, while Uraniamania puts them between the Urania magazines. I think I will leave them where Ernesto put them (maybe he had some insider information on the matter) but I will add a note concerning they were published as supplements, at least for those I own. --Pips55 20:44, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Urania #924 notes change

Hi. I have your Urania #924 notes change on hold. In addition to deleting the line about the secondary source of the data, it also deletes "Winter was translated by Delio Zinoni as "Inverno"", while leaving the sentence about the other translation. Is that a mistake, or did you mean to delete it? --MartyD 22:30, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

I have the magazine, and "Winter" is not present, so I removed the reference from the notes. The other original title in notes is wrong, should be "Voyagers" and not "Pressure Man", thank you for drawing my attention to it. --Pips55 22:37, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Ok, thank you. I will accept the submission and change that original title for you, to save you an edit. --MartyD 22:47, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Upon further review, I did not change the note. I see it's more than just the original title. The translated title doesn't match, either, and so I will leave it to you to correct (because even if I guessed correctly to change both, I don't know if the translator is correct...). :-) --MartyD 22:49, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Settled now, thanks --Pips55 20:18, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Biblioteca di Urania

Some of the titles were entered as a collection when they should have been entered as an omnibus: numbers 2, 5, 7, and 8. Also, the publication series for #11 was truncated. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:00, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

I thought that an Omnibus should contain related stories, such as a single-volume edition of novels in a series, so for single-author unrelated novels I used a Collection. If I got it right (now...): two novels of the same author in a publication = Omnibus ? I have already had some doubts about an Omnibus so evidently I have not clearly understood the Help page: next time I will ask before submitting. Thanks --Pips55 23:00, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

The current ISFDB definition: A publication may be classified is an omnibus if it contains multiple works that have previously been published independently, and at least one of them is a novel. My personal definition: a single-volume publication whose entirety consists of two or more titles that have been previously published as separate volumes, and maintains the integrity of the previous publications. So this would include a publication of two or more novels, or one novel and one collection, or two collections (see this one). So Stephen King's Different Seasons is a collection even though it includes two novel-length works. Robert Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow is a collection even though it reprints the entirety of three collections and a complete novel. It's not an omnibus because it doesn't maintain the integrity of the four previous publications from which its contents were drawn. That's the same reason I believe the Italian edition of Father to the Stars is a collection and not an omnibus, although that's how it currently appears in the database using the "one novel" rule. By either the current ISFDB definition or my personal one, the four publications I point to in the Biblioteca di Urania series are considered omnibuses. Mhhutchins 01:48, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Catalog numbers

You may not have noticed it, but I've been going behind you and adding the # to the catalog numbers you've been giving to publication records. That's the ISFDB standard for non-ISBN catalog numbers. BTW, are you certain these are catalog numbers and not a code for something else? Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:16, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot about the #. I am not sure about the meaning of the code, I noticed it because it is prominently printed with the corresponding bar code. If in these cases it is more appropriate to avoid using it, I will remove it, leaving the notes to document its presence. --Pips55 22:29, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

No, there's no problem keeping it in the catalog field, especially if it corresponds with the bar code number. They appear to be assigned in ascending order chronologically, so they may be a legitimate catalog number. Did the magazines issued by Mondadori also have these numbers? Mhhutchins 23:00, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Le vie della frontiera

The page count of this record has been duplicated in the price field. Mhhutchins 22:18, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Corrected, thanks. --Pips55 22:31, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Survival Kit

Hi, I just added cover artist Colin Hay to Survival Kit (Panther 1979). Horzel 11:53, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! --Pips55 20:26, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Vacation Time !

See you all in a couple of weeks ... --Pips55 22:27, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

DAW Collectors publication series

In filling out the DAW Collectors Books publication series, I have a question about a book that you verified. John Steakley's Armor, 11th printing, has a note with the "DAW Collector's Number". Since many reprint editions didn't actually list this number, I was hoping you could tell me whether this note was "inherited" from other editions of the book, or whether it actually appears on this edition of the book, and if so, where -- e.g. on the cover, the spine, or the copyright page. Thanks much, Chavey 20:38, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Glad to help. The "DAW Collector's Number" is cited 'in extenso' on copyright page as "DAW Book Collectors No. 605", while on cover page is present the number as "No. 605", on the lower right under the DAW logo; no citation on spine. I uploaded a new cover scan, slightly better of the Amazon one, to show you the placement of the number on cover. --Pips55 20:53, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the help! I've added this edition to the publications series. And that certainly is a better cover scan. Chavey 02:39, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Il pianeta dimenticato

