User talk:Sansanfeng

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Welcome!

Hello, Sansanfeng, 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:

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! Annie 00:51, 14 June 2018 (EDT)

A Man Out of Fashion

First - thanks for adding the translator to this record.

We are in the process of preparing the DB for the implementation of a proper system for recording and listing translators and as a first step, we are using the same syntax everywhere where we add translators via a template: {{Tr|name}} which produces "Translated by name". You can press the edit link on the record and see how I edited it.

Welcome again and just let me know if you have any questions! Annie 00:54, 14 June 2018 (EDT)

Thanks, Annie. I have maintained a spreadsheet of translations of Chinese SF. Will try to put them on isfdb.
That would be awesome! Do you read and/or speak Chinese? :) Annie 01:36, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
Yes, I'm a Chinese science fiction fan and researcher.
Well, if you have the time and the will to help, we can use a Chinese hand - figuring out the last name of the Chinese authors, transliterations of titles and author names, finding the original titles for translated stories - the DB is trying to get more international and none of the resident editors reads Chinese. I won't bother you if you are not interested but if you are bored and wish to help, we can use some help and I will be more than happy to point to things that need help and assist you with the formatting and the conventions (in your own time and when you have time of course.
PS: You can use ~~~~ to sign your message which will also add the date at the end (as it is on my messages). Welcome again :) Annie 01:42, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
I'm definitely willing to help. How about we use email for communication? Mine is ctsffdb2008 at gmail dot com Sansanfeng 02:06, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
Mail is fine if that is what you prefer - but using the Talk pages of the editors usually means that other editors and moderators can see what we are working on and chime in if needed (or not interfere by mistake if we are in the middle of fixing a tangle). Let me know what you prefer - you can always send me an email through the system by going to my page and locating the "E-mail this user" link to the left (or use this link directly). Annie 02:10, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
Talk page works for me. Just let me know how I can help. I'll find time to reply. Sansanfeng 02:16, 14 June 2018 (EDT)

The Sound of Salt Forming: Short Stories by the Post-80s Generation in China

A few small changes to your recently submitted book:

  • We do not have permission to link to the site you used for the image so I swapped it with an Amazon cover. Here is the link with the explanation of permissions and so on.
  • As this is an international DB, the price should always contain a currency designator. So I added $.
  • When not listing the complete content because not all of it is speculative, a note is usually added to the publication. I added one in this one - feel free to edit.

The result is here. As always - let me know if you have any questions/concerns and so on. And thanks for adding the book.

Thanks. I just found on Amazon that the publication date should be 2016-01-00. And there's a paperback version. Shall I add a new publication record for the paper back version? Sansanfeng 02:14, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
Yes but instead of adding it as a new anthology, open the hardcover version you added (my link above) and look in the left menu. There is a link that says "Clone This Pub". Click on it, decide which checkboxes you want to be used and then clone. Change whatever is different - format, price, ISBN and so on and submit. This way the 3 stories and the anthology record will automatically be added to the publication without needing a follow-up merge (and you won't need to type them again). Please note that this works only if they are the same translation (which these are) - it is perfect for other editions of the books. Also note that the format for regular paperback is "tp", "pb" is for mass market paperbacks. Annie 02:23, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
Thanks for your instruction. Sorry I chose "pb". It should be "tp". Sansanfeng 02:34, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
Anytime :) I changed it after approving. I also changed the date of the hc as per your note above. :) You can submit a modification on your own (as long as the book is not verified - then there are some courtesy notifications to be made first). Do you own the book? If so, would you like to verify it? Annie 02:41, 14 June 2018 (EDT)

Chinese authors - family names

Here is a small project. This is the list of all the Chinese authors we have in the system (please note that this is working language - so someone writing in English is considered an English author). Look at the column called "Directory Entry". It is supposed to be the family name of the author (using the spelling from the Author column when it is with Latin letters or a transliteration of it if it is with Chinese (or Cyrillic) letters. As you will see, some of those Directory names are messed up.

If you would not mind editing the ones that are wrong (aka this is actually their first name) and changing the value in the field (click on the name, then "Edit" and change the "Directory Entry field", that will be appreciated. If you feel like clicking on each name and going to their record and finding the original names/dates of the stories/novels there, that will be awesome but let's start somewhere. If you find an original title, I will walk you through the process of connecting it to the actual story. :)

In an ideal world, we want all the Chinese authors to look like this one - with the English spelling saves as a pseudonym and all stories attached to their originals. But we are away from there so one step at a time - let's sort out the directory first.

