User talk:Zapp
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Exhalation
Regarding this submission: I'm not seeing any artwork at the provided source that is titled "Exhalation". There are only 2 clear book covers, but neither are for a book titled Exhalation. Can you please clarify? -- JLaTondre (talk) 10:00, 5 September 2022 (EDT)
- Artworks on that site are not entitled. Count #14 is this one. --Zapp 13:22, 5 September 2022 (EDT)
- That is the cover for Faction: Kiwi Comic Anthology, Issue 1. It is also the same artwork used for CoNZealand: 78th World Science Fiction Convention (which credited Broadmore for it). What is your source that this same artwork was used for a book titled Exhalation and that it is the Exhalation that appeared in CoNZealand: 78th World Science Fiction Convention? Have you checked with Rtrace? He is pretty detailed and I would think that if the coverart for CoNZealand: 78th World Science Fiction Convention had appeared within the pub twice, he would have varianted it. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:24, 5 September 2022 (EDT)
- Ups, I confused coverart and interiorart, Sorry. --Zapp 14:32, 5 September 2022 (EDT)
- That is the cover for Faction: Kiwi Comic Anthology, Issue 1. It is also the same artwork used for CoNZealand: 78th World Science Fiction Convention (which credited Broadmore for it). What is your source that this same artwork was used for a book titled Exhalation and that it is the Exhalation that appeared in CoNZealand: 78th World Science Fiction Convention? Have you checked with Rtrace? He is pretty detailed and I would think that if the coverart for CoNZealand: 78th World Science Fiction Convention had appeared within the pub twice, he would have varianted it. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:24, 5 September 2022 (EDT)
Varianting into another variant
Hi, I rejected your varianting a Swedish John Rackham title into a Swedisch John T. Phillifent title not only for the reason stated here (top), but also because you have put the translator only into the new variant. If the John T. Phillifent title gets varianted against its English original we'll lose the translator, because the then empty Swedish title has no publications and gets deleted. Always put the translator in the original translated work, and preferably variant against the original title.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 03:52, 13 September 2022 (EDT)
Excerpts?
I'm holding these two submissions, Das dunkle Feuer & Riley : Das Mädchen im Licht. Are these excerpts? You refer to them as 'appending advertising' in the notes to the publications in which they occur. Since the titles are exactly the same as the related titles, we append " (excerpt)". 'Das dunkle Feuer (excerpt)' & 'Riley: Das Mädchen im Licht (excerpt)'. (note my removal of the space in the second title). No need to resubmit, let me know and I will approve your submissions and make the changes. John Scifibones 16:30, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
- Yes, these are indeed excerpts as previews for the complete novels. --Zapp (talk) 16:46, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
- Approved and updated. In the future, consider adding identifying information in the excerpt title note. 'First chapter', 'first 8 pages' 'the first story in the collection', etc. Any information which can help to determine whether subsequent excerpts need to be merged or disambiguated. Thanks, John Scifibones 18:12, 14 September 2022 (EDT)
Self-moderation
Hello Zapp,
Had you thought about asking for getting permissions for self-moderation? If you prefer to stay as you are or to just wait a bit longer, that's ok but you are familiar with most of the DB, understand our varianting, pseudonyming and dating rules (which are usually the major problematic areas for most editors) so I am comfortable supporting an application for self-moderation from you if you wish to do that. :) Annie (talk) 17:07, 15 September 2022 (EDT)
- I am surprised by your offer. The following questions arise: What happens to my current pending edits if I accept the self-moderation? is there a control of the self-moderation edits? Can mistakes or errors be discovered? --Zapp (talk) 04:35, 17 September 2022 (EDT)
- Continued there. --Zapp (talk) 17:13, 19 September 2022 (EDT)
- Sorry, took the weekend off internet :)
- Why would you be surprised? You are one of the better editors around here, you know the DB and you rarely mess up. :) It is a community process - if you decide you want it, you post the request on the Community Support board and it will take a few days for people to say if they agree or not and so on before you get the flag (if people do not disagree too strongly).
- The existing pending edits already submitted at the time of the adding of the flag will need to be handled by a moderator. Usually you can find a willing moderator to clear them for you (ping me if it gets to that).
