User:Ahasuerus

Current status: Active. Please feel free to leave a message on my |Talk page or, in case of technical difficulties, e-mail me at (user name:) ahasuerus (domain:) email.com.

Background
I began helping Al von Ruff with ISFDB design in 1995. I also helped with the original ISFDB testing/data entry and provided bibliographic data for /'s The Encyclopedia of Fantasy in the mid-1990s, but gafiated in the late 1990s-early 2000s. After re-emerging in mid-2005 and upgrading numerous SF articles on Wikipedia, I have been active as an ISFDB moderator, administrator and tester since moderator editing was enabled on May 1, 2006. I wrote the original ISFDB:Policy and created the Sources of Bibliographic Information page back in 2006.

Current responsibilities
As the only active ISFDB editor with direct access to the database server, I post weekly backup files, bounce the Web/MySQL servers and perform other maintenance chores as required. I also write data cleanup scripts and maintain User:Fixer, a data cleanup/import robot. Now that we have re-started Development, I also function as a tester and patch administrator. In my plentiful spare times I work on Verifying my collection of some 20,000 speculative fiction books and magazines.

Long Term

 * Check what happened to Melanie von Orlow's (annine@chemie.fu-berlin.de) bibliography.
 * Add Disney's "Jewel Stories" following these links
 * Reconcile Necon E-books with the publisher's Web page
 * Reconcile 's biblio with the list on ruthchew.com
 * Reconcile 's bibliography with Wikipedia and his web site
 * Check whether 's "New Hero" anthologies ever got published - mid-2013
 * Reconcile 's Ms Wiz series with the author's Wikipedia article
 * Add the missing entries to the Magic Tree House series
 * Enter the contents of Tales of the Council of Elders from Amazon's Look Inside
 * Enter the contents of Alt-Zombie: The Alternative Zombie Anthology and Alt-Dead: The Alternative Dead Anthology  from Amazon.com's Look Inside
 * Reconcile 's biblio with his Web page
 * Reconcile 's e-books with her Web site
 * Reconcile with his Web site and Amazon.com.
 * Reconcile with her Amazon biblio, especially the "One Buck Horror" anthologies (we have the first one but not the subsequent 4)
 * Reconcile Roberto Pavanello's books with his Web site
 * Reconcile Ramble House/Dancing Tuatara Press Classics of Horror books from Amazon's Look-Inside data for 's Old Faithful and Other Stories.
 * Reconcile ' "Silver Dolphins" series with the page maintained by the author
 * Reconcile with OCLC and SFE3
 * Reconcile
 * Reconcile Janet Quinn's Web site
 * Reconcile the Ghost Whisperer novels
 * Reconcile Jack Wright with Wikipedia and other sources
 * Move Doc Savage series data to Lester Dent and his co-conspirators
 * Reconcile Entangled Publishing's Web site
 * Reconcile Dark Moon Books with the publisher's site
 * Reconcile Zodiac Girls
 * Reconcile with Amazon
 * Reconcile 's "The Floods" series with http://www.booktopia.com.au/neighbours/prod9781742751009.html and other AU sources.
 * Reconcile the Zac Power books with the official list and Chris Morphew's blog post about pseudonyms
 * Reconcile with his Wikipedia bibliography. We are missing a couple of YA series
 * Reconcile 's "Bay City Paranormal Investigations" with the author's site and Samhain Publishing
 * Reconcile 's "Help, I am Trapped in ... Body" series
 * Reconcile with Amazon.co.uk
 * Reconcile with her on-line bibliography
 * Reconcile with his Wikipedia entry
 * Reconcile 's Glitterwings Academy titles with Amazon UK
 * Add the rest of 's titles
 * Fix 's Doc Savage entries: move the Series data from VTs to the parents; create magazine pubs; creates SERIAL records
 * Reconcile Abaddon Books and Solaris Books
 * Reconcile Randall Garrett's Chronography
 * Reconcile Mrs._Pepperpot
 * Reconcile Richard K. Lyon
 * Reconcile Charles L. Harness
 * Enter Eva-Lis Wuorio's YA SF
 * Reconcile 's recent (mostly POD) books with Great SF&F
 * Russian vts - a more thorough pass, add pubs, etc
 * Reconcile Cedar Fort SF
 * Add User:Ahasuerus/SF Cozy Mysteries
 * Reconcile Valerie Griswold-Ford with Amazon.com
 * Reconcile "Cat of Nine Tales" (Amazon YA series, we only have #1)
 * Reconcile Magazine:Thrills Incorporated with the checklist
 * Reconcile Zumaya Otherworlds based on OCLC and http://www.zumayapublications.com/otherworlds/
 * Set up vts for "Alex Archer" based on Mel Odom's Web site and other sources
 * Investigate/reconcile Midnight Showcase
 * Add missing O. R. Melling titles from her Web page
 * Gunn/Listeners to NOVEL
 * Clean up Ackerman's pseudonyms in Expanded Science Fiction Worlds of Forrest J Ackerman & Friends PLUS
 * Clean up The Time Vault series (which it isn't, apparently) and Perry Rhodan in general
 * Delete comic books published by General
 * Enter The quest for utopia : an anthology of imaginary societies by Glenn Robert Negley and J. Max Patrick
 * Check my Laumer copy for the spelling of Rick "Sternback"'s name
 * Set up vts and pseudonyms for Ed/Edward J. McFadden (III)
 * Add the rest of the Left Behind titles
 * Verify Gulliver_Jones, Michael's covers and Reginald-1 re: the Atlan books
 * Sort out Charles Phipps
 * Check my ca. 1973 Galaxy covers for anything weird as per Michael's query