Could you please clarify the situation with Il pianeta dimenticato? I see that there are two Title records for it, one set up as a VT of The Forgotten Planet and the other one listed as a standalone Title record. Are you trying to merge the two and having trouble because Millemondi 1973: Tre Romanzi completi di Murray Leinster contains both of these records, so the merge page gives you a big yellow warning? If so, then the easiest way to handle the situation would be to "remove" one of the titles from this pub and then merge them. Or is there something else (possibly more nefarious, not to say eldritch!) going on? Ahasuerus 22:28, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

It is more of a case of me 'running in circles'. While editing Millemondi 1973, I noticed the incomplete date and the fact that 'Il pianeta dimenticato' was grayed and so unchangeable at the publication level, due to a merge. Without much thinking, I proceeded to duplicate the title in the pub, with the complete date, and marked the old one for removal (the xxx in page). Examining the two merged pubs in which the novel is present, I saw that the novels were translated by different translators so, in my opinion, they should not be merged. I submitted the unmerge of the two pubs and I would have proceeded with removing one title from Millemondi 1973, re-varianting and adding a note at the title level to explain that they were different versions.--Pips55 23:14, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Even though there's a function to do so, there's some strange behavior with unmerging container pubs from content titles at the title level. It's best to use the "Remove Titles from This Pub" function at the publication level. Once they're removed you can variant them to the English title and then note the differences so that a later editor won't merge them again. Mhhutchins 02:15, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

Very true. A fix for unmerging certain title types is currently in the queue, but for now it's best to use Remove Title. Ahasuerus 03:08, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

Ok, thanks --Pips55 15:00, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

Lippi's Millemond... anthologies

Are you certain that the number of contents should be part of the title of these anthologies? Mhhutchins 21:44, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

It is how the source (fantascienza.com) reports them. When I pull out the pubs I own to verify them, I will be more precise. --Pips55 21:53, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

That's fine, but wouldn't it be smarter to check out a few now, so that you can make the determination without having to go back and make corrections on dozens of records? I'm just saying... Mhhutchins 22:01, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for your wise advice: the number of contents is present on cover and title page as a subtitle (smaller print, on spine there is only Millemondi...) in the few I checked; the same convention is also present in the preceding Montanari edited Millemondi pubs. I think that it is proper to move the information from the title to the notes field: I remember thinking something like that when I started working on Millemondi, but Ernesto already had a few titles submitted so I considered his submission style as an accepted standard. --Pips55 20:49, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

Futuro remoto

I changed the type of this record from ANTHOLOGY to OMNIBUS, because it contains three novels. Mhhutchins 02:12, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Same situation with this record. Mhhutchins 02:13, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Ah, those omnibuses; I must stick a Post-It om my monitor. Thanks. --Pips55 20:23, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Mort / Discworld

I have the first printing of the Harper Torch edition of this book. I have found a portfolio of non-fiction in the back of the book. They include a character listing, a brief musing on Discworld, Discworld on thirty dollars a day, and a crossword puzzle. Could you check and see if this portfolio, or whatever, is in the edition that you have verified? MLB 11:07, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

Yours must be a 'De Luxe' edition, my one contains just the novel, preceded by a blurb and 'biography' page. --Pips55 21:14, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

Sorry to take so long to get back to you, but thanks. MLB 10:15, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Psychon e altri simulacri

I have approved Psychon e altri simulacri, but shouldn't "Gli occhi del cane" be a short story rather than a serial? Ahasuerus 07:31, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Finger faster than eye (or brain ...). Corrected, thanks --Pips55 20:25, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Merge approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 20:35, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Death Wish

I have a submission on hold that wants to make a variant of the title Death Wish by Sheckley into an Italian title by Ned Lang. Was this intended or an error? --~ Bill, Bluesman 21:37, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

My intention was to make the Italian title by Ned Lang a variant of Death Wish by Sheckley; did I do the other way round ? --Pips55 21:48, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

No, I'm just not aware that Ned Lang is a pseudonym for Sheckley. Most of the variants you submit have the same name on both sides, just wanted to check! --~ Bill, Bluesman 21:54, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Image uploads

I see that you're uploading images to the ISFDB server which appear to be ones taken from the Fantascienza website. For example: the one on this page appears to be identical to this one which you uploaded to our server. Because we already have permission from Fantascienza to deeplink to their images, uploading the images to our website would seem to be unnecessary. If these were respectable images in both size and quality I might think differently, but these are pretty poor images. In fact, the "thumbnail" that loads with the publication record is larger than the actual file, making the image even worse. If you're unable to find better images, please consider just linking to the Fantascienza files. Thanks.