Let me know if I can help with answering any questions and so on. Annie 02:36, 14 June 2018 (EDT)

About 天下霸唱 - So is that a pseudonym and the name you added as Legal is his real name? If so - then the legal name is correctly set. However, the Directory name is always the family name part of the canonical name. So is Tianxia or Bachang the family name? I will approve your change and fix it once you let me know. Annie 02:52, 14 June 2018 (EDT)
Yes, Muye Zhang is his real name. Both Tianxia and Bachang are not common Chinese legal names. If I have to pick, it will be Tianxia. Sansanfeng
Great for the real name. For the Directory name, it has nothing to do with the legal name of the person - it is what is supposed to be his family name in the name in the "canonical name" field (which in this case is "as written in a book somewhere"). I will approve and swap the name - thanks for helping with that! :) Annie 03:00, 14 June 2018 (EDT)

(unindent) Just a reminder that when you add a legal name, we also need a transliteration of it in the field under the legal name itself :) Annie 02:45, 15 June 2018 (EDT)

well noted. Sansanfeng 02:40, 16 June 2018 (EDT)
Thanks again for working on these - as you can see, we had been needing some help for awhile :) Annie 02:47, 16 June 2018 (EDT)
A note on pseudonyms - if an author is a pseudonym (such as this one, the only fields that should be filled are the canonical name, a transliteration for it if needed, the language and the directory name. I've transferred the data you just added to it to the main author (but we still need the legal name to be transliterared in the transliteration column) :) Annie 03:34, 16 June 2018 (EDT)
Is it possible to make http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?239929 the main author page, and http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?239929 as the pseudonym? Or perhaps delete the latter and just keep the former? Sansanfeng 15:33, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
You posted the same link twice? Technically I can merge authors and I can delete authors - so as soon as I know which authors you mean, I can do something about them. We do not delete an author name that had been used on a publication (we pseudonym them) but other from that, anything is possible. Annie 15:36, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
My bad. I'm talking about [1]Wang Jinkang as the main author, and [2]王晋康 as the pseudonym or just delete it. We can move the bio info to the former. Personally, I don't think using Chinese characters as the Canonical Name is a good idea. It can be put in the box of Legal Name. Sansanfeng 15:43, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
Well, I merged it (here is the result for now but when/if we add the Chinese books and magazines, we will want the Chinese spellings on those authors as their main name (note that the directory name is what is used here). We do not have that many Chinese titles now but a few years ago, we did not have any Russian or Bulgarian ones either (for example) and until ~2 years, we did not support not Latin characters in author names (or titles) (this is why some of the entries look weird). The problem with using a non-native canonical name is deciding which one to use - the English spelling? (and which of them when there are multiples). My native language does not use the latin alphabet either - and some popular authors have 5 or more "English" spellings. Annie 15:53, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
Thanks. I understand the point. For the time being, I'm using isfdb.org as the database for translated Chinese sf/f works. Let's start from here. Sansanfeng 16:05, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
You are using it for this. Someone else may want to use it for something else :) That's the beauty in a DB - everyone can use it anyway they want :) Annie 16:31, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
Exactly! Sansanfeng 23:54, 18 June 2018 (EDT)

Into the Abyss

Hello,

We do not credit CreateSpace as a publisher usually - if no other published is visible, we either leave it empty or use the author name as a publisher. In the case of this one, the look inside shows "Beijing Guomi". Do you know if that is the official publisher for the paper book?

Also: Can you edit the Chinese version of the first one to put the title and the author in Chinese writing? And let me know if you want me to give you the steps to add the original title to the one you just added (or if you already figures it out, go ahead and you can just do it). Thanks! Annie 15:47, 16 June 2018 (EDT)

