User talk:Zoltar/Archive

Fantastyka 1'82

Thanks for submitting Fantastyka 1'82! I have approved the submission and made a few changes:

1. Changed "Anonymous" to "uncredited"
2. Added a "#" to the catalog ID
3. Moved "Arkadiy Strugacki" to the Author field and "Zuk w mrowisku" to the Title field
4. Changed "Zuk w mrowisku" from NOVEL to SERIAL and added "(Complete Novel)" to the title since that's how we currently handle serializations
5. Moved "Co większe muchy" to the Title field and "Jerzy Lipka" to the Author field
6. Moved "Andrzej Drzewinski" to the Author field and "Zabawa w strzelanego" to the Title field

I have also linked "Czek in blanco na bank pamięci" to "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank", "Zuk w mrowisku" to "Zhuk v Muraveinike", "Pieśń dla Lyanny" to "A Song for Lya", and set up a number of pesudonyms.

Would you happen to know more about Lester del Rey's "Wieczorna modlitwa"? Some online descriptions make it sound like it may be related to his "For I Am a Jealous People!", but the Polish text is only 2 pages long, so I wonder if it may be an excerpt. Also, "Zuk w mrowisku" is a novel, so the fact that it appeared on 16 pages suggests that it was either an abridgement or a partial serialization. Would you happen to know the details?

Thanks for contributing! Ahasuerus 12:51, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for the approval and for removing the bugs I made in my first submission, Ahasuerus! Concerning Lester del Rey's "Wieczorna modlitwa": I already tried to find a match, but it is quite difficult. Polish title means "Evening Prayer". Well, there is nothing really similar to it in del Rey's bibliography... The story goes about God running from extremely powerful humans of the future. He arrives on Earth and gets caught there finally. Actually, "Fantastyka's" editors often used excerpts in the early days of this magazine. As for the Strugacki novel, so you are absolutely right. It is a partial serialisation and there are two additional parts of this novel in "Fantastyka" 2'82 and 3'82. The same applies to "A Song For Lya" (second part in 2'82). Zoltar 14:06, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

The outline of "Wieczorna modlitwa" sounds like Evensong to me, where God is eventually expelled from Earth. --Willem H. 14:35, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

That's it, thanks, Willem! Also, Fantastyka 2'82 was quite straightforward and I had no trouble setting up variant titles (or "vt"s as we call them.) One question, though -- were the names of the Strugatsky brothers really spelled differently in these two issues? It seems unlikely, but stranger things have been known to happen. Ahasuerus 05:20, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

In all three relevant issues of "Fantastyka" you can read: "Arkadij i Borys Strugaccy", Ahasuersus. So I made an error submitting 1'82. The suffix "-cy" in "Strugaccy" marks in the polish language authors as siblings or a couple using the same name. The singular form is "Strugacki" then. Sorry for this mix-up! Zoltar 05:42, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I have changed the names accordingly. To answer your question about Fantastyka 1(4)'83 and its brethren, let's start by entering them exactly as they appear on the title page and then we can figure out if we need to make any changes. Thanks! Ahasuerus 08:45, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

One more remark: I substituted your tag 'Science Fiction' with FANTASTYKA1982_2 and hope you think it's appropriate. There is a mix-up in the ISFDB in that we use the term 'tag' in two ways. One is to exactly identify a given publication, for example if you load up an image for a publication (that's the one you entered, but you needn't to - the system searches for a free tag if you leave this field blank), the other one is the one you intended, but this latter tag is assigned on the title level and can give a short impression of the content. It can also be used for other purposes: reading lists, award winnings or designation of being part of a 'universe'. But for this latter two we have also own features implemented.

Nevertheless: Thank you for contributing! Stonecreek 10:26, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I see. Thanks for explanation, Stonecreek! Zoltar 11:35, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for catching it, Ron! I noticed it too, but I was too tired to do anything about it. It was already 7am on the East Coast and all nighters are not as much fun as they used to be :-) Ahasuerus 02:52, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Fantastyka 3'82

I have approved Fantastyka 3'82 and made a few changes:

1. Changed the author of "Słownik polskich autorów fantastyki" from "1982-00-00" to Boruń Krzysztof based on what this Web page states
2. Set up variant titles for Haldeman, MacApp and the Strugatsky brothers
3. Created a pseudonym for C. C. Mac App
4. Disambiguated Adam Hollanek's article and put it, along with the other two articles of the same name, into a series
5. Linked Maciej Parowski's review of Stanislaw Lem's Wizja lokalna to the Title record
6. Merged the three "Fantastyka 1982" EDITOR records into one. When you create a new Magazine record, the software records the editor(s)' name in the newly created publication record and also creates a separate "EDITOR" record. We then merge all EDITOR records for the same editor/year to make editors' bibliographies more manageable -- take a look at what Adam Hollanek's Summary page looks like and you will see. This is one of the more advanced features, so don't worry about it if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense yet :)