BTW, I noticed at least some records in the series have not been sourced, like this one, this one and this one. Are these records that you created? Mhhutchins 04:09, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

The images do not come from Fantascienza and in my opinion are (slightly) better than those on Fantascienza: you can make out the author and the graphics, at least. I found them on SFQuadrant, which I have seen used as a source elsewhere in ISFDB. --Pips55 21:02, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Regardless, they're still pretty bad. To avoid going through the trouble of uploading them to the ISFDB server, I would suggest contacting the owners of that website to obtain permission to link to their images. That's up to you, but I just hate seeing so much effort and wasted space going to link such bad images. Why not just link the Fantascienzs images? Is the difference between the two worth the effort you're going through just to add such bad images to the ISFDB? About the non-sourced records: did you create those records? Mhhutchins 21:59, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Fantascienza images are really bad, anything better in my opinion deserves the effort, but I understand space concerns so I will ask permission to link to their images. A bad cover is more informative than a blank one, verifiers will add better ones. I did create the non-sourced records with images I found on SFQuadrant. --Pips55 22:49, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

When you get a chance, can you go back and add the data source to the note field of the publication records? Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:33, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Sure, no problem --Pips55 20:49, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

The source for the data, not the cover. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:58, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

This one and this one are sourced ("Data from www.fantascienza.com"); I have the remaining one , added now the source of the information about pricing and the verification.--Pips55 21:12, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Sourcing of SFBC (Italy) editions

You've failed to source the last dozen or so submissions adding publication records to the SFBC (Italy) titles. Is this an oversight? Mhhutchins 00:57, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Most of them are sourced (fantascienza.com or sfquadrant.com); I did not source the book I will verify and three reprints of books already verified by Ernesto. I should have informed the Moderator about that, in addition to the source information. This series is a mess: editorial policy was schizofrenic (series numbering post-dates the editions, reprints were obtained from the entire typographical material with same copyright page and ensuing confusion about the publication date, reprints of different format in the same year, complimentary copies sold, different distribution channels with different prices for the same book) and data are sparse and often incomplete. How I miss Urania ... --Pips55 16:55, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I understand. Add a "Note to Moderator" that you're working from the book in hand and will be doing a primary verification of the record. That way the Moderator doesn't have to question the data or do any research to confirm it. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:13, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

La grande luce

Urania [205] has this title as a translation of "The Shrouded Planet", by Robert Randall. Wouldn't a more accurate literal translation be "A Dawning Light" [the other half of the duology]? I ask because Tuck has that relationship [though he errs in having the piece in Urania 204] and even with my limited Italian [my Latin is much better!!] the latter sounds like a more literal translation. --~ Bill, Bluesman 04:18, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

A literal translation for "A Dawning Light" would be "La Luce dell'Alba" (see); beware of italian title translations: our translators are extremely creative. Italian sources (Ernesto's Catalog, Mondourania and Uraniamania) confirm that 'La grande luce' is a translation of "The Shrouded Planet", Gnome edition 1957; the Catalog even reports the three stories composing the novel, which is a fix-up\expansion. How come your Latin is so good ? --Pips55 15:48, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

If Bluesman is around my age (58), he probably had Latin in high school, which was de riguer for all bright students (which I suspect he was). I would have jumped to the same conclusion, as I'm sure did Tuck. Mhhutchins 17:45, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

Got you by a few years, and yes I was a bright student and absolutely loved Latin - doorway to so many other languages. The German I took did NOT stick, Spanish would have been better. Tuck notes just the one Italian translation, nothing under his listing of "The Shrouded Planet". He may just have mixed them up, one of his rare errors. Thanks for the response! --~ Bill, Bluesman 02:24, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

Interno Giallo/Mondadori

Is this the full name of the publisher or is "Interno Giallo" an imprint of "Mondadori"? If the latter, there should be spaces around the slant. This will help when (if ever) we get around to separating imprints from publishers. I can update the publisher name in one submission if needed. Thanks. Mhhutchins 23:48, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

It is the name of the publisher (an 'explicit' imprint): "Interno Giallo" was a publisher that was bought by Mondadori, and Mondadori was added to the name in the subsequent publications. Please update the publisher name, I will add the spaces from now on, thanks. --Pips55 00:00, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