Beijing Guomi is a company that owns the English rights to the works. It published several titles by Liu Cixin and Xu Lei via Amazon Digital Services LLC (Kindle edition) & CreateSpace (paperback edition). Please teach me how to add the original title. Thanks. Sansanfeng 02:34, 17 June 2018 (EDT)
Go to the title you want to add an original to. Let's say this one. Look at the left menu and locate the "Make This Title a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work" under Editing tools. Click on it. For the work here, you will get this page. Scroll down to Option 2.
In the title field, replace the English name with the Chinese one. Add a transliteration (if it is not written with the Latin script, it needs a transliteration). In the field for Author, replace the English spelling of the name with the Chinese one. Change the date to the first publication in Chinese (or to 8888-00-00 if it was never published in Chinese and 0000-00-00 if you know it is published but do not know when). Change the language to Chinese and press "Create a New Parent Record".
If by any chance we already have the Chinese record in the DB, you can use Option 1 in the same page and submit the ID of the title.
Once this is approved, there may be more work to be done (for example if we do not have the author with the Chinese spelling yet, we will need to do pseudonyms (the English spelling becomes a pseudonym of the Chinese one) and the Chinese name will need transliteration, language and directory entry (plus all the other details will need to be moved over):)
Let me know if you have any questions - I will be around for a couple more hours tonight so I will try to respond fast :) Annie 02:45, 17 June 2018 (EDT)
The pseudonyms here work a little bit differently - the "main author" (who we also call the canonical name for the author) is the name under which the author published the most of his works (so in this case the name of the author in Chinese under which he publishes). This is why we have the legal name field - this is where the real name goes. If he publishes under "Nanpai Sanshu" in China, this will be the main author here. So I will reject the pseudonym. If he publishes under Xu Lei in Chinese, then we will need to change the variant. At the end of the day, all works under names that are not the main name need to be varianted under the main name. Annie 03:04, 17 June 2018 (EDT)
OK. understood. He publishes mainly as 南派三叔 (Nanpai Sanshu) in Chinese market and Xu Lei in English market. Any chance to link both "main" names? like in the note? Sansanfeng 03:08, 17 June 2018 (EDT)
Oh, yes. And I will create the variant in the proper direction. Give me a few minutes and will post back with what I come up with.
OK. See this one. Feel free to edit more. And while we are dealing with this author, any chance you can find the original titles of the remaining ones here. Annie 03:15, 17 June 2018 (EDT)

The Dragon Ridge Tombs

Unfortunately I had to reject this one. We generally prefer not to add books more that 90 days before they are published - practice had thaught is that dates and details change so much that having books added earlier leads to a lot of dead records. The only case where this is acceptable is if there is a review in a magazine we catalog - and you need the record to connect it. Sorry. Annie 03:10, 17 June 2018 (EDT)

It's OK. I'll try to add it when it's out. Sansanfeng 03:12, 17 June 2018 (EDT)
Or 90 days before it - some time in late August will be fine :) Thanks for the understanding! Annie 03:16, 17 June 2018 (EDT)

Prices and images

A couple of notes around your latest submissions:

  • Price is always in the format "Currency Number) even if it is uncommon for the currency. So "16,800원" should be "원16,800". More details: the help page - note that we add a space when the currency does not use a symbol (so "Lev 10" for example but $10).
  • We have permission to link only to a pre-defined list of sites. So when you try to link to a site that is not on the list, I am removing the image. You either need to find a cover on one of the sites we allow or if it is permitted by the site TOS, you can download it and upload it in our DB. The complete list is here.

I will be silently fixing these while approving - will ping you if there is something more. Thanks for adding all the international editions! Annie 13:04, 18 June 2018 (EDT)

And a couple more small things:
  • When adding a translator, can you use the {{Tr|Holger Nahm}} template? Once saved, this will produce "Translated by Holger Nahm". We are trying to get the data prepared for a proper translation system introduction so any help is appreciated.
  • When working with inflected languages (aka Russian), keep in mind that the names of translators and illustrators are almost never presented in nominative form so they converting before being noted. For example, the artist here is Плутахин and not Плутахина (illustrated by Плутахина but name: Плутахин). If you cannot convert the name, look up the book in FantLab and follow the links - it will get you the nominative form.
  • When adding a name with 2 initials, we need a space between the two of them (so Н. В. Плутахин and not Н.В. Плутахин).
I think I fixed all of those in your current submissions so keep that in mind for the future. Annie 13:27, 18 June 2018 (EDT)


Many thanks! Sansanfeng 15:09, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
Just a gentle reminder to use the Tr template ({{Tr|Name of the translator}}) instead of spelling "Translated by" :) Thanks in advance. Annie 00:59, 19 June 2018 (EDT)
OK. Sansanfeng 01:00, 19 June 2018 (EDT)

¿Quién cuidará de los dioses?

Hello,

What is your source for this change? The usual Spanish source (here) shows it as in the book. Do you have the book at hand? Or can you cite a source? Annie 13:16, 18 June 2018 (EDT)

The original was right. I found the TOC on official site https://www.megustaleer.com/libros/terra-nova-3/MES-053492 Sansanfeng 14:59, 18 June 2018 (EDT)
Thanks for the confirmation :) Annie 15:02, 18 June 2018 (EDT)

Mountain

We record titles and authors "as printed" (well, with some small changes about regularization on both entries). So if there are two separate publications which use the same title but different spelling of the author names, we keep them as printed and variant (and do not merge). For languages like Japanese, Chinese or Hungarian (to name a few) where the common local printing of the name is "Last First" and not "First Last", we end up with double variants more often than not - depending on how the editors/publishers deciphered the name when printing it in English (and other languages). The basic rule for merging is that we merge only if the title and author match (and in the case of translated works - the title, author and translator - with the obvious exception that if the same person does 2 translations, we do not merge these either). Annie 14:24, 19 June 2018 (EDT)

