User talk:Qshadow

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Welcome!

Hello, Qshadow, 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:

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 16:32, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Adding author data to pseudonyms

We usually don't provide author data for pseudonyms, so I'm holding those submissions that do this for discussion. For example, "J. D. Robb" wasn't born in 1950, but Nora Roberts was. There's a link on the pseudonym page to the canonical author's summary page, where complete author data is provided. Mhhutchins 16:59, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Please see this discussion. Thanks. (One of them was accidentally accepted. I've removed the date.) Mhhutchins 21:12, 11 January 2011 (UTC)
I agree, this seems a reasonable policy. Qshadow 08:33, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Gillian Rubinstein

I have approved the additional data for Gillian Rubinstein, but I wonder whether her legal name is really "Gillian Margaret Hanson Rubinstein". She was apparently born "Gillian Margaret Hanson" and then changed her last name to "Rubinstein", but do we know if she turned her maiden name into a second middle name? Ahasuerus 22:47, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I must admit that now as you brought my attention to this I am also confused. I saw this http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3438015240/rubinstein-gillian-margaret-hanson.html and thought this the legal name. But maybe they are not putting there the "legal name" in our definition? Please choose whatever you see as best. Qshadow 08:27, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
After reviewing the "encyclopedia.com" page that you linked, I think we can follow their lead and leave all middle names as they currently are. It's standard bibliographic practice to list middle names in parentheses if they are not used by the author and the source is pretty solid, so we should fine. Thanks for finding it! Ahasuerus 00:40, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

ISDB dating

All dates should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD. When the month or day is unknown, complete with zeros. I accepted the submission adding birth and death dates to Rodrigues Ottolengui before realizing you'd left off the -MM-DD. That's why the system automatically gives them as "unknown". Please update when you get the chance. Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:05, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Same situation with Victor Hugo, Frank Richardson Pierce, Jean de La Hire, Restif de La Bretonne, William Mudford, Felix Bodin and Rudolph De Cordova. Mhhutchins 15:07, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
And Lucretia P. Hale, J. E. Grinstead, and Charles De Kay. Also, country standard is USA. I'm accepting the ones that have additional information and rejecting the ones that only add dates (incorrectly). Mhhutchins 15:08, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
I will fix it, sorry. Qshadow 15:19, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Author Edits

I've been working on authors for a couple of years now, and I'm a little bothered by some of your recent author edits. Your deletion of a large number of legal names is especially bothersome. As titled this is used for the author's legal name and for the full reading of the canonical name, if initials are used. In many cases these were entered using Gale's Contemporary Authors, Who's Who, and other well known references. In some cases after reviewing your edit history I can see where your edits are heading, in others not. It would be reassuring to me to have a better idea of your intent.--Rkihara 17:55, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, after looking over your entries again it looks like you're cleaning up pseudonym/author relationships.--Rkihara 18:11, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

You do seem to be rushing things a bit though - you confused Kevin David Anderson and Kevin J. Anderson, and Peter Hamilton and Peter F. Hamilton for instance. Please be a little more careful. BLongley 18:13, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
And Al Reynolds and Alastair Reynolds. Please check the dates of the works they've written against the proposed birth date - at least twice you've suggested they wrote stuff before they were born. BLongley 18:19, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
BLongley. I am really sorry. I was a bit tired i guess. Will be much more careful now. Thanks for finding these errors!Qshadow 18:25, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
No worries - that's why we have moderators. BLongley 18:58, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
Rkihara. I always try to move the data from ps to real author. Never do I just delete it (well at least i hope so, I even double checked that no data was lost without moving using previous snapshot of ISFDB). Did you revert any of my edits? Qshadow 18:25, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
I haven't reverted any of your edits. It took me a while to figure out what you were doing, since the edit history is in reverse chronological order. After I reviewed the files in the correct order along with the changes it made sense. I should have realized that these were not standalone edits.--Rkihara 00:20, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Fuzzy Matches Project

I've made a few changes to the project page: 1) split it into sections (to avoid conflicts if more than one editor is working on it at the same time), 2) separated the matched pairs for better display, and 3) changed the designated markings and their definitions. This latter change is closer to the reasons why such problems may exist. It's not the names themselves that are the errors, but possible errors in the title records which created those names. This project is really going to clean-up many errors in the db. Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:08, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

I am glad to help, and I have other ideas as well. I saw that you and BLongley jumped on the cleanup work like two wolves :) Thanks, for the help! I am working on double checking that I haven't missed anything and maybe will add a few more suspicious pairs. Qshadow 18:08, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
When you've been around as long as we have, a new project can be quite rejuvenating. BLongley 20:45, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