If Mondadori is not given as the publisher in the earlier publications, it should not be entered into the publisher field. At the point the publisher Interno Giallo became an imprint of Mondadori, both can be entered into the publisher field. Are there any early publications of these you've entered that do not give Mondadori as the publisher? Mhhutchins 00:23, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

No, I have added only Interno Giallo books after the acquisition, which report also Mondadori as publisher; I will add later the early Interno Giallo books, without Mondadori. --Pips55 21:34, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Il segno dello sparviero

The submission for this title has the author as Angela Fassio, but the cover adds the initial 'P.' Is it not in the name on the title page? We don't have the name either way as yet. --~ Bill, Bluesman 01:05, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

I have not heard of her before the submission: I cannot say which name is on title page, Fantascienza.com reports only 'Angela Fassio'.

I have found her website and the name on all the covers of her works published in Narrativa Nord is 'Angela P. Fassio'; I'd say we stick with what we can see and leave to verifiers to check the title page. --Pips55 18:21, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Good enough, I'll accept the submission and add the 'P." Thanks! --~ Bill, Bluesman 20:29, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Little Brother

Replaced amazon scan for your verified here. Hauck 19:03, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Must have forgotten to add my one, thanks ! --Pips55 20:56, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Ready to Mod? [2]

You've come a long way in five months. Feel any the more ready? --~ Bill, Bluesman 23:05, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

I feel more confident now, especially for Italian publications; I am not sure to be of significant help for the English ones, though, due to a limited access to primary sources. Provided this is not a major problem, along with my fractured English, I will gladly accept the nomination. Thanks for the consideration. --Pips55 22:06, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

The [process ] has been initiated! --~ Bill, Bluesman 00:24, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Oh, there seems to be a misprint: I guess it shouldn't read 'fractured English' but excellent English. Stonecreek 11:06, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations, you are now a moderator! :-) Ahasuerus 07:44, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations! I think Ernesto would be sitting up and clapping at the moment. --~ Bill, Bluesman 16:33, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations! Good to have an Italian moderator at last. --Willem H. 18:38, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Thank you and all the other Moderators who helped me so much in these months: I am sure that I will still need a lot of help, so bear with me ... --Pips55 21:10, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

You are most welcome! Enjoy the freedom. Don't hold your breath for the 'magic decoder ring' though, seems that's just a lure, or Ahasuerus is hoarding them .... And keep proof-reading your own submissions, it's amazing how many typos creep in once the pressure is off! Ciao! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:36, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations from me too. It's about time, I had you in my sights months ago! Glad to see the rest of the editors have got by without me for the last few weeks. Enjoy your new freedom and don't be afraid to ask for help still. BLongley 17:55, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

(unindent) Yes, now I am free to check three times everything I submit ! My submission 'rate' dropped dramatically... Thanks again (seriously) and I cannot say how much I am in debt with Ernesto, whose stupendous work I am still leeching --Pips55 21:13, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

At the time he was submitting, Ernesto was hampered by the limitations of the ISFDB software's handling of translations. You've done a fine job of converting his earlier work to our current standards, and that's a commendable accomplishment. This required learning a lot more about the intricacies of the database than the average editor. Within very little time, you were varianting and merging along with the pros. You're a great addition to the ISFDB team of moderators. Congratulations. Mhhutchins 22:09, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Trader to the Stars

I added some notes to this verified pub. Thanks, --Willem H. 20:24, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Thank you --Pips55 21:43, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Series data in variant title records

I'm not sure if you were aware of the standard which prohibits series data from being entered into variant title records. Doing so will cause both titles to be displayed in the series listing. For example, in this series, The Crash is listed twice. A search of the Recent Integrations list showed that you recently updated this variant title record, although there's no way of knowing who actually added the series data to the record. Once you've had a chance to look at, feel free to remove the series data. Or if you had no hand in it, I'll gladly update the record. Please forgive me if you were familiar with this standard and the series data was added by another editor. Thanks. Mhhutchins 05:07, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

I varianted the English version (which was already assigned to the series) to the German parent title which I have previously added, and ignoring the standard, did not remove the series data. I should have noticed something strange in the series listing, I usually check ... I will provide to remove the series data. Happy New Year and thank you very much for your attention and keen eye --Pips55 22:00, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

In most cases, series data that appears in a record which is subsequently varianted to another record is removed from the variant and transferred to the parent. I'll do some testing to see if that doesn't happen when the new parent has a different language set. I'll get back with you. Mhhutchins 06:39, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