Also, would you happen to know if "Wojna - moja miłość?" was a translation of Harry Harrison's "No War, or Battle's Sound"? Thanks! Ahasuerus 02:49, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, Ahasuersus. Here one remark concerning "Słownik polskich autorów fantastyki": It is a "Lexicon of Polish SF & F Authors" and was made by Andrzej Niewiadowski. There is a book by this author, made of this series of essays in "Fantastyka" even. What the DB you mentioned means is the name of the reviewed author (here: Krzysztof Boruń). Every issue of the "Słownik..." contains a biography and bibliography of a given author and a short (usually 1/2 to 1 page of the magazine) excerpt of his most characteristic work. Zoltar 04:54, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Ah, so it's effectively a series of articles or, as we call them, essays, right? Once we have more of them on file, we can set up a series and we will also enter the book that collects them. Ahasuerus 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

As for "Wojna - moja miłość?" so you are absolutely right :) Zoltar 04:54, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I have set up a variant title relationship. Here is a Help page -- Help:Screen:MakeVariant -- that describes how you can set up this type of relationship between two Title records if you want to give it a try when you get a chance. Ahasuerus 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Fantastyka 1(4) styczeń 83

I have approved the submission and linked the vts, but I wonder why the essays and the reviews are dated 1982 rather than 1983. Was it supposed to be 1983, by chance?

As far as "Kosmiczny detektyw" goes, there is a standard way to enter comic strips that appear in magazines, but I don't recall the details since it's a relatively recent addition to the standard and I haven't had to use it. I have re-posted your question on the Help Desk and hopefully someone else will answer it shortly. Ahasuerus 03:50, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

You are right here. Every essay and story dated 1982 was actually released in 1983. Sorry again! Zoltar 05:01, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

No problem, mistakes happen! You may want to edit the affected Title records to adjust the dates -- here is the Help page that explains how to do this: Help:Screen:EditTitle. Ahasuerus 09:57, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Done (without errors, I hope). Zoltar 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

The submissions look pretty good, but it's 5:40am here, so I am fading fast and need to get some sleep. Hopefully some other moderator will handle them shortly, but if not, I will take care of them in about 4-5 hours. (By the way, there is no need to enter "n/a" when there is no catalog ID or ISBN.) Also, I have entered the Czytelnik editions of Senni zwycięzcy and Wyspa from the National Library of Poland and linked their reviews, so the issue should be almost done now. Fantastyka 2(5) luty 1983 is also getting there. Thanks! Ahasuerus 10:43, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you and good night (or good morning, actually)! Zoltar 10:47, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

I have also a question concerning biographical notes of every author in "Fantastyka". Those notes come in small boxes, you can find them somewhere in the text of a given story/essay. They are usually some 3-4 sentences long. Are they also a subject to submit? Zoltar 05:01, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

It's a bit of a gray area, but we typically do not enter them if they are similar to blurbs. Here is what Help:Screen:NewPub says about them: "Blurbs. Magazines often include lead-ins, or blurbs, before a story; these are not indexed. Biographical sketches of authors. Include these when they are separate entries. Don't include them when they are part of a blurb or lead-in." Ahasuerus 09:57, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

So I won't include them, as they are really very short. Zoltar 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

(unindent) Hi. I approved most of the edits, but I did reject the one what would have supplied "n/a" as the ISBN/Catalog number. We don't do that -- the field should just be left blank if there is no applicable number. Yes, there is a "bibliographic warning" for it, but in this case the warning is misleading: there is nothing wrong with the field's being blank. --MartyD 11:31, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Janusz A. Zajdel

I have approved Janusz A. Zajdel's Ogon diabła, but individual Title records' dates came across as "0000-00-00". Did you use "1982", but any chance? The software expects dates to be in the YYYY-MM-DD format and anything else will be either rejected or cause problems. Also, if you don't enter dates in the Contents section, the approval process will automatically use the date of the publication, which can help in certain case. Ahasuerus 09:50, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for verifying! This book was definitely issued 1982, Ahasuerus. That's what I see in the impressum on the last page of this book. Additionally, a list of releases exists in every issue of "Fantastyka". There you can find this title for 1982, too. Individual release dates of stories in this collection I simply do not know yet. I will try to provide them by checking secondary sources. Zoltar 09:59, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Polish title "a.k.a." English title

