User talk:JohnMP

Welcome!
Hello,, and welcome to the ISFDB Wiki! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
 * Help pages
 * Help:Getting Started
 * What the ISFDB Wiki is for
 * ISFDB FAQ
 * Wiki editing help - Tips on how to use the wiki-specific features when editing wiki pages.
 * Wiki Conventions - How things are usually done on this wiki.
 * Help:How to upload images to the ISFDB wiki

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 (~&#126;); 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! Stonecreek 10:36, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm still groping. I couldn't find out how to contact you on your talk page. JohnMP 03:36, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

You only have to log in, go on someone's talk page (that is the one called 'discussion' - just like this page) and go on the '+' sign on the top. This'll lead to generate a new section where you can enter any questions or notes. Just give it a heading, sign with your four tildes and save the whole thing. Stonecreek 11:19, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Okay; I think that will work. JohnMP 06:45, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Some questions about (and notes on) your submissions
And some more hello! I assume that you are John Park, the author who is the subject of some of your submissions. I approved them, but have to annotate something (in case you don't already know about it):

The title 'Alien Race' has one publication, with only three authors/editors mentioned (Peter Chan, Justin Pichetrungsi & Thomas Tenery). Wouldn't it be right to reduce the authors in the title statement to the three mentioned in the publication statement? And by the way: what was your role in editing (or not-editing) this title or contributing to it?

I'm not sure if this is the right way to reply, but I haven't found anything better. I know nothing at all about the "Alien Race" volume. Possibly someone named John Park had something to do with it, but not me; conversely the hypothetical JP who may have contributed to the "Alien Race" did not write any of the stories correctly listed on my page. JohnMP 03:36, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Magazines are a bit different from other publications: first, we count all pages of the magazine including cover and back cover pages, regardless of the page count in the magazine itself (I don't know about 'Visions of Tomorrow', please take a look). And we usually don't take the ISSN of a magazine into account, because you can't use it to identify a single publication. See also the help pages mentioned above.

"Tomorrow" (not "Visions of...") has 88 pages of text plus inside and outside covers: total 92, then. I cited the ISSN because there is a bibliographical complaint about a missing ISBN attached to the title. JohnMP 03:36, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

But don't let our remarks take the air out of you, just keep letting your submissions come! Stonecreek 10:50, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. It'll take a while to learn all the ropes. JohnMP 03:36, 30 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Yours was absolutely the correct way to reply.
 * The complaint for missing ISBN is automatically generated if there is no information in this field. But it's what is to expect for magazines - at least that's the standard we are aiming for. I'll change this and the page count. Thanks for your information.


 * I suppose there's no way to eliminate the misleading ISBN complaint? JohnMP 06:45, 1 December 2011 (UTC)


 * It will have to be a software change. It's not hard, just takes a little tweaking of the code. Ahasuerus 07:50, 1 December 2011 (UTC)


 * One last question: Are the three authors (Chan, Pichetrungsi & Tenery) the sole editors of "Alien Race" or are there more? I'm just asking because title information and publication information should be in sync in this regard. Thanks for your efforts! Stonecreek 10:40, 30 November 2011 (UTC)


 * As I said, I know nothing about this volume or any of its editors/authors--it appeared out of nowhere among "my" publications. JohnMP 06:45, 1 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I've found some informations on the book via amazon's 'look inside'. It seems that one John Park (a games designer) is a contributor (among some others) to the book, but editing was done by only one person. Stonecreek 10:20, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Kopernikus 11
Thank you for entering this publication, leading to generate also the title for 'Kopernikus 11'. I happen to have this book also and have made a few corrections:


 * Thanks for the hints. I'll have to deal with this a bit later. JohnMP 06:45, 1 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I have placed H. J. Alpers instead of Hans Joachim Alpers as editor in both the pub. and the title: it's what he is stated on cover and title page - although he is named with his full name also on the title page. But since H. J. Alpers is his canonical name and the four other Kopernikusses already in the database are also credited to his shorter self, I decided for this.
 * I dropped '/Schluck' from the artist field, since this has only been the German agency that supplied the cover image for Rowena Morill.
 * I changed the price to '6.80' (from 6,80). I know this is what is the European standard, but we decided to have one standard to make possible computer-based statistics easier (and in this case it is what is stated on the backcover).
 * One small typing error occurred: It is 'Der Störfaktor' not 'Der Störfactor', but this does happen all the time to all of us.