 * Reconcile Leonaur's SF/F/ghost stories catalog.
 * Check different versions of G. C. Edmondson's biography
 * Find Authors whose real last name starts with a "de", e.g. "de Pierres", but whose "last name" field doesn't start with "de", e.g. "Pierres"
 * Verify two magazines
 * Sort out various "du boi" authors, delete non-SF
 * Reconcile http://www.batteredbox.com/Pulps/index.htm
 * Reconcile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_planet
 * Enter the contents of Island Dreams
 * Check my copy of Great Science Fiction About Doctors and see whether there is a "The" in "The Man Without an Appetite"
 * Reconcile the Black Cat press catalog
 * "Kemsley Newspapers" in OCLC
 * Ken Greenhall writing as "Jessica Hamilton"
 * Add pubs to George Griffith titles
 * Check Author ID 109697 ("Ursula K. LeGuin") in the backup file
 * Reconcile Jayne Castle (including Ghost Hunters) with Amazon.com
 * Clean up Ernest Bramah
 * Search and destroy manga artists whose name includes "yu"
 * Delete the 5 Korean manga artists whose name starts with "Park "
 * Reconcile Henderson's occult detective stories
 * Enter the contents of Michelle West's Speaking with angels (tp and hc) and reconcile with her Web page
 * Add Stargate SG-1 9-11 titles
 * Clean up Allen Thiher, a literary critic who has reviewed Kafka and other SF - most of his books are not SF-related
 * Gillian Rubinstein, a prolific YA author, is underrepresented
 * Reconcile Terry Denton's "Storymaze" novels (part fiction and part comic books) with Amazon.com and OCLC
 * Sort out various Elfquest Reader's Collections on Amazon.com. Some/all are heavy on comics.
 * Robert Weinberg's 1970s anthology series and OCLC
 * Reconcile Basil Wells with http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/basilwells/index.html
 * Enter the contents of John Collier's Presenting Moonshine from OCLC and create clones for other editions
 * Set up the "The Secret Visitors" series by Willis Hall
 * "Robert Morgan" - all/some novels part of a series?
 * Set up vts for various Tolstoy/Tolstoi variants
 * Reconcile "The World of the Lupi" universe and other Eileen Wilks books with Amazon.com
 * Clean up Mel Odom, especially his game guides
 * Clean up Wollheim's "Up There and Other Strange Directions" - wrong pseudonymous records
 * Create a Publication series somewhere in the Wiki to document Columbia Publications' "Science Fiction Classics" from 1941-1942: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
 * Turn all "John Coleridge" titles into vts of Eando Binder
 * Verify my Astonishing issues
 * Create a "secondary sources reconciliation" checklist
 * Add Carole Nelson Douglas' non-genre works and the Midnight Louie complexities from Wikipedia once non-genre series display has been beefed up
 * Reconcile with Christopher Moore's Wikipedia article
 * Check my copies of Stuart Gordon's Time Story and The Other Log of Phileas Fogg as per this discussion on Marc Kupper's Talk page
 * Review Christine Bernard and the 14 (?) Armada Ghost Books
 * Clean up William Peter Blatty's bibliography: add pubs, clarify which titles are SF, link to Wikipedia
 * Add pubs to "Richard Middleton"
 * Check the apostrophe situation in Imagination as per the Rkihara/Swfritter discussion
 * Change A. R. Long 's canonical name to Amelia Reynolds Long once we can delete pseudonyms
 * Reconcile Michael Marshall Smith and his (primarily) non-genre pseudonym Michael Marshall using OCLC and Wikipedia
 * Reconcile "Kevin D. Randle" with FF/OCLC
 * Finish Keri Arthur reconciliation with Amazon.com and OCLC
 * Add Matthew Hughes' non-fiction, collection contents and assign short stories to the correct series
 * Add missing Kenneth Oppel books from Wikipedia and OCLC
 * Experiment with deleting Author level pseudonyms using the method described here
 * Post about Title publication dates when semi-pro and fan publications are involved
 * Enter the Smallville YA series from Amazon.com
 * Enter Brian S. Pratt's books from Amazon.com
 * Review User:Ahasuerus/OldBiblios
 * Finish linking Macmillan's Best of Soviet Science Fiction Series
 * Merge "Richard Chizmar" and "Richard T. Chizmar"
 * Post about changing the rules for reprints where the publication date is not specified
 * Post about the Wolverton/Farland situation and related pseudonym issues; see Al's Talk page
 * Finish Worldcat reconciliation for Nicholas Stuart Gray; additional sources of shortfiction dates?
 * Physically verify all Destinies and New Destinies anthologies
 * Physically verify the rest of the Man from U.N.C.L.E books once they are found
 * Post about Unicode issues
 * Fix Davis Bunn's pseudonym pointers and address the larger issue
 * Post about the Frank Lillie Pollock situation.
 * Experiment with Artist pseudonym handling. Identify any discrepancies vis a vis Author pseudonym handling and post the results
 * Check the comic book version of George R. R. Martin's "Sandkings"
 * Correct V. C. Andrews' bibliography to reflect the fact that half the books were ghosted.
 * Create a project page for the LIAM project once the beta phase is over
 * Update the Rules of Acquisition
 * Review Community Portal discussions/archives and update the FAQ and policies accordingly
 * Review Community Portal discussions/archives and update the FAQ and policies accordingly