Got it. Sansanfeng 01:19, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 105

Hello,

A few small changes in this one:

  • I converted the interview with Wilson to an interview (you had it as an essay)
  • Title changed slighly so it matches the rest of the series - you had the formatting of the name as we do it for the e-version but you had the paper version magazine described. :)

Annie 13:01, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

About #140 - you edited this which used to be Issue 140 but added the content for #141. As I did not want to just reject it, I approved and fixed the numbering plus the names of two authors (Douglas F. Dluzen, PhD needs to be printed exactly like that and not a shorter form: "Douglas Dluzen" as you had it for example). Annie 13:10, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

Non-genre magazines

When adding a non-genre magazine, we do not credit the editors - instead the form "Editors of Name" is used. So I changed Azalea (so "Editors of Azalea"). The reason for the policy is pretty simple - the editors of non-genre magazines usually do not work in the genre - so we will end up adding a lot of external authors. :) Annie 13:20, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

Watchlist: 32 Stories by Persons of Interest

Hello, I rejected that edition as we already have it. I moved the content to the old record. When adding books, do a search by ISBN first to see if we have the book by any chance :) Annie 13:41, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

My bad. I did search using the title but somehow missed it. Sansanfeng 22:20, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

"Dawning in the East"

Hi. I'm extremely glad you're contributing to this database; we were badly swimming in confusion before, when it came to Chinese SF. Do you have time to look at Dawning in the East and add the original stories and information about the authors? I added as much information as I could, but I don't know very much. Thank you... --Vasha (cazadora de tildes) 17:41, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

You guys already did a fantastic job. I should have joined early. I was actually involved in editing Dawning in the East, :). It's an unofficial publication by FAA. Could it still be included in isfdb.org? Will definitely help with this one and all other Chinese SF stuff. Sansanfeng
Yep - as long as it is published on paper or in an e-book format, it is eligible for inclusion - who published it is irrelevant. The only non-eligible SF out there is the one published on a web site/in a webzine only (with some special cases). This one is available as a PDF - so it is eligible. If you decide to edit and produce an anthology in 100 copies or as a Kindle book (or a PDF) tomorrow, it will also be eligible. Annie 22:29, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
By the way, if you want, add your name here for the languages you can help with (and if the language is missing, add it - just follow the alphabetical order. It is the official place where someone that needs someone to look up something or to ask a question for a specific language will start from. :) Annie 22:34, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
I added my name and slightly edited my own page. :) sanfeng 22:48, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
That's great. :) By the way, there are a few daily reports (they get regenerated at 1 am EDT every night) that show Chinese names (titles, publishers, authors and so on) that need transliterations. I can ping you when I see something there or I can just post the links here so you can occasionally check them? Interested? :) Annie 22:52, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
PS: Or you can just check this (this is the result from the menu "Cleanup Reports" on the left) and look for ones with the word Chinese in the name. Ignore "Chinese Titles with a Latin Author Name" although if you want to weed out the ones that make sense to change, I can then ignore the ones that need to stay this way. :) Annie 22:54, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
Sure. I'll do some clean-ups for Chinese authors and titles. I didn't do transliteration of many Chinese titles I added. I'll make it up. sanfeng 22:59, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
Yeah, I noticed but did not want to bug you about each of them. :) They will show up on the report when it regenerate in about 2 hours. Thanks again for all the help and if you are not sure about any of the policies or what the report seems to be asking about, just ask. :) Annie 23:04, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

ASIN and paper books

We record the kindle/e-book and the paper versions of a book as separate entries - the same way we do for hardcover and paperback versions. So when adding a paper book, don't add the ASIN for the Kindle version -- it goes into the ebook version :) Annie 23:29, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

But some Kindle version doesn't have a separate ISBN. Do we consider it a separate title? sanfeng 23:32, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
Yep - ISBN is not necessary - just leave the ISBN field empty for that specific book - a lot of kindle books do not have ISBNs, not to mention older paper books and all kinds of unofficial editions. :) We even record separate printings of paper books separately - so if a book is printed 9 times, we may have 9 copies that are the same except for the printing number. A publication here is exactly that - everyone that has that book has exactly the same book (not just title but a book - exactly). Annie 23:38, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
Got it. sanfeng 23:39, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
One more reminder - directory names are always with Latin letters. It is a limitation of the software (for now) so when changing the directory entry, written in the 26 standard English letter plus punctuation (so Li-Wan is ok, Zhī is not) Annie 23:44, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
OK. How about you change the ones I just added for me? Thanks. I'll keep in mind when adding new names. sanfeng 23:47, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
Already done. I think I got them all :) Annie 23:50, 20 June 2018 (EDT)

