User talk:Sundog

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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. 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! --MartyD 12:39, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Operation Fantast #15
Hi, and welcome. I accepted your submission of (nice job with your first entry) and made a couple of small, post-acceptance tweaks: I also made a fanzine page for it in the Wiki and added an entry to the master fanzine pages list. Please consider fleshing the page out.
 * The Price field can contain only one price. Others have to be relegated to the notes.  So I moved the "7/6" out and put in a note about that.  Please review the wording and adjust if appropriate, as I only took a guess.
 * I put into an "Operation Fantast" title series (you couldn't do this until the submission was accepted), so it now has its own grid.
 * Doing so is counterintuitive, but if you put the issue number AFTER the comma -- "Operation Fantast, #15 March 1955" -- instead of BEFORE the comma -- "Operation Fantast #15, March 1955 -- then the issue number appears in the grid, along with the month. So I moved the comma.

Thanks. Again, welcome, and thank you for contributing. --MartyD 13:02, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the help and for the welcome. All best,

Sundog 04:02, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Operation Fantast #4
I accepted the submission adding this record to the database, but there are a few problems.


 * Is the editor credited as "Editor" without a name?


 * Is the piece on page 3 a review of the novel by Peake, or an essay/appreciation of the novel?


 * You've dated the two reviews as the date of the books under review. They should be dated the date of the review's first publication. So assuming this is their first publication they should have the same date as the publication: 1950-03-00.

Please respond to these questions and I'll help you fix the record. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:02, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

You also failed to give a source for the data in this record. If you have a copy do a primary verification of the record (instructions linked in the Welcome section above). If you do not have a copy, you must give the source in the record's "Note" field.

Also, I have changed the name of the author of The Homunculus to David H. Keller, M.D., which is the form of his name the book is credited to.

My research has discovered this online reprint of the fanzine. Based on that I've made these changes to the record:


 * Editor has been changed to "Capt. K. F. Slater"


 * Author of the Peake review has been changed from "David H. Keller" to "David H. Keller, M.D."


 * Added a content record for "More or Less?" by Joyce & Ken Slater


 * Added an exclamation point to the title of the article "It Makes You Think!"


 * Added an article on page 16: "Magazine Notes"

Mhhutchins 20:07, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

All your edits are correct, including the source. Thanks for the help.

Operation Fantast #5
I've accepted this submission into the database. Please use the instructions I gave you above to bring the record up to ISFDB standards (noting the source, etc.) You'll have to change the author credit to the piece titled "Conventional" which is credited to one author named "Joyce and Ken Slater". You'll have to credit it to "Joyce Slater", click the "Add Author" button, and enter "Ken Slater" in the next field. (Databases are stupid that way: they accept data exactly as it's entered and aren't smart enough to figure out this is two persons instead of one.) A question: is the author of "Longevity" credited as "David H. Keller" or "David H. Keller, M.D."? All data for titles and author credits must be entered exactly as it appears in the publication. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:31, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

According to this table of contents for the fanzine, there are several pieces which you've missed, including the cover artist. Are you working from an actual copy of the fanzine? Mhhutchins 02:35, 3 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks again for the help. I'm not working from an actual copy in this instance. I'd like to enter a number of fanzines from originals, but I'm just starting and wanted to practice a bit first.


 * I'm a little unclear about how to enter artists/illustrations. Do I click add artist? How do I associate the artist with a particular part of the publication?


 * I've made the other changes you suggest, and I'll be sure to credit authors exactly as the publication does. Thanks again,


 * Sundog 03:59, 4 March 2013 (UTC)


 * For newcomers, we suggest that you only work from publications in hand. It makes it easier for us to question your submissions, and to guide you in creating the publication record. To add illustrations to a publication record, you use the same method to add SHORTFICTION or ESSAY. Under the Content section of the entry form, click on "Add Title", and a new set of fields will open which represent one new content record. The title of an illustration is the title of the work which it illustrates. If a piece illustrates the story (or article) titled "Nightfall", then the Title of the piece is "Nightfall". The Date of the piece is the same as the date of the publication, so 99% of the time the date field should be left blank. Under the Entry Type there is a drop-down menu. Click on it and choose "INTERIORART". In the Author1 field enter the name of the artist, exactly as it is credited in the publication. If the piece was a collaboration between two artists, click on the "Add Author" button and enter the name of the second artist. If there are additional contents (stories, essays, illustrations, etc.) click on the next "Add Title" button. Mhhutchins 04:55, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the recommendation. From now on, I'll stick to publications I have in hand. Thanks also for the advice (and patience). I understand the procedure for illustrations now.