After various tests, I was only able to duplicate the results of series data remaining with the variant record when the series data was part of both records before the submission to variant one to the other was made. So in cases where both title records are in the same series, once one has been made a variant of the other, the editor has to manually remove the series data from the variant record. If the parent record didn't contain series data, the system automatically transfers the data from the variant record to the new parent record. Mhhutchins 06:54, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

That's right. At one point I considered changing the logic so that it would automatically replace the parent title's series data with the variant's, but I figured that it could lead to unintended results. Ahasuerus 07:23, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Agent to the Stars

Hello! Could you please check if your verified copy of Agent to the Stars (2nd printing of Agent to the Stars) has Author's Note and Acknowledgments (Agent to the Stars) and on which page. Thank you in advance. ForJohnScalzi 00:52, 7 January 2013 (UTC).

It is on page 7; I modified the pub record accordingly. Do you happen to know the pub date for this reprint (Copyright page is not clear on the subject)? Thanks --Pips55 23:46, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Thank you! No, I cannot find any information on the pub date for the second printing, which is the common thing with Tor reprints. Another small thing: there are currently two covers uploaded for the book: one by yourself and another. The second one seems to be of better quality, but the color scheme is slightly different. Please have a look. Thank you! ForJohnScalzi 00:53, 8 January 2013 (UTC).

My cover is in reality slightly lighter than the other, but it could be due to different scanner calibration (the cover has a semi-matte finish, which plays havoc with my scanner). For the color scheme, I cannot help you: I am color blind ...--Pips55 22:21, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Power

Scanned in a clearer image and found a signature on the cover of [this], right at the bottom about 2cm in from the left edge. Also added notes. Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 22:06, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Nice catch, hawk-eye! --Pips55 22:31, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Transition

Replaced the amazon cover for your verified here. Hauck 17:17, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Farmer's Pianeta in via di sviluppo

You replaced the image that you'd previously uploaded for this publication with one that appears to be jacketless. Was this your intention? Mhhutchins 22:17, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Same situation with this record. Mhhutchins 22:18, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes, the first edition of the first three books of the series were without cover, a fact that I discovered from Catalogo Vegetti and UraniaMania after having erroneously used the covers of successive editions. The images are the best I could find. --Pips55 22:26, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

It would be a good idea to note the absence of a dustjacket so that another editor won't come along and add the cover art used in later editions. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:55, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Done, thanks --Pips55 23:03, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

The Interpreter [duplicate records]

There is [this] record and [this] one. Both are for the same edition but the first one is entered under the correct Variant whereas the second is not. Unfortunately the P1 verifiers in each case are no longer active [though Unapersson shows up once in a rare while]. It's less work to just move your verification to the other record and delete the one under the wrong title record. A note on Unapersson's talk page and then she could add back a verification if/when she returns? Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 06:02, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Strange - I'm sure I have that book somewhere bur I'm not a verifier on either pub. Unfortunately it looks as though a deletion of the second pub would lose a verification, and I currently can't think of a way to preserve it automatically. So do remember to reverify it, I think this is one of the few things a Mod can't do for you.BLongley 09:34, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

I moved my verification; should I delete the incorrect pub, or we wait for Unapersson (I have ready the note to her talk page)? --Pips55 23:43, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Well done on figuring out how to move a verification! I'm pretty sure we've never actually documented the process - or did you find an obscure page with the process on? Even after 6 years here, I've not mastered wiki-searching. BLongley 06:26, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

No page or document: it was just the line of bread crumbs that Bluesman left for me ... --Pips55 21:28, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to document how you did it. Mine is to help out with an automatic moving-up of verifications if an earlier one gets moved to transient. (Or deleted if the one transient slot is already taken.)BLongley 01:15, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

You are starting to have me worried: I just added a verification to the right pub in the first slot available and removed the one I had placed on the wrong one. This I called 'Moving my verification' and, from what are you saying, I get that probably it was not the correct thing to do ! --Pips55 21:20, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

No, I think you got it right. Perhaps it should be called 'Moving a verification from one publication to another' though, moving verifications within one publication is something we still need to address. BLongley 21:54, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Queued submissions

You have several unworked submissions sitting in the queue. Some of them don't appear to be making a change to the record. And others are in error because of missing data, meaning a change was made in one or more of the record's contents after the submission was placed in the queue. These will have to be hard-rejected. Is there a reason for not handling them? Mhhutchins 16:49, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