Author's Postscript for the American Edition (The Three-Body Problem)

Was this written in Chinese or in English? Annie 00:55, 21 June 2018 (EDT)

It was written in Chinese and translated by Ken Liu into English. Cixin doesn't write in English. The English version appeared first prior to the Chinese original. sanfeng 00:57, 21 June 2018 (EDT)
Thanks. Some authors write introductions in other languages (especially English and Russian) now and then so was just making sure. Approved. The order of publication is not important in this case as you already guessed - it is the original that always become the parent even when it is published years after its translations :) Annie 01:00, 21 June 2018 (EDT)

How to add a new Award? =

I would like to add a SF&F Translation Award to a title, but couldn't find the award on the list. May I request to add this award onto the award list? Although it's in defunction, it's quite authoritative and influential during its four-year life. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_%26_Fantasy_Translation_Awards It's official site is still working. http://www.sfftawards.org/ sanfeng 05:26, 21 June 2018 (EDT)

Sounds very reasonable. The place to post suggestions is the Community Portal; I'm copying this there. --Vasha (cazadora de tildes) 08:50, 21 June 2018 (EDT)

ISBNs, currencies and names

Hello,

A couple of notes based on L'ombra delle spie sull'Isola di Giada Verde:

  • Books before 2007 should be recorded with their ISBN-10 as ISBN-13 did not exist before that.
  • The separators inside of currencies are dot(".") for decimals and comma (",") for thousands. We also do not add a dot in the currency designation so it is "Lit" and not "Lit."
  • We regularize names of authors except in special cases. So "CHAO-LIU Fan" should really be "Chao-Liu Fan".

I fixed all 3 :) You may want to click on the small question marks next to the fields in the Add New/Edit screens for more details. Let me know if you need any additional information :) Annie 14:31, 21 June 2018 (EDT)

Re: "film script adapted from a short fiction" - this is added as short fiction (unless it is over 40K words - then you add it as a novel) and then after being approved, add a note into the title record (and a link to the story if possible). Annie 14:33, 21 June 2018 (EDT)
And a note on external sources - we have the concept of external identifier here - which is a link to an external source (so that if they ever move, we need to change in only one place). In this one, you had the link to NDL. Look a this record and locate the National Bibliography No.(JPNO). Instead of adding the direct link into the notes, add this number as an external identifier and select the appropriate value for the type. I've done it in this one. Annie 14:38, 21 June 2018 (EDT)

倪匡 (Ni Kuang)

Hi, I had to remove the author picture for 倪匡 because the upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Ni_Kuang_2007.jpg/440px-Ni_Kuang_2007.jpg Image is hosted by a site that we do not have permission to link to.--Dirk P Broer 07:06, 25 June 2018 (EDT)

Noted with thanks. sanfeng 07:19, 25 June 2018 (EDT)

Usva International 2010

Thanks for submitting Usva International 2010! I have approved the submission and made the following changes:

  • added translators to all title records
  • turned English translations into variants
  • used the "|" syntax to assign "invisible" page numbers to the INTERIORART titles so that they would appear in the right place -- see Template:PubContentFields:Page for details
  • entered Finnish as the working language of the newly added authors
  • added the EDITOR title to a series so that it would be linked to other issues of this fanzine if and when we add them

Could you please review the results to make sure that everything looks OK? TIA! Ahasuerus

Thanks! Looks great! I added Usva International 2007 and 2006 too. Pending for approval. sanfeng 21:40, 26 June 2018 (EDT)
I have approved the submission, added the newly created EDITOR titles to the "Usva International" series and made a few changes:
  • Added a space between "J." and "K." in "J. K. Miettinen"; ditto "M." and "G." in "M. G. Soikkeli"
  • Changed "J Pekka Mäkelä" to "J. Pekka Mäkelä" because we add a period after initials if they are dropped by the publisher as a "one off" thing as opposed to a consistent choice by the author
Hopefully everything else looks good. When you get a chance, could you please add translators and set up variants? TIA! Ahasuerus 12:55, 27 June 2018 (EDT)
Unfortunately, unlike the 2010 issue, the early issues do not list the original Finnish titles, so we can't set up variants. I have added translator names when known and updated author information. Thanks for submitting these issues! Ahasuerus 13:35, 6 July 2018 (EDT)

Seat 14C

Would you happen to know more about Seat 14C, the anthology that I currently have on hold? I have reviewed their Web site and it would appear that the content is not available as a downloadable file, which would normally make it ineligible for inclusion as per ISFDB:Policy#Rules of Acquisition. Ahasuerus 14:29, 26 June 2018 (EDT)