Sundog 15:37, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Super Science Stories, November 1941
I accepted the submission to update this record. Thanks for the new data. About the page count: for magazines, the ISFDB standard is to count every page, including the covers. If you do this, does your copy match the record's page count? Also, I've removed the authors of the letters from the "Missives and Missiles" essay (whose title I disambiguated), leaving only "The Editors" as the author of that piece. I then created a content record for each of the letters in the form "Letter (Name of Magazine, Issue Date)" which is the ISFDB standard. You will have to change the page number of each letter. After that, you can do a primary verification of the record if everything matches your copy. Click on the "VErify This Pub" link under the Editing Tools menu. On the next page, click the middle button on the "Primary" (first) line. Then submit. (This part doesn't require moderation. It is all user-generated.) Thanks for contributing.

Almost forgot, I added a disambiguating number to the second of the interior art records for "Red Gem of Mercury". We only do this for the second and later pieces which illustrate the same story by the same artist. (This keeps someone from inadvertently merging the two identical records.) Thanks. Mhhutchins 23:58, 4 March 2013 (UTC)


 * I changed the page number for the second letter to "7." Otherwise, all is correct. The page count is 148 with the back cover. I'll verify after the change to the page number is accepted. Thanks again for the help. Sundog 16:53, 8 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Remember to add a colon to each successive response to a wiki topic. This indents it, separates it from the previous response, and makes it easier to follow the discussion. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:28, 8 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks again for helping me out. I hope you won't mind my asking a couple of other questions. If I have a question about a record I'm working on, do I always contact the moderator who originally responded to it? I ask because I revised Operation Fantast #17 (identified as #15 on my talk page). The changes were accepted, but I'm unsure who accepted them. I have a couple of questions: first, in "15 Review: Best SF" should Crispin somehow be identified as editor? Second, I have volume and number information (2.5). Should that go somewhere? In the note? I can verify this publication, but I'd like to resolve these issues first to make sure the record is accurate. Thanks. Sundog 13:59, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * If you're not certain who specifically to ask for help, it's best to go to the Help Desk. You might want to bookmark this link or go to the Community Portal (linked on every wiki page) which then has links to the Help Desk and Moderator Noticeboard. To answer your question here, "Best SF" is given as "by" Crispin, because we consider editors to be the author of a book typed as an ANTHOLOGY (it just wouldn't do to credit every author of every single story in the publication!). And yes, an issue's volume numbering can be (and only should be) given in the Note field. There are exceptions: if the issue numbering is given prominently on the cover of the publication, it's OK to give that number as part of the title field, just as you've done for the issues of Operation Fantast. BTW, your "signature" (the four tildes) should follow a single space immediately after the post and not on a separate line. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:17, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks again! Sundog 21:31, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Delap's, April 1975
What is the source for the changes you want to make to this record? Mhhutchins 17:51, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Firsthand verification using the issue itself. Sundog 21:06, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Please do a primary verification of the record or let the moderator know in the "Note to Moderator" field that you're working from a primary source. Can you confirm that there is a piece on page 2 titled "Introduction"? If so, it should be disambiguated by giving the title of the publication parenthetically as "Introduction (Delap's F & SF Review, April 1975)". Also, on page 6, does the title of the piece on Hyperion Press include quotation marks around the word "Reprints"? Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 21:54, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Sorry. One more thing, remove the note about the source of the data from the "Note" field. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:57, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I'll leave a note. I've been making the changes, then double checking the source before clicking primary verification. I added the info about the "Introduction." I've disambiguated. I would note, however, that there isn't a page number on page two. Does that matter? Yes, I'd also added the scare quotes, which appear in the original and obviously make the title slightly sarcastic. Twelve books are reviewed in the essay. Should they somehow be listed singly? I've removed the "Note." Thanks for the help. Sundog 00:29, 2 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes, create review records for each of the works reviewed in the Hyperion Press essay (but leave the essay as is). If a page is unnumbered, it's OK to interpolate its number from surrounding pages. An exception to page count rule: magazines should include the covers in the page count, not the last numbered page that we use in books. Mhhutchins 00:50, 2 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the help. I've inserted the review records, and I'll do a primary verification shortly.Sundog 22:04, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Reviews for nongenre books
Occasionally a nongenre or nonassociational title will be reviewed in an sf magazine. An editor has a couple of ways to handle it. The first is to create a publication record for the book and then link it to the record which is entered as a REVIEW-type record. This causes problems when the title is neither speculative fiction nor is it written by a spec-fic author. If a work would otherwise not be eligible for inclusion in the database (such as books about the making of a nongenre film), it is better to create records for the reviews using the ESSAY-type record. That's what was done in the case of the two titles in this issue of Delap's. If you come across this situation in later issues, please inquire on the Moderator's Noticeboard before adding REVIEW records for them, especially if the reviews have already been entered as ESSAY records. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:19, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