- Control is similar to the control for new moderators - the community assists - expect a moderator or three to stop by your page occasionally with a question about some of your edits or reminding you of some rules. Note that self-approver's edits CAN be approved by a moderator if needed and you can always just ask someone for assistance (before or after an edit) if you are not sure.
- Errors and mistakes: the same way it happens now - either via a cleanup report or via someone seeing it in the Recent Changes (or stumbling on it later)
- If you prefer to still stay under moderation for awhile longer, that's ok as well. Annie (talk) 18:32, 19 September 2022 (EDT)
- Okay, I'll post a request on the Community Support board. Thanks. --Zapp (talk) 16:54, 20 September 2022 (EDT)
- Continued there. --Zapp (talk) 17:13, 19 September 2022 (EDT)
Magazines series
Just as a reminder: the magazine name forms a series and not a publication series. We have some of these entered in both places - the pub series field needs to be cleaned up for these. Thus this rejection :) Annie (talk) 12:48, 26 September 2022 (EDT)
Juvenile Flag
If the fiction title in a CHAPBOOK is flagged juvenile, then the container tile must also be flagged (and vice-versa). I fixed this one. They appear on the exception report here. John Scifibones 11:29, 27 September 2022 (EDT)
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2022
Please be careful when adding external IDs - they need to match the edition. This ASIN is the paper issue, not the ebook (the fact that Amazon adds shipping tells you it is a physical book and not an ebook - among other clues on the page). I removed it from the ebook record. Thanks! Annie (talk) 11:46, 4 October 2022 (EDT)
- Same for the March/April issue. If you had done a lot of these in the last days, you may want to recheck all of them (welcome to self-moderation - you always recheck your work because you do not have someone checking every edit) :) Annie (talk) 11:49, 4 October 2022 (EDT)
Avi Loeb novel?
Hi, it seems you established all the variants of titles by Avi Loeb. But judging from Amazon and Loeb's Wikipedia entry "Extraterrestrial" ain't a novel but "a popular science account" (Wikipedia), and thus not eligible for our database. From where does the NOVEL title type stem? Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:46, 21 October 2022 (EDT)
The German version also was reviewed as a piece of nonfiction in an issue of "Spektrum der Wissenschaft". Christian Stonecreek (talk) 04:23, 21 October 2022 (EDT)
- As I understood from the reviews, it is a speculative text about extraterrestrial technology based on interpretations of astronomical observations:
"Harvard’s top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star.
In late 2017, scientists at a Hawaiian observatory glimpsed an object soaring through our inner solar system, moving so quickly that it could only have come from another star. Avi Loeb, Harvard’s top astronomer, showed it was not an asteroid; it was moving too fast along a strange orbit, and left no trail of gas or debris in its wake. There was only one conceivable explanation: the object was a piece of advanced technology created by a distant alien civilization.
In Extraterrestrial, Loeb takes listeners inside the thrilling story of the first interstellar visitor to be spotted in our solar system. He outlines his controversial theory and its profound implications: for science, for religion, and for the future of our species and our planet. A mind-bending journey through the furthest reaches of science, space-time, and the human imagination, Extraterrestrial challenges listeners to aim for the stars - and to think critically about what’s out there, no matter how strange it seems."
Maybe it's NONFICTION ? Or an essay ? I'm going to read it. --Zapp (talk) 11:56, 21 October 2022 (EDT)- "speculative text about extraterrestrial technology based on interpretations of astronomical observation" will be etranslations ligible ONLY if it is fiction. Non-fictional speculative accounts (historical What-If, "is there life on other planets" and so on) are not eligible - the only non-fiction eligible to be added is non-fiction related to speculative fiction. Annie (talk) 14:40, 21 October 2022 (EDT)
- The review describes it partly as an account of the obect's discovery and partly as a discussion if it might be an alien artifact (and that's the part where the speculation comes in, as Loeb is in favor of this interpretation); so, nonfiction it is. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 04:53, 22 October 2022 (EDT)
- FYI, all these titles showed up on Publications with Invalid Page Numbers exception report. Only Arabic numerals are allowed in the pipe sort field. I fixed them before I saw this thread. John Scifibones 08:13, 23 October 2022 (EDT)
- I've got a copy of the German edition at hand, and it is a (non-eligible) piece of nonfiction, so I'm going to delete some of the publications & titles (the other translations). Would you please help to delete (perhaps the English ones)?