Some more notes: If you like, you can primary verify this publication (it's on the left toolbar, somewhat beneath the 'Edit this pub').

You can put this publication into the publication series 'Moewig Science Fiction' (that'd be pub. no. 3637) if you like. It's to be done via the 'Edit this pub' button, and these two fields are to be found near the 'Notes' field.

A cover image of the publication would be most welcome, but if you don't feel OK to do it at this state, just let me know: I could supply the image too.

The translated titles should be made into alternative titles of the original titles. Do you know how to do this, or do you need a little help with it? This is also true for the story 'Der Geist und die Maschine', copyrighted to one J. M. Park (well, sounds a bit familiar to me), though original to this anthology. Stonecreek 11:12, 30 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I think I've managed most of the above, apart from the cover illustration. I don't know how to get that and would like to find out.


 * One other thing, though: most of the time when I go to a talk page (including my own) it appears without the "edit" option or plus sign, leaving me in enforced silence. This accounts for my initial difficulty in contacting you.


 * I'm not sure if the problem is with me, with my system (Mac OS X 10.4/Safari) or with ISFDB. I'm writing this only after opening and closing this page several times and logging in and out several times--I'm not aware of doing anything different this time, but for some reason the edit option did appear. The edit tools give no trouble for publications, just for talk pages.


 * Thanks for your help JohnMP 08:12, 4 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Hello, John! Your trouble in editing this page is new to me, I'll see if I can find someone to help you with this. Thanks for your input so far! I've put a question for help onto the Moderator Noticeboard.


 * Supplying a cover image is only possible if you have an image (preferably scan or photo). Plus there are a few pages we have allowance to link to (amazon among them; wikipedia not!); but it's better to upload them by ourself, because even amazon does some tydying up from time to time. Anyway, on the publication level is a link 'Upload cover image' which leads to an upload form where you can localize the image on your computer (but you have to be logged into the ISFDB wiki to do that) . Do this, click on the blue link below the image and copy the link name into the 'Edit pub' window (there's a field for the link name: 'Image URL' - above the Publication Series field). If you have a link to (for example) amazon you can copy this link name directly into this field.


 * Okay; I don't have ready access to image yet. JohnMP 20:10, 4 December 2011 (UTC)


 * A question of personal interest: How did your (first?) story find its way into 'Kopernikus 11'? This anthology series was the first to spark an interest in shortfiction for me and I still hold the stories published in it in high regard. Stonecreek 10:04, 4 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I can't remember all the details, but way back when I was a SFWA member I must have responded to a request for new clients from a German literary agency--the Alpers agency, run by HJA. I sent them my only published story ["Cages" Galaxy 1976, as by J.M. Park] and a bunch of unpublished stuff, and a couple of years later the agency made its only sale on my behalf.... (Feel free to think "conflict of interest".) JohnMP 20:10, 4 December 2011 (UTC)


 * If you have not recently logged in to the ISFDB wiki, your login cookie may have expired. If thzt happens, the site does not recognize you as being logged in, and editing functions are disabled. Try logging in again (login in link is in the upper right corner of most wiki screens.


 * Also, if you start a line or paragraph on a wiki page with one or more spaces, as if to indent it, the text is rendered as code, with a shaded background and no word wrap. Tghis is usually a poor idea. (I have changed this in your text above.) Starting a paragraph with one or more colons indents it, one step for each colon used. See Help:Editing, Help:Editing FAQ, and Help:Wiki Conventions for more information on editing wiki pages. -DES Talk 16:22, 4 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Noted. I think the comment on the Moderator Noticeboard about logging into ISDB vs. into the wiki may identified my problem. Thanks. JohnMP 20:10, 4 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Hello, John! This is just to inform you that I added the cover image to 'Kopernikus 11'. Stonecreek 15:44, 16 December 2011 (UTC)


 * And now I found the month of publication which I added. Stonecreek 20:21, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Rowena Morrill/Morill
You verified Kopernikus 11, with a cover by "Rowena Morill". Could you check whether that's an ISFDB errors that should be corrected, or a publication error that should be VT'd to "Rowena Morrill"? Thanks, Chavey 14:58, 2 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Hello, Darrah! Since I also verified this publication I can confirm that the artist should be VT'd. It is a case of variant spelling. I'll do it. Thanks for finding this. Stonecreek 09:59, 26 January 2012 (UTC)