"Note to Moderator" field
Please use this field of a publication record to provide additional information about the submission which will assist the moderator in the decision to accept the submission. Do not use the field to ask questions of the moderator as we have no way to make a simple response to it. Any questions should be asked before the submission is made, either on the Help Desk (for general questions) or the Moderator Noticeboard (to get the attention of the moderators). Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:24, 6 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Sorry about that. Noted for future reference. Is there a specific reason the addition of Delap's editorial wasn't accepted? Thanks. Sundog 20:09, 7 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure. I remember removing a record for the table of contents in a couple of records (we don't create records for TOC), but not the editorial. How did you enter it? What was it's title? Mhhutchins 01:02, 8 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I'd entered it as Content, page 2, Editorial (Delap's F & SF Review, November 1975), Richard Delap, essay. Thanks again. Sundog 01:55, 8 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Go to the record, click "Edit This Pub", and under the Content section click "Add Title", enter the appropriate data and submit. Mhhutchins 01:59, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

SF Review Monthly, April 1975
Submission adding this record was accepted. Those was a problem with the initialed names. When entering these into ISFDB records, regardless of how they're presented in the publication, please add spaces after each period. I'll correct the names of M. R. James, D. F. Jones, L. J. Knapp, and A. E. van Vogt.


 * Sorry about that, and thanks for letting me know. From now on, I'll be sure to put in spaces regardless of the appearance in the original.

A few questions:
 * In the review of Venus on the Half-Shell, you gave the author as "Philip José Farmer [only as by Kilgore Trout]" which created a new author with that name. How does the review credit the author?


 * As Kilgore Trout. I guess I'm unsure of how to handle pseudonyms. I thought this would make it look like others in the database. I'll try to do some research and figure this out, or I'll query next time I have one.


 * Can you give the publishing information given in the review for The Ghost Stories of M. R. James? The only known exact title of that in the database wasn't published until 1986. I may need to create a new publication record for that title.


 * The publisher is St. Martin's, the price $15.00. No date, but here's a link to the likely suspect.


 * There's a similar problem I noticed in the previous number with regard to Lords of Elves and Eldils which shows the first printing as 2006. It first appeared from Zondervan Books, price $1.50. Date not listed, but it's 1974.


 * Is the author of The Stork Factor given as "Zack Hughes"

or "Zach Hughes"?


 * My apologies for the typo. The latter.


 * Three of the four reviews by Allyn Brodsky gives the credit as "Allyn B. Brodsky". Does the fourth one (for Brunner's Times Without Number) omit the middle initial?


 * Yes, it does.

I appreciate your taking the time to enter this data, from some relatively rare publications. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:55, 10 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I hope you won't mind my inserting replies above. If that's not okay, just let me know. I'm glad to be helping out. I'm catching on, I think, so I hope my future submissions will be easier to moderate. Thanks for all the help so far. Sundog 23:44, 10 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes, that's a good way to respond. I'll do some research into the St. Martin's book and create a pub record for it. About the use of pseudonyms: if you enter exactly as it's given in the publication, there should be no problem. Of course, if the spelling is wrong, please correct it. Otherwise the system would not be able to link the review to the title. For example, if the review for The Stork Factor had been credited to "Zack Hughes", you should correct it for the record, and then go back and update the title's note field to indicate the publication's error. Because they didn't match the names in the database, I had to manually link the records of the  titles by authors which were credited without a space, but that wasn't a big deal.


 * About the work Lords of Elves and Eldils, as long as the title is dated correctly, that is, has the date of the first edition, there's no problem. It just indicates that we as yet don't have a record for any other edition. That's when users like you get into the act, by creating records for missing publications. Although our aim is for completeness, we readily admit it's an ongoing process, and most undoubtedly will never be "complete".