This anthology has no downloadable file. It's produced by XPrize and stories are all by high-profile sf writers. I believe the quality of the anthology is up to a professional level and rather high. The project, in fact, won two PR or campaign awards. Alternatively, we may consider it a webzine? sanfeng 21:43, 26 June 2018 (EDT)
I agree that, from the notability perspective, it would make sense to include an online publication of this caliber. We have been gradually relaxing our limitations on electronic and online publications -- there was a time, a bit more than 10 years ago, when we didn't even list ebooks -- so perhaps the time has come to change our policy yet again.
Keep in mind that we have discussed online publications a number of times, but have been unable to reach consensus. Let me start a new discussion on the Rules and standards discussions page and see if we can come up with a solution. Ahasuerus 22:34, 26 June 2018 (EDT)
Done. Ahasuerus 23:31, 26 June 2018 (EDT)
Plus considering it a webzine won't change its eligibility - without being downloadable or shortlisted for a major award, webzines are not eligible either... I'd love to see a new discussion on that - we are missing a lot of good content out there and publishing had changed (not to mention that I can easily create a Kindle file for a story from this site via a browser plugin (and Amazon will keep it in the cloud for me and deliver when needed) that is better for me than them producing a PDF that I can download. Annie 23:10, 26 June 2018 (EDT)

Award for Paradiso

I am afraid I had to reject the Paradiso award that you submitted the other day. The title record that you wanted to add this award to no longer exists in the database (merged?), so the submission can't be approved. Could you please resubmit? Sorry about that! Ahasuerus 13:04, 27 June 2018 (EDT)

The container Liquid Imagination, Issue 9 May 2011 was deleted as the publication is 1) a webzine, 2) not downloadable, 3) not a SFWA market, 4) not shortlisted for a MAJOR award, 5) the link given partially pointed to domain name that is for sale see here and whose permanence is very doubtable. Note also that the record as accepted by a well-meaning moderator was quite perfectible as there was a lot of work to do on it (translations not managed, pseudonymistic links left undone, unlinked reviews for books not present in the db, author maintenance undone), work that was not done by the moderator morally in charge. Hauck 13:44, 27 June 2018 (EDT)
Thanks for explaining what happened to this publication record! Ahasuerus 14:49, 27 June 2018 (EDT)
In the first place such a record should simply no have been accepted.Hauck 02:21, 28 June 2018 (EDT)
I'll continue this discussion of the moderation process on your Talk page. Ahasuerus 10:42, 28 June 2018 (EDT)
As far as the award goes, let's wait until we know the outcome of the current discussion on the Rules and Standards board. If we change the eligibility criteria, it may affect our decisions re: this webzine, the fiction that has appeared in it and any associated awards. Ahasuerus 14:49, 27 June 2018 (EDT)
IIRC this award is for the quality of the translation "process", and, to be purist, not for the text itself. As we're concerned by texts, how can we render such an award? (or an award for typography or proofreding). Note also that the ROA "Works published in a web-based publication (webzine) and available only as an HTML readable file are not eligible for inclusion with the following exceptions: It has been shortlisted for a major award. (This last may include works which are self-published by an author on their own website. Otherwise such works are not eligible.)" is clearly, for this point (not the SFWA bit) about the WORK itself and not the whole container. So an Hugo-winning text published in a webzine is in (and its container too has its record) but NOT the other content (the non-award-winning texts and features). It's exacty like entering non-genre anthologies. Hauck 02:21, 28 June 2018 (EDT)
Re: the domain, I got curious and checked ICANN. It looks like its registration was updated in March 2018 and will remain valid until 2020. Are Liquid-Imagination.com, which is for sale, and liquidimagination.silverpen.org linked in some way? Ahasuerus 14:49, 27 June 2018 (EDT)
Yes, some of the internal links of the site go to "liquid-imagination" URLed pages and others to "liquidimagination.silverpen.org".Hauck 02:21, 28 June 2018 (EDT)
Ah, I see. It looks like their archived issues (2008-2011) haven't been updated and still point to their old domain name. I sent them an e-mail to let them know. Thanks! Ahasuerus 11:10, 28 June 2018 (EDT)
We have exchanged a few e-mails and they plan to fix the old links when they get a chance. Ahasuerus 17:16, 28 June 2018 (EDT)

Mirrorzine

I have put your Mirrorzine submissions on hold pending the outcome of the discussion on the Rules and Standards page. Ahasuerus 18:06, 27 June 2018 (EDT)