I saw your note about "Animatorzy" being a.k.a. "The Animators". We handle that by making one title a "variant" of the other (sometimes also referred to as "VT" for "variant title"). For language variations, the "parent" title should be the one in the original language, and the variant title should be the one in the translated-to language. To make the translated title a variant, go view it and pick "Make this Title a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work" from the menu at the left (in the same area as "Edit Title", a little lower down. If we already have the original title, you will need to find it the same way and get its ID, which is the number after the question mark in the URL. For example, for The Animators, where the URL is http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?96889, the ID is 96889. You then supply that ID in the Make Variant screen. If we do not have the original title, you can cause it to be set up by filling out the bottom portion of the screen. And this is moderated, so feel free to give it a try -- you can't cause any harm. I made the variant for "The Animators", so this is just something to keep in mind for the future, if you'd like to try it. Thanks for contributing. --MartyD 11:46, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Very good, MartyD. I will use this feature making VTs for my recent submission "Fantastyka 3(6) 1983". Zoltar 12:10, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Głowa Kasandry

Głowa Kasandry has been approved. The only thing that I had to change was the Wikipedia link since it's author- rather than book-specific. Some books have their own Wikipedia pages, but this one doesn't seem to.

Also, if you check Marek Baraniecki's Summary page, you will notice that there are now two title records for "Karlgoro, godzina 18.00". This is normal when entering magazines and collections with overlapping contents, but the resulting duplicate titles need to be merged after the fact. If you click on the "Check for Duplicate Titles" link in the navigation bar, it will display a list of suspected duplicates for Baraniecki and you will want to merge the two "Karlgoro, godzina 18.00" records. However, you don't want to merge the two "Głowa Kasandry" records because they are for the novel and collection versions of the title respectively.

Please give it shot when you get a chance and see how it goes -- pretty much all of our editing tools are publicly available, so it's just a question of learning the interface. (Well, except for the options that let you merge authors and publishers -- they are somewhat dangerous, so they are only available to moderators.) Ahasuerus 04:53, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I just merged "Karlgoro, godzina 18.00". Zoltar 05:12, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! By the way, when an artist illustrates a book, the name of the INTERIORART record should match the title of the book. That way the artist's Summary page will immediately tell you which books the artist has worked on. I have changed wiedźma.com.pl accordingly and will change the data in other outstanding submissions. Ahasuerus 06:53, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Acknowledged! I see, I have to change Królowa Alimor accordingly, for Grzegorz Komorowski "just" illustrated this collection, so there is no need for 3 separate artwork entries, is there? Zoltar 07:11, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, you could enter just one INTERIORART record for Grzegorz Komorowski's artwork in this book, but this is a collection of three short stories and it contains three interior art pieces, each one apparently matching one story. In this case it probably makes more sense to have three INTERIORART records named after the story that it illustrates. Here is what Template:TitleFields:EntryType has to say about it:

• • INTERIORART. There are three ways in which this can be used. First, if a single artist does all of the interior art for a book (e.g. Pauline Baynes for many of the "Narnia" editions), then a single content entry, without a page number, is appropriate. If each story in a collection, anthology or magazine is illustrated by one artist, the artwork can be indexed with a single entry for each artist and story. For example, the December 1956 issue of Infinity Science Fiction contains the story "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon" by Milton Lesser, which is illustrated by Stallman. The story starts on page 5 but the first piece of artwork is on page 9. In this case there is only one illustration for the story, but if there were multiple illustrations a single entry would still suffice. The page number given is the page number of the start of the story in this case; the title is the title of the content item being illustrated. An alternate option is to enter the first page where artwork appears. Page 9 would also be acceptable in the above case. It is also acceptable (but not required) to enter all pages where multiple artwork appears in a story. See this issue of Analog for an acceptable implementation. The multiple pieces of artwork should not be merged. If the illustration has a separate title or caption, document in the illustration's Notes field. The third way to use this entry type is to capture illustrations that are not attached to individual stories, or to capture illustrations of stories which are illustrated by multiple artists (a rare situation). In these cases each entry indicates a specific illustration, and the page number is the page number of the illustration itself. Illustrations not attached to a story are given a title of "Untitled".
    • Rules for including artwork. If artwork illustrates a particular story, it should be included. If it does not, but is a significant piece of artwork, or is signed by or credited to a well known sf artist, then it should be included. Credited cartoons are always included. Uncredited full-page cartoons in digest magazines of at least 1/3 page cartoons in pulp and bedsheet size magazines are always included. The title should be "Cartoon: " followed by the caption, in the original case, between quotation marks. If there is no caption the words "no caption" should be used without quotation marks. See the February 1957 issue of Dream World for examples (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?DRMWRLDFEB1957) If an article is illustrated with diagrams, or with photographs, these do not need to be included; they are not "artwork" in the sense that we are indexing.