No, and I do not recollect what (and if) I was thinking when I made those submissions. I'll check more often, thanks --Pips55 21:33, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Japanese Tales... by Rampo

There are a few problems with this publication record. The publication date must be wrong. No book published in 1956 had an ISBN. Your stated source (OCLC) doesn't give a publication date either. According to one Amazon listing (for the "14th edition") a printing with this ISBN was published on December 15, 1989. There is a better OCLC record which is most likely for the first US edition in 1956. Also, there are a lot of problems with the capitalization of the titles, both the main title and the contents. You should be using standard English capitalization rules which are explained here (under "Case"). Thanks. Mhhutchins 04:48, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

Even better source: the LCCN of the original 1956 edition. Mhhutchins 04:52, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

There is something wrong, but I am not sure it is the publication date (I got that from "Showing all editions" option in WorldCat): surely, the ISBN should NOT be there. I chose the source OCLC because it was the first (oldest) non-ebook edition with a complete content list and a cover matching title and author. I used the data without thinking about capitalization rules (which I should know), it does not come natural in Italian: I will remember and correct the titles and, if you think it is enough, remove the ISBN. Thanks for your attention. --Pips55 22:31, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

The ISBN should naturally be removed from a 1956 publication. You should also remove the OCLC record number as your source and give the other one. It wouldn't hurt to link the LCCN to the record also. Mhhutchins 00:06, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Will do; for learning purposes, why do you consider the other OCLC as a better one than the one I chose ? --Pips55 00:14, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Because the OCLC you give as the source has the ISBN, which indicates that it's a record for a later printing, not the 1956 first edition which your record purports to be. Mhhutchins 01:53, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

The Cobra Trilogy

I added words to the notes for The Cobra Trilogy. Bob 03:48, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Dickinson's The Green Gene

Hello, Andrea! I added the cover artist (and source for it) to this, Christian Stonecreek 18:52, 22 April 2013 (UTC).

Nice catch, thanks --Pips55 21:39, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

The Engineer ReConditioned

As one of the primary verifiers of this pub, could you please check the note that I posted on the Verifications board a few minutes ago? TIA! Ahasuerus 04:10, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

The Star Fox

Hello Andrea, I've replaced the amazon scan and added notes for your verified here. Hervé Hauck 15:07, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

Grazie --Pips55 19:00, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

Panther version of Flow My Tears the Policeman Said

I've added an artist credit to http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?230489 Prof beard 17:18, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks --Pips55 21:36, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

The Sky Road

Hello, I've replaced amazon scan and added notes about questionnaire card for your verified here. Hauck 11:41, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks (BTW, is it really "redaer questionnaire" ?) --Pips55 21:46, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

No (shame on me). Hauck 10:20, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Driftglass/Starshards

Hi - I've added a scan plus a note to: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?11492 Prof beard 14:31, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks --Pips55 21:58, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Ardor on Aros

Have replaced Amazon Link to cover of Ardor on Aros with a scan of a verified copy http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?244361 Prof beard 14:21, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

The Same to You Doubled and Other Stories

Have replaced the Amazon image link (which appears to be broken) with a scan of my verified copy in The Same to You Doubled and Other Stories http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?121901 Prof beard 13:31, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Hothouse

Hi. Can I ask you to check your copy of this record, please? My copy has "Brian Aldiss" on the title page rather than "Brian W. Aldiss". Many thanks. --AliHarlow 16:46, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

After waiting quite a long time, it is safe to go on and make the appropriate change, I'd think. Stonecreek 06:43, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

I have approved the title switch, and I also fixed the authorship on the pub itself to be "Brian Aldiss". --MartyD 11:46, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

I also added an OCLC # and link. --MartyD 11:52, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Marty. I wasn't sure if the author would filter through to the pub or not. --AliHarlow 20:18, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Bruce Sterling - La matrice spezzata/Schismatrix Plus

Much like Erasmus Magister, La matrice spezzata is showing up in Bruce Sterling's (English) collections when it shouldn't, since it seems to be an Italian edition of Schismatrix Plus. But what confuses the issue is that, actually, if the Italian was 1995 and the English was 1996, Schismatrix Plus would be a variant of La matrice spezzata. So I'm not sure how to handle that. --J-Sun 22:36, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Since Andrea doesn't seem to be around too often nowadays, I stepped in and varianted the Italian to the English title. That the Italian Edition was published earlier wouldn't make it the parent title, though. Also, the note of an 'original Italian collection' doesn't do it. It really seems more that the translator did a really fast job. This happens now and then, but we wouldn't make Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition into a variant of Grusomhedsudstillingen, wouldn't we? Stonecreek 06:40, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Works for me - thanks! :) --J-Sun 12:31, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Cover artist for The Flies of Memory