C. Henry = Henry van Dyke

What is your source that "C. Henry" who had the story "The Ruling Passion" in a 1930 issue of Weird Tales is Henry van Dyke? True, van Dyke had a collection of stories titled The Ruling Passion: Tales of Nature and Human Nature, but no story by that name appears in the collection. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:46, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

I found that Henry van Dyke had the same title story, but I still was not sure, so I submitted it for review. I wanted to write a comment for moderator about submission that I am not sure about this edit, but no comments possible there. Is it possible to add comments fields? Qshadow 18:54, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
Comments to Mod like this? Mkpseudo.jpg BLongley 21:46, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
If so, it should be fairly trivial, although adding such to Remove Pseudonym may make the screen rather cluttered. Or are you asking to have permanent notes for the reason stored in the database? BLongley 21:46, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
Blongley, this solution would be perfect. I do not need it to be permanent notes. For permanent notes there is the Bio page that I will use. Thanks, Qshadow 22:16, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
OK, change submitted for Ahasuerus to look at when he returns from his travels. BLongley 23:11, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
By the way, don't be afraid to request enhancements at our Sourceforge page. We'd rather know where we could improve, even if we haven't got the resources to do it just yet. But as you can see, we've squashed 75% of the bugs and implemented almost a third of the Feature Requests. BLongley 23:41, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, I will. Qshadow 00:38, 21 August 2011 (UTC)
It's probably better to inquire on the Help Desk before submitting when you're not sure about pseudonyms. We've added a "Note to the Moderator" field in many submissions, but haven't made one yet for this type (making pseudonyms.) Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:39, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
No problem, will use the Help Desk if it is easier for you. Qshadow 19:43, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
Better, not easier. If a "Note to the Moderator" field is added to this type of submission, it should be used the same as other types: to provide the moderator with additional information that will guide them to approve the submission. If you have doubts, questions or concerns about the pseudonym, don't make a submission. Make an inquiry at the Help Desk. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:50, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Schema:license_keys

You asked "no longer exists, or is it future Schema?" - I believe it exists still, but isn't included in the public downloads for security reasons. (We don't want people to be able to pose as other users do we?) BLongley 18:03, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Gilles Thomas/Julia Verlanger

Hello, I've put on hold your submissions which intended to make Verlanger a pseudonym of Thomas as, it seems to me that the Verlanger name (of Elaine Taieb) is more the canonical one, cf. the Julia Verlanger Price here. What do you think ? Hauck 18:51, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Probably you are right, but my change only made variant titles, so Julia Verlanger was marked as PS of Gilles Thomas, before me. Regards, Qshadow 19:53, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
Everything is corrected now. Hauck 20:31, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Night of the Big Fire

I've rejected the submission making this title by John E. Muller into a variant of a collaborative novel by three of the authors who are known to have used the housename "John E. Muller". According to The Science Fiction Encyclopedia it was written by John S. Glasby alone. I've made it into a variant by him. Mhhutchins 21:00, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, i was not sure about this one and waited to see if it gets approved. Next time i see multiple authors, i will ask in the help desk first. Qshadow 21:19, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

"A Spot on the Sun" by Joseph Mois

What is your source that attributes this title to Erroll Collins? According to the SFE, "Some sources list all the other authors of the latter [Fantastic Science Thriller pocketbook] series – William Causett, Clyde Marfax, Joseph Mois and Simon Querry – as Redknap [Erroll Collins] pseudonyms; from stylistic evidence this seems unlikely. [JC/SH]". Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:06, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

I think there is a misunderstand of my edits, I am not changing any Author-Pseudonym relationships, and I am not making any new pseudonyms, if you look at 137808 (Joseph Mois), you will see that he is already marked as a pseudonym of "Erroll Collins", the only thing i do now is making the titles (e.g. under Joseph Mois) match this information, of course i assume that this information is correct (since it is already in ISFDB). Qshadow 21:15, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
Oh, i just though, maybe you mean that "Joseph Mois" is a REAL person, and also was used as a pseudonym of Erroll Collins? Qshadow 21:21, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
No. All I'm asking for is the source of the data that warranted your submission to make Erroll Collins the author of "A Spot on the Sun." If it was only because there's an established pseudonym between Collins and "Mois", I have to reiterate: just because a pseudonym relationship has been created between two authors doesn't mean that all of the work published under the pseudonym was published by that author. As I state above, "Joseph Mois" is a housename (which SFE corroborates), but there is no evidence that any particular work published as by "Mois" was written by Collins. We have to be careful when attributing work originally published under a housename. As it appears that your only source for the submission was the ISFDB itself, I'll reject the submission. If research provides some other source for the author credit, we can always create a variant. Thanks. Mhhutchins 03:39, 8 February 2012 (UTC)
Got it, I will check in the SFE (I didn't know they already went online). Regards, Qshadow 10:12, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Series "281"