As you can see, a number of options are possible, but in this case "one interior art record per story" seems to be the most logical. Ahasuerus 09:06, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Tajemnica wiecznego życia

Tajemnica wiecznego życia has been approved, but then I added "(Tajemnica wiecznego życia)" to the titles of the two essays, "Wstęp" and "Od autora". We usually try to disambiguate generic essay titles like "Introduction" and "Foreword" using the book's title. Think of how many identical "Introduction" titles Isaac Asimov's Summary page would have otherwise! :-) Ahasuerus 06:59, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Right, otherwise one would drown in introductions eventually ;) Zoltar 07:24, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Marek Baterowicz' Rękopis z Amalfi

As you wrote, this is not a novel but a novella published in book form. We have an own category for this kind of publication: CHAPTERBOOK (or short CHAPBOOK). See this novella by Tiptree, Jr. for an example. Please note that the novella is part of the contents - in fact this format can be used to enter collections or even anthologies with a small page count. Please take a look at the help pages for further information. I have made the necessary changes towards a CHAPBOOK. Thanks. Stonecreek 10:10, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Ewa Białołęcka

I see that you submitted an author update for Ewa Białołęcka a few hours ago. It was approved by another moderator, but checking submission history I see that the date of birth was set to "14.12.1967". Unfortunately, the software only accepts YYYY-MM-DD dates, so the date came across as 0000-00-00, which is interpreted as "unknown". I have corrected the record, but please keep this formatting issue in mind in the future.

Also, Białołęcka's collection Róża Selerbergu has all Title records listed as "short stories". However, some of them appear to be quite long, e.g. "Diabli wzięli, czyli thriller okultystyczny" is over 50 pages, so I wonder if they may be novelettes or novellas. Here is what Help:Screen:NewPub has to say about it:

• ss - Shortstory - A work whose length is less than or equal to 7,500 words. (Roughly, 20 or fewer pages in a book.)
• nt - Novelette - A work whose length is greater than 7,500 words and less than or equal to 17,500 words. (Roughly 20 to 50 pages in a book.)
• nv - Novella - A work whose length is greater than 17,500 words and less than or equal to 40,000 words. (Roughly 50 to 100 pages in a book.)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 16:56, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

OK, if I use HelpScreen classification then there's need for changes. I will submit them right now. But I have another question, Ahasuerus. The author of Róża Selerbergu" groups some stories in following way: Part 1: "Selerbergiada"(contains first 5 stories), Part 2: "Przyczajony rycerz, ukryty smok" (3 stories) and Part 3: "Saga o ludziach MOD-u" (last 2 stories). You can see this parts in the list of content of this book. Is there a feature which allows me to submit such a structure? Zoltar 05:38, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

You can put these Title records in a series and I believe you have already tried it with a couple of titles. However, keep in mind that a Title record can belong to one (and only one) series. If the author chose to group these stories "thematically" for the purposes of this collection, then you may later have a problem if some of them are a part of another series.

So I won't change that, for nobody knows what will author or publisher do in the future. Zoltar 10:56, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Also, I see that you have changed the spelling of this interior art record from "Animatorzy" to "Animarorzy", but its related short story record is still called "Animatorzy". Was that by design? Ahasuerus 10:42, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

No, no, it was just a typo and I changed this again in "Animatorzy". Sorry! Zoltar 10:56, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

No worries, fixed! Ahasuerus 11:08, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

śmierć czarnoksiężnika

I have approved the addition of Wody głębokie jak niebo, but I have a question. Is the first letter in "śmierć czarnoksiężnika" supposed to be capitalized? Ahasuerus 05:42, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Right, now I know, what I've forgotten... Zoltar 05:44, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 06:00, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Ellipsis

There is one more ISFDB data entry standard that you may want to be aware of. As per Help:Screen:NewNovel:

• An ellipsis should be entered as the sequence "space", "period", "space", "period", "space", "period". If the ellipsis is in the middle of the title, it should be entered with a space after it as well, prior to the start of the following word.

which is why I have changed ""Rzyć niewieścia..." to ""Rzyć niewieścia . . .".