An editor proposes changing the cover artist credit on your verified The Flies of Memory from Mike Posen (which is what Locus1 says) to Mick Posen, based on the back-cover credit. Would you double-check and see what your copy says? I will also check with the 2-verifier; if I get confirmation from either of you, I will accept the edit. Thanks. --MartyD 11:30, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

The 2-verifier confirmed "Mick" on the back cover, so I accepted the edit and adjusted the notes to remove Locus1 as source for the artist credit and to reflect Locus1's error. If you find your copy does not agree, let me know. Thanks. --MartyD 10:38, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Galactic Pot Healer

Hi. Can I ask you to check your copy of 230537, please? Mine has "Galactic Pot-Healer" on the title page rather than "Galactic Pot Healer". Many thanks. --AliHarlow 17:38, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Please make a submission to correct the record. If this user's copy differs, we can create a record for the variant title. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:39, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Done. Many thanks. --AliHarlow 06:57, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

The Stars Like Dust

Hello, I took the liberty to assume that your Sphere printing here has its title without comma. Can you please confirm ? Thanks. Hauck 16:53, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

The Terminal Beach

Hi. Replaced scan of your verified (correct dimension, better definition). Thanks. Linguist 10:07, 27 May 2014 (UTC).

Darwin's Radio

Added the 3 essay contents and cover art credit to your verified pub. PeteYoung 14:08, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

The Cosmic Puppets

Hello. I have just added some notes to your verified, and noticed that the publisher entry is “Panther / Grafton”. My own copy is “Grafton / Collins (UK)”. Either the first entry is an error, of these are two distinct editions. Could you please check this point ? Thanks a lot. Linguist 09:55, 10 June 2014 (UTC).

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Replaced the cover scan (better definition) and added some notes for your verified. Thanks. Linguist 09:58, 14 June 2014 (UTC).

Beyond Lies the Wub

Hello. I have added some notes to your verified, and will upload a new cover scan. A few things bother me about this pub : there is no source for the 1993 date (my copy, 3rd printing, only has “published by Grafton 1990”); and there is no “Foreword” by Steven Owen Godersky (I've just been through the whole book). I suppose that it comes from a clone of the 1987 Underwood-Miller edition, and in my opinion a) it would have to be suppressed, and b) this 1993 date would need to be checked or given a source. Thanks for looking it up if possible. Linguist 13:29, 17 June 2014 (UTC).

Second Variety

Replaced the cover scan (whole wraparound) and added some notes for your verified. Thanks. Linguist 12:36, 18 June 2014 (UTC).

The Father-Thing

Ditto for this one. Thanks. Linguist 08:57, 19 June 2014 (UTC).

Jingo

Replaced cover on your verified, assuming Amazon has swapped cover images on us again. --AliHarlow 15:24, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

The Languages of Pao

Added some notes to your verified. Thanks. Linguist 09:00, 24 July 2014 (UTC).

The War Against the Rull

Added some notes to your verified. Thanks. Linguist 09:49, 2 August 2014 (UTC).

The Long Way Home

Exact publication date, from Review slip, added to [this] --~ Bill, Bluesman 21:46, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Diamond Mask

Hi. Can I ask you to check the price of 377155, please. My copy has a price of £5.99 (Australia $12.95) and it seems unlikely that a second printing would be cheaper than the original. Many thanks. --AliHarlow 21:31, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

The Fall of the Towers

You have verified this. Please enter the discussion on the community portal whether we can eliminate two title records that are included in your pubs. Thanks, Patrick -- Herzbube ^Talk 18:53, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Web of the Witch World

Replaced the cover scan and added some notes to this pub that we both have verified. Patrick -- Herzbube ^Talk 16:23, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness

Replaced the reference to the Fantastic Fiction image of Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness with the original scan. You are listed as Primary reference. Doug 14:24, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Larry Niven's The Legacy of Heorot

Replaced the Amazon image of Larry Niven's The Legacy of Heorot with one I scanned. You are listed as Primary reference. It looks like you had loaded a scan a couple years ago, but never updated the entry to point to it. Doug 20:36, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Year of the Quiet Sun