- For future additions: please apply more caution when entering new titles (just because something looks like a novel doesn't mean it has to be one). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 09:20, 3 November 2022 (EDT)
- And one more thing: we do enter subtitles without a space between the title proper and the colon, so the title should have been entered as "Außerirdisch: Intelligentes Leben jenseits unseres Planeten" instead of "Außerirdisch : Intelligentes Leben jenseits unseres Planeten". Christian Stonecreek (talk) 09:27, 3 November 2022 (EDT)
- By now, I've deleted all the titles, and read some relevant chapters: it seems to be possible that it was in fact an artifact that passed in 2017 through the Solar System. It's really a pity that we'll never know! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:47, 8 November 2022 (EST)
- I've been very busy the last time, so I paused here. I read the book, too, and found out it was in fact a nonfiction scientific book with parts of the author's biography. It comes close to other UFO declearing texts.
- By now, I've deleted all the titles, and read some relevant chapters: it seems to be possible that it was in fact an artifact that passed in 2017 through the Solar System. It's really a pity that we'll never know! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:47, 8 November 2022 (EST)
Title Merging
I ran across a couple recent merges where the wrong values were selected:
- For this merge of For the Blood Is the Life: ISFDB standards are that "Is" should be capitalized.
- For this merge of Luella Miller: ISFDB standards are that we date variants based on the date the variant was first published, not the first appearance of the story overall.
I have updated both records. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:22, 27 November 2022 (EST)
Murder and Magic - Coverart Record - Incorrectly Varianted
I recently created this new pub: Murder and Magic - Ace fourth printing with a new Coverart record by R. Adragna. I see from the edit history that you have varianted this to the artist's canonical name: Robert Adragna. However, all is not well. As you can see from this search result, there are now two parent records for this coverart under the artist's canonical name. I think you varianted it to a new parent title whereas it should have been varianted to this existing parent title. I have submitted an edit to correct this by merging the two parents. NB: if you do not see this post until after the merge has been approved, then the search result above will only show one parent. Teallach (talk) 14:03, 8 January 2023 (EST)
- Sorry for causing that confusion. It came from the existing of more than one alternate name. But that's no problem. As You found out all four records here can be merged together. Go ahaed and try. --Zapp (talk) 14:35, 8 January 2023 (EST)
Perry Rhodan #500 / German Science Fiction Times Nr. 118/19
Hi, you may be pleased to know that I have managed to get my hands on the Feb/March edition of the German Science Fiction Times for 1971. On p. 39 it states that (a) with the beginning of February 1971 Moewig changed its day of publication from Wednesday to Friday and (b) that Perry Rhodan Nr. 500 was to be published on 26 March 1971. This means that the 'missing week' or surplus issue did not occur in 1972. Instead Moewig must have changed its day of publication at least twice, i.e from Friday to Wednesday sometime in the late 1960s and the back to Friday in Feb 1971. Which is very similar to what Pabel-Moewig did in December 2003, when the day switched from Tuesday (PR 2206 / 2 Dec 2003) back to Friday (PR 2207 / 5 Dec 2003). Now we 'only' need ebven older editions of SFT to pinpoint the preceding change(s). Cheers, John JLochhas (talk) 03:59, 24 January 2023 (EST)
- That's interesting news. I have to think about again after a long period of resting. At the moment have a look here. --Zapp (talk) 17:19, 24 January 2023 (EST)
- One question is: The Changing from Wednesday to Friday means the Friday after Wednesday or the Friday before Wednesday? I'm confused at the moment. --Zapp (talk) 17:35, 24 January 2023 (EST)
- Without any further data it's going to be difficult to confirm. My personal assumption is that there would have been two numbers in one week, as happened in 2003 - but that's only guesswork. I'm still searching for older Science Fiction Times to confirm what really happened. Sadly, back in the day no references were made inside the actual publications. JLochhas (talk) 05:08, 25 January 2023 (EST)