P.S. As you have probably guessed by now, I am trying to gently introduce you to these arcane rules rather than dump all of them on you at the same time :-) Ahasuerus 06:21, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

You are doing it very well, thank you! This way, I enjoy submitting and learn a lot by the way. :) Zoltar 06:26, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Włodzimierz Bełcikowski

According to his Wikipedia article, Włodzimierz Bełcikowski was born in "Owsijówce na Podolu" rather than in "Owsijówka". Would you happen to know the name of this place in 1874? ISFDB uses the official designation as of the time of the author's birth, thus Stanislaw Lem's birthplace is listed as "Lwow" rather than Lemberg or Lviv. Thanks! Ahasuerus 07:46, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

P.S. Also, legal names are listed in the "Lastname, Firstname Middlename" format in order to distinguish between middle names and last names that consist of multiple wordss, e.g. "Nielsen Hayden, Patrick". I have corrected Marian Bielicki's record accordingly. Ahasuerus 07:49, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

"w Owsijówce na Podolu" means "in Owsijówka (in the region) Podole". It's just Dativ of "Owsijówka". This village lies in the vicinity of Bershad in today Ukraine. The name Owsijówka was written in Russian AND Polish in 1874, because Poland was a part of the Russian Empire then. Also, thank you for updating Marian Bielicki's record! Zoltar 08:25, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I see! Sorry, I was thinking along the lines of "Stratford-upon-Avon" or "Ingelheim am Rhein". In cases like this, we usually enter "Owsijówka, Poland, Russian (or Austrian, British, etc) Empire" or "Owsijówka, Ukraine, Russian Empire". I don't have an easy way of telling which administrative unit Owsijówka was a part of in 1874 (Podolia Governorate?), so I just entered it as "Owsijówka, Russian Empire" for now. Ahasuerus 08:49, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, Europe and it's always moving borders... ;-) "Owsijówka, Russian Empire" sounds absolutely OK for me. Thanks! Zoltar 08:58, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it can get hairy, especially with all the name changes. We had this discussion a few years ago and the worst examples we could come up with were Lviv and Kirovohrad, which started out as Yelisavetgrad, was later changed to Zinovievsk, then to Kirovo, then to Kirovograd and finally to Kirovohrad. Ouch! Ahasuerus 09:18, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, yes! A nearby-to-my-birthplace town changed its name thrice in the 20th century (Kattowitz - Katowice - Stalinogród - Katowice), so I exactly know the problem :-) Zoltar 09:28, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Jan Brzechwa

I have approved the two "Pan Soczewka" chapterbooks and added some author info, but I wonder if "Pan Soczewka" may be related to "Pan Kleks", which has his own Wikipedia article?

Also, please keep in mind that a "chapterbook" publication (we really need to change the term to "chapbook", but that's a different headache) is a "container" publication just like a "collection" or an "anthology" pub. It typically contains at least two Title records: one Chapterbook Title record and (at least) one "contents" Title record, in this case a "short fiction" Title. The "contents" Title is the one that may be included in a series, reprinted in other books (collections, magazines, anthologies), etc. The "chapterbook" Title represents the standalone appearance of the work. It's one of the more complicated areas of the database, so don't worry if it seems strange at first :) Ahasuerus 09:11, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Pan Soczewka (Mr. Lense) is somebody else. His adventures are less known than those of Pan Kleks. They are poetry in fact (written in verses, at least). The "chapterbook" conception seems a difficult one. From now on I will ask, before I define such a structure again. Zoltar 09:22, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Fantastyka 4(7) kwiecień 1983

Fantastyka 4(7) kwiecień 1983 has been approved and the following changed have been made:

• "Życie dogoniło fikcję" was changed from NONFICTION (which is reserved for book length pieces) to ESSAY
• "Ziemia Ozyrysa", "Duch V" and "SHAWNA Ltd." were linked to their respective parent titles
• According to this Russian site, "Przełęcz" (Pereval) is a novella rather than a novel. The author, Kirill Bulychev, subsequently turned it into part 1 of the novel "Poselok", which is in turn a part of a larger series about "Dr. Pavlysh".

Also, I couldn't find any matches for "Ałmaz Szach", "Zwiozdnyje dożdi", or "Siezon tumanow" in the National Library of Poland. The authors are apparently Russian, so I wonder if Sławomir Kędzierski may have reviewed the original Russian titles? Ahasuerus 10:02, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the verification, I fully agree to your remarks/changes. As for "Ałmaz Szach", "Zwiozdnyje dożdi", or "Siezon tumanow", so they are original Russian books (the titles are direct transliterations into Polish), reviewed by Kędzierski as translator in their original editions. So there are no Polish matches at all for them. Zoltar 10:42, 28 January 2012 (UTC)