Data Cleanup and Scripting

 * Change "Locus Poll Award" to "Locus Poll" and "British Science Fiction Award" to "British Science Fiction Association Award",
 * Find all pseudonymous stories whose pseudonymous author is not set up as a pseudonym for the actual author
 * Find VTs that are part of a Series
 * Write a script to change "..." to ". . ." and submit the changes via the Web interface
 * Extract the invisible author biographies from the database and post them on the Wiki for review
 * Find all Titles whose Synopsis and/or Note fields contain %%, a remnant of the pre-ISFDB-2 days
 * Write a script to cache cover scans
 * Find all titles that differ from similar titles for the same author due to capitalization
 * Replicate Contento's list of most frequently reprinted stories?
 * Find all pubs whose Author IDs do not match the Author IDs of the associated master Title: Novel/Novel, Collection/Collection, Omnibus/Omnibus, etc.
 * In each magazine issue, find all fiction titles whose title_title is identical - will help identify suspected Interior art titles entered as fiction
 * Post a list of bad prices, starting with "None" and including the name of the Verifier
 * Find all VTs whose title records are identical
 * Find all Titles whose date is after the Author's death date
 * Find all Publications whose Contents Titles have a date following the Publication's date (happens when Titles are merged)
 * Find all orphaned Bibliographic Comments in the Wiki (happens when the associated publication changes)
 * Find all Magazine Titles that have more than 1 Publication record associated with them
 * Find Titles that are VTs of themselves; find VTs that link different title types
 * Find all Publications whose contents do not match the Publication type:
 * Anthology/Collection/Omnibus Pubs with 0 or 2+ Anthology/Collection/Omnibus Title records
 * Novel Publications with 0 or 2+ Novel Title records
 * Novel Publications with <100 pages
 * Publications with 2+ occurrences of the same Title ID
 * Publications with 0 Title records
 * Magazines and Fanzines with zero or 2+ Editor record
 * Check Author names - canonical and legal - for formatting problems
 * Check Titles and Publications for more than 1 capital letter in a row
 * Find Reviews that have no matching Titles
 * Find Authors and Reviews with no Titles; Awards pointing to Titles with no Pubs
 * Find all Stray Publications belonging to Authors with no pseudonym pointer and no non-vt Titles
 * Find identical Titles and Publications
 * Find Titles and Publications that differ in insignificant details (time consuming)
 * Find Titles without associated Publications
 * Find Titles whose date precedes the first known Publication date for this Title