 * I'm looking forward to having the entire run of the magazine entered into the database, or at least as many issues as in your collection. Mhhutchins 01:01, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

Bindings for The Science Fiction Review Monthly
The designated bindings "quarto" (app. 8.5 x 11 inches, saddle-stapled) and "octavo" (app. 5.5 x 8.5 inches, saddle-stapled) should be entered in the format/binding field uncapitalized. Just to double-check: the first issue was octavo, while the second was quarto? (You didn't give any binding for the third issue.) Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:35, 14 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Sorry about that. I'll fix that and add the binding to the third issue. Thank you. Sundog 14:19, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

More suggestions about entering review records
These can be tricky, and they have their own set of rules, many of which contradict the rules for entering publication data.

1. The reviewer's name should be entered exactly as given in the publication (this is the ISFDB standard for all author crediting), even if you're sure it's a typo. Once the record's in the database, you can make it into a variant of the canonical name. 2. If the title of the work under review is given incorrectly, and you know the correct title of the book, then make the correction. In most cases do not enter subtitles or series data, even if they're given in the publication. 3. If the name of the author of the work under reviewed is given incorrectly, it should be corrected to the author's canonical name. Exception: if the work was published under a pseudonym, and that name is given in the review, you should give that as the work's author in the review record. Example: if the review gives the author of the work as "Ursula Le Guin" (lacking the middle initial) or "Ursula K. LeGuin" (lacking the space in the last name), or "Usula K. Le Guin" (a misspelling of the first name), enter it as "Ursula K. Le Guin", the canonical name.

After the review record is in the database, you have the option to update it to make a note in the Note field that there was an error in the crediting of the work under review. With that in mind, I made a correction of this review record.

I also corrected the author under review in this record from Maeve Gilmore and Shelagh Johnson to Mervyn Peake. We don't credit the editors as the author of a COLLECTION, only NONFICTION and ANTHOLOGY type records.

I changed "Marion Z. Bradley" to "Marion Zimmer Bradley", "John Morressey" to "John Morressy". I will also have to split the series by Tully Zetford into two reviews, one for each title. Mhhutchins 23:33, 14 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I noticed there was a "Marion Z. Bradley" in the pseudonym list, so I just entered as it appeared. Morressy's name was misspelled (as I now see it is misspelled all over the internet). I'll be sure to separate reviews in the future. I thought that edition might be an omnibus, but I guess it wouldn't matter if it were. Sundog 13:29, 15 May 2013 (UTC)


 * The book being reviewed wasn't published under the "Marion Z. Bradley" pseudonym, so I changed it to match the actual publication's credit, the title of which I've manually linked to the review record. Mhhutchins 17:16, 15 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I see. I'll check that in the future.Sundog 18:35, 15 May 2013 (UTC)


 * There's a review on page 13 I'm going to need some help with. I couldn't find anything about Famous Fantasy Classics #2 by "Anonymous". Does the review give any further information, the publisher, the binding, the price, the contents? Thanks. Mhhutchins 00:41, 15 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I entered this as "Anonymous" based on this entry in the database, which has all the correct content and publication info. Thanks again. Sundog 13:29, 15 May 2013 (UTC)


 * That is, I wrote "Fantasy" instead of "Fantastic." Sorry about that! I clearly confused this title with the "Fantasy Classics" series from Fantasy House. Sundog 13:33, 15 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the update. I'll correct the review record and then manually link it to the proper title record. Mhhutchins 17:16, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

The Science Fiction Review (Monthly), July 1975
Thanks for entering this one. This saves me a lot of time (somewhere in the distant future, can't seem to find the time to enter things like this). I changed a few names and linked a few reviews. Result is here, please check. --Willem H. 19:47, 23 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Thank you. This all looks correct, but I must have incorrectly typed Lichtenberg as Lichenberg. I'll go in and fix that. Sundog 00:40, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

Alien Critic #7
You verified this publication. In there is an essay, apparently titled "A Transcript of the Discussion That Followed Frederick Pohl's Speech", which credits several authors, including "Frederick Pohl". Both occurrences of his first name are misspelled as "Frederick". His correct spelling is "Frederik", without the "c". Can you check to see whether this misspelling happened by accident when you entered the data, or whether it is an actual misspelling by "Alien Critic"? If it's the former, we can just correct it; but if it's the later, then we need to do a bit more work. Thanks, Chavey 00:00, 3 September 2013 (UTC)


 * I'll check (when I get home from work) and submit the correction if the misspelling is mine, or let you know if it appears in the original. Thanks for pointing out this issue. Sundog 14:25, 6 September 2013 (UTC)


 * I've submitted the correction. Thanks again. Sundog 22:05, 6 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks much! An easy mistake to make, and one I've made before. Chavey 02:38, 7 September 2013 (UTC)