Hi, I assume you ment to enter "Dying Earth" which in the data base is numbered 281 so I re-entered the correct series name.Kraang 00:39, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, Thanks! Qshadow 15:15, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

The Discovery of a World in the Moone

I've accepted the submission to add this record to the db, but made some changes. I'm assuming you're not working from the 1638 first edition. The most important thing to remember is that you should always give the source for your data in the record's Note field (not, BTW, the "Note to Moderator" field.) I added a publisher based on the OCLC record which I sourced. (This is difficult for such an early publication because most books weren't "published". They were privately printed.) I also changed the type of publication from NONGENRE to NONFICTION. (The former type is for nongenre novels by genre writers.) If you have any further questions about this title, ask them here. If you have questions about other titles, it's best to ask on the Help page before making a submission. Thanks for your contribution. Mhhutchins 15:45, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for explanation, it helps a lot. BTW, why do we have always add a publication? Can I just add a title with it's creation date and that's it? Qshadow 16:11, 27 October 2012 (UTC)
Yes, but it involves a work-around, and you have to be very careful about removing the extraneous data that this method involves. So here goes:
  1. Click on "Add New Omnibus" link under the Editing Tools menu.
  2. In the Metadata section, make up a title and an author. I would suggest "Missing Anatomy of Wonder Titles" as the title and your user name as the author. By using your user name you leave a trail which you will need for clean-up. Give today's date in the date field. In the Note field, add an explanatory note about what you're doing with this record. In the Note to Moderator field, explain to the moderator what you're doing.
  3. Go down to the Contents section. Leave the page field blank. Add data to the title, date, and author fields. You can change the type, if needed, from the default NOVEL, to COLLECTION, ANTHOLOGY, etc. Continue this for each work which you wish to add to the database.
  4. Submit.
After this has been accepted, there will be title records for each of the works. The only pub record will be the false one you just created (that will have to be deleted. See the next step.) It would be nice to go back to each title record to add a note about the source of the title (Anatomy of Wonder: Fifth Edition) and ask users to add publications to complete the record.
Clean-up: Once you've finished adding titles to the pub record, you will have to delete both the pub record, and its title record. Please ask if you need further assistance. Mhhutchins 19:51, 27 October 2012 (UTC)
Perfect! this is just what I needed, an easy way to add all the titles. I do not care much for publication records and it is a big frustration to me to add all publication details, so I end up not doing anything at all. Now I have a solution. I will try to add chapter 1 titles today and write all my sources and notes to moderator. Qshadow 20:30, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Missing Anatomy of Wonder Titles

At your request, I started adding the titles, and didn't stop until I'd included all of those in the first two chapters as shown on the project page. I suppose we were working at the same time. So I rejected the submission you made as it is now duplicate. Sorry. Mhhutchins 19:44, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

No problem, actually I am really happy that you added them by yourself! I have almost gone crazy from every foreign or old title and the multiple of variants each has... Qshadow 20:05, 28 October 2012 (UTC)
As I mentioned on the Help page, there's no need to worry about the variants and translations. That only matters when someone starts adding publications. Unless I'm mistaken, the purpose of your project is to enter the titles as they are given in Anatomy of Wonder. Mhhutchins 21:12, 28 October 2012 (UTC)
Not exactly, the purpose of my project is to enter the titles that are given in Anatomy of Wonder, while fixing any mistakes or typo errors. And there were errors and typos. Qshadow 11:18, 29 October 2012 (UTC)
I've noticed you're making many submissions to correct errors based on Barron's listing. It would be better to do the research to correct Barron's errors before listing them on the projects page. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:14, 29 October 2012 (UTC)
I didn't expect them to be entered completely as is. Next time I will specify if the entries are corrected and fixed or if they are "raw data" from the book. Actually next time will come very soon, I already have a "raw data" list of missing titles from another book: "The History of Science Fiction" by Adam Roberts (2005). Qshadow 19:26, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Triple Fugue

I've added a publication record to this title, learning in the process that it's a collection. Before adding the contents I want to make sure that they're spec-fic. Does Barron specify any particular story or if all of the stories are spec-fic? (I only have the first two editions of Anatomy of Wonder). Thanks for looking. Mhhutchins 22:53, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

He says: "The great majority of the serious futuristic fantasies that did creep into print in Britain during the 1920s were remarkable for their pessimism,... Unprecedentely extreme disenchantment and cynicism were mapped by Osbert Sitwell's "Triple Fugue" (1924), Shaw Desmond's Ragnarok (1926), (Barron gives more examples here).
The triple dot means unimportant text or more examples Qshadow 18:42, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