- #500 on Friday, 26 March 1971; scheduled #493 on Friday 5 February 1971; on beginning of February (Monday, 1 February) changing from Wednesday (3 February) to Friday (5 February). I guess that means 2 days later, and no second issue the same week. It was not known a publishing day as of Wednesday, see table of publication days here. Anyhow, #500 is a new fixed point. --Zapp (talk) 06:28, 25 January 2023 (EST)
- Exactly, at least #500 is fixed. JLochhas (talk) 08:37, 25 January 2023 (EST)
- I copied Your statement into https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Diskussion:Sie_kamen_aus_dem_Nichts . My interest is in the exact words the information is published in SFT 118/119. Is it part of an essay or an advertisement by Moewig? I took a look into the ISFDB magazine page 'Science Fiction Times (German)'. There are a lot of issues missing. Is it possible for You to contribute the #118/119? --Zapp (talk) 01:40, 26 January 2023 (EST)
- Exactly, at least #500 is fixed. JLochhas (talk) 08:37, 25 January 2023 (EST)
- #500 on Friday, 26 March 1971; scheduled #493 on Friday 5 February 1971; on beginning of February (Monday, 1 February) changing from Wednesday (3 February) to Friday (5 February). I guess that means 2 days later, and no second issue the same week. It was not known a publishing day as of Wednesday, see table of publication days here. Anyhow, #500 is a new fixed point. --Zapp (talk) 06:28, 25 January 2023 (EST)
- Without any further data it's going to be difficult to confirm. My personal assumption is that there would have been two numbers in one week, as happened in 2003 - but that's only guesswork. I'm still searching for older Science Fiction Times to confirm what really happened. Sadly, back in the day no references were made inside the actual publications. JLochhas (talk) 05:08, 25 January 2023 (EST)
Cloning for an earlier edition
Just a hint, if you clone a publication to add an earlier edition (like you did here and here, sometimes it's smarter to change the title dates before cloning. If there's only one edition in the database, the dates of all contents can be changed in one edit. Now it takes 22 edits to correct them all. Cheers, --Willem (talk) 08:45, 1 February 2023 (EST)
- Yes I know, I forgot to change the dates. Thank You. --Zapp (talk) 08:59, 1 February 2023 (EST)
Done --Zapp (talk) 09:12, 1 February 2023 (EST)
Basil of Baker Street
Hi, It appears that you converted all of series The Great Mouse Detective from novels and NOVELs to novelettes and CHAPBOOKs, perhaps based on my January beginning for the inaugural story T1987061 with 12000-word estimate. That was near top of my list to do after becoming a "self-approver", when I nominated myself last fortnight.
By the way, the 12000 estimate is rough, but I'm certain #1 is well below 15000 and 90% sure #2-5 are below our novella threshold 17500 words, because they share publisher and illustrator, with page counts not very different. Anyway, here's letting you know that I did estimate, in case you missed it, and anyone asks you. Thanks. --Pwendt|talk 16:37, 19 February 2023 (EST)
- It occurs to me also that you may be working on one of the auto-generated Cleanup Reports.
- Exploring the list of reports last hour, I see that you and I appear responsible for all 3 Juvenile/Non-juvenile Mismatches --all concerning the Nancy Drew short stories and collections, at the top of my list-- and 1 of 2 Invalid Title Content Values --I infer you should have removed "1-5" after Basil OMNIBUS conversion. --Pwendt|talk 20:24, 19 February 2023 (EST)
- Yes, You are right, I'm working on the cleanup reports. So I was directed to the Basil series. The titles' length should be more than 40,000 words or raughly more than 100 pages for a novel. The earliest printing of every volume of the series have all less than 100 pages. Since juvenile books usually have more illustations and less words, I assumed there was no indication of a novel length. If You have printed copies in Your hands and the opportunity to count the numbers of words exactly, so do it and change again. Maybe I overlooked or missed some other changes. Great if You found them and put them to the right. --Zapp (talk) 03:02, 20 February 2023 (EST)
Terry Pratchett
Hi, thanks for correcting the pub Dem Tod die Hand reichen [1], i was unsure how to add this one. Welo (talk) 12:15, 25 February 2023 (EST)
Vernon Bowen
Hi, Zapp. Concerning Bio:Vernon Bowen (I fixed the "OCLC/WorldCat" link): There you conclude "(Original Source: University of Wisconsin)". Do you mean that UWisc is the original source for 1905 year of birth, or that OnlineBooks (now at UPenn) originated at UWisc? Is UWisc the publisher of An Encyclopaedia of Flying Saucers which probably-you cite in the Bowen author Note?