Coding

 * Moderator warnings column in the approval screen:
 * Changes to Contents titles that will affect multiple pubs
 * Double spaces and missing spaces (e.g. "X.Y.Author") in author names
 * Irregular page numbers (ampersands etc)
 * Merging different title types, e.g. Essay and Collection
 * Double quotes to single quotes: Edit Title, Edit Pub, Clone Pub (pub level only?), Edit Award (currently inactive). Change regular and advanced Author searches to display a warning when trying to search using double quotes
 * Unhide container Titles during Publication editing?
 * Bold submissions made by moderators to prevent accidental cross-approval
 * Allow rejecting submissions that contain previously deleted Titles in the Contents section instead of the current error display
 * Prevent the Series display logic from displaying variant titles
 * Add a checkbox for "Change the title in ALL publications?" - may be tricky
 * Fix the display of REVIEW entries in the Moderator screen
 * Change the Storylen field into a dropdown list in Edit Title
 * Make the software interpret YYYY as YYYY-00-00 and not 0000-00-00

Possible Additional Data Elements

 * Printing number
 * A new "fixup" relationship similar to the "Contents" relationship
 * Separate catalog IDs and ISBNs to better support post-1970s books
 * "Roles" for non-anthology/magazine editors, dust jacket designers, translators, etc.
 * Separate city and publisher
 * "True" series number vs. "official" series number to handle things like 16.1
 * Multiple primary Verifiers
 * Jvn and nvz (do it via tags?)
 * "Bibliography of XYZ"
 * Character names (requested on rec.arts.sf.written)