Sources

Just a reminder that when adding books that you are not verifying, you should really add your sources in your notes. For example here, you did not add any notes (I added the one for the price while adding the LTF number - can you clarify where this price came from?). Thanks! Annie 18:16, 27 June 2018 (EDT)

Nebula: Fantascienza contemporanea cinese and a few more

Hello,

A few changes in your later submissions:

  • I adjusted the price (you had a space after the Euro sign) and added the name of the publication to the two essays (as these are generic names) in Nebula: Fantascienza contemporanea cinese.
  • Os anos de fartura : China 2013 - adjusted the publisher name as we already had it under the shorter name - do a search in our DB to see if we don't have the publisher by any chance.
  • Il demone della prosperità replaced the ISBN with the correct one - because you had copied the one from the Portuguese book here by mistake.

I know that you want to add these as fast as you can but slow down a bit and try to verify the submissions - as they are done now, a moderator should either edit every book you add or if they miss it, we end up with wrong records or someone catches them in cleanup... :) Which slows down the speed with which your submissions are approved considerably. And all of these need their sources to be added as well. Annie 18:29, 27 June 2018 (EDT)

Mirrorzine

Hello,

So is Mirrorzine a speculative fiction webzine or is it a non-genre fiction one that happens to publish occasional SF story? The first type is now eligible. The second one is not (yet) - except for special issues that are speculative fiction only. Let me know :) Annie 10:45, 6 July 2018 (EDT)

Mirrorzine is a Korean speculative fiction webzine. It publishes Korean and translated SF&F fictions and non-fictions. Before 2018 it used to have a number for its monthly publication, the latest being No. 172 for October 2017. 12 Chinese SF stories were translated into Korean and published in Mirrorzine. I'd like to see if it's possible to archive the records in isfdb. sanfeng 01:21, 7 July 2018 (EDT)
So it is eligible. I found a note today that was calling it a fantasy webzine so I was just waiting for a second confirmation :) I will approve them then and will add notes that the content is incomplete. Thanks! Annie 01:33, 7 July 2018 (EDT)
Thanks a lot! sanfeng 01:46, 7 July 2018 (EDT)
You are welcome :) I also fixed the series and other things like that - so look them over and see if anything else needs fixing. I would add a link to each issue as part of the notes for that issue but that is up to you - but as it is a webzine, a link makes sense. :) And if your Korean is good enough to add the rest of the magazine (and you would like to), that would be good :) Annie 01:53, 7 July 2018 (EDT)

The Gift

Hello,

You left the English title here even though you added the transliteration :) Annie 00:38, 10 July 2018 (EDT)

same here Annie 00:38, 10 July 2018 (EDT)

Cixin Liu's Jenseits der Zeit

Hello, unfortunately this publication should better be deleted. I already wondered that it slipped through our mind net: the reason was, that it's scheduled for 2019 (and was not published in April 2018), and we usually don't index pub.s that far away. Would that be okay? Stonecreek 10:23, 10 July 2018 (EDT)

yep, it should be April 2019. We may delete it for now.sanfeng 10:39, 10 July 2018 (EDT)
Thinking on it again, once it is entered (though by accident) we also could keep it, but we both should try to keep an eye on the publication. I'll change the date. Stonecreek 04:56, 11 July 2018 (EDT)

Alia 6

Hello,

A couple of notes about this one

  • Why a publication series and not a title one? As it is an anthology, it is a regular series usually unless you have a reason not to make it one.
  • I fixed the price (from (€ 19.5) to (€19.50)

Thanks! Annie 13:30, 11 July 2018 (EDT)

I'm not sure what you mean by a publication series not a title one. ALIA is a Italian speculative fiction anthology series. See: http://www.arpnet.it/cs/alia/alia.htm sanfeng 22:12, 11 July 2018 (EDT)
Publication series belong to a single edition of a book (for example the German edition of a novel can be in a series called "Science Fiction" that belongs to a certain publisher. The series on the title level are for all editions of the book. Original anthologies usually make up title series (such as The Year's Best Science Fiction) :) Annie 21:23, 13 July 2018 (EDT)

Handling of "generic" essay titles and numbering before page 1.

When a book contains an essay with what the help calls a "generic" title -- a title that is likely to be reused in another setting by the same author over completely different text; for example, "Foreword", "Introduction", "Afterword", and so on -- we apply a special treatment to disambiguate each occurrence by appending the title of the book in parentheses. For example, we would record "Foreword" as "Foreword (This Book's Title)". We apply that same principle regardless of language, although it's difficult for moderators working with submissions in unfamiliar languages to catch submissions where that has not been done.