Library of Congress LCNAF now identifies Bowen as "Bowen, Vernon, 1899-" but LCCatalog records [!]use "Bowen, Vernon, 1905-", which should match LCNAF. I suppose the latter remains by failure to update fully after 2006 email communication.
[!] except one record of Ting Ling under "Bowen, Vernon. [from old catalog]".
Probably I will write to LC and ask about the "1905" --after I know what you mean. --Pwendt|talk 16:56, 15 March 2023 (EDT)
- Some time ago I found the author's birthdate in the ISFDB entry as of 1905 (by an unknown user, the Bowen author note was not created by me). Searching for more details I found different dates I put into 'Bio:Vernon Bowen'. The Online Books Page gives the author's year of birth 1905. The title 'The Emperor's white horses' (published by D. McKay [1956]) is to see on the HathiTrust website as a scan. The original book is owned by UWisc. So I guess the information about the year comes from 'The Online Books Page' (unknown source). No reference for DOB inside the book scan. My conclusion of the original source UWisc is apparently wrong. So go ahead and change it. Best source seems to be here, good finding. 'An Encyclopaedia of Flying Saucers' (no ISFDB entry) seems to be the source for the first name "A." --Zapp (talk) 17:33, 15 March 2023 (EDT)
I guess 'An encyclopaedia of flying saucers', Author: A. Vernon Bowen OCLC was created by a different author concerning the publication date. See: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=vernon+bowen&author=Bowen%2C+Vernon--Zapp (talk) 17:39, 15 March 2023 (EDT) - 'An encyclopaedia of flying saucers' entry at Amazon.com has a memory of the author in Look Inside an on back cover scan but no DOB. On front cover there are the author's addresses. Maybe You can use that for further researches. --Zapp (talk) 18:07, 15 March 2023 (EDT)- The text of that book is here. Inside: "Bowen went to^the public school# in his tetive village of Newtown, Ofeio" ... "He was graduated from Marietta in 1927", but no birth date. He wrote that in 1960, died at an age of 78y in Connecticut. --Zapp (talk) 18:22, 15 March 2023 (EDT)
- How many people named "Vernon Bowen" may have lived in the USA You can see here. --Zapp (talk) 17:57, 15 March 2023 (EDT)
- Now I guess that's him: "BOWEN, VERNON was born 11 February 1905, received Social Security number 268-07-3663 (indicating Ohio) and, Death Master File says, died March 1982 Source: Death Master File (public domain)". --Zapp (talk) 18:25, 15 March 2023 (EDT)
- According to the address on the cover of the 'encyclopaedia of flying saucers' (Old Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut) I found this entry that confirmes my previous guess. --Zapp (talk) 02:51, 16 March 2023 (EDT)
- Yes, I agree that must be him. Death Master File is not likely off by one on year of death, so I think the open question about his vital numerical data is whether he lied about his age, actually born 1904 (and thus died at 78yo) or born 1905 (and thus died at 77yo).
- I am not a FamilySearch.org subscriber. Do you use that much?
- I do believe that later yesterday I learned several biographical tidbits but not to the point of vital dates. Apparently son Patrick H[arvey] Bowen, and grandson Harvey Bowen, are the sources cited by the Encyclopaedia publishers for 78yo, and by Jane Badger Books for yob 1905. Perhaps the FamilySearch mentions them?
- SortedByName.com is also new to me. Do you know the timespan for deaths that are on file?
- I will not write to LC soon.
- According to the address on the cover of the 'encyclopaedia of flying saucers' (Old Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut) I found this entry that confirmes my previous guess. --Zapp (talk) 02:51, 16 March 2023 (EDT)