Found a signature on the cover of [this], at 7 o'clock on the timepiece. --~ Bill, Bluesman 03:32, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Greg Bear's / (Slant)

Replaced the Amazon image of Greg Bear's / (Slant) with one I scanned. You are listed as Primary2 reference. Doug 14:24, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

David Brin's Heaven's Reach

Replaced the Amazon image of David Brin's Heaven's Reach with one I scanned. You are listed as Primary3 reference. Doug 15:39, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Matter

Replaced the Amazon image for this pub that you verified with an ISFDB cover scan. Cheers, Patrick -- Herzbube ^Talk 16:23, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Schismatrix +

Hello, due to the fact that the novel _Schismatrix_ is included in this book (and its diverse translations), I've changed the type õf the parent type from COLLECTION to OMNIBUS. You'll may need to change the type of the publication that you verified. Hope that you'll agree. Hauck 11:45, 22 October 2014 (UTC)

Terry Pratchett's Jingo

Replaced the Amazon image of Terry Pratchett's Jingo with one I scanned. You are listed as Primary reference. Doug 19:21, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Terry Pratchett's Pyramids

Replaced the Amazon image of Terry Pratchett's Pyramids with one I scanned. You are listed as Primary2 reference. Doug 14:05, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

L'enigma di Star's Rest

Artist in this page [1] are same as in DAW pb. Anti Monitor 22:13, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

Surface Detail

I had a image updated of this book with the printing of "The Times" on the cover. If it is not the right one changed it please.Wjmvanruth 03:49, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

The Gabble and other stories

I Updated this record [2] with the name of an artist andadditional note's, thank you. Wjmvanruth 21:57, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Jizzle

Re this book. Added the note "Illustration: E. M. Clifton-Dey" printed vertically on the right hand lower side. He is the same as Richard Clifton-Dey. --Mavmaramis 19:04, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Worthing Saga

Replaced cover of this book with the full wraparound version. --Mavmaramis 17:51, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Kirlian Quest

Cover art for this book is Fred Gambino credited on page 57 of Caldwell's "Star Quest". Record amended accordingly. --Mavmaramis 15:22, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

The Wanderer

Replaced cover of this book with full wraparound version. --Mavmaramis 17:18, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

Bring the Jubilee

Replaced cover of this book with full wraparound version. --Mavmaramis 17:13, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Davy

Replaced cover of this book with full wraparound version. --Mavmaramis 18:11, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Diggers

Replaced Amazon cover of this book with full wraparound version scanned from my own copy. --Mavmaramis 18:34, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Mort

Replaced cover of this book with full wraparound version. --Mavmaramis 18:54, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Pratchett - Pyramids

Replaced cover of this book with full wraparound version. --Mavmaramis 19:01, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Truckers

Replaced Amazon cover of this book with full wraparound version scanned from my own copy. Corrected some errors in the notes mainly incorrect printing history as stated "First published in Great Britain by Doubleday 1989. Corgi edition published 1990, reprinted 1990 (three times), 1991 (three times)." patently wrong for a 1990 edition - edited down to "First published in Great Britain by Doubleday 1989. Corgi edition published 1990" *(as per printing history on copyrigh page of my copy) and corrected the incorrect other prices from "Australia $6.95, New Zealand $9.95" to "NZ$7.95, A$5.95" and added "Can. $4.50 front cover upper left." --Mavmaramis 19:27, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

The Venging

Hi, your verified copy says '4th edition from numberline.' Could you please state exactly HOW the numberline reads? There is some questioning about how this publisher uses the numberline.--Dirk P Broer 12:59, 27 September 2015 (UTC)

Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods"

In this pub I've replace the Amazon image with a scanned image. Doug 14:59, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Quozl - pub notes

I've added pub notes on publication date, month, cover art credit and pricing to your PV2'd Quozl, in the absence of PV1 BLongley. Astrodan 12:04, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Necropath

Have added the Canadian cover price to our verified Necropath. Thanks. PeteYoung 11:42, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Blue Mars

Made some changes to this edition of Blue Mars based on this conversation. Albinoflea 02:58, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Protector

Replaced the ISFDB cover scan for this pub that you verified with a better image. Cheers, Patrick -- Herzbube ^Talk 20:00, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Complete A-M City guide

More details on cover [3].--Auric 20:49, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

The Day of the Triffids

This pub that you verified: I uploaded a new cover scan with better quality. Cheers, Patrick -- Herzbube ^Talk 16:06, 11 May 2016 (UTC)