J. G. B******

I have to reject your submission to make this a pseudonym of J. G. Ballard. The first thing to try when tyou see an empty bibliography page, is "show all titles" under editing tools. There you will see that the name was used once by John Sladek. Good find by the way, the pseudonym should have been made long ago. Thanks! --Willem H. 20:30, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Asimov's "Question"

I've created a title record for this story based on the Wikipedia article. Please remember that the moderator is unable to respond to questions asked in a submission. You must post them on either the Help Desk or the Moderator Noticeboard. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:13, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Actually I am not expecting any answer, it is just a comment to let you know that I am not 100% sure about my submission. (Actually I have already submitted another submission also with "unsure" comment). Qshadow 19:19, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Please don't make submissions unless you're 100% sure that it's a valid publication. If you're not sure, ask for help on the wiki. Entering it as a novel publication wasn't the correct procedure. We are very willing and able to help you, but please ask before you make a submission. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:27, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Saroyan's Tracy's Tiger

Would you consider this a fantasy? I've never it, but my research shows that the "tiger" may be either symbolic or a psychological construct. Mhhutchins 19:21, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, actually I am trying to add the best English titles (by score) from the Russian SF DB called Fantlab.ru and on this DB people have categorized this as "Magic realism". Also "Jenny Villiers" is a "Ghost Story" by wiki and by Fantlab. and it looks like it is in one of our genres. Qshadow 19:28, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
And sorry to answer your question, the tiger was only psychological construct in the beginning but later others started seeing him too. Qshadow 19:32, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Them I'm confused. If the tiger was real then it wouldn't be a fantasy? I'll accept it, but you'll have to go back and add your data source to the Note field (NOT the Note to Moderator field). It is mandatory that an editor provide the source for their data in the record if they're not working from the actual book. And it must be a reliable secondary source. I'll do more research about Jenny Villiers. And I have to emphasize again, that if you have any concerns, whether they're questions or not, bring them up on the wiki before making a submission. It's disheartening to see editors go through the effort and then for it to be wasted. Mhhutchins 19:36, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Record is here. Please add your data source to the Note field. Also, you mistakenly added a content record to the submission. You shouldn't do this for NOVEL-type records because the system automatically creates a NOVEL content record. You'll have to remove the duplicate content from the publication record. Ask if you're not sure how to do this. Mhhutchins 19:38, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
I have added a Note, and removed one of the two titles in the content, shoud i remove the other one too? Qshadow 19:49, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
No. As I said above "remove the duplicate". And that can only be done by using the "Remove Titles" function (under the Editing Tools menu). Try again. Mhhutchins 19:52, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for your patience, you have a lot of it ;) I have tried again, but this time I had two options to remove: Container title and regular title, I chose "regular" since on container was a comment "exercise caution".
That was the right one. Everything looks fine now. Thank you. Mhhutchins 20:22, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Thnaks, but something is still wrong with this title, we still have two of it under William Saroyan. Qshadow 20:28, 18 January 2013 (UTC)


I've re-created the submission to add Jenny Villiers. (The Kirkus review made it clear that it was a fantasy.) Please look at the record to see how I sourced the data. This should be how you should source any future submissions for books which you don't have at hand. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:52, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Something wrong with the OCLC number and link that you put there, maybe it should be 8306303. Qshadow 20:04, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
You're correct. I was multi-tasking, working on another editor's submission and had two tabs open to OCLC, and then mistakenly copied the wrong link. Thanks for finding it. This only goes to show we're all capable of making mistakes! Mhhutchins 20:25, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Helpful Hint: the best way to get a link to an OCLC record is to click on the "Permalink" box in the upper right hand corner of the record. This gives you a simpler link. For example the link you provided above http://www.worldcat.org/title/jenny-villiers-a-story-of-the-theatre/oclc/8306303&referer=brief_results can be reached just as good here: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8306303. Hope this helps when sourcing OCLC for any future records. Mhhutchins 20:28, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
Thnaks, good one. Please see my another comment above about a problem with double Tiger title. Qshadow 20:33, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Gass

I'm holding the submission to change the author's name from "William Gass" to "William H. Gass". Accepting this submission will change all publications under the original name. Are you certain that the one title was published as by "William H. Gass"? The OCLC record gives it as "William Gass". Mhhutchins 20:25, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

Michael Shea

What is the source for the change of Michael Shea's year of birth? The linked Wikipedia article inconsistently gives both 1943 and 1946. Mhhutchins 20:27, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

I suggest to align to majority of sources:
On the other hand, I do not have any source showing 1946 exept in wiki and it states (inconsistent). Do you have some link to support 1946? Qshadow 11:01, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
Since there is nothing definitive, I'll accept the submission to change the date. I've created a bio comments page to add these links. In the future, if you find inconsistent sources, it would be a good idea to do the same or post sources on the existing bio page. Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:17, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
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