Library Topics to search

 * Alien abduction -- Juvenile fiction. 180 2008-04-13
 * Alien abduction -- Fiction. 1450 2008-04-10
 * Alternative histories (Fiction). 18579 2008-0413
 * Androids - Fiction 2841 (2341?) 2008-0426
 * Animals, Mythical -- Juvenile fiction. 5160 2008-04-13
 * Anti-Utopias. 21 2008-04-14
 * Apocalyptic fantasies. 931 2008-04-15
 * Area 51 (Nev.) -- Juvenile fiction.
 * Area 51 (Nev.) -- Fiction. 521 2008-07-12
 * Artemis (Greek deity) -- Juvenile fiction.
 * Astral projection -- Fiction. 1233 2008-04-24
 * Atlantis -- Fiction. 3198 2008-04-21
 * Atlantis (Legendary place) -- Fiction. 10399 2008-04-22
 * Cartoons and comics -- Fiction.
 * Dragons -- Fiction. 49582 2008-04-23
 * Dystopias 22075 2008-04-25
 * Dystopian fiction 15 2008-04-25
 * End-of-the-world fantasies 206 2008-05-01
 * End of the world -- Fiction. 10677 2008-05-04
 * Epic fiction.
 * Extrasensory perception -- Juvenile fiction. 3409 2008-04-28
 * Extrasensory perception -- Fiction. 9793 2008-04-28
 * Extraterrestrial anthropology -- Fiction.
 * Extraterrestrial beings -- Fiction. 16341 2008-04-28
 * Extraterrestrial beings -- Juvenile Fiction.
 * Fairies -- Fiction. 30974 2008-04-27
 * Fairies -- Juvenile literature.
 * Fantastic fiction. Python
 * Fantasy Fiction. Python
 * Fantasy fiction, American -- History and criticism. 10248 2008-07-13
 * Ghosts -- Fiction 41536 2008-04-16
 * Ghost stories Python
 * Ghost stories, English History and criticism. 1242 2008-04-28
 * God -- Proof -- Fiction.
 * Hades (Greek deity) -- Fiction.
 * Haunted Houses -- Fiction. 13437 2008-05-07
 * Horror fiction Python
 * Human-alien encounters -- Juvenile fiction.
 * Human-alien encounters -- Fiction. 17974 2008-05-05
 * Human evolution -- Fiction. 2787 2008-05-08
 * Imaginary creatures -- Fiction. 1488 2008-04-17
 * Imaginary creatures -- Juvenile Fiction.
 * Imaginary places -- Fiction. 5998 2008-04-17
 * Imaginary wars and battles -- Fiction. 17958 2008-04-30.
 * Interplanetary voyages -- Fiction. 18983 2008-04-29
 * Interstellar communication -- Fiction.
 * Jinn -- Juvenile fiction.
 * Jupiter (Planet) -- Fiction. 1745 2008-04-10
 * Life on other planets -- Fiction. 60090 2008-04-30
 * Magic -- Fiction. 5927 2008-05-08 Partial, needs Pyhton
 * Magicians -- Fiction.
 * Manned space flight -- Fiction.
 * Monsters -- Fiction.
 * Monsters -- Juvenile fiction.
 * Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile fiction.
 * Mythology, Greek -- Fiction.
 * Nanotechnology -- Fiction.
 * Occult Fiction 57120 2004-04-18
 * Poseidon (Greek deity) -- Fiction.
 * Psychic ability -- Fiction.
 * Rejuvenation -- Fiction.
 * Robots -- Fiction.
 * Saturn (Planet) -- Fiction
 * Science fiction. Python
 * Science fiction -- Authorship.
 * Science fiction, American.
 * Space and time -- Fiction. 29302 2008-04-26
 * Space colonies -- Fiction.
 * Space ships -- Fiction.
 * Space warfare -- Fiction.
 * Star Trek fiction.
 * Talismans - Fiction
 * Time travel -- Fiction.
 * Titans (Mythology) -- Juvenile fiction.
 * Utopian fiction
 * Vampires -- Fiction
 * Voyages, Imaginary. 49213 2008-07-12
 * Witches -- Fiction. 26935 2008-05-09 Partial, needs Python
 * Zeus (Greek deity) -- Fiction.

Amazon categories to monitor

 * Books › Romance › Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost
 * Books › Romance › Gothic
 * Books › Romance › Time Travel
 * Books › Romance › Vampires
 * Children's Books › Ages 9-12 › Series › Fantasy & Adventure
 * Children's Books › Ages 9-12 › Series › Horror
 * Children's Books › Ages 9-12 › Series › Science Fiction
 * Children's Books > Literature > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Greek & Roman
 * Children's Books › Literature › Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths › Stories
 * Children's Books > Literature > Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror > Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
 * Children's Books > Literature > Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror > Spine-Chilling Horror
 * Children's Books > Literature > Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror > Superheroes
 * Children's Books › Series › Fantasy & Adventure
 * Children's Books › Series › Horror
 * Children's Books › Series › Science Fiction
 * Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Horror › Dark Fantasy
 * Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Horror › Ghosts
 * Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Horror › Erotic
 * Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Horror › Occult
 * Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Horror › Vampires
 * Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Mythology > Children's Books > Greek & Roman
 * Teens > Literature & Fiction > Adventure & Thrillers (a lot of SF)
 * Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
 * Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Horror
 * Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

Amazon subjects to monitor

 * Fantasy fiction
 * Romance - Fantasy
 * Romance: Gothic
 * Romance - Gothic
 * Romance - Paranormal
 * Vampires

Recurring Activities

 * Archive the Community Portal
 * Archive Short Term projects
 * Add monthly consistency passes to Short Term projects