In Alia, "Profili degli autori e degli illustratori" is an example of one of these titles. I added "(Alia. Storie. L'arcipelago del fantastico)" to it.

Also, in that publication, your additions had page numbers using Roman numerals, which brings up another ISFDB practice. For "Pages", when there are multiple sections with independent numbering, we record the pages in each section, separated with "+". I went with what I found on Worldcat, which said XX and changed the pages to "XX+340". If you have the book or any better information about the page counts, please adjust that.

Thanks. --MartyD 08:19, 12 July 2018 (EDT)

Thanks for explanation. sanfeng 01:29, 13 July 2018 (EDT)

E-books and page numbers

When adding an e-book, unless it is a PDF, the number of pages depend on what font size you are using and what device you have. So instead of using the pages field, we leave this empty and instead put the print length in the Notes. Annie 21:20, 13 July 2018 (EDT)

Got it. I thought about the problem before. The page number was provided on Amazon page, which says page number when printing. Nevertheless, I totally understand. sanfeng 22:24, 13 July 2018 (EDT)

Independently Published

When a book is "Independently Published", either use the name of the author as a publisher or just leave the publisher empty and mention in the notes that it is independently published :) Annie 14:30, 18 July 2018 (EDT)

And one more note: When adding FantLab number, we need just the number - so 191632 and not edition191632 :) Annie 14:31, 18 July 2018 (EDT)

Initials

Hi. When recording author credits, we use period + space after each initial. So T.L. Huchu -> T. L. Huchu and R.S.A. Garcia -> R. S. A. Garcia. I fixed those, just something to keep in mind for the future. Thanks. --MartyD 10:24, 22 July 2018 (EDT)

Titles in The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5

I did most of the merges for the titles in The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5, but there are a couple where the existing record cites a translator, and I didn't know if these instances are the same. I am hoping you will be able to tell and can deal with them appropriately. Thanks. --MartyD 10:32, 22 July 2018 (EDT)

Done. Lavie Tidhar's blog has the translator name. All reprints are with the same translators. sanfeng 07:29, 24 July 2018 (EDT)

Story to identify in Clarkesworld

The latest Clarkesworld contains a story, To Fly Like a Fallen Angel by Qi Yue. The magazine says the original was published in SFW in 2009 -- can you identify it? Thanks. --Vasha (cazadora de tildes) 23:49, 24 July 2018 (EDT)

"All Clear"

Hi, can you find the original publication information for All Clear by Hao He? --Vasha (cazadora de tildes) 12:36, 3 August 2018 (EDT)

中国SF作品集

When I first entered the entry, the names of authors were in Simplified Chinese. I checked with a translator who holds a copy of the copy. She confirms that the author names use Japanese-style of Chinese characters, which is pretty much the same as traditional Chinese. The following names are affected:

刘宇昆 --> 劉宇昆 宝树 --> 寶樹 陈楸帆 --> 陳楸帆 韩少功 --> 韓少功

Can Dirk_P_Broer please help change them? Thanks. sanfeng 05:38, 16 October 2018 (EDT)

one minor change, 宝树 --> 宝樹 thanks sanfeng 02:20, 24 October 2018 (EDT)

宗教・理性・实践

So is that 1979 as the note implies or 1978 as the date does? I approved the update but can you update the incorrect yer? :) Thanks! Annie 20:16, 23 October 2018 (EDT)

It should be 1978. My typo. Thanks for pointing out. sanfeng 02:21, 24 October 2018 (EDT)
Thanks for fixing it. Typos happen - thus me making sure before I fix it to the wrong value. :) Annie 13:21, 24 October 2018 (EDT)
Thanks. I'm almost done with entering translated Chinese SF titles. And I have circulated the message (see: [tcsff.org]) among Chinese SF community. Hopefully those who are interested in the topic will find the database useful. Thank all moderators for the help. sanfeng 02:59, 25 October 2018 (EDT)

Fantastyka

Hello, there are some troubles with your submissions for two issues of this magazine, since there doesn't seem to be a magazine of this title anymore, according to Wikipedia (it got renamed in 1990). The site you directed to seems to be only an overview page for all kind of Polish speculative fiction. Stonecreek 12:51, 19 May 2019 (EDT)

The english wikipedia page doesn't contain full information. Fantastyka Wydanie Specjalne was launched in 2003 as a quarterly. ISSN: 1731-7134, publisher is Prószyński Media. full info about the magazine: http://encyklopediafantastyki.pl/index.php/Fantastyka_wydanie_specjalne

Home website: https://www.fantastyka.pl/czasopisma/wydaniespecjalne

According to the website, 01/2019 issue (no. 62) will the last issue. sanfeng 00:21, 20 May 2019 (EDT)

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